Aubree turned 4

Aubree the new 4-year old and big sister Carly

How did this happen?! She's still my baby.... and unfortunately I still treat her like one. I'm not sure if we'll have anymore kids and I just can't let go of that baby stage yet. (I do get extremely baby hungry.) 

 She got this adorable outfit and tea set from Nanny Nette and Grandpa.

 So, she had her first tea party with her friend, Hannah.

 They reminded me of Anne and Diana when they had their cherry cordial. They were so excited and proper to start out, but as the tea party continued they got a little sloppy with the pouring.

 Ellie helped Aubree rig up this baby carrier.

One afternoon as I was in the kitchen, Aubree was in the parlor rocking and singing. After a few minutes of quiet I went to see what she was up to. This is what I found. :)

The Blizzard of 2013

This past weekend we experienced one of the biggest blizzards to come to New England in the past century! It. was. BIG. We woke up to at least two feet of snow on Saturday morning. We also woke up to a very cold house because our power went out after dinner on Friday night. We spent the day in our 48 degree home with double layers and robes on. The girls had a wonderful time playing outside - it reminded me of my childhood winters in Idaho. The piles of snow along the sidewalks were taller than the girls.

(I totally remember walking up the sidewalk to my home through piles of snow on either side that were taller than me. I also loved when the snowplow would come by and make a nice little snow hill in the middle of our col-de-sac where we could sled and play to our hearts content. Love those memories!)

Luckily we kept our hot water during the power outage and have a gas stove to prepare food. Also, one benefit of losing power when it's so stinkin' cold outside is that you don't have to worry about losing the food in your fridge and freezer. On Saturday night the temperature got down to about 10 degrees outside so we spent the night at our friend's, the Abston's, house (they didn't lose power). After church on Sunday we came home to 37 degrees inside!!! So, we went outside to warm up (yesterday's weather report says it was a 33 degree high yesterday, but it was pretty sunny, so it felt really nice)! We planned to spend the night at Abston's house again last night, but just as we were getting ready to go to bed we found out that our power was back on. Hooray!!!! We are so grateful for our friends for letting us crash at their house, but it is always so nice to be in your own home (although the girls don't think so - they were very disappointed to leave).

I'm so sad because I looked and looked for my camera to take pictures of the beautiful snow and the girls playing and Aaron shoveling, but I just barely found it today and now it's raining and the snow is disappearing! So, these are artistic renderings of the blizzard of 2013. (I'm not sure why they are so blurry.)

by Ellise Parson

by Carly Parson