Snow.

Last week, I was scheduling a Gatlinburg trip for my mom's side of the family. We chose early June, noting that it would take A LOT of snow for my little cousins to have to get through their make-up days and potentially miss our trip. 

Fast forward to this week. IT GOT REAL. We woke up Monday morning and it was snowing. And it kept snowing. My work was actually closed for the day. (For reals. This never happens.) Since my work was closed, I didn't make it into my office until late in the morning and saw my anniversary gift!

Monday was our 7 year wedding year anniversary. 7 years ago, we had pretty much the exact same weather as we headed off to St. Lucia. That day started with being stuck on a tiny airplane for FOUR hours while they tried to de-ice the plane. But, I digress.

Chris got me a top ring to complete my wedding set. I love it!! And, he wrote in my book. I keep this instead of getting cards for every holiday. He and the girls write notes, draw pictures, trace their hands, etc. and I can look through it and enjoy the memories. Last year, I did a fun post documenting our years together. Happy Anniversary, Chris!! Here's to many many more!!

Anyways, back to Monday morning. Maddie was JAZZED beyond belief about the snow and couldn't wait to get outside to play in it.

The snow kept coming and coming.

Now, I have to caveat this. We have family and friends that live in Massachusetts who are reading this cringing. Because, while this was CRAZY for us KY folk, this is like a regular Saturday up north!

The girls went to nana and grandpa's for a few hours while daddy worked and I binge-watched the Bachelor I caught up on some housework. Chris eventually went out to shovel the driveway.

Yes. That's real. He built it and it cut his shovel time in half! When Maddie came home I took her outside to sled in our front yard. (Sydney opted for a warm bath instead.)

Grandpa came to play!

Then, he spoiled her rotten by pulling her up the yard.

Queen Maddie!

She said she wanted to shovel the sidewalk.

On Tuesday, Sydney's school was open half day and Maddie's was closed. More snow play!

And then, when we got cold we needed something to warm us up!

I was off Wednesday so the girls and I were cooped up in the house all day. This is pretty tough in the winter. 

We went downstairs and invaded daddy's basement.

Sydney, per usual, was all over the place.

Playing with daddy's brand new iPad. Combing with bringing baby dolls to the man-cave basement, he was praying for us to get out of the house as much as we were!!

We were all eating lunch together and I realized the tv was on and it was very loud. I went to turn it off (literally took about 15 steps) and heard a HUGE boom. Turned around and Sydney's on the ground next to an overturned bar stool, screaming her face off.

 

I picked her up and she stopped crying, but a goose egg appeared pretty quickly. I swear, this girl is going to give me all I can handle!! She's so cute but she is SO SO busy. I tell people all the time that if she had been my first, she might be an only child! I'm honestly not sure WHY she left the table and went to climb on a bar stool, but she did it in the time it took me to walk into my living room. Sigh.

Fortunately, Chris was able to leave work a little early to get us up to Maddie's dance class.

Perfecting her technique!

Daddy was excited to get to watch Maddie's dance class. It really is so sweet. She comes home and practices. This week she has been doing her "demi-plies" all over the house. Chris actually told me he really enjoyed going. He is such a girl-dad! (But, I'm sure going once was enough.)

The girls did get to go to school on Thursday which was a nice break for mommy and for the girls. I was a little relieved and then felt like this.

 

 HAHA! Kidding.

We finally got little Sydney out in the snow. At first she wasn't sure but she ended up laughing while daddy pulled the girls on the sled.

The snow has brought some fun and excitement to us, but the cold weather is making us all long a little for spring.  Warm weather has to be on the horizon! And--my cousins can't have any more snow days! We have a cabin booked!

Back to normal life...

Whew. Well, that's it gang. The end of the Disney recaps. Are you tired? Because when we came home, we were EXHAUSTED. I literally had been running on fumes all week. The girls didn't sleep great and I had a head cold and then, of course, it was DISNEY so we ran, ran, ran. 

HUGE shout out to my parents and sister for all of their help on the trip. Chris and I discussed EVERY day how thankful we were to be with them. We literally needed all hands on deck. I'm so grateful for them and so grateful we got to do this trip together!

Back at home, life resumed. Maddie and daddy worked each night on one of her souvenirs, a big lego set. She loved spending this time with him and building.

Sydney continued being her happy-go-lucky self. When she gets out of the bath, she puts her towel on her head and runs out, running into things. She thinks this is HILARIOUS.

Speaking of Sydney, her new thing is eating cereal - with milk! - from the bowl like a big girl. She saw daddy and Maddie doing this and really wanted to try. You can tell she is so proud of herself.

And again!

Notice anything here? Sydney has been holding her utensils with her left hand. We have several lefties in our family so this wouldn't be a big surprise but still, lefties only make 7% of the population so she'd be in the minority. 

So far, she seems to fit the mold of a lefty. She's obviously musically inclined.

We picked right up where we left off on our 'Stay at Home Mama Days.' We went to the Science Center to check out a new exhibit and the girls had a blast.

Taking her flash light and headlamp into the dark room.

Gardening.

Finding a snake!

We went to one of their shows and, at first, we were the only people there.

Then a whole gang of middle schoolers showed up. My shy kid, Maddie, immediately hopped up and sat in my lap. Sydney stayed right where she was, in the middle of about 100 middle schoolers, giving them all high fives. 

They lit some things on fire and the girls really enjoyed it.

We made our Valentine's cards.

We celebrated cousin Quinn's second birthday!

All the kids. 

We had a bit of fun outside before Snowmageddon hit. 

Sydney was coughing a lot and I noticed she was straining a bit to breathe so we went to the ped. And, sure enough, they wanted her on a few days of breathing treatments.

Um, what? If they think I'm going to do this willingly they are CRAY. 

And she made me pay every time we did one. Fortunately, that's in the past.

My kids love to clean. Super weird, I know. Maddie loved doing the dishes one day.

And, then I got this from daycare.

I sincerely hope they still like cleaning when I start assigning some chores.

We took our Valentine's to Maddie's school party!

And did some grocery catch-up at Costco!

Everything is big here!

We had a play date with Sloane and Hudson. The girls love baby Sloane.

Several times a week now, Maddie tells me she wants another baby, another sister. She even points out I have room in my back seat for another car seat. (And every time I tell her absolutely not.) They will just have to play with baby Sloane!

On Valentine's Day, I was in Lexington for DanceBlue. I've talked about the fundraiser here and I'm just over the moon that they raised 1.6 million for the pediatric oncology clinic in Lexington. AMAZING. I did make it home in time for Chris to take one of his Valentines out for a little ice cream date.


I stayed home with Sydney and gave her a breathing treatment. Daddy won. Ha!

And, that's pretty much life lately. Well, except for the BLIZZARD we got this past week. But that's for another post.