Tag Archives: snow

Snow Babies, part two

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The weekend following Thanksgiving, I hung out with 5 giggly girls – and a bunch of snow ever-so-fortuitously dumped on us. A great excuse for hats and boots and mittens and Nonna snapping some pics!

snow babies

How perfect is this? Then…

snow babies amelie

Yesterday I shared Snow Babies, part one, with snapshots of 5 of my cherished grandbebes (Gavin, Hunter, Malakai, Evangeline and Oliver). Today the rest: Guinivere, Gemma, Averi, Amelie, and Bailey.   All pics snapped on the iPhone 6+

And as fate would have it, today is a major ***Snow Day***

Guini

Guini texted that she wanted to spend her snow day with me. How sweet is that? She’s 10. She came over for a few minutes, but actually formed a band with her brother and sister. Their dad posted a few seconds of their performance on Instagram and  3 hours later, it has 1100 likes. 

Guini

Guinivere looking so grown up and so much like her mommy. Wasn’t that just yesterday?

Bailey Bailey

Bailey-Baby, 2. She’s the little, but oh-so-powerful one.

Gemma Gemma  gemma

Gemma May is 8 1/2. She is all the colors!

Averi  averi averi

Averi. She turns 8 tomorrow! 

amelie

Amelie sent me voice memos saying, “FaceTime us, Nonna, we’re having a snow day!” That melts my heart!

amelie amelie

Amelie is 5 and was the ornery one. Snow was flying very which way. And she couldn’t quit giggling and incriminating herself.

 

bailey baby

A bonus picture of Bailey from craft time. We made Saint Lucia crowns.

It is a white out in the Denver area. I texted all my grandbebes and said, “Look out at that white, white snow. See how pure it looks? Well, that’s what Jesus’ blood does to our messy, ugly sin. He covers it and then we are WHITER, even, that this snow! Can you believe it?! Whiter than snow!

Psalm 51.7 “…wash me, and I will be whiter than snow”

Promise I’ll go easy on the grand-kid pictures for awhile.  But I am a Nonna. What are you gonna do? :)

Snow Babies, part one

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I can’t remember if I’ve mentioned I have 10 grandchildren?

Haha! Just kidding. I know I have mentioned it.

FB collage

Our FB header recently

They are so much fun, these grandbebes of mine. They let me kiss their heads and squish their cheeks. They let me hug them tight and call them by many silly names of endearment. They call me Nonna. And that is enough to melt me all the way.

IMG_0346Gav 12 1/2  Gavin, 12 1/2Hunter 11 Hunter hands raised Hunter, 11
the boys Hunter and Gavin, cousins and buddies

What is it about grandkids? Why on earth do they turn us upside down in the most dazzling and deliriously happy way?

When Gavin came along, my very first grand-boy, almost 13 years ago, I wasn’t really seeing myself as a grandmother at all. I sure wasn’t going to be one of those people bragging about them, pulling out a stack of photos and gushing with pride. Yeah, right.

But this thing happens. I looked at my daughter just having had a baby and thought, “Wow – she is amazing, look what she did.” And in short order, I tumbled head-over-heels for this little red-headed guy.

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Evangeline is 2. And always looking for a reason to smile. Here, we had tossed some snow her way.

eva in snow

Evangeline and Oliver

The snow was so deep this day, we had Oliver on a little chair. I decided to re-do their a shoot a week later to make him more comfortable. But we got some great ones this snowy day!

Then came Hunter and it happened again. By the time Guini came along, a grand-girl, I knew to clear my schedule for falling in love.

Each time a grandbebe comes in to my life, I know it will never be the same. My heart gets bigger. It gets expanded and beats hotter with love, stronger love than I knew existed. It beats with wild joy and passion for another little human being, something of me, a part of me I’ll leave to the world. I will never get over these ten…and anymore who may come along. :)

Oliver happy Oliver, 10 months. He liked sitting on the ground a lot more  (especially since I covered it with a sheet)eva and oliver

IMG_0872_2oliver 10 months

On 5 different days, each with snow falling or on the ground or still around from a previous snow, my sweet grands let me snap some shots of them with a tree-on-fabric thing I got from IKEA a couple of years back. All snapped on the iPhone6+.

kai kai

Malakai, almost 3 here, just wanted to lob snowballs at his Nonna.

kai throwing snow at nonna kai smile

I live in Colorado. There will be snow. We need the snow. I certainly long for snow every single Christmas. After that – not as much snow zeal here. But these pictures of ten little human beings who love me like I love them? Well, they make the snow oh-so-much-more enjoyable. Oh yes, they do.

Let it blister and bluster and blow…Let it snow!

Lucky you…I’ll share 5 more of my sweet snow babies tomorrow, when I’ll likely be snowed all the way in!

Snow Babies, part two

 

The Day the Leaves Fell Down in Denver

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“That’s the Day that Leaves Fell Down in Denver,” to the tune of “That’s the Night that the Lights Went Out in Georgia”  ;)

October 7 :: Kai and I picnic in the backyard. The leaves were changing color right before our eyes. However, the Aspens, just to the left – still green.

kai picnic

October 22 :: The yard is ablaze with every autumn hue.

In the back yard yesterday 2

November 8 :: Just another pretty (blue sky) day in Denver

#thesearethemoments aspens and blue sky

But today…November 10th :: the north wind blows, the temp drops 30-degrees in a few hours and the flakes start to fall.

We hit our high of 64 degrees at about 7:30 am this morning.

The Aspen leaves, the last of them that have held on for all they’re worth, the ones that have waved at me happily with each gentle breeze as the sweetest autumn days have drifted by   – they are getting kicked out on their butts! Today is the day, I am thinking.

I’d say the Aspens were at about 50% leafery (made-up word) on Saturday. But that harsh, cold, north wind (thanks a lot, North Dakota) is changing everything…wait… I just saw snowflakes…!!!

{Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr} 

The BEST version of “Autumn Leaves” on the planet:

By the incredible, late Eva Cassidy. In honor of a wholly gorgeous 2014 fall season…This is the way I sing it around the house or at the keyboard. It is the MOST beautiful!

This weather re-cap has been brought to you by a woman who hates winter, but who lives in a wintry state.

Ay-yi-yi. Just clinging to my fair-weather memories.

Good Morning, Snowflakes!

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Perfect!

It’s snowing.  Now re-read that like Alvin said it to Dave on the classic Chipmunks’ Christmas album.  {Look, Dave – it’s snowing!}  Did you insert you very own Chipmunk voice there?  I hope so!

The morning snow delights and surprises.  Yes, even though they told us on the news it was coming.

I come downstairs to a fresh pot of coffee and Bedford Falls glowing softly, ready to thrill the grandbebes for Christmas.  Snow is falling with white, fluffy enthusiasm and the timing is perfect as now (after all the wedding excitement) we can begin to fully embrace this most joyous of seasons and do our decorating.  This is the weekend for it.

Today is our first “official” day in the office for future ministry stuff (to be announced shortly).  Meeting our new and most-amazing intern, Emilee, there too.  She could not be dissuaded from driving down from Fort Collins even for snow.  We will be working on The Christmas Party* (PLEASE COME! admission is canned goods for families in Joplin still struggling to rebuild their lives after the tornado in May).  And looking ahead with anticipation.

Then home to unveil the Santa collection, I hope, and perhaps start putting up the family-tree, the one with handmade ornaments and bits and pieces of an enduring family life.

Naturally, Dean is in my head.

 

*The Christmas Party~

Professional photographers will be on hand to snap family photos  and the variety of artists and talents represented is the best show in town!  Put it on your calendar and plan to be there!

Christmas is only 19 Days Away!

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“From my living room window as I write, I can look out across the broad front lawns of our farm like a lovely picture post card of wintry New England.  In my fireplace the good cedar logs are burning and crackling.  I just stopped to go into my gleaming kitchen to test the crumbly brown goodness of the toasted veal cutlets a la {?} in my oven.  Cook these slowly…”  Elizabeth Lane (as played by the versatile and provocative Barbara Stanwyck) sitting in her New York apartment (pretending to be on a farm in Connecticut) typing her column  for the American Housekeeping Magazine in the movie, “Christmas in Connecticut”

pikespeaksnow1

No toasted veal cutlets warming in my oven here (I just had a slice of cold pizza for breakfast), but along with a rich cup of steaming-hot coffee I am enjoying a delicious, slow Sunday morning in the Colorado air where a light, dusty snow is falling softly like grace, covering the winter-scarred landscape with a sparkling beauty in  a gentle silence.  In a pallette of white alone, God manages to cause the somewhat lifeless winter look to awaken in splendor and reveal His mercy-covering nature to a fallen world.

Snow falls like grace and suddenly all things are new again. 

“God’s voice thunders in marvelous ways; He does great things beyond our understanding.  He says to the snow, ‘Fall on the earth,’ and to the rain, ‘Be a mighty downpour.’  So that all men He has made may know His work, He stops every man from his labor.”  Job 37.5-7 NIV

image found on google: Rocky Mountain Reflections Photography, Inc.  by Andy Cook

22 Days and Counting & the True Meaning of Christmas

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Has anyone ever really said it better?

Did you see the full moon last night, first all huge and orangy just emerging over the horizon and then bright in the blue, white-puffy-cloud sky?  Oh it was gorgeous (from my seat in the car in the church parking lot where it took a full half hour to warm up!).  The stars were twinkling and the dry snow shimmered in its moonlit bath while I listened to a rather decent selection of Christmas music on Cozy-101.*   And it was frigid, frightfully lung-freezing cold at 19-degrees, but there is something so pure, so quiet in that.

This is the only time this year I plan to romanticize winter.  It happened.  It was beautiful.  Now let’s get back to a regular Colorado winter.  For crying out loud. 

*I want Delilah’s job (weekdays 7pm – midnight on Cozy!).  And that cannot be her real name?  Come on.

Snow Daze

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youtube.com: “Snow” from the movie White Christmas;  daughter Stephanie quoted this song on Facebook the other day and reminded me how hilarious the words are. 

“I wanna wash my hands, my face and hair in snow.”

Thank-you, Jesus, the snow has finally subsided and the meltdown begins.  By 4 pm today huge sheets of thick, heavy, wet snow were sliding off the roof in loud splats, scaring my big-fat-chicken dog.  The sun re-emerged and made me very happy.

snow-jovan-013

I never heard the official numbers for my city, but my own {highly scientific, I am certain} measuring says we got 13 1/2″.  I know this partly because I left my 12″ ruler in place at 10 pm the first night where the measurement said 9.25″ and the next morning, it had disappeared.  I had to pull out a yard stick.  Dessa’s neighborhood got more than a foot and a half of snow.

snow-jovan-027 snow-jovan-030 snow-jovan-061

If some one really is excited, as the song says, “to see a great big man entirely made of snow,” now would be the time.

pictured: snow measurement first thing Thursday morning; a huge pot of chicken and dumplings which Jovan had fortuitously requested for her family birthday party meal, as well as a balloon snowman Tredessa fashioned and Averi enjoying a piece of the very moist and dense triple-layered pumpkin spice cake with that cream cheese icing you could just die for.  Hot comfort food on cold days: good!

Previous snow update

It Had to Happen

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genthumb

9 News/KUSA – A large snow storm will cause blizzard conditions to develop around Denver and over much of northeastern Colorado on Thursday.

 A BLIZZARD WARNING is in effect through 6am on Friday for Denver, Boulder, Fort Collins, and all of northeastern Colorado.

Following a nearly snowless winter season, we will finally get some moisture.  Can’t wait to see my grass in a few days!  So far, though, it is not living up to last night’s newcast hype.  Not quite the raging devil we’d been told.  But, they say we could get 12″…we’ll see?

Baby, it’s cold outside

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Woke up to 14-degrees below zero today, but it may make it all the way up to the 11-degrees promised because of the sunshine.

Meanwhile, some one stole my husband’s beloved and treasured snow shovel (it is like 12 years old, but it was a goodie!) and he is in mourning.  Left on our porch, the thief knew a good thing when he saw it!

Brrrrrrrrrrrrr…Jeanie