Snowy Heart Day!

Good thing we did Landon's Valentines early this year!  And good think mama planned an entire classroom party with coordination of parent volunteers, crafts, games and food for Feb. 13th, the day of the NC "blizzard".  Oye.  Oh, well.  What are you going to do?  We will reschedule the party and the crafts will be a little out of date but I think a group of first graders really won't care too much.  :)

Landon, intently, working on his Valentines.  He wanted to make his own again this year.  I find that so heart warming and just wonderful!  He also promised all of his classmates a rainbow loom bracelet...so you know what that means to this boy mom...mommy made 16 rainbow loom bracelets.  But, Landon did sit with me, pick the colors and he worked on his cards while I worked on the bracelets.  He told me, "This is the best part of my day, mommy, I love it when it is just you and me."  Heart-melting, again.  I AM doing something right.  :)

Finished baggies, ready for delivery!

Looming in progress...

C-bug, slipping in one extra for dear old mom.  At least he put the rubber bands on himself.  :)

Let me interject here...

Between those sweet pictures and the ones that follow...we had a NC "blizzard".  I mean, we really just kind of "poo-poo" the weathermen around here.  We heard we would get snow, but really we thought, probably an inch, nothing to keep us from going into work the morning before it would "arrive".

Lesson learned.

Mommy went to work and got stuck in gridlock traffic from 1:00-5:45 when I finally arrived home to my house that is a mere seven miles from my workplace.

Thankfully, my dear friend, Tori, was with me and is from PA.  She helped me to navigate and stay calm.  We talked and caught up, we counted our blessings...one of which was that we got behind a snow plow!!!  Yay!  We talked about parking my van and a) going to a hotel, b) walking home, c) braving it.  We opted for "braving it" and were so happy to get home!!!!

These smiling faces greeted me.  And, we made snow cream.  A fitting end to a crazy day!

Yummy!  Our first time ever!

Everyone loved it!  Esp. my Lindsay Jane.  I also had wine with mine...after that drive!

Then...the next day, we set out to enjoy our NC winter wonderland!  My little cutie could not sink in the snow because we had about an inch atop our 4 inches.  Not exactly the greatest combo for a mama with two rambunctious boys and a little 17 month old.  Anyone who has this spread knows what I am talking about and suffice it to say...these pictures show joy that was certainly there...but maybe only in these captured shots!  Mama really took one for the team, esp. "team mama's back" as little Miss Cole did not enjoy the snow.  I did make every effort to let her explore and as you can see, she did have some fun apart from my hip.  :)

See!  What joy!  Maybe it only lasted a few minutes at a time, but I think those few minutes were worth it!  I love this little pink puff ball!

I put her in her playhouse and that was enjoyable as she waved to me and giggled.  :)

Connorbug tried to do a snow angel.  Again...ice atop of snow...means, a 4 year old 45 pounder cannot make a snow angel, it was more like a snow butterfly.  But, he didn't mind.

Landon loved it!

My three cuties.  I love love this!

And this.

And this!  A little craziness with baby sis.

My sweet little snow bunny.

"Selfie" with mommy.  She was genuinely happy as long as she was at least this close to mama. :)  Really hard to be upset about being loved like that!

JD and Landon exploring.

Part two!  Amazing to look outside the window, instead of the car(!) and see this winter beauty!

Hot chocolate was a definite!  Snow cream followed as we had more fresh snow!  Yay!

And, the fresh snow enabled us to build a snowman!  A little funny...our neighbor's dog jumped up and ate this snowman's nose!

Connor decided to clean off the play house roof.

Daddy got involved and made one heck of a snowball!

Happy Happy boys with their daddy.  Their hero!

My dear neighbor, Sarah, took a turn at entertaining my Lindsay Jane.  Bless her.  Those smiles on Lindsay Jane and Rachel's faces just make me smile right back!  Adorable!

Holt got in on the fun too and made the middle of our soon to be snow man!  The best part of this picture, was that Holt was really belly laughing doing this.  He was so tickled at the huge snow ball that Stan had made.  It was so fun for all.  Snow...what a delightful pleasure of nature that us North Carolinians rarely get to experience.

Putting together our big snowman!

The snowman crew!

Cole family snowman 2014.

Connorbuggie resting on my bush...

Our house with our snowman!

Superimposed snowmen.  Someone in our house took some snow pictures and didn't switch back the camera to automatic...no names mentioned.  I guess it turned out pretty cool.

Another superimposed shot...Lindsay Jane was happy in the pool inside the igloo we were trying to make.  Hard to see in this one...

Unfortunately, the best shot I have of the igloo.  It was pretty cool and reminded me a lot of our igloo from my own childhood.  Of course, I lived in VA and the snow lasted a lot longer so our igloos were a labor of love for several days, not hours... :)

Then, back to inside to celebrate Valentine's Day!  Connor colored his Ninja Turtle poster.

Lindsay Jane loved mamas "Red Velvet Crinkle Cookies", one of my Valentine treats for my little loves.  :) She even signed "more" when she finished the first one.

Landon opening his cards from Moo and B and Pop and Mommom.

Lindsay Jane checking out her new Hello Kitty doll from Pop and Mommom and stickers from Moo and B.

And, as most of you know...our little one loves strawberries.  I mean, what better treat for Valentine's Day...red velvet cookies and strawberries!

We finished off our Valentine's Day with family movie night including pizza and "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs part 2".  It was a wonderful time.  It wasn't the Valentine's night Stan and I had planned.  We had instead planned to go to dinner and then our dance studio for their Valentine's dance.  Once again, our plans changed and we were with our three littles instead.  I found myself sitting there watching my three babies, loving this place I find myself.  Don't get me wrong...snow days are hard on a mama...esp. of three little ones, 2 of which are boys, but in all of the chaos, we made some amazing memories.

I don't regret the efforts it took to get all of those clothes on, sweating while waiting to go outside, holding a baby (26 pounder) on my hip for almost 2 days straight so my boys could enjoy the snow, making snow cream for the first time (ignoring my thoughts about pollution...), tying Valentine's Day in by making a new type of cookies, showering late at night after I worked out (that was the only chance as the kids were waiting to go outside at 7 a.m.!), making lemonade out of lemons and sharing a delightful dinner with our neighbors, catching up with my dear friend Tori in our 4 hour 45 minute commute home and having a really messy house thanks to all of the above!  We even found time to finish 2 chapter books, one with each boy.  Treasures abound as we look for them.  That's what I have to remember.  Happy Snowy Heart Day!