snow/sick days are sometimes the good ones

Look at me! Writing again after just a few days. It's all these fun snowy pictures that happened the other day, and I just had to show you. We had a snow/sick Tuesday this week and hooked up our old VCR (horrid eye sore that it is) so we could watch Lion King and Jungle Book and all those special warm feelings classics. As Paisley listened in awe to her first "AAAHHHSAVENYAA," Brian and I cried confused tears of happiness/sadness as Rafikki held up baby Simba, and we reveled in the strange sensation of showing her such a favorite childhood film while not being children anymore ourselves and ALL THE FEELINGS.

Ok I was the only one who cried those tears. Brian just looked at me, a startled look on his face.

And then Paisley only lasted about 3 more minutes into the movie before she went on to play with her opposites puzzle but ALL THAT ASIDE.

It was magical.

As the day went on and I looked at the piles of snow climbing outside our windows I thought to myself, "If I was a REALLY good mom I would take my daughter outside to play in what will likely be the last large snow fall of the year."

PLEASE GOD LET IT BE THE LAST BIG SNOW FALL OF THE YEAR.

So we ventured out into the snowy mounds even though I couldn't find my snow pants and Paisley had the time of her life while I watched and took pictures and the hubs shoveled the driveway, despite feeling sick. Brave, strong fellow that he is.

MY NAME IS PAISLEY AND I LOVE SNOW

is the caption for the last picture.

In case you were unsure.

Instagram Dump - Take 6

I'm posting a bunch of Instagram pics today, some dating all the way to last spring! Ah, spring, when will you grace us with your warmer days and soggy grass? Oh, it's silly of me to wish for spring when it's barely the end of January. Although we HAVE been having some spring-like weather around these parts as of late, as far as Minnesota goes in the least. After several weeks of negative temperatures, our recent days in the twenties and the thirties have been giving people a spring in their step! The other day I saw someone in a winter jacket and shorts which, well, is just about the most Minnesota-ey a person can get in my opinion.

In other news, Brian has been practicing his Scottish accent while reading Frog and Toad to Paisley, which she thinks it the funniest thing ever to happen in her short life, which pleases him immensely and boosts his comedic confidence to the greatest of heights, as you might imagine.

Also, when Paisley walked by me today in the living room she said. "Imma be back."

Hashtag thuglyfe.

And so. Here are a few snippets of our life from the past several, several, several months. Spring to winter, old house to new house, Columbia Heights kitchen tile to Cloquet kitchen tile, and so forth!

my christmas candles are still locked up tight

And so winter has arrived, with much to do. Six inches of it! Paisley was absolutely thrilled, a little more thrilled than myself, but that's usually what being a toddler is all about. Being thrilled about things that create work for your parents. And while the plus side of our new place is that there is about 60% less snow for us to shovel than our last place (or should I say, for the hubs to shovel), the downside is that we only have a small, old, one car garage with no garage door opener and a tiny driveway on a horrible slope that makes it hard to dig our two cars out of and get them out of the driveway without a good push.

And despite it all, despite the slippery roads and the necessity to give yourself twice as much travel time to your snowy destination, despite the mitten-less fingers that freeze as you scrape windows and buckle seat buckles, I'm not feeling quite as put out about it as I usually am. Instead I'm feeling a little bit...cozy? Dare I say...even a little bit Christmas-y? I am typically one to give an absolute strong "NO" to any type of Christmas ANYTHING before Thanksgiving is over, but this year I'm having a hard time not turning on the Christmas music. I'm trying to find the strength to turn on my chai tea Scentsy instead of pulling out my Christmas tree candles. After playing out in the snow yesterday we came in and started our fireplace and made hot chocolate and cuddled in blankets on the couch, and I was wishing that we had our stockings hung from the mantel with care. Christmas cookies, I want to eat all of you. What's happening to me? What is this place?

Here's Paisley's expression when the snow first started falling on Monday. Maybe it's the pure joy and glee of my child that makes me a little less of a snow grinch this year?

Well all I can say is that hopefully these cozy feelings last, because I'll bet my bottom dollar that we won't be seeing anything but white on the ground until April.

Weekend happy times!

I have some photos to share from our Labor Day family getaway a couple of weekends ago. And is it crazy to anyone else how long ago Labor Day weekend already was?

My family on my mom's side escapes up to a lovely resort on a lake at the end of each summer, with the activities generally including relaxing, playing games, eating far more than our share of delicious food, watching old nineties music videos, pontooning, talking about things that matter, talking about things that probably don't matter, licking ice cream cones, you get the general idea.

Our family has rallied around and supported each other in new and important ways within the past few years. I couldn't be more in love with them all.

Look at me, so lovey dovey!

This dude I'm particularly in love with. Ooo la la!

And now. I give you the big kahuna of surprised face pictures. The great bambino of surprised face pictures! I don't think I will ever find another picture that I enjoy looking at more than this one. The end bye bye.

Other Labor Day weekends previously documented here and here!

Even though the mayflies were bad

Well, so here I am! Attempting to get back on the blogging train. Choo choo, chugga chugga. Let's start with a few quick updates.

We moved! The hubs got a job as a Young Life area director in Cloquet, MN. While it was hard to leave our beloved Minneapolis and all our special people there, Cloquet is a super fun and beautiful town surrounded by tall gorgeous trees and just minutes away from Lake Superior, Duluth, and the super awesome Jay Cooke State Park. Plus, to say we are excited about Brian's new career path would be a pretty large understatement.

We have moved to a home that is over one hundred years old, so we are now officially "old house people." It's big, it's beautiful, and it's going to be a lot of work. We love it. Anybody know how to work a radiator?

I'll show pics of the new place soon! But first I have to take some. So for now I'll play a little bit of catch-up, and show some photos from our family vacation in June. Because that was a long time ago.

We went and stayed at a lakeside cabin resort with my mom, brother and sister in a town called Hackensack in northern MN. Yes, Hackensack is the actual name of an actual town, it's really quite endearing.

Boats! Lakes! Beaches! Fishing! Swimming! Water slides! Excellent food! Delicious drinks! Games! Laughter! Great discussion! Mayflies as far as the eye can see and the foot can crunch! Need I go on?

No I think that's good.

Alright, pictures coming at you right now!

And now we have a short series of "surprised face." As I mentioned in my last post, "surprised face" is a big deal these days.


And with that, I bid you adieu.

Brown grass and orange chacos

These pics are from last week on a lovely day that reached the low seventies. Swinging, sandboxing, hanging out at the bottom of the slide, swinging, sandboxing, and saying hello to the neighbor's plastic owl that sits on top of a pole near their driveway.

Thats what we like to do outside when it hits seventy degrees.




That weekend I promptly headed to a big garage sale and bought the girl some summer appropriate shoes. Because brown boots can only get you so far in life.

AND! I think later this week it's supposed to hit 80 at some point! Now just think about that. Eighty degrees. What a world. We'll whip those new sandals right out.


Never mind about the 5" of snow that fell last night and currently covers the yard. Never mind about that.