A Wonderful Day

In contrast to today, which is cloudy, cooler and dreary, yesterday was a beautiful day!!

It was over 30 degrees, and there was beautiful sunshine! Ah...life giving sunshine.

I had some things to do at the Social Security office (it turned out that I needed to go to the IRS office instead...sounds scary but it wasn't) for our newest adopted kids before we could do our taxes. Never one to love to do those things, I asked my hubby to take the day off and he did. He had a work errand to run in "the city" as well.

We were going to take Summer and Jaden along, but decided instead to have some time alone. That it wasn't frivolous to spend alone time, but important. I actually wrote a post about this change of heart today on the Katelyn's Fund blog, due to a dear friend. You can read it HERE.

Even though we also did some shopping, NOT one of my favorite pastimes, we had a glorious day. What a treat! It wasn't busy, the sun was shining, and I was spending time with my favorite person.

When we got home I had to take some pics of the kids, too. They were enjoying their after school time too! I didn't get shots of them across the street on the church yard where there were HUGE piles of snow that they were sledding down. What fun!

Sierra in our front yard, striking a pose in front of their fort...

Shi sledding at the neighbors...

Svanna and Sierra, working hard at their fort. You can actually see some of the "snow hill" they sledded on past the stop sign...

Tye and Gabe building their own fort type structure, on the other side of our driveway...

Yes, that's Gabe amid the piles of snow~!

Oh, and in response to some who have asked, Svanna and Gabe (I don't let Summer out as much in all this snow...don't want to lose her in a snow pile! LOL) are doing quite well with their first winter. And what a first winter it is!! I'd say Gabe has his tolerance all built up, and Svanna is almost there. She doesn't have quite the cold tolerance as the other kids, but she's definately keeps up with them!

Snowy Christmas Day

Opening stockings Christmas morning...

Calling Santa (yes, I'm serious!)

Svanna asked, since it was Jesus' birthday, if we were making Him a cake. I thought it was a grand idea, especially since we used to do this at my Grandmother's house.

So, just about everyone had a part in making the cake. We put 9 candles in it, and each person blew one out while wishing Jesus a "Happy Birthday." Lord, can't imagine what life would have been like if you hadn't come down to earth! Happy Birthday!

Snowbound Christmas Eve

Ok, there is a TON of snow out there! I don't know how much, but even where it hasn't drifted it seems to be up to my knees. I don't remember having this much snow since I was little. Even the interstates were closed yesterday throughout much of the Midwest. Needless to say, we stayed home!

Christmas Eve was caroling to the neighbors, eating snacks and pizza for supper, opening our Christmas jammies and an ornament, and watching It's a Wonderful Life (one of my favorite movies).

Opening presents Tye and Gabe made for us in school...

Mom and Dad can't let the kids have ALL the fun!

Snow??

Ok, I wanted to post these yesterday as a follow-up. What a fun day the kids had! Snow in the morning, and it dried up and they were playing in the leaves with friends in the afternoon. With the hard freeze and snow, it seems our Ash trees in the front yard dropped half their leaves at once!






Didn't they have a great time? *smile* It was so fun to watch them!

Yesterday, we were really thankful for the small amount of snow. Brandy has almost all of his crops (beans and corn) in the field yet. This is very late. Usually I look for him to be done sometime around Halloween. This year, it'll be closer to Christmas.

Today we're still trying to be thankful, but it's harder. It's snowing again, and the forecast is for rain all week. *sigh* If it snows too much, crops will be lost. The longer we wait, the more chances of snow there are. Remembering God is in control! Knowing God's got a plan! Prayers for wonderful fall weather are appreciated by many farmers in our area, and much of the Midwest.

Leaves on the Trees and Snow on the Ground?

Ok, it's REALLY REALLY early for snow! Thankfully it won't last long and probably wasn't enough to hurt the beans still in the field, waiting for harvest.

So we'll focus on some very excited kids to see snow this morning! Especially those for whom this is a first. When we came home in April, there was one small puddle of snow left on the ground, not enough to get the full effect.

Summer didn't like all that stuff around her neck! But she got used to it.

Summer wanted back in the house after just a little while. Brrrrrr.

We had to search and search for winter duds, and of course didn't have enough cuz this Momma thought she had plenty of time to get snow pants and good snow gloves before the snow hit! So Svanna had to go out in jeans! She didn't mind, well--till later.

Is that a snow angel?
In other parts of the country, an inch of snow might stop everything, in the midwest, we call it a footprint and keep on going!

One very excited boy! He loved it.

Svanna later said she didn't like snow, too cold!! Although she's already talking about going out again. But the fireplace felt very good on ouchy hands (even though she did have good gloves on, it's still cold!).