The snow's still here...and the Pughs came for a visit!

The Pughs came out to see us, since we couldn't get out of our driveway... and we had more fun playing in the snow!

Lydia and Norika with their snowballs.

Bekah and Noah decided to ice skate at the storm drain....

Noah busted it a few times...

Rebekah busted it a few times...

Norika and Lydia playing in the snow...they made the best snowballs!

The house next door is foreclosed and they had the most undisturbed snow, so we headed over there to play.

Lena pulled the kids on the boogie board down the driveway.

They all had a blast doing it. Lydia had Norika hold her snowball so she could sled.

Then she pulled her snowball on the sled.

After playing in the snow, Norika and Lydia played dress-up - complete with press-on nails!!

David "sledding" - well, trying anyway...

Bekah's turn on the sled/boogie board

Lydia on the sled...I mean, boogie board

The BETTER Snow of January 2010

We finally got a REALLY good snow!!

 

We decided to let it snow all night and get out in it this morning...

Only, the freezing rain/sleet that we got last night, froze in a thick sheet over all the snow!!

Just look at the girls' feet! They're on TOP of the snow!! It took some real effort to sink down in the snow.

(You should have seen Bear trying to walk like an old man with the "ground" collapsing beneath him every other step.)

Aren't the girls just so adorable!! I love them to PIECES!!

My gorgeous husband with my little ones!!

(I made sure I got all the family pics out of the way before we really got down to business!!)

And me with my sweet little ones!!

Bekah decided that she should climb a TREE!!

Crazy girl!!

Lydia found this Hannah Montana ball and dug it out of the snow.

There was so much ice, we decided to try ice skating down the street (which actually worked).

And then David tried sledding down the neighbors' driveway.

No so much. Ha ha!

He did manage to pull the girls on it a little. I'll try to post some video later.

The neighbors were smart and built their snowman last night

With all the sheets of ice, it was impossible to make snow angels...

or build a snowman...

So we got resourceful.

The girls brought us sheets of ice and David and I chopped them down into squares.

And built this snow castle!!

Here we are with our handiwork.

Artific

Lydia announced that she was ARTIFIC!

Rebekah quickly corrected her...artistic, Lydia!!

Delight

Lydia's Three Year Old Photo Shoot

Visiting with Nicole (& Eli & Zak) at the Tennessee Aquarium

Through the miracle of Facebook, our old friend, Nicole (Goss) Woodward, found us. Yea!!  We used to go to church with Nicole at the Atlanta Vineyard and we hung out all the time. After we moved to Tennessee, we lost touch, unfortunately. But Nicole found us on FB and we decided to meet half-way in Chattanooga and hang out for the day. Nicole has gotten married and had two kiddos: Eli, who is almost 4, and Zak, who is 8 months old. And we had Lydia since she saw us last. So it was really great to get together and meet each others' kids. (Nicole's husband, Mike, had to work...so we'll meet him another time.)  After hanging out at lunch, and then the mall, we decided to head on over to the Tennessee Aquarium. (Besides, Zak needed to stay moving in order to stay happy...and you know you have to keep those babies happy!) =) And the big kids were quite happy too, I must say. So here are some quick pics of our fun time at the aquarium. We saw the seahorses. And then got to pet the sturgeons. The kids LOVED this...you know...soaking their entire sleeves in fish waters. Bleck. Then the kids crawled inside this thing. They were hilarious. You can just see the top of Eli's head!! Watching their faces was the best part...seeing their excitement when they saw a fish. Only, Eli and Lydia are a pretty good match on volume. And in such an enclosed space, we needed to remind them to keep it down!! Again with the peace signs. Bekah cheesin' with the turtle. Here are the three oldest with the HUGE turtle shell! So, I'm thinking Lydia was pretty freaked out by this fish. I mean, it is a little freaky... don't you think? I'm just sayin'. Then it was off to the sting ray/shark tank...for another round of sleeve soaking fun!!  David was totally into this one too! He was just like one of the kids! 

After the shark/sting ray pool, we went into the butterfly sanctuary.

Right off the bat, Bekah got a butterfly on her finger!! How cool is that?

It turns out that they aren't too afraid of people.

Which became quite obvious when this one landed on Nicole's butt. Ha ha!! Too funny!!

Lydia got it off for her.

Yeah, I really don't know what to tell you about this one. Ha ha!!

We further explored the shark exhibit inside. The girls got into this shark cage.