Just some chubby cheeks and red noses

It's been a long time since we had such a big snowstorm and so much snow all at once! We got 10-12 inches on New Year's Day, and about 4 more the next morning. It was so fun. Goldie and Teddy and Ziggy and Junie and Daisy played outside all day that Monday, and Gus was in and out quite a bit too. After Sebastian dug the car out of the snow, he took the girls over to a huge sledding hill where they alternated between delight and terror. Goldie confided in me later that she only dared go down twice, but didn't want to admit it to Seb!

Most of the time, though, everyone just played out on the hill and at the dip (as we call it…a drainage basin park on the other side of the hill) and had a grand time. I stayed nice and warm inside and took a few pictures with my longest lens. :)

It's not like I didn't do ANYTHING, though. I made this little guy warm again after he came in all sad and snowy (don't they always at this age?). Surely that counts for something.

And I kissed his rosy cheeks and nose one million times.

This was Sunday, when the roads hadn't been plowed yet. I got stuck twice going to and from church (which, FYI, is like one block away).

Malachi wasn't super pleased about me telling him to go shovel while it was still snowing. He did it in his shirtsleeves to…spite me? Haha. It tells you a lot about Malachi, honestly, to know that I never feared he wouldn't do it, or that he wouldn't do a good job, or that he'd come in still mad. He's a pretty great guy.

I don't know why I started measuring the snow with elephants. It seemed like the right thing to do at the time.

Periscope trunk

Don't worry! No Bendigos were harmed in this exercise!

Some snowy scenes around the neighborhood

These were BIG snowmen someone made. (Not us.) The bigger one was easily over 6 feet tall.

I don't know why I'm always so charmed by hats like this!

But, now back to the Monday, and the sledding! Ziggy and Teddy spent hours trying to build a jump. I don't think they ever got it to work, but they had a great time!

Daisy's big all-day project was this igloo (which Ziggy is taking credit for in this picture)

She managed to make it pretty tall, but couldn't ever quite figure out how to make it curve inward for a roof. Too bad I never went on any winter scout camps so I could help her (HA HA)

Meanwhile, some people had the sense to stay warm and snug inside the house!

Then I took pictures of Gus awhile* because he was so cute.

*By the way, do you know that "awhile" and "a while" are different words?!?!? 

I will let that sink in for a while.

I was aghast when I learned about this. Horrified, in fact! Because I've been doing it wrong all these years! "A while" is usually the one you want, I venture to say. "Awhile" ONLY means "for a while." So one ought never to write "for awhile" because it's redundant ("for for a while"). WHO WOULD HAVE KNOWN?

Anyway, I suppose I'm glad to know it now. But still a little indignant, at…who? Just everyone, for letting me go on ignorantly this long, I guess.

I don't know if there's anything I like quite as much as watching a three-year-old busy playing by himself. So absorbed, so sweet, so un-self-conscious. It's the cutest.

A skeptical expression, perhaps because she's lost one slipper

Gus feeding Caw

It was pretty great being snowed in at home with this little squish!