There is "snow" weather like KY weather

We had our first snowy day in the area last week which worked out perfectly with our snowy learning time then this week we started off the week with 60 degrees and thunderstorms!! Oh Kentucky weather you have a way of changing the way one understands seasons!

Seriously though. We just kept moving right along with our winter topic and have been having big fun with it. We will continue this with some polar bear and penguin stuff coming up and probably some more snow and snowman stuff too. Here is a quick look at what we've done so far.

I can't believe we haven't done this before as it was one of my go to's when I was teaching in a public school classroom. First my lil lady painted a snowy scene with shaving cream and then we just had fun exploring it some more. Every once in a while I would draw a shape or make a letter in it, but mostly she just had fun! By the way, while we were doing this it actually started snowing! Just flurries, but it was still sort of magical ;)

We painted with ice which was really fun, but really messy!! Next time I won't be lazy and will go upstairs and get some popsicle sticks to make it less mess :)

It wouldn't be winter in KY without a random almost 60 degree day looking for interesting rocks at the lake and then some smiley swing time!

We had snowman ice cream sundaes.

We also made egg carton snowmen. Lylah likes these so much that we had to make two!! And I couldn't pass up the sweet footprint snowman!!

One morning Nathan was home and I needed to run to town. There were a few activities that we hadn't gotten to so daddy filled in as my sub!!! They made this sweet toilet paper snowman!!!

That same night it snowed!!! So the next morning we went out for some super cold snowy fun!!

Lylah thought that Ezra needed to be cozy so she covered her up and read her "A Snowy Day"!

The best way to play in the snow....in a sensory bin!!!!

A few short days later, the snow was melted and it was 60 degrees and stormy!! That didn't stop us from doing a counting buttons on a snowman activity!!

And building an indoor snowman! Lylah LOVED it!!! She just kept giving it one more hug all during lunch!!

And we finished tonight with some snowman milkshakes!! Yummmmy!!

We also have been doing some letter, math, and Bible activities but I shall blog about that later :)

Thank You Pinterest for helping me get organized (a bit)!

I've been trying to organize and get rid of some clutter this new year. Enter pinterest! Such a useful little tool for someone like me!!! Here are a few projects I've been up to!!

Cleaning and Menu Planning dry erase.

Remote control caddy.

And my favorite, a mail sorter made out of a cereal box!!! Yay for working on projects I pin!!!

Reflecting back and looking forward

This New Year has been the strangest that I can remember. The celebration was a ball; spent with good friends and yummy food, but I've just been funky really. I wish I could explain it, but it really all boils down to trying to find happiness in people and circumstances instead of finding joy in Christ. I can thank a wonderful Wednesday night sermon for that reminder. Anyway, with that being said, I finally feel that I can usher in the new year in my heart as well as reflect on 2011. If my memory served me better I could give you a month by month play by play, but alas I am not a good memory keeper so an overview will have to do. :).

We began the year with accepting the call to expand our family through adoption. That took us on a journey of watching God provide in some pretty amazing ways through fundraisers, private donations, and even one family supporting our adoption monthly. Wow-what a precious thing to watch the hand of God!!!

Other memories from the winter of 2011. We played in lots of snow!

With the spring came making the decision to leave my teaching career official by telling my precious assistant. Later, the day before my 30th birthday, I let my principal and super attendant know. I love the kiddo's and parents at Cherry and am able to keep up with many of them on facebook, but every single day since the end of May I have been thankful for the step of faith we made in our decision for me to stay home. Not only do I get to teach and train our lil lady, but we have also seen God provide again and again just like He promises.

We said "see ya later" to some of our very best friends a they made the journey to Swaziland. We of course continue to miss them tons, but are enjoying our pen pal correspondence as well as our skype and phone calls!

Nathan tried out for the fire department during the summer and got put on the future hire list. That basically means that the door has not been closed on that possibility, so we continue to pray for God's will.

We took two vacations in July. One to Gatlinburg and one to Mississippi. Lylah got to see the ocean for the first time and love it!

We ended our vacations and went straight into party mode a our lil lady turned 2!!

The fall brought the beginning of tot school as well as an opportunity to share about sensory bins with our MOPS group. Fall also brought new friendships and a bad case of Vertigo for Nathan.

And like most of you we ended the year by celebrating Thanksgiving and cherishing the season of our Savior's birth.

So as we look forward to 2012 we know it will be like every other year as far as having peeks and valleys, but we are thankful that we will not go alone as Christ has gone before us.

We would appreciate your continued prayers concerning our adoption. Things are at least moving again. We are praying that we will not only accept a referral for our sweet Lydia some time this year, but also brig her home. Please pray that the after referral wait time speeds up. Right now they are saying 10-15 months after the referral. God's timing is perfect, but we also know that He is bigger than that time frame. Also pray that we will wait well for His perfect timing especially if it is not this year.

One thing that 2011 has taught us is that God is faithful so we will choose to praise Him for His faithfulness in 2012 whatever that ends up looking like.