Happy Valentines Day!

Snow Play

We have been having some fun outside this week since the temperature hasn't been too unbearable. There is so much snow piled by our driveway that it has become a perfect sledding "hill" for our three-year-old. She wants to do it all by herself, which sometimes makes me crazy because I want to help her. She spends an enormous amount of time getting ready to go for 2 seconds of fun.

She collapsed at dinner time on the couch snuggled up to her stick horse of all things.

Then yesterday, we discovered another "hill" at grandma's house. She and Abbie went down a couple of times together, although it was a little tough getting both of them on the same sled. I can't believe they are getting so big.

I know the pictures are a little blurry, but you can see she had fun.

Random Acts of Cuteness

We have been including Halle during our scripture reading time now, and she has come to love this time with us even though she can't understand most of what we are reading. We do it right before she goes to bed, and some days she will have our books placed out on the sofa by 3:00 in the afternoon.

She always asks where we are at, and then flips to a random place in her book as if she knows exactly the right page.

We have also started to get icicles on our house (does this mean spring is coming?), so Neal brought one in for her to hold. She held it up like it was her sword, and then suddenly realized it was very cold.

And here we have our little animal-lover sharing hugs with her horse, Stripes. I think the yellow galoshes are a nice touch and make her look like a true rider.

More Snow and Help for Dinner

We got more snow the other day, so Halle and I went out to shovel the driveway. Then our angel neighbor came by with her snow blower and helped us out. Thank heavens because my other helper wasn't very much help. In fact, she told Neal when he got home, "I don't know why I can't get the snow into the piles." There you have it. Pure honesty.

We also like to get her picture in front of the mailbox as sort of a mile marker in the winter. When we moved in last winter, our mailbox was just a hole in the snow bank for several weeks. Fortunately, we have not broken that record this year. She was pretty excited when she found out she was "tall" enough to check the mail now though. I sense a bit of disappointment ahead after the snow melts.

And after a long hard days work, it's always nice to have someone offer to cook dinner for you. Halle took it upon herself tonight to get things going. By the time I found her, we were having all sorts of condiments with a tomato and some cheese.

She was so excited to start creating something wonderful, but I had to let her taste the Worcestershire sauce and lemon juice. She wouldn't let me put them away until she determined for herself that we did not in fact want those for dinner.

Our visitors from Arizona

Jolene (my sister) and Kimball came to visit us for the last couple of weeks from Arizona, and we were so happy to have them visit. Kimball had to go back early, but Jolene and Katie stayed an extra week.

Here is a play day we had at Angie's house with all the cousins (Halle, Abbie, Nick, and Katie). Halle is wearing a dress that Angie actually used to wear as a kid- minus the pom pom hair, at least for church :-).

Katie and Nick were also very fascinated by the pom poms, although it looks like Katie may be more interested in learning Karate instead of cheerleading.

Jolene is always such a good story reader. The kids always love to have story time with her. Maybe it's because she's had so much practice as a teacher, but I think it was a talent she was born with.

As you can see, Halle was very into the story and surprised by whatever was coming up.

We had another snow storm while they were here so Papa took the girls out for a sledding ride.

And this is just how cute Katie is. She is wearing a hat that Halle used to wear.

I have to admit we are fair-weather fans. The whole time we lived in Arizona, they were terrible. We did go to one game and it was very depressing. But somehow they made it to the Super Bowl this year which is truly a miracle. They kept saying if they had their own stadium (and didn't have to share with ASU) they would be a better team. I am still not convinced that was the reason, but we will cheer for them anyway.

A Shredding Party

I cleaned out a bunch of old files recently that needed to be shredded, so Halle and I had a shredding party. She was a big helper handing me all the papers. We had it all compacted into one garbage bag and I was ready to tie it up and take it out when the phone rang. In the time that it took me to answer the phone, she had it all out and was rolling in it. I couldn't resist her pure delight, so I just let it happen.

Peek-a-Boo with Samantha