Thursday, January 18, 2018

The Big Snow Of 2018 ~ Story In Pictures


I'd been eyeing that little snowflake in the forecast for over a week!
We went to bed hoping to see the beginnings of some accumulation when we woke up, 
but the forecast kept bumping it back.

FINALLY it began to snow around 9am...
and it didn't stop until around 11pm!


It was fun to begin to watch it pile up on the ground.


Toward the beginning we had to get creative...


...and the snowman had just as much grass as it did snow,
but little by little it began to cover the whole ground!







Jude and Cai were dissecting our fall pumpkins for "hair".
(Their original idea was to make it snot, but I drew the line there, ha!)

Jemma LOVED the snow!  She darted, sprinted and ran outside ALL.DAY.LONG.


Josh had to go into work for a tiny bit and spent most of the day working
but took a little break to go sledding with us
and to take a walk through the park trails and woods.




The kids played outside until after 9pm!
When Rainy measured before she came it the snow was up to 7" and still coming down.


After stuffing shoes with paper and drying them out by the fire overnight,
they are all bundled up and back at it again today!



Oh, and it was my birthday yesterday so I couldn't have gotten a more perfect gift!

Monday, January 1, 2018

The Colony's Rockin' New Years Eve 2017

We always like to start our New Years Eve off right with adequate sleep and some good exercise to jump-start the new routines we are wanting to implement the following day. (1)

So after a restful night's sleep and a nice brisk jog in the park we came home to begin our relaxing New Year's Eve festivities. (2)

The first thing on the agenda was to coral the kids together and take a look back on the past year. (3) And then we had the kids grab their journals and write down personal goals for the next year that they wanted to work toward. (4)

After that really sweet introspective time (5) the kids were beginning to get excited about the ball drop (6) (7) and we couldn't wait to experience this extraordinary event with the kids. (8) (9) (10)

While we waited for the ball drop we spend some time in the kitchen whipping up a GF, Vegan, 100% grass fed meat meal for the family (11) that was very uneventfully prepared. (12)

After our tasty dinner we spent the rest of the evening singing hymns of reflection (13) and enjoying our time together as a family while we waited for the ball drop. (14)

When the clock struck midnight we danced and cheered, drank our sparkling juice and headed to bed in anticipation of what the new year holds for us. (15)

What a fun night to celebrate! (16)

Happy New Year!
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1 - We actually woke up at our normal 4:30am Sunday wake-up time because...Sunday.

2 - If by exercise you mean leading worship on and off for 6 hours then yes, we had a good workout. But Monday...oh Monday...the 1st of the year...exercise WILL be happing in some REAL form or fashion.

3 - Well actually, Josh and I sat down on our bed to recap the morning at Journey and fell asleep without meaning to because...Sunday. I'm not sure what the kids did, but they are all still breathing and well, so there's that.

4 - That really would have been a fun thing to do.  Maybe we will write this down in our journals to do next year.

5 - I can guarantee that if we actually did get around to this journaling project it wouldn't be peaceful, quiet or very introspective because...boys, lol!

6 - I'm pretty sure the kids energy level was rising by the hour and we still had 5 hours before the actual ball drop!

7 - Especially Rainy, because she is FINALLY old enough to enjoy this event. She even took a nap after Journey so she would be mentally ready to handle the big event.

8 - Josh is still trying to figure out if the ball drop at midnight is really worth it and he'd rather cuddle up together watching a movie in the quiet, next to a warm fire.

9 - I, for some reason, love watching the Dick Clark's Rockin New Year's Eve Show every year.  I get one time a year to put my Urban Dictionary skills into good practice as I listen to the newest, hippest songs and watch these artists dance around on the stage in their costumes trendy outfits.

10 - Rainy, on the other hand, was not too thrilled to share this event with the rest of the Colony kids, ha.

11 - Hey, frozen pizzas can be healthy too!

12 - Josh:"BABE!!! I need your help! The bottom pizza fell off the rack on the bottom of the oven on top of the heating element!"

13 - Actually, Josh did record a hymn that he is currently trying to download right now.

14 - The kids set up a movie in their room (because no mom should let her young boys see Mariah Carey and ALL she has to offer, ahem, even though hearing her complain about not getting her tea was a personal highlight of mine, ha!), I took down Christmas and Josh tinkered around with his hymn on the piano.  Is that considered being "together"?

15 - Well, Jude fell asleep watching the movie on the floor in his room, Cai fell asleep on the couch next to me and the rest of the kids sat in a daze on the couch with me the last 30 minutes.

16 - Yes, a huge success as I got to bring in the new year with my favorite people on earth!




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If you'd like to see our other Rockin' New Years Eve posts from the past you can see 
2013    2014   and    2016