Death Knocking at our Front Door (or hanging by our door! hahahahaha)

We had some pretty monstrous icicles hanging from the front of our house this morning and as the snow had started to melt this morning, they were only getting longer, sharper, and SCARIER!!  Thankfully, the sun proved too much for them and they plummeted to their death a little earlier.  Jeff was able to capture some pictures of these impressive guys before they ate it...

Snow Play Day...new pics at bottom

Yes, you are reading that tape measure correctly: 12 INCHES and counting!!

Jacob and Jeff went outside again this afternoon to play and capture some more Kodak/Nikon moments!  Here we go:

 Icicles on the eave

This used to be our garland/handrail (above)

White Christmas/day after update

Well, it did snow on Christmas.

The big news is today.  Up to 10 inches possible...more updates to come

Here's an update: at 11:30am we have 6inches!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all!  I hope you all are having a wonderful and joyful Christmas so far--I know we are/have been!

We started off our Christmas morning with the reading of the Christmas story in the Bible in our bed...complete with the nativity set-up of Jacob's so he could visualize!  It's a wonderful tradition that we started last year after it was recommended to us by an older couple in our old care group...it helps all of us to start the day off by remembering why we celebrate Christmas and what we have to be thankful for on this day and every day---Jesus' birth, life and even death on earth!

Since I forgot/didn't care about Christmas pjs this year...we went with the monster truck jammie pants that all 3 boys had

After this, we opened stockings on the bed too... here's the aftermath:

Next, we headed out to the living room to open some gifts:

 Jacob got a sleeping bag and Playmobil zoo thingy

 ...and a TON of other things

 Jacob was excited to get out and see what he had waiting for him!

 Playing with the zoo...and even allowing others to play as they pleased!

 Playing with the Scooby Doo stuff that the Williamses got him

Jacob and Daddy rolling the ice cream ball, from Grammy, back and forth--preparing some delicious blackberry ice cream!

But the fun wasn't over yet, Jeff had taken apart Jacob's train track outside to create a "new" Island of Sodor" (where Thomas the Train lives of course) for part of Jacob's Christmas present.  Jacob knew he was working on it throughout the week and was SUPER excited to see what he came up with, but the best part was, he didn't know he was getting some new trains/accessories for the track as well!  Here he is unwrapping the door so he could see out in the garage where the train table is. (we had wrapped the door earlier so that Jacob could avoid the temptation to peek!) 

Jacob also got a few books...here's Jeff reading to the children:

Sweet picture of Jeff and Thomas:

 

Here's what Thomas did for a lot of the morning (sleeping on the new fleece blanket from Great-GREAT Aunt Ev):

Here's what Thomas got:

Also, here is a cute picture of Mom with Thomas (btw, if Thomas looks big in pictures, it's because he's 8 lb. 10 oz now!) :