Snow Day #2

On snow day #1, Drew and I ventured out to Target in the afternoon. We ended up getting snow shovels because our old one is good for shoveling leaves...but, not snow. Drew got his very own snow shovel as well. He kept talking about going outside to dig. However, it was too late after we got home and ate supper to dig Tuesday night. On snow day #2, Ben came home from work and went to bed. We decided that he would try to sleep until around noon then get up to watch Drew for me to go to work. So, I woke him up a little after noon so that we could go dig for a little bit before I headed for work. I ended up leaving by 1:00. I stopped by the vet clinic to get some more meds for Owen and got to work around 1:30. I worked until 5:00 and found out on the way home that school was out on Valentine's Day for snow day #3. Luckily, Ben is off tonight and can keep Drew tomorrow so that I can go to work before we go to Jasper for Ben's birthday dinner with his family (his birthday is actually Saturday - but, we have a lock-in for Youth Resources Friday night and a wedding to go to on Saturday afternoon). Anyway, I hope you enjoy the pictures of Drew working hard at shoveling the ice ladened snow. He is lucky that he didn't freeze his tongue off.

Icy conditions...

Well it finally happened...we had an early dismissal from school and actually got snow and ice. Ben picked up Drew from school yesterday at 1:00 due to the icy forcast. I came home a little early to beat the afternoon rush. The roads were snow and ice covered for the most part at that point. We continued to get more ice through the night. Ben had to work so he took a nap in the evening and left a little after 10:00 to make sure that he got there by 11:00. They had already cancelled school for today last night. I was planning on staying home at least 1/2 day to let Ben sleep. However, it has turned into a full day as he had to stay over until 11:00 this morning because two people didn't make it in. When he got home this morning, we took Drew, Owen, and Glori out to play in the ice (we had to wait on Daddy because I am known for falling). Drew had fun crashing the ice chunks on the ground. Owen had fun eating them. And, Glori just had fun running around. I guess that buying the snowsuit for this year was worth it (I would have rather had just snow though)!

Rewind - Last Weekend

Last weekend we went to Bloomington to visit Mariah at IU for her birthday (which was this past Friday). She was very excited to see us...and we were excited to see her as well. We ate lunch at her apartment after a long drive up there then headed to the WonderLab (Bloomington's children's museum). We all had a blast. We went back to Mariah's apartment for a soy milk fruit smoothie - Drew thought that it was pretty cool.

Later on that evening, we took Mariah to Roots (a vegetarian/vegan restaurant). Drew was excited that he got to eat in a special restaurant - vegan food avoids all animal products therefore eliminating milk and butter. He liked the herbed mashed potatoes and sweet potato fries, tolerated the Seitan (wheat meat) nuggets, and loved the chocolate soy ice cream as you can see from the pictures. Ben thought that he would have to stop for a cheeseburger on the way home while Drew was sleeping...but actually enjoyed his Seitan fajitas. Mariah loved her Mediterranean plate. I thought that the creamy pesto linguine with portabello steaks was wonderful (but can you really mess up mushrooms?).

We played LCR (Drew's favorite game) at Mariah's apartment and played with his Lightning McQueen remote controlled car before heading home. It didn't take him very long to fall asleep after we gave him his "Snuggle Puppy" Chief in the car.

On Sunday, we went to church then came home to let Ben sleep a little before we headed to Dale to watch the Superbowl with Jim's clan and Kathy. We wanted to make sure that everyone got to see Ben and Drew before Ben goes to 2nd shift at the beginning of March resulting in 7-8 weeks before he has another weekend off.

Trip to Carmi for a birthday party and more...

It is hard to believe that Elizabeth and Olivia (my friend Misty's twins) are going to be 6 years old this week. Misty was pregnant with them when she was my Matron of Honor in our wedding. They really are cute "little" girls. They had a Hannah Montana Dance Party birthday this weekend. I took Drew over for the festivities. By the end of the party, he was dancing by the table. There were just too many new people for him to be comfortable on the dance floor early on in the party. He did really well dealing with his food allergy issues. He didn't ask for the chocolate candy on the table and didn't complain about not getting birthday cake - he had his own "special" cupcakes.

The party was from 6-8 pm. However, we went over to Carmi early to cook with Grandma and Grandpa. We are now eliminating all milk, cinnamon, and honey from Drew's diet - which is somewhat challenging. He is still breaking out at times...so, we know that there is probably something else that we are missing. Anyway, Grandpa makes the best pancakes in the world. So, he made some "special" pan-a-cakes (that is what Drew calls them) for us to freeze for breakfast. Of course, we split a couple for dessert after lunch. After making the pancakes, I made cupcakes to take to the party in Drew's Spiderman cupcake liners. The main dish was up next on the list of our cooking party...Chicken & Dumplings. Being that Drew's foods have been restricted lately, I decided that we should cater to him on Saturday by making his favorite food - Dumplings. So, mom and I made dumplings (without butter of course) while dad watched Drew play. While they were cooking, mom took Drew on a walk over behind our neighbors house to play on the merry-go-round (they bought the playground equipment from my elementary school when it closed). On their walk back, Drew informed my mom that she was his "new" grandma. She asked what he meant by that and he said, "My old grandma died...her name was Kristi Farmer...you are my new grandma." Mom really didn't know how to take it...but, it was a funny story. Drew has been obsessed with death a little bit since Kelly's funeral. After they go back from the walk, we ate supper and got ready for the party. Drew ate an entire plate of chicken and dumplings. He has been eating like a horse since we restricted milk. After the party, we stopped by Holly and Aaron's house to put on his pj's. I stopped by Mom and Dad's house to run in and grab the stuff that I left there and headed home. I had to make it home before Ben went to work so that he could get his Chicken and Dumplings that he missed out on. He had TeenPower interviews again on Saturday and slept during the afternoon because he had to work Saturday night.

February cMOE trip

As many of you know, Drew has a "date" on the first Thursday of every month at the cMOE (Children's Museum of Evansville) with his daycare buddy Emma. They attend different preschools now but still love to play with each other. Since Jennifer (Emma's mommy) and I both work, we have their play date when the cMOE is open late on the first Thursday of every month. They have a blast! This month Emma brought Phoebe, a friend from her school. As we were leaving in the car, Drew started talking about "PeeWee". I about lost it. He told Ben the next morning about "PeeWee". (Ben didn't get to go this month because he had TeenPower interviews.)

Welcome to The-Early-Family Blog

Hello everyone,
Ben said a while back that he wished that we could put together a website to highlight specific pictures for people to see - in case they didn't want to spend so much time looking though the thousands of pictures that we take. So, I thought that we would give this blog thing a try. We hope you enjoy it.
Kim (Ben and Drew)
P.S. Drew chose the "pink" background.