no words. just cuteness.

london, baby

Wow, it's already March and I never shared my dad's gift for Christmas this year. Or rather, my sister's gift to my dad.  She gave him a trip to London. (And you thought I was an overachiever making a quilt. Who's the suck up now?) Anyway Kristin had me photoshop some pictures for him to open in a photo album on Christmas morning in lieu of an actual plane ticket.

Here was the story that he read first:

Once upon a time....

Little Jimmy grew up in America and had a wife and three kids there. He was silly and thought that nothing existed outside of America. 

But then one of his daughters went off and lived in Switzerland. And then his wife visited her. And then another of his daughters and her husband went over and visited this far off land. 

Little Jimmy's parents had been abroad. And his brothers had been abroad. And his friends and his neighbors and his accountant and his electrician and his nieces and nephews had all been abroad. We don't want to embarrass little Jimmy, but even his 9 month old granddaughter had been to Europe. 

Kristin felt so sorry for little Jimmy having never seen Europe that she figured the least we could do was create some fake memories for little Jimmy to cherish of his pretend trip abroad.

And this is what she imagined he did on that trip...

She looked at the pictures and realized what a fabulous time he would have on a REAL vacation to Europe. SO WHAT IS A DAUGHTER TO DO??

SEND LITTLE JIMMY TO LONDON, BABY! 

Pretty cleaver, huh.

Outerwear and the Outdoors

It's funny how alike your kids are to you in ways and then how so unlike you they are in others. Annie has my stubbornness. She likes books. I like books. She likes to snuggle. I like to snuggle. She's an eater. I'm an eater. She hates being in the car. Amen. So do I. Griffin is her best friend. He used to be mine. Attention seeker. Check. People watcher. Check. Very verbal. Check. Check. 

However, our paths diverge now and again. I'm a shirt on my back, pants on my legs kind of girl. She, on the other hand, either prefers nothing but a diaper OR wrapping insane numbers of shirts, pants and bras around her neck. Like alls the times. I find her in my underwear drawer up to her ears in bras on a daily basis.

This girl loves clothes. And not in a fashionista sort of a way. She also loves jackets. She's wearing one right now and we've been inside for a solid hour with the thermostat at 71.

Anyway point is we're rather unlike each other when it comes to her love of outerwear and the outdoors. So after insisting that we zip her into a full-on body snow suit, we (uh hum, daddy) took her sledding. I'm one for a blanket and a heater. But this kid LOVES the outside. She'll be the death of me. The frost-bitten, shivering death of me.

I ventured out on other days. The never-ending snowfall these past few weeks afforded ample opportunity. But this particular time I watched from above.

Love.