Family Photo Shoot

We were a little behind the curve in getting some family photos taken around the holidays so just before all this white stuff showed up, we did manage to have this one gorgeous day and we had a great lady take our family photos.

For the record...

for my 33rd Birthday, I envisioned a quiet, normal day. Wednesdays, my older 2 are at school so things are a bit calmer here. Especially when Matthew takes a nap.

I imagined even getting some scrapbooking done, and doing minimal housework or "chores" since after all it WAS my birthday.

Then that night (while Stephen was away at church youth group) I'd arranged to secretly have a friend come over and "help" me make Stephen some pajama pants for Valentines Day as a surprise. The surprise is the fact that I don't really know how to sew, but I'm trying to learn.

So I wasn't the happiest camper when SNOW, SNOW, SNOW canceled school and turned my birthday into an all-day "mommy do for me" day. I felt like an activity director on a cruise line! When my kids are home ALL DAY LONG it's a long day of work for me. I LOVE my kids, I do, but can I have a do-over?

And then, because of the weather, I had to cancel my evening activities as well and had to give Stephen an IOU for valentines day instead of the real completed item. He understood. But I'm still going to complain about it.

Ice ice baby!

This is Texas, I just want you all to remember that.

So the first week of February shocked Dallas with an ice storm like we haven't seen in YEARS! It sleeted, not snowed, about 2 inches worth and then stayed below freezing for 4 days! Yup, school was canceled from Tuesday-Friday and it was COLD!

What is also noteworthy about this was the fact that it was the first ever time for Dallas to host the Super Bowl and it wreaked havoc on all the plans and all the potential touristy activities planned for our area. And the storm and it's impact on the Super Bowl is what dominated news coverage by far.

We were thankful not to be part of any rolling blackouts that had to happen because our local power plants were not used to generating so much electricity (REALLY? in a place like Texas where it gets incredibly HOT in the summer and people crank their A/C--we can't handle a few days of cold?)

I was grateful for the counsel of prophets who tell us to prepare with having food in the house, we had plenty to eat and ate well. A hot breakfast each morning, lots of hot cocoa, and when you've got full tummies, then most other things seem not as bad.

I had to get creative with the indoor activities. Because this was ice and not snow, there was nothing to play around in outside and what's more it wasn't safe to play outside--way too slippery. So we watched movies, built a few blanket tents, the girls had their toe nails done, we read books, and got a few projects done we've been needing to get done.

Stephen made it carefully into work and home each day except for Friday. It had actually snowed Thursday night (a lot more than expected--like 5-6 inches) and so he stayed home on Friday to play with the kids in the snow and help me get them some exercise. (note the above picture--all bundled up and ready for exploring!) We were all a bit stir crazy, especially Sam--4 year old boys have a lot of energy.