An Early Snow

Well, early for the south anyway. Since the weathermen were calling for snow flurries the first weekend of this month, we decided to head back up to our cabin in North Carolina (we had just been there the previous weekend for Thanksgiving). We knew that if we were getting flurries in our area, then most likely there would be some accumulation up in the "mountains." Sure enough, early Saturday morning this is what we woke up to.

It wasn't even more than an inch or two, but we thought it was wonderful. Tyler was especially happy since his most favorite season is winter, and his one wish each year is that it will snow! Even though the kids had only had a few hours of sleep, they were more than willing to jump out of bed and get bundled up to head outside and play in it.

They first walked up the hill with Pawpaw. That's our cabin in the background.

Then we decided to go for a drive up into the higher mountains to see if we could find even more. It was a beautiful drive!

As the sun came out and it warmed up a bit, the snow started melting rather quickly. We decided to stop and play one last time before it was completely gone.

Tyler got to make his snow angel...

And Allison was amazed with how the snow stuck to her clothes and mittens.

They spent most of their time throwing snowballs at Daddy...

And thought it was hysterical!

It was a FUN day!

Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving at our cabin in North Carolina again this year. This time Jon, Vanessa, Keilana, and Kayden were able to be there too (they were in Utah last year)! It was a full house, and with my mom being sick and a new baby in the mix, we didn't have our act together quite as well as we would have liked. We forgot to make gravy, and never even took our cranberry sauce and jello salad out of the fridge to eat! But we still had a great time, a delicious dinner, and were thankful to all be together!

Tyler is thankful for (in his words): toys, food, candy, being able to play outside and inside, his home, and his family.

Allison is thankful for (in her words): being with Mommy, the couch(?), her toys, her plates and cups, Daddy, and her brothers.

After dinner, we attempted to get a Thanksgiving family picture. It didn't quite go as planned...

Take 1: Too bad Allison closed her eyes.

Take 2: And now Tyler looks like he had a bit too much turkey to eat.

Take 3: Now it all just looks a bit forced.

Take 4: A GREAT shot...but um, where's Daddy?!

Take 5: Daddy's back, but now Ryan's fussy, the kids are obviously done, and I give up...

*Keep scrolling for another chatch-up post!*

Christmas '08 - finally continued

I'm not sure why it's been such a challenge for me to blog lately, but it has. So here I am, STILL reporting on Christmas. I feel lame, but I can't move on and leave these posts out. I'd eventually like to turn my blog into a blurb, so these posts will need to be here! So here is how Christmas went in Georgia this year.
Grandma and Pawpaw Hamby wanted the kids to come over and help decorate the tree with them this year. Afterwards, they were each given an early Christmas gift. They were SO excited by this news!

Tyler got a Lightning McQeen snow globe that he has wanted for about a year now. He discovered that he "needed" one for his room last Christmas when Lana got one from her Auntie in Utah. Too bad he tripped while holding it no more than 30 minutes after opening it, resulting in a broken Lightning snow globe and one sad little boy! Luckily we were able to get another one during the after Christmas sale for a great price!

Allison was also super pleased with her gift - a My Melody purse. She was more than willing to model it for us too!

On Christmas Eve, we attended a party with my mom's side of the family. We have a yummy dinner and do a fun ornament exchange. We also took a couple pictures with my 91-year-old Grandma!

She's amazing for 91. She still gets around and does everything on her own!

I will be reporting on Christmas morning in my next post, but for Christmas night we got together with my mom and dad and my sister's family (along with Grandma and Grandpa Hadley, who were visiting) for food and more present opening. Here are Tyler and Allison opening gifts from Auntie Vanessa, Uncle Jon, Keilana, and Kayden.

I thought this picture of Lana and Allison having a little girl time was adorable. Allison loves her Lana!

Then it was time to open gifts from Grandma and Grandpa Hadley. Tyler and Allison were exstatic to have them come and stay with us again for Christmas this year!

Tyler got a bucket of Cars themed games and a Lightning McQueen laptop! What DON'T they make in Cars?!

Allison got her 3rd baby doll and a Little People Airport!

Allison is lucky that her Grandma and Grandpa Hadley love her so much. They paid $6 for a small container of watermelon in California and brought it all the way with them here, so that she could enjoy her favorite fruit on Christmas! Doesn't that face just make it worth it though?! ;)

For New Year's, we headed up to our cabin in North Carolina. While we were there, the kids got the rest of their Christmas presents from Grandma and Pawpaw Hamby. They decided to do it Scavenger Hunt style and hide all the gifts for them to find. It was a blast!

Here is Allison locating her first gift!

This is the classic look given by Tyler when he is genuinely surprised and happy about something. He was overjoyed to find his first gift hiding in the microwave!

Allison got some adorable outfits to add to her collection. Each time she opened one, she modeled it for everyone!

Tyler actually already knew he was going to be getting this Lightning pillow, yet still shows so much enthusiasm. He is such an appreciative little guy!

Tyler and Allison really are two very lucky and loved little kids!

Fun and Snow at the Cabin!

While looking through my pictures, I realized that I still had some pictures from our last trip to the cabin that I wanted to blog about. So before I can blog about our adventures in California, first thing's first! These first few pictures took place on the days leading up to Thanksgiving.

This is a funny game Allison likes to play. She points at you (while you point back at her) and says "dee, dee, DEEEEE!" I'm not sure what this means, but it's rather amusing!

Here is Tyler making his Tie Dye leaves. He worked so hard on them and just couldn't make enough!

After putting Allison in the Pack'N'Play (that you can see to the right) for a nap, I came in later to find her this way. She had climbed out of the crib, pushed the boat onto the floor (which we used at the lake this past summer), and fell asleep after all the hard work!

Allison spent a GREAT deal of time writing in this puzzle book. In fact, she was having a blast! I snapped this picture as she was taking a moment to admire her work. She was so proud of herself!

This is just a really cute picture of Riley and my sister's poodle, Bo, as they cuddled together in the rocker.

This next set of pictures shows the snow we got on December 1st! This is a rare occurance during this time of the year where we live. Since there were only flurries coming down at our cabin (it was doing that in GA too by the way!), my Dad decided to take us riding up into one of the nearby mountains to see if we could find some accumulation. We were delighted to find OVER 3 inches of snow and spent a great deal of the night driving though and playing in it!

Tyler actually prayed for it to snow and Heavenly Father answered his prayers. He was so excited to "taste" the snow and make a snow angel!

Tyler and his Pawpaw. He tells everyone that "Pawpaw got us into a LOT of snow!"

This is actually Allison's 2nd encounter with snow, but she was obviously too little to remember last year. She was very curious about all the cold, sparkly, white stuff.

MeMaw adoring her little snow angel.

Here are just a couple shots that I thought were too pretty to pass up!

Thanksgiving Feast

So it may not have really been a huge feast, but it sure seemed like a bunch of food for 4 adults and 2 children. My mom and I just couldn't help ourselves though! This year was quite different than past Thanksgivings. Up until last year, my Granny (my dad's mom) always cooked Thanksgiving dinner. Last year broke that tradition, when she finally decided that she was "getting too old" to prepare such a large meal (she always cooked for an army!). She spent Thanksgiving with my aunt (my dad's sister) and her family. So we decided ("we" being me, Billy, Tyler, Allison, my mom and dad, Vanessa, Jon, Keilana, and Kayden) to join Billy's family in Tennessee for Thanksgiving! It was great fun, and we were very appreciative and thankful for the hospitality shown to us. Shortly after that, however, they packed up and moved back to California. :c( So this year Thanksgiving was even more different. Vanessa is spending Thanksgiving with Jon's family in Utah. So here the rest of us are at our little cabin in the mountains of North Carolina! Billy's sister, Kim, and her husband and baby girl had planned to join us here until they found out Butch had to work on Friday. We were pretty bummed that they couldn't come! With all that being said, this is the very 1st year that my mom and I have made Thanksgiving dinner completely on our own. So that's why we couldn't help ourselves. We were just very excited and had so many things we didn't want to leave out! We REALLY missed Vanessa, Jon, Keilana, and Kayden and wished they were here with us now. But we are also glad they are having a good time in Utah! :)

This was our Thanksgiving menu:

turkey and stuffing, of course!
mashed potatoes and gravy
green bean casserole
sweet potato souffle
squash casserole
cream corn
rolls
cranberry jello salad
lime jello salad
and lots of desserts!

This picture shows the crafts Tyler and Allison made for decorations - Handprint Turkeys, Tie Dye Leaves, Harvest Time Scarecrow, and a Pinecone Turkey.

This picture was just too cute not to post. It looks like it's right out of the Publix commercial, huh?!

Ready to eat our yummy Thanksgiving dinner!

Daddy and his baby girl.

Tyler, Allison, and I came up to the cabin 4 days ahead of Billy, and Allison missed her Daddy SO much! She talked about him everyday, pretended to talk to him on my cell phone, and pointed and said "Daddy!" every time she saw a car that she thought was his. Needless to say, she was exstatic to see him when he got here last night! She is such a Daddy's girl!

We just love our drumsticks!

Chicken drumsticks are one of Tyler's favorite foods. The first time he had one, I explained to him that it was chicken just like in chicken nuggets, only this meat was still on the bone. Ever since then, he has called them "chicken bones."

Tyler and Allison with their Grandma (Allison actually calls her "Me-maw")

Dessert time - YUM!

Each person got to request his/her own dessert. Billy wanted Hello Dollies, my Dad wanted a Pecan Pie and a Coconut Pie (I guess he got to pick two since Allison couldn't voice her own opinion), my Mom wanted the Mile High Brownie Pie (courtesy of Billy's sister), and Tyler requested "Ice Crissmie Treats." We COMPLETELY forgot to buy the Rice Crispy cereal at the store, and didn't realize it until we went to make them this morning. We almost had a very disappointed little boy on our hands until some Lucky Charms saved the day! I completely recommend making rice crispy treats this way, and I don't even like that kind of cereal. They turned out so good! I didn't have any specific dessert that I was in the mood for, so I opted to have a sampling of each! Yummmmm!