The Snow Days of February

In honor of this beautiful spring which is now upon us, I will conclude all wintery posts with this. 

It is easy to concisely include all snow days from this winter in one post...we only had a few, and we only went sledding once! 

Photo by Elodie....isn't it lovely? 

These horses are down a lane next to our home

L-L's snow horse sculpture

She even made a rump, which is hardly discernible but if you look closely, it's there.

While taking a solitary nature walk on his off-day, Sam caught our neighbourhood's notorious red fox in action....

As for the sledding day...it was bitter cold but it was lovely just the same. As is traditional, we headed over to the best hill in the area.

Our hill

What you do at the top of the hill

I love my Laura-Lise!

Loves me JERB!

Because I took this neat picture and I'm sure it's Nikola's favourite picture of herself....I'm posting it. ;) It is pretty interesting. Kind of ''lost in the barrens-ish''

February home life and Valentines day

Katia
 photo by Elodie

  Going through pictures on the computer, I discovered several which were pleasant- especially to me because I lived them- and good examples of the rest of February not yet depicted on the blog! I know you were dying to read another post from me. :)

And I am such a perfectionist, I cannot skip to March without finishing up February appropriately!

Jessie's Greek title page for history- I love seeing the things they whip up. 

Random lunch :) ('twas the week Brie was on sale)

Our home. 

Just kidding. 

It's Valerie's home.

Or rather, the one she gets to be nanny to 2 adorable children at!

 I wouldn't complain, getting to spend some days there, taking care of kiddies! :)

Another moment of February: spending time with these dear children

Back home:Jessie's funny old dog Scampy :) He was our first puppy after many years of not having dogs. Now he spends his days sleeping, shuffling around inside or out and hoping for tidbits of food from selfish humans who appear to be constantly eating.

Just because I usually do, I must share some pics from Valentines. 

Which breakfast we did on the 12th or something.

We re-decorated our Christmas tree with February-appropriate ornaments. I won't mention the shocking purple Christmas lights we also adorned the tree with. 

don't ask me who's idea that was. But it wasn't Sam's. 

More likely it was the small one. 

Such an important occasion as Valentines called for one...or two...or three chocolate cakes. :) Seriously, it made sense: 1 super healthy cake for we 3 health nuts, 1 super unhealthy cake for our Dad, and 1 medium-healthy cake for the others. :) Don't worry, we froze leftovers. 

It was fun sharing Valentines....rather than each of us making 10 cards for our family members and ending up with a collection of 110 cards to store and treasure, we just pick a family member's name from a hat and make a wee- or not so wee- card for them. 

On Valentine's- a Saturday- we worked hard as usual, went skating as usual in the unusually frigid weather and had a dolls' Valentines party when we got home. The things you do for 8-year olds. And end up enjoying. :) 

A violent Valentine's tea with the dolls

There was some unreasonably hilarious rivalry between Sammy and Tien-Pao

Meeting little William February 2015

As promised, some more pictures from the meeting of a new member of a family we know and love!

I love my collection of Mama and baby pictures!!!

This girl hasn't held many babies in her life! But she looks like a pro. :)

Of course everyone had to hold the little fellow :)

Sam William B. holding William B.

Me again

He is Risen

 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.  John 1:4-5

Sometimes, I am not good with words. 

Especially important words. 

Words about the most wonderful things in life. 

(Thus the neglect of thoughts and such on this blog!)

So I will simply share some of my favourite verses which are in my heart this season. 

And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light and its lamp is the Lamb....Revelation 21:23

I love this verse, and am overwhelmed by it every time I read it!

We all love light. It is a natural instinct with humans to crave light and fear darkness. 

And there is a reason for that....it is a picture of Christ being the Light of the world! 

Do you have His light in your heart?

 If not, are you seeking the Light to overcome the darkness in your heart?

But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall.

Have a blessed Resurrection Sunday. 

And remember, it is not a one day holiday. We must celebrate His resurrection every week...every day! (I am blessed to attend a church where I feel that they celebrate this every week!)

February 2015 dance with friends

February 2015...another dance with friends! 

This one was particularly enjoyable. (if anyone has an alternative for the word ''enjoyable'' I would appreciate any suggestions. I need a new stand-by word meaning...enjoyable. :) )

It's always so delightful to spend time with friends at a dance...and one marvelous aspect of this event was we got to meet a new little person (see end of post)!
Enjoy.

(Irish Washerwoman....a favorite!)

Jessie and I were ''twins'' that night :) 

I love siblings. :) Actually, you can see Valerie, Jessie, me, and Sam in this pic.

And a little video from Elodie or Laura-Lise:

+Scott 

+Samuel 

+J. Andrew Wong 

Sam looks like he's driving a car or something when he turns corners in dances ;P

Meredith- so pretty!

We were glad our friends the Beckmanns came!

A fun ''Scottish'' picture. Look at little Emma. Don't look at me. Please. Thank you.

A little video by Elodie or Laura-Lise of the Scottish:

                                               
                                           and a better video of the Scottish from +Stately Steps :)

           

After dancing, the volleyball-ers line up....

And the less active peoples watch enthusiastically:

It was an especially exciting game!

Very fun to watch!

haha

Sam the man

Laura-Lise is an (overly) enthusiastic photographer! Here she inspects Lindsey's work on my hair before taking a few dozen snapshots of it (most of which she deleted).

Interesting

(by Elodie or Laura-Lise)

Modern-ish art-ish

Oh! At this dance, a major highlight was meeting one of our favorite couple's newborn! 

Content with her Grandma

Aww...

Everyone was delighted to meet her!

...And 2 days later, we got to meet another new person! :) 

Which made it such a Special week! 

More pictures later