What do you do in the wintertime?

When your whole world is covered in white? Well here is a little list of some of the fun we had (and are still having)...Once again I started writing this post a few nights ago and now here we are having our 3rd round of snow fall. This is getting a bit ridiculous. After more than 2 weeks of an icy street, I finally saw a plow on our streets today. I guess my phone call to VDOT yesterday to express concern was worth it.

• baked bread - I'm trying new recipes in the hopes that I may stop buying bread as much.
  
• made several batches of cookies
  
• drank A LOT of hot chocolate
• made snow cream - I had to educate my SoCal husband on the joys of snow cream. You mix clean snow, milk (I used soy milk so I could have some), sugar, and vanilla until it's like soft serve. We also sprinkled mint chocolate chips on top. The girls loved it and Chuck also made a root beer float with it. Yummy!
• went sledding - the girls enjoyed going with the neighbors sledding a little too. It had been a fun way to get to know some of our neighbors more.
  
• had snowball fights
• Chuck shoveled A LOT of snow off of our driveway and even the road in front of our house. One of our neighbors told him that he has never seen anyone clear their driveway as much as he does. It gave him something to do outside and not go stir crazy in the house.
• played make believe - the girls are really into choosing different characters for each family member to be. Lucy will be Peter Pan and only respond to us if we call her Peter Pan or she'll be Wilbur the pig and crawl around like a pig and not use her hands to eat. It's quite entertaining.
  
• painted
• made Valentine cards for Leland's class
• made little puppet monsters. We aren't totally biased to just princesses. we enjoy a good sword fight or two and monsters as well.
  
• stayed in pjs for most of the day
• had dance parties
  
• learned and practiced new techniques in PhotoShop
• Chuck pushed quite a few cars up our icy street
• We panicked thinking our car window motor died after rolling only half way up. Luckily, we have a car port to put it under during the snowstorm. But Monday morning, Chuck took it to the dealership to get a diagnostic on what was wrong. The verdict --- feeling a little embarrassed that the window lock button was on. Luckily the guy did not charge Chuck the $50 diagnostic fee and just laughed at him. That's what happens when you don't go to work most of the week and just shovel snow for most of your day - you don't think straight. Pretty classic to tease Chuck about for months and maybe even years :-)
• We had church at home. This was one of the most special things that we have been able to do. With church being canceled 2 weeks in a row and Stake Conference next week, our Bishop granted worthy Priesthood holders to bless and pass the sacrament to their families. We had a fabulous one hour "church" just with our family. We all got dressed in Sunday clothes had the sacrament, then had a short testimony meeting. It was a very sweet teaching and learning experience for everyone. We then had a little Primary too. We learned a new song and had a lesson. (I used a FHE lesson from here) It was so wonderful I'm afraid Leland might start asking to have "home church" every week.
• on the computer playing Poisson Rouge. Fun website that my girls will spend forever on. They love it. I'm not sure how Chuck found it, but I'm glad he did.
• we fixed our hair. I attempted to put some braids in Leland's hair. I'm not good at all and need to start practicing/learning how to do more.
  
• We ventured out to find that only our neighborhood roads are covered in thick sheets of ice. The big problem is just our roller coaster of a street. Just tonight I watched a trash truck get towed from the slick road in front of our house. They had a massive tow truck pulling it and a crew of men throwing salt on the road between the 2 trucks. It probably took them over an hour to finally get up the hill. Tonight, we also had a maintenance man ask to park in our driveway so that he didn't have to drive the rest of the way down the hill to work at a neighbors house. So he parked in our driveway and just walked the rest of the way down.
• Most of all we've had a lot of fun spending time together as a family. The girls have really had a fun time with each other and I've enjoyed watching them play.