And Thus It Has Begun

The snow has begun. We've been waiting in a somewhat uncertain anticipation for the snow to really start coming. We knew the snow and weather statistics moving up here, so we can't say we're shocked, but at just under 3 feet and counting...I don't know how to feel. A foot is expected today, and more tomorrow, the next day, the next day and so on. Snow is beautiful when it's more of a mild decoration outside, I'm not sure what to call it when snow is all you see outside. When mailboxes and fire hydrants have big long red poles on top so the plows don't hit them. I was told (when I was complaining at the bus stop it wasn't safe for the kids to ride the bus to school) that this is nothing, "it has only begun". Welcome to Erie.......

it's hard to capture the true amount of snow in a picture with snow drifts happening everywhere-I'll try to capture a better one next time

If anyone doubts the amount of snow Erie gets, check out the info about Erie, PA on Wikipedia, go now and think of us please the next time you see a blue sky and asphalt-no such things exists here in winter. The roads are only snow paths the skies are only clouds. But happiness is not found in the weather-or is it?

Christmas 2009

Christmas morning The girls are always much too spoiled by Santa, and grandparents, but for them it's magical and the greatest time of year, well except birthdays, and Easter, Halloween and........any other time they get spoiled.

I thought this was a cute picture of Maddie and Sophie sneaking eggnog in a wine glass, late Christmas day.
The girls favorite-a kids laptop





Olivia gave me this flower picture frame, she had been dropping hints for weeks about this present. I think she realized how much fun it was to to give a gift she paid for herself,(well kind of, I handed her the money and looked the other way-does that count?) "almost better then getting presents" actually was what she said-almost.



This little one woke up too early, actually now that I think about it, she's always up too early.




Sweet memories. The girls and Trent singing Christmas songs- Trent played the harmonica while the girls and I sang, I bet your wishing you were there to see such harmonious music being performed.

Oglebay

Our Christmas vacation! We escaped cold, cold snowy Erie, PA! We went to Oglebay Resort just outside of Wheeling, West Virginia. We only stayed a night and 2 days but it was "Wild and Wonderful", as West Virginia goes. Trent used to come down here in the summer for his management seminars-he always loved it and wanted us to come try it out-it was beautiful. West Virginia is so incredible hilly-I wish I would have taken pictures of the old rickety houses sitting on rocks, hanging over cliffs. Oglebay sits on the top of a-would it be a mountain?, or would it just be a large hill, either way it winds around and around going up with those 150 year old rickety houses dotting the cliffs. Oglebay Resort property is basically the whole entire top of the mountain, it's quite a sight.
Of course the indoor pools were the girls favorite.






The festival of lights is the main attraction Oglebay host in the winter. It was really nice, but we started it late and it goes on for miles...and miles.... The girls were all asleep by the time we made it back to the lodge. It was such a nice break and little vacation, hopefully we can make this a tradition.

Old Neighborhood

Ahh, the old neighborhood. The girls and I drove the 90 some miles down to our old neighborhood this last week over the break. It was so nice to see all our old friends, we miss all of you guys.

I'm so sorry Dave and Pam, they destroyed your basement.

Always hard to say goodbye, but we'll see them again-hopefully soon.

Beautiful

Isn't it beautiful when your kids take a nice photo-it truly is cause it's so rare. Another absolutely beautiful thing is when your youngest child finally learns how to put herself to sleep.

Olivia's Christmas Program

I was able to go to Olivia's school today for a Christmas concert the 1st graders put on. It was so cute and fun to watch them perform. Olivia was so excited to perform today, she has now decided to be an actress and has announced her debut performance will be Christmas Eve (she has started to orchestrate a reenactment of the manager scene, staring her, her 2 sisters and the dog). We anxiously await this sure to be grand performance. This is Olivia with her best friend Jana

Olivia and I after the performance

Santa

Don't you love the pictures of your kids with Santa Claus?

Sophie's just pretending, she loved it

Olivia was so happy here, so excited.

This is the first year Maddie wasn't scared to sit on Santa's lap. Last year she wanted to so much, but she was still so leery of him that the whole time she was uncomfortable, and there were no smiles. But this year was great for her, since this was actually the real Santa Claus not just someone dressing up like last years.