The Problem with Facebook...

is I have found it makes me a lazy blogger.  

Mostly I feel bad because its so quick and easy to post pics on FB.  Then when I want to blog about it, I figure anyone interested in my blog has already seen the pics and doesn't want to read the lame stories behind the pics.

So for all of you who saw these pics on FB and now see a repeat here - First of all THANK YOU for caring!  haha.  Second, sorry.  :)

As most of you may know, this winter has been BRUTAL cold.  

Cold as in: vehicles won't start. 

Cold as in: the furnace can't keep up - resulting in $200+ heating bills

Cold as in: negative temps have become normal and this morning's 3 degrees actually felt like a relief

Cold as in: Aaron actually called in sick last week - sick of the cold weather

Cold as in: You don't even want to eat food because, well I dunno, just because it's too cold

Ohhh and the wind.  Ugh the wind.  Last week before wind chill, the temp was -23.  

But I love it. So weird. It reminds me of growing up in Woodland and feeding the horses in the mornings.  When you breathe in and your nostrils stick together. Chopping 12 inch thick ice for the animals.  The horses breath steaming so thick it makes a haze of fog.  Yes, it is wonderful this cold!  And it reminds me of all the little things to be grateful for like snuggling, down comforters, fires, soup, and hot showers.

Unfortunately despite the unusually COLD temps the snow has been less-than-epic.  Snowmobilingng has been kept to a minimum so far - hopefully to change soon.  Skiing has been hit and miss.  We have enjoyed some great skiing with friends.  Then Aaron and I enjoyed a powder day together ALONE (something rare for us lately!) which was amazing.  It took me back to the winter Aaron and I met when every weekend (and several weekdays) while dating was spent either at Snowbird or Park City, usually accompanied by Aaron's BF Casey.  And finally, to take advantage of the winter, we have been out snowshoeing a bunch. It's fun because we can actually take Isla.  And she LOVES it.

When we aren't outside we are working on the basement.  STILL.  Holy cow this is taking forever.  But we are doing it all in our down time.  And by down time I mean one-hour increments when Isla has gone to bed before we kill over from exhaustion.  So 9:00 - 10:00 pm, about 3 days a week.  But progress is being made.  We are just finishing the trimwork then it's one last touch-up coat of paint on the trim and carpet.  I have some pretty cool pics of the process but when the whole thing is finished I will do a whole post solely dedicated to THE BASEMENT (read that with a deep, echoing voice as in the Sunday Football announcement voice).  

Now when I went to blog I opened up my pics and realized we have hardly taken ANY pics lately.  I remember when Isla was a baby I seriously think I took about 20 pics A DAY.  Stupid.  But now I am lucky if I have 20 pics for the whole month.  I need to get better. 

In the meantime, here are a few.

Late night snow shoeing in Big Cottonwood Canyon.

The Pantone boys and their endless entertainment.

 Last month we started teaching Isla to ski.  I think Aaron was slightly disappointed only because he had this grand vision of her just taking off and ripping down the hill with him frantically chasing after her.  I had to remind him that our 17 month old daughter barely learned to WALK two months ago... so expectations should be kept pretty low.  But it was so fun.  We laughed and laughed and she would ski 10 feet and tip over and we would all laugh some more.  Overall, that was the true measurement of success - that we all had smiles and left wanting more.  :)