Clean and Fresh

It's been fascinating to see the progression the snow has taken.

That first day, it was so powdery that making a snowman or a formed snowball was difficult (see disintegrating ball head towards my eldest.)

The second day, it had become crunchy/wet enough to make the perfect snowball. Jake left Exhibit A on my back, no photo as the photographer was engaged in intense snowball battle at the time.

The third day and going into today, everything that had been wet or melting snow froze over. When we arrived home last night, our front yard was a sheet of ice covering the snow. Today Abby Jane and I went outside to play while the twins slept. I attempted a bit of snowsurfing (thinking Jake had already done it yesterday), and absolutely busted on the flattest part of my ride- on the driveway. It was great. Turns out Jake had not tried surfing on our ice- thought it was crazy- that would have been good info for me to have...

Regardless, snow is so clean and fresh looking- the sparkle of the ice covering the snow is so pretty...

In the spirit of the New Year, I decided to lighten up our living room. When we arrived in this home, we thought it would be short term, so I just threw an old print on the wall and our same pillows on the sofas. This is from the week we moved in.

Here is my "lightened" living room! It's amazing what new pillows, a new sconce, white frames, and some black and white favorites can do.

If you can't be in Glendale...

You might as well drive up to the grandparents' and have your other Grammy come join and all get snowed in together!

There was plenty of sledding.

But the most popular mode of snowsport was Bop Bop's idea- kayak rides! Mush, Jake, mush!

Bop Bop's turn to do some pulling...

A short-lived three-girl sled ride...

Ice blue Joy in the ice cold... her bottom lip cracks me up in this picture.
Mimi and Bop Bop with the girls.
Grammy learned how to snow surf.

On championship night, Blythe got her game face on.

And then was the game we'll all remember for forever. I cried. It is truly great to be an Auburn Tiger. I so dearly wish we might have gone, but it was a fantastic evening at the Gross home experiencing this incredible game all together. I won't say it was a once-in-a-lifetime game because I fully expect Auburn to return to the National Championship in my lifetime, and next time we will be there!

Mimi and Abby Jane rolling a tree the next morning... our on-location version of this beautiful sight!

I was so proud listening to Coach Chizik, Cam, and every player I heard interviewed- all giving glory to God. WAR EAGLE!

WAAAAARRRRR EAGLE!!!!

How did your year begin?

It has been a full, full week, but I got pictures from a few of the things that have been filling our time. In the midst of it all, there has still been time for the girls to continue to love their new "playroom."

The little ones love to stir! This was the first time I could catch them both stirring at the same time. Too precious.
Blythe has a thing about having two objects most of the time, one in each of her hands. Usually it's something more portable, but on this morning, she was more ambitious than usual.
My precious friend Katie, her mom, and Carlton met us at Mom's house for one last playdate before they returned to Seattle.

These folks are less than three weeks apart. Carlton is a fast, busy boy, but the girls compensated for their lack of speed with ability to be rough-and-tumble,

thanks to training as little sisters to an almost 3 yr old! We sure love those friends and soaked up every moment together!

Finally, this morning, I was trying to get them dressed for church, and they just wanted to be silly in Abby Jane's bed! Abby Jane was really proud of her "silly trick" as she calls these kinds of moves!

Now to the biggest concern we all have... the snow that is coming down as I blog had BETTER NOT prevent the few of us who are NOT in Glendale from watching the game!!! Those of you who are there, watching the game we will all remember for a long, long time... cheer for all of us!! WAAARRRR EAGLE!!!!!!! IT'S GREAT TO BE AN AUBURN TIGER!!!!!!!!

Cheers!

New Year's Eve hike up Kennesaw Mtn.

Without cousins to hike with, it took a little convincing to get out of the stroller and do some hiking with her own two legs. We're trying to teach healthy habits, though...
We went straight from our hike to celebrate Granny's 85th birthday with aunts, uncles, Mimi, Bop Bop, and a few cute cousins!

After naps that afternoon, we took advantage of having grandparents in town and let the girls go to bed at Grammy's while we spent the Eve-ning with sweet friends playing games and enjoying delicious food!

New Year's Day was rainy and nasty out, so we spent the day there at Mom's house. My kids have been spoiling us with sleeping until 7:45 or 8:00 some days, and New Years was one of those! It was great having a relaxing, cozy day as a family.

Happy New Year!

Speaking

I know a new post is long overdue- this week has been extremely full and eventful for our family. I'll get to some posts later.

This morning, I just wanted to share that God has been so good in speaking to me this week. I'm a TERRIBLE TERRIBLE listener to Him. My mind is too full of my own thoughts and agenda when I'm praying or talking to Him. But God has somehow gotten around that and had GREAT things to teach me this week through my Bible study, through a novel I read the week prior, through random songs... it's been really great.

So if you're like me and have a hard time hearing Him sometimes, be encouraged He is SO at work and loves us and is doing things with our best in mind, even when you don't realize it.

I'll give one example, though there are many this week. I have been just a bucket of bellyaching about our house ever since we moved in. "Thankful" for a safe, decent house to live in, but not really thankful for other details about it. But as I finished my run yesterday, it was laid on my heart that I am the reason we are living here. Because He loves me and knows me. Because in this unattractive yet safe neighborhood, I have a safe place to run and a loop that is long enough for me to do my entire long run right here and even get some good hill workouts. Even in my mom's beautiful neighborhood or where Jake's parents are in idyllic Cartersville, I would not have a place to do an entire long run without getting on some main roads, which wouldn't be very kosher at the hours I run.

So it is because of God's graciousness and knowledge of what has been so important for me on many levels that we are here. And I was the one making the biggest complaint. I'm sure there are other reasons, too, but that one was what popped in my head yesterday. I've heard it said that when things pop in your head that don't sound like you, it's probably not. :)

SOOO... I had that revelation on my front step stretching, then came inside and my Bible study yesterday talked about (in Isaiah 24) how we can be brought from "complaint" to "understanding"! Wow. To have that be what I read when that's exactly what happened five minutes before was pretty amazing confirmation. God is good and He loves us so dearly.

Four friends, seven kids

When I was barely older than Abby Jane, I met Katie and Betsy; then Whit came along in 5th grade.

25 years later, seven kids (with two sets of twins) here we are!

Last week, we had a sweet reunion when Whit made a detour to ATL while the other girls happened to be here as well! Though I have had the honor of meeting everyone's babies, it was everyone else's first time to meet some of the newest additions! Four babies have happened since the last time all four of us were together.

It was so so sweet having that time with these lifelong friends, and it was also fun to have our first friends over to help christen the new play area!

I love you, sweet friends! I pray my girls will have girls like you to bless them their entire lives like you have blessed mine!