Snow Day

As you can guess we don't get much snow ever in Charlotte!  But a 'big' storm was coming, so the weather forecasters were saying, it was set to hit at 3pm on Tuesday.  The kids got out of school at 1130am on Tuesday but by then the forecast had already changed, snow was coming around 5pm.  My boys were so excited we got out the snow gear, 5pm came, no snow.  Now the snow was suppose to come our way at 7pm and it did a few flakes but not enough to play in.  We got 'the call' at 715, school was cancelled for Wednesday.  But that is typical here, if there is a flake of snow schools are cancelled, issue is there are no built in snow days so days off will have to be made up.  But the kids dont care they just are excited to have the day off. We woke up the next morning to about 1/2 inch of snow and ice.  We will take it!!

The hill in our neighborhood just didn't have enough snow to sled down so in the southern way of  sledding, we took to the streets and rode down the street that was a sheet of ice!

The boys spent the entire day outside, running through the neighborhood and going from friends house to friends house.  They would come in to dry off, get some hot chocolate and food and then out again.  Ryan loves his cloths right out of the dryer!  We live in a great neighborhood!  At one point I counted at least 22 kids sliding down the hill in front of our house.  It was definitely a SNOW DAY!

Well, we get to do it all over again, no school again today!  However most of the snow/ice is gone.

Justin and BBall

Justin loves his basketball, he has been playing since he was about 6 years old.  This year he made it on the NBA division in the league he plays in, such a proud moment.  He was so very excited!

His dad helps with the coaching.  They are currently are undefeated and are 5-0.  Not bad, huh?!

Pinky's

Who doesn't love a good fried pickle from Pinky's?! This may just become an annual tradition for us, were have to go to the cemetery to pick up the artificial Christmas tree at my dad's grave and Pinky's is right down the street.

Football season

Football season, not my favorite sport but I do however like hanging out with the Basiles and the Nelsons on game day.  They (meaning the men) watch football, we (meaning the woman) hang out and drink wine and cook and the boys (meaning the boys) watch football and  play video games.  So all and all it is a fun Sunday afternoon.  We hosted, honestly I can't remember which game was on.  Don is a Dallas Cowboys fan and Nick and Gregg are Giants fans. Funny, I have lived in the south for 20 years and our good friends are all from the north.  Basiles are from Buffalo and the Nelsons are from Jersey.

 Even the dog (not ours!) likes beer.  Oh no!

We even got in a game of Logo, Rachel's favorite game.  It was men against women, unfortunately we lost but it seems unfair because 1/2 the questions were about Microsoft (Nick worked for them for 15 years) and 1/2 were about finances (Gregg is a financial consultant).  But fun was had by all!

The Final Post of 2013 in 2014!

New Year's Eve is not usually a huge 'thing' for us. We got invited to a party this year, this included the kids.  We only knew a handful of people but it was a really good time.  There must have been about 25 kids there, at one point I began to think that there were more kids than adults and that we were out numbered. Our friends Gregg and Jodi, were awesome hosts.

Holden Beach in January

Have I ever mentioned how much I LOVE THE BEACH!  Well I do!  Our good friends the Basiles after much effort, aggravation and tears bought a beautiful beach house in Holden Beach (the tears and aggravation were because it was a short-sale).  They closed right before Christmas and invited us down after the holiday.  The place had been a rental for the last seven years so it needed some cleaning and love and more cleaning.  So we set out to do just that but along the way had some fun, found some awesome shells and got to hang out with awesome friends!

Don and Nick moved all of the furniture around in the house and Rachel and I cleaned each room from top to bottom, blinds, walls, floors and furniture.  The boys...well, Cody, Justin, Kyle and Ryan played on the beach and played on the wii.  Boys will be boys.

Our last morning there Kyle, Justin, Ryan, Don and I headed down the beach for a walk, it was a gorgeous day and to our surprise we found about 15 conch shells, 2 sand dollars, 2 sea biscuits.  I was one happy girl!  The boys were so excited running from shell to shell.  We could see the conch shells from a distance sticking out of the sand.  There was a storm the night before and it must have stirred things up, there was also a huge tree that had washed up on shore as well!

Shorts and sweatshirts in December, I just love NC!  Now that I look through the pictures we have no pictures of Cody, well he is in high school now.  I am going to have to make a mental note next time and try to catch him off guard and snap one!  We even have pictures of sweet Abby the dog.

Can you believe the boys helping cook! Rachel out did herself, we had surf and surf and turf. Lobster tails, awesome shrimp in a cilantro pesto and steak!  Yummy! We sure don't eat like that at home.  Love Rachel's cooking!! :)

Ginerbread house at Ballantyne

I love gingerbread houses, Ballantyne Resort had a great exhibit of houses, so the boys, my mom and I headed over a few days after Christmas. A beautiful hotel and a beautiful display.  Justin and Ryan are always fascinated by nutcrackers too!