Snow Day! Part Three (& technically Four)

Well, I know y'all (you know, the one person that reads my blog..haha) are sick of these posts, but I am obviously just so excited about the snow we got at the beginning of the week and I really want to document all of the fun things we've been doing!

Wednesday, after playing out in our own yard for a while, we decided to venture out (the roads have been awful) to a neighborhood about a mile away and go sledding. It was my first time and the girls first time too, of course. Oh my word...we had SOOOO MUCH FUN!!!!!!!!!!! Lucy wasn't too thrilled about sitting in the cold in her carseat, but she survived. Addy was whiny after a little while, but Emmy kept on truckin' for the most part!

After our adventure, we went to a local BBQ place where my little sister works and ended up talking her into coming over Thursday while the babies were napping so that Tim and I could take Emmy by herself. I can't believe what a big girl Emmy is! She went sledding down some BIG hills all by herself! She was a little scared at first, but ended up braving up and was going down like a pro in no time!

Tim and I keep laughing because we think we've finally found our thing we like to do together. I'm so glad we are happy with each other after being together for 6 1/2 years! haha! j/k! Anyway, we had a blast, but I am really feeling it now! I am already so sore and so tired! Oh well. It was worth it.

I found a heart-shaped piece of snow/ice :)

On our way to go sledding! Every time we have gone anywhere in the past few days Addy excitedly says, "We're widin' in da snow!"

My first time sledding! I was a little scared!

This is what Lucy thought about everything!

Daddy & Addy going down! I love Addy's face in this!

Daddy & Emmy going down!

Daddy, Emmy & Addy

Mommy, Emmy & Daddy on our sledding date!

Love this!

Mommy & Daddy can have fun, too! (Emmy took this!)

Time to try it with Mommy!

Here we go!!!!!

Emmy going down all by herself! (She started at the top like all the other pictures)

The snow is now melting slowly, but surely. What a fun time we've had this week! I'm so thankful!

Snow Day! Part Two

We had another fun time in the snow today! We started it off with Snowman pancakes and bacon! I got the idea from a friend when it snowed at Christmas and decided last night that I would make them. They turned out so cute and Emmy said, "These are the best pancakes I have ever had in my life!" Tim said that he agreed! Made me proud.

After I got the kitchen cleaned up, I bundled the big girls up and Tim took them outside while I got Lucy down for a nap. When I got out there they had almost finished a snowman. It was so cute! The snow was a lot easier to work with today-it wasn't as powdery as it was yesterday.

We had a ball and ended up building two snowmen and Tim built a big "slope" so that the girls could sled down it since our neighborhood is flat and the roads were too icy for us to drive to a better sledding location.

Again, I am so thankful for days like this. I am going to be SO sad when it all melts and it is back to reality. :(

Emmy and Addy making their own snowman. They kept on eating the snow that stuck to their gloves. It was hilarious!

 Me and Timmy

 The big girls and their "Princess Snowman" (I guess Snowwoman is the correct term! ha!) She is definitely wearing a tutu and a crown.

 The snowman I built for our neighbors. They have been at her parents house, so I surprised them with a snowman. I hope they liked it!

 Daddy and Emmy gathering up an ENORMOUS ball of snow for the slope he was building for them to sled down.

 We had a real sled, but it just didn't slide much because of the consistency of the snow. I ended up getting one of our big bin lids and it worked perfectly for our little slope! Addy is going down in this picture.

 Emmy going down!

I kept catching Addy snacking on the snowman's carrot nose. Sooo funny! One of it's grape eyes and it's orange slice mouth mysteriously disappeared, too. Hmmm....

 Daddy may or may not have broken our lid...

 Addy was NOT ready to go inside!

 Emmy sliding down head first one last time!

 This is what Lucy was up to when I found her :-)

 I hope she'll like the snow someday! For now, she just enjoys it from the inside!

 Fun in my highchair!

Snow Day! Part One

Today was such a wonderful day! It started snowing at around midnight or so last night and when we woke up this morning we had around 8 inches. That is a BIG deal where we live here in TN! It was so exciting! I don't have many pictures because it is very hard to play with your kids in the snow while trying to protect a camera!

 

We had so much fun in the snow. Addy didn't know what to think of it at first because it was up to her knees almost! Once she started liking it, she spend most of her time eating it. HILARIOUS! Emmy and I threw ourselves on the ground and made snow angels and attempted to make a snowman (we'll probably try again tomorrow). We also found some neighbor kids to play with and all sat and watched some of the cutest dogs play that live across the street. One of them is a Golden Retriever/Poodle mix and is white. The other one is something mixed with Poodle and is black. I'm not usually a fan of big dogs, but these ones just looked so cute playing in the snow!

After we froze our faces off, I stripped the girls down and Tim, who had stayed inside with Lucy, took them up and got them in some warm, dry clothes. I fixed the girls some Chef Boyardee Lasagna from a can for lunch (What can I say? They love it! I at least get the whole grain pasta kind! ha!) and Tim and I had a grilled cheese and homemade guacamole, our new favorite healthy snack. After cleaning up lunch, I fixed some chili in the crock-pot for dinner.

After lunch, we spent some time just sitting around and then it was naptime. Emmy and I went and laid in my bed and I ended up falling asleep! It actually was really nice. We got up, and it was pretty much time for dinner. The chili turned out great! We gobbled it up and while I cleaned up, Tim sat at the kitchen table and played the girls' new game, Cranium Playground. So fun! I also put some cookies in the oven and fixed some pancake batter for tomorrow morning. I really want to make some snowman pancakes and bacon for breakfast tomorrow and knew I wouldn't do it unless it was already made. By the way, I know all this sounds like I'm so domestic, but I'm really not. I TRY to be, but usually it doesn't happen! This being "snowed in" business makes me wanna cook and play with the girls and nothing else!

The girls were not too thrilled about going to bed after they ate their cookies. I think Addy's gotten out of bed 3 times now! Oh well. We always just keep putting her back in bed when she does this and she eventually goes to sleep.

I told Tim tonight while we were eating cookies that this felt like a perfect day. Honestly, these days I rarely can say that. Don't get me wrong, I am blessed and thankful for these girls and our life, but raising 3 young children is very hard most of the time! You have to be very patient and always one step ahead of them, which can get exhausting! Anyway, I am just thankful that God gave us this fun day that we can tuck away in our hearts and remember for the rest of our lives.

A New Year-Our Week Long Christmas!

Since it's a New Year, I have decided that one of my resolutions was going to be to update this little blog more often. I sat and read through some of my old posts last night and realized that I wouldn't have even remembered some of the little stories if it wasn't for my blog! It's a great way to journal the life of our little family. So to begin again, I thought I would post about Christmas and then maybe do some catch up posts of this past year in the next few weeks.

Merry Christmas!

We started Christmas off on Monday, December 20, by having Tim's parents over. My M-I-L asked to just spend some time at our house and do some fun things with the girls for her Christmas present, so that's just what we did! I fixed some little finger foods to eat and the girls got to open a few presents from them. We also fixed sugar cookies and my M-I-L brought some cute Christmas cookie cutters and icing! The girls had a blast! We spent the rest of the evening eating cookies and just spending time playing with the girls and talking. I am glad that the girls are able to have their Grandmommy and Poppy to make memories like this with! It was a very fun night!

Present time with Grandmommy and Poppy!

Making Cookies

This picture was taken on the Sunday before, but I thought it was too sweet not to share!

On Tuesday, our pastor, Bro. Joe, and his wife, Darlene hosted our next Christmas party. Since I haven't blogged in awhile, I haven't been able to mention that Bro. Joe was diagnosed with terminal cancer back in August. We are very sad and just praying for healing every single day. Anyway, we had such a sweet time celebrating with them! One of his daughters was in town with her husband and brand new baby! I got to love up on that newborn and I just soaked up every minute. She was so precious. Mrs. Darlene made a delicious pot of organic vegetable chili and it was AMAZING. She also had some chicken noodle soup and it was great, as well. I had to be polite and try both, of course! They gave us a gift certificate to eat at one of our favorite restaurants, and Mrs. Darlene (Craft Queen) made each of our girls a bow with a jingle bell on it - cutest bow ever!!! Addy was the funniest thing with these bows. Every time she heard jingle bells she would just shake her little head with a big grin on her face. Precious. We had such a sweet time with them and are so thankful for the time we got to spend with them that day!

This picture cracks me up. All the men were sitting around talking and Emmy just went and cuddled up with her daddy on the couch to watch Beauty and the Beast that Bro. Joe had put on for her in the background. They all look pretty interested, huh? haha

The ladies minus Emmy. The newborn baby is behind the table on the floor in a bouncer. Wish you could see her, too!

After our Christmas party at Bro. Joe and Mrs. Darlene's house, Tim took the babies home for naps and Emmy and I went to a Christmas cookie decorating party. It's turned into an annual thing, I guess, because we went to one last year at the same house! We had so much fun! I am amazed at how Emmy's fine motor skills have improved since last year, but really since just a few months ago! She is writing, drawing, etc. SO well. I'm so proud of my girl. We had a wonderful time of fellowship and eating yummy treats!

So Proud!

All the kids at the party. I just realized that Emmy looks like she needs to go potty in this picture. Embarrassing...or blackmail one day :).

Wednesday evening was when we had our youth Christmas celebration. We met up at our normal youth meeting place, and enjoyed some times of fellowship and just reflecting on the past year. After everyone's tummies were full, we headed to a local nursing home to visit with some of the members from our church that were living there and to sing Christmas carols. Those people loved having our group there, but especially loved my little girls! They kept offering them cookies and smiling and waving at them. It was so precious. I am looking into starting to visit there on a more regular basis with them. My girls seemed to enjoy themselves and I truly feel like it was therapy to the sweet people in the nursing home!

Part of our youth group

A couple days before Christmas, we had another little Christmas celebration with my in-laws except Tim's brother, his wife, and their son came. We ate together again, of course, opened a few more presents, and had a great time enjoying each others company! It is always great to be around family and cousins. We are blessed to have most of our family living nearby, but always miss Tim's other brother and his family in NJ. We love you D, L, G, L & J!

I just had to share this picture. Lucy had a runny nose and was letting her tongue act as a tissue! Haha!

Opening presents...again!

Lucy got a Ragady Ann doll! She really loves it, but wasn't feeling too hot this night. She actually was diagnosed with an ear infection later on that evening when I took her to PM Pediatrics. :(

Emmy, Z and Addy playing! Silly cousins!

Our next Christmas celebration was on Christmas day. We set out the girls' presents the night before all wrapped like gold, frankincense and myrrh, and went to bed excited to see their little faces the next morning. The girls woke up at their usual crack of dawn time, and came straight to our room like we asked them to do the night before. Tim got the camera set up and when he came in our room to tell us it was time for the girls to go and see what they got, he told us to look out the window. I immediately ran to the window and yelled, "NUH UH!!!!!" We had a White Christmas! We live in TN, so we rarely get snow. I have lived here my whole life and can only remember one other time when I woke up to snow on Christmas morning. It was so exciting!

This was actually Christmas Eve. This photo session was very dramatic. The tree fell over onto Lucy right after this was snapped. 'Nough said.

When the excitement wore off a little, we let the girls go and open their presents. They were so pleased with everything they got! I love the tradition we use for our girls gifts now. We started it last year and I think it's a wonderful way to point our kids to the real meaning of Christmas. (I posted about it after Christmas last year if you're interested).

Emmy loved her Leapster 2, new book, princess soap, colors for the bathtub, and purple towels!

Addy got a Veggie Tales Sweet Pea Beauty Castle, a Veggie Tales coloring book, Dora soap, colors for the bathtub, and pink towels. She was very pleased!

Still not feeling too hot, but she really seems to enjoy her new tea set! (I think it's adorable, too!) She also got a Praise Baby CD, the new Johnson's Honey Apple baby wash (smells yummy!), and a girly rubber duck.

After opening presents, we had our traditional Christmas breakfast. I always make my mom's breakfast casserole, fruit, and some kind of bread like cinnamon rolls, biscuits, or something like that. It was yummy! As usual, it brought me back to Christmas when I was a kid. I really miss those times, but I'm very thankful for the life the Lord has blessed me with and this little family He had given me!

Our next activity was supposed to be going to my dad and step mom's house about 30 minutes away and then my aunt's house that evening with my grandparents on my mom's side of the family. Since the roads were pretty bad we we decided that we didn't want to risk getting in a wreck. We ended up just staying home and letting the girls play in the snow. The big girls built a snowman outside with Daddy and had the best time! I took Lucy out for a few minutes for a photo session, but she pretty much hated it! Oh well. Maybe next year she'll like now. That is, if we get any snow next year. I hope we do! (We are actually supposed to get a "bunch" tonight!)

Emmy and Addy with their snowman that Daddy helped them build!

This was the best I could do. Hopefully, I can try again tomorrow! Woot!!!

The rest of the day involved a visit from my brother who lives a couple minutes away, a visit from my aunt because she just couldn't wait to give my girls their presents, playing with new toys, fixing a dinner of Hashbrown Hamburger Helper (Don't judge me. Emmy picked it out. Hey, it WAS Christmas! She kept talking about her "Delicious Christmas Dinner!" haha!) and just relaxing together as a family. It was so nice! Even though I hated that we didn't get to see much of our family like we usually do on Christmas, I love the fact that we got to relax in our pj's all day and just enjoy time together.

We resumed Christmas with my grandparents at their house the day after Christmas. My aunt had to work, but was sweet enough to bring over the dinner she had made that we were supposed to enjoy the night before. We opened presents, ate that yummy lunch, and just spent some time making memories with the girls, my sister, and my Mee-mee and Papa. It was very special, but for some reason I didn't manage to get ANY pictures! What is wrong with me?! I will always remember it, though :).

We had our last Christmas celebration the Monday evening after Christmas. It actually worked out really well because my other brother, his wife, and their son all had come into town. Right when we got there we pretty much started opening presents. We all got some really nice things-especially the girls. They are very blessed (ahem...and very spoiled...ahem..in a good way I think, if that's possible.) After opening presents, we ate a great meal that my step-mom prepared for us. It was all so good, as usual! The rest of the night was spent sitting around and talking, playing with my nephew, and just plain spending time together. Something funny that happened at one point was when I couldn't find the big girls or my step-mom, Vickie a.k.a. "Mickie". I finally found them back in the guest/play room on top of the bed under a blanket watching a movie-Princess and the Frog, I think. It was so cute and made me smile! I am thankful to have Mickie to love on my girls especially since they don't have my mom to do things like that with them. She loves my girls just like if I were her real daughter. I am so thankful for that!

All of these things that we did were so wonderful and I am so thankful for all of the family we got to spend Christmas with! The thing I am most thankful for and the reason that we do all of these things is because of Jesus, though. God, the creator of the Universe, came down from Heaven in human form, lived a sinless life, and died for us so that our sins could be covered by His precious blood and we could spend eternity with Him. I am so thankful that a sinful person like me has the assurance of salvation-the greatest Gift ever!