Still here...

...just not much to report on.  I may upload Christmas pictures one of these days.

A few highlights/notes:

We tried a bit of potty-training with Sammy over Christmas vacation.  It was, I'd say, 30% successful.  He went a few times, wet his pants a lot, and made it very clear that he likes his diapers.  On the first day he climbed up the changing table, sat down and said, "I want my diaper."  Even now he tells Anne, "You don't wear diapers.  I wear diapers."  I really, really did not want to train him with a newborn in the house, but it looks like that's what we'll be doing.  I've done it before, I can do it again!

Anne is still a busy bee with preschool, AWANA, and now kids choir at church.  She was pretty pumped today when I told her she had "singing class" tonight.  She and Sambo both like to sing and are getting pretty good with their lyrics.  We also have family concert time--Sammy brings us each a hockey stick and we hold it like a guitar ("Your kit-tar!" he says) and sing.  Sometimes the little golf clubs are turned on end to be microphones, too.

Sam has been hard at work at home and out in the world.  He works for Dish 4 days a week and works with a friend doing home theater work on another 2 days.  His only true day off is Sunday.  He spent this past Sunday wiring lights and outlets in the basement, then hanging drywall with our buddy Karl.  The basement is 95% covered with drywall now!  Once that is finished (and we get our tax return) we can have someone tape and mud down there.  The Westphalls pretty much do not pay for labor, but we do pay for plumbing and drywall finishing.  That is beyond our skill set.  After the walls are prepped I can finally start helping down there as we paint, lay floor, and do the trim work.  The May 15th deadline approaches quickly!!!!  I have been taking pictures of the process, which I will share when the whole thing is done.

This non-winter we are having makes me chuckle every day.  Way back in November we did all the winter prep work: bringing in the toys and deck furniture, rolling the grill into the garage, patching our leaky gutters and covering the new AC unit.  We never did rake our yard--I was newly pregnant and Sam hates raking, so we said, "Meh, it will be covered with snow soon enough."  Joke's on us!  We were actually READY for winter and counting on some snow--denied!

Since it was a balmy 53 degrees yesterday, we played outside after school.  Anne asked if I would put the training wheels on her little bike, and I said I would.  I was looking forward to taking a picture of her riding it for the first time on January 10th.  After searching for the proper wrenches, getting the bike down from the ceiling hook, and finding the box with the training wheels, I set to work.  I see now why my parents would put the training wheels on ONCE and take them off ONCE--it is a serious pain in the neck.  I put the wheels on as short as they could go for this tiny bike, but when we set it down, my fears were confirmed: the training wheels were too tall, resulting in the back bike wheel hovering above the ground.  Anne was so sad that I had made her a stationary bike!  She pedaled and pedaled and went nowhere.  I let her ride her trike for a bit, but her knees were hitting the handlebars, so it was a poor substitute.  In the spring we shall be on the hunt for smaller training wheels.

That's all for now, I think.  I have been writing a baby-related post in my head for a while, but that is for another day :)  Stay tuned!