Look! SNOW!!!

What a surprise we woke up to!

We woke up and were surprised with SNOW! We had no idea it was going to snow. I even checked the weather before going to bed.

When Olivia woke up I opened the blinds so she could see outside. She started pointing and saying SNOW!

 

Grace was so excited! She had already seen the snow falling out the window. She checked out all the windows to see if it snowed all around our whole house. It did!

We had plans to go to a neighbors house and play this morning so we got all bundled up and went outside.

They got to play in the snow a little on the walk over. Grace likes to make snow balls and throw them. Olivia likes to eat snow. When Dustin came home tonight Grace told him that they woke up to snow outside. Olivia told him she ate snow!

Olivia was so bundled up in her big coat (that used to be Grace's and is a little too big) that she had a little trouble staying balanced. She leaned over to get a handful of snow and fell face first. Just look at all that snow on her hat! She wasn't too happy about that.

The snow didn't last too long. By the time we left the neighbors there wasn't enough to make snow ice cream. But this is the THIRD time it has snowed this winter! Next time Grace wants it to last long enough to build a snowman and make snow ice cream (with caramel and chocolate syrup!)

More Snow!

We drove home the day after Christmas.

And when we got home there was even snow at our house! 

So we unloaded our bags and pulled out some warm clothes and got all bundled up.

 

This is what Olivia does when you tell her to smile for the camera. 

 

And the girls got to build a snowman!

Those are Hershey Kisses as buttons and eyes :)

A White Christmas

We spent Christmas with my family this year. We drove to Oklahoma on Christmas Adam after we got out of church and stopped by the house to eat and load our bags (and presents!) There was snow in the forecast so we had to dig out our cold weather clothes. 

Christmas morning we woke up and the ground was wet. It had rained that night. While we were opening presents it started to sleet. And then it started to SNOW!

It snowed BIG flakes!

 

It was very cold and windy so we waited for several hours before we bundled up and went outside.

 

Olivia was running a bit of a fever and just wanted to cuddle all day so she didn't spend much time out in the snow. Grace played for a long time. The cold didn't seem to bother her a bit!

 

We gathered a bowl full to make snow ice cream. We mixed some sweetened condensed milk and vanilla in with the snow.

But Grace thought it needed some chocolate syrup. Perfect!

Olivia perked up after she had some snow ice cream. Maybe we should have made it earlier?

Grace even wanted to go back out in the snow! When she was finally done playing outside she warmed up with a cup of hot chocolate.

I don't remember when the last time I saw a white Christmas!

SNOW!

When we arrived in Germany it was snowing. Olivia got to see her first snow as soon as we stepped off the airplane. But it didn't snow as much at Chelsea's house as it did in the city where the airport is. But on Monday, it really started snowing! That evening I put Olivia in her snow suit and took her out to "play" in it.

Here are a couple pictures I took from the window of Chelsea's house.

 

And Olivia in the snow for the first time!

 

 I facetimed with my Mom and Grace so that they could watch her.

She kept looking up at the window where Chelsea was holding the iPad :)

Isn't she just too cute? I think she liked the snow!

And it snowed almost all night so we had quite a bit the next morning. 

And Grace got snow too! She got to build a snowman, go sledding, and have a snowball fight.

Snow Day!

Last night we went to bed with thunder, lightening, and sleet outside. This morning when we woke up the ground was covered in SNOW! Pretty much everything is closed today (including Fort Sill!!) so we will be staying at home today! This is the first time Grace has ever seen the ground covered in snow. So we put on all of her warmest clothes and let her go out to play!

It is pretty windy and the snow is just blowing like crazy in circles. Hopefully the wind will die down this afternoon so she can enjoy it a little more. I think we will be collecting a bowl of snow soon so we can make a little snow ice cream!

Christmas Fantasy at the Zoo

The rain finally stopped so we were able to go see the snow, lights, and fireworks at the zoo! It was a really fun experience and we all had a good time.

{ready to go!}

{bundled up and waiting in line to see SNOW!}

{We are in an Igloo!}

{and there was a snowman}

We saw that you could pay 500 Yen to ride down a slide and we decided it wasn't worth it. But when we saw it we thought it might be fun after all. They let Grace go free too!

{Weeeee!!}

After we saw the snow it was time to eat so we went up to the pavilion we used for Grace's birthday party. We had packed a meal for Grace since most of the food at this type of thing is either noodles or fried and we are not fans of either. We ended up getting some french fries for us and hot chocolate from the vending machine! While we were eating we spotted a big inflatable Elmo and thought Dustin could win it for Grace. I am confident he would have won if we had more clear of instructions. We thought you had to throw the ball and hit the numbers and get 3 in a row. Turns out you had to throw the ball hard enough to knock the number out of the frame they were in. We didn't find this out until after he had hit a number and didn't have enough balls left for a bingo. Oh, well. Grace ended up with an inflatable wand instead!

When it got dark they lit up the entire park in Christmas lights. It was so pretty!! The pictures are not very good but you can somewhat tell what we saw.

Then we started making our way back to the entrance so we could watch the laser light show from there and then make a quick exit. Grace thoroughly enjoyed the laser lights! She was clapping and dancing to the music!

{watching the light show}

{on Daddy's shoulders}

We have taken several videos the last few days and I finally moved them to the computer so I am going to share a few.

The first 4 are from the zoo!

{checking out the snow}

{the little sled ride}

{still the King of Pop in Japan}

{this is very bad quality but I think you can get a little idea of what it like here!}

Grace had a wonderful Christmas morning! She got a new kitchen from Santa Claus and food, pots & pans, and a baking set from Mommy and Daddy. She got a lot of other things too - way too many to name them all!

{Grace playing with her new kitchen from Santa on Christmas morning}

Christmas Eve was a gorgeous day! Dustin fixed the wagon (a screw had came out) and took Grace for a ride on our balcony.

{going for a ride}