January 4 on 4

Each month I join a group of talented women from Clickin Moms to create a 4 on 4 blog circle showcasing 4 of our favorite images from the last month. Be sure to click the link at the bottom of the post to follow the circle around.

I have to admit that I don't love winter or snow or the cold, but you can find me outside since I love nature and hanging out with my kid... and for an extra push, I love taking pictures of it all. I have plenty of snow pictures from this month, but thought I would feature four from the same afternoon since they represent what this month has felt like before all the holiday activities took hold.

Yup, cold and snowy and finally, officially winter. My daughter corrected us every time we said 'winter' when it was still officially fall so this is a rare moment that I will say that I am so glad it's finally winter. But, now it can be spring. Okay?

Be sure to check out the wonderful Shauna Hargis and follow the circle around.

Project 52 - Snow Fun - Week 51

 51/52

We have a house with a second story deck and a partial flat roof which means that, after a heavy snow fall, we have to get up on the roof and shovel it off. And when I say "we", I mean Jesse. We thought we could get away with not doing this until one year, when in the middle of the night, we had a drip coming in through our window. Jesse got on the roof at 3:00 am and, after shoveling it off, the dripping went away. We want to avoid visits to our roof in the middle of the night so we make sure to take care of it right away.

A couple weeks ago, I was shoveling the front sidewalk and Riley was playing in the snow when she almost got hit with a pile of snow that came flying off Jesse's shovel from the deck. Turns out she loved getting nailed by snow. She was extra excited when she got to experience this again a week later and I was sure to capture it on camera.

   

 

 

 

 

Before we went in, we stopped and caught snowflakes on our tongues... and later I had some fun adding a bokeh overlay to one of the pictures.

 

But snow fun wasn't over that day. We warmed up and dried off and then headed out to a local sledding hill. Also notable is how much more confident Riley has become in the sledding department. We still went down with her a couple times, but it wasn't because she needed us, but because she wanted us to have fun with her.

   

 

 

I would not recommend face forward. It did not end well when I attempted it. :)

 

Backwards!

And that was that. At least for that day. Riley's been sledding three times this winter which probably equals all the times she's ever been sledding prior to this year. The winter is far from over so I'm sure we'll be back again.

Project 52 - Winter Fun - Week 5

5/52

Riley was recently invited to her friend, Mason's birthday party. It was a Star Wars themed, sledding party at the park we had Riley's party at last year. We planned to drop her off and walk to a nearby coffee shop to read our books, but our girl was hesitant to sled by herself at first. Eventually, she worked up the courage to go on her own and by that time it was fun to stay and watch her whip down the hill. The snow was a little icy which aided the sleds in sailing fast... and led them practically into the frozen pond at the bottom of the hill.

 It was fun... for us all, really. Makes me wish we had three sleds instead of one. The day after I took these, the snow pretty much all melted, but we just had a big snow and winter is far from over so I imagine we'll be back sledding again soon.

New Year's Eve

We didn't have child care for Riley on Christmas Eve so I ended up taking the day off of work. Jesse had to work so Riley and I got some one on one time for a big chunk of the day.

We went outside even though it was quite cold. I thought Riley would start whining about the cold, but she loved playing outside. I pulled out her sand toys and she made winter soup and surprise winter meat. Num.

After our snow dinner we walked down to the ice rink. They are still working on the layers, but it was fun to slide around on in our boots. And even more fun to crack the ice, when possible.

That night we all went out to eat at what seems to be our New Years's Eve place, Christos. Some years we pick up take out, but this year we ate there.  Either way, it's always delicious. When we came home we read through our Feel Good jar. Surprisingly, our cat had a couple entrees and our Luxembourg family snuck in a couple which was a great treat. I feel like the jar has less items in it each year we do it, but I see that as a good thing as it started during a year I was struggling. It was a way to remind myself of the positive things in life. However, Riley's at the age where she totally embraces this and wants to share all the things that make her feel good. That, I can appreciate.

Obviously, the winter wasn't as brutal as the year before as there were waaaaaay less comments about how wonderful it was for spring to finally arrive. Surprisingly, there were a lot of comments about Diablo. Of, course I wrote most of them, but I just don't remember doing so and it's always heartwarming to hear Jesse write about our old cat. But my favorite comments were those from Riley... especially those in which she talks about Jesse and I. Such a special girl, that one.