Freezing weather (literally!!)

It was SO SO cold last week, right before Christmas!  I didn't think IL could get that cold, but yup! 

The snow is so light and fluffy that it's going everywhere!!

And it's sticking to the tires too - this looks like a bad sign:

We've had some questionable moments with these tires.  So we figured it would be best to change them out before our road trip:

Still just as chunky but these new ones will definitely do better in the cold weather.  Even the guy at the tire store didn't want our old ones. Ha!

So we are still keeping the old/summer tires. Maybe these could come in handy for an exercise routine or a team rally down the driveway. LOL!!

Brrr... it's cold outside!

-5F and can't remember what it was with wind chill.  Lake is definitely frozen over now!

There are a few people ice skating!  

Can't wait to get our ice skates out on the lake as well. Graham and Charlie has some hand-me-down skates and I have new ones for Christmas.

It was so cold I decided to pick Graham up from his school bus.  Plus, he also forgot to wear his waterproof boots:

Thankfully, that was the last day of school!  The boys are happily playing computer games - and somehow, still in this tiny strip of floor by the window:

So pretty, when you don't have to go outside.  Ha ha!

It's so cold that even the door knob is frozen on the INSIDE of the door!  Crazy!!!

Even so, we decided to bundle up and brave the wind and cold.  Bobby, Graham, and Charlie are testing out the theory of "huddling like penguins":

Bobby is pointing out to the thick layer of ice.  He is saying he can see the bubbles frozen underneath:

Family we-fie!  My sunglasses are frozen over so I had to put them on my nose:

Who knows what the "feel-like" temperature is right now.  Something like -30F??

It's so cold that there are icicles on Bobby's lashes. LOL!!

I finally made my snow angel.  Yay!!

For whatever reason, Charlie didn't want to make one. But Graham did.  Glad he still wants to participate in all the stuff Mommy wants to do :-D

Actually, Charlie didn't want to even get on the ice.  He was truly afraid!  I guess all the times we told him not to go on the ice really did work.  Unfortunately, there has been a few deaths from kids falling into the ice.  So, I'm glad he has actually been listening to us.

We didn't get as much snow as the forecast predicted but it is definitely cold:

I'm just so happy (knock on wood) that the house held up nicely. And that all the water pipes stayed intact.  There was a water pipe that burst and the community was trying to figure out where it was.  It ended up being in an empty wooded lot.  There was low pressure for some homes and/or no water at all.  I was almost afraid that we were responsible because we were not home during Christmas to really know!  Glad the community was able to fix it quickly and that the boil order has also been lifted.  Phew!!

But this is definitely one cold December winter that we will remember, especially being our first!

New Invisiligns

Both Graham and Charlie had their new Invisiligns "installed" a week ago.  I say "installed" because they had to go into the orthodontist and get these "bumps" glued onto their teeth!

Here's what their Invisiligns/retainers look like.  One for each - upper and lower teeth:

These nubbies/bumps go on the surface of some of their teeth (determined after their scans) and are glued on by UV light.  Amazing!

Each boy gets to go home with some "chewies" which they have to chew on for at least 10 minutes a day.  That way, their teeth are able to adjust to their retainers quicker.  Merry Christmas, boys! LOL!!

Okay, Graham's turn!

The gadget that's used to keep their lips away from their teeth is the funniest thing!

After the gluing process, Graham had to download an App on his phone: 

Unlike Charlie, Graham will actually need to scan his teeth after every week!  And that information gets submitted into the orthodontist's office:

I'm glad I don't have to help Charlie with this one.  Graham came home with 2 boxes of 15 sets of retainers and Charlie came home with a box of 20 sets.  Let the fixin' begin!!

Early Christmas

Since we were heading out to New Jersey for Christmas, we let the boys open up their stockings early and also some of their Christmas gifts early:

Graham and Charlie have been squeezing their stockings for the last few days and trying to figure out what's what.  They were actually able to guess some of what was inside! 

As per our family tradition, Graham and Charlie get to open presents from each other first:

Graham got an ice cream/sorbet maker!

And Charlie is so happy with his smart watch.  We all have smart watches except for Charlie and so now, he can also compete with Bobby and Graham - #steps per day and sleep score:

Actually, I don't think his watch calculates a sleep score. Just the #hours of sleep.  So perhaps by next summer, when he does get his new phone, we can upgrade his watch to something more fancy.  Kids these days are all about technology and fancy gadgets!

I love how basic this ice cream/sorbet maker is.  Graham was determined to make some right away.  He started with a lemon sorbet:

This sorbet better be worth it because it took me probably over 30 minutes to check out of the supermarket 2 days prior to Christmas!!

Ooooh, looking good!  Not too shabby for a first time.  It was definitely lemony!

The next day, Graham wanted to make vanilla ice cream.  He was looking for ice cubes and assumed there were some in the freezer.  Well, the water line to the fridge is not turned on, so hence - no ice cubes!  And then I was like,... what about all that snow outside??!

And then, let all the shaking begin!!  I'm glad Daddy was able to participate in this too! :-D

Ta da!!!  Looks how creamy this is!

And it was actually super yummy too.  Now we just have to figure out some sort of freezer/container to put all the ice cream in.  When we put everything back into the freezer, the texture of the sorbet and ice cream was more frozen rather than smooth.  Definitely a learning process, but Graham is super happy how well it worked!  Perhaps we won't have to buy ice cream anymore??!

Christmas holiday party

We recently attended a Christmas party at the club.  It was really for the boys - since there were lots of activities like cookie decorating, making a snow globe, carriage rides, etc. Of course, there was a photo opportunity with Santa and even that I had to persuade the boys a little bit.  Looks like Graham and Charlie are getting older now and weren't too interested in really doing any of the activities!

We are making up for all the activities by eating our monies worth!

Cookie is too cute to eat:

It's not going to stop Charlie from eating it though. Ha!

Graham is obviously super happy with his dessert choice:

The yule log was probably the only disappointing dessert.  If you want to know what pink color taste like, it was definitely this!

Finally managed to convince Graham and Charlie to line up and get some sort of balloon too.  The fishing rod + fish is definitely appropriate for Charlie :-)

Yup, looks like these boys are growing up.  Might be our last "Kids" Christmas party!  The reindeer that they had outside looks rather sad too! :-/

Random photos

Here are some random photos.  First off, someone in this family has sticky fingers when it comes to taking more than enough after-dinner mints from the golf club.  Yes, it would be Charlie. Ha ha!

I decided to get a new rug for our foyer.  Plus, it was on sale!

I rather like that pop of color and because it was on sale, I'm not too concerned about it getting too dirty :-P

Charlie is back at the orthodontist's office because they needed to take a couple extra scans. I love how they give such attention to details.  I really hope the boys' new Invisalign will work!

Actually, they just have little "nubbies" installed on their teeth today. And did get a whole box full of retainers each. Actually, Graham got 2 full boxes. I'll explain some more in a new post :-)

We found an old train station that's been converted into a shopping mall.  I love the arches!

I think this was like one of the first horse-drawn water hose for the fire department here - way back when.  So cool!

I can't believe this.  The sign on the window actually says no kids allowed in this antique store??!  That's terrible!

And on this other side of their store - on another door, there was a sign that said "No wheelchairs".  Can you believe that??!  

There's still an old train in here and it sits on an old train track.  And I think you can dine in it. We will have to try this one day:

Off to the movies for us, after a really long time. Nice part is, it's pretty much empty except for the 4 of us and 2 other people that are seated waaaay on the top most row.  Ha!

Sitting close to Graham so I can snag some of his chips :-)

Graham is so funny.  He doesn't actually open up his bag of chips until the movie starts.  And I mean that bag stays closed through all the ads and all the previews.  If only he is this patient in everything else!

I finally had to turn on the 4WD function on my car last week. I can tell it's on because this little green thing shows up on my dashboard:

It was so slushy with rain and snow.  Yuck!

Definitely no golf today!

So thankful the simulators are available at the golf club.  We all can have some fun while it's cold outside.  Nothing like trying to hit the driving range cart :-D

Or, just go sledding with the kids and the neighbors.  Ha! I did tell Charlie he is not allowed to go past that tree at the bottom of the hill. Otherwise, it's definitely getting too close to the lake!

Graham gets home too late during the school week (actually, it's super dark by 5pm!) so he's trying to take advantage of whatever snow that's left over during the weekend:

Brrr, it is definitely cold.  Although, Graham has a thumbs up!

I'm not so sure but at first this tree looked really cool in person, but looking at it in the photo - it's looking rather scary.  LOL!

Lake was frozen but now it's not quite frozen anymore.  Boys are still finding bits and pieces of ice along the shore:

I saw this cute Joy sign in one of the neighbor's yard and am using it for a nice photo :-D

There was some deck cleaning over the weekend too:

Graham loves to shovel!

Well, there's a blizzard coming our way very soon and looks like everyone is prepping. There was actually a line when I went to get gas today!!

I also made sure we had some extra meds on-hand:

I probably should have bought some pepto for poor Charlie this past couple of days.  He threw up in the middle of Monday night in the bedroom that he shares with Graham.  Graham didn't even nudge when I turned on the light to clean. And not even when I pulled the sheet off his bed! Thankfully Charlie is better now. He is back to school tomorrow. Last day before winter break. Woohoo!!

And we've stocked up on some food too. There were like 4 checkout lanes open today compared to the normal 1 lane. In any case, we have lots of ingredients for "chunky monkey" bagels - blueberry bagel with peanut butter, topped with bananas and granola.  We learned that at a restaurant recently on our roadtrip back from MN. Yum!

Oh, forgot that there is a drizzle of honey too.  Super yum!! :-D

I hope this house holds up for this first storm.  It is going to be below freezing with all the wind chills.  Just insane! It's our first winter in the Midwest and of course, we are literally going to be bombarded with a "Bomb Cyclone".  Yup, that's what they are calling it! YIKES!!!