a long week

Tuesday morning, my first day of work, started with a rather interesting twist.  After Owen's morning nurse he threw up....little did we know that this would be the beginning of a week from hell (pardon my french).  Hoping for the best and that it was just an air bubble I kissed the fam goodbye and set out for my first day.  Just orientation things and such but still...a day at work...away from the kids.  It went well until I got the text that Owen had thrown up 3 more times.  As soon as I came home and picked him up he threw up all over me.....  I honestly don't remember how it all went down after that but Isabelle and Owen puked from Tuesday to Saturday (fingers crossed...no more puke!).  Aaron got it Wednesday night and I followed suit on Thursday night.  It was bad...REALLY bad (like lost 7 lbs in 2 days bad).  We suspect it was norovirus but didn't go to the doctors.  So what was supposed to be my first week of work ended up being drastically cut short...I hate to say it but this week...I'm seriously ready to start work...last week was exhausting.  As mentioned before I have a ton of mixed feeling about going back to work (especially full time)... my heart sinks when I think of Owen crying at daycare or Isabelle having a long day and just wanting to snuggle up and read.  These next few weeks will be hard on this mama....but I suppose the norovirus might have toughened me up a bit....

poor owen...
yes he is wearing sissy's old pink pom pom hat and we don't have mittens for the fella so we just tie rubber bands around the end of his snow suit....is it horrible that I can't stop laughing about this?

Isabelle super fashionable even in the snow...skirt on top of her make shift snow pants (big fleece pants...don't judge...it was a long week and snow pants were left at school)

miss adele...in her element...she is sooo canadian....

By Sunday we were out enjoying the snow... I was busy disinfecting the house...and we were all ready for some good old calorie filled cream cheese brownies.  Thank goodness this week is over and I hope this is it for big time bugs this year...

Glitter control

Isabelle whipped up some super simple valentines for her classmates by using some of her old watercolor paintings, glue and fairy dust! We sure love reusing old artwork for new artwork! The fairy dust (glitter) managed to make a real big mess but Isabelle informed me that the fairies would be by later to clean it up "they don't waste fairy dust mom". (so yes, I suppose I will be breaking out my wings and wand later...)

One more week

One more week as a professional stay at home mama. Here's the scoop... I got a job. A real full time job... (as a blabla research bla assistant blah) There are a lot of emotions swirling around my head. They can be summed up by these two faces:

I am super excited for the opportunity (depicted here by isabelle) and also super worried about the transition for my kids and me (depicted by the lovely owen).  After the new year I began exploring my options....either going back to school or getting a job.  And while the former is a bit of a dream right now the latter is the reality.  The stars aligned and the first job I applied for I got and am actually really looking forward to getting back into science and research (I say this now...being several years out of it).  The next few weeks will be full of lots of mama tears and a bit of hair pulling but we are all hoping this is going to work out.  Maybe even be able to finally tuck a few pennies away for my dream barn (sure yeah and a house...).

at the {little} table

exploring paints

...tasting paint....

sharing!

hard at work

making play dough cakes

...really wanting to eat the play dough...

focused

and here we are...awaiting the inches upon inches of expected snow...I suppose we will be doing a lot of the above...that is until there is enough snow for sledding!

Brrr

It has certainly been cold up here in Vermont...most locals agree this is much more normal than the mild winter we had last year. Despite the negative temperatures we have been trying hard to get out daily. Usually this consists of Isabelle skiing down to the chicken coop to feed the ladies some scratch and compost. And when not braving the cold we are warm and toasty inside playing dress up, crafting or playing games....