captured: first big snow

We lost approximately a zillion hours of sleep because the excitement was just too much.

(after an hour of being in bed)
9:30pm MOM IT IS SNOWING COME LOOK

10pm MOM WE ARE LAYING ON THE FLOOR WAITING FOR THE SNOW. IS IT TIME YET?!

2am send kids back to bed, not time yet

3am send kids back to bed, not time yet

4am- oldest is officially up and there isn't much hope she will sleep from here on out

5am- middle child is officially up, parents pretend to be asleep, but really we are just postponing the inevitable

7am- MOM AND DAD GET UP! IT IS MORNING! COME SEE THE SNOW!

Lincoln lasted 4 minutes in the snow and thought it was awesome until he sat in it.
Naomi lasted 8 minutes and thought it was awesome until she took her gloves off and decided to touch it with her BARE hands.
Audrey wanted to stay out forever, but had to go inside with the rest of the crew.

And naturally we had to have homemade hot chocolate with whipped cream and sprinkles.

So, a zillion hours of lost sleep was totally worth the less than 10 minutes in the snow.

 Because this, this is childhood.

a blanket of white.

Do you know how awesome it is to have a younger sister with much more energy then you, who takes your two little girls outside to play in the snow so you can snuggle your little man while inside? Oh you don't? Here let me show you.

 This next picture cracks me up, because it looks like Audrey and Naomi are holding hands and Naomi is itty bitty. But it's perception of depth, ha. 

Then after I took those pictures, I realized how fun it looked and decided to go for it too. 

Our backyard:

Our Front yard with the best sledding hill: (iphone pic)

God is quite the artist with this blanket of white. So thankful the kiddos get to experience it.

{first} snowfall.

On Tuesday mornings I have a work meeting, so Andrew has dad duty. On the way home from my meeting, I had the plans for the day running through my head. Lunch. Target for returns. Maybe play with some puppies at the pet shop. Organize some more Christmas decorations. But when I came home and the rain just kept coming and Audrey asked if we could just stay home, I said okay.

I'm so glad she did. Because we would have been galloping around Target and missed out on watching our very first snow fall of the year. We literally watched out our window as the rain began to turn to giant snowflakes. Immediately Audrey wanted to get geared up to go outside even if it wasn't sticking yet.

And so we did. I abandoned my plans and enjoyed the magical moment.

Within a very short amount of time we had a small amount of accumulation.

I watched it from my kitchen window in awe.

What would playing in the snow be without coming inside for some

hot chocolate with homemade whipped cream and sprinkles?

I usually despise the cold and winter months. But for some reason this year, I'm like bring it. There is something so enticing about being forced to stay inside like trapped in a snow globe and just slow down. To give up plans. And just be. Come February I will be wishing away the cold, I'm sure. But for now, I will put on my fuzzy socks, curl up with blanket, and tell Naomi for the umpteenth time to leave the ornaments alone.

to the ocean.

Yesterday we took a trip to the ocean. We gathered sea shells. Went swimming with life jackets on. Talked to Ariel and Flounder. Laid out on the beach.

For a second, I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and felt like I was really there.

But there is no denying it, this is where we are at...

Come on March, I can't wait for you to be here.
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(I thought I would be away for a bit, sick and all, but a miracle happened. I didn't get that sick and felt fine in less than a day. Amazing. I will never forget the Stomach Flu Invasion of 2011.)

blanket of white.

We awoke to a beautiful layer of white outside. Since I'm trying to embrace this cold, we got our craft on this morning by making snowflakes from none other than noodles. Yes, you can turn anything into a snowflake when you are dealing with a two-year old. All it took was some glue, uncooked noodles, and farklies, also known as sparkles to any one older than a preschooler.

And as much as I dislike being outside in the cold, I managed to get my completely non-matching ghetto snow gear on and go outside with Audrey. [Sorry, there is no picture of me in my ghetto get-up.] I actually enjoyed myself outside. It was like Audrey and I were in our own little snowglobe. [By the way, Andrew was working from home, so he was inside with Naomi while she slept.]

Being snowed-in isn't so bad after all. A good excuse to stay in our pjs all day, drink hot chocolate, and bake cookies.

It's a good Tuesday. A hope yours is too.

just keep smiling.

[The post title has no relevance, really. But I hate always coming up with a title and that randomly popped in my head. So there.]

Hi. It's four days before Christmas and I'm not going to talk about how busy we have been over here. [Because aren't all of our lives crazy right now?!] I'm not going to talk about how much time I have spent in my kitchen in the last week baking like crazy. Or how many times we have seen Santa in the last three weeks. Or how much sleep I'm missing right now. Okay, fine I will talk about that. Audrey talked to herself in the MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT for at least an hour last night. Oh wait, she wasn't talking to herself. I remember now, she was talking to Benny. Benny from Dora. [Current obsession is Dora.] And then she proceeded to try to escape from her room at 5:30 this morning. Nothing like a little watered down juice to coax her into sleeping more. Which got us to 8:00am, thank goodness. [All I want for Christmas is a full-night sleep. Really.]

These last days have been quite nice, I must say. My little sister has been staying with us while she is out of school. And do you know how nice it is to have a helping hand to get one of the girls out of the car when we run errands? She also took Audrey sledding yesterday and they built snowmen today. Which is fabulous, because I hate the cold. I can do snow in December only, because you know, Christmas. By the way, if you plan on sledding anytime soon, bring Audrey with you. She is our little safety patrol. She only wanted to ride the sled that buckled you in and she asked if everyone was okay everytime they went down the hill.

Here's something that should make you smile. Yesterday Audrey was carrying around a sheep and she looked at me as serious as can be and said Mama, can I give Mary her lamb back? And trying not to laugh, I said sure. She goes into another room and yells Mary, here is your lamb. Except she says, Murry, which makes it even funnier. Why yes, Mary does have a little lamb.

One more thing, this little one is 11 weeks old today. And she is quite the charmer.

snow princess.

There are no {needed} words.

(Disclaimer: Audrey didn't play out in the snow in this outfit. We were on the way to Target and I couldn't resist snapping her picture as a snow princess. And yes, she had to wear the tutu and bring her wand.)

here comes santa claus.

I think imagination is important for children. To be able to play make-believe and dream and pretend. And that's why, for our family, doing the Santa thing is okay for us. I'm not going to go into much further depth of it or get into a hot debate. I am okay with your family doing or not doing the Santa thing. But know, Audrey thinks Santa is cool and is just some funny looking guy who passes out candy canes. She doesn't know much more than that about him. But she does know (more importantly) that Christmas time is when we celebrate Jesus' birthday. Ask her, she'll tell ya. She knows that the shepherds went to visit baby Jesus. She knows that angels came. She's two. And she is getting the story of Jesus the best she can for a two year old.
But, this time of year, we also do things that are just happy. Like visiting Santa that comes on a train. That's what she did yesterday. Just with Andrew, her friend, Kierington, and Kierington's daddy. That's right, two daddies and their girls-how cute is that?

 Here comes Santa Claus on that train.

 Audrey and her best friend, Kierington (they are just two weeks apart in age).

Audrey's "say cheese" smile. It is quite awkward looking, but oh, so cute!

Audrey popped right up on Santa's knee, this could be partially (or fully) due to the fact that Audrey has gone to the mall way too many times in the past couple of weeks and got way too many candy canes from the man with a beard.

There were lots of other characters there--Cat in the Hat- Thing 1 and 2, Blue's Clues, Shrek, Rudolph, and so many more.

They had a blast. Not to mention (or actually to mention), we had a great snowfall, so the day was also spent playing outside in it. Audrey's nose was as red as Rudolph's, but she didn't want to go inside. She LOVED it.

 An unfocused, picture of my beauty.

 According to Audrey, that snowman is really Dora. Apparently, she likes to wear hats.

Weekends are so good, aren't they?



Don't touch the yellow stuff.

We finally got a real good snow fall yesterday. A blanket of white is everywhere. It's beautiful. And it's peaceful. And it's a good excuse to stay in your pajamas all day. Not that I would do such a thing. Ahem.

We bundled Audrey up and out she went to experience snow for the first time. We whipped out a piece of cardboard and towed Audrey around in our front yard. Don't you wish we were your neighbor? I can't help it that we are ghetto cool like that.