November 2014

The beginning of November continued to be filled with soccer and baseball.  Both boys played in their last tournament of the year the second weekend.

Jackson's team actually won their tournament in Hickory!!!

Brendan made the volleyball team at his middle school.  They played very well.  They were runners up for their conference.

Emma and Jackson put their Christmas trees up the middle weekend in November...that is early, but we knew would be traveling at Thanksgiving and then the Christmas season would be here.

We took our annual Christmas card photo pictures at Old Salem this year...it was freezing and very windy.  All the kids were mad, and I screamed.  

For Thanksgiving, we took the kids skiing at Snowshoe, WV.  It was an amazing experience.  We were so lucky because it snowed 20" while we were there which is a little unusual for that time of year.

The day after Thanksgiving, Snowshoe had a big tree lighting ceremony.

It was amazing how quickly they put out Christmas decorations.

We had such an amazing trip.  I can't wait to go back.

Winter 2014

In true North Carolina fashion, our temps have been extremely up and down the past two weeks.  We have really enjoyed the warmish temperatures, but we are not looking forward to the cooler weather coming this weekend.  I wanted to post some photos of the two snows that we have had this winter.

It's been a wild winter for us!  Now we are ready for spring and warm weather!!!

Makeover

I love my new blog makeover! This is just what I had envisioned when I contacted Rita from CoffeeShop Designs.

The kitchen makeover is also coming along nicely, and it is almost complete! More photos to follow!!!

I hope everyone is having a nice weekend! We had our first snow yesterday. We rarely get snow before Christmas! Yesterday was tree decorating day so it was very Christmasy here in the Piedmont of NC.

Here is a snapshot I took with my blackberry...forgive the poor quality, but it was a beautiful snowy day.

Black and White Wednesday

This is Week 5 of Black and White Wednesday hosted by Lisa at The Long Road to China! I have enjoyed this each week so far even though I am not trained in photo processing. One thing that I have decided that I like about black and whites, however, is a stark contrast.

In keeping with the "theme" of the Mid-Atlantic, I decided to post a few photos that I took early last Friday morning after it had been snowing a few hours here in NC. Thankfully for us, this snow stopped after only about 2-3 inches. As we all know, this storm headed north and dumped a ton of snow on the Capital.

Check out those big, fluffy flakes...

Snow Cream

It is a winter wonderland here in Northwest NC! The snow started around 5:15pm last night, and it is still coming down although now we are getting sleet mixed with fine snow. The totals are down a little from what was predicted but only because the snow mainly turned to sleet in the early morning hours. We have about eight inches of snow now with one inch of ice on top - one more inch expected before this is over. Did I mention that it was 60 degrees here Wednesday? Anyway, with the frigid temperature (23 degrees currently) and the chilling wind, our boys have not ventured out to play but once. They only lasted about 30 minutes before they returned FROZEN!

The one good thing that has come of the snow, however, is SNOW CREAM! I set a large bowl out on the patio table last night to collect our snow, and then I used the allrecipes.com recipe to make our first batch. You can find the recipe via the link here.

Jackson decided to decorate his bowl with sprinkles and an iced cookie on top! YUMMY!!!

Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!

I cannot remember the last time that it snowed before Christmas, but on Friday morning, it started sleeting here in NC. By 2pm, it looked like this in our front yard...

The boys could not wait to get outside since we had an early dismissal from school.

Although there was virtually no snow build up yet, they got out their sleds.

And they started to build a snowman...

But then they dismantled him, and tried to use his body parts as giant snowballs...

By Friday afternoon, the weathermen had forecasted that we may get between 5 to 10 inches. I know this may not be a lot for some people, but up until last year the boys didn't even remember snow lasting for more than one morning. Sooooo...our great friends in Wilmington decided to brave the highways and drive up for some wintertime fun.

And thankfully, MK finally got that snowman built...

On Saturday morning we all got dressed and headed out - even Miss Emma. I am pretty sure that she has already seen more snow in her first winter in St Petersburg than I have my entire life.

I tried to teach Emma how to make a snow angel. She didn't really get it. When she got up, all you could really see was a big indentation that her bottom made. Too funny!

Dad even decided to sled with Emma. He was being goofy wearing the "faux" fur hat that we brought home from Russia.

We all had so much fun this weekend even though we were semi-snowed in. The boys went out for three LONG snow sessions yesterday, and then they were back out for two more today. I have to say that it was a nice surprise to see snow especially with everyone's Christmas decorations out, but I will not miss the "mess" that playing in the snow brings. For example, I have mopped up the floor and run the dryer ALL weekend long trying to keep ski bibs and gloves dry. I am glad that we saw so much snow on a weekend, but I am now ready for it to melt away! :)

Rain, Rain, Go Away...

Please turn to snow today!

We have all been waiting ALL day for the snow to start. The forecast is for about 4 inches...we'll see. The boys don't remember more than just an inch or two of snow. Any would be nice, but then I'm ready for spring - 110%!