This afternoon, as Ben and I ventured into the freezing cold, sleeting weather toward the pre-school parking lot, after dropping Liam off at kindergarten, Ben decided he'd try to catch some of the wandering snowflakes on his tongue. Unsatisfied by those results, he then proceeded to lick snowflakes off of my sweatshirt. My initial reaction, like so many moms I know, was to tell him to stop because he might get germs off of my sleeve (oh, please). Luckily, I stopped short, long enough to find the humor and the joy in his musings over tasting snow and we laughed about it together. We then drove to the mall to find me a maternity bathing suit, get some yummy pretzels at Aunt Annies (our favorite snack stop), and play in the kids area. Due to the nastiness outside today, I felt absolutely exhausted by the time we picked Lily and Liam up from school, got candy at the pharmacy for our weekly ritual "candy day" and headed home. Later in the evening, Tom and I took the kids swimming at the gym where we belong. They happened to be having their annual "kids' carnival" with free dairy queen sundaes, a moon bounce, face painting, and balloon animals. Believe it or not, we did manage to spend an hour in the pool after that. I tested out my new suit, a not-so-sexy maternity dress-style two piece, in the therapy pool, while the kids and daddy frolicked in the shallower area of the regular pool. All in all, it was another great day where I felt extreme gratitude to God for the privelege I have to mother my three great children, the excitement of my fourth child, kicking in-utero, and my very warm and funny husband. What a fabulous life I get to lead.