JANUARY

JANUARY..WE START THE YEAR OFF FINE....

WE GOT MORE SNOW...MORE SNOW... AND THE TEMPERATURES GOT LOWERTHAT'S WHEN WE OPEN THE GARAGE DOOR CUZ WE CAN'T EVEN GET OUT THE FRONT DOOR!!!! AND THAT'S ONLY LIKE 8 INCHES RIGHT THERE

THAT'S NEXT OUT THE DOOR...THE SABLE ALL COVERED WITH SNOW!!!

THIS IS MATTIAS JUST A FEW FEET OUT.....

THAT'S HIM A FEW YARDS OUT...WHERE DID HE GO???

THIS IS MY 2ND STORY WINDOW...LOOK WHAT THE WIND HAS DONE, WELL AT LEAST THE SNOW WILL KEEP IT IN PLACE!!!!

SO WHEN YOU WERE HAVING GRAY SKIES AND RAINY WEATHER AND YOU THOUGHT IT WAS COLD...JUST REMEMBER THAT I WOULD HAVE KILLED TO HAVE 40DEGREE WEATHER OR WHATEVER TEMPERATURE YOU THOUGHT WAS COLD OUT THERE.....IT COULD HAVE BEEN WORSE, YOU DON'T HAVE TO DIG YOUR WAY OUT!!!!

.......DRUM ROLL PLEASE......RONANS BIRTHDAY!!!!!!! RONAN OF COURSE WANTED A SPIDER MAN BIRTHDAY PARTY BUT WANTED BATMAN TOYS...... OH WELL, HE'S TURNING 4 AND HE GOT BOTH ANYWAY

MY GHETTO HOMEMADE SPIDER MAN CAKE, BUT HE LOVED IT....
HE LOVED THE CUPCAKES TOO!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU MY 4 YEAR OLD BABY


THE HOUSE WAS FULL OF PARENTS AND BABIES....EVERYWHERE


AND WHEN IT CAME TIME TO SETTLE DOWN ...THE KIDS RETREATED TO THE LIVING ROOM

THE NEXT DAY...ON RONANS REAL BIRTHDAY

I ASKED HIM IF HE WANTED TO GO OUTSIDE AND PLAY....HE TOOK 1 LOOK AT OUR BACKYARD AND SAID NOOOO WAY....YES THOSE ARE SNOWFLAKES, RONAN OPTED TO PLAY VIDEO GAMES ALL DAY IMAGINE THAT!!!!


SINCE THE WEATHER WAS BAD WE DIDN'T TAKE HIM OUT FOR A SPECIAL BIRTHDAY DINNER....WHEN THE WEATHER ALLOWS US TO GO OUT SAFELY WE WILL THOUGH, SO WE HAD LEFTOVER CUPCAKES AND SANG HAPPY BIRTHDAY AGAIN TO HIM...HE LOVED IT!!!!
WHAT A CHEESE BALL!!!!!

The end of 2008

Merry Christmas Everyone!!!!!

We had a great Christmas, Santa found us in New York and the kids were relieved, thank you to all who also shipped out to us. I know that at this time of year shipping is insane. I probably will never use UPS again! I had such a bad experience with them each time I needed to ship. Here is what Christmas looked like for the Conlin boys

We had sooo much more room that I realized we didn't have enough decorations to accomadate our bigger home, but it still turned out nice Not much under the tree yet!!!

T'was the night before Christmas.....

I freakin loved my ghetto fireplace....

The boys had a great Holiday and so did the adults...we stayed home and played with the kids, opened every package with those awful twist ties, put things together and watched a million movies those 2 weeks. Even though we missed everyone back home, there were web-cams and phone calls. We had eachother and we bonded as a family unit, we had no choice....lol...we were stuck!!! can you say CABIN FEVER. HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!! ( I was screaming that)
We had goodies galore on New Years Eve. First we started with pizza, garlic bread, Hot wings and soda from the expensive Pizza place in town, but soooo worth it.We also had guests come over and join us for dessert.I made brownies, rice crispy treats, cupcakes and a cake too!!!

Here's the impatient kid...gimme some food

We decided to eat the cake in the morning...the cake was way cuter in person it has all sorts of sprinkles on it and cute little wind catcher thinga-ma-bobs that are like fans in different colors....but from this angle it looks like it was drinking last night too!!!

AND NOW FOR JANUARY........

HAPPY SAFE AND HEALTHY NEW YEAR TO ALL

DECEMBER......

DECEMBbrrrr....


Boy it was cold out here in December but, we made it through. The snow kept on piling on us, Matt had a few more snow days, and we all had Christmas break, even Mark had 2 weeks off at the same time. Grandma Shelly surprised the kids in the early part of the month and she got to see first hand some of the variety of snow we get. The kids played in the snow a couple of times, Mattias mostly....

Here's Ronan getting ready to go out in his new snowsuit complements of Grandma King and the next is a shot of Marcel in Matts ski mask before he was ready to go.

Marcel tolerates the snow better than Ronan....Ronan is smart though, because he realizes that if everybody is outside, then that means the TV is free and he can play on the X-box all by himself if he comes in...

The early part of December we went to Matts Christmas program. It was a musical production, he was a toy soldier, apparently in this picture he is being strangled by his hat, or maybe he is intentionally trying to kill himself to get out of singing...hahaha....the show was awesome and he did good since all he sang was chorus and back-up, and he lived.

BLEEPING BLIZZARDS.........

So we had a near blizzard according to the weather center in the North Country and we weren't going anywhere so we let it be for a couple of days....so it piled and piled and piled

What little boy could resist not jumping into this.....

A couple of days later we decided we should try to dig out...

and then theres Matt playing......he compacts the snow which is good so we can keep piling it up, soon we won't have anywhere to put it though....February is supposed to be the worst month!!!

This is the other side of the driveway where the grass is supposed to be, do you see what I mean about not knowing where to put it!!!!!

I'll end here and continue with Christmas and New Years in the next post!!!!!

NOVEMBER

November turned out to be as snowy as October but, with more sunshine. Mattias had his 8th birthday on the 10th, the kids played in the snow, and we celebrated Thanksgiving for the first time on our own.
This is Matt's cake after the candles and after the decorations were taken off.....I was not in charge of pictures or it would have been a better shot....it was a transformers cake anyhow. Next are some photos of the kids after eating cake: Matt, Ronan, Marcel, JJ, & Amanda

On Thanksgiving we woke up and got the kids ready, we needed them to get out. We all had cabin fever, so we made the kids get dressed and play outside. We didn't have the snow suits from Grandma yet so we layered them thick.....Ronan came back in after 10 minutes and played video games while Matt stayed out and helped our neighbors build a snowman that was like 7 feet tall. Marcel liked the snow until he got cold....he lasted longer than Ronan by half an hour. When we came in I was cooking our Thanksgiving Feast, mom you would have been proud.

I made way too much food for my family of 5.
This is Matt helping Ronan across the snow to the playground

This Marcel almost at the point where he wanted to go in, look at his cold face.
And this is our spread.......I love Matty's Turkey

The month of October

The begining of this post will consist of more photos from around and then jump into the snow... Mark went to Louisiana for training this month October, I remember it well, October 6th on a Monday night, it was our 7th wedding anniversary and we had an FRG meeting on post...we went out to dinner the night before and then Mark was gone on the 8th. YAY!!! we just got settled and he was already leaving us for training...it wasn't bad at all. The training lasted 3 weeks and he was due home on Halloween morning. We had our first pre-mature snow...according to the locals it is rare if not, it never snows in October.. I was told I was to blame because I went out and got the kids snow gear and I jinxed it...hahaha

Sorry you have to tilt your head but this is a shot of a hydrant with a flag on it...know why it needs a flag...so the snow plowers dont hit it silly!!!!! that is a few houses away from us by the school bus drop off...I got a picture while I was waiting for Matt.- by the way all kids ride the bus to school


This is a shot of WalMart from up the street, yep I'm that close to a super WalMart...and the next shot is for horses parking!!!!!....does your WalMart have that .....hahahahahaha....note the change in the way the sky looks from one day to the next...it was kinda freaky for me, but pretty


So lets fast forward to October 28th, in California it was in the 90's, but here in Watertown, we were getting our first snow...I was so excited I started taking pictures like a jackass you'll see

Now you can see a side by side view of early and later.......



And then the next day....

Then it was the 30th and it all started to melt....

Look I had pretty icicles and we made a snowman in the front yard. He has hockey stick arms, real coal eyes and he is representing Gryffindor with his scarf and beanie...

Mark came home the next day as scheduled and we surprised Matty at school during his Halloween parade..he was Darth Vadar sans the mask....he was so happy to see Dad...and that concludes October and the only picture from Halloween... see snow on the ground..Bbrrrrr