Arkansas

With insanely cold temperatures it seems only appropriate to post pictures from our fabulous Christmas week in Arkansas where the temperatures were mid 60s for several days, we were hot while going on a hike, and my kids wore tank tops and basketball shorts. That sounds just heavenly right now. 

Despite not growing up in Arkansas, walking into my parents house just feels like home, especially at Christmas. They have the most beautiful, HUGE Christmas tree, the people, the decorations, the food, just being together and talking for hours next to the Christmas tree make it one of my favorite places to be. We all love the people, the weather, the fun outdoor activities and all the extra attention.

We had everyone practicing basketball. Quinn starts his first ever basketball season this week so we brought along a ball and the hoop was to make it to the front door. There were some pretty intense basketball games that went on.

My sister Kelly's boyfriend Jeff is 6'5 so everyone wanted to be on Jeff's team. We all really enjoyed getting to know him and he was such a good sport and played hard every day with our kids. They can easily overwhelm someone new but he seemed unfazed by our chaos! Thanks Jeff!

We are hoping that Nana and Papa will be able to make it to a game or two of Quinn's this winter. It's a good thing they have such cute grandchildren or I'm pretty sure we would never see them the entire winter.

Nana getting into basketball.

 We enjoyed lunch outside one day and snacks many days. It was, "hot," according to my children.

I even managed to bask in the sun for a few brief minutes.

We took a hike to the dam at their lake and found shells and threw rocks. Titan and I brought up the rear of the group. He is one pokey walker, not much can make this boy move fast if he doesn't want to.

Rex still has his handful of shells hiding in his coat pocket.

The wind by the lake made it a little cooler.

Papa and Dan took the big kids fishing, although I'm pretty sure we should just call it casting, they rarely catch anything. We are starting to wonder if there are any fish in the lake at all! Good thing they are happy just being on the water.  We also enjoyed a perfect boat ride. The kids love to drive the boat with Papa.

Jett loved looking over the front of the boat.

Oh Rexy.

On one of our MANY walks/hikes.

We loved spending a week there. We are anxious for my sister Dana and brother in law Ryan to have their baby so that Nana and Papa are forced to come and visit us on their way North, maybe they will bring some warm weather with them!

Snow

If someone threw snow right at my face,

this would definitely not be my reaction...

neither would this...

Unless of course it was one of my sweet children or if it was when Dan and I were dating and I didn't want to come off as a crazy girl in front of him. But my natural reaction would probably be to tear up and go inside. My natural self has a very strong disliking of snow.

I have seen a faint, tiny, itty-bitty light this winter. The tiny glimmer of light in the long couple of months comes from a few things. First, Quinton can get 90% of the way ready to go play in the snow by himself, Rex and Myla can get about 75% of the way ready by themselves, and just to play fair, Titan tries very hard. Second, they play outside for hours! If I remember correctly, it used to take a half an hour to get them all ready and they played for ten minutes. This year they seem to just love to be outside, of course we choose the slightly warmer days to play but as long as its a decent winter day they are happy for a while. 

I'm so thankful for the fresh air, the change of environment, that they have each other. Sometimes Jett and I will just watch from the window and sometimes while Jett is napping I will help them build snow forts or throw snowballs and try and knock them down. The things that I do out of extreme love for my children! They make playing in the snow fun. Shhhh... don't tell anyone.

 

 Quinn and Myla have enjoyed shoveling off our driving and working hard.

Oh man, they are growing up.

Titan is hanging in there playing in the snow better than any of my older kids ever did at the age of two.

I love battling with these kids (I'm chasing Rexy with a snowball while trying to take his picture).

I'm pretty sure that I'm going to have to learn to smile and laugh when I get a snowball to the face. As these kids get bigger I have no doubt that the battles will get more intense, the snowballs will only get larger and I'm either going to need to get better at throwing or cry, "Uncle," as they shove snow down my back. This house is not for the weak and I love it!