"Love One Another"...

Ansley is in our church's children's (Cherub) choir and they meet every Wednesday night to sing songs and then they perform a couple of times a year. She loves to go to choir; however, I have heard from the teachers that she doesn't participate much, she just sits and watches (NO surprise there). Well, she definitely is listening and taking it all in because tonight she put on a little show for us in her room. This girl LOVES to dance and sing in her room.

For your enjoyment, Ansley singing "Love One Another"

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Our January Snow Fall

I know it sounds weird to be talking about the snow we had back in January, but I am SO behind on my posts, I am going to try and catch up this week.

On January 10th (Pop Pop's birthday), we got a big snow fall in Charlotte. We knew it was coming along with the rest of the south, and they were forecasting us to get at least a couple of inches. We didn't get just a couple of inches, we ended up with at least 6 inches of snow. It was absolutely beautiful!!!! Snow pictures are my favorite :) This was also the first time Aly got to experience snow. She really didn't know what to think and was bundled up so much, she could barely move!

I got some great pictures of the girls below (there are a lot, too many favorites :) to choose just a couple)

 Aly and Daddy sledding...she got sprayed by all the snow!

 Love the picture below of Ansley, just so happy!

 Ansley & Daddy's turn to go sledding...

 Our little pink Eskimo

 just so stinkin' happy (poor thing was freezing!)

 Love the picture below of Aly, she looks so cute in her hat!

The snow was fun while it lasted but we were happy to see it go, it stuck around for too long! We were all going a little stir crazy inside...

Ansley's new pet "Cinderella"

No, we did not get a dog or a cat! But Ansley did get her very own pet fish. She of course named her "Cinderella"! She was very excited to have her fish. She remembers to feed her on M, W, & F's. Too bad, mommy forgets to change her water. Not sure how the poor fish can see to swim! The fish has managed to live for two months now, and hopefully will stay a live if I can just remember to clean out the tank :)

Meet Cinderella....

Discovery Place KIDS

While we were still off of school over the Christmas break, we decided to finally go to our Children's Museum. We are so lucky, it just opened up in the fall and is only 10 minutes away. Everyone we have known to have gone to Discovery Place KIDS said it was awesome! We packed the girls up on afternoon and tried it out. It of course was a zoo since the kids were still out of school but we had a great time. Ansley loved everything about it. And Aly just loved watching everyone around her.... Gammie gave us a family pass for the year as our Christmas gift so we can go as many times as we want. I can already tell this is going to be the best place to take the girls during the summer when it is too hot to be outside :)

Here are some pics from our day at the museum.

Ansley driving the nascar race car :)

thought this was funny of Rob...

a very happy girl playing at the water table

Happy 4th Birthday Ansley!

While we were back home for the holidays, we celebrated Ansley's birthday at my parent's house. The kids were still on a high from all the presents they had received on Christmas but Ansley was super excited about having cake & pizza. Publix cake and pizza has become Ansley's birthday meal :) Since it snowed on Christmas day I was a little nervous whether or not Publix would be open for me to pick up the cake. Thankfully, they were! Papa Johns opened a little late, but Ansley was able to still have pizza for lunch and some delicious cake :)

Ansley loved being with her cousins, Aunt Kelly, Uncle Brent, and Nana & Pop Pop. Thank you for all for the wonderful birthday gifts. She got her biggest birthday present earlier, it was her swing set, from both grandparents.

We can't believe our baby is already 4!

An Ariel Cake... Ansley was super excited for her princess cake!

Happy Birthday Sissy! I hope you get some fun toys that I can play with :)

Cheese! (A very fake "Cheese")

enjoying the pizza

And this is what I got when I asked her smile for the camera (Ansley wasn't feeling very good, she came down with what Aly had the day before)

Madison was so patient while watching her cousin open her presents

Make a Wish!

Christmas with the Willson Family

After we enjoyed a wonderful Christmas morning in Athens with the Mautz family, we got on the road to head to Pop Pop & Nana's house. Thankfully, we made it to Atlanta before it really started snowing. It was pretty bad coming into town but wasn't sticking yet. It was still so neat to have a real white Christmas!

Shortly after arriving at Nana & Pop Pop's house, Aunt Kelly, Uncle Brent, Maddie and Hailey came over. The girls were so ready to see what Santa had brought them. It was killing Ansley to wait on her cousins, but she didn't have to wait too long. Again, the girls were spoiled and got a lot of wonderful gifts! We opened Aly's gifts first since she was so pitiful, and put her down for a nap. Again, she missed all the gift opening... at least she is too young to really understand what is going on.

After opening gifts (which this took the longest it has ever taken), we enjoyed a great meal that Nana had prepared. The little girls joined us in the dining room at their own little table. I think they really liked being in the same room as us!

Kelly and I always try to get pictures of the girls together every year all dressed up, well we were just too tired to change their clothes. Plus, Aly was already a sleep, and we just didn't want to fight the kids on it. It was a very long day and the girls were exhausted! Well, at least we thought they were, Madison and Ansley LOVE sharing a room and they are like sisters....scheming up things to do, like trying to jump off the bed to see if they can pull the string hanging from the fan to turn the light on, or just jumping from bed to bed :) Thank God, no one hurt themselves!

We are always so lucky to be able to spend Christmas with both families and I know the girls love it! Thank you Nana, Pop Pop, Aunt Kelly & Uncle Brent for making this such a great Christmas, we have so many wonderful memories!!!

comparing Leapster games

Pop Pop always makes us laugh :)

taking it all in ...

excited about her new book

I still look precious as can be even though I have snotty nose!

Aly just looks so sweet in this picture :) I think she was literally about to fall a sleep!

Rock Star Madison

Ansley modeling her new vacuum cleaner

princess Belle and her prince!

having fun dancing around

not sure where Hailey was during all the pics... just realized I didn't get any of her :(

best buds!

from Atlanta to Athens (Christmas Eve & Christmas morning)

After spending a couple of days in Atlanta, we met Rob in Athens. This year, we were spending Christmas Eve & Christmas morning at Mimi & Pop's house. We had a great time in Athens. Ansley loves to see Uncle Boo & Aunt CC too! This was Chelsea's first Christmas with the Mautz family so we had to show her the craziness, the good eats, and of course lots of fun times together. The older kids, and Mimi played "catch phrase" at night, which was a blast! This needs to be a new christmas tradition :) It was the girls against the guys (well Rob & Matt, since Pops was already in bed).

We had Christmas Eve lunch at the country club, and then headed back to the house to relax some before Gammie arrived for a delicious meal made by Mimi. Even though the dinner didn't come out exactly how Mimi had planned, we still had a wonderful time and enjoyed all the company! After dinner, Ansley & Uncle Boo had a dance party (I got some great pics). And then Ansley decorated some cookies for Santa. Daddy read "Twas the night before Christmas", Ansley sprinkled her reindeer food and then it was time for Ansley to go to bed. Poor Aly, she can't make it much later then 6:30pm before having an absolute meltdown so she missed out on a lot of the christmas traditions this year.

Christmas morning came really early since we needed to get on the road by noon to celebrate my family.  I hated waking the girls up. Ansley was so excited she didn't care, but poor Aly, she came down with a cold and was ABSOLUTELY miserable! She literally was only a wake for about 30 minutes and then went back to bed and missed out on all the gifts. But she NEEDED to sleep since we knew it was going to be a very long day (We didn't open Aly's gifts until right before we left to go back to Atlanta).

Santa found his way to Mimi & Pop's house and left Ansley a bike along with some other goodies. Ansley was so excited about her new bike! She had mentioned to Rob a couple of days before Christmas how she would like a bike but never told Santa. Rob said that Santa was listening and maybe it wasn't too late for him to get it ready for Christmas. It was perfect, a Princess bike! This girl loves anything, and everything Princess (mommy & daddy are a little sick of it but whatever makes her happy)...

Santa didn't forget about Aly, she got her very own suitcase (ok, so this was more for mommy but for Aly too) as well as some new toys :)

Not only was Santa very generous to our girls, but every one else was as well. We got great gifts, and really enjoyed spending the Christmas morning with family :)

Thank you Mimi, Pops, Aunt CC & Uncle Boo for making Christmas so special for our girls. They love you so much!

Uncle Boo, Ans & Aly

Mimi, opening our gift to her a little early... we got her DVR and they were coming to set it up on Christmas Eve so we had to give it to her early...I don't think she minded at all :)

Mimi & Ansley

Boo & CC look like they could be Ansley & Aly's parents :)

the family at the country club on Christmas Eve

Aunt CC & Aly

we literally dressed the girls for this picture and then put them in comfortable clothes, they were over it! But at least I got a decent family picture

Uncle Boo & Ansley having their dance party

ta da!

and twirl...

adding lots of sprinkles on Santa's cookies :)

Santa's cookies

can I dump out all the reindeer food?

(and she dumped the whole jar...she wanted to make sure the reindeer knew were to stop)

Santa definitely came and was very generous

Aly's goodies

Ansley's goodies

looks like Santa wanted to try a bite of each cookie :)

so excited she got her big girl bike!

Mimi & Aly

this is how miserable Aly was...

I can see you Mimi....

Really?!? This is for me?