At the Park

Friday (when it was 80 degrees), we met one of Hannah's preschool friends at the park for a playdate. Olive and I hung out a lot while they were playing.  My baby is such a big girl now!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Brooke's Baby Shower

It was an eventful weekend- going to an auction party for my school, celebrating Emily's birthday, and co-hosting Brooke's baby shower.  I still can't believe she is going to be a mom in a month!  I know so many pregnant girls right now.  There will be lots of babies to cuddle this spring and summer!

My best high school friends: Brooke and Tamra
 

Here are our guesses for the sex of the baby.  I can't wait to find out!
 

Snowmageddon 2013

The snow has finally melted, but I just found these snomageddon pictures on my camera.  This was the view out our front door after the second snowstorm.  The first one was 11 inches but nothing stuck to trees.  The second storm left 10 inches and about 20,000 people lost power.  Luckily, we have buried power lines so we never have to worry about that.  We took in the Baileys for a day when one of their trees uprooted and fell across their power lines and the road.  I think the girls wore Dan out!

 

 

 

Hannah Quotes

I'm still not a boy even though I'm wearing a t-shirt.

I try to go to sleep, but my body says, "Hannah, Hannah wake up!"

We have the same cup!  Except they are different colors.  And different cups.

Olive: Fi!  Fi!
me:  Fit?  (She just got in trouble for throwing a fit a few minutes earlier)
Hannah:  No, Mama.  She said fish.
me:  Fish?
Hannah:  Yeah.  You know, like a bear ate a pink FISH.

Hannah: I had a bad dream, but then I sleeped and sleeped and sleeped and it went away.
me:  That's good.  Bad dreams can be scary, but you are safe at home and Mama and Dada are close by.
Hannah:  Yeah.  And there aren't dinosaurs anymore.  They are extinct.  And witches are extinct.  And all bad things are extinct now.

Hannah:  Do you know what I love better than Union Station or Fritz's?
me:  What?
Hannah:  My mama!

iPad

Everyone's favorite toy: the iPad.  I have to wait until the girls go to bed to use it or else I get swarmed and Olive yells "i-pa, i-pa, Elmo, i-pa!"  But they each get some time with the iPad on the weekends....and snow days!  It's a good lesson in sharing. :)

Sledding and Snowman

More snow fun!  The girls went sledding for the first time over the weekend.  Hannah loved it!  It was a pretty big hill and she went down on a sled by herself.  That girl has been fearless ever since she learned to walk. 

On the other hand, Olive needed some major convincing.  She even tried to kick off her boots when we said we were going outside.  Once she was outside, it wasn't so bad.  She went down the hill a couple of times until she said no more. 

 

So we picked out a sunny spot at the bottom of the hill and watched everyone go by.  It was still a good time.

 

 

 And back at home...
Hannah:  Look, Mama.  I'm decorating it with pretties.
me: Yeah.  It's a nice belt.
Hannah:  It's a necklace but I can't reach up there.

We're ready for more snow tonight!  Someone wants to go sledding again.

Snow Day!

We got about a foot of snow (first big snowfall since 1993), which meant no school on Thursday or Friday.  Thundersnow is awesome! The girls ate regular snow, mixed snow with food coloring, and we made our first snow ice cream!  It was vanilla ice cream with chocolate syrup, caramel syrup, and sprinkles.  This was probably Olive's favorite thing about the snow.  She had two bowls. 
 

Even though it was blowing snow, Hannah couldn't wait to get outside.  Both girls started putting on their snow gear by themselves.
 

Once we were outside Olive just wanted to be carried.  I did convince her to get down once to play on the porch.  Notice the snow is almost up to the seats of our chairs.

Hannah is a snow bunny and loved every second of it.
 

 

 

After naps I had the idea to open up the garage door so that Olive could play in the snow without walking in it.  She liked that better.  Although she still got mad when Hannah went out and played in it.  She thinks they both need to be doing the same thing and since she wanted to be inside, Hannah should, too.  There was a lot of, "Hannah, NO!  Hannah, IN!"

The drift by our front door was up to Hannah's waist in this picture.  By the end of the day it was up to my waist.
 

Arkansas

For Valentine's Weekend, Steve arranged for Grandma and Grandpa to babysit the girls and we took a road trip to Arkansas.  It reminded me of our college days driving around south Missouri and stopping at random things.  The trip was a good mix of both of us- art galleries and museums for me, being outside and hiking for Steve.  

We drove to Eureka Springs Friday night. I think it's always fun to discover a new place.  It was a quaint little town- lots of narrow streets (with no parking!), old buildings, little shops and galleries, and lots of natural springs.  We ate lunch on the balcony of the big building on the left with the green awning.

 

 

a natural spring in the side of the hill
 

We also stopped by the largest Jesus statue in North America- Christ of the Ozarks.  Quote from Steve: "His hair looks like hands."  I'm sure that is deep somehow.

 

 

 We stayed in Fayetteville Saturday night and then drove on to Devil's Den State Park.  I'm just realizing the humor of this as I type it. :)  It was actually a pretty nice day for February- almost 60 degrees.  We did two different hiking trails that took most the of day.
 

 

 

On our way back on Sunday I made Steve stop in Bentonville to see the Crystal Bridges Museum.  It displays American art from colonial times to the present.  The architecture and landscape is amazing...and it's free!  I think it would be especially beautiful in the spring.

 

They have a Roxy Paine "dendroid" sculpture like we do at the Nelson-Atkins in Kansas City.
 

A trip to Bentonville wouldn't be complete without seeing the very first Wal-Mart (before it was Wal-Mart). 

 

Chinese New Year

Now that the girls are old enough to enjoy it, I couldn't wait to go to the Chinese New Year celebration at the art gallery.  Parking was a hassle and sometimes the crowds were annoying, but we still had lots of fun.  After seeing a giant painting, the girls painted their own scrolls with water and ink.  They were both very focused on their work.   I was surprised by how well Olive painted.
 

 

The main attraction was the Lion Dance.  Hannah was on Steve's shoulders and  I was holding Olive.  She snuggled in with the lions got close to us, but then she would look at me and laugh.  I think acting scared was a game.  It was a fun family night.  Happy Year of the Snake!