Even Better than Yesterday

The snow has packed down, frozen, and we got just a tiny little dusting on top of that. So this morning we woke up to a gorgeous sunny day, blue skies, perfect sledding snow. Halfway through our adventures our neighbor brought us out his big-time-official sled and we extended our runway (top of the hill, through said neighbors' front yard and into his back yard hill). We stayed outside much longer than yesterday and had a great time.

It's Official: Snow!

I have become increasingly skeptical of any prediction of snow these last few years. It's mostly a defense mechanism, I'm tired of being disappointed. But this week, the people of the Weather World were all hyper about this winter storm moving through.

So I bought a sled. (Two. Actually.)

Sure enough, they were right and we got snow! It started about 9:00 last night, and has been pretty consistent through the night and day. It's more sleet than snow now, but last night accumulated quickly so we got a nice little pad of snow. The kids were THRILLED to wake up to white outside, and were anxious to try out the new sleds we had.

I prefer to ease into the morning, but we hit the street where we have a nice hill leading to the bottom of our cul-de-sac. The sled's worked pretty well! I didn't invest in the best of the best, but they picked up some speed and the kids really enjoyed zooming down the hill. Sweet Bou, at 9 years old, has always loved the snow and sure enough: she romped out there for a good 10 minutes eating it and running around in it.

It's still coming down and now we'll enjoy the flip side of snowy weather: staying inside, watching tv, baking, and doing our best to stay in our PJ's.

Dress Up

Adison loves to dress up, and we have been handed down some pretty cool dress up stuff by several friends. She keeps it all in a big box in her room, and will come downstairs with the most interesting combinations of dress up clothes. I love it. Here's a sampling of her work over the past 8 months.

Princesses -- It's not all Dresses and Singing

Apparently being a Princess is much more than just singing with your woodland friends and finding your Prince Charming. Adison has such funny ways of positioning these little toys. It seems as though Belle and Snow White have done something questionable and are hiding from Sleeping Beauty who has commandeered an ambulance.

Wacky Photo Shoot

Adison has a history of coming downstairs in wacky outfits (a post on that soon!). She came downstairs in one of her creations and so I snapped a picture of her. Cole wanted to get in on it, and what followed is one of the most hilarious and wacky photo sequences I believe I have ever taken of them. They changed poses so quickly, it made it all the funnier that they thought up such crazy stances so fast. Cole thought it was particularly funny when he dropped a pencil down his backside. I think my favorite is when Adison suddenly decided to turn her back to the camera for the shot. These kids make life so fun and funny.

Adison-Ism

Adison: I went potty!

Me: Great!

Adison: I'm washing my hands!

Me: Do you need a towel?

Adison: Yes!

(Mama brings child the towel)

Adison(walking down the stairs): I washed my hands! I put the towel on the floor. Somebody will get it.

Somebody? Like....I don't know, Mama?

Must be nice.

Snapshots of Christmas 3

 

Snapshots of Christmas 2

 

Snapshots of Christmas 1

 

There is so much going on at Christmas: Talent shows! Gift opening! Cousins playing!

Christmas Morning 2009

There is one tradition we have always stuck to since we had kids of our own, and that is having Christmas Morning at our own house. I just love this little tradition. I don't know who is more excited every year, the kids or Kevin and I. Every year one of us slyly suggest that we open just one present Christmas Eve. This year we managed to wait and I guess it was worth it because we have a lot of descriptive pictures of faces!

We got each of the kids a scooter, and Cole (and let's be honest, Kevin) got a real rocket you can blast off into the air.

My favorite gift was the Chanel perfume Kevin got me. I'd been on the hunt for a new scent for a few years and Kevin picked out an absolute winner.

I love Kevin's face, though, in the picture where he's just looking at me. It's that look where I managed to somehow do more for him than he usually does for me. The look that tells me I've surprised him, and spoiled him. (and, I got that look by buying him not one, but TWO remote control helicopters).

Company Christmas Party

This year for the first time, we decided to have the company Christmas party at our house. Kevin had done so much work on our front living room, it was the perfect space to have a big dinner. We moved our table into the room, opened up all the leaves and made it nice and big.

Of course we only had service for 4, so what better excuse to go to IKEA? We got dishes, glasses, and decorations for a crowd. I kept it pretty simple but I loved how it turned out and how nice it was to have the option to make the living room a dining room whenever we need it. It was a wonderful evening, just sharing stories and laughter with this small group of people who work so hard with Kevin and Scott to keep the business plugging along. Of course I didn't get a picture of anyone...

The Big 3-5

It comes as no surprise to me that the only pictures I have of my birthday are of me with my cake. I do love cake, specifically from Edible Art. The more frosting, the better. I get a little possessive about it: I like to be the one to cut it, every year I tell Kevin what kind of theme I want on it, or what colors I'd like. It's a little silly (to everyone else, maybe but not me. I really love cake). So 35 came and went in the form of a nice get together with Kevin & the kids, mom and dad, and of course, the cake.

O Christmas Tree

Since Fletcher and Nancy sold the farm they had the tree lot on, our new tradition has been to go up into the mountains and cut one down from one of Fletcher's crops up there. However, since we spent Thanksgiving in Charleston, we didn't quite feel like making another 3 hour drive to the mountains for a tree.

There are no shortage of lots around here, so we picked a place and with great anticipation set out to get a tree. We picked out a beauty (although no tree can match one of Fletcher's...), but there was definitely something missing from our usual experience. The Spillman Tree Farm always had a hustle and bustle, music playing, cocoa brewing, lots of youth helping....and although this tree lot was nice enough, it was lacking with all the usual Ho-Ho-Ho and Fa-La-La we'd been so accustom to getting our tree.

It was done and over in about 10 minutes, although the kids thoroughly enjoyed the merry go round they had on site. I'm pretty sure next year we'll make the drive.

Christmas Picture 2009

Thanksgiving 2009

Well. It happened. I honestly have no idea how I managed to not take ONE PICTURE during a holiday such as Thanksgiving.

It was a special Thanksgiving for us this year as we took some extra time to visit some of Kevin's extended family in Charleston. It was a family reunion of sorts and those types of things often make me a little uneasy. New People, or people I don't see very often. New Names, and I am SO BAD with names. I forget often moments after you tell me. But I will say that our time there was really really wonderful!

We spent the first day down there visiting downtown Charleston. After an hour or so at the local children's museum - which was so cool, the kids still talk about it - we stumbled onto the Mellow Mushroom and decided this was a sign it was time to eat a meal. Any meal. We enjoyed some delicious pizza and then decided to walk the streets and window shop. That's about the time that Adison had one of her classic melt downs. Although melt down isn't really a good enough description. It's more like...a break down. You might never guess it, but at just 3, this little girl will hit, scream, pull hair, scream, hit, and shout things at you like: I want my doggy!!! [Mama gives girl doggy. Girl screams and acts like the dog is on fire, throwing it down] I DON'T want my doggy!! And so it went as we walked down the lovely streets of Charleston. She doesn't have episodes like this often at all, but when she does, it is truly something to behold. And how could passers by do anything but behold it? Kevin was experiencing this for the first time on this day. After several attempts to reason with her, I gave him my best advice: hold her like a little lamb and MOVE. Make time to the car. And so we did, where two adults almost couldn't get a little girl into her car seat. That was pretty much our experience with downtown Charleston, but the 15 minutes of it we saw were really beautiful, and we'd love to make it back.

Thanksgiving meal was at Johnny & Nia's house, and it was really the perfect day for it. We had great weather, enough food for a crowd of 100, and they have an outdoor fireplace which was great to sit next to while the turkey cooked in the fryer. The kids had a wonderful time playing with cousins, and 2nd cousins, and aunts and uncles...I don't think I could have asked for a more relaxing day. On tope of that, Kevin and I enjoyed catching up with everyone so much. It was a great day spent with family and we were so glad we came down for the visit.