Growing up in Houston, I have never had this much fun in the snow. Ok, I think I went skiing as a kid once, and remember a photo of me riding in a gondola, and it snowed once in 1987 and I ate snow off our pool lounger — but beyond that don’t remember anything like this.

Friday was a snow day, and I heard it was the most snow we have had since 2003. It snowed most of Friday, froze that night and Saturday everything was coated in white with a top layer of ice. We tried to get out for church today, but it didn’t look good. Later today the sun came out and we wanted to play. Ethan found a piece of old wood and made a sled out of it and it worked for a bit. Then we borrowed a friend’s discs and headed to the elementary school where we heard there was some good sledding. Audrey pretended to take a nap at our neighbors and we had a blast. Alyssa was hesitant at first, but after the first time she was fine. Megan I think will be the adventurous one. First time down, all by herself, she had a look of panic and shear fun in one. I’ll admit, I kept riding with her just so I could play too. Now, school is canceled for Monday too. I sure wish we had some ski gear for these kids so we could play without getting wet…and next time we would be ready for some real skiing. It was a great day!

This weekend some MOPS girls and I ran in the Nashville Zoo Run Run. There was a costume contest so we made a plan and did a great job with the tiger costumes. I understand the funny looks we got as we tried to wait for a table at Chuys afterwards, but I don’t know why the other runners thought we were so odd at the race. With no one else dressed up, we thought we were easily the winners, but we only got honorable mention. Some “cheetah” dressed in…well really only cheetah paint and shorts won instead.

It was amazing to me how fast you start the race and don’t realize it. We were near the front of the start and began to get passed by lots of people. We looked at our watch and we were not going slow at all, but almost 2 minutes faster than our average pace. I can’t imagine what kind of rivalry you get into with other runners with 13 miles to run, because in just 3 miles, I had made a few enemies. (It was a very narrow and windy path) In the end, I did great, thanks to trying to catch Jessica most of the way. I finished 12th in my bracket and ran a 26:17. Not bad for the first time. I think I will have to slow down to my normal pace for a longer race though, I didn’t even have enough in me for that surge of adrenaline that is supposed to hit toward the finish line. Preparing to run a 10K in February now.

Watched your video this morning, sweet boy. I am missing what it would have been like to know you. To hold you. To comfort, play and experience life with you. You have left a hole in my heart.

It has been almost 3 full days of snow falling. We finally got everyone dressed to do some real playing. There wasn’t a lot on the ground and it was too dry to actually pack, but still fun.

There was a 3″ prediction for this morning so school was canceled last night. When we woke this morning to see nothing, we were a little bummed. Shortly after breakfast it started falling and we had a good snow for most of the day.

I finally let them out in it and they had a good 20 minutes of fun. Alyssa insisted that she didn’t need a hat or even socks, but Mommy turned out to be right in the end. They came in, bundled up and had some hot chocolate to warm up. Ethan came home early to make sure he didn’t get stuck in the next freeze coming and of course had to take care of his birds. They are definitely the best fed birds in town. Lucky for us, school is closed tomorrow too, so more of this family togetherness!

I enjoy taking pictures. I enjoy scrapbooking. I enjoy the hours that I can spend at a desk hand cutting and assembling my girls’ life onto pages. The problem really is that I do not feel I have the time for that. My last full page in an album is Megan’s 1st birthday. And only because I skipped from month 4 to one year. Audrey has hundreds of photos organized in iPhoto, but not a single print has been made. (Okay, maybe 2 for frames) I feel behind. I feel guilty. I feel full of intentions but left with nothing to show at the end of another year.

After browsing a bit, I found Project Life. I am excited about this. My husband rolled his eyes wondering why I can spend $39 whenever I want, but he has to ask permission to go to lunch. But deep down, he wants our lives documented. I know he does. The basic idea is to capture a photo a day and journal about it. The designs are done for you and you can add as little or as much to it. I want to capture those everyday things. That messy room after Megan has been quiet for 1 whole hour. That smile that is missing a few teeth. And that face covered in Oma’s famous spaghetti sauce. I don’t want to just frame those photos that capture the cuteness of my child on a certain day, but I want to frame all the moments that make up that child.

Since the kit is on back order right now, I am keeping the photo and journals on my computer. (I will  probably do it that way anyway.) When I get a few weeks done, I will post some photos for you. But for now, here is my examples for day 1 and day 2 of January.

* Alyssa is so much like her Daddy sometimes. She created these letters by herself, and of course spelled something sweet. Thank goodness I have an empty spot on the mantle for her to showcase her work. *

* I found this pattern online and I was excited to see it in the mail. I absolutely love this dress and can’t wait to get started on one for Megan and a version of it for Audrey and maybe even Alyssa. Now for fabric.*

This year’s Christmas story was read by Papa and we tried to act it out with our little people. Each year we think of a better way to do it (like last year I glued all the garb on each person) and next year we need a board. Alyssa and Megan took their turn retelling the story and it makes my heart feel good to hear them tell what they know to be truth.

Christmas morning we did stockings and gifts, a big breakfast, Christmas lunch and all rested with the Polar Express. It has been a great Christmas and we were all sad to see Nana and Papa leave today. More Pics

My parents came up to spend Christmas with us this year. It has been fun doing a lot of the holiday activities together. Today we cut out the cookies that we have made all my life and tomorrow we will decorate them.The girls enjoyed helping Nana this year, and I enjoyed not having to do it all myself (or at all really).

We also bundled up and visited Opryland Hotel. We walked through all the decorations, begged for a boat ride and/or a carriage ride, enjoyed a close-up view of the fountain show and ended the late evening with ice cream. The fun just never ends.

Two new videos of Audrey Lynn. This was her first take at her cake on her actual birthday. She did about the same for her party, but this is the unedited experience of watching her devour the cake.

Then the progression of learning to walk. This starts when she was about 11 months old and she is still falling down at 13 months old.  But she has her own new pair of shoes and usually tries to walk when she wants to go somewhere.

We celebrated our Thanksgiving this year with the Whaley side in Austin, TX. It should have been an easy trip. Fly out Wed and fly home Sat, allowing for most of the weekend to recoup and get ready for school again. However, since Alyssa had the flu the week of and Megan awoke with an ear infection the night before the 8am flight, we had to change plans. After a little disappointment, we decided to just cancel the flight and spend the holiday at home. But with all the family getting together, we didn’t want to miss it. So we packed up the car for the 14 hour trip. I feel like we are pros at this by now, so it wasn’t too bad.

We enjoyed a few days with Ethan’s family and his grandpa, aunt, uncle and cousins. It was definitely worth it. The best part was putting the kids in bed and playing games with the family. If we weren’t playing, we were at least all sitting together playing on iPhones.

Only a few from the family missing.

Grandpa’s 80th and Audrey’s 1st.

All the Whaley cousins