And the Winner is......

The new title of the blog will be:


Karen and Mitch Plus 3!


Shout out to .... Mitch! This was his suggestion, and it was my favorite.


So, as of THIS SATURDAY - FEBRUARY 20, 2010, THE NEW URL for this blog will be:


www.karenandmitchplus3.blogspot.com


Please make note of it as the old url will no longer work after that time. I will also send an email out to those that I know read the blog!!

Winter Fun

On Thursday, it was finally manageable enough to go outside. It was very sunny, and mid-30's, so we all bundled up and went out to play.


Here's Maddy in her snowsuit!

The great outdoors....

We can't see your adorable face!!!!!

That's better!!!!!!

Here's me and Maddy standing in front of the mailbox. It's hard to see, but I have a sling around my shoulders and Madelyn is all cozied up inside.....

Mountain men...

Taking the bike for a spin - getting ready for Spring (if it ever comes!).

Sorry little man, but that car is not 4-wheel drive....

It was so nice to finally get out of the house and get some fresh air. Friday was back to normal - Mitch went back to work, and the boys went to school. There are still thousands of people in the surrounding areas that can't get out of their driveways, and thousands of people who still don't have power. Many neighborhoods have started having shoveling parties to clear their roads because they have yet to see a plow. And guess what? On Monday-Tuesday, we could be getting another 5-6 inches of snow. We've hit a record in the DC area for yearly snowfall, and the Department of Homeland Security decided to consider last week's two storms as one so that the area can qualify for federal money to help with the fallout from this unprecented weather. We'll see what else is to come this winter!!



As part of my birthday, there were cupcakes to enjoy:

And here are some cute videos from this morning:

Happy Saturday!!!

The Big 4-0

Ok, yes, today is my 40th birthday. I'm not upset about it, it just seems weird! Hard to believe. I used to think it would upset me, but then I look at what I have - an amazing husband, three precious children, a lovely home, wonderful family and the best friends - what do I have to be upset about?


Sure, I have a few wrinkles, but I see those as battle scars. Life lived, you know? I'm more upset about the few (ok, ok, more than a few... SEVERAL) extra pounds I have to lose, so I vow to work on those. Hmmm, now that I've posted that here, I guess I'll have to stick to it. So be it!


Well, we are still snowed in here in Northern Virginia. Last night, and much of the day today, brought more snow, and blizzard like conditions. The wind is whipping like nobody's business!! Here is a little video that Mitch took this morning when he bravely went outside to retrieve the newspaper (which was surprisingly delivered):







I haven't left the house since last Friday. I am hoping there may be some getting out tomorrow. And REALLY hoping that things have straightened out by Friday because Mitch and I have theatre tickets that we got from his parents for Xmas and we were going to have dinner beforehand (Fammy and Granddad are set to come over and sit with the kids). I'll be very sad if we have to cancel date night!


Anyway, I've made more progress on Tyler's furniture since I've been confined to the house. Yesterday I put the dresser together.

So many pieces I had to take two pictures!!

And AGAIN with the pile of hardware!!

Here we go....

Nice, eh? The only thing left is the bed, but we're holding off on that until we purchase the mattress - which we'll do as soon as we can leave the house!!!

And now for some pictures of my beautiful children, which is why I know you all tune in here anyway!

Happy Birthday to me!!!

Digging out...

The sun was back today, but certainly not the heat!!


Mitch spent about 3 hours shoveling the walkway and driveway. It was hard work (I imagine)!!

Check out this mountain of snow - the fruits of his labor!

The plow came through while he was shoveling too, so our neighborhood streets are now clear. Can't vouch for the main state run roads though...

The federal government is closed tomorrow, and the trains aren't running, so Mitch will be staying home. Maybe we'll get the boys out tomorrow now that there has been some clearing. Can't exactly play out in the yard - the snow is too deep! Wouldn't want to lose the little guys! Although, after being couped up in the house for three days..... :)!!!


Here's a cute pic of Evan with Maddy - Mitch set Maddy down with him and he looked up and said "Take a picture!" So Mitch obliged...

The BIG One

More snow!! We got hit with a whopper of a storm over the past 36 hours or so. A local weatherman described the coming storm as "historic and crippling". It started snowing lightly on Friday morning at about 8:00 a.m. and continued all day. At about 5:00 p.m., it started to snow heavily and did so through the night.

Mitch got home from work at about 3:30, and here is a picture I took of the car in the driveway at about 9:00 p.m.:

So you can see how much it snowed just in those 5 1/2 hours. I took that picture again at 8:00 a.m. this morning:

Here's the view out our front door - I know there are front steps under there somewhere!!!

Mitch did get out to do some shoveling in the morning, but it didn't take long for the snow to start accumulating again.

Believe it or not, there was even too much snow to take the boys out to play!

Unfortunately, some of the trees in our neighborhood suffered some damage:

But luckily they didn't fall on any houses! It snowed until about 4:00 p.m., and then the sun actually peeked out a bit!! Tomorrow is supposed to be sunny, but still very cold. Schools are already announcing closures for Monday, some for Tuesday! Mitch probably won't be able to go to work on Monday - even if the trains are running, he most likely won't be able to get to the station. Thank goodness for tele-commuting! They are saying it could be mid-week before residential areas get cleared out. AND, apparently, we're going to get more snow on Tuesday night! CRAZY!!!

So, on a day like today, there isn't much you can do besides cook a yummy pot roast in the crock pot (delicious!!), bake chocolate chip cookies (also delicious!!), and assemble furniture.

What??

As I may have mentioned before, we ordered Tyler's big boy furniture. We need his crib for Maddy - and he climbs in and out of it anyway, so we figured it was time to transition him into a regular bed. We received the furniture about a month ago, but it needs to be put together. So I decided to start today. I started out with the smallest piece first - the nightstand.

When I took the pieces out of the box, I was a little daunted!!

That's a lot of pieces! It's just a nightstand!

Holy hardware, Batman!!

Ok, let's take this one step at at time.....

And, voila!!!!

It's a pretty serious piece of furniture! I think his bedroom furniture is going to be nicer than ours.... It ended up not being so difficult to assemble, only took me about 2 hours while I was also doing other things (laundry, etc.). Still the dresser and the bed to go... I'm thinking they won't be as easy. We'll see!

When I was finished with that, and since it had stopped snowing, Mitch headed out with the shovel one last time.

He did a good job - it's heavy snow! Maybe tomorrow we can get the boys out in it.

In the meantime, enjoy this little video I took of Maddy the other day - she is finding her voice!!