Virginia

I was very fotunate to go down to Virginia this past weekend to visit my great friend Katie. We have been friends since we were four-years-old. It was so great to be able to catch up with Katie and hang out for a weekend. It was such a relaxing three days. I was able to sleep in every day. I had no responsibilities. Every meal I was just able to eat, instead of feeding other little ones. We sat around and read books, watched TV, went shopping, ate out a lot, and just had fun catching up. It's been over five years since I've been away from my kids, completely alone. It was SO nice! I almost didn't know what to do with myself! Thank you Katie for being so hospitable! And thank you Don for buying me the ticket down there (it was Katie's Christmas present to fly me down there for a weekend). I even was able to wear flip flops! It was 77 degrees in Richmond on Friday. Not fun coming home to 10 inches of snow and 18 degrees., but great to come home to my wonderful family.

Snowman

The girls have been itching to get outside to build a snowman. The snow hasn't been good packing snow for a while. With the warmer weather(only in MI would 30's be considered warmer weather!), they were able to finally get outside and build a snowman with daddy!

Dancing Hannah

Cute noises

Hannah does this cute little noise. And I finally captured it:)

Quiet Time

Ava and Allie rarely take naps any more. Ava took a nap every day till she was at least 4, so I figured Allie would too. Not so much. I've tried to get Allie to take a nap so many times and she usually just ends up sitting in her bed for over an hour, not falling asleep. So now I have the girls do a quiet time. They go in their room for 1 hour and play, read, or rest on their bed. I always do this while Hannah is napping so I can get a good hour to myself to get things done.

On this paticular day, the girls were singing the entire hour. I brought the camera in and found them on the top bunk, laying down together, singing! It was so sweet.

Fun in the snow

Mike and I really don't like winter. That's putting it mildly. We actually hate winter. We don't like the cold, ice, and snow. We don't like having to bundle up every time we go outside. We hate having to warm up our cars for ten minutes before we go anywhere. We'd much rather be in a more mild climate. However, we need to remember that we have three girls witnessing our attitudes about EVERYTHING. We don't want our girls to grow up hating winter. I loved the snow when I was a kid. I loved sledding, building snow forts, playing hockey, and all the other fun things that come with the cold. I want my girls to love it too. So Mike and I suck it up, put on a smile, and try to enjoy winter.
We got a lot of snow this past week and the girls were dying to get outside. My parents brought their snow blower over, so we bundled up and headed out to deal with the snow. The girls had a blast.

Our mom's group met at Jodi's on Thursday for some death sledding! Okay, it wasn't that bad, but seriously, it was a little scary. Jodi's neighbor's driveway is crazy. Actually Jodi's driveway is crazy too (Laura and Jess, your old one!). I actually got stuck halfway up and had to back down and try again. It's very steep and very curvy. Anyway, the kids were sledding down Jodi's neighbors driveway, into a big snowbank half way down. Man did they get some speed. Ava had so much fun. Allie only went down once with me, while I was digging my feet in all the way down to slow us up a bit.

Allie and Maya. Maya got a bloody nose her first time down the hill. But she was so brave and took it like a champ.

The kids would have liked to build a snowman, but it wasn't great packing snow.

You can sort of get a glimpse of the hill in the background in this picture. It was crazy, but also a fun day. Maybe winter's not so bad after all.

That was quick!

We realized a few weeks ago that Ava should probably be able to ride without training wheels by now. She is 5 after all. So Mike started working with her in the basement. And now she's doing great. I think it only took about a week for her to get her balance down. She is so excited and loves showing anyone who comes over that she can now proudly ride without training wheels! She can't wait for summer so she can ride up and down the street. It's fun having an unfinished basement for biking, but pretty soon, it will all be finished and no biking in the house:)