Snow!

It's been a loooooong week. We had delayed starts Monday and Tuesday mornings, and then the entire city was literally shut down yesterday as we awaited a big snow storm. We literally waited ALL day for that darn snow to come and with each hour that passed, so did our hopes.  Less than an hour north of here got 8 inches of snow! It was really close to us! The kids were disappointed of course, but I was too! We had been hearing about it all week and everyone had taken the proper precautions and stayed home to avoid another disaster like last year, and we were all ready for a fun snow day! I even waited in line Tuesday night at Rocky Ridge Hardware to get one of the 300 sleds that they had special ordered and were set to arrive at 5:30 (they sold out before I made it to the front--clearly, it was not meant to be!). I mean, when they tell you that you are going to get 2-4 inches of snow, we wanted to have fun with it!

 

FINALLY around 8 we went outside and the white stuff was falling. I have never seen two more excited little boys. There was NO way they were going to bed! And why not, they had already called for another delay this morning so of course we were going to stay up late and play!

 

 We got all bundled up which takes forever and everyone is sweating before we even get outside, but thankfully, they didn't say they wanted to come in after 5 minutes this time so it was worth it! :)

 We had a big snowball fight! It was 2 against 1 (ME!) so I didn't have a chance. I ate lots of snow last night! Unfortunately, so did my camera!

 We had only been out a few minutes before the neighbor down the street yelled at us to come get their sled! The boys slid down our hill over and over and over again. I even did it too!

 As you can see, we didn't get more than a dusting, but it didn't matter!

 Have you seen a happier child?!?!

 We were out more than an hour playing in it and when I told the boys it was time to go in, they threw such a fit. It was almost 10 though so they needed to go to bed! Their poor hands were red as anything and we were all soaking wet! What a fun night it was. I hope it will be one of those nights that the boys remember forever because it was something extra they got to do...something about it coming after bed time made it all the more fun!

Here we were this morning waiting for Harrison's daycare to open. I had to drop Hudson off and Harrison's school didn't open for another 45 minutes so we had a lot of time to kill...and a lot of Frozen to listen to!

 The snow is gone today, thankfully, and Joel is back in town tonight, thankfully. And tomorrow starts the big birthday extravaganza weekend for this soon to be SIX year old on Sunday! Woo hoo!

Mercedes Kids Marathon

We are having yet another weather delay this morning, so why not catch up on the blog?!? Hudson did the Mercedes Kids Marathon last Saturday. He had been talking about it for months, because if your parents signed you up, you got a shoe on the wall with your name on it in the gym and to him, that was really important! They worked all fall to run their 25.2 miles in PE, with the final mile to be done last Saturday. He was so excited!

 

I was a little less than excited. It sounded like it would be mass chaos and I was a little afraid to let Hudson just go run by himself. I had this fear that we wouldn't find him after it was over, what if he gave up during the race, and all these things kept running through my mind. Kindergarten was supposed to run at 11:45 or something like that (without parents), and if you wanted to run with your kids, you could do it around noon with all the grades. I went dressed and ready to run because we just really didn't know what the deal would be and I wanted to be prepared to run with him if I had to.

 

We met up with buddies when we got down there and they quickly told us moms that they were NOT running with us! I guess that was too embarrassing! Ha! So, we had to buck up and let it go and just hope and pray they made it!

 

 So they took the kids off to go line up and it was a little scary letting them go. Once we saw Hudson though on the starting block, we had a little sigh of relief that he made it with the group! He's in the front row on the far right in the picture below. They let them go in waves so it wasn't complete chaos at the start...good idea!

 And they are off!

I figured we had around 10-15 minutes to get over to the finish line, which was just on the other side of Lynn Park.

 

Joel and I split up so he could get some pictures, and I headed to the finish line. I'm really glad I didn't dilly dally around because he made it just over 9 minutes! He was moving! He and Luke were still together and still smiling! They lost Emmett somewhere along the way though.

 

 I'm pretty happy I didn't have to run with him because I'm not so sure I could have done the mile in that time! Ha!

 Luke and Hudson with their medals!

 One happy boy!

While there were so many kids everywhere, this was SO organized. After the race, they took the kids and put them in pens based on their bib number. And, we had something we had to show to claim our child. So, it was safe too.

He cannot wait to do another race! He had that much fun! And I will admit, it was fun to watch. We were so proud of him! We will definitely be doing it again next year!

Life Lately

Well, it's been a few weeks. Clearly busy season at work has taken over, not to mention the news of being acquired by a national accounting firm--right in the middle of the busiest time of year, so that has caused a lot of distraction. And we're still rocking along with Joel in Houston every week. All of this leaves very little time for blogging right now! I had my first melt down two weeks ago today and thankfully Joel got the message and he took vacation last week. He was Mr. Mom for the week and it could not have come at a better time. Really, it might rank up there as being the best Valentine's gift ever. :) Can you tell my love language is acts of service?!?! We are just about to take him to the airport, so we are all a little sad right now!

We had a great play date at Treetop one Saturday morning with a couple of Hudson's old friends from preschool. We had never been to Treetop before, but it was a lot of fun!

 Hudson got the Good Character Award at school a couple of weeks ago! We are so proud of him! He got a blue ribbon, a certificate, and his favorite part, a gift certificate to Chick Fil A!

As I mentioned earlier, the week before last was particularly bad. Harrison was just a total terror that week, especially at bed time. Screamed for hours and would not go to bed. So, Hudson decided he would help out and sleep with him one night and they were just so sweet. You would never know from the picture below how bad of a week it was. I learned the next day why it was such a bad week for Harrison--he had strep! Poor thing!

Hudson had his last basketball game of the season a week ago. He scored TWO goals! We were so proud of him. He came so far this season and it was just fun to end on such a good note!

Baseball started the very next day. No rest for the weary! Two practices a week (including one at 4 pm on a Wednesday--just perfect for working parents in general, but when it's just me to handle it, it is even worse!). So far, Hudson is LOVING baseball though so it is all worth it! He looks so darn cute in his baseball outfit! 

Cuties before church one day!

Big Daddy gave the boys this basketball game for Christmas and Joel finally put it together last week. It has provided hours of entertainment for all of us! And for the record, no one has topped my score yet! Ha!

 Hudson had his Valentine's Party at school on Thursday. Joel went so I could work, but unfortunately didn't take any pictures. And then he was supposed to go to Harrison's party on Friday, but Hudson got some crazy virus Thursday night and Friday and so I took Harrison. He has such a sweet class!

 This is Harrison's little girlfriend, Hannah. She is literally half his size (most of the kids are in his class!), but Hannah is all we hear about! And Hannah's mom says all she hears about is Harrison! Young love! :)

 We had a very low key Valentine's Day yesterday. We just hung out all day and then cooked steaks last night at home. My perfect kind of day.

My sweet little firefighters! They are at such a great age right now. They play so well together...and fight too, but that's to be expected!

 So, the BEST news over the past couple of weeks is that Carrie is done with her treatments and had her brain scan and it was CLEAR! We are obviously thrilled with this news and ready for Carrie to move on! She still has to have her full body scan, but hopefully we'll get more good news with that! I just love this picture of her jumping for joy! It is definitely something to celebrate!

We are preparing for some winter weather this week and I'm really hoping we get something out of it! Hopefully it won't be another two weeks before I'm back!