White Christmas

White Christmas in Texas. Yes, really I’m not lying. It really happened. It’s only happened a couple of times in my 24 years of living in Fort Worth.

There’s something so magical about it. I mean it’s that whole Norman Rockwell thing again.

On Christmas Eve, we went to our Christmas Eve candlelight service.

 This year was a bit more challenging keeping Miss Mc Fuss-a-lot quiet during the service, but the bonus was she updated all of Justin’s phone apps in the process of her entertainment. She had a small part in the service and waved to everyone so it was hard for anyone to stay mad at that cuteness.

It’s a yearly tradition to go to my parents’ house where they make my favorite meal of the year…a homemade Mexican feast with warm tamales. Yum! I eat myself silly every Christmas Eve.

On the way home we always are on the lookout for Santa and the reindeer. Here’s a little bit of our conversation:

Me: Oh! I think I see Rudolph! I see a right light!

Campbell: I see it!

Nolan: Nope that’s just a tower.

Me: Maybe Santa hasn’t made it here yet.

Campbell: Yeah, he’s in Mexico. I see a red light!!!!

Nolan: No, that’s just another tower.

Justin: Nolan, you don’t know you can’t see that far away.

Nolan: I’m not trying to be a genius!

I belly laughed over that one. I just love love love this age for our kids and the things they say. Not so much the fighting and tantrums but they say some crazy cute stuff.

We let the kids open one present Christmas Eve and it's always new jammies. Preparing for Santa is not an easy task after such a full day but we can't the big man in the red suit down.

Cookies: check
Milk: check
reindeer food: check

 Christmas Eve brought a pretty nasty storm so we ended up with two boys in bed with us. That was fun covering up their eyes at 3 a.m. so they wouldn’t see their Christmas gifts. Presents were loved by all and my sweet niece, Madison, spent the night with us so it made it even more special.

And that’s my girl, already liking clothes at the ripe old age of 15 months.

We bundled the kids and went outside to play in the snow. Landry and I only could stand it for about 10 minutes because it was crazy cold. Poor Landry didn’t have any gloves so we resorted to socks on her hands. Hey, it’s better than nothing.

My boys on the other hands played outside til their cheeks were red and their fingers were purple from snowballs. I finally had to be the party pooper and tell them that they had to come in because I didn’t want them getting sick.

The next day we left for Kentucky. The same day that Arkansas got 12-13 inches of snow…as in a blizzard. Yeah, we drove through that.

With 3 kids.

For 16 hours.

Another memory for the books.

Cabin Fever

What do you do to pass time and survive after four long days stuck inside because of the snow ice?

You watch movies. And yes, I was well past the pediatrician recommended two hours of television viewing. Don't judge. I was in survival mode. At least I was creative enough to pitch the tent in the living room to shake things up a bit.

First hour: You play with toys. And make the biggest mess you know how to make.

Second hour: You dress up like a cowboy or wear the most rag tag outfit you can find.
 

Third hour: You sort your animals by size.



Fourth hour: You get bored with that so you make out with horses.

Fifth hour: You scrapbook because even if it's looking at them in pictures, it might be your only adult interaction for the day.

So now that you're convinced at what a slob I was! You worry about cleaning up the bomb that went off in your house another day that involves sunshine.

The only thing left to do? Get out in that snow and make the most of it. And yes it took another 30 minutes to get everyone dressed in layers but at this point, I just had to make sure that outside really existed.

And boy did outside taste.so.good



It wasn't long (about three minutes to be exact) when hands were already frozen over.



And I heard in probably the worst timing since beginning potty training, "I gotta got pee pee, Mommy."All that work for three minutes of snow play? You've gotta be kidding. Nope, he wasn't. So I ran inside and took him to the bathroom and Campbell already had enough snow time. Nolan was still playing in it when I came back but after having to strip Campbell down and throw all his clothes in the tub, he had enough of the snow too.

After a couple of my not so fine motherhood moments, I convinced Nolan that after all that work I wanted at least a couple of photos of him. I did manage to sneak a few more in before he was thoroughly over the snow.

And guess who's having another snow day today? You'd think we live in Minnesota or something!

Snow Day(s)

I knew all that bragging about how beautiful it was this weekend would catch up to me. Day 1 of snow days was a blast. We all had off, including Justin. We could hear the sleet coming all night and tapping blasting our windows with winds that could rival a soundtrack out of a horror movie.

And when we awoke, the blinds were opened and little squeals echoed throughout the house.

My appreciation for moms who live in regions of the frozen Tundra has grown ten fold. It took literally 30 minutes to get everyone dressed and we didn't even care about coordinating. Campbell especially looked like the Michelin Man almost unable to bend his arms.

Justin who is undeniably way more fun than me and a lover of all things cold, took them outside and I let him while I watched from the window unable to wipe the smile off my face. And I wasn't the only one.

Who needs sleds when you have a frozen slide?

And I'm not sure if it was all the layers, his low center of gravity, or his super bubble bottom but that boy had some serious air at the bottom of the slide.

 

There wasn't a ton of snow but that didn't stop Nolan from making a snow angel. 

Or the inevitable snowball fights that were bound to happen.

It was shortly after this that green snot was pouring out of Cam's nose and that's when I refereed from the window that play time was over for him at least.

And so my two oldest boys played some more while once again I watched them and took pictures from the comfort of my jammies.

 

Awww, I remember how fun Snow Day #1 was. Those were the days. We're now on Day #3 (possibly Day #4 tomorrow) of being cooped up and it's not nearly as fun with my husband at work. But we're making the most of it.

 
 This cartoon couldn't say it better...

Snow day: Inside and out

What a crazy 24 hours it's been. We've had about 10-11 inches of snow...yes in Texas! School was canceled on Friday and Justin stayed home to play in the winter wonderland with us. Last night our electricity went out from about 9 p.m. to 6 a.m this morning. I had Campbell in two sets of jammies and Nolan bundled up in covers.

About 5 a.m. it just got to be too cold and we brought both boys in bed with us to snuggle. I can't lie, I'm usually not a family bed type of person, but it was so much fun snuggling and sleeping all together with the beautiful snow outside. The boys went in the living room while we stayed in bed and watched the weather on tv.

Then I heard them say, "SNOW!" and they started giggling like crazy. I thought it was so cute that they were loving the snow outside so much. That quickly turned into anger when I discovered they got their hands on the Styrofoam packaging from the bookshelf we put together last night and left in the middle of the room because the lights went out. OH MY GOODNESS! They were having a real good time creating their own little snow storm right inside! This photo doesn't do justice to the insane amount of snow beads everywhere. We vacuumed multiple times today (because Campbell also got a hold of a candleholder and it broke into a million pieces) and it still keeps appearing! Gives a whole new meaning to "SNOW" day...

Winter Wonderland

Wow, I can't believe how fast those two weeks went by during break. You're going to be so sick of all my Christmas posts but I'm finally just getting to them. There was a lot that just happened in the past two weeks.

On Christmas Eve, Justin had to work in the morning so the boys and I just hung out at the house and stayed all warm and snuggly. We were so excited to see the snow...and so perfectly timed with Christmas. We got our cookies out to make for Santa and blared Christmas music on TV. Nolan noticed that every song they played seemed to be a song about it snowing...how perfect! It was like you could bottle up the happiness in the house. Nolan couldn't stop watching it out the window. I think he was amazed that snow could blow sideways!

We traditionally go to our Christmas Eve service and then head to my parents' house for a homemade Mexican dinner...tamales, enchiladas, rice, beans. I even ate a very light lunch knowing the damage I was going to do later that night. So we got everyone ready in their Christmas Eve best and were about to head out when we got a call that they canceled the Christmas Eve service. Oh well but we still were planning on going to my mom's for dinner but then decided to turn on the news to make sure how the weather was. That's when we saw there were almost 150 wrecks in DFW and it was taking people hours to get anywhere. Painstakingly we decided to skip my mom's and save that for Christmas day. Since we were leaving town the next day I really had the bare minimum groceries in the house. So I scrounge up this random meal of green beans, macaroni, and corn, and turkey hot dogs. Yummm, right? Not exactly, well maybe for a bachelor. And especially when your stomach was preparing for the tamale feast and then having to eat that instead.

So since we were all dressed with no place to go, I thought let's go outside and take some pictures. It was seriously like a blizzard. Campbell was all for it but Nolan was a little freaked that he couldn't even open his eyes. We had 2 ft. snow drifts in our yard. We stayed outside maybe 5 minutes before we had to head back inside again. Justin, being the Kentucky boy that he is, stayed outside and we watched him out the window play in the snow like a little boy. Nolan kept screaming, "Daddy, make a snowman! Make a snowman!" He was more for watching than helping.

We started a new tradition of letting the boys open one present each on Christmas Eve...pajamas. I'm sure they'll be so thrilled every year to open those up. That way everyone has new jammies Christmas morning. The cookies were made, the milk was poured for Santa, and off to bed we went.

Although it felt so weird staying home for Christmas Eve, it was so nice to have that time as a family and watch the snow come down. It just made my heart so warm. Even the hot dogs couldn't have ruined that moment.

making cookies during the day for Santa later that night...

couldn't stop watching that snow blow!
Outside during our blizzard wonderland
Campbell's thinking, "What is this white stuff?"
Don't worry we had on lots of layers
If all of the snowflakes were candy bars and milkshakes...

Opening up their Christmas Eve presents
showing off our new jammies
Wonder how long they'll let me get them matching jammies

getting ready for Santa
nice cold glass of milk for the man in the red suit