How to have a Snow Day

We had so, so much fun during our snow day on Wednesday. We all loved having Paul home from work and we definitely made the most of our unplanned family day!
After breakfast we suited up and went and played in the snow (see the previous post for pics and details). We then came in and had some delicious hot chocolate and Paul ran to the store to get some necessities: butter to make cookies, pizza for dinner, and more milk (yes, I'd bought milk on Monday but between 2 little girls drinking it with every meal, eating cereal, and making hot chocolate we were starting to run low...next snow day I might be the crazy milk-buying lady everyone at the store talks about!). We had a late lunch and a lazy afternoon: Ellie napped, Paul did some work, and Emmie, Ruthie, and I took Franklin for a walk and checked out all the snow in the neighbor's yards and then when we got back I worked on the girl's quilts (I have to make 40 "big blocks" that are then sewn together to make the quilts and I have 3 left...should be done with the big blocks by Saturday!) while Emmie played and Ruthie napped. After naptime Paul and the big girls went back out to play while I measured out all the ingredients for making oatmeal chocolate chip cookies!

Ellie didn't last too long outside (too cold!) but Emmie and Paul had the BEST time. They chased each other all over the yard and finished with a snowball fight (Emmie clearly won!). They had so much fun and I just love watching Paul play with the girls...he's such a good girl dad!

I finally convinced them to come inside and the girls and I worked on making our cookies. We had so much fun and I must say it was really nice to already have everything measured out and ready to go for them. They were really funny because I tried to give them a little bite of cookie dough after we finished and Emmie WOULD NOT taste it...I think it was too messy looking for her! I finally convinced Ellie to take a bite and she liked it but definitely wasn't as excited about eating cookie dough as Paul and I were. Sometimes I think I have very strange children.

While the cookies baked we ate our pizza and then we of course sampled our delicious cookies...they were a hit (although Ellie was almost too tired to eat hers)!

At bedtime we read A LOT of books since it was a special day and the girls LOVED that as we have a very strict 1 book per child at bedtime policy, otherwise we'd be there all night reading.

When we got in bed last night Paul and I agreed that we had a WONDERFUL day with our girls. These are the days that make lasting memories and I loved every minute of the time we got to spend together!

Winter Wonderland

Everything shut down yesterday as we eagerly awaited the snow that didn't come and didn't come (so glad I didn't tell the girls we were going to get snow). FINALLY about 8:30 last night it started snowing and it accumulated fast. It snowed until about 1am and this morning we had 2.5in at our house! Last night we got the girls out of bed to show them the snow when it started and I wish I had recorded their reaction...they were so excited and Emmie immediately began making plans to build a snowman.
We had fun playing out in the snow this morning. Emmie had a BLAST and Ellie thought it was ok but quite chilly...she is definitely not as cold tolerant as Emmie. Ruthie even got to come outside and she was not super impressed but was content to hang out in her bear suit. Franklin had a BLAST and loved chasing the snowballs we threw. We did manage to make a snowman although he's really more of a snowblob. Our snow is really powdery and dry so we had to work hard to make it stick together!

Yay for snow!

 

snow angels!

 

 

The girls LOVED eating the snow!

Paul and Ruthie think it's never too cold to lay in a hammock.

 

working on the snowman

 

I love this picture of Paul, Emmie, and Ellie discussing how to fix up the snowman.

We had to improvise with the face and hat. Only in the south do you use a beach toy as a snowman hat!

 

Hot chocolate time.

 

1 month

 

 

I am 1 month old!

• I eat every 3 hours during the day. After I eat I usually stay awake anywhere from 1-2 hrs and then take a nap in the swing (although we're starting the transition to the crib...we'll see how that goes). I have my bedtime feed about 10pm and then sleep for 5ish hrs (give or take an hour) and then sleep for about 4 more hours. Generally I go right back to sleep after my feed in the middle of the night. At night I sleep in my crib.
• I wear 0-3mo clothes and a size 1 diaper.
• I am a spit up queen. Mommy has to do a lot of laundry. I'm really good at the projectile spit up...sometimes it's so forceful it comes out of my nose! (By the way, Emmie loves to wipe up my spit up...she's always on the lookout and always knows where a burp cloth is.)
• In addition to being the spit up queen I'm also the wet diaper queen. Generally Mommy changes my diaper before she feeds me and right before I go to sleep and then again before my next feed and they're ALL soaking wet!
• I LOVE my big sisters. I love to watch them play and I'm definitely happiest when they're around. I'm not 100% sure about Franklin yet but I'm getting more and more used to him.

 

• I'm generally a very easy baby and am content to lay around and watch the craziness around me. The last few days I've been wanting to be held more but Mommy thinks I'm going through a growth spurt so hopefully I'll go back to my normal laid back self once I get past that.
• I've had a few real smiles! There are lots of times I smile with my eyes and one side of my mouth twitches up but I can't quite always figure out how to make my mouth smile all the way!
• This month we went to Greenville for a night and then went to Maggie Valley, NC for a weekend with Daddy's side of the family. I did pretty well being in a new place...it had me a little out of sorts but nothing awful.

 

• I love to listen to books. I really like it best when I can sit in someone's lap so that I can see the pictures too.

 

• I enjoy going on walks around the neighborhood especially if I get to look around. (If it's cold Mommy puts the shade on the stroller and the carrier up so I'm all closed up.)

 

• I take real baths in my baby bathtub now and I think they're pretty nice although I spend most of the time trying to face plant in the water...hopefully my muscles will get stronger soon and I'll be able to play more!

 

• I've started sitting in the bumbo some. I do great holding my head up for a few minutes!

 

• I like to do tummy time...just not for too long. I'm really good at lifting my head up and am getting stronger every day! I also do the crawling motion with my legs and toss them around like I'm trying to roll over.
• I don't like being put in my carseat but once we start driving I'm very content.
• I have a fair amount of baby reflux but so far it doesn't seem to bother me too much.
• This month I've been to Emmie's school, dance, My Gym with Ellie and on Wednesdays I go to bible study with Mommy. 



Emmie at 1 month                                                       Ellie at 1 month (and her blog post)

 

 

 

 

So who do you think Ruthie looks like?

Mountain Trip

This past weekend we went to Maggie Valley, NC with Paul's family for a weekend in the mountains. We had a very nice weekend and had lots of fun (although we were really hoping for a light snow while we were up there...perhaps next year!). Saturday we hung around the house all day and just relaxed. Paul, Emily, and Blake went tubing and apparently the hill was really fast this year (it was 60 degrees when we went last year and was pretty much a big mud bath) and they had a great time. I didn't go this year because none of the times worked out with Ruthie's feeds and I was trying not to give her too many bottles.
Sunday morning Emily and Blake slept in and the rest of us went to the hill we discovered last year to go sledding. Snow stays on this hill on the side of the road so much longer than it does anywhere else and even though there wasn't much snow on it this year we got a fair amount of speed going down the hill and the girls had a blast. Last year we had to force Emmie to go down the hill and this year she hopped right on the sled with me and had a big smile on her face the whole way down. She really shocked all of us this year when she told us that she wanted to go down by herself! I was so proud of her for being brave and she was definitely proud of herself and I think it made her feel grownup! Ellie knows no fear and squealed the whole way down the hill each time and then immediately would hop up and say she wanted to go again. After Emmie went by herself, Ellie of course wanted to go by herself...and had a blast doing it!

getting ready to go sledding

Ruthie was wearing the dreaded bear suit that was handed down from Emmie. You literally have to stuff her in the suit and then she looks like the kid on A Christmas Story...hilarious.

snowballs!

making a snow angel

I love the expression on Gin-g's face!

So proud of my brave girl!

Sunday evening we went skiing. I was very excited about going because I wasn't sure when the trip was planned if I'd be able to and I love to ski. Paul, Blake and I went and it was pretty much pure ice on the slopes. I like to go fast but I also like to know I can stop if I need to and there was no stopping on the ice. We'd been there about 5 min and saw someone with a broken wrist and as the night wore on we kept hearing more stories of broken bones and such (we even got stuck on the lift for about 15min because someone broke their leg getting ON the lift...it's probably good they didn't make it to the top). After we saw someone being put in an ambulance on a back board we decided perhaps it was time to head home! Emmie said that she wants to go skiing so I think we're going to take her next year...should be interesting...and hopefully not so icy!
While we were skiing the girls stayed at the house and watched a movie and drank hot chocolate with marshmallows...needless to say they had a great time. My girls LOVE marshmallows!
We headed home on Monday morning with a stop in Greenville to pick up little puppy from my parents house. He had a great time going on lots of walks with Gran and chasing Grandaddy around the house.