Bring on the snow storms! January!

So even though I feel like we did nothing for the month of January, we actually had lots of fun "firsts". A huge one for us - Solana is a Sunbeam in Primary!! She was pretty nervous at first, but she was excited to go into Primary with all the big kids, and now she is an old pro, she doesn't even like me to walk her in, she says "no mommy, you stay here, I will go in by myself" yeah her independence still surprises me, even though she is my daughter…

And we had 2 big snow storms back-to-back!! I think we just froze for the whole month of January. Our part of Virginia rarely gets snow, maybe some light dusting once a year, but this year we got lots (and I think we have one more tomorrow) so lots of snowmen have been built and Solana and Adam are loving it, while Boston and I stay nice and warm inside. 

First day of Sunbeams. Love my sunshine girl. 

Let the snow begin….

Boston only remained happy in the snow for about 5 minutes, then he got over it real quick.

And this one could stay in the snow and eat it all day long.

They each built a mini snowman.  This was Adam's, named Olaf, after the snowman on Frozen.

Solana was really proud of her snowman, Ally, a foot or two in front of Olav.

In between the two snowstorms, Boston tried spaghetti for the first time and loved it. Everyone loves a good spaghetti-covered baby.

Oh look its snowing again….this time was much worse.  Love our quiet little neighborhood when it is covered in snow.

Happy….

2 minutes later…..

Poor Boston, and who buttoned his coat wrong?  Oh wait that was me….

Boston was the happiest watching from inside. Apparently snowman building is hilarious!  Every time Adam would toss some more snow on the pile and pat it down, Boston would just crack up so loud that Adam could hear it outside.  I don't know what was so funny about it, but Boston could've laughed at snowman building all day.

Solana wanted a snowman as big as her. Well this is the best they got with our powder.  Maybe they are close to the same size in volume, just spread out a little differently.

Meet Henrietta, she is a vegetarian snow women :)  Blackberries for her eyes, carrot nose, cilantro stem for the smile, and cucumbers for the buttons, and celery for her arms.  What a doll she is….  (Funny story about Henrietta - she started out being built as Henry, but we really only had little girl accessories, so she became a girl snow lady.  Adam said she was a sister missionary.  Haha, I have no idea why he thought about it.  (Maybe it is because she is a bundled up, a little chubby, and very sweet looking.)

January phone highlights

January kicked off with the last leg of our trip.  It's so hard to say goodbye to my family because I never know when I will see them next.  Living on opposite coasts has lots of disadvantages.  But the good news is that we are soon moving to a place that is much more popular to visit. So hopefully its easier to see everyone.  

January was very mellow, and I'm so grateful it was. It felt like we needed a month to recover from traveling (and getting sick when we got home) and from the holidays. It was also full of snow storms and lots of cancelled school.  So we basically vegged all month long and took it easy, and it was awesome! 

Bringing in the New Year low key...

I miss my beautiful sisters!

Piper getting cuddly before she leaves. Adorable!

Lovely view from the hotel room. 

Gigi was so great to take care of little Bostie so much (even on her birthday) and especially because he was not the happiest of travelers - he was pretty much the crankiest of travelers.  That kid is a serious home-body. 

Hanging out late in the San Diego airport. We all got a little loopy, but Solana wins the prize. She was bored and getting creative, making a bed on top of the suitcase for her pooh bear and wearing the laptop cover on her head.  The things you'll come up with when your flight is delayed until 1:30am.  Oh we love our silly Solana :)

I told her to go get ready for school and she rolls in looking like this. The apple does not fall far from the Adam tree. A Spurs shirt and a Debevoise water bottle in hand. Haha

She is very proud of her giant tower at the library. And so was I!  (She LOVES building stuff!  She is like a little architect.  At home this week, she was building arches and bridges out of blocks.)

Yep, we finally did it, we took our kids to the movies! We saw Frozen and it was a huge success!

Boston was surprisingly good. He watched for a little bit without a peep, then dozed off for the rest of the movie. Solana only got antsy at the end, but she loved it. 

Frozen yogurt, after seeing Frozen, seemed applicable. 

Movie buddies.  Boston LOVES being up on Daddy's shoulders!

Let the snow begin. We ran outside late at night when it started to snow. It reminded us of living in Utah. 

Snow is on the way, we bundled and waited.  January was surprisingly cold and extra snowy - Thanks Polar Vortex for a Frozen January!

December Phoney Pics

With how busy it was this season, I am surprised I captured as many moments as I did on my phone. But yay for more photos. Here are the highlights:

This is her puppy house…in case you were wondering. 

My little mama's boy (whether I like it all of the time or not...)

At first glance you might think this is an injury, but then at second glance  you can see the shimmery makeup, and her beautiful face beaming with happiness that she put on mommy's makeup all by herself!  oh man…it took a while to get this off.

Getting all ready for Uncle Hunter's wedding.

Traders Joe's is already our favorite place in all of Williamsburg. The fact that they got mini-shopping carts put them beyond our favorite, just when I thought my love scale couldn't get any higher...

Finally on Christmas Eve we made our beloved gingerbread boys.  I had never made them, and didn't realize what an undertaking it was. So we spent most of the afternoon doing this. But we had so much fun, and Solana is such a great baker!

Driving "home" from delivering cookies.  Adam would say "Okay, let me steer to park," then Solana would argue and say "I know how to do it!" We are in trouble when she actually learns to drive! 

Getting their Christmas Day snuggles on. 

Taking Solana to see where we got married. She loved it! And when we went to leave she said "Wait we didn't go inside to get married!" (We'll just be honest, little Boston was sleeping in the car.  Crazy red eye the night before, so we let him sleep!)

Solana took this great photo of us on the steps.  Nice photo skills, our little 3 year old!  So much better than a selfie...

Shoving her face with cupcakes at Hunter and Emily's reception. 

So serious in his suit.

Some day they will be great friends.  Little Parker is too cute for words!

Best friends since the 5 grade, Katie and I go way back…

It was so much fun catching up, the kids on the other hand didn't have as much fun, but Katie and I are smiling and thats what counts!  (The kids were so wiggly and hyper!  This was seriously the best photo we could get!)

Putting this little crazy monster to bed is always fun. When she gets tired, she either gets sassy or super silly. It was one of those crazy silly nights where we laugh a lot. 

Time to bring on the New Year!