Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas, friends!  We had a great day at home celebrating the birth of our Savior.  The girls were so excited for Christmas this year, which makes it extra special.  Claire was awake around 5:30, and the look of disappointment on her face when I told her she had to wait a little while longer was, priceless.  She was able to wake Anna up a little before 6, and then they were able to go out to the living room to see what Santa left. The girls stayed in their pajama's most of the day and soaked up all their new gifts.  It was a good day!

Max

Here are some of the pictures from when Max had his "photo shoot" at one week old.  He wasn't too sleepy at first, but overall, I think he did great.  Now, I realize most of these pictures look the exact same! (haha!) Like, how many pictures of the same kid do you really need to see?!  I get it!  But, what the heck...since I have them, I might as well share them with you!  He surely is a little Jeff right now!  We're excited to see the little guy he grows into.

Wrapping up 2016

Hey friends!
It's a testament to the demands of life as to why I have been absent for (gasp) almost an entire year!  Life has continued to be full of blessings and fun, but sadly, not documented as well as I would have hoped.  With that being said, 2016 was another year that didn't disappoint.  We welcomed a little fella to our family on November 28th!  Max joined us at 12:46 pm at a happy, healthy (and very big!) 9 pounds 6 ounces.  He came quickly and smoothly, which I was happy about, especially because he was running out of room, and was several days late!  He has been an easy addition to the family so far, with a very good disposition and "go with the flow" attitude.  We surely think he's great, and so do his big sisters!

Shortly before Max arrived we faced some incredible sadness when we were faced with the passing of our big sweet Great Dane, Bella.  She went to doggie heaven on November 19th, after falling very ill.  She was our first "baby" after we were married and it was a crushing loss for all of us, including the girls and both of our families.  Of course everyone thinks their dog is the best, and we thought so too!  It was a true blessing adopting her and having her with us for 7 years.  We miss her loud bark and wagging tail!

Jeff is still the head varsity wrestling coach at one of the local high schools, so that is keeping him busy (and tired!)  Claire and Anna seem to be quite happy to be home with me for the time that I am off with Max.  We are trying to work hard on some letters, words, and other educational items, but we're still having fun making crafts, painting pictures and baking cookies!

I would like to make the blog a priority in 2017, especially so Max has something to look back on.  I pray that your December has been happy and full of blessings so far.  Check back soon to see some pictures from Max's newborn shoot.  As soon as I get them back, I will share some here!

Snow! (and lots of it!)

If you are alive and breathing, you probably already know how much snow we got over the weekend. The blizzard of 2016 was all over the news, and rightfully so.  It was nasty!  It was most definitely a reminder of my Western New York and Northwest Pennsylvania days.  Yikes!  That's why I moved south...I don't want this much snow!  The "official" reports say Winchester got 38 inches, which I would not disagree with.  Perhaps even a bit more around Scenic Circle, but there was so much wind, it was hard to gage.  In typical New Yorker fashion, we shoved throughout the storm.  Keeping up with all that snow was important, and I'm thinking the neighbors were wishing they would have done the same once it was all said and done!

Being snowed in wasn't actually too bad.  We did play outside, and the girls surprisingly didn't mind the crazy wind blowing snow in their faces.  I cooked breakfast, lunch and dinner, each day, which was nice.  I tried to stay away from baking, which means I would stay away from eating!  (Why is it so easy to eat all day long when you're stuck at your house?!)

Kristi decided to get snowed in here too, which was good.  She was a master shoveler, and the initiatior of adult games after the girls went to bed, which kept us from going to bed at 8 o'clock and from staring at our phones for too long!  Her and Jeff had quite the task of digging out at her place on Monday when they were able to get back to her house.

We had Friday off, and have had Monday, Tuesday, and we will have tomorrow, Wednesday off too.  Even though it was almost 50 degrees today, they just can't move the snow fast enough.  Not to mention, I don't think they really know how to plow down here!  It's a mess out there!  There are a few districts who have already announced that they will close the rest of the week!  I like that they plan ahead!  I'm not sure if we'll have the rest of the week, or will go in with a delay maybe Thursday, I guess only time will tell.

Here are some pictures that I took with my phone.  Hope you had a good weekend!

Of course we went out pretty much as soon as the snow started!

 One day I'm going to have a garage....one day.

 This is what Jeff and Kristi found when they returned to her house.  Her car is there somewhere!

Nashville!

I was fortunate enough to be able to travel to Nashville last weekend.  It was great fun!  Sadly, Jeff wasn't able to join me, because he had to be away for wrestling.  His parents came down to spend the weekend with the girls, which was a great help.

Kristi and I flew down on Thursday night for the wedding of a friend.  When I did my graduate work, I was paired up with a wonderful professor, who soon became a close family friend.  I was able to spend many, many hours at the Snodgrass home throughout grad school, and both Kristi and I have very fond memories of our time with them.  Their son, Taylor, who is now a grown up (yikes...I'm old!) lives in Nashville after graduating from Virginia Tech, and it was his wedding we traveled to Nashville for.

We had all day Friday to explore, which was awesome, except it was cold.  And it rained.  Blah!  My parents also flew in from Florida, and there were lots of old friends from Edinboro in town as well.  We spent the day with another family who I met while at school, and we had a great day!  We saw a lot of Nashville and shared so many laughs!

The wedding on Saturday was awesome.  It was a beautiful venue with a special ceremony and a great reception.  I was also asked to make cookies for all the guests, which was a tad bit stressful, but very fun.

Nashville was good to us, and I hope to visit again, probably in the summer!  Of course, I was happy to get home and spend a little time with the girls.
Here are some pictures from my camera.  I probably have a gazillion more on my phone, but those aren't quite as easy to post.

266 of these babies made it safely to Nashville for all the guests!