The Snowy Day

During the "winter storm of 2010" (the typical snow fall that turns to ice that our Piedmont area of NC generally sees every few years), we were without heat due to our furnace breaking down shortly before the storm was set to hit.  So Scott, who had to work Friday through Sunday and would be sorely needed, was put up by the PD in a hotel for the weekend and I took the kids to stay warm with our friends Allison & Peyton (after, of course, doing our best to "winterize" our pipes with no heat and asking our sweet neighbors to go in and run the water every so often).  God has truly blessed us with good friends and neighbors to help us out when in need (and to even help fix our heat as soon as the roads are clearer)!  He provides in more ways than we can imagine!  To God be all the glory!

So, needless to say, the kids had a great time in the snow!  It was nice for them to have a friend to play with and it kept them occupied throughout the weekend (both inside & outside)!  I know they missed playing in the snow with their daddy and I missed him dearly too, so it was nice for all of us to have wonderful friends as good company through this "winter storm"!  :)

Both kids were pretty excited about the snow when they saw it this morning.  Rachel's immediate reaction (still with pajamas on) was to grab her hat and say "build a 'no'man"!  We tried, but the snow wouldn't really pack too well, so it was more like a very small "snow-blob" (pictures of it are on Facebook)!  Rachel liked it though because it had a face (complete with a carrot nose) and arms!  It actually looked a lot like one of Josiah's drawings, if you've ever received one of his famous "alien" pictures!  :)

Josiah seemed to be on a mission to make snowballs and hit all of us as many times as he could.  He did pretty well helping with the "snow-blob", but he was definitely more focused on his snowballs than with trying to sled or do anything else.  The brave snowball fighter that he was, even when he got hit in the face with a snow/ice-ball, through his tears and cries, he yelled out "I don't want to go inside!  I'm okay!!!"

Peyton has a toy lawnmower much like Josiah's and the kids got a kick out of trying to "mow" the snow!  I mean, really... we live in North Carolina... a snow shovel?  What's that?  Why not try mowing it?

Rachel really did enjoy the snow, though she had her moments (I had a few pictures where she was crying or looked mad that I didn't put up here) as many 2-year-olds in snow do!  We were really impressed at how well she did overall, since Josiah didn't like the snow very much in past years.  This was his first year that he really seemed to enjoy snow (not sure he's seen more than 2 other snows, though).  Another distinct difference between my two children is that Rachel is our little dare-devil and Josiah has never been one to take risks outside of our home.  So from the last blog, where Rachel went roller skating and was practically pushing me away, to now, where you see her sledding down a hill, we are even more aware of how much we will have to watch her!  :)  Josiah didn't seem to care much whether he went sledding or not, but he did try once (a great step for him, much like roller skating by himself was too, as shown in the previous blog)!  Both he and Peyton were a little too big to be able to sled on top of the snow, that was not really packed down.  It was pretty much fluffy, powdery snow with a layer of icy snow on top.  So the plastic lid "sled" would keep sinking in the ground for J & P, but not for Rachel!  She just glided down the hill on top of the ice!  :)