Ana is 7!!!

Today Anie Baby has turned 7!!! She informs Mom that she doesn't want to be 7 because it is a boy's number. She wants to be 8, a girl's number!

She and Minte keep us laughing! Especially during supper! She is very serious and takes things very literally unless it's her own joke, in which case she cracks herself up!! :-) She is a blessing to our family and we are so happy that she is a part of our family! Love ya, Ana!!!

Here is Minte singing his happy birthday to his sister...

Spring Day!!

February 18th was a special day! Why was it special? 'Cause we had barely any snow! PLUS it was warm! Later the kids were outside without coats!! It was so wonderful! The kids and I spent some time outside and I took pictures.

 Scooters were brought out! In February!!

 We took a short walk through the field. Weeds got caught inside our shoes! Not snow!!

 And whether inside or outside, some kind of ball is always at Ethan's side! And he could actually dribble on a non-icy driveway!

 Minte brought out his ball as well. It's too bad he isn't 4 feet taller! He did his best to get the ball in the basket!

I think after that day we all got even more eager for spring! New grass and flowers. Warm weather. Fresh air. It will be SOOO amazing!!! Spring, COME!!!

Living in a Glass World

Our house has been hit by the ice storm! The storm has cancelled many things and kept most of us at home, but in the meantime we are enjoying the field in the backyard! Each weed and tree is covered with ice and when hit by sunlight it sparkles. And when you have every weed and blade of grass sparkling, it is a gorgeous thing to see! I took some pictures so  I could share the sight with you, but they didn't turn out very well and you can't get the whole picture. But here are the pictures I took. You may need to click on the picture to see the "glass".

 Yesterday. The rest of the pictures are from today.

Isn't it pretty! Wish you could see it in person! It's pretty cool!

If the ice has hit your place too, be careful out on those roads!

Hidden Idenities

 Princess Ana

 Cowboy Minte

 Snazzy Ethan.

 Basketball palmer Lucas

 Reader Emily.

What's Been Going on Around Here...

Right now all our nights have been filled with this...

 And therefore our days are filled with a lot of this....

 Huddles.

Scrimmages.

 Boxing out.

 Loud Laughter.

Occasionally owies.

Lifting injured players on a "stretcher"

And taping up ankles with socks.

There's nothing better than basketball in your foyer!

We love Rachel!

The kids love her so much they taped her to a wall so she couldn't go home.

Blizzard!

Mom will get after me for using the word blizzard after I've been refusing to call this winter storm we had a blizzard! Yesterday I thought all the frenzy about a blizzard coming was dumb since they've been predicting a lot of things lately that haven't come! I woke up this morning though kind of hoping to see a lot of snow. Weathermen are saying we got a foot of snow. With all the blowing that happened too though, what you mostly see are 2-3 feet deep snow piles against fences and houses. The rest of the snow that wasn't blown is barely a foot deep. Here are some pictures...

Yesterday the backyard looked like this. You can FAINTLY see snow swirling around on the right. It was pretty windy!

The next morning, (today), the backyard looked like this.

 This is about the biggest drift we have. It's probably about 3-4 feet deep and is only in this corner.

 The garage door's imprint on the snow. I guess this drift was pretty high too.

Some more drifts by the fence...

 Meanwhile I get a text from a friend just down the road saying that they have snow up to 5 feet deep in some places and they are making tunnels!! Here are some pictures he sent...

This metal stick is 4 feet tall.

That's some DEEP snow!!! I wish that we had gotten such big drifts here! Wow!

And check out this picture! Some of this is a hill, but most of it is piled snow! I guess they got the REALLY high winds! :-)

So that's what the blizzard looks like over here at the Vander Hart's! How much snow did you get?