Skipping Christmas and getting to the snow

Okay, the heck with the rest of the Christmas photos. I'll get to those some time in the future.

Now I want to show you SNOW photos! Oh yes, there was actually snow in Alabama (albeit a light dusting that my Michigan side indignantly protests is not real snow, but I digress...).

After showing Eden the white stuff on the ground, she promptly exclaimed, "We can ride the sled!" And fortunately for her and Winnie, we have one (as evidenced in our previous adventures of grass sledding a.k.a. redneck sledding).

So without further ado, here are our snow adventures.

Eden, in all her pre-snow glory:


Eden quickly assessing the fun potential of snow and realizing, that yes, this may make for a fun time:


Eden helping Winnie discover the glories of snow: (Is there anything better than little mitten hands?)


Winnie: "Can I eat this? Hmmmm..."


Winnie: "I'm already having fun and all we are doing is sitting here!"


Eden making snow dust-slash-ice-grass angels:


Happy Winnie


Cheese!


Winnie: "Yep. Could definitely get used to this." (There are about 20 photos I took showing pure joy on Winnie's face while getting pulled on the sled.)


Eden: "Wow! Look at the ice on the chain thingy!"


Now, look carefully at Winnie's AND Eden's face. Winnie is eating ice/snow and discovering it's cold. Eden is discovering that mittens get stuck to very cold ice. I love how you see the beginnings of mild panic on Eden's face.


Winnie: "Yes, I can definitely eat this stuff."


So can Eden. (I may or may not have suggested/modeled how to lick the snow.)


After our frolicking good time outside, we came in and took a breather (complete with kisses) on the kitchen floor while I made hot cocoa and marshmallows.


We wrapped up our snow festivities with a fairy movie on the couch. (Don't you love how enthralled Winnie is with the movie?)


This mom's conclusion: Best Day Ever.

Sleep, bows, and Winnie cuteness

I actually got all of my 500 photos edited and cut back to 143 (not too bad), so now I can share them with you!

I won't bombard you with all 143. In fact, I won't even get into the holiday photos yet. I'll just share some random shots and facts with you and then the next post I'll get into our Christmas and traveling photos.

This is my favorite time of day for Eden:



Lately she has decided that it is impossible to fall asleep or remain asleep in her bed and has migrated semi-permanently to mine. While this is not my favorite thing in the world, at least I have a king size bed and since Kevin is gone, I still have plenty of room (most of the time). Maybe it's just a temporary phase based on Kevin being gone? Please? Pretty please?

She is currently very into bows, tutus, skirts, and dresses. She changes clothes about 10 times a day. I wish I were exaggerating. Alas, my laundry pile and her dresser drawers tell otherwise.



Can anyone say diva?



For Thanksgiving, I hosted my mom and stepdad and the two sister missionaries from our church. It was a nice, quiet (ish -- you can't have a completely quiet meal with Winnie present) evening.

*For some reason the flickr link isn't working...Stand by for repairs.*


This is Winnie's nursery picture from church. That tongue, those pigtails -- I die.



We were very lucky to have Kevin come home on the first available flight. He landed, got a taxi, rented a car, and drove all night to get to our house at 7:00 in the morning. He woke me from a dead sleep and I was so disoriented that I just asked him what he was doing here. (I'm not coherent when I'm tired.)



The girls had a blast with Kevin while he was here. We celebrated by dressing up:



Daddy's boots and Sister's underwear as headgear: I'm thinking of calling Project Runway as we speak. And you can't miss Eden hamming it up in my boots.

We all went to the lights at the zoo and got to ride the train. I think the girls were a little underwhelmed, but at least they always enjoy a train ride.

Testing photobucket - i hate flickr

So that's all I'll share today. Hope everyone has a great weekend!

2014: Let's do this thang.

Happy 2014, everyone!

Just wanted to let everyone know that I have taken 500 (not an exaggeration) photos during the several weeks Kevin was home for Christmas so I will be posting those...this year. (Don't want to get your hopes up that it'll get done any time soon.)

I have about 15 bags/boxes that I still have to unpack (again, not an exaggeration) from our trip from which I just returned last night so maybe when that gets done in a month or two (maybe a slight exaggeration), I can get back to normal life. Including posting photos.

I still haven't unloaded the trailer (yes, I had so much stuff to bring home from SC and NC and VA, that I had to put it all in a trailer AND the back of my van was filled. Where does it all come from??) The stuff on it has been bravely enduring the frigid night air. Only one more night of that (hopefully).

Anyway, I'm going to try to do better about posting regularly (same empty promise, yes, sorry).

Toodles and love!

P.S. Just curious about how many people are keeping up with my blog. Would you mind leaving a comment and telling me that you don't mind my random ramblings and too many photos of my kids? (Shout out to Anonymous [love you, Dad], Kelsey, and Julia who always leave comments!)

P.P.S. Mayumi, 1. My instagram feed is eclawracy. What's yours? 2. You may call me Cameron now. :) and 3. Miss you!!

P.P.P.S. Colette, I did make Winnie's Halloween outfit as well, including the hat. I made it for Eden when she was 18 months old. Gotta love hand-me-downs.