The First Snow of the Year!

Today we got our first snow of the year! They cancelled school, so we headed outside to soak up the fun! i was really glad to find out that the snowsuit i bought ella last year and never got to use, still fit her. she also fit in her light up princess boots from grandma bo that she scored on clearance last winter for $5.00! great deal, grandma! anyway, as you can see, we all had a blast even though it snowed the whole time we were outside. what a fun way to spend a tuesday!!

Ella throwing her first snowball.

Poor girl looked like the kid from A Christmas Story!

so, we couldn't find our sleds (i think they might still be at daniel and beth's from like 3 winters ago), so i went up in granny's attic looking for some. and guess what i found??? oh yes, girls, big green! this was the sled we always fought over as young girls because it had the "oh so cool" handbrakes! ella and weston fought over it as well today and weston even mastered the art of braking at the end of the hill to spin out. thanks gran!

SNOWWWWWWWW!!!!!

Landon breaking the sled with his big booty!

Ready, set, go!

WINNER! Mom's such a daredevil! She beat weston 3 times!

We tried pushing Landon down the hill in the baby sled, but he was too fat! it just stuck in the snow!

Poor Ella's hands got so cold! I ran in to get her more gloves, but when i came back, she was in tears!

Snow bunnies!

Mom and ella flying down the hill!

Mom let Landon crawl around in the snow...

He loved it!

Landon sledding to his death...

Ta-da! This is our grand snow creation. It was a joint effort and is the first snowman that ella ever made.

Our Weekend Trip to Massanutten...

Jason hooked us up with a free 2 bedroom condo and free lift tickets to go skiing at Massanutten this past weekend, so mom agreed to watch the kiddos. off we went! i am not the best skiier, but a few years ago chad bought me all of the ski gear i needed to hit the slopes. this time around, i felt more confident and even conquered the blue square slope before heading in for lunch. after lunch, was a little different...i mastered my snow plow! i never fell at all the first half of the day, but after lunch (i knew i should've past on the chips and salsa) i fell once and then lost all confidence! poor brooke hung with me the rest of the day, so chad could ski with jason. now, chad is light years above the rest of us, so i felt bad that he never got to go skiing wide open down the black diamond slopes. he was a real trooper though, and didn't make me look like too much of an idiot;o) all in all, we had an awesome time and even had some energy left over to whip the guys in a couple games of spades (they did beat us once). boys, we are still due for a rematch!

Before we hit the slopes...literally!

At the mid-way station...

the natural skiier...

Out on the slopes...Brooke wanted me to mention that she did not fall in this picture, but merely sat on the ground (on purpose) to pose. Her "pie a la mode" fall came much later in the day;o)

Jason and Brooke waiting for our food!

At the lodge for some lunch...the guys behind us yelled in our ears the whole time and were super obnoxious!

Those guys sure don't last long! I think it was only 9:30 or so when i took this.

Back in the City...December 26th

So, for Christmas this year, i surprised Chad with a day trip to NYC. Our flight from Richmond left at 6am on the 26th and we got home around midnight! It was a really long and exhausting day, but we had such a great time together! We started our day back at The Today Show with Lester Holt, Natalie Moralis, and the blond chick who's name i can't remember. We stayed briefly there and then moved on to Times Square, Central Park, Bryant Park, St. Patrick's Cathedral, the MET, Chinatown, and Rockefellar Center. We walked so many miles that day, that we both fell asleep in the cab on the ride to JFK! It was a great way to spend the day after Christmas:o)

Times Square...

St. Patrick's Cathedral was amazing, but the light was all wrong for my camera.

Sitting on a pew at St. Patrick's resting our tired feet!

In front of the Metropolitan Museum of Art about to go by our tickets. I really enjoyed seeing all of the guns and weapons from Medieval Times. The armor was amazing!

I made it to Bryant Park! Maybe one day, i'll actually be there for fashion week:o)

Project Runway headquarters!

Chad with the Chrysler building in the background.

Me on Fifth Avenue.

I wanted to see the tree in Rockefellar Center at night all lit up, but it was so incredibly crowded, that this is as close as we got! We didn't even get to go down and see the angels!