On This Day....

2 years ago today, our precious baby Mia came into the world.


How time flies!

Happy Birthday Mia! We can't believe you are two today!

Stay tuned for a Birthday Party recap!

Fun In The Mud

These are the dark days of winter. In Missouri, that is especially true. From Jan-March sunny days can be a luxury. And rain comes in abundance. Rain and cold. As a Colorado girl, this is a hard pill to swallow.

But we all buck up and make the best of it. So when all the snow melts and we have lots of rain, we get pull on our rain boots and play in the mud.

By we, I mean she.
She could play for hours. Or stand in mud puddles for hours. Just watching the muddy water pool around her feet.

What is it about mud puddles and children?

Hey I say, Whatever works!

Happy Valentine's Day

Mia with her friends at daycare on Valentine's Day
(from left: Reece, Chloe, Sylvie, and Mia)

Blizzard!

The local weatherman said that it was the strongest winter storm he had seen in the 25 years he has been forecasting weather in this area. NOAA said that the storm would "cripple" the area. It seemed as though it was the hundred year storm, and I actually got a little worried. Could we lose power? Would we be able to get out at all?

So we hunkered down, prepared as best we could and hoped for the best.

I snapped a "before" photo...
And we killed time as best we could. We baked...
Okay, I baked. Mia put water into a bowl of masa.
And the snow fell...
And fell...

Our neighbors braved the elements to try to get a head start on plowing. Because when you live in the country, our driveways are long and our roads don't get plowed.


We have the best neighbors in the world. He even plowed our driveway. We never would have made it out without him!

By nightfall, we had eleven inches.
And that was it. 11 inches and we made it through without losing power. But then I start shaking my head.
11 inches?? Really??? Are you kidding me? That is nothin'! Where I am from, 11 inches is a typical winter storm! Man, mid-westerners are wimps!
Then we tried to get out. And I recanted my remarks. We couldn't get out past the driveway! Even with the big 4X4 truck. It was just too much.

But it was certainly beautiful!

Even in the bitter cold, our cabin fever was too great not to play for a few minutes...


By afternoon, the road was just passable enough to take a short drive and check out the area.

Some places were better than others.
Check out these drifts!
Okay, it may not be Colorado blizzard standards, but it was still an impressive storm. We are glad to have made it through unscathed.

Snow Day

The last couple of weeks has had it's share of ups and downs. We were so excited to have our dear friend, Cindy (Ninny) came to stay with us. We had grand plans for her visit. Alas, a big snow storm arrived the day after she did, dumping 9 inches of snow followed by several days of dreary, gray, bitter cold weather. When finally the sun came out, we were hit with a terrible stomach bug that kept us confined to the house through the weekend.
Needless to say, we were all suffering from a major bout of cabin fever.

So when the sun came out and warmed the air, we took full advantage of some play time in the snow.


Even the dogs seemed to have lifted spirits...

And Mia, always studying, stopped to examine a pile of poop...
It was great fun. We played until the sun went down. Even then, a certain little girl didn't want to give up. And who could blame her? And, we were thrilled when Ninny decided to extend her stay by a couple of days to make up for the time she lost.

A heat wave as since melted the snow into an ugly, muddy mess, we said goodbye to Ninny, and poor miss Mia has come down with the terrible stomach bug.

I think we have had enough of Winter. Hurry up Spring!