Tales of Steve and Slithers

Happy 2017! I am excited to see what this new year brings to all of us.
We got a nice dumping of the fine white stuff this past week. Eric commented that the winter of the past month is making up for a very warm and long fall. I really haven't minded the weather though...well mostly. Not a big fan of having to go outside and breath when it's -15 and windy! It sure took me back to memories of several winters in Logan, UT back in the day. But...there is a perk! The snow here is so very different from what we got in KC. None of the wet slick stuff. I have done a lot of driving this week and all was well.
Anyway...so of course the kids took advantage of this new snow and had a blast in it. (A lot of cold bodies, snow tracked throughout the house, hot chocolate consumed...oh and doors left open for me to enjoy the cold arctic blast right in my own living room..."shiver")But I must add that I did actually spend a few hours of the cold out shoveling snow. (A winter activity I actually enjoy...no yucky leaves for me!)

The girls (especially Lilli) were so excited when they came in and told me they built a snowman...and it actually worked! They informed me that his name was Steve (Still wondering how they came up with that name) Unfortunately I didn't get a view from the side..because his carrot nose was SO cute!
Lilli decided she wanted to make a snowman family, so she added three more a little bit later and I caught a glimpse of them (adorable) as I was driving off to run errands.

I was unable to get a picture though, because while I was gone the children got in a fight and the snowman family all met their demise. (Being kicked over by an angry 5 year old). Such a sad thing. I hope they learned something...violence never solves anything. Right?

Anyhew, this is completely random- but we are all about random around here so it must be shared.
Eric has had this shiny green snake forever. (He said he's had it since High School). For the past 10ish years he's been sitting in Eric's box of ties. Well Eric pulled him out one day and gave him to the kids. They named him Slithers. Lilli had him all nested in her bed with the turtle and penguin families...until he started losing his stuffing. (Not comfortable to have rice grains in your bed so she didn't want to keep him there). So Lilli and Carmi moved him to the dresser where he sat looking all cute (and I'm sure picked up and squeezed everytime Jared and Nadia came into the room)

Today we were passing him around and I happened to say out loud that he was losing his "guts". Of course they all loved that and found ways to mention it the rest of the afternoon. Poor Slithers.