Let It Snow!

Two weeks ago, I was complaining that East Tennessee got snow and Western North Carolina just got the cold air. Today, I am eating my words (literally almost thanks to homemade snow cream). We were a bit surprised Thursday by the news of a snow storm heading our direction. I have to be honest and admit that we didn't really believe it would be anything serious since news of snow is mostly a ploy to get ratings for local news stations. However, this time they were right. We woke up to about 2 inches of snow Friday morning. Thinking this was going to be all we got, we bundled up and headed outside for a snowball fight. By lunch, it was snowing again and did not stop until after Abby went to bed. By this morning, we had about 12-14 inches of the white stuff greeting us. We luckily only lost power for about 8 hours during the night when we were all snuggled in bed and warm. It kicked back on right after Abby woke us up around 7 this morning. So far, so good. Otherwise, we have enough food and entertainment to last until we can get out and about again. Here's some of the pictures from our snow excursions.

Round 1: Friday Morning snowball fight. A rare snow day for Buncombe Co. meant the neighbor kids were out to play. Abby was able to enjoy her first snowball fight.

Testing her favorite hangout.


She had to try a snow angel.

She's a natural. Without any coaching, she made
a great snowball and threw the first shot in the
snowball fight at our neighbor Will.

Daddy was not immune to her vicious attacks.
She has quite the arm. :)


"Check out my Abby ball, guys."


"Here's another one I made."


A couple of people are missing in this picture,
but it was pretty much
each one for him or herself.

Round 2: Saturday morning, with LOADS more snow

Abs and Daddy bundled up to check out the fresh snow
outside.


Our Abby-meter was not heavy enough
to sink to the bottom of the foot of snow,
but she had fun walking around in it anyway.


She's laying down waiting on Daddy
to clear off the steps.


"Can I come down yet, Daddy?"


She ended up in the snow a lot. It was so deep that she
could not walk very well. Here, she is in the middle of our
road. Never fear, we were not experiencing heavy traffic. ;)


Having a ball in the snow.


Steve giving Abby a quick snow angel
lesson.


She did pretty good.



Watching her silly daddy.


"Anyone up for a snowball fight?"

Our neighbor decided he wanted to take
a drive. You can sort of see how deep the snow is.



Here's our car without any drifts around it.


Mini-avalanche from the car landed on her head.


Meanwhile, Daddy cleared the stairs
a little more. Soon after this,
he discovered the missing bottom step.


After some snow melted down her shirt
and she lost her boot in the snow,
Abs was ready to "go inside"
for awhile.

We got many more pictures and it was hard to pick the ones to post. Needless to say, we had a blast and are in no danger as long as the power stays on. We are excited that Steve had already taken the day off well before the storm was mentioned and we were able to have everyone home and safe. We hope everyone is warm and enjoying the week before Christmas. See you soon!!

Chicken Dance

I debated whether or not to post the next video. I messed up and for some reason recorded it sideways (I blame pregnancy brain). Anyway, I thought I was too fun. Abby learned the chicken dance at the party, and you can see on her face how much she loves dancing. The music was pretty loud, so you may have to adjust your volume. Hope you enjoy watching our tiny dancer strut her stuff. :)

Ho Ho's Party

We went to the Continental Teves (Steve's company) annual Christmas party this past week. Last year Abby had tons of fun watching the other kids play and would not sit on Santa's lap. This year, she joined in the festivities and ran to jump on Santa's lap. (What a difference a year makes, huh?) Her favorite part was dancing with the other kids and random Christmas characters, such as Rudolph, Frosty, and Mrs. Claus.

She loved sitting on "Ho Ho's" lap.
She gave him a big hug and even
posed for some pictures with the jolly ole elf.


Of all the flowers, kitties, and snowmen she could have
asked for, our little one was set on the Balloon Fairy making
her a Spiderman Balloon that has been a constant companion
since the party.


Then on to cookie decorating. . .


and taste testing. :)


Let's give Frosty some high fives. . .

and then cut a rug with Rudolph.


How low can you go?


Let's get Frosty in on the action,


Who wouldn't want to do the Electric Slide
with Mrs. Claus?

Overload

Partially because I have been taking naps with Abby in the afternoons and partially because we have been kind of busy getting ready for Christmas and the baby, I have been neglecting the blog a little too much. There, for a picture overload is coming your way. We are doing great. The baby is growing (and so am I) and Abby is getting excited about having a little sister. Steve has been working a lot of 6 day weeks. Also, there is a massive rock slide that has closed down the quickest route home. Because of these things, we have not been home nearly as much as we have planned to in the past few weeks. We made a quick trip home during Thanksgiving, and we hope to spend a little more time there during Christmas. After that, I am stuck in Asheville until the baby comes. Anyway, without further adou, I give you our last 6 weeks (give or take).

Halloween:
Minnie Mouse had plans to trick or treat and eat all the candy East Tennessee had to offer, but she had to sucker candy from Western North Carolina. Steve had to work, and the weather was pretty bad. Therefore, we decided it would be safer (considering the time and I-40's curvy detour) if we just stayed at home. We ended up having lots of fun with the Coggins clan.

Minnie during a impromptu photo shoot
in our dining room.


And a serious case of the giggles. :)


Here she is explaining why I should
let her roll down the hill in her dress.
(P.S. She had a lot of fun doing it.
I'm a sucker.)

Time for some early Trick or Treating in the neigborhood.


Then, off to Trunk and Treating with William and Sophie.


Then, back to play. She loved the roller skates
and actually did a pretty good job getting around.

Wiggly Fun:
The following weekend, we got to see the Wiggles in Greenville, SC with Mike, Tee Tee, and Ben. And as a special treat, Daddy was able to go with us (He has had to work a lot of Saturdays lately.) It was a great show, and Abby is still telling us about it. She jumped, danced, and sang through the whole show! We are not sure which we liked better, the Wiggles or the Abby. (Okay, we enjoyed seeing Abby so excited more, as any parent would.) We also enjoyed watching Ben study the whole thing almost without blinking. It is amazing the difference in their reactions, both just super sweet.

Waiting patiently for the show to start.

Joyfully watching the opening to the show.


She squealed when they came out in the famous
Big Red Car. (Captain Feather had a "baby car"
as she puts it... but I don't have a picture to
do it justice.)


Ben and Abs chillin' after the sow. They
were all smiles and giggles.

Misc:
Otherwise, we have been getting ready for Christmas and a little sister. Thanksgiving was wonderful and spent with family. Because Daddy was not feeling great and Mommy was getting really tired, so we cut the trip a little short. We still got to see our family and get away for a while.

Hanging out at Granny's after Turkey lunch.


Otherwise, evening tea parties with Daddy and
playing in general have kept this toddler busy.

Big News

Well, folks, the baby was our friend today. It's a girl!! When told Abby that she was going to have a little sister, Abby responded with "ok" and continued to play with her toys. Steve will be outnumbered, but he is taking it well. We are very excited. Everything is going great. The baby is very healthy and growing like a weed. As soon as we can, we'll try to get some ultrasound pictures up, but I thought you'd like to know what we found out. We've got to go now and start looking for names. We'll update soon on Halloween and other fun things.

Belated Birthday Wishes

We have had some technical difficulties here at this White house, and because of it we have not been able to post birthday wishes, so here it goes....

Our nephew, Joey, turned the big 3-0 last week. While he was not available for comment, his wife says he enjoyed the day! We hope he knows we love him and hopes he had a wonderful day.

Here's Joey on his wedding day last year.

Our friends James and Aimee have a had a pretty busy month. They celebrated their beautiful daughter's, Tabetha, first birthday, their sixth wedding anniversary, and their sweet son's, Talmadge, third birthday. We were very glad we got to see them when they were in during Labor Day and had an early party for the kids. We hope Tal, who says he doesn't want to grow up (Your hearts can start breaking now, moms!) had a wonderful birthday! We miss you and can't wait for Christmas when we can hopefully see you again.

Tal and Aimee only minutes after meeting each other.



Tal and the fun Elmo cake that he devoured at his first birthday.

He's a pro at the cakes now.

Now that our technical issues are slowly being resolved, hopefully, we will be able to update more often. Come back for fun posts soon!

Fall , Festivals, & Friends

We were really bummed to have missed Old Time Saturday, a crafty fall festival, in our home town in Jefferson City, TN. However, Russ and Stephanie told us about a small festival at one of our favorite local parks. We were definitely in!! It was small, but I think Abs enjoyed it a little more because of the playground and having Sophie and William around.

When we told her that it was a little
chilly outside, I think she might have
misunderstood exactly how cool it was.

Like mother, like daughter. Abby is a
definite Daddy's girl.


Here is William in front of his school's
entry in the scarecrow contest.



They did a really awesome American Gothic
that won first place in the competition.


There were many cool entries,
we found a Scarebuster complete w/Slimer.



You can take a girl out of Tennessee, but you can't take
the Tennessee out of a girl....
In a move that will be sure to please her uncles and friends back home,
Abby chose orange for her first face painting.


She wanted the heart;
we added the "T" to be funny.



Sophie decided on a butterfly. It was really pretty,
and we thought she could use it later if she wanted
to get into Punk Rock or Pro Wrestling. ;P


After a quick tour of the crafts, we hit the
playground where the kids worked up
a good appetite for the new pizza
place in town.