SNOW DAY!

a beautiful thing to wake up to . . . and inch of white fluffy stuff covering everything! we were so excited to get out and play! we had several snow ball fights, made piles of snow, ate the snow, and thanks to our neighbors even got to "sled"! the kids loved it! b.c. was even saying "snow" by the end of the day! we got chilly and came inside to dry everything, have some hot chocolate and cookies, and then head out again . . . by 10 in the morning the kids had had their fill of snow play! :)

let it snow!

we got to visit the snow room again this year! :) what a treat to watch all the kiddos playing in the snow! ken and mck acted like old pros . . . flinging snow and making angels right from the start. kam was a little more timid, but was all smiles after a few minutes . . . and little b.c. preferred to stand on the sidelines and watch the craziness! what a fun afternoon this was . . . and the best part was the money we paid to play in the snow is going to help some friends with three sweet little girls - one of whom is battling cancer.

SNOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (REAL snow!

it was truly a winter wonderland today! :) we got more than 3 inches of beautiful white powder! it snowed almost all day . . . most of it giant clumps falling from the sky! :) crazy enough . . . there were no cancellations. so, we made our own. . . we kept mck home and picked ken up at 10! :)

it was great. we played until we were wet and cold, came in, threw our stuff in the dryer, and warmed up, then repeated it all again! :) we made snowmen, made snow angels, threw snowballs, ate snow (yep, i made them all try some - they looked at me like i was crazy and then LOVED it!) they were each sooooo different in the snow. b.c. just wondered what the heck had happened and why everything was bright white . . . kam loved it for about 5 minutes, then was miserable and snotty and wanted to be held or come inside . . . mck really loved it until she was soaked and couldn't get warm then called it quits! i think one of her favorite parts may have been walking around in her panties waiting for her jeans to dry! . . . and ken could have stayed outside all day! she truly wanted to take in every minute and kept telling me "i have to play as much as i can! when do we ever have snow like this?"!

we enjoyed several cups of hot chocolate, made a giant heart shaped brownie with frosting and sprinkles. . . and to top off our day, it was national pancake day! so we had blueberry and chocolate chip pancakes for dinner! my kids LOVE pancakes. every time we make them we intend to have some leftover for the week . . . i made a ton of pancakes . . . here were the totals . . .

bailey - 10 (or maybe 12!)

ken - 9.5 (yes, that is true!)

mck - 7 or 8

me - 5 (and i was STUFFED!)

kam - 3.5

b.c. - 1.5

pretty soon it'll take more than one box of pancake mix to feed this family! i am chalking up the high totals to so much time playing in the snow . . . surely everyone had worked up an appetite, right? :)

and tonight . . . we look forward to our 2 hour delay in the morning! life is good.

christmas eve

a wonderful day at home! :) we made our gingerbread house, sugar cookies, and pretzels, played, watched the snowflakes, got dressed up, headed to church, saw more beautiful snowflakes, had a wonderful dinner of munchies, got matching p.j.'s (dorky, yes! but so much fun!), got ready for santa, and went to bed. . . such fun! :)

matching p.j.'s for our family of 6 . . . a new tradition for the baileys! :)

spinning underneath the tree

the holidays just wouldn't be complete without a spin or two underneath the zilker tree! :) (yes, bailey, we'll keep paying the $10 to park so we can spin!) and of course the trip wouldn't feel right unless we were there with our bff's! :) the girls had so much fun with spinning with their friends this year! :) we loved spinning b.c. for the first time! :) the trail was different and shorter, but the kids didn't care! :) and what could be a more perfect ending than playing in some snow? mck and ken had a great time . . . kam didn't like it quite so much! :) you can tell we don't have a lot of experience with the white stuff . . . ken thought she could make the hour long ride home with a snowball! :)

growing snow!

mck's awesome teacher (and our family friend!) ms. b sent home some leftover snow for us to "grow"! we just didn't get our fill of it with the mini snowfall last week! the girls were so excited to watch it and then play with it! we stuck it in the freezer to see what it would fell like cold! :) what fun! :) a few more years and we'll have to head somewhere that it does snow! :) thanks, ms. b.! :)

let it snow . . . well, at least for a few minutes!

okay, so the news hyped up the snow to be HUGE! the kids were so excited . . . thinking that school could be canceled and we would have hot chocolate and sit by the fire all day . . . we live in texas. we should know better. :) there were however several minutes of flurries that the girls got to see. some pretty big snowflakes too! just nothing that stuck . . . and nothing to play in! at least we can say we saw snow this year! :) ken got to see the snow at school . . . luckily it was during her recess time and they had a little extra time outside to enjoy the rare occurance! :) yea snow! :)