SNOW!!!

On Jan. 8th we watched outside as Atlanta was pounded with snow and ice.......we got about 6inches of snow! The first day was great.....we got out in our snow gear, went sledding, made snowballs and a snowman and had a blast. But later that day the freezing rain came and iced over all the snow. Our neighborhood was like one big ice skating rink. We were trapped in the house for 4 days!!! On the 4th night Jon took us out to get some Mexican food to eat and get us out of the house! It was sooo great to get out. We had to stay in the next day but by the end of the 5th day and into the 6th day the roads were finally good enough for us to drive around and get back to normal. School was out the entire week so we had alot of quality time here at home with the girls!! We played with neighbor friends, did alot of Wii dancing, read books, watched movies and slept in late everyday. It was pretty fun although we all were going completely stir crazy by the end of the week......

It was the great Atlanta snowstorm 2011!!

New Years Resolutions....

More Family time.....

More creative outlets.....

More exercise......

More mindfulness and peace....

Safe, Happy, and Healthy.

Happy New Year 2011!

I pray for a year full of joy and opportunity. I am thankful for my family, my friends, my health and the blessings I am given each and everyday.

Here we go!!

Happy New Year!!

After much debate on whether or not to head to the Georgia Dome to cheer on Florida State in the Chick-fil-A bowl, we decided to stay home and bring in the new year with friends, food and fun!!

The Fosters came over to spend the night and brought some amazing food which Foster himself whipped up for all of us.......The Young's came over too and the 3 families danced, ate and even played a few games of cards.....too much fun!

The kids ran around like banchees.....opening even more Christmas gifts from each other and having a blast. They loved the New Years hats and crackers and had fun dancing and playing.

It was such a fun night!!!!

We love our friends.........so happy we were all able to hang together!

Savannah

My Christmas present to Jon was a trip for just the two of us for 2 nights in Savannah, Ga. We drove over to my parents house in Brunswick, dropped the girls off and headed up to Savannah. It was a little bit chilly, but the sun was shining the whole time and it was just gorgeous. The city is so beautiful, so quaint and so quiet!!! We stayed at the Bohemian on the River and loved it. We walked up and down River Street, visited all the stores, candy shoppes and then ended our nights at the Rooftop Restaurant at our hotel........beautiful view and even managed to sit outside one day and enjoy the scenery without being too cold!

We spent the entire day walking the city. We walked for hours and hours.....stopping in to look at antique shoppes, clothing stores, specialty gift shops, whatever we felt like! We went to the local Starbucks and sat down and drank our coffee, read the paper, talked and stayed for an hour! We couldn't remember the last time we did that!! It was wonderful.......

We had a fancy dinner at The Pink House......this beautiful old house with amazing food. The atmosphere was beautiful with fireplaces everywhere, a lady downstairs playing the grand piano and singing Broadway tunes, and the food was just delicious.

It was such a nice treat for the two of us to get away and know that our girls were so well taken care of......Nana, Papa, and the whole family made the girls weekend super special too!! They had a blast.....

I'm dreaming of a White Christmas........

A few pics from the beautiful Christmas Day White Christmas Snowfall 2010.......

Sooooo beautiful!!!!!

May your days be Merry and Bright.......

Christmas morning was perfect. Kids slept in late! Both girlies slept til almost 9am.......kind of amazing. Jon and I woke up early, had our coffee in peace and waited for the girls to wake up and get ready for the present frenzy!!

Aubrey woke up first of course and managed to hold off for almost another hour waiting for her sleepyhead sister to wake up. We let her open a few token presents while she waited........

Once Ella Bella woke up the frenzy began. Aubrey opened her gifts in all of 2.2 seconds. All of them at once. Eliana opened about a present an hour......took her almost all day to get through her presents! She would say, "wow"!! and then play with that gift for awhile before moving onto the next. I think Aubrey took some lessons from her sister once she realized she was done and Eliana still had a bunch more to go!!!

It was great. We relaxed, played with all the new toys, had yummy breakfast and then watched in amazement as we saw the first White Christmas in Georgia in 100 years.......it was absolutely beautiful. It was a perfect day.

Christmas..........

We had such an awesome week leading up to Christmas. Jon was home, we had no plans and we just enjoyed ourselves!!! We played with friends, did some last minute shopping, I squeezed in a girls night out, girls stayed up late and watched Christmas movies every night, and it was just fun. All fun, fun, fun. We drank lots of hot chocolate, did lots of baking and wrapped presents. Enjoyed our home, our families and our friends.......whether in person, phone, skype, email or Christmas cards in the mail.

The girls looked forward to looking for our "Elf on the Shelf" every morning in his various hiding places. One morning he even snuck his way into our refrigerator!!

Aubrey had a super fun party at school with fun games, a cute cookie cake and even a visit from Santa.

Eliana had a preschool party and I went and played some pretty pathetic versions of Christmas songs on my guitar......but luckily it was the one-year-old class and they didn't know any better! They had fun singing and playing the shakers and instruments I brought in.

It was a joyful time and reminded us how thankful we are for the blessings in our lives. Family, Friends, our home, our health and our happiness.

Christmas eve.....

For the 4th year in a row we spent Christmas Eve with our neighbors and friends, The Young Family. We had a yummy dinner, opened presents, talked about our favorite childhood Christmas memories, played with all the kiddos, and said goodnight to get ready for our big Christmas Day excitement.

The kids all just love each other and had so much fun celebrating. We are so blessed to have such awesome friends to share these times with!!

Train Concert!!!

I won tickets to a TRain concert through a mom's website I subscribe to.......I was soooo excited! I love Train, love their music and this concert was a win-tickets-only concert.....you couldn't buy tickets. So I was thrilled to win a pair of tickets. Jon was so excited to go with me, only to find out he was going to be out of town that night! So my good friend Hillary went with me and we had a BLAST. The music was absolutely amazing. We were both shocked at how much better we like Train in concert! The live version absolutely blows the radio out of the water. He is unreal in concert. His voice is just amazing. It was a great night!!!! We had so much fun........

Tried really hard to get a pic of me and Hill but we were by ourselves, no camera and my Blackberry has no flash!!! Ah well......

Polar Express

This year we travelled up to Bear Paw, North Carolina to spend the weekend with friends and take a ride on the Polar Express.......The Mays invited us to stay at their family's beautiful lake/mountain home and we just had a blast. The view from the house is stunning. The kids had a blast playing, going on a "bear hunt" out in the woods, and of course the main event.........driving into Bryson City, NC and getting on the big Polar Express Train.

Kids were all in their jammies, we bundled up and they brought us hot chocolate and candy treats. We sang Christmas carols all the way to the "North Pole" and when we got there, Santa got on the train and stopped by to say hi and give each child a special bell. It was alot of fun and the kids just thought it was sooo cool.

Thanks to the May and Geraci Families for a wonderful weekend!!

2nd Annual Katz Family Disney Trip!!!

For the second year in a row we headed down to sunny Orlando, FL to take on Disney World with the Katz Family! Grandpa treated us all to 3 days at Disney and Universal.........There were 13 of us including Jon's 2 older brothers and their families, and we all stayed together the entire time! Quite a feat for so many people and so many kiddos!! But we had a blast. We started off at Epcot, did Magic Kingdom and then ended with a day at Islands of Adventure.....it was 3 full days of fun and good quality family time! We love our family! Especially our sweet nephews and neice.....

We also got to spend some time with the Clatsoff Family, Jon's oldest family friends and they were there with their whole family.......we all came together on the last day for a big breakfast with about 30 of us to visit and celebrate another wonderful, fun, and exhausting trip to Disney!!

The parks were decorated for Christmas and were just sooo stunning. So beautiful! It truly looked and felt so magical. The girls loved every second. We stayed alllll day long til late at night and they were such troopers!! Aubrey just had a blast riding rides and playing with her cousins and Eliana chilled in the stroller, got out and ran around a bit, and even rode some rides this year! She looooved Minnie Mouse. She even helped herself to a stuffed animal Minnie Mouse from one of the stores which we did not find out about until later! :) And of course had to go back and buy the toy for her........But we all just had such an amazing time. I will never, ever get tired of going to Disney!! It's sweet that Aubrey is proud that her Mommy used to be a "Disney Princess".......my claim to fame......and I think even prouder is Grandpa who insisted on embarrassing me by telling everyone I used to be Ariel! Sooo many years ago it seems.......

Here are just a few of the hundreds of pictures we took.......so much fun and we just can't wait to do it again next year!!

:)

Thank you, thank you, thank you Grandpa for a magical vacation!!!

We love you!

Eliana and Grandpa

Aubrey and Leila......

Eliana all bundled up with her shoplifted Minnie Mouse......watching the parade....

Fireworks at the Castle at Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party!

Silly boys!!! Quinn, Ethan and Aiden......sweet cousins.....such sweet boys!!

Aunt Scarlett and Aunt Sasha

Me, Aiden, Quinn, Uncle Ronnie, Ethan, Aubrey and Leila..........

The ladies.....Ms. Carole Clatsoff, Lexi, CJ and Aubrey....riding the tram into Epcot!

It was the most gorgeous day.....

Ella Bella and Uncle Eric.....

Leila, Quinn and Jon.......sharing some ice cream fun.......