Let is SNOW!

We had a wish for snow this Christmas...well it's about 65 here in North Carolina today. We are still hopeful for snow, although it needs to be all cleared up by moving day!

Wishing you all a blessed New Year.

Someone's been good...

Ho, Ho, Ho, Abbie's out for a ride. This was very unexpected, and Abbie was not quite sure what this was...but the smile has not stopped. As some of you know electric toys have been a big no for us...just in the thought of the importance of peddling, balance, putting your own body in control of the action and so on and so forth. Well Abbie has mastered these skills many moon's ago and had plenty of time to wait on Hayley to get them. Well this year Santa stepped forward and thought it's time for Abbie to enjoy an electric ride. Here she goes...

Merry Christmas!

We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Piano

Hayley is enjoying Piano, she loves to learn about the piano and the throery. All though she is not always willing to practice her piece...she enjoys playing what she likes. We have a small keyboard that she practices on at home, it's a bit different then the piano she played for this picture.

Piano Recital

Hayley started piano lessons just before school started. She was very nervous about doing a recital about a month ago, and kept telling me she was not going to do it. I'm glad she changed her mind.

Opening of show

This is a short clip of the opening to the Christmas ice skating show. Hayley is wearing a red dress with a white scarf...hope you find her!

Ice Skating Duet

The lighting on this is a mess however you can see Hayley's entire program. She is the one on the right.

Ice Skating Show

The last ice skating program Hayley was in. She is the last person in the row.

The Big Hike

This was a great 6mile loop we hiked. The only place we could get cell service was at the peek of this mountain, so if you got a brief call this was the booth.

The hike took us through many fun crossings, an old mountain home stead, a view of some rock climbers and a waterfall.

Camp life

We hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!
We have held the tradition of camping in the mountains over the Holiday weekend. This year Tim decided to smoke a turkey, yum was it good. The camp ground was very nice with just a few campers and gazillion deer...just the way we like it.

Across from our site the girls had a great time playing and crossing the stream on a fallen tree.

Fall is Beautiful in North Carolina

Fall is just beautiful here in North Carolina... The weather has been very nice and the color of Autumn is just fabulous. We spend many hours outside, and I have had all my blinds open enjoying the beauty.

The girls have on their new boots and are loving them. Abbies are black and look like roping boots and Hayley has brown suede. There hard to see, but I asure you they are very cute!

Carving Pumpkins

The girls carved their own pumpkins this year...I think they did a nice job.

Fall swim meets have began

This is Abbie's second meet of the month. She is doing very well dropping her previous times. Competition is much harder this year; she has moved to the 9-10 age group.

Baptism

I just wanted to share the girls Baptism last weekend with everyone. Abbie has been asking for the last couple of years to be Baptised, the time was right and everything worked out well. She is very happy! Hayley was a little unsure of what to think. I was not sure she was going to go through with it after the sermon of dunking people in the muddy river, although she new it was the pool and by the looks of it she did well.

All I want for Christmas...

...is my two front teeth! Hayley our toothless wonder looks like she may not get these teeth until Christmas. I have never seen a child take out teeth the way she does, as soon as it's a little loose she get's the tissues and pulls until it's out. A bit scary if you ask me!

Puzzles, Puzzles, Puzzles

While Grandma was visiting the girls had a good time putting puzzles together. Everyone worked on this Big puzzle of Washington DC. (Grandma did the majority of it) it was fun to see all the places we have been and look at many places we would like to see. Hopefully we will get a trip there soon. We all had a good time hanging out with grandma while she was here, the girls got a kick out of the puzzles. I think because grandma kept them moving along, (they would hurry home from school just to see how far the puzzle had came along each day:)).

First Day of School

Grandma is here visiting on the first week of school, we all walked together. They were waiting in the park that is on the way to school while I ran back to get the camera. Yep, almost forgot it! Hayley was a little unsure about school this morning...butterflies in the belly! She has a wonderful teacher this year and came home saying she loves school...Big relief for me. Abbie is the top dog at school this year and very proud of it...Butner Elementary only goes to 4th grade. I think she's been the happiest kid in town this week, all smiles and non- stop talking the last few days. I can hardly believe she was able to keep quiet at school today.

A little mountain camping...

Abbie, Hannah, Haleigh, and Hayley
We had such a good time camping with our friends the Bjorkmans a couple weekends ago. I think everyone got a kick out of the deer in the campground, they would come up so close it was a little scary!

We took a six hour hike to the top of the mountain...WOW was that a hike and the view was very nice.

Horse Camp & Ballet

Abbie went to horse camp this past week and had the time of her life. She went for seven hours everyday and enjoyed every minute of it. When she got there in the morning she watched the horse's come into the barn to eat, and then the kids would groom and saddle the horse's for the day. They had two trail rides a day (that included walking, trotting and cantering), class room time and lots of cleaning. Yep, cleaning with out any gruff, I wish she smiled that way when she cleans at home. This is Mr. Kelly who she rode, I believe she rode about nine different horses this week. Of course she thinks we need to continue these trail rides throughout the year....or her dream to be a private horse owner at the barn!

This picture of Hayley is with an old horse named Cricket, I believe Abbie said she is 38. They just let her roam around living her days out.

I have been trying to get video on here and am not having any luck tonight so we will stick to pictures. While Abbie was getting all smelly with the horses. Hayley was getting all pretty for ballet camp. It was quite an extreme! I had such a good time getting her all dressed up, she was even willing to wear her hair up...that's very unusual. She was very cute and had a good time, there was a little bit of an ease since she danced with this teacher here when she was two.

Cup Cakes

These were fun and yummy too!

9 years old

Abbie is now a big 9 year old and had a very fun filled day! She loved all of her gifts and is feeling like such a big girl. We started the day with gifts and then her friend Haleigh came over to help decorate cup cakes, it was Haleigh's Birthday yesterday; she's nine as well. The girls shared a party together later in the day. We used the rec. room and pool near the house...great idea it was such a fun easy party. We had a little rain so we had to break out an old pin-the-tail on the donkey my mother had sent me from when I was little (yes it's a classic). The rain cleared up and we all got to enjoy the pool. Now we are getting ready for our first small sleepover and I'm not sure what to expect... I just have some wild memories of some of my own sleepovers as a child. Yikes!!!

Tooth

Hayley has lost her front tooth, this is the third tooth she has lost and there is no messing around with this girl! In the afternoon she had let me know her tooth was loose, she wiggled and pulled so much that before going to bed she had pulled it out! This seems to be a trend with her, once it's loose just to pull it out. Makes her look so big. I guess she will be starting 1st grade with a whole new look.

Fun Swim

Freestyle

Breast stroke

Butterfly

This was a local fun meet in our town that Abbie had a good time swimming in. I can see she is getting very strong and still has a very competitive drive.

Ice Skating

Hayley has taken up ice skating, so we have spent a little time on the rink this week. We were surprised at how well the girls can ice skate. I guess roller blades do help. As for Tim and myself we found it to be a bit of work. Hayley has five more weeks of lessons and a lot of practice time. I think I will stick to the sidelines!

Beach

I did it! Wow!!! Here is a little video of the girls on the beach. Tim bought me a new video flip for my Birthday, I had so much fun with it at the beach but not much luck getting it set up on the computer. Today's my lucky day I got the video on the computer, now I just need to work on moving them around to where I want them.

The Big Climb

There she goes up to the top! Made it like a champ all the way up to ring the bell.
We went to the Back to School Fair on post yesterday. Lot's of booths with information and the usual bouncy house and rock wall. Abbie was the only one in our group wanting to climb.
We have been keeping busy this summer. I will start working again next month and the girls will start school the end of August so we are enjoying all we can before the routine starts again.

Back from the Beach

The North Carolina Aquarium is always so much fun. We stayed at the beach for a week and spent a few hours three of the days exploring the aquarium. We did an evening dinning with the fish, that was great! Nine people in the entire place and we got an aquarium educator to answer any of our questions (did you know this is the year of the frog...). The first three days of our trip was very windy...great for kite flying. The nights were a bit restless thinking the trailer would plow over. However we all made it just fine.

The Color of Home

I thought I would share some of the color we added to make this space our home. We are enjoying it!

The girls are playing with Dottie, you can just see her nose...she didn't want to pose for the picture. I was not sure about doing blue, but we love it! I think it's a little brighter in the picture, however the feel of the room is so calm and relaxing. Abbie and her "cool surf room" she is also pleased to of got the BIG fish tank in her room this time.

I think Hayley's room is quite fun, and she love's having butterfly's fluttering about.

Goldsboro long course

I got a 5th and 7th place at my first swim meet in North Carolina. It was also my first 50 meter course.

This is our first trip out and about in North Carolina.

A trip out to the Dogwood Festival. The girls had some nice face painting done. Hayley won a goldfish this day, she has named him Flounder and he is doing very well! Of course we have added Goldie Girl(a big bubbly goldfish) and Cory the catfish to the tank.