Snow Day!

It was a good thing they called off school the night before because we did get at least a foot of snow! Katie spent the day playing at her friends house, so the boys and I did some sledding with friends and a LOT of shoveling!

Sleepover...

Katie's friend, Cora invited her to spend the night, since school was canceled the night before because of the snow storm we were expecting the next day (yes, more snow). This was Katie's first official sleepover with a friend! Very exciting! I am not sure what all the girls did that night, but I know that there was lots of silliness & giggling! Thanks to Becky for taking some pictures of the girls being silly! Katie came home exhausted the next day! She was so tired she feel asleep on the couch by 5:15pm.

The famous snowman pancakes they had for breakfast! Katie is still talking about these pancakes!

I ♥ NY!

There are a lot of great things about living in NY and being so close to the city. I recently got the chance to go to see The Martha Stewart Show in NYC! I was the first live show of 2011. It was so fun to see all of the behind the scenes stuff! It was a really neat show, we had awesome seats, and we even got an new Breville Juice & Blend for being in the audience that day!

Me, Renee, & Sarah...
Martha's crafting area...

Martha answering a few audience questions after taping the show...

Taxi to Rockefeller Center...

Sarah's father-in-law arranged for us to have a delicious lunch at Ben Benson's Steakhouse. What a nice surprise that was for us!

We also got lucky and were able to get seats at the afternoon taping of Martha Stewart's show! The live show was way cooler, but we did get to see some neat crafts that afternoon!
Another thing about NY, which I am not sure if I ♥ or NOT is all of the SNOW DAYS! We missed the blizzard while were in Florida, so the kids were very excited to have a snow day! Luke sat at the window most of the morning watching the snow fall...

I kept the kids inside as long as I could, but they WON and we headed out to play in the snow even though it was still coming down! They were the big wet flakes that are so pretty! Being a Texas girl, I still get excited everytime I see it snowing and I do ♥ sledding!

Happy New Year!

I don't think I have ever rang in a New Year quite like 2011! Our flight back to New York was supposed to be on the ground by 11:30pm, but that isn't how it happened. The Captain came on the speaker saying it was just a few seconds after midnight by his watch and if we looked out our windows we might be able to see the fireworks over NYC, well I didn't see any fireworks just Donnie looking back at me from his seat in front of mine to say Happy New Year & blow me a kiss!

By the time we made it home it was 2 am, and all we wanted to do was crawl into our own beds. But that didn't happen either, because Santa had come to our house while we were on vacation! There was no waiting until the morning to see what Santa had left for the kids. So they tore into their stockings and opened their presents with just as much excitement as if it was Christmas morning! And we finally did crawl into bed about 2:30am ending The Best Christmas Vacation Ever! I am looking forward to a new year that will hopefully be filled with more joy & happiness than sickness and sorrow...We are truly blessed!

Go Army!

As luck would have it, Army was playing SMU in the Armed Forces Bowl in Dallas, while we were there on our bonus vacation! Brandon scored some great tickets to the game for he and Donnie. 30 yard line, 1st row!!! Army Won (16-14) and Donnie got to meet Eric Dickerson & Craig James at the game!

Christmas Vacation Part 2...

We all LOVED getting to spend some extra time with family in Texas! So much better than being stuck at an airport or back at West Point, NY where they were all snowed in and without power for a day!

The kids LOVE playing with their cousins! They jumped, did crafts, watched movies, played Wii, goofed around and just enjoyed being together on our bonus vacation!!!

It was one big slumber party!!!

Disney Baby, Day 7...

On our last day at Disney the weather turned cold & windy, and the sun was hidden by the grey skies. We said our goodbyes to half of our family that morning as Uncle Dan has to catch an early flight, and Grandpa & Grandma were eager to get on the rode with winter storm they would be facing on the drive back to Iowa. There was also a blizzard headed right for NY, so our flight home later that evening had already been canceled. Lucky for us we were able to re-book for the next day and stay an extra night at the hotel (for a pretty penny) or at least that was the plan when we left for the park that day.

Our last family picture at Disney! The kids were not at all interested in taking another picture...they just wanted to eat their popcorn and go back to the hotel to warm-up and play with all the stuff they got at Disney!

We said our goodbyes to Mimi & Poppy, Uncle B, Aunt M, Carter, Parker, and Ryder and then headed back to the room to relax and play. Katie and Iwent back to the park that evening for one last ride on Space Mountain and it was on our way back to the hotel that our travel plans really started to unravel...our flight for the next day had been canceled! The next 24 hours was very interesting to say the least...nerve racking and frustrating is what comes to mind when I think back. We were Disney'd out and staying at our hotel any longer was not an option! We could get re-booked on a flight until Thursday (it was Sunday), we were going to have to rent 2 cars because there were no minivans available (you can't fit 5 people plus their luggage into just any vehicle), we couldn't find a hotel, the list goes on, and on of the problems we were encountering, and check-out was at 11am the next morning! Lucky for us, after looking into an idea my sister put into my head, we began Christmas Vacation Part 2, Texas!