Playing on a Frozen Pond...

I know what you're thinking. A FROZEN POND????? WHAT? YOU TOOK THOSE SWEET LITTLE GIRLS OUT ON A DANGEROUS FROZEN POND!!

Well, yes we did. Now let me explain myself ...


Grandad and Grangran have a pond on their property. Last Saturday, after all the snow and ice was really frozen, Grangran made this picture of several kids playing ice hockey on their pond.




Pretty cool, huh? In my 30 years of life I have NEVER seen a pond frozen enough to play on, so we decided that the kids needed to experience this one!

We sledded on a corn scoop:

Andy -

Caroline:

Gracie:

Heather (she fell off the scoop and Grandad had to help her out a little...)

And...this is me - Marlon fell down when he was pulling me and it was hilarious!

Made snow angels (Caroline and Andy):








Then, we finally (with the help of some of the neighbors) figured out how to REALLY enjoy the pond:








Letting Grandad pull us in a laundry basket behind the mule! It was awesome! We had a great time! I just realized that Grangran (who made the picture CD for me that had these pics on it) didn't put the best pictures on it! There is one picture of her riding in the laundry basket behind the mule...she had fun, but now I think she might have been afraid to have her picture posted on my blog doing so ;)

Snow much FUN!

Last weekend we had a *little* snow and a LOT of FUN! The girls absolutely LOVE to play with the little girl next door. Here's a pic of them introducing Rose (the hamster) to Jonas (the dog): LOL!

The funniest thing to me is that Rose is the only one looking at the camera!!!!! HILARIOUS! Jonas doesn't seem to care at ALL that there is a hamster sitting on her back...

We ended up getting about 1.5 inches of snow and missing three days of school for it! I never remember things like that happening when I was in school. I know we had snow days, but never that many for 1.5 inches!!!! WOW! I just hope they don't have to make them up at the end of the year.

Another really cool thing we did last weekend was to finally put our bird feeders out! Caroline had been asking for some bird and squirrel feeders outside in the back yard. We put one on the window outside our breakfast "nook" area with a hook that had a suction cup. The birds loved it, and we enjoyed watching them. Here are two blurry pics of some birds we saw.

So.....you're getting a camera in August?

My camera broke on Thursday while Jon and the girls were out playing in the snow......BOOOO! I'm pretty sure the screen froze and cracked.

Today, we decided to go look at a new one, and we took the girls along. We went to Best Buy and saw what they had, and decided to price compare with some other stores we know of. While we were there, we took the girls over to check out the Nintendo DS's because they both would like to get one for their upcoming birthdays.

.........Caroline, in the most pitiful way, told us last night at Grangran and Grandad's that EVERYONE in her class except one other student has a DS and that it makes her feel "bad" that she doesn't.........

They both showed us which DS they would like, and I think they were expecting to get it tonight by their actions. As we were walking out, I told Gracie that we wouldn't buy one tonight, but that she would probably get one for her birthday in March.

Her response......."So, you're getting a camera (for your birthday) in August?

I couldn't help but laugh at her witty response to that!!!

January - The girls are holding Rose - Finally!

After months of hard work and dedication, Gracie and Caroline are no longer scared to hold their hamster. Here's proof:

Rose doesn't seem to mind being held at all! In fact, now that they have held her so much, she is friendlier.

December trip to the Cabin

We took a nice trip to the cabin in Gatlinburg with GranGran and Grandad this year. The weather was warmer there than it was at home! (We had thought we might see some snow...)

The kids went to Ripley's Believe it or Not:

That's a GIANT Chair!

Had their picture taken in front of the Gatlinburg sign with GranGran and Grandad:

Played a game or ten of checkers:

Rode race cars - Gracie is making sure Caroline's buckled up :)

Andy WON!!

and BEGGED us to take them to the new indoor water park - but we said "Maybe next time." :)

They had a great time. We all love spending time at the cabin with Grangran and Grandad!

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving has always been one of my favorite times of year. This year I took some pics of the girls with their great grandparents. These are their Nanas and PawPaws. :)

We visited lots of places this year and ate lots of really good food!!! We are thankful for all of our friends and family.

Jonas

We have been talking about getting a new dog for several months. The cost has been the biggest deterrent to us getting one right now. BUT, a co-worker of mine is a dog lover and is always sending e-mails around about stray dogs that are found by her friends. She sent one of these e-mails out about mid-November with the subject line "Chocolate lab puppy". I have a soft spot for labs because we have had some before and they are great dogs. So, I replied to the message saying please send pics. She did and I forwared them to Jon. To make a long story short, we have a new dog named "Jonas" (by the girls.) She is the best dog ever!

Finishing October...

Well, it is now January and I see that I haven't posted ANYTHING since October! OOPS! I plan to do a better job in 2010, but before I get into that I will update you on all the fun we have had for the past few months.

Caroline's 1st grade class visited Honeysuckle Hills Farms. Here she is playing the ducky race game and milking a "cow" with her friends Skylar and Maddie. It was a great day. The weather was perfect and the farm was too!

For Halloween this year we carved some awesome pumpkins

Caroline carved the cat, and Gracie carved the howling wolves. I was so suprised at how much of the work they did on their own! Caroline wasn't very excited about the insides, but she cleaned it out on her own!

We took fall pictures:

and dressed up as the Jetsons. Can you believe we got Jon to dress up as George. The costumes were all bought except for part of Rosie's (I had to make it out of posterboard! )