1.31.2016

Bubba

Jillian's preschool has a class "pet" named Bubba that goes home with a different student each weekend.  Jilly knew that she and another boy were the last kids who hadn't had Bubba yet so we were expecting him soon.  A couple Fridays ago while Jilly was at school I was talking to my mom and I told her that Bryan was going camping that weekend and I was crossing my fingers and toes that we didn't get Bubba because then I'd have to think of some fun things to do.  But sure enough, when Jilly walked out of her classroom she was holding Bubba.  But, it turned out to be a long weekend because of MLK Day so it wasn't so hard to take Bubba on some adventures.   









Bubba came to church with us and as we left it was snowing for the first time!  It didn't stick (and none of us knew we would be getting the biggest snowfall in Baltimore history later that week!) but it was still exciting.



On Monday my sister and sweet baby Joey came to visit.  Bubba helped Jilly hold the baby.  We're so happy to have an Anderson cousin now, and especially that he lives so close!




Jilly's friend Jude is in the morning class at her same school and happened to have the morning class Bubba that weekend also!  So we had a meeting of the Bubbas and a fun day at the Aquarium together.





Bubba went back to school on Wednesday and on Thursday Jilly, who is usually very obedient and kind to her sister, was having an off day.  I asked her why she was in a bad mood and not behaving very well and she said through tears, "I think I'd be nicer if Bubba were still here, I miss him."  So we are definitely feeling a void with Bubba gone.

1.26.2016

Baltimore Blizzard 2016

Well, we survived the Blizzard of 2016.  And actually it was one of my favorite weekends ever.  The week before the blizzard was full of excitement, the snow was all anyone could talk about.  We ran around getting stocked up on food, books, and movies and spending as much time outside of our house as possible knowing we'd be cooped up for a few days.  They canceled school on Friday which was kind of silly since the snow wasn't even forecasted to start until late Friday afternoon, but I suppose it was good to be safe.  We had a fun morning with friends then came home to make cookies and wait for the snow.  It was fun to text my mom and my sister who live further south and hear about the storm making its way up to us.  Finally around 4:30pm it started snowing.  


When we went to bed at midnight we had gotten a few inches and the snow was really coming down. 


By the next morning we'd gotten 8 or 9 inches, and the girls thought that we were in Arendelle!  


It snowed hard all day long and was super windy.  The roof above our porch is flat and the snow was really piling up so Bryan had to climb out on the roof a few times to shovel the snow off.  We went outside for a little while, but it was really a miserable day.  It was much more fun to stay inside eating soup, cookies and snow cream while reading, watching movies, and playing games.  I also spent part of the afternoon painting the trim in our hallway.  







This is the last picture I took at 4:30 Saturday afternoon, exactly 24 hours after the storm started.  It was hard to measure exactly how much snow we got since it was so windy and the snow blew all over, but at BWI Airport they measured 29 inches, the most ever recorded from one storm in Baltimore.



Sunday morning was sunny and beautiful.  They plowed our street which created a huge snow drift we had to shovel away from our driveway.  Bryan did a vast majority of the shoveling but that doesn't mean I'm not incredibly sore from the little bit of shoveling I did.  The girls had a ball running and climbing and sliding in the snow, and when Mattie got tired of the running she just sat and held a little snow baby.  





We came in to snuggle for a bit and have lunch then later in the afternoon went back out to play.  Mattie gets cold pretty quickly but Jilly can stay out there sledding for hours.









Bryan went back to work on Monday, but I wasn't quite ready to brave the only half-plowed streets.  We lounged around the house and played outside a bit too.  By Tuesday afternoon we were big time stir crazy so the girls and I escaped our house to go to the library.  There is still a ton of snow around and school and church activities are still canceled (they haven't been able to plow all the parking lots yet.)  Right now it feels like we'll never get back to normal life, but maybe one day all this snow will melt away.

1.23.2016

January 2016


^ My 2015 Best Nine.  I never posted this, but it was fun to see my top pictures of 2015, it was such a great year!


^ It was in the 60s and 70s here during the last weeks of December.  We came home from CA to find daffodils growing in our yard!


^ The girls got some great presents for Christmas this year. They've spent so much time playing with new magformers, lego sets, and a doll house camper.   


^ I just love this picture of Mattie holding up her fancy dress-up to go potty, this girl kills me!


^ The girls and I went down to Richmond for a few days to help out while my mom was in Utah.  Mattie loved wearing this Snow White dress, and I remember it was a favorite of Jilly's when she was 2.


^ Usually I'm so happy to clear out Christmas decorations and get rid of the clutter, but this year our house feels empty and sad without them!  So I've decided I need to spend some more time decorating and finishing projects around the house. 


^ I've loved having all our friends hanging above our kitchen table and I just can't take these cards down!  We'll see how long they last. 


^ One Sunday the weather was amazing so we got out for an afternoon adventure.  We walked around the grounds of the Hampton House, a beautiful 18th century manor house that's just a few minutes away from us.  The girls weren't interested in my history lesson and instead called it "Elsa's Palace."  




^  Facetimeing with the girls' sweet new cousin Evie who lives in California.  Wish we could snuggle her!


 ^ I won our family's Bowl Pool, yet again proving that the less you know, the better you do.


^ I had to go through our 2013 pictures to make more memory space on our computer and I remembered how cute baby Mattie was!