It was a cold winter with lots of snow.
We all enjoyed playing on the ice in the wetland behind our house.
Who needs a snowman when you can build a snow slide?
These photos show the beginning of the 13" snowstorm that we had in April. When Grant was younger he didn't want anything to do with the snow. Now, he loves it. Gracie is usually my trooper and often will stay out in the cold with me and help me shovel. On this day the snowing and blowing were too much and she went inside after about 5 minutes. 
Gracie is still a spitfire that loves to make us laugh. It is not unusual to hear her yelling, "Oh, yeah, oh yeah!" in response to anything that is exciting (like me coming home from work). She incorrectly sings the alphabet all the time and after saying,"now I know my ABC's", Grant usually responds by saying "now you don't know your ABC's". She is doing really well at using the potty. We have kept her in a diaper so far but I think the switch to undies is coming soon. She likes to play with her big bro and often is chasing "bad guys" or rescuing someone. She also spends a lot of time taking care of her baby dolls. She is most definitely a Mommy's girl and tells me that I don't know how to tuck her in if I try to put her to bed. She can be quite sensitive and if you raise your voice, her little lips puff out and she gives you the saddest look you can imagine (& sometimes cries).
Grant loves playing video games and we definitely have to limit how much he plays them. In particular he loves anything Mario. He is the first one awake in the morning, usually getting up between 6:30 and 7. Gracie gets up somewhere between 7 and 8. He can count to 60 and can count backwards from 10. Lara and I helped him a bit in learning to count to 60 but never mentioned anything about counting backwards. After he surprised us by counting down from 10 to 1, he mentioned that he learned it by watching the time countdown while playing Mario. He is still fascinated by space and in particular by black holes. Back in January Grant said something that was pretty funny and so I want to document it here. After he got in trouble for bad behavior and finally calmed down, I asked him why he didn't listen to me when I first told him to behave. He said, "I heard you and I understood you, but I just didn't listen. Life is tricky." Who can argue with that?! That is the epitomy of our boy. He always has an answer, for good or for bad.
As my 83 year old neighbor said," you have happy, healthy kids and that's what matters." I couldn't agree more.
Our snow finally did all melt away last week as we finally had warm temps. We actually had a day in the 70's but that was unfortunately followed up by a day in the 30's and an inch of snow. As the weather began to break, we went on a small hike to view the Niagara River by our house.
In the last photo you see Grant with a bunch of sticks in his hand. He wants to collect nearly ever stick or leaf that he comes into contact with. He also hates to throw things in the garbage because he says that he wants to keep them for "crafts".
Grant also took the opportunity afforded by the warm weather to work on his truck.
It has been a great winter and we loved having all the snow but are quite excited that spring weather is finally coming around.
