God's Gorgeous Snow!

The snow has been so beautiful around here. J

Just wanted to share some pictures with you all!

Isn't snow one of God's most beautiful creations?

Praising him for this beautiful thing that comes

{AND MELTS}

to remind us that God washes us all white

as snow!!!

Off to Georgia today!

See ya'll next week.

Happy New Year!!

in HIM-

A Quiet {White} Christmas

After all of the services on Christmas Eve, which means around midnight, hubs and I set out to get things ready for Christmas Day. It took until 3:30 AM to get everything done.....

Here are the stockings.

These are Allie's gifts.

Kaya, an American Girl Doll

The whole set of Narnia Books.

and a pair of boots.

Maggie's gifts:

A Nintendo DSi,

An American Girl Doll Violin set for her doll,

and a pair of boots

Lillie's gifts:

Elizabeth's (her AG doll) bed,

An MP3 player,

and a pair of boots

Brady's gifts: This pic has two of the three in it.

A tool set,

and a pair of boots.

The third gift is a motorized john deere gator.

It was unavailable to be photographed at the time due to

the fact that it was still being worked on by Santa's Elf.

SO, we are finally in bed and sleeping soundly until

5:30 AM - when the girls came bounding down the

stairs and woke us all up.

I tried to get pics of them coming into to the room,

but it happened too fast.

They looked at their stuff and then

tore into their stockings.

Then, they settled in for some play time....

Here you can see some of Brady's gator.

He was working on it with his "dil" (drill).

Maggie wearing her new hat and playing her new DSi.

Allie enjoying all o her books.

One of my favorite parts of Christmas this year is that my girls are

becoming aware of giving to each other. Allie and Maggie both made gifts for their siblings.

Either things they made at school or things they made here at home.

Allie's gift for Lillie.

This is one of my favs.....Allie made a boat for Brady.

And if you can't tell what that purple writing says, it is

"S.S. Brady", of course.

After the kids were all done and had played for a while, it was time

for hubs and I to open gifts.

His big gift was a new tv for our bedroom.

One of my gifts is this new bible.

I can't wait to dig into this!

Again, the gator.....

We had plans to go to Georgia to visit my family on Christmas Day.

The plan was to leave around lunch time.

UNTIL.....the snow started coming down.

And it snowed all day (and continued snowing through the next day

and the next night)

Traveling in the snow might not be

a big deal for alot of you -- but we, obviously, couldn't travel for two reasons.

1) We live in the south. The mere mention of snow sends everyone running to the store for

bread and milk, and as soon as it snows an inch, the roads are impassible.

2) We actually live in the NC mountains. There are many possible travel routes to

Georgia but all of them include driving over even higher mountains

where the roads do not get cleared.

SO, we had a nice quiet day at home with just the 6 of us

And, of course, we played outside.....

My sweet Maggie.....

He wasn't entirely sure he liked it outside.

Throwing snowballs.

Good, wet, snow made for well packed snowballs.

The snow man....

sledding down our hill....

I heart my handsome hubby!

My littlest littles....Lillie and Brady.

There was a lot of snow eaten.

and my biggest littles: Allie and Maggie.

While it wasn't the Christmas Day I expected,

and I was really sad not to be able to make to my family in Georgia,

I have to admit that it was really a sweet day with just the six of us.

Enjoying a truly {quiet} White Christmas!

in HIM-

Merry Christmas!!!

Matthew 3:16

the people living in darkness
have seen a great light;
on those living in the land of the shadow of death
a light has dawned.”

Merry Christmas from My Family to Yours!!!


In HIM-

The Vision That Never Is..

Every year I have the same vision. I want to get the "perfect" picture of the kids to put in the Christmas Card.

And every year, I end up taking countless numbers of pictures to get one that turns out

at least ok. Meaning all 4 kids are at least looking at the camera.

Usually, I start as soon as I get the Christmas decorations out and take lots of different pictures.

Because it usually takes multiple tries to get one shot that go

out with the Christmas cards.

This year, I started too late and tried to get a picture one day last week.

I tried real hard to get the girls excited about it. Told them we were going to have a fashion show with their new Christmas outfits. They were excited....

for about 10 minutes.

I took 75 shots that day and NONE of them were keepers....

Every year, getting a picture for the Christmas Card is typically one of the worst days of the year. (Very stressful for me).

Because of my tardiness in even attempting pictures this year, I gave up on my vision and decided to just use a pictures we had from a few weeks ago in our card.....

Merry Christmas from my family to yours!!!

In HIM-

The First Weekend of Christmas 2010

This past weekend began our Christmas Celebrations. On Friday, we headed to Greensboro to celebrate with Granddaddy and Nana LeeAnne Curtis. The kids had a really big night!

Everyone got raincoats and rainboots - B LOVED his

new fireman gear! Nana LeeAnne had these sweet poncho's made for the girls

And as Maggie said today -- "That makes them special!"

Lillie in her new rain gear.
LOVE IT!

Allie got a snowglobe to decorate her bedroom.

She loves it!

I just had to share this picture with you.

This is hubs grandmother. We call her Mama Bea.

She is 94 years old. Right before I took this shot, Maggie had

told Mama Bea that she came in from playing to spend some time with her.

SWEET!

The girls got this......

It's a racetrack. Have NO idea where it is going to go.

We had a great time celebrating Christmas with Granddaddy and Nana LeeAnne,

Aunt Tamara and Uncle Barry, and Mama Bea!!!!

We spent the night and left before the sleet/snow arrived in

Greensboro!

On Sunday, Nana and Grandpap drove up to celebrate Christmas.

They arrived in time to join us for our Christmas Cantata at church,

and then we went out for lunch.

After lunch, we came home to open presents.

As I was going through the pictures, I was

struck by the awe and pure joy in the kids faces.

Brady was just so excited to be opening gifts.

Lillie is overjoyed about the "baptism gown" for her Bitty Baby.

Maggie got a goat for Josephina (her American Girl doll)

I think she likes it!

And Allie got Bennett and Yank ( Molly's and Emily's Dogs).

Even though, it was a short visit -- it was a great one.

I just love the awe and joy of being a child at Christmas.

Last weekend was so much fun and I am so looking forward to this coming weekend!


In HIM-