There's been some variability in the climate as of late, and it's led to a spectrum of activities and projects. We had three girls eating popsicles on the back porch. We had two little girls cleaning the table with soap suds, cheerleader-carwash style. We had one girl disco skating 'til the break of dawn while the rain poured afuera. Then the weather got bleak, and we moved the TV, cut out the baseboard and chair rail, affixed a cement backer board,... tiled over the backerboard, and installed a wood-burning stove. The exhaust pipe was surprisingly resistant. We figured we needed to have something to help us make use of all that wood we have after cutting down the tree. So it's current;y 38 degrees outside, but 75 in our little house, without using any gas. Of course, it smells a little bit like a campfire, but there are worse things for a house to smell like. And there's Nora, and her nocturnal activities.
Sam's school hosted a "Literacy Night" during which parents were encouraged to dress up as their favorite rock stars. What does rock n' roll have to do with literacy, you ask? Well, that's an excellent question.
The next day, Samantha was honored for her superior literary skills at the Elementary School Reading Jamboree or something. It was there that they got to pet a snake. What does petting a snake have to do with literacy? Another excellent question. You should be a reporter.
Here are our three girls standing next to and sitting on a fence. Why is our youngest daughter look like she picked up her outfit at Chico's? It's because it's been a Chico's kind of day...all week long.
We're thinking that we'll build an addition onto our house next year, assuming we still live here. In order to do that, we need to destroy a couple of ginormous trees right behind our house. This year, we want to put a privacy fence along the east side of our property. Well, we can't put up the fence, until after the trees are down, so we paid a guy to come out and chop down our biggest tree so we wouldn't crush our house doing it ourselves. That's the explanation. You read the whole thing, sucker.
We didn't pay him to haul the wood and branches away because that was really expensive. So now our yard looks like this:
That picture really needs a person standing in it to lend some perspective. That big log in the middle is about 10 feet long.
It's been a busy a busy month or so. Becky, Lucy, and Sam took a roadtrip to Illinois for Great-Grandpa Marlowe's funeral. Nora and I had to stay home, but we got to hear all about the fun, especially when Aunt Chrissy almost stole Grandpa in his urn for a keepsake. In all seriousness, he was a very cool man who did a lot of very cool things throughout his very cool life. Plus, the pool at the hotel turned Sam's hair green.
Here they are on their way to the madcap adventure.
I attended Father's Night at Lucy's preschool, which wasn't quite as awkward and weird as I thought it would be. Here I am, about to spit ice cream at the back of Lucy's head. Here, a group of 4 children are racing about building towers and destroying them, just like the Hebrews of old.
Here, those same children's fathers/father figures have constructed their own tower, soon to be destroyed by the rampaging pre-schoolers. It's as if the tower represents the dads' dreams of financial independence.
This is Marcie, whose husband was featured to the left of the tower above. She does anything you ask her to do. Just walk up to her and ask.
Nora becoming more human day by day. English is her primary mode of communication now, with screaming and crying a close secondary.
It was a blizzard. It wasn't quite the world-ending "snowmageddon" that the news made it out to be, but it was a pretty good storm. This is a shot of the big deisel tow truck that couldn't make it up our street. This is from the next day when the girls went out for about 5 minutes, made one snow angel each, then scurried back inside.
A few days before, Sam had her first school friend over to play. The guest seems like a good candidate to play the slightly less pretty, but cute enough role as best friend in Sam's romantic comedy.
And Lucy got her first real haircut. Yes, she'll be 4 in June.
We were better off than the other mammals on the property.
Becky took a few days to trot around Silicon valley with her little sister Chrissy. Chrissy and her beefy, accoustically talented husband needed help looking at residences, but really they just slummed around the town and made gang signs at the chulos. Becky took Nora with her to give Chrissy's beefy, accoustically talented son something to beat up. Plus, Nora turns 2 today, so it was her last chance to fly for free.
Spencer is the male toddler...the one on the RIGHT.
Nora enjoyed the 60-degree air whistling through the gap in her teeth.
And then picked fresh citrus fruits off the neighborhood shrubs.
Meanwhile, Sam created evil little snowmen with her cousin, Ella...
Lucy revelled in the enormity of her father's chin,
and dad cooked himself some shrimp, which is normally an unacceptable form of nourishment in the house.
Then everyone was reunited and celebrated Nora's 2nd birthday with a beautiful cake that Dad and the two older sisters created. Seriously. This is what the final, unblemished product looked like.
We had a few photos left over from the holidays. Rather than explain each in a boring manner, I will narrate the conversation and/or thoughts of the individual in frame. "That's it. That's the answer I've been searching for! It was so simple. You SMOKE it!"
"Durrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr."
"Well, I decleah. I do beleeve I'm a-gettin' a case of the vaypahs."
We've had our first real snow of the season, as well as our first pork chops. Dad wasn't working Tuesday, so we trekked our way up to Liberty to slide down Thorne Hill.
Samantha lasted quite a bit longer than expected. Dad would have quit the 10-degree environment fairly immediately. She'll be getting a third day in a row home from school thanks to this weather so that's...just great.
Lucy, who has asthma now, went down a few times as well.
Our last couple of posts showcased the musical talents of the oldest two females in our family, so I thought I would put up a couple videos to show how evenly distributed are the golden Tolman pipes.
We started out the new year with a bubbly surprise. A water main broke at the front of our yard, releasing a river down the hill and impeding any serious hygiene or food production from taking place in our home. The picture below was taken after the water dude turned the valve at the top of the street to stem the tide.
And this is what the front of our yard looks like after the city "fixed" it. We're grateful to have water, but seriously guys?
And this is beauty incarnate. My wife does not drink alcohol.
We had two little girls cleaning the table with soap suds, cheerleader-carwash style. 
We had one girl disco skating 'til the break of dawn while the rain poured afuera. 
Then the weather got bleak, and we moved the TV, cut out the baseboard and chair rail, affixed a cement backer board,... 
tiled over the backerboard, and installed a wood-burning stove. The exhaust pipe was surprisingly resistant. We figured we needed to have something to help us make use of all that wood we have after cutting down the tree. 
So it's current;y 38 degrees outside, but 75 in our little house, without using any gas. Of course, it smells a little bit like a campfire, but there are worse things for a house to smell like. 
And there's Nora, and her nocturnal activities.
