Snowflakes and Hairstyles

Sum Hop Day fun at Incredible Pizza.
Barbie and our new carpet go well together- they can stand on their own.
Soup and Sandwiches with the Butter crew. I was able to -temporarily- fix my baby fever by loving on 6 week old baby Caroline.
Miss Beautiful playing teacher to all her students. (Keep in mind that Andrew and Samuel are wearing short sleeves- it is the weekend before the snowstorm!)
Lunar New Year celebration! Our sixth year to attend Dillon's celebration that raises money for OrphanCare.
Our friends from the Vietnamese church were invited to perform a dance.
Avi Joy.was.completely.memorized.
Walked out of the shower and saw my son in a stash. Miss Beautiful had found it in the treasure box at church. Haven't laughed that hard in a while.
Somebody got braces!
As if you have not heard, Oklahoma received record breaking snowfall. We have stayed inside for over a week now. And if I may, and I can since it is my blog, get on a tiny soap box for a moment. What is the deal with everyone hating staying inside? I mean, God called it to snow. He gave us the opportunity to stop every single thing and stay home with our family. And yet we complain about staying home with our family. I just don't get it.
It is frustrating and I actually wanted to tell some people to get over it and enjoy their FLEETING downtime and extra time with their husbands and children. And don't even get me started on working mom's who complained about not going to work and had to stay home with their kids. Seriously. I mean if they were too busy, I would read FB posts about them wanting to rest. Take the opportunity is all I'm saying.
And partly this is my homebody personality coming out, when I am overbooked in life, I start to go downhill from the stress and anxiety of busyness. I do understand that working equals money and this type of month is horrible especially for small business. And when you may be in a season without family around or are single, it can be really difficult living in isolation. My prayer for myself and for others is to see things as a season. I am trying to learn to trust God and embrace my trying times instead of wishing them away.
Our backyard was a snowy paradise.
Our kids and a neighborhood friend having a snowball fight. Can you see the snowball that is in midair?
We also made snow ice cream. We made it in 5 different flavors, vanilla, strawberry, chocolate, caramel and some kind of creamy flavor that we bought at the Asian store which was my favorite.
On the second day of the storm I woke up to a flooded kitchen. We thought a piped busted, but we were actually are the sad victims of "snow damming". This snow damming is where ice is packed in the gutters preventing water to drain and since snow is packed on top of the house, the water has no where to go except under the shingles and into your home. Water was literally pouring out the ceiling fans, light fixtures and dripping in many a spots in every room on the first floor.
Here is an example of just one spot. Tomorrow we have an electrician, a restoration company and a roofer coming to begin work on the repairs. Then after the next snow storm, which is predicted for 2 days from now, a construction crew will come over to complete the job by replacing basically our entire first floor ceiling. Thank you All State, like a good neighbor, they were truly there for us. I need to be in a commercial for them, I am sold out on their customer service.
We focused our energy elsewhere, like smiley pancakes from scratch. My whole wheat banana pancakes rock, if I do say so myself. And making pancakes next to my caulking gun apparently seemed appropriate.
On the last day of the snowstorm, (only received like 4 inches that day), the Homan family dropped off Sarah to spend the night. The girls had a grand time together!
Andrew was able to play for a bit with Nehemiah as well.
We baked cookies, made sticker books, played dress-up, made up ballet dances and painted nails. It was cute because after I took this picture, I let them see it and asked if they could tell who was who. They both agreed that Avi Joy was on the left and Sarah was on the right, but they were wrong- it was too cute.
This picture does not do complete justice to her Hispanic hairstyle. Miss Beautiful is gifted in Hispanic hairstyling. I have told her many times that she is going to marry a hot Mexican man and have little bambinos running around her house.
My girls and I made some cinnamon rolls from scratch. I found a new recipe to try from Food I Crave...
And they are sooooo awesome!
Adam and I just finished a Daniel Fast. We learned so much about our faith in Him and it really prepared us to face our leaking house with a more joyful attitude. When I first saw water pouring down my light fixture I felt completely anchored in the verse, "God WILL work this together for my good because I love Him." Romans 8:28

The P's