Children, Children What Do You See?

What are they looking at?













THE SNOW!!

The snow has been so fun! We are loving it! Yes, it's quite a bit colder than what we are used to, but it's great! The kids love to watch it fall and are constantly begging to go play in it. Everytime we go outside to go somewhere Chase is the first one to pick up a snowball and isn't shy about throwing it at anyone! He's even hit random strangers in public with snowballs. He got the missionaries real good one night. It's probably not the best thing to throw cold, wet snowballs at the Lord's servants, but they were really good sports about it and started throwing them back at our little snowball machine boy! The kid's got good aim too! Mallory's favorite part about the snow is catching the falling flakes on her tongue. And Clark likes to swat at the snow. He waves his hand back and forth and makes excited noises as it falls!

The snow doesn't tend to stick in huge piles here. Sometimes a light layer will stay on the grass for a few days, but the sun always seems to melt it away too quickly! We had a cold front from Alaska move through last week and it got REALLY cold here. The high was 17 degrees one day. When I took Chase to pre-school that morning it was only 11 degrees outside! 11 degrees people!! That's just too cold. We've gotten to the point where the 40's feel great; we only need a sweatshirt when we go out. We completely bundle up for temperatures in the 30's - hats, scarves, mittens, the whole deal. It's not too bad. The 20's are pretty cold. My big winter coat I bought when I got here doesn't cut it for temperatures in the 20's. Anything less than 20 we hibernate inside becuase it's really just disgustingly cold outside! You can't hardly breathe when the wind blows in your face. We had stalactite icicles hanging off the bumpers of our cars last week. When Chase's pre-school class plays outside he always tells his teachers he's freezing. They call him their little Arizona boy! Our bodies have started adjusting to the difference in temperatures. But we are hoping for thicker blood next winter! The snow really is pretty. When everything is covered in white it makes the earth look very pure and clean. Somehow it brings a peaceful feeling. It's been worth all the shivers to appreciate God's creations covered in blankets of white.

Here are some recent pictures of snow play. Chase was at school when I took these so it's just Mallory and Clark. The bottom pictures are of a pond in our complex. We normally feed the geese that come to sit in the water here. But right now it's half frozen over and snow sits on the ice. I love the picture with snow on the fence posts!