Snow and Thanksgiving

Before we moved to Moses Lake we researched the weather and talked to people that have lived here for a long time and everyone and everything said that it doesn't get too cold usually with lows around the 20's and if it snows it is usually gone the next day or two.

Well since we just moved here from Las Vegas I suppose we had to experience an extremely cold and snowy winter so that the next winters won't seem so bad. Here are a couple before and after pictures of our yard.

Before any snow or real coldness at all.

After a week with two snow storms. I do have to say the swing set is moved back a little in the yard in this picture, there still is a lot of snow on the ground. It is deeper than my snow boots, that is for sure.

This is Brya and Ally playing in the snow outside. (I had them come to the door so I could get a picture because it was really cold that day and I didn't want to have it opened for a second longer than it had to be.) They were out there for 3 minutes before Ally came in with a ton of snow down her boots and Brya came in 2 minutes later screaming because she remember some story about a snipe spider and she was in some deep snow and thought it was going to get her.

This was the day school was cancelled and the next day I sent Brya out on the bus and ended up keeping her home because she started going into hysterics because her hands were so cold they hurt. I couldn't get her to do anything, watching a movie at least made her calm down, so she stayed home that day too. She had gloves on but they were the knit kind that don't keep your hands really warm. I checked the temperature after we got back to the house and it was at most negative 15 degrees! I felt really bad that it was that cold and she didn't have good gloves on. My little vegas girl needs a little more time to acclimate to this weather, and we have had to buy a lot of winter clothes!

We celebrated Thanksgiving a few days early this year since my parents and brother Monty and his girls Kendra and Mya came to visit the weekend before Thanksgiving. I cooked my very first Thanksgiving dinner ever since we were actually hosting and not just guests somewhere and it turned out pretty good. This is my turkey. I wanted to take a picture of this beautiful feast with our china and all the food nicely set on the table but I also happened to be 34 weeks pregnant and just didn't have the energy or the pain tolerance to be on my feet a second longer than I had to so it wasn't beautifully arranged and we ate on paper plates, but the food turned out well and it was nice to have my family around for the holidays.

Can I just say that my dad is super silly and I love him for it. All the little girls were dressing up the whole time they were here and my dad decided to join in so he could play with them. Even though the girls told him that boys don't dress up in dresses and boas. As you can see from the picture he thought it was very funny and didn't mind a bit that he was breaking the norm.

Here is my mom and I sometime during our early thanksgiving. I am glad I actually thought of pulling out the camera and getting a picture with her. I have the hardest time remembering to get out our camera for events like this, especially when I am the hostess. We don't have a whole lot of pictures together and luckily we got one this year. I don't know how long it has been since we have celebrated a holiday together. The last five years in Vegas it seemed like we were either too tight on cash or too pregnant to travel for the holidays.