Apparently Snow's As Good As Dirt

Well, we finally have about 6 inches of snow. We get a lot of wind at our house, so it drifts a lot.....so, tough to say for sure. Some places it's a foot deep, others less than six inches, but either way, my boys are in love. We haven't had much and I haven't let them play in it yet because it's only been about 5 degrees. I freeze every time I step out the door, so I figured they would too. Well, after our episode at church yesterday, I figured today was the day, regardless.

Oh, what episode at church you say? Well, I pick up the boys at the nursery and Kyle meets me down at that end. There's a door to the outside down there that goes to the back parking lot, but we'd parked out front, so we walk through the building and go out the front doors. Well, I start putting Tanner's coat on and Kyle's starts gabbing with somebody and quits paying any attention to his kids (this is a regular occurrence.....he can't be quiet for like 5 seconds). Anyway, I get Tanner all zipped up and turn around and there's no Hunter. "Hey Kyle, where's Hunter?" "Uh, I don't know, he was right here." Yeah, okay. So, I look back in the nursery and down both halls, but nothing. What?! Kyle actually looks SLIGHTLY concerned at this point and goes to look for him. I looked outside in the back......nothing. What in the world? We can't find him. All of the sudden, Eric Freeman comes in the back door and says, "Hey Bri, looking for one of yours?" "Yeah." "He's outside playing in the snow." WHAT!? I hadn't seen him because he was off to the side. When I look, he's grabbing it and eating it. Eric offered to grab him for me because let's face it, I'm in no condition to chase ANY child and it's probably obvious. He brings him in. I grab Hunter's coat to put it on and he bolts again! Right out the door. He runs over to the snow and starts stuffing it in his mouth as fast as he can (like a starved child whose food is about to be taken away). Eric's cracking up at this point, which, can you blame him? No, not really. Anyway, we finally get the little beast in control and go home. Anyway, so today was the day.

Well, it turns out that snow and dirt share the same appealing qualities. They would do nothing but shovel snow into their little sand wagons and buckets......just like they do in the dirt. Oh wait, besides the time Hunter thought it would be fun to shove Tanner's face into the snow. Tanner looked pathetically mad until I fixed that mess. Tanner said nothing while outside except, "Dang!" every time he missed his bucket while dumping snow or fell over because he couldn't navigate in his snow clothes. Hunter just kept saying, "Good brief, Mom, this is a lot of snow!" Oh yeah, I know, buddy. Anyway, they carried on like this for an hour until I finally insisted that they looked frozen and needed to eat lunch anyway. Hunter responded better than I thought he would (trying to rationalize with me that my plan was stupid as opposed to just throwing a fit), but Tanner had a fit. This, of course, resulted in him slipping in the entry way and hitting his head on the door frame (big shock, I know). Anyway, since he looked like the kid on The Christmas Story and could barely walk anyhow, he was cushioned pretty well from the blow. You'd think after falling he would just cooperate and let me take off his snow clothes, but no......he ran. This resulted in him tripping and falling on his face right into the presents underneath the tree. Then he started crying and glared at me as if to say it was all my fault for not letting him stay outside. Whatever. I can't win. Hunter now keeps explaining to me that even though he's hit Tanner 3 times since we've been inside, he's a good boy and I should take him back outside once Tanner's down for his nap. Yeah right.
Anyway, there are no pictures of me, but I think you should all be grateful for that. I thought I was going to have to wear Kyle's snow pants, but managed to fit into one of my old pairs. I couldn't fit in the ones I currently wear because they zip and button, but my old pair had a draw cord instead, so success. I even managed to put them on with sweats underneath, which is part of the reason you're lucky there are no pictures. I have a complex about matching.....even with snow clothes (just ask Kyle, even when he gets the boys dressed I won't let him pick out their clothes because he's incapable of matching them)......so I had to wear my old coat too, so it would match. Zipping this up was a bit of a chore, but mission accomplished. I only have snowboarding boots, not actual snow boots. Anyone who has worn these should know that they're a little more difficult to walk in because the ankles are so stiff. So, if you can imagine a pregnant woman who already waddles, waddling even more while looking like a marshmallow, then you can picture my day today. I was hoping and praying that Jake and Hannah weren't home and hysterically laughing as they watched me out of their window attempting to maneuver myself around while playing with my kids. It wasn't pretty. If Jake's smirking the next time I see him, I'll know he was inside.

So, I'm pretty sure that no one can argue that my boys are incredibly cute, even if the concept of being well-behaved has escaped them.