Wonderful White Christmas

I have many, many blog posts to be done, but for now, I will just post about today. Sometime soon I hope to post about the kids Christmas parties at school, our time with relatives, and our Christmas Day. For now, suffice to say it has all been so wonderful. Below are some pictures from today of the kids enjoying the snow that has fallen over the past couple of days. Not just the kids, but Tanner, too! :) All of us enjoyed the snow.
Santa Claus brought Tanner to join our family. Oh what fun we've all had with Tanner, our new 12 week old Cockapoo! Mackenzie has bonded with Tanner and takes care of him just like a good little momma. She thinks of his every need and obviously loves him. She is so proud of him and wants to show him off to everyone. She spent some time on the phone today calling people just to tell them about Tanner! A proud little girl.

And Josiah, well he loves to play with Tanner...and Tanner loves to play and run from Josiah! They do make a funny pair playing together. Both kids are very good with Tanner. Tanner obviously loves them both.

Tanner in the snow. What an amazing past couple of days! More to come about the past week and a half as I find time to do more posts. For now, at least this post provides some pictures for those of you requesting them! :) Love you all.

Snow Day

Last night as we drove home from Red Lobster, where we had stopped to celebrate our 10th Anniversary, we realized that we might have stopped for a little too long on a snowy night. The roads went from clear to covered in less than one hour. We drove slowly toward home. We saw other cars on the roadside and we could feel the slick road beneath our van tires. We opted for the flattest route home and drove carefully. Even so, we made it about half way up the big hill, about a half mile from home, and slid back down the hill into the ditch. We were able to point the van in the downhill direction, driving slowly forward down the hill. We parked the van on a flat residential road nearby, donned our warm coat and hats, and hiked home! We are so thankful that we are all safe and nothing happened to the van. We are thankful that we were so close to home that we were able to walk the rest of the way. And, we are thankful for SNOW! :)This morning, the kids were delighted to find a winter wonderland waiting for them.
I just love pictures of my precious children playing in the snow. I am so thankful for the outlet shopping that enabled us to have snow suits to keep the kids warm.

My beautiful baby girl.

My handsome little man.

Enjoying the snow in the backyard.

Digging in the snow in the front yard.
After enjoying some time outside, we came in for the classic cup of hot chocolate. I am so thankful that school is out today. The change of pace is such a blessing in our busy world today. I think the Lord smiles down as He pours the snow into our lives, knowing full well that it "interrupts" our routines. What a blessing, indeed. I am thankful for the interruptions that give us more time together to enjoy God's changing seasons.

Pray that those, like my David, who have to be out on the icy/snowy roads due to work, will be safe. Thank you!

Christmas Parties

We had a day full of parties! My new job's Christmas party was following our case manager meeting at lunch today. We laughed so incredibly hard during the gift exchange. Fun times. Then, we enjoyed being guests at my new boss/Josiah's best friend's parents personal Christmas party. I was honored to be included among their friends and family. The kids had a blast together. And, a special visitor came... Ya know, I think this picture of David, Santa, and me turned out pretty good!
Here's Josiah and Mackenzie with Santa at the party tonight. Mackenzie asked Santa for a puppy, which is what she's been asking for all along...Josiah was a hoot! He asked Santa for everything that he could think of, which ranged from a long list of Star Wars characters to a variety of Legos, such as Atlantis and Star Wars. I loved their original thoughts to Santa at The Fantasy of Trees, myself, where Mackenzie asked for a puppy and Josiah asked for everything the puppy needs.

I snapped this picture in route to school this morning. Yep, we had a wintry start to the day full of Christmas parties! How cool!!! He, he. ;) It was 20 degrees as we headed to school. The snowflakes pouring from the sky were just gorgeous. Too bad it didn't stay around longer. Maybe we'll get some more this winter! God's design and changing of the seasons is nothing short of amazing.

Snowy Day

At bedtime last night the kids piled into Josiah's bed together. They were so cute that I had to grab the camera! (Actually, they both requested that I grab the camera, which I thought was funny!) So, here's the pictures of the two kids together in his room.
We ended up putting them in their separate beds as I'm sure they'll sleep better that way!

We woke up this morning to a winter wonderland. How gorgeous! Mackenzie enjoyed the icicles, and I thought it was a cool picture with the icicles at the top.

This week at school, Mackenzie's class made pine cone bird feeders. Today was the perfect day to hang hers in the backyard for the birds to enjoy.

Mackenzie did a great job scattering the extra bird seed all over the snowy ground. I'm sure the birds will be appreciative. ;)

This snow is an icy one, which is perfect for sledding! We all four enjoyed sledding, but I did not take any pictures of it. I was too busy enjoying it, myself! Anyways, along with the icy snow came lots of icicles.

Josiah inspecting the icicles hanging from the swing set.

Up close of Josiah.

Watch out! He's ready with a snow ball!

He just struck a pose by the fence...too cute! :)

Mackenzie swinging in the snow.

My two cutie pies.

David and me.

Josiah and Mackenzie helped David build a huge snowman. I haven't taken the pictures yet because they are not quite finished. It is so cold that we came inside for a break and for lunch and have not made it back out yet! :)

Hope you are all enjoying the snow, too. It was nice to have school canceled on Friday, so we even get a 3 day weekend!

Snow Days!

Yeah, that's a real original title since half the country (or more?) is covered in winter weather these days! Ha! Anyways, Josiah was picked up early from "school" yesterday and Mackenzie's school was canceled today due to the snowy/icy weather. We completely enjoyed these two days of snow. Josiah and Mackenzie with the "Christmas" tree in our backyard. This was Thursday evening, while all four of us were outside together.
Mackenzie at the base of the slide.

Josiah eating snow off the ladder rungs as he climbed up to go down the slide. Watching the kids literally fly down the slide in their snowsuits would scare anyone! I'm just thankful we had no injuries, and therefore no trips to the emergency room. He, he. They loved the snowy slide, though. To watch them go down it over and over and over was comical.

Cute pic of Mackenzie in the snow yesterday.

This morning, after David headed on to work, the kids and I bundled up and headed outside. One of the first things they did was to lay down in the driveway and make snow angels. In the above picture they are giving each other "high fives" for the great job making snow angels that they both did! Too cute.

Here's Josiah in action making a snow angel in our driveway.
The most memorable thing the three of us did this morning was sledding. Alas, I have no pictures of it as I was right in the middle of it all! We began by sledding down the hill in our front yard. The kids were each on a sled and I was pushing the sled to get it started down the hill. It was fun, but what was even better was sledding down the street! We quickly figured out that we didn't have to stop at the base of our yard. Instead, we could begin in our yard, land in the street which was solid ice with some snow, too, and continue down the huge hill. So, after checking both ways for traffic, I sat down on the sled. Both kids piled in my lap. We then began, slowly at first and then gathering great (and completely out of control) momentum. The three of us, all piled on that one bright red sled, flew down the entire street from our house to the stop sign at the base! We went all different directions, including backwards as I cannot steer the sled! The kids laughed and squealed with delight as we just kept going and going down that hill. Two times of walking all the way back UP that hill was plenty, so we headed inside for a cup of hot chocolate.

Here's Mackenzie enjoying her hot chocolate in her insulated underwear, or cuddle duds, as we call them!

Here's Josiah enjoying (spewing) his hot chocolate in his cuddle duds. I found those on clearance at Target last week, and boy am I glad we had those!

I spent a lot of time trying to get Josiah to pose for a picture outside in the snow. It just didn't happen. He was way too busy just enjoying the snow to stop for pictures. Sigh. So, I laughed when he flopped down on the bar stools after enjoying his hot chocolate and announced, "Cheese." He was posing for a picture! I snapped it, of course! :)

Our Weekend

Mackenzie's Christmas musical was this past Thursday night and again on Friday morning. Friday was Grandparent's Day at her school, and I was delighted that my dad and Lisa were able to attend for Mackenzie. The above picture is of Mackenzie's Thursday night performance. Getting there 30 minutes early was certainly not early enough for a seat with a good view! Live and learn. On Friday morning we were there in time for front row seats. :) Mackenzie is on the second row from the top, second child from the edge. Her dear friend, Avery, is standing right beside her on the very edge.
This picture is of the Friday morning performance. We had better seats, as you can tell from the proximity of the picture! Again, Mackenzie is on the second row down, second from the edge. The musical performance was fantastic and quite impressive, too.

As soon as the performance was over on Friday, we headed up to Gatlinburg's Aquarium for the afternoon. This was Dad and Lisa's first time at an aquarium, so it was a neat experience for us all.

My dad and Mackenzie in front of a school of fish.

Mackenzie with Lili at the aquarium.

Mackenzie and me, enjoying the colorful fish in the huge tank.

Papa, or Poppie as the kids often call him, and Josiah exploring at the aquarium.

Josiah in the cave area at the aquarium.

Mackenzie and me in the interactive area.

Mackenzie and Josiah checking out the jelly fish.

My dad, me, Josiah, and Mackenzie in front of a beautiful Christmas tree in Gatlinburg.

Dad and Lisa, or Poppie and Lili

Papa and Lili with Mackenzie and Josiah. I love this picture!

Friday night, though we were all exhausted, we had a surprise party for Lili. Her birthday is this week, so we celebrated a few days early. I'm no cake decorator, but I had fun making a cake for her birthday. I was stunned and pleased when I found out that no one had ever made her a cake before! We all enjoyed the party. :)

Then we woke up Saturday morning to find snowing pouring from the sky. How beautiful is God's creation?! Josiah loved the snow. He had been talking about making snow balls all week, since we first found out that a chance of snow was in the forecast.

Poppie pulling Mackenzie on the sled in our yard. I bet we got a couple of inches of gorgeous snow. By lunchtime it was all gone, but we certainly enjoyed it while it lasted! We had a great weekend and made some wonderful memories. Thanks to Dad and Lisa for taking the time off work to come our way for a visit.

(Side note: David's Grandma had major abdominal surgery Thursday night and is in ICU. She is 95 1/2 years old. Please say a prayer for her and all involved in her care.)