I know everyone is wondering where these awesome pictures are coming from! Definitely not me...we don't own a camera this nice and I don't have any kind of photography talent, if you've noticed from the rest of the pictures on this blog. The credit is due to my good friend Shannon, who has started a new photography business and came over to take photos of the girls for us. Actually, our main purpose was to get a picture of the 4 of us (we don't have any) so I can update the header on the blog. I'll share the family pictures tomorrow! Thanks to Shannon for blessing us with such great shots of our girls!

I'm sure you've all seen pictures like this on the news, but here's a personal connection...this is Stephen's car parked outside his apartment. I talked to him tonight and he said it took hours to get it uncovered. Pretty snow!

A bunch of guys came from NC to go skiing with Aaron this weekend. Jonathan and Joy got here yesterday afternoon with their sweet toddler Seth (he's just a month or two younger than Vivian). We showed them around and then went to dinner at The Salem House which was a fun experience (it was a challenge because Kate was getting pretty sleepy, but thankfully we saw a bunch of people we know and Debbie Szuch held her and played with her so I could eat). The rest of the guys (David, Bryan, and Ben) got here later last night and they got up before 5 am to get to Snowshoe when the slopes opened. We are in the middle of a snowstorm today though! It has been snowing here since 3 or 4 am and it hasn't let up at all. Jonathan finally called around 11 to let us know they got there...a 3 hour trip took them more than 5 hours in the snow! Joy and I are enjoying hanging out here with the kids and watching them play. Vivian and Seth are trying to practice sharing but it's hard because they're so little and you can tell they don't understand the concept. We did a small craft this morning and they've played a lot with stickers and strollers and balls and drums...

Joy and Seth just went outside for a few minutes to play...the forecast is for 10-18 inches of snow by tomorrow evening.

more pictures of our weekend to come soon! We love being with friends!

If you've ever seen Mckmama's blog (which I know a lot of you have), you know about Not Me Monday. Here's my first shot at participating:

I would never not pull back my daughter's hair so she could actually see, especially during mealtime because the food would get in her hair! No, not me...I would never be that lazy or cruel to my kid.

Kate loves getting in the tub! I think mostly because she knows what follows (milk and bed). I am looking forward to when she can sit up in the bathseat because then Vivian will be able to get in there with her. Maybe next month!

We had an outrageous electric bill last month, and ever since then Aaron has been keeping wood stocked for us to use for building fires (we have two fireplaces in the house). He recently bought this maul, so he's been getting good workouts in chopping wood. Last Saturday morning he and V spent a lot of time outside together. He taught her how to put sticks of wood on the fire.

Little helper. Of course he watched her every time she went near the fire, and it was obvious that she had an understanding of it being "hot". In fact, every time she walked away from it she looked at him and said, "hot".

I love this picture! She's looking at Aaron for approval on her choice of stick. You can see behind her the pile that Aaron made for her to choose from.

This is our outdoor space that we are planning to enjoy this spring and summer!

Last night Nathan, Erin, and Julia braved the winter weather and came over for dinner. It was awesome for us to have company because we've been inside for the last two days! V really liked playing with Julia but we are still working on the concept of sharing :) We finally caught up with our friends (it had been a while since we had hung out with them). They are expecting a new baby in June!

If you look closely, you can see the goose egg on her forehead. She's learning to walk and while she was here fell into one of our tables. This means that if you have a toddler and come over to visit, expect some kind of trauma at our house (remember this from a few weeks ago?)

I've started to participate in the choir at church again. I am very excited about getting back into it...I haven't been since Vivian was probably 2 or 3 months old. Choir practice is on Wed. nights and doesn't end until 9:30 or so, and bedtime was too crucial (if you know me well, you know how important my kids' sleep is to me, maybe even to a fault sometimes?). But now Pam Cannon (a family friend and member of our congregation) and my mom have offered to alternate in coming to sit at the house while I go with Aaron! What a service to me! Aaron is happy, too...it's something fun we can do together during the week.

We ordered the Your Baby Can Read DVD set when V was about 8 months old. I did it with her for a few months and then quit because of the new baby and the move. We recently started again and she remembers all of the words she had learned! She can read about 20-30 words. I know it sounds cheesy but she loves the DVDs and it only takes 20 minutes of our day (and we're at home all day anyway...why not learn cool things?!).
When I say "read" I don't mean that she is sounding out words with phonics. I think she has memorized what the words looks like. I'm not really sure how it works, but I just know that it does!
We are praying that these early stages of reading random words will one day result in her knowing God through His Word.

Lots of exciting things happening around here! We've hit some milestones this last week with the girls. Kate got her first tooth (yikes...a little too early for my taste, but what can you do?). And she started rolling over from her back to her tummy! As soon as I took her arm out of the swaddle, which I blogged about last week, she started rolling over at night (I can see her on the video monitor). She definitely prefers to sleep on her tummy, but she is rolling all over the crib now. And then this past weekend I saw her do it while she was playing on the floor.
Vivian has just started to be able to tell me when she is messing up her diaper. And last night she told Gramme before she actually did it. Maybe it's time to get the potty out that Uncle Larry and Aunt Stella gave us so long ago!

Aaron has been out of town this week and he took the computer with him, which is why I haven't been able to post anything (I'm borrowing Mom's computer tonight because I couldn't wait any longer :)). I'll try to post more tomorrow!

On Monday I watched Kevin and Erin's baby Hayden and we had a lot of fun having a little boy in the house! Hayden was born in September and Erin is working a few days a week as a physical therapist. Her mom and mother-in-law can keep him most of the time, but there are a few days each month that she needed someone, so I told her that I could do it. He is so easy! You'd think that with three babies (two of them very small), it would be a crazy day, but it was very laid back. At one point when they had all been napping for 2 hours at the same time and all my housekeeping had been done for the day, I was able to sit down and read a couple chapters of a book!

watch out Hayden, she's got her eyes on you!