First Snow of 2011

Our first snow of the year came the 9th of January. The kids love watching it snow and last year they enjoyed getting out in it. This year, they wanted to get out in it until we actually got out there. I think the difference is, this year we went out while the snow was still falling. Last year, we ventured out after it stopped. They just didn't care for the snow falling on their faces. My friend Emily was in town for a visit and Craig was sick in bed all day, so Emily and I bundled the kids up to go out in the snow. It lasted about 5 minutes and we went back inside.
Whitney is not happy. She didn't want to get off the porch.
Tyler was happy!

Not too bad... yet...
It was quite windy too! Doesn't she look miserable??? :)

I think we got about 6 or 7 inches this time. Not sure what's been going on the past few winters with all this snow we've been getting.

We made snow ice cream this year and the kids loved it!!! So did their Mama!

Again... the hair...

Record breaking snowfall

I know the majority of you that read this blog are full aware of how much snow we've gotten but I have several readers who live out of state and they may not be aware so I just have to share. We have had such a rare winter around North Texas this winter. Not only has it been much colder than usual, we have had several (3 or 4 I think) rounds of snow this winter. Christmas Eve and February 11th were the most significant of all. Yesterday it began snowing around 4 a.m. and continued a little past midnight on Friday (today). North Texas made history breaking several records.
*Yesterday's snow made it the snowiest day in North Texas history with 12.5 inches of snowfall in a 24 hour period.
*Yesterday currently sits at the second most snowiest February and the second snowiest winter in history for the DFW area.
The last time it snowed this much was in February 1978, when I was 6 months old. It was such a fun day for us to watch outside the window as the snow fell in what felt like bucket loads all day and night long. Such a rare occurrence for Texas. We ventured out in the snow, not once but twice yesterday to fully experience this beautiful day.

We first went out in the morning and I wasn't sure how the kids would like the snow because they weren't super fond of it at Christmas. I was pleasantly surprised when they were all excited about putting on their coats and letting me put their hoods on them to venture out in the cold and wet snow.

I tried getting them to look up at the sky and stick out their tongues to catch some snow in their mouths. They did it a few times but not enough for me to get a picture. I did get a pic of Tyler looking up at least.

Whitney did well for a little while but then eventually started getting cold and had had enough.

Hannah was the wettest of all because she actually stepped out into the deep snowy grass a few times. She still had the most fun.

We didn't stay out too long - maybe 15 or 20 minutes because they don't have mittens and were really cold.

Then when Craig got home from work, we went back out in the snow to make a snow man. The kids were a little better dressed as Whitney let me put a toboggan on her and Hannah and Tyler let me put my gloves on them. Whitney was having nothing to do with the gloves. I put jeans on the girls and they both had on tennis shoes this time.

Craig starting the snow man...

Hannah had enough of the gloves and was still having a good time but I feared she would wear down sooner because of it. Notice Whitney is holding a ruler? I measured the snow throughout the day. I measured about 4" yesterday and then this morning after it was all over, I measured again and it was around 7" but I am sure the wind blew some of it off and/or some melted because I think we got more than some of the southern counties like Dallas and the official recorded number counted at DFW was 12.5".

Tyler never once tried to take off his gloves and he didn't cry once.

Hannah's hood is getting a little wet. We were out there for a good while, playing and watching Craig make the snow man.

Whitney was very happy and having a good ole time and then all the sudden she was done.

Craig said he thought Frosty's body weighed about 50 pounds.

By the time we finished, the girls had been fussing and crying for probably 10 minutes. I got the strollers out and put them in it until Craig finished, in hopes it would help keep them happy until then but it didn't really help.

Our snowman's arms blend in with the plant in the back ground so its kinda hard to tell he has arms.

Craig took this shot just before we went inside. It was only about 6 or so... It wasn't as dark as it appears in the pic.

Frosty by himself... Notice the matching plants (in the background) on both sides of the snowman? They are being flattened by the snow. I was surprised they didn't get more covered and squished by the snow.

Whitney was so fussy and upset after we came in so I held her and Craig held Hannah for a while to warm them up.

One street over from ours, there is a treeline backing up to the houses and I just had to take this shot this morning.

Notice my plant this morning after getting probably double the snow dumped on it than the pic above?

I guess Craig must have taken this shot of the house this morning before he headed off to work.

A great end to a fun and memorable day.

Christmas 2009

Just when I think I am getting the hang of making sure my pictures are in order, I forget how to do it again so some of these are out of order.

Our Christmas was good - we had our first Christmas with Craig's extended family at his brother's house a few weeks before Christmas. Then we had Christmas with his immediate family a week later at our house. Then we had Christmas with my family the Sunday after Christmas at our house. It was busy as always but not too busy and we enjoyed having less busyness on Christmas day.

We put up the Christmas tree and the kids enjoyed helping. They were admiring all the ornaments and they did very well following instructions when told to stay out of the tree.

This was the family Christmas at our house with Craig's family. All the little cousins were sitting on the bottom step of our stairs but by the time we all grabbed our cameras, the moment was over and we couldn't get them to all sit back down together. I got four of the five sitting, which isn't bad but only one is looking.

Daddy helping the kids open the presents Christmas morning.

Some of you wanted to see pictures of the house after we moved and I never got around to it. Craig took a pic of it Christmas morning after all the snow fall we had.

The girls wouldn't wear hats or hoods and we didn't have any gloves for them so we didn't stay outside but a few minutes. Just enough for them to see and experience the snow. They weren't big fans of it.

Christmas evening Craig's parents stopped by to see us for a little while. They made the rounds Christmas day visiting their grandkids. Papaw reading to Whitney.

The Sunday after Christmas when we had Christmas with my family, we first all met up at our church then came home for lunch and gift exchanges. Here's Whitney taking control of her cousin's purse.

Hannah in Daddy's lap - her favorite seat in the house.

Tyler loves his pockets.