Detour

I get so excited about Christmas each year, and this year was no exception. I was wrapping up my long “to do” list at the grocery story on Thursday. Our plans were to leave on Saturday for Tennessee to spend a few days with my family before heading back to spend Christmas at home with my inlaws. While at the grocery store, a lady asked me if we were getting ready for “the storm.”

“Storm? What storm?” I asked.

She went on to inform me that a huge snowstorm was heading our way, and they were predicting we would get 9-12 inches of snow.

My jaw hit the floor. I had not heard anything about this.

I am a southern girl. And I have been disappointed more than once by an intelligent-looking weatherman telling me we would be getting some snow. It doesn't take much snow to get me excited. 3 inches is perfectly awesome to me! I vividly remember the “Blizzard of 93” but never expected that it would be repeated anytime soon.

I called Bob at his office and he began looking into this weather forecast. They thought the storm would hit our area Friday evening and would continue through Saturday. At the last minute, we decided to leave Friday and try to beat the storm.

Hmm... We had been driving for about 45 minutes when it began to snow. Light, pretty, little snow.

The kids were sound asleep so I closed my eyes to get a little cat nap.

When I opened my eyes, I found myself in the middle of a stinkin' blizzard! The flakes were huge and it was coming down very hard. We were only 2 hours into our 7 hour trip and quickly decided it was time to get off the roads. With 2 little ones, we did not want to take the chance of getting stranded on the interstate in a blizzard.

And one thing about my husband: when it's time to work, he works very hard. But when it's time to play, he loves to play hard too.

So he called around and found an awesome hotel 5 miles away.

This is where we found shelter from the storm. It was a lovely, historic hotel that was beautifully decorated for Christmas.

They had over 80 Christmas trees and the kids had a great time thoroughly examining each one.

Eveley was intrigued by the puzzle table in the lobby.

And Caleb was intrigued by the bolster pillow in the room.

This was quite a neat Christmas treat.

The next morning, we found nearly 2 feet of snow on the ground. But, thankfully, we were able to slowly get on the interstate and drive to TN. We were very thankful that the Lord protected us and got us there safely. This was definitely a Christmas adventure we will not soon forget!

Weekend Fun

It has been a crazy busy few weeks but things are finally calming down. We finished up with the majority of our Christmas parties this weekend. Most of the presents have been bought and some have even been wrapped. The Christmas baking is complete (after many many batches of caramel popcorn, chocolate-covered pretzels, cookies, and spiced ciders).

But now the kids are sick so we are hunkered down in the house to make sure we are all well for Christmas!

Miss Eveley had her first "Christmas pageant" this weekend. She was the angel (hmmm...) and actually stayed put for the majority of it (minus one plopping-on-the- floor episode). So sweet!

This weekend was also the time I set aside to take the infamous Christmas card photo (yes, I know it is pretty late). I had big doubts, but I believe we actually got the "perfect" pictures. I'll share them later!

Here's Miss Ev in her pretty Christmas coat. She had to hold her breath to get the hat to fit. Go figure... I'm keeping the Christmas outfits a secret until the cards go out!

And then it was time (finally) to trim the tree! We put the tree in the playroom because, frankly, that was the only spot for it! But the kids have done remarkably well with the tree, and we've only lost 3 ornaments and bloodied one hand in the process. Not bad.

We gave Caleb a little piano for his birthday. What was I thinking??? I've been playing since I was 3 or so and was excited to see if any of the kids will have a similar interest. Jury's still out!

Happy Birthday Baby

I cannot believe it. But, yes, today is Caleb's 1st Birthday. How can that be? He's still my baby!

Even though sweet Caleb may not have fully understood the significance of the day, that did not slow us down. We made some cupcakes for the birthday man. I thought the little penguins were appropriate for his winter birthday.

Although we have no family here, and Caleb doesn't really have a circle of peeps, we were able to celebrate Caleb's birthday with our church family on Sunday afternoon. They are truly part of our family and greatly love our kids. We are very lucky!

Let's get this party started!

Eveley was terrorizing the little guy. She could not understand why it was not her birthday too...

So, we did what any wise parent would do. We gave her a cookie.

We sang and tried to keep Caleb from burning his finger. (This is the same candle I've used with each of my little monkeys.)

Then he just palmed the entire cupcake and took care of busines.

As I'm writing this, I am thinking back to the day of your birth. It was at this minute - 10:00 p.m. - that I decided to call the doctor to tell him that I had been having contractions off and on for the past hour or so. We finally got into the hospital around 10:45 p.m. and you were in my arms at 11:47 p.m.

Your birthday has great significance as we wrote about here. And as we celebrate this day with you each year, we will be reminded of God's love and faithfulness. We love you, sweet Caleb, and pray that you grow to love and serve God all the days of your life.

A Few Firsts

The time has finally arrived for Miss Ev to get her first official haircut. I have put this off for quite some time because, frankly, I thought she would throw a tantrum. But we talked about it on the drive to the salon, and I promised her a red lollipop when she was finished. The monkeys sat patiently in the stroller while mommy got her haircut first.

Of course, my salon experiences have drastically changed. I usually wash my own hair at home and leave with a wet head to save time. (And I really miss having someone wash my hair. Love that!)

Therese has been cutting my hair for a few years, and she was terrific with Eveley. She just trimmed it up a bit, and Eveley was perfectly angelic. Hmmm... You know the saying. They always "save the drama for their mama." Hate that.

Later, I was practicing my piano music for church, thinking the kids were eating a snack in the kitchen. I walked in to this.

It actually went much better than I would have guessed. She's becoming a little helper and wanting to do "mama" things. She helps me wash the dishes, "fold" the laundry, and then I walked in to this...


"What are you doing?" I asked

"Changing Potato's diaper," she said.

Naturally.

It's that time again

If you've been following us for a while, you know that it is a very special day when you get to go on a bike ride with daddy.

Robbie, of course, had the first ride. For Christmas 2006, I bought this bike seat for Bob and Robbie. They both loved it! Robbie went to heaven several weeks later, so these are very special memories for us.

It was then Eveley Joy's turn. She didn't disappoint us, loving every second of the ride with daddy. You can read about it here.

Who would have thought that Caleb's big day would take place in the dead of winter. But we had an unseasonably warm November day. Bob decided it was time.

So daddy strapped the little man in.

Put on his helmet (worn by both his brother and sister).

Paused for a brief pose.

And then pedaled into the sunset.

Miss Eveley was not too keen on this new arrangement.

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And just to reward those who actually read through the whole post...

Here are our first attempts at any sort of decent Christmas card picture. I keep going back and forth. Curls or no curls?? These pics were taken on Thanksgiving Day. I wish that chair wasn't there. Maybe my sis can photoshop that out...?