Family Fun

I am loving that the boys are at the age to be able to do things pretty independently.

Growing up, I remember DREADING getting my younger siblings ready to go play in the snow....and truthfully, I sometimes DREAD getting my own kids geared up to play long enough to make the 'outing' worth it....

I should have never doubted that no matter HOW long we're outside in the snow playing as a family, it WILL BE FUN!!!

This particular day was only 6 degrees...before getting out of the car at Community Park, I matter-of-fact-ly declared that we would be staying for a minimum of 30 minutes, or we'd NEVER come again!  (must have been one of *those* days)

Over an hour later, and we (yes, I went down the hill a few times, too!!!) had to DRAG the kids off the sledding hill because it was getting dark and I was hungry and probably the coldest.  We had so much fun!

Trying to hit the ice jump at the bottom (not me, of course!), racing, and seeing who could sled the farthest.

Never underestimate three little boys sledding with their daddy on a hill that everybody else gave up on because of the cold weather.  By far, a most successful family outing, making wonderful memories.

Party Time!

Because we like to play with our friends, and we have three birthdays in December, we decided to let Taylor invite some friends to come sledding in celebration of him turning three.  BEST birthday party idea, EVER!  I didn't have to worry about how many people couldn't fit in our apartment...

He throughly enjoyed handing these donut cutouts to his little friends, and they were super easy to make.  The hardest part was the wording!  

And for the record, we. had. a. blast!!!

Despite the fact that it was faaaaReezing!  Tanner was a sledding maniac, and Taylor and I doubled up every time...  Kortlen stayed warm and snug at my friend's house... and Ryan had to work (so sad, considering we actually did this on HIS birthday, not Taylor's.)

We had donuts and hot chocolate (that I burned!) but it was piping hot...at least Sara and I enjoyed it.  :)  I think next time I'll just do cookies...less sticky, and not so big.  

The best part was not having to deal with gifts.  I hope that the guests liked that part, too.  It meant that I didn't have to worry about wrapping paper, jealousy between brothers, or broken toys in two months.  Heaven!  

I am pretty sure we'll be doing a birthday party like this every year...but probably combining BOTH boys' birthdays.  

Fridgidly Cold

***if you're reading this in google reader, you really should actually go to our blog so you can see the adorable picture of our boys in the header.  :)   Just Sayin. 

The last three days have been a whirlwind of "Storm Watches", "Blizzard Warnings", and "Wind Chill Alerts".  With that came a good foot of snow, and below 0 temperatures.

I've been on edge, waiting for a break in the storm to get out of town.  If I had known it was going to be as bad as it was, I would have left town on Saturday!

This morning we woke up to our windows looking like this:

...both bedrooms and the kitchen have ice-encrusted windows.  Nothing new for us.  At this moment, it's only 5 degrees Farenheit.  Again, nothing new for us, just FRIDGIDLY COLD!

Now it's off to packing the car (if i can open the frozen doors without breaking off the handles) and making a lunch...I think our normally 2 hour drive will end up being more like 3 or 4 hours.