Cardboard Tunnel

Cardboard. We use it for many things. It's a handy little product that has so many versatile uses...cereal boxes, shipping boxes, shoe boxes, cozies for my coffee...the list could be endless. But today I learned about a totally unique use of cardboard. You see, I've heard of furniture made of cardboard. I read once about a person who furnished his entire home out of furniture he made out of Macintosh computer boxes. I thought that was pretty creative, amazing...weird. However, today I got to see something that just knocked my socks off. Well, not really my socks, but we did have to take our shoes off.


We went to a local fun fair and they had a themed tunnel extravaganza made entirely out of cardboard! They took an entire gymnasium and turned it into a themed city. It was so big that they had knee pads for you to wear because all of the crawling. It had 6 different rooms that were big enough to stand in. In the rooms, there were actors who tried to convince you which route to take to continue through the maze. There were cardboard steps to higher levels and cardboard slides to lower levels. There were even secret passageways that could only be found by following the posted clues. For your comfort while making your way through, there were towers with fans at the top to circulate the air through the maze. You exited through a slide that brought you out of a lion's mouth by sliding down it's unfolding tongue.

It was literally amazing!

Building towers

Today, I learned something with the kids. While playing at our friends' house, we got to Play with some Haba Fit Together Blocks. They fit together like Lego's but instead of plastic, they are made out of wood. The colors were fun and vibrant and they were the perfect size for manipulating by little hands. Pretty exciting when one toy can be enjoyed by a 9 month old, a 21 month old, a 3 1/2 year old, and a 4 1/2 year old. Heck, I even had fun playing with them!

Great toys + great friends = a great afternoon!

Dizzy

Today, I learned that blowing up and entire package of balloons can make one quite dizzy.

Today, I learned that my 3 year old daughter's definition of a Daddy is "He takes care of us."

Today, I learned that her favorite thing to do with Daddy is "Playing with him and loving him and hugging and kissing him and cuddling with each other, too!"

Today, I learned that the baby loves balloons. We had balloons all over the house and each time he saw one, his face would light up! They would captivate him and it was hard to divert his attention away from the bright colorful orbs.


Today, I learned that cupcakes taste better than cake (at least to the girl). Why? The 3 year old declares that cupcakes are not only "yummier;" they are also "much, much cuter." The cute factor raises with the addition of sprinkles which are a total necessity in her mind!

A day filled with balloons, presents for Daddy, and cupcakes with sprinkles.



Happy Birthday, you-know-who, we love you!

Summer and Snow

Today I learned that toys intended for summer, sand, and sun make for great fun in the winter too.

A sand bucket worked great for hauling snow. It also packed the snow into great forms for making the towers for a snow castle.

A tube intended for riding on waves made for fabulous fun sliding down the hill in our back yard.

I had fun in the snow today but I was reminded by these toys that warmer weather is just around the corner!

Early Easter

I received an email from a friend today with information about why Easter is so early this year. I was aware of why the date changes from year to year but I didn't know how uncommon it is to have it as early as it is this year. Here's what it said...

• The next time Easter will be this early (March 23) will be the year 2228 (220 years from now). The last time it was this early was 1913 (so if you're 95 or older, you are the only ones that were around for that!).
• The next time it will be a day earlier, March 22, will be in the year 2285 (277 years from now). The last time it was on March 22 was 1818. So, no one alive today has or will ever see it any earlier than this year!

It seemed pretty unbelievable to me so I looked it up on snopes.com and it is true. Here's the link to the email and the explanation.

Oatmeal

While reading USA Weekend today, I learned something. There was an article titled "5 proven food remedies. Here's the five foods and what they do for your health...cranberries help urinary tract infections, oatmeal lowers cholesteral, soybeans help hot flashes, legumes cut the risk for diabetes and fish oil protects against brain damage. The fish oil fascinated me the most since we have a family history of demensia and Alzheimer's. Here are two quotes that were particularly interesting to me...

• "...omega-3 fish oil, especially in its DHA component, protects brain cells."
• "Eaters of fatty fish are less apt to get Alzheimer's."

Looks like I'll be eating a lot of salmon!

Frosty Flicks

Today we learned about a great family activity. It's called Frosty Flicks. For a reduced admissions price, the family can watch a kid friendly movie and the popcorn is included in the price! It was our kids first time to the movie theater. The older one thought it was great fun and after the baby got over the initial fascination with the big screen, he slept through the whole thing. Fun times , good price, and it doesn't conflict with toddler meal or nap times...that's my kind of event! Unfortunately, the rest of the movies for the season are all rated PG or PG13. I'm glad we got to go today. It was rated G...Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium. We really enjoyed the movie. It's one of those movies that makes you believe that magic really does exist. Hey, wait...it does, doesn't it?

Learning through a Friend

A friend of mine traveled to Israel and just returned this week. I have really enjoyed hearing her talk of the places she visited. It's one of those things that you read about, you learn in school, you hear about on TV, but you never learn about firsthand. I've learned so many things about the historical places as she has described her trip. The things I have learned are not things that you could learn from a textbook. They are things that you can only learn by listening to someone tell the account of their own personal experience. Instead of rote learning, this is experiential learning and I am learning through her experience. I've learned of places I would like to visit, others that I would like to avoid, tricks for making the sightseeing more enjoyable, and tips for how to travel internationally with little ones.
Today, I learned something that I had never heard before as I was speaking with her about the trip. The Muslim calls to prayer are broadcast over loudspeaker within the city of Jerusalem. They are loud enough to wake one from their sleep. I was fascinated when I learned this. It is something that I can't even imagine happening in my town. People would be livid about the inconvenience it would be to their daily lives. I would be curious the learn about how the community as a whole feels about this. I googled it and wasn't able to find much info but I think I will look into it deeper....my curiosity is getting the better of me.

Cherishing the Moments

Today, we said goodbye to Nana. We've been trying to explain this all week to our daughter. She knows that she is in heaven and that she will not be able to see her anymore, but she definitely doesn't understand the finality of Nana's death.

Tonight we were talking with her about it once again. Checking to see if she understands what has happened and if she has any questions. We started talking about how, in heaven, Nana doesn't need to use her walker or her oxygen anymore. She is able to walk and breath without any trouble. We explained that Nana used to love dancing and that she's probably dancing in heaven right now. Our daughter was so excited about this. Her joy over the fact that Nana is dancing in heaven was such a blessing to see. We told her that when she gets to heaven they will be able to dance together. She was so happy about this. She asked how she would get to heaven and we told her that the angels would take her there. She just wanted to know one other thing..."Could I bring Pink Doggy with me?" We told her that would probably be OK and she responded by saying, "I'll hold Pink Doggy in one hand and I'll hold the angel's hand in the other." She ended by saying, "I love Jesus SO much!" I was so happy to hear her say all this and filled with joy at her delighting in Nana's dancing. But the visual image that she created for me of the angel holding her tiny little hand and taking her to heaven with her beloved Pink Doggy clutched in her hand was more than I could take. It just created too strong of a visual image for me.

Her little lesson for me tonight was for me to not take anything for granted. Nana had a full life but a young life is just as easy to lose. I'll not focus on the fear that this thought brings me instead I'll focus on the lesson to learn from it. Love. Hug. Cherish. Kiss. Enjoy. Embrace. Those are my lessons for tonight.

Goodbye, Nana. Enjoy the dancing.

Total Lunar Eclipse

Sorry about the picture, it's the best I could get. Ok, so I've seen them before but it's still fascinating. There was (and still is) a total lunar eclipse tonight. Learn about it here. My mom called to remind me...whew, thanks Mom. I would have forgotten. The kiddos were already in bed and the best view of the eclipse was from the sliding door in our bedroom. We grabbed some pillows and a big blanket and cozied up on the floor to watch the lunar spectacle unfold. Me, my honey, comfy and cozy, with a cup of Mocha watching a lunar eclipse... a perfect date! Unexpected, spontaneous, beautiful, peaceful...just what we needed!

They teach you about space and stuff in school and it is all very fascinating but unless I see it firsthand, it's not concrete to me. So whenever I experience something that I learned about long ago, I try to look it up to see if I can jog my memory into learning what my teachers taught me so many years ago. Here's what I learned or re-learned tonight:

• We won't have another total lunar eclipse until 2010.
• The full shadow on the moon is called the umbral shadow.
• Christopher Columbus used a total lunar eclipse in 1504 to frighten natives on Jamaica into feeding his crew. They were scared of its red color.
• The depth of the reddness of the shadow is dependent on the dust and particles in the atmosphere.
• Recent volcanic eruptions can cause it to have a deeper shade of red. ( I definately didn't know that!)

That all sounds so scientific when really it was just a beautiful evening with my hubby!

Art Appreciation

Today the refrigerator was too full of artwork for the little girl's liking...



The dry-erase board was too full as well...


So, she decided that she just had to find new homes for all of her newly created art. Heaven forbid we take any down to make room for the new! She's a persistent little booger and she found ways to display her work. Art was taped to the walls...





Taped to Daddy's dresser...




Taped to the bedroom door...

More taped to the door...

Left on the coffee table...

And waiting for me at the computer...


I took all of these photos after she went to bed. Little remnants of her artistic expression are found throughout the house. I've learned so much through her artwork. She's taught me see the world as she sees it. She's taught me that there is nothing better than a blank sheet of white paper...no matter how many fancy art supplies one might have. She's taught me to look closer at the details...thus using my imagination. Most importantly, I've learned that I just love her artwork. I am accumulating so much of it. These pictures are all art from today. Multiply that by 365 days in a year and we're talking quite a collection. But, I love each piece. I love that she is so creative and loves to express herself through drawing. She is indeed my favorite artist!


Here's my favorite piece from today...



...It's titled "Daddy at a Softball Game." Yes, that's him in the lower left-hand corner. She tells me, "Look, he even has a gotee!" I am so proud of my little artist!

Graditude

Man, do I love my husband! We got so spoiled this past week. Being on vacation and spending every moment together as a family can be so wonderful. I know, I know, it would get a little old after a while. Anyways, the children just adore him. My heart just about bursts when I watch him interact with the kiddos. He is everything that I would have hoped for in a father for my children. We are so blessed to have him. Spending a week on vacation together as a family of four made me realize that fact so much more.

Well, today he went back to work. The three of us that stayed home were really out of sinc. It was like a piece of us was missing and it was. We made artwork for Daddy, told stories about him, and generally spent the day waiting for him to come home.

I never really thought much about retirement but today, I just kept thinking about it. It seems sort of backwards to me. The main years of work for the average adult are the formitable years in their children's lives. Their children's waking hours are spent away from at least one parent. They spend their children's childhood working only to retire when their children leave the home. I know that's just how it is but on a day like today, something seems backwards about that. There's not really much I can do to change that unless we want to take up residence in a cardboard box. So, for now, I'll just complain about it and fanticize about ways that I could change it so that both of us could be home all the time.

I feel so lucky that I am able to be a stay-at-home mom. People are often astonished and say things like, "Wow, you gave up teaching!" or "Well, why'd you get your master's degree is you were just gonna stay home?" or "I'd get bored if I stayed home...don't you?" I just simply don't look at it like that. I wouldn't trade these years for anything! I do have to admit though, on days like today, I do feel a little guilty. My husband would be such a great stay-at-home dad. For so many reasons, this could work for our family. But that's not how it is and I love it the way it is. That makes me feel guilty knowing that I get to stay home rather than him. Then, I remind myself that unless he can start lactating, I gotta be the one at home!

He goes to work everyday so that we can stay home. I sure am a lucky girl!

Whelp, I didn't learn much but I sure did do a lot of thinking today. I felt a deep sense of appreciation today. I am thankful for my kids, thankful for my husband, and thankful for my life. I wouldn't want it any other way! Having an attitude of gratefulness made me more patient. I didn't sweat the small stuff as much. So there's my lesson, I learned that gratitude can bring peace and contentment. I'm happy with that.

Big Backyard

My 3 year old daughter has been receiving the children's magazine Animal Baby since her first Christmas. Her godparents give her a subscription each year. This year they decided that she was old enough to move up to Big Backyard. We tried explaining the change to her at Christmas to prepare her for the new magazine but she was very upset. She burried her head in the couch and said through her tears, "This so stinks! I LOVE Animal Baby!" After more discussion, we finally understood her confusion. She has kept all the back issues of Animal Baby and she rereads them all the time. She thought that we were getting rid of all of the old issues. We explained that she could keep all the Animal Baby magazines and that she would get a new magazine for big girls. With much trepidation, she agreed.
Well, last week Big Backyard arrived. Needless to say, she loves it! We have read it cover to cover over and over again. Which, by the way, takes much longer that reading Animal Baby cover to cover!
So, what did I learn? I learned about the octopus. Did you know that the if an octopus loses one of its arms, it can grow back another? I didn't. Did you know that the female octopus hangs it eggs and guards them until they hatch? I didn't know that one either.
Wow, the things you learn from a 3 year old's magazine!

The comfort of home

Yesterday I learned that the comforts of home can breed forgetfulness. We returned from vacation yesterday. I tell you, there is nothing quite like your own bed and your own shower...mmmm! Vacation was great and we had a lot of fun but nothing beats home sweet home. As for the forgetfulness, I didn't realize that I didn't blog yesterday until I logged in to post what I learned today. Oops!

Not much can compare with the comfort I feel when I return home and get to look out my back window...

Cozy Fire

We have a fireplace at our house. We love having fires but it is so much work...the logsplitting, building the fire, going through match after match to get it to light. Then, you have to keep repeating that process to keep a good fire going. A lot of work but worth it to have a cozy fire.
Well, our hotel has a fireplace and they recommend that we use a Duralog that they provide. We used it tonight. It was amazingly easy to use! You don't even have to unwrap it. You just put the whole thing on the grate, wrapper and all, and light it. I was a little worried and wondered how well it would work. It burned for three hours after just one match was used to light it.

I was leery about how healthy it actually was and learned that it is actually more environmentally friendly. It uses 80% fewer resources than wood. 75% less carbon monoxide emissions. 90% less hazardous air pollutants emitted. Wow...we'll probably use them again!

Got Grapes?

Today we toured a winery and it was such a fascinating experience! My husband loves wine, my daughter loves grapes, my son loves watching whatever we do, and I love all three of them. So, it was a perfect thing for us to do in a snowstorm. Yes, that's right, we are not in the Sonoma valley. We are in the middle of the Midwest and they make wine here! Sure, I was thinking, they make wine but they surely don't grow the grapes here. They import them, right? Nope! There in the middle of the snowy hills are grapevines! Yes, they grow grapes for wine in the Midwest. Surely this is a known fact but I did not know it.
We loved the tour! It was really interesting. My daughter liked it the best. She was fascinated in learning about the process that grapes go through to turn into wine. She thought the bottling tanks were huge. And she loved going into the cellar filled with barrels. She even got to be a part of the wine tasting. They had a kid-sized bench for her to sit on, She got her own plastic wine glass filled with sparkling grape juice and a vineyard coloring sheet with a crate of crayons and colored pencils. She had a blast. Her favorite part was taking home a squeeze toy of a bunch of grapes.
So we had fun. I learned about wine making. I learned that there are real live winery's in the Midwest. But, I learned something else that shocked me. Cream of Tartar is a bi product of wine! Didn't know that! After the wine is taken out of the barrels, there is a residue that remains. This is Cream of Tartar. Now, I guess I better learn what Cream of Tartar is!

Gotta love toys!

Did you know...

• Mr. Potato Head worked to reform couch potatoes
  
• Captain Kangaroo helped pitch Play-Doh
  
• Word of mouth helped sell Trivial Pursuit
  
• World War I almost killed the Erector Set

Neither did I. I just read this article... very interesting! And, I learned something new.

Tenderfoot

When my husband was a child, he was a boyscout. Pretty typical American boy, eh? Well, he didn't last for long. He only made it through his first badge. Guess what that badge was called? Tenderfoot. He doesn't remember what the badge was for or how he got it. But, I learned about this badge years ago and I have teased him about it ever since. I just think that that is so funny! Hehe...tenderfoot! Today I had to tease him again. Which leads me to explaining what I learned today.
I learned that water is very dangerous for my husband's feet. For the third time in one year, he ended up with bandaged feet simply from swimming. Last winter we went to Mount Olympus water park and he cut his foot on the pool stairs while getting out of a tube. Last summer, he cut his foot on a shell while getting off of a jet ski. Today, we were at the same water park as last year, in the same section of the pool. He and our daughter came down the water slide. He tried to keep her head above water and to accomplish this, he tried to stand up before the momentum of the water slide had subsided. His foot raked across the bottom of the pool and for the third time this year, bloody foot! I couldn't believe it had happened again. We were having such fun and that definitely cut his fun short...poor hubby!

Here's one of the lifeguards patching him up...



So, what did I learn from this? I learned that water is dangerous for his feet. I learned that water shoes are a good investment. Finally, I learned that he truly deserved that boyscout badge. I am not longer joking when I call him a tenderfoot...he truly is just that!

Circus

How Cork-y

Of all the strange places to learn something new, today's place was definitely unlikely! I learned something from Bob the Builder. My three year old was watching the show on PBS. She enjoys the show but we don't watch it that often. In today's episode, they ran out of lids for some bottles. They came up with a solution and it involved harvesting cork off of some trees for making bottle stoppers. My husband and I both looked at each other with eyebrows raised and asked, "Did you know that?" Neither of us had ever even thought about where cork comes from. If I had thought about it, I would have guessed that it was make out of a shredded lightweight wood like balsa and formed into corks with some sort of rubbery adhesive. That would be my guess...that guess would be completely wrong. Bob the Builder was right. We did a google search and found out that cork comes from the bark of oak trees. It was really fascinating to learn about the regions in which the trees grow, the amount of time it takes for a tree to grow the cork, and how the cork is harvested.

We also learned about a cork byproduct....cork flooring. The bottle corks are punched out of sheets of cork and what you have left is a sheet of cork with a bunch of holes in it. This is not thrown away, it is used to make cork flooring. We are both intrigued by this. Now we want cork flooring for our home. Ah, you can aways dream!

White Out

Today I learned that driving on a rural country road in the middle of a snowstorm with whiteout conditions is terribly frightening! Thank goodness I was in the passenger's seat and not driving!

Through a Child's Eye

We gave my daughter a Little Tykes camera for Christmas. She loves it! She uses it all the time. It doesn't take the greatest quality of pictures but she has so much fun with it anyways. It holds 1000 pictures so we hadn't downloaded the pictures until today. I had a blast looking through the pictures. I felt as if I got a glimpse into the world as my daughter sees it. Her persective, her choice of shots all were like a tiny window opening up into her world.

Take a look...

Artwork on her easel

Drinks on the table

A favorite toy

Her favorite character

Her bookbag

Fire hydrant

A tree

Nature walk

Butterfly on the window/ Snow outside

The camera cord

Blocks

And my favorite, a self portrait...

It's fun to learn about the world through someone else's eyes. It's particularly grand when the perspective is that of the most important little girl in my world.

Everything tastes better with bacon

Last week, I tried making a baked potato chowder following this recipe (scroll down). It tasted great and my family really enjoyed it. It was thick, warm, hearty winter soup. The kind of soup that just warms the whole body. I only had one complaint about it...the bacon was mushy. I have big issues when it comes to the texture of my food. My husband suggested that I just hold off on putting the bacon in until the end. I'm not one for experimenting much with recipes. If it says to do it one way, I obey. I don't wander far off of the recipe path. He, on the other hand, looks at recipes for inspiration. His dish may be inspired by a recipe but the finished product is nothing like the original recipe at all. In most cases he makes it so much better. He just knows how to make ingredients work together. I don't. I am lacking in this department. I have many food disaster stories. But today, I found a recipe for bean and bacon soup here. It suggests holding off the bacon until the end. I guess I might as well try it!

So, what did I learn? I could say that I learned about a new recipe but the truth is this...I learned that I shouldn't doubt his cooking instincts. They are far better than my own!

Learning to Blog

So, I've been blogging for a little over a month. For the most part, it's been a good experience. This is a world that I am so unfamiliar with. Today, I took some time and adjusted some of the settings to make it work better for me. There are so many features that I still need to learn. Today, I took some time and learned a few.

Forget Me Not

I knew it!

This just simply proves what I already knew. Check it out here.

"Pregnancy does cause memory loss."

I knew it! I get so forgetful when I'm pregnant and it doesn't stop after giving birth. I have sworn that breastfeeding literally sucks my memory right out of me. I can't tell you how validating this article is. My dad always jokes with me and tells me that if I'm this forgetful now, he can't imagine how I'll be when I'm his age. I constanly tell him that it's from bearing children and he doubts it. So, I called him as soon as I read this...mmm, vindication is sweet! (If only I could remember it!)

Stick it to me!

Iron-on velcro...I love it! I had never used it before and tried it today. It's fabulous! I've tried to use adhesive velcro and sew-on velcro and both are a pain in the butt. I read a post on another blog a few weeks ago and was inspired to try it. It works great. You just cut it, stick it on, and iron it on the reverse side for a minute. It works like magic. I had my daughter test it and she was pretty rough with it and it did not loosen at all. We'll see how well it holds over time but my initial impression of it is that it is great stuff!

Football

Ok, I know this is dumb. I didn't know where the New England Patriots were from. Yes, I know they're from New England but that's several different states. We watched the Superbowl and I really had to figure it out. Google is my friend...it taught me that the New England Patriots are from Foxborough, Massachusetts. So, this isn't the most interesting thing I've ever learned but hey, it's something!

In other football news, we had the baby all set for the game in his Bears outfit only for him to have a poop explosion in it. We changed him into another Bears colored outfit and he was asleep for most of the game. I guess he wasn't interested. Yes, I know the Bears weren't playing but you can always hope.
Our daughter, on the other hand was very interested in the game. Since having kids, we don't watch much of the regular season or playoffs, just the Superbowl so she hasn't seen much football. She was full of questions. We even got out the old photo albums and showed her pictures of Daddy playing football in high school and college. She thought that was great. When one of the players was injured, we had to turn off the TV and pray for him. I tell you, she's got such a compassionate spirit! She loved the fact that we ate in front of the TV - a rarity at our house. By the second quarter, she was tired of sitting and got out her guitar. So we watched the Superbowl serenated by 3 year old guitar playing. Great fun!

By the way, I also learned that Blogger is having spell check trouble. My spell check hasn't worked for days and I just finally clicked the help button and found out that this is a universal problem that they are working on fixing. Sorry for any misspellings.

A Tender Heart

Today I learned a little about how much love and compassion my daughter possesses. For being only three years old, she amazes me with the tender heart that she has.

Last year, I was given a bird figurine from my secret sister at church. Kailyn adores this little bird. I allow her to play with it and use it as a "teachable moment" about being careful with fragile items. She has been so careful with this little bird. She calls it "Baby Bird." She walks around with it gently cupped in her hands. She strokes it's wings ever so carefully. Just yesterday she decided that it need needed a nest and she built a nest for it using a doll wagon and some or her blankies. She had to have the "nest" beside her bed last night so that her and Baby Bird could be together. This was after a compromise since she wanted Baby Bird in bed with her! This morning she decided that Baby Bird needed a Mommy and Daddy. We got out her bag of bird books and toys and she found two suitable soft play birds to serve as Baby Bird's parents.

Then, the unthinkable happened. While bringing Baby Bird into the kitchen to have breakfast with her, she lost hold of him. Baby Bird slipped from her hand and crashed onto the hard kitchen floor. Baby Bird lost a toe and a beak in the fall. We were all devestated! There were many tears in our house. Kailyn truly was heartbroken. After much cuddling and hugging, she went off to play without Baby Bird. A few minutes later, we heard her crying in her room. We ran to see what was wrong and she was inconsolable. When she was finally able to talk, she told us that she was sad because Baby Bird's Mommy and Daddy didn't have any baby anymore! Be still my heart! I was nearly in tears myself. She was heartbroken not because she lost the bird but that his Mommy and Daddy lost their baby! Sniff. Sniff. We rescued Baby Bird from the kitchen counter where he was awaiting Super Glue and we reuinited him with his parents. Everyone was happy once again. Whew!

Here's Baby Bird showing off his broken beak and toe...

Totally unrelated to the bird story but on the theme of my compassionate, tender-hearted daughter...I have another story. This evening, I felt yucky. My stomach hurt and I felt nauseous. I laid down on the couch for a while. My daughter brought some toys into the living room to play with on the floor in front of me. As she was playing, she looked up at me and asked, "Mommy, do you need some lovin'?" You don't have to ask me twice! I replied affirmatively and as she crawled up on the couch with me she informed me that some lovin' would make me feel better. It did. Thanks, sweety!

Snow Day!

Today I learned that I still love a snow day! I loved them as a kid and they were such a welcome treat when I was teaching but since I've been home with the kids, I've forgotten how great they are. I was supposed to work today...the one day a week that I do work. Because of the heavy snow, I called in to reschedule. I was also supposed to go to the doctor (annual woman stuff...no fun!) but I called and cancelled that too! So, it was an unscheduled day of family fun - snow day style!

First, there was the trip to Grandma and Grandpa's to borrow the snow blower...

Then, laying down to rest in the fresh fallen snow to watch Daddy...

As he blows all the snow away....

The baby and I sat on the couch...

And enjoyed the view...

I guess today is one of those days were I learned to appreciate the small things. Just looking out the windows on a day like today shows such beauty. I need to learn to appreciate the little moments of beauty that surround me each day.