Dear Winter,

It has been nice to see you so much this year! You have provided lots of fun opportunities to play in the snow along with lots of piles of wet dirty snow clothes. You have left the backyard wet, muddy and swampy. Please don't take this the wrong way, you are beautiful! The snow days and excuses to stay home have been lovely. The dance parties to get the wiggles out because it was too cold to go outside were fun. However, don't you think maybe it is time to move on? You could leave slowly, let it warm up just a little, I won't mind. My girls' jeans are getting holes in the knees from so much wear, I just think it is time to let Spring move in. We need some weather for capri's and skirts, I just don't want to spend any money on jeans right now. You understand right? I know you will return, you always do and we will look forward to seeing you again. Thank you taking time from your busy schedule of dropping more snow and ice to read this plea from just one mom who is ready to send her children outside to play!

Sincerely,

So Over Winter

I Love Bread!

I found this recipe on one of the blogs I follow... it is for Buttermilk Refrigerator Rolls. I have never attempted homemade bread, from scratch. I am a little scared of it. I love to eat it though! I decided to attempt this recipe, though mostly because it calls for buttermilk and I just happened to have a quart of buttermilk I needed to use up that I had purchased for another recipe. The beauty of this recipe is that you can mix it up and stick it in the fridge and pull it out and make rolls whenever you want to! (The dough will keep for a week).

You must give it a try... I tested it out on the fam last night and they were a huge hit! I think Barry was mostly shocked because I had made homemade rolls:) Enjoy!!

My Heart Belongs To....

... My Girls!!

Love you too Molls!!!!

Gracie, Molly and Sydney after a day filled with Valentine parties and LOTS of candy!!

Happy Valentines Day to YOU!!

A Little Bit of January... A little Bit of Barry...

Here are just few pictures from our January, it has been a cold, snowy month!

Barry and Gracie getting ready to go to Dad night at preschool.

Sydney getting a haircut from Dad! They think it is great that Barry cuts their hair:)

Gracie's turn...

Barry and Willow... watching t.v.??? That dog cracks me up and the love she has for Barry is almost insulting to the rest of the family:) Ha! Ha!

Christmas Time

I know it is the middle of January but I thought I would post this one picture from our Christmas season and I think it best captures our holidays. We spent lots of great time with family and friends and the girls had a fabulous Christmas morning seeing all the snow and opening presents. I could post way too many pictures so I thought I would do this one... it is the best!

Happy New Year Blogging!!!

Christmas Fun

Barry and I have been searching out a local Christmas Tree farm we can go cut down our own tree since the first year we were married. It is always a fun way to get our tree each year. This year we went to a really great Christmas Tree farm in Holt, MO. It was a drive but it wasn't really about finding a good deal it was about making great memories, although the tree was less expensive here than at the tree farm just down the street from our house that we got our tree from last year.

Barry and the girls with Santa at the tree farm.

On the hayride out to the field to find our perfect Christmas tree.

The girls and I in front of our tree!

Barry and the girls... before cutting it down!

A fun picture:)

My sweet girls in their Christmas dresses in front of our Christmas tree.

Christmas Craftiness

I got these ideas from the recent Family Fun magazine! I love this magazine and there are always fun things I would love to do but never have enough time to do them. This year I decided these fun crafts were easy and the girls would really enjoy them!

This is our Christmas Card Tree. Gracie and Molly got to help paint it and then we get to look forward to putting our Christmas cards that we receive in the mail on our tree and enjoy them a lot more than in a stack on the counter!

I also found this really cute idea for an advent calendar. It was easy and I already had the supplies that makes it better too! The girls get to open a door each day and see what is behind it. The "rewards" range from: choose your favorite dinner, give Willow a bath, Family Fun movie night, doing something nice for your sister, plan a play date... to drawing a picture for a grandparent, visiting an elderly person from church or inviting a family over for Sunday dinner....

I was trying to incoorporate fun things as well as things that involve them doing something for others besides themselves!

So far they have really enjoyed it! We all get to reap the rewards too!