Snow

We had some gorgeous snow fall a couple of weeks ago. Caroline was out of school for 3 days. It snowed Wednesday and then again Thursday night for a total 8-14 inches. I know that amount sounds weird, but it was. The wind blew like crazy and tossed up the snow in places. One of end of our yard had about 8 inches and the other had about 14 inches. I think the official total for the city was 12. It was very odd though. The pictures in our backyard are all from Wednesday. In these I am taking pictures with my good camera while pulling a kid/kids on a sled. 

We put out a bowl for snow cream on Thursday night. I brought it in the house Friday morning while it was still snowing - I didn't want it to get buried like last year. I was just in time, the bowl was overflowing.

It snowed hard all day Friday and the winds were fierce. Adam worked from home and took a short break to pull the girls on their sleds when he wind wasn't as bad.

Henry is not a huge fan of snow yet. He tries to like it because he sees the big girls having so much fun.

In this picture, Henry is saying "Teeeese" so precious because that's how I knew he wanted to have fun out there. He was trying =)

We went out and did some good sledding on Saturday. Our first attempt was a quarter mile walk from our house. There is a park with big hills. This ended up being a disaster. It was Henry's nap time so he cried and cried. I finally turned back to come home with him and let him nap. Well, Adam and the girls were about 15 minutes behind me because both girls had snow in their boots. The drifts on those hills were definitely 14 inches deep. Lucy's feet especially were soaked and bright red. We got her warmed up. Thankfully, they plowed our road at about 3:30 pm and we loaded up and went to another hot sledding spot to try again. The new spot was Caroline's school which is exactly 1 mile from our house and it was AWESOME! The girls were unstoppable. They went over and over again. Adam taught them how to run and go down on your belly. Both of them thought that was the greatest, but neither could quite master it as they had to slow down to "plop" onto the sled. Lucy would run and then full stop and lay down on her sled and then couldn't figure out why she wasn't flying down the hill. We finally had to leave because it was getting dark. Henry sat quietly in my lap watching from the top of the hill the whole time =)

Christmas is coming - ice skating, Santa, decorating

So this is really late, but I'm getting these pictures on here.

We picked out our tree on the way home from SC the Sunday evening after Thanksgiving. It had been unseasonably warm in SC and KY for Thanksgiving, but it cooled off dramatically on Sunday. We were not dressed for how cold it was. I'll just say there was mild complaining ;)  - and I'm not just talking about the kids, but we had also been in the car for almost 11 hours at this point so let the grace abound! We went to Barker's Tree Farm and were overwhelmed with the selection of gorgeous trees. 

These are pictures of us putting the Christmas decorations out. We had such a sweet time. The girls were so helpful getting everything out and on the tree. Our tree practically put itself in the stand - unlike last year when we had to use fishing wire. We had hot chocolate and pizza. Henry only stayed up for a little while and actually put his ornaments on the tree the next day. Lucy found a Santa hat and wore it while decorating =)

We went to the lighting of the state Christmas tree at the Capitol in Frankfort. Several grade school choirs sing and a ballet company does a clip from the Nutcracker. The girls stood in awe watching all of it and then we all got pictures taken with Santa. Henry hated that part - haha. We were avoiding all dairy for Lucy at the time so she couldn't partake in the cookies they were giving out. Thankfully, I had brought a special snack just for her.

We took the kids to the ice skating rink set up in downtown Lexington. Last year, we went to the one in Louisville. The one in Lexington is 100x better. It is real ice instead of plastic. The girls did awesome and were skating on their own by the end. Adam was out on the ice with them while Henry and I hung out by the giant Christmas tree in downtown Lexington.

The only picture I have from the Frankfort Christmas parade is Henry with a lollipop.

I sewed Christmas dresses for the girls. There were lots of mistakes along the way. I sewed Caroline's dress to itself 3 times, but in the end I was very pleased. The girls have worn them several times and now for Valentine's Day. Caroline's is snug and won't fit her next year, but Lucy will have one to grow into. I also made Henry a matching bow tie =)

Our church's children's choir was honored as they were chosen to sing for Governor Bevin's Inauguration Worship Service on his Inauguration Day. All of Frankfort was out of school that day, but we live in Lexington now and we technically weren't. We took Caroline out of school anyway so she could sing and participate in such an exciting service and then also see the parade. 

It was stressful trying to figure out what to do with Henry. Finding a babysitter midday is not easy and many people we knew were going to the service. He actually ran a fever the night before so Adam stayed home with him and met us at the parade. Adam of course had to work the actual Inauguration service and many of the other activities but didn't have to be at the worship service. He was disappointed to not see Caroline but it ended up working out. 

This is a blurry picture I took of the girls walking into the conference center that morning. Caroline had to be there at 6:15 am! The kids' choir sang "Have you heard?" and did a great job.

I direct the Preschool choir at our church. I love having Lucy in there and seeing how she sings or ahem doesn't sing sometimes =) You just never know with these little guys. She and I went to Party City to pick up some balloons to pop out of giant presents for the show. 

And here are some random pictures from the Christmas season...

Lucy often asks me to take her picture randomly in stores. Here she is sitting in a chair at the mall.

Cakepop with Lucy while Caroline is at GA's. We also took this opportunity to for Lucy to buy her Christmas presents to Caroline and Henry.

Lucy's piano trophy for the year was a centerpiece for our table. She was so proud. It is her first trophy! It is sitting in her American Doll Samantha's hat =)

Another random picture of Lucy. She liked this tree in front of a bookstore so wanted her picture taken.

A picture from Caroline's Veteran's Day program that got left out of my other post. I love this picture of her.