a sign that spring is here...

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I couldn't resist adding a picture of these two handsome fellows...

Easter 2010

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The night before Easter, Hannah, Samuel, Karen & I dyed our Easter eggs. This was an amazing accomplishment considering we had been going non-stop all day.

Easter day we had lunch at my Granny James' house and had an Easter Egg Hunt with my younger cousins.

Easter evening we had a wonderful time of fellowship with our best friends, the Steele's. It was the perfect ending to a crazy weekend!

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Lately I've been uploading my pictures to flickr and photobucket to edit them before posting them to our blog. It's fun to play around and see what I can do with our pictures and I love the results. (The picture of Hannah welcoming Elijah to our Seder & the one of Ira "drinking" Elijah's wine are actually the same photo!)
It's so time consuming though and sometimes I don't get to every photo. So I wanted to add a few that didn't make the cut last time...

Karen & David before the Easter Bunny Run. I love that Karen is all smiling & happy while Dave is yawning!

Our sweet friend Jenny Bradford and her beautiful daughter Mattie. Jenny ran the 1/2 marathon.
I don't know how I missed this photo during editing b/c I had really wanted to put it on the blog.

This is my favorite... all of the guys standing around the grill talking. Never mind that we were starving!

Sweet Spring

(just click on the collage to see a larger/clearer version)

To celebrate the first day of spring and the gorgeous weather that it brought, we took the kids to Sertoma. What a beautiful day!

Global Warming...Seriously?

Monday evening Hannah begged me to let her spend the night with her Granny Jordan. My mom is recovering from pneumonia and so the kids hadn't seen her in over a week. My mom agreed so we packed their bags and took them over to my parents house. We knew that there was a possibility of snow but I didn't really think we would get any so I wasn't worried.

I woke up around 6am Tuesday morning and saw our yard lightly dusted with snow. I figured it would stop snowing shortly (like it usually does any time we get snow) and returned to bed. I woke up again at 7:45am when the phone rang - it was Hannah calling to inform me that it was snowing and she wanted to come home so we could play in it. The roads were crazy because no one had been driving on them and of course they hadn't been scraped yet. So I drove s-l-o-w-l-y to my parents house and picked up the kids. They were so excited and dying to get our and play in the snow.

It turned out to be an amazing day. Bobby used a vacation day and stayed home with us, to the delight of Hannah and Samuel. It snowed until 4pm straight without stopping - and it was so beautiful! The kids took a long nap and while they were napping I took a quick run. It was hard though because it was so cold, the roads were a mixture of slush & ice and I was constantly inhaling snowflakes! When I returned home Bobby left to go running so I curled up on the couch with a warm blanket, a hot cup of coffee (or cream & sugar with a little coffee added in) and 'Anna Karenina.' I'd say March is off to a great start!

I love snow and always will...

Be prepared. There are a lot of pictures. We spent an entire day playing in the snow and I took pictures of everything.


Gorgeous snow.

Snowball fight. Snowball tasting.

How big of a snowball do you need Hannah?

Here, taste this.

Hannah eating a snowball.

Poor Oscar. Sammy threw a snowball at him :-)

The making of a Snowman ...
Hannah also wanted to make snow angels but popped right back up after she lay down. "It's too cold Mama!"

Sledding... in our neighbors pasture.

Hannah wasn't too excited about sledding but after a couple of times down she loved it.

I nicknamed the hill we used for sledding Cypress Mountain (think Vancouver Olympics).

I went down "Mt. Cypress" with Sammy. He immediately jumped up and yelled, "Again Mom-may!"

Sammy impatiently waiting for another turn.

He's already laughing!!

Again?

So it snowed again. We are certainly experiencing some crazy weather here in sunny, tropical South Carolina. Our winters are normally so mild and so lacking in snow. For us to get snow two weeks in a row is somewhat of a miracle!!

I had planned to eat supper with my parents on Friday (the 12th, not this past Friday). I had just put the kids down for their naps and had sat down at the computer when I looked to see the tiniest flakes falling outside. Amazingly they were already sticking but I figured it wouldn't snow too long. When it was almost time to leave for my parents house, my mom called & was worried about us driving over. People in SC just do NOT know how to drive when it snows. As I mentioned, it's so rare that we all tend to freak out when it starts covering everything. We went anyway and I reasoned that as long as we headed home before nightfall we'd be fine.

My Dad literally rushed us through supper because he was so excited to take the kids outside. It was amazing to watch my Dad running up and down their driveway pulling the kids on a sled. After watching him barely being able to move his leg all of last year it was such a blessing to see him running this year!! The kids loved it!! Finally we had to make them come inside to warm up and drink some hot chocolate. After that it was time to leave and you could tell my Dad was disappointed that we had to leave.

Mind you, we left well before nightfall but the roads were already a nightmare. They were so covered in snow that you couldn't even tell where the lines were. I slid several times, not because it was icy but because I was driving on pure snow and my tires couldn't get enough traction. We made it home though but by that time I was starting to worry about Bobby making it home. I kept him updated and finally he left around 8pm to come home (his manager was kind enough to come in to work so he could leave early.) It was nice having him home so early, the kids were super excited to see him before they went to bed.

So it snowed for almost 9 hours or so. The next day it quickly melted as usual. But at least the kids got to sled a bit and throw a few snowballs :-)

Friday Evening at My Parents House:

* This is my favorite picture of Hannah & Samuel.

Saturday Morning at Our House:

*Oscar is licking the snow off the ground.

*I had visions of Samuel shoving snow down the back of Hannah's pants.

Hello Snow, My Old Friend

As you can guess from my previous post and the title for this one, it snowed today!!! Very rare indeed for our little neck of the woods.

It started snowing around 1:30pm (which I didn't notice until my mom called and enlightened me) but didn't stick. After Sammy got up from his nap we decided to play in the flurries but by the time I got myself and two kids ready to go outside it had turned to sleet. So we went out anyways and visited one of our neighbors. We got home, chatted on the phone with Bobby for a few minutes, and looked outside to see another downpour of snow.

I'm talking solid white and HUGE flakes!!! It was awesome!! So we once again tackled the mess of coats, hats and gloves that were piled in the corner and headed outside. By this point in was almost 4pm and the snow was finally sticking. Our yard was so beautiful and it made me so happy & excited to see Hannah and Samuel playing. Hannah finally got to make a snowball and throw it. Sadly we didn't get to sled or build a snowman though. Around 6:30pm the snow stopped and was quickly followed by rain. Our winter wonderland had turned to a slushy mess but at least we got to enjoy it for a few hours...

Bundled up and ready to play...

The snow is sticking!!!

Catching snowflakes on their tongues.

Please stop taking pictures so I can play!!

Our beautiful snow covered yard.

Sammy was lovin' the snow!

Another picture? It's the last one I promise.

The Joys of Autumn

I love autumn. The smells, the leaves, the pumpkins, Halloween...everything.

Carving our pumpkin.
Samuel loved scooping out the seeds.

Hannah wasn't quite as excited to stick her hand inside the pumpkin. She said it was gross.

Are there any seeds left?

Ta-da! Our poor pumpkin lost a tooth during the carving process but looks cute none the less.

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Trunk or Treat at Wal-Mart
Getting T-Rex ready.

T-Rex and Daddy

Hannah didn't want her picture taken because she was mad about something but I finally managed to get this one during supper. She was a beautiful mermaid complete with the tail.

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Fall Leaves
Hannah & Samuel love playing in the leaves. The past several days we've gone out in the afternoon in an attempt to get control of the leaves that have taken over our yard. We've got a huge pile that seems to stay the same size - burning leaves while raking more seems to equal out.
Hannah will jump right into the middle of the pile.

Sammy prefers to stay toward the edge of the pile.

This is such a cute picture of Oscar & Sammy. Oscar is such a sweet dog and he loves the kids so much. He picked a spot towards the side of the pile to lay and watch the kids as they jumped. Here he's getting some love from Sammy.

The Clark Clan is definitely enjoying these beautiful autumn days!