Snow Day fun.

One of my favorite things to do on a snow day is bake and cook all day. I believe on this particular day Jessica had spent the night at her friend Gabby's house so it was just Justin and I. We decided to make some cookies. I believe they were chocolate with peanut butter chips.

This is the tray I put together....
And this is the one that Justin made.

Good news- they were both very yummy!

February Snows

February brought... well February brought more snow! Here are some pictures I took when the snow was at it's peak. Many people were in a panic to rake off the snow from their roofs. Marc pulled our roof rake out and he could only get to the two lower roofs- so we crossed our fingers and luckily our house is very soundly built- phew.

The very skinny passage to our front door.
From the front door.
The big sledding hill.
The walkway to the back door- mostly for Buddy.
These are the largest Snow Blower things I have ever seen! They were sent out to try to reclaim the streets a few times. With all the plowing many streets were getting very tight.
Note: the machine was not at all blowing our area- in fact ignored the circle of the cul de sac entirely- not sure why we could have used a little widening.
Sunset in Winter.

Swim Championships!

Jessica swam again in the Winter Season. The winter season is more popular than the summer season. She really really enjoys swimming. She is not the fastest swimmer on her team but that doesn't matter. She consistently beats her own best time which is fabulous- and earns her a new ribbon every time she succeeds.

Here is Coach Tim giving his pep talk. I asked Jessica what he said and she reports he said, "the key word is Explosion!" Well the Falcons won the championships AGAIN- so I guess his pep talks work.

This series amusing me- Jessica chews on her fingers- ALL THE TIME! It makes me crazy. So here she is waiting for her chance to warm up.
Then she sees me and waves...
Then she takes her fingers out of her mouth.

Here she is just before one of her races.

She raced in two events and beat her best time in both of them- a great day.

My Helpers!

I decided it was time to start working on our Master Bath update. Justin and Jessica wanted to help rip off the top layer of wallpaper.

They were doing a good job helping but being next to our big jacuzzi tub was just too inviting. So they put on their swimsuits and jumped in and made a huge bubble bath.

January

January brought... well it brought lots of snow! And more snow! and many snow days. Dee came over one day to enjoy our sled runs in the front yard.



January also brought Justin's interest in reading. He got a few Elephant and Piggie books at Christmas and loved them. One day we went to the library and checked out EVERY elephant and piggie book they had that we didn't already own. I found him like this on more than one night....

After one of our MANY snow days we decided to end the day with ice cream sundaes!

Week after Christmas

The day after Christmas we got our first big snow storm of the season. We were very excited to get out and play (yet did we know how much more snow the season would be bringing).


We ran our sled run into the street in the beginning of the season- before we were able to create a huge bank at the end of the yard.










Marc took the entire week off after Christmas. He decided to take Jessica downhill skiing for the first time. Marc enjoyed downhill skiing growing up- me not so much. Jessica was very excited!
She had a few ups and downs but in the end she loved it. They went a few times this season and by the end she was very comfortable on the ski lift and going down the bigger runs. She can't wait for next year.

Christmas!

This year all of the Hannas came up to our house for Christmas. As per my usual I took very few pictures during the holiday- shocking! As most of you know it is our (Marc and I) tradition to have chocolate cake for breakfast on Christmas. But with company I had totally forgotten to make the cake. I remembered at 11pm at night on Christmas Eve! Ack! I quickly made the cake- nothing too special.

This is the only (almost) group shot I got- breakfast on Christmas morning.

Jessica and Justin battling with bey blades!
Meg and I in our Christmas finest enjoying our morning mimosas.