Friday, January 08, 2010

Reach out and touch someone

But not KEN!

Don't you just love it? This is how I found little sweetie before I went to bed. And yes, that is a row of 8, count them, 8 barbies/ken dolls sleeping beside her!

Tuesday, January 05, 2010

Snow Day

With rumors of snow arriving in the lowcountry swirling around us, I thought it would be a good time to post about our trip to the snowy mountains in hope that it would bring good luck our way!

There was some major snow back in December and we happened to be in the upstate for the weekend with a chance to enjoy it. Our girls have never seen snow and Katie Jo could not have been more excited about the chance to see it and play in it.

On Saturday we decided to ride up to Wolf Laurel for some tubing. I'll delete all the extra info and just tell you that it wasn't what we expected but it turned out all right. What we didn't know was that the actual ski location no longer had tubing and had moved it a couple miles down the road. After being in the car for a LONG time it added a little stress to a couple of eager children but they lived. When we arrived at the "down the road" location we realized the side of a mountain tubing experience we'd hoped for was actually a hill. On the bright side it did have a moving belt you could ride on with your tube to get back to the "top" and they had a discounted price. On the even brighter side we had two children who were pumped up with excitement and they didn't care how big or little the hill was. Fun ensued!

This was the view we had most of our ride up. This was some of the first snow we saw and it was only about 10 miles from Lyman.

We stopped at a gas station and this little fella was outside the waffle house. He was practically saying, "Come on in folks."

Katie Jo's first moments in the snow!

Gotta love the "rules."

A happy camper (it didn't last long).

Jay and Georgia getting ready to tube down the hill. Don't let the photo fool you, Georgia didn't actually do any tubing that was on a voluntary basis.

Katie Jo and Mommy are getting ready to fly down the hill. She had such a great time and was such a trooper even though I know she was freezing. In a way, I wondered if she knew this would be one of few chances to experience snow. She just seemed to soak up every moment we were there.

And then Georgia got cold and unhappy.


Sisters posing beside the snow man. We didn't build him but we had a lot of fun playing with him.

This was in the last few moments that Georgia lasted outside of a heated environment. God bless Jay for keeping her inside the car while Katie Jo and I could enjoy playing.

We met a family from Columbia that had also driven up for the day with their girls. They had this neat snowman kit and let Katie Jo help add the pieces.
Making a snow angel.

Mission complete

Such a happy girl!

And here are my two beautiful girls on our ride home.


We had a beautiful site for most of our ride back.


I have to keep it real and post a picture of my shoes. Obviously we don't have to brave artic weather very much in our parts. I have had these boots for well over 10 years. The soles were coming off of both of them but instead of buying a new pair I used duct tape to hold them together. The tape was across the front and back and wrapped around the side. It proved to work quite well as my feet stayed warm and dry! It did not work quite so well in the climbing dept but I only fell a couple of times. It did provide some much needed laughter though.

Saturday, January 02, 2010

What a difference a year makes!


Can you believe this is the same child? I ran across the top photo when I was looking through some old shots. I decided to take another picture tonight to see the difference. She has hair, it's curly, she doesn't have a pacifier and my how she has grown!


Little Helper

I thought these were a couple of sweet pictures showing Katie Jo doing what she does best, helping. She loves to assist Jay and I in whatever we're doing and we don't always say yes, but when we do, it delights her heart to the fullest.


Ist photo session

I love getting gifts. I love wondering what they are and then the excitement of opening them to see what's inside. So, this year when I asked for money it was a step outside of the norm. BUT I've had my eye on a certain camera for some time and it doesn't cost the kind of money I make subbing so I had to find another route. I decided to put the money I received towards purchasing the new camera. The day after Christmas Katie Jo and I loaded up and headed to Costco to make my big purchase. Luckily the camera I wanted was in stock and came in a kit with the camera, two lenses, a camera bag, and a memory card. Jackpot! So now I have a nice new camera and Sunday morning seemed like a good time to try it out. So here's a little sample of our photo shoot.