Why do we even try?

We hung out with some friends the other day and had to TRY to get a picture. This is about as best as we could get. We are slowly re-poplulating the earth and how about all of these boys around my girls?!


This one is my personal fav:


What a GREAT group of kids! They could all be related. We are blessed to live in a place with so many amazing kids all around us.

Snow Day 2010.

We had our first beautiful snow of this winter and we were way more prepared for it this year, as was our town! It was so fun to actually have snow suits and boots this year and go play outside! The girls loved it.....for about 30 minutes but that was fine with me b/c then we got to cozy up next to our wood stove! It made for a fun couple of days.



One of Lily's many silly faces....


Piper was SO proud of her own Frosty.

A dad and his girls!

Fall medley. Part 2.

Here are more pics of our great fall here in Black Mtn. Hopefully, I'll be caught up enough now to keep up! We had a wonderful fall visiting the apple orchards, picking pumpkins, trick or treating, baking a lot, enjoying school, etc. Here are some pictures of our trip to the fire station, one last trip to The Cabin, Mommy's birthday and Boone as a "bad dog."

Open House at the Fire Station where Phil is a volunteer firefighter:


At The Cabin right before it sold. So glad for this place where we got engaged



A night out with good friends for my birthday:


Breakfast in bed on my birthday....I didn't get to eat much of it b/c I had so much help:

Boone made "bad choices" and this is her consequence, which brought us hours of laughs:


Happy Holidays! More updates coming soon!

Catching up....a Fall medley. Part 1.

So we haven't posted for a while so I'm going to a "medley" of pics from the Fall! Enjoy!
Pi & her great friend!

Our dog's birthday sign made by Pi & Aunt Anne visits!

New fall fashions....


Apple picking with Grandma & Grandpa:


A fall tradition:


Trick or Treating in Black Mtn:

Lily really does love Ron in this picture but our little Sebastian had a little too much fun that night! Part 2 coming soon...

A Princess Surprise.

So in case you didn't know this about us, we love to surprise our kids with great things. Sure we could just tell them, or show them, or get it for them.... But man it's more fun when we get to make a big deal about it. So, whenever we get the chance, we make it a Big Deal!

One of the most recent examples happened this past Friday. We took a day off work, and made the trip to Greenville, SC for a special show in the Bi-Lo Center. For days, we had been talking about the big surprise. We gave a few hints. We told Piper some of the "supplies" that she might want to bring. And then one of the most fun parts...we let her guess where we were going.

Her Top 3 Guesses of where we would go for a fun surprise....

1 - Windy Gap - a Young Life Camp down the road. One of her favorite places.
2 - Chucky Cheese - a child's mecca
3 - A long Horse Ride...not sure about this one, but we loved it.

We walked into the building, the lobby had been turned into parent hell/ princess dreamland...selling everything a princess would need for only $65. Sure why not, we're here right? Well... Cotton Candy for $10 (the cheapest thing in the building.) A Snow Cone for $20. An authentic Disney wand for $22. It was nuts and we definitely had some great parenting moments of pleading with our 4-year-old why we can't buy the sparkly wand, ugly plastic horse and princess pendant.

All of it was well worth it for both of our girls' reactions to the main event.....Piper squealed and screamed and told me where all the "holes" in the stories were (like "where is Prince Philip's horse?", "where are the animals who help Snow White?", "why did the Genie come out of that part of the lamp and not the other?") and Lily just stared. No talking. Just staring in wonderment. It was such a fun day and I'm so glad that as parents, our job is to make fun for and to love our kids like that!


Right before the skating!


Our crew after the show!

So this is love???

As previously posted, we spent the weekend at one of our most favorite places, Windy Gap, a few weekends back. Our friends, Kristen and Kyle, from Charlotte came in for the weekend. Kyle and Lily have always had a "connection."

Here is further proof....



Now, THAT'S love.
But so is this:

Piper just doesn't care about boys yet.

And Lily likes to pick horses' noses.
Funny.

A weekend at Windy Gap.

Pi's favorite thing to do AND on a horse named PIPER!


with our dear friends, Kyle and Kristen

I could take a big bite out of them.

A Surprise for Pi.

It's one of our most favorite times of year when......
The Mountain State Fair comes to town.
Some animals, a ride, a gondola ride, some ice cream and a funnel cake complete our time there.
Before you look at the pics, please enjoy Piper's reaction when she found out what we were doing:


Now, isn't that just the picture of pure joy?!
She was SO scared to go on this ride (which she wouldn't do last year), but she loved it. It's funny the little things that you get to be proud of as a parent!

Too small for the rides but loved all of the lights!




I obviously made them pose for this picture by the chickens.....come on, mom.