Wednesday, January 27, 2016

January 2016 snow storm ....

More pictures from the snow storm
can't help it......biggest snow I can remember
at our house we ended up with about 15 inches
and snow drifts of 18 to 20 inches

the snow drifts piled up at the den doors
the first thing we needed to clean up the next day


the patio wall just about buried
and up to the bottom of the patio rocking chairs



we constantly had clothes hanging up to dry



and wet boots, gloves, hats and socks


and always a dog ready to come in
Ziggy and Pippa Lou were the only ones
that had snowballs hanging off of them
even putting hair conditioner on their underside and legs
didn't help that much


and even though Pippa Lou had a lot of fun playing
in the snow she wasn't always happy when she needed to tinkle








those 2 large humps to the right of the picture
are our lounge chairs....totally covered


looking out from the garage
where do you put all of the snow! haha


I love taking a picture of our house in the snow
so pretty
our Christmas cards this year were our house in
the snow but done in a watercolor




see the icicles there.....well half of them are real and
half are from Christmas! That's right.....Johnny had not taken
these down yet and now they are covered in ice



Digging the cars out


later......

Tuesday, January 26, 2016

Christmas morning 2015 .....

really late posting Christmas morning
Jacquelyn, Bucky, Declan and Avery Grace all came for
Christmas and spent the night
this might just be the last Christmas they do that
and it was the first Christmas that our son was not with
us for Christmas morning
And Nicole and her crew were home so we visited them
later on Christmas day
So I think this is the beginning of some new traditions
for Johnny and I
Next year might just be me, Johnny and the dogs
and then we go visit everyone 

here's Avery Grace and I a few days before Christmas
I think we were going out shopping



She had some precious outfits for the holidays
this was her Christmas eve outfit


Declan putting cookies and milk out for Santa
please ignore the honey whiskey bottle sitting there
we didn't leave any out for Santa but I think
grandpa had a little bit of that


Jacquelyn and Bucky


Bucky, Jacquelyn and I being silly




Avery really had a fun time opening presents Christmas morning




and Declan was enjoying all of it!



taking a wagon ride around the house


Mimi and TT gave Declan a bike for Christmas
and with the usually warm temps, it was perfect for taking
it out on a test ride



Jake and Kayce came over Christmas morning and I took
no pictures :( they stayed a while and then needed to
head over and visit with Kayce's family
Jacquelyn and her crew headed out around noon
to have some Christmas time with Bucky's family
While they were gone Johnny and I headed
over to Nicole's to have Christmas with her, Tyler and the kids
went home, some family came by, kids back over
and we ate a little dinner.
Christmas day sure is fun but it will also just wear you out
and then everyone sleeps so good that night totally
worn out but with a lot of happiness in your heart

later.......

Monday, January 25, 2016

Making cookies with Declan .....

about a week before Christmas Declan, Jacquelyn and I 
made sugar cookies

This is the first time that he has really helped make them 
before he just decorated
but he has always been afraid of my Kitchen Aid mixer
it's just too loud for him

so when ready to use it, I told him that I really
needed his help and he came running in to the kitchen
ready to help grandma out





here's Declan rolling out the dough
notice the missing handles on my marble rolling pin
I dropped it on the floor and the wooden handle just split open



I have a basket full of cookie cutters and he wanted to 
use just about every one of them



I held him up so he could transfer them after baking
to the cooling racks


I had read that putting the icing in those condiment squeeze bottles 
would make it easier for little ones


here's a tray of some of the cookies we made
Jacquelyn did most of the decorating




sure did have fun with him!
later.....

Sunday, January 24, 2016

More snow pictures ...

here are some pictures from Friday
here's the start of the snow


just a little bit later.....




about a hour later....


Jacquelyn and Bucky came to spend the night
they live in an area that frequently loses power so with
2 young children, they just don't like to risk it
here's Jacquelyn shoveling a path for the dogs





they shoveled the front porch and walk way
the first of many times of shoveling it
and then we hit the point of just not bothering anymore :)





the evening snow looked even prettier with the patio lights on


later.....