“A Super Bowl winner, I will not predict. But my weather forecast you cannot contradict, why that’s not a football but my shadow I see. Six more weeks of winter it must be.” – Punxsutawney Phil

Straight from the mouth of the beloved groundhog, Phil, in just a little more than 6 weeks winter will be all but a cold memory. Not only am I looking forward to warmer weather for my own well-being, I’m desperately hoping Phil’s predictions are correct for the sake of Emerson’s winter outerwear. Last weekend we took some measurements after discovering her snow-pants were now more accurately snow-capris and barely came down to cover the top of her boots. Just as suspected, she’s sprouted 2 inches since the last time we measured her 6 months ago.

Thankfully we aren’t required to bust out the snow pants too often, but her coat on the other hand is weeks away from becoming too small. If we can just make it to the end of winter….

While Emerson was bundled up in head-to-toe snow gear last weekend, we adventured outside for some sledding in the backyard. After a few extra inches of snowfall and lots of drifting, it was quite the hike chasing after E on her sled. Lucky for me, Papa assumes the role of pulling her around.

What started out as a nice little morning in the fresh air quickly made a 360 as I turned around just in time to see Bela sniff a trail right under the storage shed in the back of our yard. Annoyance at his disobedience turned to panic when I realized he wasn’t coming out of there any time soon. The shed sits on a frame off the ground about 6 inches and we often watch a family of cats crawl in and out. After nearly 2 hours of laying in the snow and peaking under the building trying to lure him out with toys, treats, and promises of riding in the car and going for a walk, he still wouldn’t budge and just laid there curled up in a ball shaking and whining. Finally my dad appeared with an electric saw and sacrificed a piece of flooring to rescue my poor boy. I was worried he was freezing to death or was attacked by critters, but thankfully he was safe and sound — just scared and reeking of the wild. Lesson learned, right Bela? Beyond this little stint of excitement, our weekend was very relaxed and all-in-all uneventful… yep Super Bowl included.