Happy New Year

We were able to ring in 2012 with some of our best friends ever, Stacy and Peter.  Our visit was super short, but we had a blast!  It is great to have friends where you can be apart for long periods but feel like you have not missed a step when you get together again.

 Audrey is a huge fan of the sparkling cider! 

 Using the timer function of the camera to take  pictures of us toasting in the new year.  We only took about 20  pictures trying to get it right. 

 Cheers!  Here we are toasting with our new champagne flutes that I got from Ikea for only $0.25 per flute....and they are real glass!

More Snow...or really Ice

This past weekend we had our second winter weather.  This time it was not the fun dry fluffy snow like last time - it was definitely mainly ice this time.   But as we learned, ice makes for GREAT sledding.   We usually use our little hill in the backyard.  But the ground was so icy and the sledding so fast, there was not room in our yard...unless you like flying full speed into the house.  Which is not as fun as it sounds!

So the girls and I loaded up and drove over to our local elementary school to sled down a giant hill - seriously at least 60 feet.  It was AWESOME!!  I had so much fun.  So much so that when D got home from running (only 18 miles in the ice) that I made us all load up and go sled again!

Here are pics (can you tell that I am a little obsessed with the snow too!) and hopefully a video or two too:

 HUGE hill.  Fortunately there were steps off to the side.  This was the first trek back up - and sadly when they finally got to the top and put the sled down, it flew all the way back down! 

Getting ready to sled.  Audrey enjoyed it just a bit more as she is our natural daredevil!

 Fun in the snow!

 This was their idea to ride with Daddy backwards down the hill!  Crazy!!

Munching on some ice as a little snack

Here are the videos.  They look a little funny cause they were taken with my camera and I guess when they are converted/uploaded they are very skinny.  The first is D sledding with Audrey and the second is Brooke sledding by herself.

First Snow of the Season

A couple of weeks ago, we were all shocked when it snowed.  The forecast called for rain all day, but apparently the temps were low enough that it came down as snow.  It started around noon and finally by 4 there was about an inch that had accumulated on the ground.  So as soon as the girls got up from their nap we headed out to do some sledding down our hill in the back yard.  The girls LOVE snow and have been very upset and confused as to how it can be winter and there not be any snow.  So I tried to explain to them that there are  lots of places (read pretty much everywhere else we have ever lived or will ever live) that don't get snow.  This explanation resulted in tears...they have recently entered into a very sensitive phase.

Here are some pics of this our first snow:

 Have I mentioned how much the LOVE the snow?  They love to roll around in it, eat it, make snowballs and through them (usually at me!), eat it, sled in it, eat it, and build snow men.  Did I mention that they like to EAT it?  Favorite activity for sure!

One inch of snow is enough for sledding!  The biggest limiting factor was the lack of sunlight as it did not accumulate until after 4pm and it is dark here by 5!

This is what it looked like at 1 pm when I went to pick them up at school.  You can barely tell, but it is snowing. 

I just think that they are so cute in all their winter gear!

My artistic shot - I always think that this looks like cotton on the bushes outside our house.  I guess that is how you know that I am truly from the south.

Photographers

The girls LOVE to take pictures around the house.  It totally cracks me up to see what they take pictures of and how they arrange stuff and which pictures they think need to be deleted.  Here are some of their pictures that I find amusing.  This is very likely one of those posts that only their family (and that may be pushing it) will enjoy.  You will also note how much they love their stuffed animals!  We are starting to get a tad overrun by the animal friends, but their affection for them is just so super sweet.  They - well really just Brooke - have now been limited to sleeping with only 10 animals each night.

Audrey Sings

As I have put on here before, the girls love to put on little shows.  All. The. Time.  And now they are also obsessed with my camera and taking pictures and videos of these shows.  (This is an aside, but when I went to upload my most recent set of pictures today there were about 40 or so that the girls had taken just around the house of stuff they thought was interesting.)

Here are two videos of Audrey singing with her new guitar.  They are basically the same but I just could not pick one.  The rock and roll (which is a little hard to understand as her r's are still very w-like) was just so funny.  But then the other one is just so funny to me as it is total stream of consciousness singing.  It reminds me of some weird performance art or something.