Let it Snow!

Grandma Susie celebrated her birthday on Sunday and had lots of little helpers to blow out her candles. Garrett was so excited for her birthday to come because he knows his birthday is soon to follow. He told her as he walked in the door for her party, "Grandma, as soon as your birthday party is over, we can have mine." So tactful!


The highlight of the party was this snake toy Brooklyn and Karen picked up at the dollar store.

Abby's latest love in life is to play doctor with Grandpa. This is somewhat puzzling because you may remember that Abby isn't exactly fond of the doctor's office or hospital. If only all doctors had bright stethoscopes, handed out licorice, and were as good as Grandpa Sparky, huh? Abby would be set!

We finally got some snow worth playing in! HOORAY! (We were just a few days away from busting out the flip-flops, but we'll take the snow now and enjoy it while it lasts.) The kids wanted "giant snowballs" for lunch. (FYI: I normally don't dress my daughter in tank-tops in the middle of a snowstorm. She had a jacket on and took it off because it was interfering with her Princess costume.)

I swear it takes a good hour just to get the kids bundled up in their "Ralphie" suits so they can play outside. I spent at least 10 minutes just getting Abby's thumbs in the right spot of her blasted gloves, only to have her yank them off after we got outside. GRRRR!

Garrett was on a serious mission and could not bring himself to look at me or the camera..

Finally, I tried the old, "Garrett, whatever you do, don't look at the camera and don't smile" trick. TA-DA! Works every time.

We went for a pitiful ride on this old sled I found in the shed. I'm pretty sure we got this thing for Christmas when I was a youngster, so you can imagine how awesome it was. Garrett was looking everywhere for a 4-wheeler to pull the sled because I just wasn't cutting it. Finally, he got off and decided to show Abby how it's really done.

We had to cut that short when he tried to pull her up the stairs.

Then it was time for a snowball fight! Garrett laughed until he could hardly breathe and would probably still be outside chucking snowballs if I hadn't made him come in.

It was National Pancake Day and IHOP was giving away free pancakes, so we quickly changed out of our snow clothes and met Em and the gals for a short stack. Miss Cache Valley was helping raise money for Primary Children's Medical Center and the girls were thrilled to get their picture taken with a real princess.