To Sleep, or Not to Sleep?

I laid my baby down for a nap 45 minutes ago. She had been fed, had a bottle, even had on a fresh clean diaper after filling her pants. I then went about my daily chores, and walked past her bedroom several times to hear lots of chattering, singing, occasional thumping on the wall. Finally, I opened the door to check on her and found this...

She looks so sleepy, doesn't she??

But who can be upset at such cuteness?!? (I think you can actually see her two little teeth on the bottom if you blow up this pic below)...

Even if she is completely unaware that her nap will now be a SHORT one, since she chose to play for the first 45 minutes, and we still have to go pick up Sammie in just over an hour...

Oh well... Luckily, she is a VERY happy girl most of the time, nap or no nap...

Since Natalie chose not to nap for the past while, I decided I'd choose not to nap too, and would blog a random update, even though it's a perfect rainy day outside, and soooo tempting to curl up in bed for a few lazy minutes.

Nope, instead, I present to you, pictures of our latest Snow Day from last weekend. Actually, it's been our ONLY snowy day since that crazy storm back in October that ruined our Halloween party. Weird weather here, but we're not complaining!

We thoroughly enjoyed our one day of snow and ice, and thought it was especially nice that it came on a Saturday! The kids ate breakfast, then we all bundled up to go out and PLAY!!!

Samantha is a die hard snow-lovin' girl! She was the first one out, last one in, and begged for more later in the day, as usual.

Spencer was not to be outdone by his sister this time. He got cold, but managed to stay out and get in almost as much snow time as Samantha..

And Natalie had her first snow adventures, so fun!

She got up close and personal with it, and didn't mind too much...

She was especially fascinated with her mittens, and kept watching the snow on them. I LOVE watching babies in the snow. She was wobbling all over the place, but kept her balance pretty well.

King of the Mountain!!

Snow Queen, with ice in her hair...

We even made it down to our pond, which was just starting to freeze over a bit. The ducks haven't left for the winter. Maybe ducks don't do that?? (5 secs after I took this pic, Nat tried to climb OFF the bridge and into the pond 8-10 feet below! they really don't have any common sense at that age, do they?!)

And back inside for hot chocolate to warm everybody up...

Natalie was VERY pleased by the hot chocolate.

And Spencer too, of course!

Just so you know they aren't always quite so perfectly cute, here's Natalie eating her dinner last night... totally COVERED in rice and gravy. It's a daily occurrence. Then she smells like whatever tasty meal we had, until bath time. Sigh...

As for the post-surgery updates... Good. and Good.
My mom had surgery on her left rotator cuff last Friday. It's been a rough week with lots of narcotics and rest for her. But she's doing well. She had a follow-up visit yesterday and the doctor was very positive and said it all looks great. Whew! It's just a long recovery process, and her arm is pinned to her side, which can't be very fun. Anyway, I'm just glad everything went well for her, and that she's now on the mend!

As for Spencer, his surgery went really well, also. We forgot the camera (can you believe?? -- guess blogging/documenting it for public consumption wasn't exactly the first thing on our minds, eh?) But luckily, Brian had his trusty Blackberry with him, to take this sweet picture of our little hospital goer...

He was a perfect patient, and has had a really smooth recovery. It's been much better than I expected. In fact, to go along with the title of our post, he's actually been sleeping BETTER since his surgery than he was before (knock on wood!). Even after he got off the tylenol w/codeine (which he only took twice!).  Yay! Of course, at this precise moment he is a growly, whiny little bear because I turned off his Netflix so we can go get Samantha. Oh well... all is normal, which means all is good, right?!? We're just glad it all went smoothly and that he's our happy little boy again. Modern medicine is an absolute miracle to me. Miracle. And Blessing.

Anyway, bye for now! 56 degrees out there. In January. Weird, but I am NOT complaining!!