Winter

While regions to the north and south of us are getting hit hard, we have had such an uneventful winter.  I have to say that one of the fantastic things about living in northwest Arkansas, as opposed to south Arkansas where I grew up and Mississippi where I went to college, is being able to experience 4 seasons.  Almost every year since I moved here, the winter season has included a large snow event!  And I LOVE it!!  The year I was pregnant, we had crazy snow.  The year Sara Kate was a baby was had seriously crazy snow.  And I was so sad that 2012 was a total bust.  And now it's winter 2013 and I'm once again sad to report that so far it's been a bust!  Like I said, the last big snow events we had were in 2011, when Sara Kate was about 10 months old, when she was far too young to do anything or really experience it!

Here's a picture from the HUGE 18 inch snow (huge for my south Arkansas standards, ha!!) we got in February 2011...she obviously was not impressed, ha!!  And don't worry, she only sat in the snow long enough for me to take her picture!

And in that same week in February 2011 we had another significant snow, 6-7 inches (again, that's alot for me!), or enough for me to attempt to build a snowman.  

Because I very rarely had these experiences as a kid (we had ice down in south Arkansas!!), I just want so badly to have these winter experiences with Sara Kate...playing in the snow, building snowmen, snow ball fights, sledding...and I know I'll get that chance eventually, but I'm getting impatient!  Haha!  I just want a stinkin' snow day!!  :-)  The local weathermen have alerted us to probably 4 'winter storms' this winter that haven't panned out and we've just gotten a dusting here and a dusting there.  We don't have much faith in them right now, ha!  Today we got some snow that came in the morning after the morning commute began (which was TERRIBLE!!)!  Here's a picture I snapped outside my office.  Looks pretty.  Too bad it wasn't enough to close down!

Last Wednesday, we had a 'winter storm' (according to the weatherman) that was supposed to start with snow and turn to rain then turn to ice (it ended up being nothing).  The snow did start on Wednesday morning, and it actually snowed enough and caused enough problems to let schools out early and to close our office early.  I had Sara Kate picked up at 2:30, and when we went outside she said, 'It's snowing!  It's so pretty!  I wanna play in the snow.'  That's all you have to say sweet girl!!  So as soon as we got home, in our measly little 1.5 inch snow, we played.  And we ran around.  And we laughed.  And we smiled.  And she tasted it.  And she had such a good time.  And it was so so precious to me.  Those are the things I want to experience with her.  I look forward to the first time we get to build a snowman and make snow angels and go sledding and make snow ice cream.  But for now I'll settle for the little things.  Because they made my sweet girl smile.  Which makes me smile.

Pictures from February 20, 2013