Winter Wonderland

Well, another 2 weeks have gone by, and I took almost 250 pictures in 14 days! That took a bit of sorting through! We went to the Lights of Christmas, Lucas' party at Jungle Playland, the kids played at Kendra's since they didn't have Christmas teas at school, Jenna's party at the Children's Museum and SNOW, SNOW, SNOW!!! We have had 4-5 times as much snow as we usually get all winter in just the past week, and they are still calling for more. Mark worked Tuesday last week, hasn't worked since - that's also the last day the kids had school! They're scheduled off this week anyway, but missed 4 out of 5 days the last week. Mark doesn't get paid if they don't work, so thank goodness he hadn't taken vacation yet - he's using that up, but it's only 8 hours instead of the usual 10-12 he normally works. The poor van gets unburied just to get covered again. We've had strong winds that created drifts, especially since it was so cold the snow is powder. The wood stove has been going constantly for almost 2 weeks - it's a balmy (if slightly staticy) 72-80 inside the house, while outside it's been into the single digits. The forecast is lower 40's around Christmas - then more snow! The top picture is Meghan trying to walk across the front yard - it's gotten deeper since then. Next is one of her rock star positions - she's really into air guitar. Jenna's pic is from her party (Thanks, Sue), blowing out candles that Mark eventually helped her with. It seems impossible that Jenna turns 4 tomorrow - they are both growing so quickly. I'm really trying to slow down and savor every moment with them. I especially love their laughter - it's the best thing in the world for anything that ails you!