Double Snow Days!!

The last 48 hours have been quite interesting. The St. Louis area has been blanketed by about 8 inches of snow and my kids have been home since Monday at 3pm..,whew! And to top it off Aaron left for D.C. Sunday evening which I think was planned when the forecast was discovered! And so we have had double snow days which means double mugs of hot chocolate, double wet snow gear littered through every entrance to our house, double dressing and re-dressing and double shoveling! Mama is ready for Daddy to be HOME! The girls will probably be the first kids dropped off at school tomorrow. :) Just kidding (kind of..)...we have had a lot of fun but I am ready to get back on track and ready to reclaim the house. Jordan and Olivia spent many hours outside the last few days and didn't come inside until I made them. I gauged their time outside by the brightness of their cheeks. When they became a bright hue of red I knew it was time! They would have stayed out there ALL day! Rachel and Madi were of course huddled under blankets reading and drinking coffee. Nothing new! I am actually not sure if they know that it even snowed.

And so this was our first try at shoveling our ENORMOUS driveway. I am cursing the person that poured that ridiculous driveway since it is at least double of all of our neighbors. I thought our old driveway took a long time but this one doesn't even compare. I finally gave up and only did Aaron's side of the garage since my car is four wheel drive and his isn't. Wasn't that nice? And that still took me forever with my sweet next door neighbor helping me. I am hoping it melts soon because I refuse to shovel anymore. Where are the young boys knocking on doors asking to shovel? They were nowhere to be found today. I am sure they saw our driveway and decided to pass...I don't blame them!

The girls had fun finding all of the new hills to sled down. And I must say that we have some pretty good hills here. They were thrilled and had a blast with all of their new friends. We even met a new girl today named Olivia so that was a bonus. She was much more conservative with her sledding than my girls who like to go down flights of stairs and off huge embankments but I am sure they will break her into the "Crowell way". :)

I must make a confession before I end this entry. When the automated phone call came cancelling school, the girls were still awake and getting ready for bed and I acted like I was talking to Aaron so they wouldn't know that school was cancelled until the next morning. Pretty clever huh? I did it two nights in a row...ha! I knew they would never go to bed if they knew school was cancelled.

And so on this 28th day of January I wanted to wish two special men in my life a Happy Birthday. First, I wanted to tell Peyton Ray Happy 12th Birthday. If God would have blessed me with a boy I would want him to be just like you! I am sad that you live in Houston now and I can't see you every week but I so enjoy our visits and thank you so much for teaching me how to ride a rip stick. Next time I come to Houston I am going to show you my moves! Ha!

And also Happy 49th Birthday to Trey Smith. I told him tonight at dinner that there aren't too many men that I can honestly say that I love but Trey is one of them. He is such an incredible mentor to Aaron and to myself for that matter and we are so thankful to have him in our lives. He has taught me more about what it means to be a Christian than any other person on this earth and for that I am eternally grateful. He is a great man!