bustin' through the winter blues

January is a month filled with snow, ice and the desperate need to see warmer temps. There is usually nothing exciting that occurs in this month and as you slowly recover from the holidays you realize you have another 3 months until Spring! As a parent January is also a month where you desperately search for activities to occupy your very energetic and stir-crazy child. You can only play so many board games or do so many craft projects before you want to start pulling your hair out! We try to come up with creative ways to pass the normally long winters we have here in Fort Wayne and I would say that we are usually pretty successful.

Olivia has been itching to go sledding ever since the first snowfall of the season. Unfortunately we had not accumulated enough snow to allow us to sled up until recently. At first she thought that since Christmas was over there were no more chances for sledding. Not sure where she got that idea, but once I explained that we still had a good few months of winter left she was willing to wait for her chance. A few weekends ago we finally had enough snow on the ground to bust out the sleds. We decided to head over to my Mom's house. She lives on a golf course and there are some pretty decent hills in her backyard. We all got bundled up and headed out in the snow (even my Mom)!

It took a few tries to get a good path packed down so that we could pick up some speed, but once we did the fun began! We all took turns flying down the hill and Olivia could not get enough! She loves adventure and this was right up her alley.

Even this 17 week pregnant lady took a few turns on the sled. There was no way I was going to just watch from the sidelines. It really was the perfect day. It was cold, but not too cold. There was no wind and the snow was perfect. I think we all tapped into our inner child that day and did our part to bust through some of those winter blues, especially my Mom and Todd.

Once Olivia would get to the bottom of the hill she would throw herself in the snow and make snow angels or just roll around. The cold really does not seem to bother her at all. My favorite part of the day were the short videos I shot. Listen to my sweet Olivia as she comes flying down the hill...

They will probably hate me for doing this, but I could not resist sharing the videos I have of my Mom and Todd taking their turns on the sled. Since I was the one taking the pictures and videos I was spared from having a video of myself show up on my blog!

Sledding was a huge hit with all of us! It looks like we will have some more opportunities to play in the snow as we prepare for a huge winter storm this week. Yuck! We really have not had to deal with too much nasty weather so far this season, but it looks like that may be coming to an end in the next few days. I can deal with the snow, but ice and the possibility of losing power worry me greatly. I am glad that we were able to squeeze in our little weekend getaway this past weekend. We took Olivia to Indianapolis for some away from home time. We stayed in a hotel (with a pool), and took a trip to the Children's Museum. She had a blast and it helped to break up the long winter months!

In other news Baby 2.0 seems to be growing as scheduled. I am currently 19 weeks pregnant and I am feeling great. We should be finding out the sex next month and then the true planning can begin. Olivia is still excited as ever to be a big sister and she is getting a kick out of watching my belly grow, or become "ginormous" as she calls it. So far things have been pretty uneventful and that is the way I like it. More to come!