Day 7 - The sun shows her face!

Today is the last day of February!! Only a few more weeks until spring, sun, open windows, birds chirping and long walks with my family. The sun is out today, doing a great job at melting the snow and my girl is leaning against my leg sucking her thumb...could life get any better?

Revonation help

Matt and I are having to make a lot of decisions regarding the renovation of our kitchen and bathroom. Because it can be hard for me to make decisions regarding the house, I went to my girl for help. She actually had some great ideas and was able to help me out a lot! I just gave her the Home Depot magazine and she showed me some beautiful cabinets that would look great in our kitchen! She's a genius, I tell you...

Yes, I love those cabinets!

Day 6 - Party planning!

Hard to believe her first birthday is in a matter of weeks..

More!

Acadia has been signing "more" randomly for a few weeks now, but today was the first time she did it with purpose! Every time she ran out of food, she signed more and said "mo"!

Day 5 - Fresh snow...

My days consist of...

Being read to...

Sharing jokes with my girl...


Big eyes...


Little toes...


And best of all...peek-a-boo!


Oh, how she makes me laugh...

Oh my!

This is what I woke up to this morning...

Day 4 - Blueberry Muffins

Warm blueberry muffins on a cold Monday morning...mmmmm!

Day 3 - Sisterly Love

A Friendship Ball given to me by my sister in law...

Poor Cadi!

Auntie Miche left for Florida yesterday for a whole week!

Day two of February Funk

Other things that bring me happiness; my husband's artwork.

He gave this to me for my 22nd birthday on a trip to New York City. To this day, I have no idea how he got it on the plane without me seeing!


Those who know us know that this was the painting he gave to me when he proposed to me. We were on top of the hill in the painting when he proposed. And he painted this all by memory! It's Casey Hill and has a very special place in our hearts. When we first started dating, he took me there and we sat on top of the hill watching the stars :-)


Our dog, Mercedes...I love this drawing...

The February Funk

February always feels like such a long month for me. Christmas, New Year's and the excitement of winter is over for me by now and I am focused on the cloudy sky, dirty snow and icy roads. Sigh...

So. Let's focus on the good, shall we? Sledding, snowmen, snowshoeing, snowboarding, putting on a thick wool sweater and going outside to watch the gently falling snow bundling up with your favorite quilt in front of the fire with a steaming mug of hot cocoa, watching Mercedes come in from outside with a marshmallow sized mound of snow on her nose, pulling Acadia in her little sled in the front yard. Ahhhh. I needed these reminders of why I love Vermont winters.

I am going to re-direct the blog for a bit and post some images that brighten my days to remind myself (and any of you others that need it!) that winters here really are beautiful.

Like this one, for example. How can you not smile every time you walk by a beautiful flower brought to you by a good friend?

Playing video games

How I love this high chair! It helps distract Acadia when I am trying to prepare her meals. When you turn the middle knob, it plays music and when you press the buttons on the side, the little fish and seahorses in the water float around. She loves playing her video game!

Practice makes perfect

Even though it creates a sticky MESS, I am starting to let Acadia learn how to feed herself applesauce and yogurt. It's pretty funny to see her try to do it, and because we don't do it often, she normally just stares at the applesauce for a few minutes and laughs. She always finds it funny when we give her things that we don't normally let her have. The laptop, the phone, etc. - every once in a great while, we'll let her play with those things and she thinks it's just hysterical!





All done! (This was two seconds before she put it on her head!!)

A great way to wake up...

A mourning dove in my husband's hand - how cool is that?!

Shhhh!

She's working....

Why oh why...

didn't I take a picture of the "perfect meal"??

I think I speak for all of us when I say that us Vermonters get a little down during - February and March. We're sick of the snow, sick of the cold and tired of being cooped up.

Here it is a yummy summer meal for all you Vermonters:

Misty Knolls Chicken (grilled with marinade)
Green and yellow squash, chopped up length wise. We put some garlic oil on with salt and pepper and grilled it ...
Summer salad - I made this up and put: fresh cherry tomatoes (quartered), avocado, Mozzarella (pea sized), sweet corn, and balsamic vinegar. YUM. Seriously. The best salad ever.

I think we feel like if we just cook like it's summer, that summer is bound to show its face sometime!

Later that night...

We had our first annual sledding party! I don't know what was better - the food or the drinks :-) Lindsey brought over an amazing chicken salad and Miche brought over the fixings for chocolate fondue; strawberries, oreos, bananas, pears...oh my gosh. The only thing better than having chocolate fondue is having chocolate fondue outside by a campfire. YUM. Lindsey also brought over Mint Chocolate Baileys which tastes delicious in hot cocoa. Oh, how I wish we had a sledding party every night of the week!