Snow!

This year we only had one good snow storm. We watched the news like a hawk and anxiously awaited the projected 2-3 feet of snow.

George was supposed to work the whole weekend it was going to snow, so when it started falling, he packed up for the weekend and drove to Culpeper. The hospital put him up in a hotel so he wouldn't have to make the hour trek back and forth between shifts. 

The kids saw the first flurries and insisted on playing in the "snow".

It's coming down!

We went to bed that night with about 6 inches on the ground and woke up to about 18!

Around 7:30 a.m. I got a text from a friend to look out my window. I took a peek and saw this:

This is the view from our front yard. Apparently one of the neighbors had tried to drive in the snow and their engine caught on fire!!

(picture one of the neighbors took of the fire)

It was crazy! The burned out car sat in the intersection for three days before the tow truck could make it in to remove it.

Lance thought the snow on the trampoline was great! We ended up clearing it off later that day since the snow was so heavy the tramp was sagging about two feet.

All bundled up and ready to play!

I probably cleared the drive way three times over the course of the falling snow. Lance and Jude turned the drifts into tiny igloos.

Bender was having a blast in the snow, especially when the neighbor's dog came over to play.

The kids lasts a long time out in the snow. The best part? They were pooped afterwards!

The next day it had warmed up quite a bit, although it wasn't making much of a dent in the snow. Apparently Lance decided a shirt and jacket was optional and spent most of his time playing in the snow like this:

Lily discovered eating snow and spent most of the day sampling the various drifts and mounds.

Not to be left behind, Jude discarded his shirt as well. 

Jude, Cole, and Lily spent a while sledding down our driveway as I continued to try and clear it of the snow. 

I love snow, it's so delicious!

The plows had finally come by, but plowed one line straight up our cul-de-sac, leaving a huge mount of icy snow right in front of our driveway. Lance and I worked together to clear another driveway's worth of snow away so George could make it into the driveway when he finally got to come home.

(See that dark blob on the right of the driveway? That's Jude at the end of our driveway. I'm taking the picture from the plowed strip that we had to clear to in order for George to pull in. You can't really tell, but it was at least another 30 feet. That's a lot when the snow is 18 inches deep and there's ice!)

Boys pretending to be pregnant with balloons. :)

Daddy finally made it home!

(And after all that effort to clear the extra snow, the plows came through again and finished the job. I should have just waited another 12 hours. Oh well.)

Daddy is the best!

The kids didn't have school for the first three days of that week. It was great to have them home! I also got a lot of work done for Jude's Birthday party!

Lily "helping" make the goodie bags.

With George home, we finally got to walk down to the park and go sledding (something I wasn't about to attempt all by myself). It was great!

This was Jude's face the entire time:

Like a boss...

Cole and Lily mostly hung out on the swings.

Bender had fun searching for his ball in all the snow.

Lily thought sledding was fun!

I have to admit by the time the weekend rolled around, I was done with the snow. It was fun while it lasted, but I'm ready for warmer weather!

Happy 2nd Birthday, Lily!

I can't believe little Lily is 2 already. January 11th we took the kids out to celebrate. Lily said she wanted "macaroni cheese" for her special dinner, so we went to Red Robin.

They even brought her an ice cream sundae!

She was nice and shared with all of us.

Later that week, we drove up to Northern Virginia so we could have a little party with our families.

Amy as always was happy to help me make her cake. She is amazing!

Lily said she wanted a My Little Pony cake, so I poked around the internet for some ideas and finally settled on this cute cake that seemed doable. It took about three times longer than I had anticipated, but in the end, it turned out really cute.

Getting the details right...

Jude got a special surprise from Aunt Amy too! She got him this enormous chocolate coin as a late Birthday present. Guess who was the happiest kid?

Finished!

If you ever need to get M&M's in certain colors and don't have time to order them, Wegmans carries a store-brand variety in the bulk candy section of all sorts of colors. It was a lifesaver!

Party time! Lily was excited and had a hard time keeping her hands off the cake.

This little girl loves all things girly. Pink, purple, ponies, puppies, shoes, bows, dresses...

Waiting for the rest of the family to get here...

Still waiting...

Almost time!

Grandma!

George's mom went above and beyond and had a ton of delicious food for everyone. She is wonderful! (Of course, the kids all thought the extra M&M's were the best.)

It's time!!

Happy Birthday, Lily!!

Grandpa and Pop Pop

Lucky girl to get to celebrate with so many family members!

2 years old!

To top it off, later that night we had one of my favorite dinner ever: hot pot!

A few Lily updates:

She is tiny! At her 2-year check up, she's 2nd percentile for height and 7th for weight!! Totally different than her brothers who are consistently above the 50% mark for both height and weight. People are always amazed that this tiny person can talk so well, until we tell them she really is old enough, she's just teeny.

Even though she loves all things girly, she is very much a tom-boy, too. She climbs trees, digs in dirt, jumps on our trampoline, and can hold her own against any kid. Anything her brothers do, she's right there doing it with them.

She LOVES bugs! This girl is seriously in love with bugs. She thinks they're "cute" and wants to hold every single one she sees. (I made the mistake last fall of letting her hold an assassin bug, thinking it was a harmless beetle. Luckily, she must be a bug-whisperer because it didn't bite her, just sat on her fingers until I got too nervous and shoo-d it away.) Her favorite bugs are the proliferous stink bugs that show up in our house every day.

She is a firecracker! This little peanut is full of spit, fire, and grit. She's not afraid to fight for what she wants. She also has a hard time telling people she's "sorry". I'm not sure why all my kids have gone through this stage, but they all have. Lily will tell you your hair is pretty, she likes your shirt, or that you look nice, all in an attempt to not say the dreaded words "I'm sorry". 

Lily loves to read books. I keep several books in her crib and in the morning I'll come in to see her flipping through the pages looking at pictures or reciting the words she knows from rereading them again and again.

She loves to color and will sit at the table with Cole for an hour at a time just coloring. Her favorite things she asks me to draw for her? Her name and an egg. Yep, an egg. Not sure what her obsession is, but it's a favorite. She and Cole also love to play with play doh and I'm constantly having to restock their supply.

She talks. A lot. George and I are convinced that her ability to communicate rivals that of Cole's. She can carry on full, coherent conversations. I'm constantly amazed at what comes out of her mouth.

She's the only one of our kids that will willingly eat most vegetables and fruit. She LOVES tomatoes and we've successfully gotten her to eat almost every vegetable we've put in front of her.

Her favorite things to watch on TV are Wild Kratts, Phineas and Ferb, and anything Jude thinks is neat. She also likes Mary Poppins and we will sometimes catch her singing "Let's go fly a kite", and "Chim chim cher-ee".

Lily is such a little mommy, especially to Cole. If she's getting fruit snacks, Cole needs one too! If she has a piece of candy, she picks a special one out for Cole, usually blue if it's available because she knows that's his favorite color.

Cole and Lily have a special relationship. It's probably because they're together all day, every day now that Jude is in school. They play really well together and tend to enjoy the same things--Lily likes trying to play trains with Cole, and he'll sit and play with the doll house and the kitchen with Lily. It's really cute to see them play and laugh together.

She is a mommy's girl. I'm convinced that will change in the near future as she discovers how much fun Daddy is, but until then, only mommy will do.

Lily, we love you with all our hearts and can't imagine our lives without you! You bring such light and fun into our home! Thank you for being ours!