The new fishtank

We've been spending our spare time lately obsessing over our new pet project. The aquarium. My brother gave us (yes, gave) a beautiful 60 gallon aquarium with all the goods. We were thinking of doing salt water for a while, but then reality and our budget sense kicked in and we realized it was monitarilly impractical. Long story short, we've set up a beautiful natural fresh water aquarium and we are all loving it. My piano students have alot of fun with it as well; it's hard to keep their attention at the piano!

The fish are still small, so you probably can't see them. But we have a lobster, a crab, three tiger barbs, a rainbow shark, an upside down catfish, and a fire gourami. the plants are all live, and we are in the process of getting some natural driftwood for a centerpiece. It should be pretty nice.

Snow update

This is for all you out there who are concerned that our house has been swallowed by old man winter. Never fear, we can still see our roof! Just a side note, we took this picture today, and it has snowed a few inches since then. So use your imagination to add a little more height to "the wall" (aka mini mt. Everest).

Michael is proud of his artificial mount everest...

but Andrew has things figured out. "Let Dad shovel. I'm staying in the warm house and watching cartoons."

greetings from the arctic....I mean Hyrum

Just a few shots of the snow storm here. Keep in mind, Michael is an avid shoveler, and this is the day after the snow. The wind make the snow drift up on our driveway two feet in some places over night. I swear all our neighbor's snow ended up in our yard! By the way, it's snowing again right now. Ugh. We need a garage.
I hope all of you North Carolinians and Ohioites aren't getting jealous! Maybe we could fedex you some snow; heaven knows we have enough of it.

for those who are curious about my comment on the Young family blog, here is the story on my toes. Karen called us on Christmas to wish us well, and while we were talking Michael rolled over my toes with the computer chair. I screamed and dropped the phone, and about a minute later and much cursing, I realized that Karen was still on the line. it was a bit embarassing, but my toes and ego are doing better today.

birthday and recital

Joshua has had a big month. He performed in his first ever piano recital, and he turned five. The recital went really well. Joshua was a perfect little performer. He played Hark the Herald Angels Sing, and he sang the whole thing. He did great! His birthday was really fun too. Pirates all around!

Gingerbread house

This year my girlfriends and I built gingerbread houses from scratch. This was an ambitious endeavour. We spent one saturday baking our gingerbread, one saturday constructing, and decorating, and then it took me another few hours on my own to finish it up. Very fun though, and Joshua enjoyed the whole process. Next year if we try it again, we may enter in the "Parade of Gingerbread Houses" contest that Logan Main street has every year. We'll see.