We have had a lot of it this winter. I feel like if I don’t document it that I will be letting my posterity down or something.

Let’s see how similar my snow photos are to yours, shall we?

The good news is that my girls only last about 10 minutes before they are ready to come inside. So it is not long before the scene above quickly transitions into the scene below:

(Millie dressed herself in “layers” are they not awesome?? It is hard to tell but the t-shirt and the cardigan are stripes and the long sleeve shirt is polka dots. I love it!)

If Jan is outside playing with them the 10 minutes of playtime doubles, you heard me, we get 20 solid minutes of frolicking in the cold, white fluffiness.

I know my place. It is indoors. Preparing to eventually deal with:

this tangled pile of gortex  and wool.

and the inevitable tears which will flow over how cold little fingers have gotten, due to this:

(that is supposed to be a glove)

But I am a mom who has seen more than one winter. I KNOW what I am doing!

20 minutes is a long time to spend in the snow after all, so I have been preparing the “magical winter ambrosia” or “liquid happiness” in this:

The “Milk Cafe”, maker of worlds greatest hot chocolate. It even hums…

And once the contents are poured into our “family mugs” (we drink a lot of hot chocolate in the winter and I’m the kind of girl who appreciates when things are monogrammed, so sue me!)

Wrap your cold paws around this, Millie – and all will be well!

Awe! That collective sigh of relief. When flannel pjs are warming cold bodies, and we settle around the table with our mugs-o-love.

On this particular evening, I was just starting to congratulate myself on how well it was all going when…

Clara spilled half a mug-o-love all over the table.

I know you moms saw that one coming. You must NEVER congratulate yourself as a mother or it is OVER.

We cleaned up the mess and then played several rounds of

UNO-MOO

Which is essentially Uno for pre-school aged kids. Here is the cool thing – Clara dominates in this game (of course we have to help her a little) but this is a great one if you have got small people in your house who think they are gown-ups and want to do EVERYTHING that their big sister does.

The moral of the story?

All tears brought on by snow will melt into a mug of hot chocolate. If you don’t congratulate yourself on a “job well done” you may perhaps avoid a spill. And no matter how many times you have to wipe your toddler’s nose, you will have to wipe it again… in a matter of moments.

Long live the snow!

I have mentioned in previous posts that we are “early risers” around here. With our new schedule in place our 5:30 AM wake up call has now been pushed back to 6:20 AM.

We will take what we can get.

Jan and I take turns waking up with the girls. (Although these days it is usually Jan who gets up with them, thank you Insomnia, I don’t know what I would do without you! Actually I do know what I would do, I would sleep!)

The other day when I woke up, this is the sight which greeted me, and quite frankly, it melted me.

Clara had been busily “tucking” Jan into bed.

As you can see, she takes the job VERY seriously!

At first it appeares that she has made sure Jan wont be lonely by giving him 5 or so little critters to keep him company.

BUT WAIT,

peel back the covers and behold!  She’d given him about 10 others.

Jan’s commentary was classic, “This is actually rather comfortable.”

(I love that guy!)

The night before Valentine’s I turned to Jan and broke the bad news to him,

“I got nothing – no plans, no presents, no energy, no nothing. Sorry. No Valentine’s celebrations for us this year.”

This was not bad news for him. It was great news,

“Oh, good! I got nothing too.”

So that was that.

UNTIL

I woke up at 4:00 AM (hello, Insomnia, how nice to you to visit me every. stinking. night!)

I figured I might as well do something other than toss and turn OR read a Georgette Heyer novel.

So I got my weary bones out of bed and scraped together a Valentine’s breakfast for our little crew.

(Yes, the waffles are heart shaped…suckaz!)

It was the right thing to do.

The girls were so happy.

It felt so right to express our love to one another and celebrate together.

I usually get a little present and balloons for the girls, but this year I just wrote them each a love note, and even managed to find a card I’d bought last year for Jan but never gave him. It felt totally blessed the way everything came together.

Translation on for the Valentine Millie wrote to Clara: ” When you are sweet, you are great.” (Which about says it all!)

My Valentine sent me back to bed and did all the dishes. THAT is what I am talking about, people!

Later in the day we carried on with the Valentine theme by painting our nails red,

and after their baths I gave the girls the special “Valentine treatment”. We always put lotion on after the bath – but this time they got to pick from my collection of Anthro lotions (step aside boring, old Eucerin) and I basically applied the lotion to look like a heart, which they then smeared all over themselves.

Of course I dressed the girls in Valentine’s colors. I may have NO spunk these days but I am STILL ME!

And that was that.

Out of nothing – thin air practically – we scraped together a Valentine’s celebration.

Did I mention I never sleep, am six months pregnant and am perpetually crusty, cranky and NO FUN.

Just saying, miracles do happen!

The other morning I woke up with a sick, sinking feeling. I was remembering one of the saddest moments of my family’s history. It was Chas’ birthday. We all piled into the car, went to the movies, then out to ice-cream and at the end of it all turned to Chas and said,

“So, how was that? Did you have fun?!”

Cricket. Cricket.

“Ummmm. Where is Chas?” “Chas?” “CHAS!!!!!!”

He’d been left at home.

On his birthday.

When we got home he had puffy eyes and tear stained cheeks.

Just thinking about it KILLS ME even to this day.

****I had a talk with Chas after this post went live. He told me he had a different memory of this day. He said he doesn’t remember being that ticked off that we’d left him or even crying. When he realized we were gone and would probably not be coming back he shrugged his shoulders and took a nap! CLASSIC CHAS! He just doesn’t get mad or offended (except when someone isn’t nice to his wife — he is NOT okay with that).*****

How could this happen? How could this darling boy be left behind on his birthday? Well, you have to KNOW Chas to understand how something like this could happen.

Chas is a gentle, quiet soul in a family full of boisterous, out-spoken, opinionated so and sos. When he was in first or second grade his teacher was one who had also taught his hilarious older brother Ian and dramatic sister Brynn. The teacher asked each person in the class to write a letter describing themselves and Chas wrote this:

“I am not shy. I am quiet.”

He wanted to let his teacher know that he didn’t live in the shadow of his older siblings. He knew who he was and how he was and he had the confidence to be himself. To be Chas.

And he was right!  there is a difference. Chas is not shy – Chas is quiet. He is gentle. He is meek. Chas listens. And Chas is strong.

He also has a knack for going to the bathroom when we are all about to leave. This is a dangerous combination -in a family of nine children, even on your birthday. Sadly, it wasn’t the first time that he’d been left behind – but it was DEFINITELY the saddest!

Anyway, today is his birthday and I for one would like to celebrate him. Last year he was on his honeymoon during his birthday and as I had posted many, many, many, many, many, many times about him in the weeks which approached and followed his birthday so, I held off until this year to honor him. Of all my sibs I think I have blogged about Chas the most. Furthermore, his wife has a blog almost entirely devoted to him. So, if you are feeling, at the end of this post, that you still need more on Chas just go and visit Sam’s blog and I do believe your needs will be satisfied. For instance, I have learned many new and cool things about him, apparently giggles in his sleep. Man, do I love this guy!

Chas is, without a doubt, one of the finest men I know. But he is not flashy or showy — he never, ever calls attention to himself.

He is also one of the funniest guys around – but herein again, even when telling jokes you have to be listening carefully or you might miss it. Ian refers to Chas’ jokes as “the still small joke”. The brothers will be cracking jokes and cracking each other up – then Chas will quietly say something and have all the brothers rolling with laughter. It’s awesome. Cameron, who was always considered the king of comedy at our house, can only be reduced to a puddle of laughter by Chas. I still remember a time when Cam was recounting something funny Chas had said and he had to pull the car over because he was laughing so hard it was impeding his driving. (I think it had something to do with “Mr. Poo”, right Cam?)

Chas has real depth. He is a person of integrity and faith. He loves the gospel, he serves humbly and diligently. He is patient and kind. He works hard and he really, really loves his wife.

He is a dedicated husband and friend to his lovely wife. The summer before he got married he lived with us while he worked in NYC. I got to spend a lot of time with him and one of the things I thought was, “Chas is going to make such a swell husband.” He is such a good listener and gives such great advice. I remember laying out a perplexing personal problem that I was having and he listened and then gave the best advice.  I was right about him making a swell husband. His wife can’t come up with a single bad thing to say about them after a whole year of marriage. They are in LURVE, people.

He served an LDS mission in bella Italia. So, this means he has a discerning palate for fine gelato,  enjoys a mean plate of pasta (as well as being able to make it himself) and he speaks Italian. And let’s just get this straight – that is a pretty awesome skill set!

He is a true and devoted friend. He is trustworthy. You know he has your best interest at heart.

He is a wonderful uncle to his nieces and nephews. You can feel how much these little people matter to him.

He is patient and willing to work hard and wait for the good stuff to come.

He is pure. I just never worry about him. I know where his heart is and it is fixed upon goodness.

He is an observer. He always seems to notice things that nobody else can see.

He is a peace maker. Once, when we was tiny he told all of us to “BE NICE!” he could barely talk – but there he was helping us to be better.

He is a talented film maker and editor.

He cares deeply about the people around him and seeks out ways to help and strengthen them.

He is kind. So kind. I just love his sweetness. But he is no pushover. His kindness does not make him a person you can walk all over. He is strong. His strength comes from his core, and at his core is such goodness.

I love him so very much and would like to raise my glass to him and wish him the happiest of birthdays! I hope this year will be full of all kinds of joy and fulfillment!

P.S. As I was gathering photos for this post and linking to previous post about dear old Chas I was reminded of this post, which I think may be one of the best posts on this here blog — and it was completely inspired by Chas!

Happy Birthday, little bro! I sure do love ya!!