The blizzard of 2011 and Happy Groundhog's Day!

This has been the snowiest winter I can remember and these past two days have been a blizzard- literally! We are on our second consecutive snow day which makes six total for the year so far. Everything has come to a standstill including MU, the movie theater, the mall and I-70! In the Ashland area we received nearly 20" with drifts up to four feet high and sub zero temperatures. Today is sunny and something tells me Puxatony Phil will see his stout little shadow and that we are in for another six weeks of this nonsense! Despite all of this, we decided to take Kieran out this morning and see how he reacted to being "stuck" in the waist deep snow. He wasn't all that found of being in the nearly two foot powder but he was plenty happy to hang out in the areas that daddy had shoveled. I had to lure him back into the house with promises of cookies and Thomas videos!

 "Stuck! Stuck!"

 "Help mama!"

 Kieran rode in the sled for as long as mommy could muster the energy to pull him through the 20"s!

 Kieran was much happier once he was on the shoveled driveway. He "helped" daddy shovel which Rick has been doing for the past two hours and only a small dent has been made- this stuff is crazy!

 "You missed some here dad!"

 The wagon was a no go- it was even harder to get around than the sled!

 Yesterday we stayed inside because of the white-out conditions. Here, Kieran is dumping his word flashcards as Neko looks on.

 Back in the truck they go, so that the cards can be dumped all over again.

 We made Kieran a fort yesterday with some folding chairs and a blanket. He loved it and spent a lot of time playing underneath the toddler-sized structure.

 "Vroom! Vroom!"

 Kieran in action, running from daddy with something he wasn't supposed to have- look at the pure glee!

 Playing cars in the Dora house- the doors make great underpasses ;)

Grandma helps out with the door that is always falling off. "Thanks Nana!"

The snowy month of January

 January has been a cold and wet month, which has forced us in-doors a lot more than we would like, but Kieran is handling his confined quarters pretty well. With the toddler-wonder-land in my parents' basement, he has plenty to keep him occupied. In the photo above and below, you can see Kieran taking care of his baby- apparently baby likes to eat small, plastic, figurines!

 A favorite pass-time is driving his yellow dump truck around at break-neck speeds, full of random baby/dog toys and screaming at the top of his lungs as he chases the dogs. Mom, dad, and Kieran find this all very amusing, the dogs, cats and grandparents are not as thrilled ;)

 Despite the cold, we have made it outside quite a bit this January. Kieran can't get enough time in the snow- from eating it, to rolling around in it and riding in a sled, he doesn't seem phased by this year's extra wintery winter in the least!

 Kieran enjoys watching Super Why while playing with his trains on Saturday mornings.

We had a late Christmas visit with grandpa Rother and Kimi this weekend. Kieran had a lot of fun playing with some of Rick's old toys- including a super cool train set- yes, yet another train for Kieran! He also loved running all around Grandpa's house playing with the golf balls in the "batting cage" and all the cool exercise equipment.
This has been a rather eventful January, but we aren't quite ready to disclose our big news just yet. Suffice to say, our family isn't growing anytime soon, but there will be a pretty big change for the Rother's sometime next month... don't you just love a cliff-hanger?!