More S*N*O*W* in GA

Last Friday night Feb. 12th, (I am behind!) we got more snow! It started snowing about 1 pm and snowed until after midnight. It was the most beautiful snow I have seen since I moved south in 1992. We ended up with a total of about 5 1/2 inches! That is like record snow fall in Georgia! McKenzie played in the snow on Friday and again on Saturday. However, most of it all was melted by Saturday night. Saturday was very warm. Jason took it upon himself to look up a recipe online for snow cream. It is like vanilla ice cream. He made it and it was very good! Below are more pictures of our snow this winter. We have had two great snows this winter so far!

Saturday after the snow started to melt...but look at the beautiful blue sky!

snow cream!

MG had to swing on her now swing set!

The trees were just beautiful!

Really deep!

MG getting warm after being outside! Ba Ba was helping warm her!

A great looking snowman!

Getting cold...

Happy Valentine's Day

Hair Bows 101

Today, my good friend Ellen came over to teach me how to make those beautiful hair bows that are an arm and a leg in the store. It was so fun! Ellen was such a good teacher and we laughed our way through my learning! However, at the end of bow making 101 McKenzie has seven new hair bows! I am so proud of them. They are not perfect yet, but I have the steps down, I just have to master them! Below are MG's new bows!

I can't take credit for the green striped bow. Ellen made that one!

The Playground

I am not sure how many of you really follow this blog but in an earlier post I talked about this playground that we bought for McKenzie's birthday on Craig's List. Once we got the playground to our house, we needed a place to put it. Our entire back yard is a slope. Not a big slop but, there is no level ground back there. Our neighbor across the street happens to be a landscaper. Jason talked to him about making a spot for the playground. We told him what we wanted and this is the final project! He finished today! They have been working all day outside in the freezing cold to finish it. It looks way better than we ever could have imagined! Now, we just need some warm weather so that MG can go out and play!

It is in the woods of our backyard. Right behind our house, so you can't see it from the road.

Valentine Party

Today we had MG's Valentine Party at her preschool. She had a blast! They once again had made several really cute Valentine projects that we got to bring home. It was precious to watch them pass out their Valentine cards to each other! Overall, a really fun party!

Making Valentine Cards

McKenzie has her Valentine's party at school tomorrow. So, yesterday we got her Valentine's all ready. She only has three other kids in her class with her so it was not bad at all! Really fun, actually! McKenzie loves to do art projects and color and stamp with stamp pads. However, yesterday was the very first attempt with scissors. I held her hand in mine and tried to show her how to do it, but she is just too little. So I cut out the pictures of her classmates and she glued them onto the envelopes and then decorated them. They are so cute! When she passes them out she will just have to look at the picture and know who it goes to. Great idea teachers! She had a really good time decorating her Valentines!

Tongue out = working hard!

Finished product- fronts of the envelopes

Finished products-backs of the envelopes!
(She got real creative and just started stamping her own hand print!)

PRICELESS!

9 Years...

...ago today Jason and I started dating! On one hand I feel like I have known him my entire life and we have always been together and on the other hand I feel like there is no way it have been 9 years already! We have accomplished a lot in those 9 years! We both have college degrees. We got married. Built our first house. Got Baxter. Put our first house up for sale, and moved into our second house. Had our precious McKenzie. And, visited China, Vienna, Portugal, and Italy as well as Hawaii, and Jamaica. It has been an amazing 9 years and I can't wait for the next 9! I am so blessed to have married my very best friend!

Super Bowl Party

Tonight we went over to our friend's house, The Slocumbs to watch some of the Super Bowl and have hamburgers! It was a really fun time. MG loves to play with Brock and loves to love on the "baby" (Braden). Here are a few pics from tonight.

Brock 3, Braden 4 months, and MG 21 months

THey were both kissing Braden at the same time but my camera could not quite catch the moment!

MG and her Cheetos face!

My Girl

McKenzie loves to look through magazines. It does not really matter what kind of magazine it is either. She just likes the colors and the pictures. MG also loves to talk on the phone. She will talk on the phone all day to no one! She carries on like there is really someone on the other end. It is so funny! The other day, she climbed into the kitchen chair with the Lillian Vernon catalog and the phone with no one on the other end. It just looked like she was placing her order. To hear her talk and talk it really sounded like she was too! She is so much these days! I can't believe she is almost 2!

Raising the Roof

Today Jason took McKenzie to school and picked her up. When he got there to pick her up her teacher, Mrs. Michelle came came out into the hall to tell him about McKenzie's day. She explained how she was talking about "raising the roof" meaning lifting your arms up over your head. (It is a kind of dance move from way back!) You know what I am talking about! So, anyways when the teachers started to talk about that today, McKenzie begins to Raise the Roof! The teachers I guess could not believe that she knew about that because when Jason picked her up she told him about it right away and wanted him to know that they did not teach her this! Jason just laughed and replied, McKenzie learned to "raise the roof" last summer in Panama City! When he called me to report this I just died laughing! Can you imagine what MG's teachers think of us now that he responded, "McKenzie learned to "raise the roof" last summer in Panama City? Jason is just too funny!

Da Da Time

The past two Mondays Jason has not had to go to the office to work. When he does not have appointments he can work from home. So, he has taken McKenzie to school and picked her up the last two Mondays. This has truly given me some "me" time. It is amazing how quickly I can clean the house, top to bottom when my little "helper" is not here! This is all great practice for Jason and I really appreciate him and what he does. I will be going to Philly on Friday the 19th - Monday morning. I will be spending the weekend with my best friend Robin (Cookie). I am so excited about my weekend away. However that means that Jason is in charge and has to get MG ready for school and there by 9 all by himself! He will do a great job!

Our latest happenings

A couple friend of ours, Erin and Jason had a baby on December 31st. They named him Joshua and he is so cute. McKenzie just loves babies these days and is such a big help. She loves to hold their bottles and help feed them. Here she is in action!

McKenzie still loves her doll stroller. Jason and McKenzie thought that the below picture was a good idea! I have to admit, it was really funny! Once again, poor Ba-Ba! He hates the stroller!

Yesterday before we left for church I was telling McKenzie how it was so cold outside and that she needed to wear her hat. She has decided that she likes hats these day, just like she now likes hair bows! It is so funny how her little moods and ways of thinking of things change. Here are a few hat pics!

Rated R

This is a warning that if you have a weak stomach you may not want to read this post. It has nothing to do with McKenzie other than she was in the car with me at the time.

Saturday night MG and I were driving back home from Madison. It was around 8 pm, so defiantly dark outside and raining on and off, when in the distance I could see flashing lights. At this point I did not know if they were on my side of the interstate or on the other side. As I got closer I realized that they were on the other side. However, I was in the fast lane and my lane was quickly coming to a stop. I then noticed that all the cars in front of me were getting over. So, I thought that there may have been some car parts on our side of the interstate because both cars were smashed against the median wall. I kept trying to get over but no one would let me in. I had inched up enough that I could tell there was so much "stuff" in the fast lane that I had to get over, I could not drive over it. So, finally this car let me in and while I was getting over I had inched up enough to realize that there was an object laying in the second to fastest lane also. So, as I was trying to get over into the second lane I had to go around his long thing that I thought was a bummer or twisted metal. As I look down onto the road to make sure that I have turned enough and I was not going to run over this object I realized to my surprise that it is not a piece of metal. It was a human leg. An entire leg, with no body attached, just the leg. I quickly realize then that all the "mess" in the fast lane was not parts of a car, rather parts of a body. It all happened so quickly. It was a really good thing that I was focusing on getting over into the next lane as hard as I was and not what was in the street. After I drove by I could not even take a second look. Once my brain processes what I saw, I began to freak out. I did not know if I should cry or scream so I called Jason first and I could not even talk when he said hello. I scared him to death because I was silent on the other end. Finally I could explain what had happened. I then called my Dad! I never did cry or scream, I held it together very well. I did not in any way want McKenzie to think that there was something wrong or scare her. She was just singing Happy Birthday in the back seat. (That is her new favorite song and she thinks that every day is her birthday!) Needless to say, I was so happy to get home! However, I was afraid to get out of my car. I did not know if there would be blood on it or anything like that. Everything was fine with my car.

I heard on the news Sunday morning what happened. Two cars had a minor accident and both drivers had gotten out of their cars to check the damage. As they were standing there, along came a tow truck and just plowed them over. One lady died on the scene and the other one died at the hospital during the night. Such a sad story. The one girl was only 23 and left behind an 11 month old little girl and a fiance. The other lady only 35. That was totally an experience that I hope I never see again and I hope you never see it either.