Highlights

I've had a little trouble with uploading photos this week, and consequently haven't posted anything...but here are the highlights from the week:

We had a WARM weekend! Horray for 70 degrees! It was beautiful!
Aaron took down the Christmas lights and cut up a little firewood, and then we both spent 3 hours raking, blowing and hauling the LEAVES from our yard. We are blessed to live on a wooded lot, but that means we have leaves (and acorns...and needles, and pinecones) from 8 oak trees, 4 dogwoods, a giant magnolia tree, a pine tree, (and a few other trees that I can't identify), to dispose of. It was a lot of work, but I like housework (except for dishes) so I thought it was really fun to do something as a family, and it was nice for the kids to be outside in the sun. I think we hauled away 13 trash cans from the back yard, and then Aaron got smart and suggested we put the leaves on a giant tarp and just carry it across the street to the woods.

We should have known the perfect temperatures would only last 3 days before turning into a disaster...

We started off the week with a TORNADO. HERE! Apparently only miles from our house? We were up all night with the girls because we were pounded with storm after storm after storm and they kept waking up because the hail pelting their windows was SO loud, and the lightning was like having a strobe light in the room all night. By 1:30 am I was sure we were about to lose our roof, and begged Aaron to hunker down in the hall bathroom (our "safe" room) with me and the girls. (he of course gave a half-awake, "ok" and rolled over back to sleep)
At 3 I pulled the mattress from R old crib (yep, she's finally in her big girl bed!) and put in on the floor of our bedroom and let Reese sleep there.

Reese is a SUNBEAM! I can't believe it. She's the youngest in her class, and I nearly shed a tear when I dropped her off at opening exercises. I dropped by later to spy on her and caught a peek of her singing "Lead me, guide me, walk beside me..." in full force, so I guess she had a pretty great time!

Quincy cut 3 molars in 2 days. Molars! She is 13 months! She was a grouch but I can't really blame her. She's such a perfect baby...if I could guarantee that #3 would be this easy I'd be pregnant right now.

I had to re-evaluate my entire cooking and eating process so as to dirty the least amount of dishes possible, because our temporary dishwasher (me) is also starting to break.

Reese also started classes at the WalMart fitness center this week! She went to Fit Kids (which is like a gymboree play class) on Tuesday, and a Swimming Class (no more Mom and Me swim...YAY for that) on Thursday. I was nervous that she wouldn't want to get in the pool without me, but Ms. Joan, her teacher was very convincing...and a little intimidating. Anyway, Reese did great and we got to watch her from an observation room above the pool.

I started running this week. Yay me. I didn't die. Unfortunately, it's still too cold to take the girls, so I've been running at the fitness center. Hopefully, it will warm up again soon (without the tornado side effects please.)

I convinced our trash guy to haul away our old front door (it's been in our garage for a year)

Jimmie and Kasey disconnected our old dishwasher. (thanks guys!) Now we just need to buy a new one (so they can install it for us...again, thanks!)

We discovered the cause of the mystery noise in the side yard. Every now and then we'll hear a THUMP and figure it's just a branch hitting the house or a squirrel or armadillo making noise in the yard. NOPE. The THUMP is the sound of numerous birds flying to their death as they smack into their reflection shining in our kitchen window. We found them all buried among the leaves below the window sill on Saturday. So there you have it...we are bird killers.

Well there were about a zillion other things that happened...this week just flew by!

What was the highlight of YOUR week?