Well, we've been wanting good snow the last few winters, and clearly we got it! Our first winter in NY has definitely made up for the past two years of disappointing snowfall in MA. Since we have more than a foot of powdery snow, we were so ready to take out our skis last weekend.
It was still snowing on Saturday morning,
so we went out and skied near some ponds close to home.
On Sunday, since the weather was nice,
we went skiing at Mendon Ponds Park.
There were lots of people out skiing and sledding and snowshoeing.
Since Emma doesn't come skiing with us,
we took her back to Mendon Ponds to hike on New Year's Day.
What a strange dog. She likes to sniff and stick her head under the snow.
And just for reference -
This was the pile of snow outside our house on New Year's Eve.
We had a low-key New Year's.
We had ribs on Christmas Day (one of our new traditions), so we decided to start another rib tradition for New Year's Day.
Only problem with this plan? We had to shovel our way to the grill!
Our ribs and Brussels Sprouts and Kale salad with bacon. A totally primal way to start 2013!
Having all this snow on the ground was a great start to the New Year and thanks to one of my Christmas presents, I have even more awesome food projects to work on!
We have snow! Lots and lots of snow! Thanks to winter storm Euclid (Since when do they name them, anyways?), we have about 17 inches of snow on the ground right now. We left early on Christmas night so that we had plenty of time to pick up groceries and get settled before the storm hit on Wednesday afternoon/evening. The majority of the snow fell on Wednesday night, so Amit saw it before he went into work on Thursday morning.
Amit thinks that Emma gets too cold when she's outside,
so we bought her a jacket. Wednesday's Snow
Thursday's Snow
She likes the jacket, but wasn't a fan of the deep snow.
Trying to escape the snow.
The mountain of snow from plowing.
From time to time, she would sink into the snow. She hated that part.
When Amit came home from work, we shoveled the driveway again. And he climbed the mountain.
The best part of her jacket is that it is reflective!
Emma also tried to figure out the snow from the inside.
She also started to lean over the snowbanks to sniff things.
Crazy dog.
Maybe there's something down there?
Time to go home!
What do we do when there's over a foot and a half of snow on the ground? Well, it's the perfect excuse to clean the house, try out some new Christmas presents, and eat some guacamole. Oh yeah, and we get to use our SKIS! We've used them twice already and it isn't even January yet. It's looking like New York will be a great state to live in, even in the winter!
It's hard to believe it's March 1st already... even harder to believe that I get to celebrate by having a snow day! The "storm" hit yesterday afternoon, we only got an inch of snow here. Near work, they were expecting 6-10 inches between yesterday and today, when the snow is supposed to stop. We'll see how much they actually got when I go back tomorrow.
I decided to take a break from studying to do a little crafting. On Saturday night, the boys went to a dental debate, so Mel, Kirsten, and I hung out and I tried out some new earrings. I found the tutorial from here on Pinterest.
All you have to do is open your paperclip,
wrap embroidery floss around the paperclip,
and then from side to side.
Et voila!
Gorgeous earrings!
I made a pair in teal on Saturday and I love them! Next up - metallic or sparkly embroidery floss... Those will be awesome! I also had time to make more flowers for Grayson. I haven't worked out the final details on how I'm going to put them on the hair clips or headbands, but this was a good start! I followed this tutorial for the most part and I think they look cute!
Fabric flowers!
I'm really excited to finish my other projects this weekend and get them all wrapped up and ready to send to Grayson! It was nice to have a bonus day to work on my projects! Let's hope that I don't have to many "oops" sewing photos to take this weekend!
While Amit is in Haiti this week doing a dental mission trip, Emma and I are holding down the fort. Amit left at the right time, he gets to enjoy sun and warmth while Emma and I deal with snow and cold. Thankfully, his hotel has wi-fi, so we've been e-mailing back and forth. Here is some of what I've been up to while he's been gone. I apologize for the less than stellar photos, Amit has my camera.
I finally framed our craft day project.
My very own embroidered tree trunk.
I am so excited that it turned out!
Here are some photos of the snow.
Hopefully this snow lasts longer than the rest.
It has been a slushy, rainy winter. :-(
After Christmas, Emma had too many toys for her bucket.
Now they fit... but she still dumps them all out.
Next task - teaching her how to put them back!
We've enjoyed a nice, quiet weekend. Classes start for me this week, so I figured I should enjoy the quiet while I still can. Amit promised to take lots of pictures, so hopefully we'll have some different posts for you next weekend!
Emma had a blast playing in the snow on Wednesday. She loved digging in the snow to find her tennis ball. Here's some of the pictures I took on my phone. Enjoy the video at the end of it, she was going crazy!
Her tennis ball had so much snow stick to it
that it looked like a perfect snowball.
Digging for her ball.
Mom - enough with the pictures. I want to play!
Emma was having a ball. Here's our crazy girl playing her version of catch.
During the summer months we missed our Midwest thunderstorms, but New England redeemed itself over the past 24 hours with a great Nor'easter! We were planning on staying home regardless of whether it was an official snow day or not, but I was so excited for the blizzard I could hardly sleep. I woke up several times to "thundersnow," with some very bright lightning, all of which Amit slept through. When I woke up at 5 to make sure I was off, Emma woke up and had to go out (of course). I opened the door to the back yard, she put one foot out, and froze. She looked around like she was thinking "What the heck happened to my yard?"! It was the funniest thing! We had some major wind gusts, so as soon as one hit, she came running back for the house.
Here she is exploring. Check out all that snow!
After we all went back to bed for a couple hours, we began our snow day with our official celebratory breakfast.
Waffles, anyone?
So I think that my New Year's resolution is to become as crazily organized as Martha Stewart. I spent most of the day indoors, mainly because Amit volunteered to shovel and refused my help. I did use that as an excuse to write a giant to-do list and finish most of it. I reorganized the pantry and dining room closet, did laundry, went through boxes of stuff and dumped a bunch of old stuff, went through old magazines and pictures, and brought a bunch of stuff down to the basement for storage. I was on a roll!! Amit did a great job shoveling. As you can see, he had a LOT to shovel.
Amit enjoying his workout. At least I think he enjoyed it.
Here's the final covering of snow on the grill.
Crazy!
Emma had a great time outside, too. She loved trying to find her tennis ball in all that snow.
We had a great snow day! Who could complain about a day off in the middle of the week? It was the first time we've ever experienced more than a foot of snow in 24 hours. We ended up with about 18 inches on the ground. It looks like we'll be pulling out the skis this weekend!!
... in a Winter Wonderland. Well, it was a snowy wonderland until the temperature hit the 50's. Then our walks were more of a slushy, muddy mess.
Every morning (depending on how late we were out the night before, it would be 8am or 11) we'd take the dogs out for a walk. They loved it, it was one of the few times they'd calm down and leave each other alone. They were too cute that I had to bring my camera and get a few pictures. Sometimes they'd even walk so close that they'd bump into each other. They looked adorable!
Emma liked to walk through the snow, stick her head all the way in it and then pop back up. I don't know if she was smelling something, trying to get her collar off, or just being crazy, but it was hilarious!! I wasn't fast enough to get a video of it, but you can see the snow in this picture.
I guess when we go home for the holidays everything is going to get all wrapped up in a couple of way late posts. Now where do I begin?
Ha, where else but with the dogs of course! Nate had come out to visit for a few days and the three of us (and Emma) drove out to Schaumburg. Emma did great in the car, she's totally content to spend her time sleeping and looking out the window. After 15 hours in the car, we weren't sure how well she and Max would get along, but lucky for us they did great! After her initial shock of seeing this giant, furry bear-like creature coming at her, she figured out that he makes a great playmate! The two of them spent the rest of the day, heck the trip, teaching and chasing each other around the backyard.
After all that fun outside, this is what they looked like...
The two dogs cracked us up. Emma, who likes to be in control, used every opportunity to drive Max crazy. Lucky for her, he's a total wimp and didn't start to stand up for himself (and harass her back) until the end of the visit.
Emma thinks that every toy belongs to her...
So when we gave Max his own bone, she wanted that one too...
And didn't hesitate to steal it.
Too bad Mom, Dad, and Grandma were all right there to give it back.
Not surprisingly, everything when we were home pretty much revolved around Max and Emma. Their relationship went from being one where Max was irritated by Emma and tried to ignore her, to one where both equally harassed the other, and then finally we think Max was pretty much enamored by Emma and couldn't get enough of her. We did have some human interaction as well. I managed to snap a few pictures of it.
I forced the family to take a family portrait. After much begging, posing, and organizing I pulled it off.
I'm not super happy about it, but I guess we'll just have to take some more pictures the next time we're together.
Here's our favorite present. Ron picked them out for us.
They do a great job keeping our heads warm when we walk the dogs!
(Plus they just look awesome!)
And I had to get a shot of me and my Krissy.
We were being lazy and tired so us laying on the floor is as good as it was going to get.
I'll leave with you a few more highlights from our trip.
