When life brings you snow...

...make snow icecream.

Instructions for the perfect mix:

1. Bundle up your snow girl and send her out with her daddy to gather 1 gallon of snow.

2. Get all helpers a stool.

3. Mix with snow: 1 cup sugar, 1 Tbsp. vanilla, 2 cups milk

4. Sprinkle on your favorite topping.

5. Mmm...savor every bite.

Its Cold.

The ground is likely covered in a layer of ice followed by a layer of snow and then another layer of ice and then another layer of snow.  The weather has been flip flopping from snow to a wintery mix the last two days straight.  School is cancelled.  Work is cancelled.  The malls are closed.   The place has completely shut down.  The tree in our front yard has even given up underneath the weight of the ice/snow/ice/snow layer.  In fact, if you step out on the front porch you'll hear the loud snapping sound of trees and tree branches giving up all over the neighborhood.  It sounds like a firing range.  

Power lines have been doing the same thing.  75,000 here are without power.  Fortunately, our lights and heater are still on, but they have been flickering all morning.  We haven't heard from anybody, but I am sure we have friends throughout the city who may very well be without heat. 

On my way out into the backyard to snag some firewood, I snapped a few shots of the coldness that has enveloped us.  The pictures hardly do it justice, but know this... It's a pretty awesome sight to these Texans.  Those of you from up north, resist the urge to mock us for taking pictures of snow. 

Tagged

The Rules:

1. Go to where you store your digital photos and open the 4th folder.
2. Post the 4th picture in that folder.
3. Explain the picture.
4. Tag 4 people.

Check out this handsome fella!! This is actually a picture from last September at a friend's birthday party. It was action packed with a swimming pool and slide, pinata, every push toy you could think of and this slip-n-slide. Nathan's first trip down the slide was not by choice but as you can tell from his smile in the picture, his first trip was not his last. Ready for those warm days again!

Thanks for the tag, Rachel. This was fun! Now, Suzanne, Carey, Lindsey, and Megan, tag your it!

Brotherly-Sisterly Love

...or so I thought.

Tonight we had a little bit of applesauce delight to follow our meal. Abigail quickly downed hers without delay. Nathan is a little slower on the other hand. It was okay though because Abigail immediately offered to help the little man with his spoon feeding. Nathan has been using a spoon for about a month and is getting actually very good at it but I thought how nice it was for her to want to do this act of service for her brother. She has been practicing lots of "motherly" things lately in preparation for our new one to come in May (even wanting to help with Nathan's diaper changes). As I went to grab the camera for this precious little moment I came back to find this...

Her little act of kindness had an alterior motive...a bite of her own. I guess I should have seen this coming when about 30 minutes earlier she so kindly offered to put the grated cheese back in the frig for me only to take a couple of spoonfuls before its return. Gotta love these teaching moments.