Do HOT air!

This was Kate's reaction to our very first, very cold night. We were eating pizza out, finished and ran out to the car. As we are all piling in Kate yells, "close the door - DO HOT AIR!!". John and I just cracked up because the poor child doesn't even know the word heater.

And for the record it was only about 30 outside. Heaven help us when January gets here! Here she is all bundled up! Do you like her very colorful outfit? It's all Kate...let's see how many colors and patterns we can get and call it a "rainbow outfit". I love that it's always bright and happy! :)

Heaven help us!

Yes, this is what we woke up to this morning!  Actually, Lauren woke me up early to let me know that it was snowing!  Oh, yeah!!  I cannot believe that it is November 9th and I woke up to snow!

As you all know, I am NO fan of winter or snow!  I don't see the beauty of it, I don't get the snuggly winter feeling, I don't even really see the fun in it - you know, going outside and freezing until your lips are blue...I just don't love it!  The only saving consolation to the snowfall today was the girls were so excited about it that they zoomed through their school work, ever so diligently, so they could get outside and play in it.  I know it's always fun for kids when it snows - but talk to them in APRIL when it's still snowing and then we'll see!

Now, before anyone criticizes my negative attitude, please remember that I can say all this without abandon because I have told y'all my theory already - you can only complain about one season or else you are just complaining all the time!  So I choose winter - every year, without fail!  You will not hear me complain in the summer - even in Shanghai when it was like a billion degrees outside and as humid as is possible - no complaints from me.

Having said all that, I do want to go on the record as saying I haven't always hated winter.  There was a time when I was young, and living in southern New Mexico and we would get a snowfall.  We would go outside, frolic in it, play to our hearts content and then the next day, we would wake up and for the most part it would be GONE!  That is my kind of snow!  We would go on about our happy lives in winter until the next freak snowstorm occurred.  Here in the Midwest, once the snow covers the ground, rarely do we see the ground again until the springtime thaw.  Now since this storm does seem a bit freakishly early, I'm praying that it will go away and we will have a few more weeks of non-snow covered ground.  I can always hope.

I hope that wherever you are today it is balmy and warm and oh, so lovely out!  If so, go outside and enjoy it a little extra just for me!

Happy Halloween...late!

How many posts have I started on this blog with, "Man, I'm behind on posting?"  Well, chock this one up to it one more time!

The girls had a great time trick or treating and were THRILLED with all the chocolate they received.  They were blown away with all the little mini-candy bars and kept saying, "look, Mom, there aren't any hard candies!"  They were used to all the hard candy from Shanghai and didn't have any real memory of what trick-or-treating in America was like.  Needless to say, they were impressed with their bounty.  They went trick-or-treating with some of our good friends and so that just added so much more to the fun!  Even Kate got into it and was running from house to house - it must be something good if it gets Kate to run! :)

Here they are in all their beautiful Halloween glory - the big girls decided to re-wear costumes from two years back since "no one here has seen them."  Can we just say that was music to my ears! Kate was a butterfly which was easy enough to accomplish with a borrowed body suit and a wings kit from Walmart!  What can I say - I just love America and the ease in which we can get stuff here!

They are standing in our front yard so you can see that we actually had time to get our grass planted before the cold starts and it looks just beautiful, if I do say so myself! :)  It's so nice to have a big expanse of green space to run and play in - Kate says we have our own park!

I'll update more soon.  I have lots more impressions of moving back to the US that maybe one day I will get around to posting...maybe in January! :)