It's beginning to look a lot like....Oh, wait. It's suppose to be Spring!

It seems like most of the country is getting some surprise wintery snow storms, and Michigan isn't being excluded from the madness. Look at what our back yard was like last night when we spotted the fox. Then take a look at all the snow that's fallen here since last night!

A Touch of Spring

We experienced a touch of spring after most of the snow melted about a week and a half ago. Kourtney really enjoyed riding her bike while I pushed Ellary around in the stroller on the Preserve trail. We also spotted as many as six deer grazing in the preserve behind our house. Then just a few days ago four deer were eating our lawn, one of which (the one with the broken front leg) stared at me through the slats of our wooden fence. It was great to see them again. They always seem to reemerge when the snow melts. We had the pleasure of watching the red fox hunt and pounce just like a cat does, and an opossum also came out of hiding to scrounge for food.

Now there is snow back on the ground. Alyson is happy because she can sled. Kourtney on the other hand wishes it would all go away so she can ride her bike again.

Notice the doe's broken leg that looks like a hook. Although it doesn't function much like a leg anymore, she still gets around quite well.
You can see the oppossum's head just above the shadow of our house to the left of center of the picture. (Click on the picture to make it bigger)

Sledding Obsession

Obsession...maybe. But when you live in a place with so much snow, and freezing tempretures, you have to find some way of enjoyng it. Sledding has become our way of dealing with all this snow!

Here are some pictures from Monday night when the bishop's daughters came over to sled with us. Ellary just sat in her carseat and watched everyone have fun. She is the most patient baby ever! In some of the pictures you can also see the platform made of snow that Kris and I built so the girls could get a good start down the hill. The whole track is frozen over and includes a turn and a jump. It's not the steepest thing ever, but it's just right for the girls and other neighborhood children.

Put to Good Use...

We have a hill between our house and our neighbor's house that is perfect for the girls to sled down. Plus we have the comfort of our home to run back inside of whenever we get too cold. The track that Kris and the girls made last week is iced over now, so it's a little faster than before, plus just yesterday we added a little jump to it. Some of the neighborhood kids even came over to try out the hill. The sleds Mutti gave us a couple years ago sure are being put to good use. And so is all this snow! Got to do something with it!

Sledding

We took the girls sledding for the very first time yesterday. They loved it! Oma gave us sleds the Christmas before we moved to Indiana, and there was no place to use them there, so we broke them in for the first time. We also used two more kid-friendly sleds that the people who lived in our house before us left behind.

We sledded for about 45 minutes, the girls trudging up the hill and sliding back down again. Their sleds kept turning midway down the hill so they experienced sledding front ways and backways. Kris and I had a blast sledding down the hill too as little Ellary sat snug in her stroller.

Just before we left it began to get dark and snow again so we jumped back in Kris' truck and had hot chocolate. What a fun family home evening!

Winter Wonderland

SNOW! SNOW! SNOW!

As a joke, and understandably sick of the cold and snow, Kris keeps asking me "Why didn't you let me apply for a job in Florida?"

It snowed again last Sunday, and really hasn't stopped since then. But wow-what a site! Kris took these pictures of our winter wonderland behind our house. It's so beautiful to see the recently fallen snow so fluffy and white spread like a blanket over EVERYTHING.

If it weren't for the girls excitement for playing in the snow, I think I'd be exclaiming something like, "Kris, why didn't you make me let you apply for jobs in Florida?"

Here are two pictures of the girls as we walked Alyson to school one morning. Notice Kourtney in the second picture. Guess what...there's only so much snow a kid can take too! She got tired of trudging through the recently fallen snow that she refused to go any further at one point of our walk back home! Oh, Koco, long, cold, snowy winters have just begun little girl!

Bambi's Friends

(The Preserve behind our house during the summer.)

We have some new things to be thankful for this year. One of these things is being able to enjoy nature from the comfort of our home.

About Three weeks ago we looked out our kitchen window and noticed three deer bedded down in the long grass bathing in the morning sun. Shortly thereafter we spotted a young buck and doe in the same place. We also had the pleasure of watching a red fox hunt in the long grass (but not with the deer of course!) Click on the pictures to make them bigger so you can see the deer more easily.

Then it snowed all day Sunday and created a beautiful winter wonderland. The snow gradually melted from most of our lawn but remained frozen to the Preserve forcing the deer to search for food outside their safe habitat. It was Monday when we noticed three deer on our lawn, one of which walked right by our fence and the length of our lawn, not even becoming alarm when we ventured on to the back deck for a closer peek. Hope you enjoy the pictures!