"Sledding!"

Mia and I spent an hour or so yesterday building a sled trail in the back yard. Our yard is relatively flat, so we used a big pile of snow to create a hill and cut trails down for her to sled. They are all covered now, and we'll put up new pics when we feel its safe to stick our necks outside, but for now, here's a video of Mia.

SNOW 2010

The first real snow this season that the kids could really play in has arrived!!! (Note we were en route to NC for the Blizzard in December.) Maybe there will be enough for a snowman later, but for now, the girls made some pretty nice snow angels before Laney got too cold and wanted some cocoa.

Carina got her chance to really get out in the snow and still doesn't like it much, but we did get a few shots of her so we can officialy dub them her first snow pictures.

Happy Snow Day to You!

Christmas at the Beach

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This year, we spent Christmas week in Emerald Isle, NC.

We headed down a night early to try to beat the Blizzard, but met up with it in Richmond where we waited almost 3 hours in near standstill traffic before we got our turn to attempt to cross the bridge across the river. Several cars and all semi trucks were stranded at the bottom of the large incline of the un-plowed bridge. (The plows couldn't make it to the bridge through the traffic.) We made it across. Thankfully we were full of people, luggage, and Christmas presents, and had new tires. As we made our way off I95 onto I85, we stopped to call a tow truck for a stranded minivan and family who had plowed into a ravine - it was a pretty nasty drive. Patrick is a very skilled driver, and I'm thankful he was the one driving.


By the time it was nearing 3-4 in the morning and we were just out of the snow and finally in the rain, we stopped to get some sleep at an old gas station. Sleeping in the car was just fine at that point. However, should you attempt this, please remember to call those expecting you, even if it IS 4 am and there is a sleeping baby in their house (oops!).

After a few hours to freshen up and refuel our minds and bodies in Raleigh, it was smooth sailing to our beloved 3 Palms - the house we also rented in September 2008.




We started the week with a bad cold for Mia and while we passed it around , we fit in fun filled days of cooking, relaxing, cookie making, gingerbread house decorating, sea shell collecting, and even a birthday party for Jacque! What a blast.

Thanks to Neil and Jessica, I took a much-needed break from the kid-chaos for a half-day spa experience with Amanda and my mom - ahhhhh.

Although weather systems seem to try to keep us from going, I love Emerald Isle and can't wait to go back in the summer - hope you all had a Merry Christmas, too!

AAhhh - CHOO!

Well, it's been a few weeks since I've put anything interesting out here. Mostly we have been dealing with colds and I'm considering buying stock in Pfizer, the maker of Sudafed (ha ha).

Aunt Amanda came to visit the last weekend in February, and we had snow, so we built a very original punk snowman. Later, Mia splashed in the puddles left from the snow and then rain we had. It's snowing again today, but it looks like not even close enough for a snowman.








Other news includes the fact that Elena is now officially 8 months old and is trying really hard to crawl. She can get herself going backwards, so I hope to include a video out here soon of her crawling. :) She's also enjoying picking up Cheerios and other small easy to mush foods.



We also received our first rejection letter from a preschool. We're still holding out hope for the Purple House, however. We dont know when they are planning to let us know one way or the other, so we are just waiting.