Snow Days

North Carolina has mild winters and that is MY kind of winter. I'm not a huge fan of snow but for a few days out of the winter I think a blanketing of snow is beautiful and fun. So we were pretty excited to get a nice covering of the white stuff. Growing up in South Carolina we never had snow gear because you would grow out of it before you ever had the chance to use it. So, on the rare occasion when it did snow it was time to bust out the "white trash" snow gear. That meant bread bags for your shoes and sometimes your hands! Mia was begging to go out and play but Dave and I realized we had no snow clothes for her. Well, you can see for yourselves what I came up with. She wasn't thrilled and neither was Dave. He told us to play in the backyard so the neighbors wouldn't see Mia. Necessity is the mother of invention right?!?!

Yes, she has her jammies on!

That's right! Leg warmers over 2 pairs of pants and Target bags over her shoes!

Sledding on a Rubbermaid lid.

Mia is not too sure about walking on snow.

Sliding down our hill of a backyard.

Nawlins Visitors

My sister's family drove from Louisiana for a short visit. We had a great time even though we didn't really do anything. I slacked majorly on pictures and am now regretting it, of course. Mia and Charlotte are 3 months apart and had fun playing AND fighting. Mia is an only child and used to having everything her way and Charlotte is number 3 in her family so she is used to fighting for what she wants in this world! They made an interesting duo for sure. I love that Mia has a cousin her age! Even though they will grow up far apart, I still bet they will be best friends!

My niece Grace is very creative!

Charlotte has the sweetest smile!

Our little pink girls.

NC Zoo

The closest zoo to us is over an hour away! I'm so used to having a zoo close by and this was a big shock to me. Dave had MLK Jr's birthday off and it was a beautiful day so we decided to go on an adventure to the zoo. Long car rides with Mia used to be a nightmare but then we bought a portable DVD player and life is good again. The zoo is huge and we only got through half of it. I can't wait to go back and see the other half. Mia's favorite animal was the sea lion. It would swim right by the glass and she would get so excited. She really is an animal lover through and through.

Dave waiting for Mia to slide down at the awesome playground.

Mia getting ready to fly away on a bumble bee.

Cutest otter ever! Someone dropped their cell phone in his exhibit and he was playing with it. Seriously cute.

This zoo really likes bees I guess.

Very tired after a very fun day.

Ahhh Puddin!

Mia has a love/hate relationship with pudding. She loves it because, well, it's pudding.

She hates it because it's messy and she doesn't like to be messy. She says "Clean up!" the whole time she is eating the pudding.

This picture is just for your pure enjoyment. Artist -David Rasmussen

Life with Mia

Some days are heaven and some are well... close to that other place. I love her and find myself laughing at her shenanigans all the time. Mia is a toddler in EVERY sense of the word. The only saving grace is that she can communicate fairly well. But most of the time that just means she yells at me while she is throwing a tantrum. She has definite personality and everybody tells me she is "strong willed". Like I don't already know. Believe me people, I KNOW!!

She has an opinion on everything, including what she wants to wear.

She likes to help out with the baking.

She loves her play dough. Yes she tries to eat it and she constantly yells at me to "SIT DOWN", which means she wants me to sit and watch her play.

Christmas 2009

We had a great Christmas in Durham this year. Dave and I had a fun time getting everything ready for Mia. She slept in until 9am and we were both waiting anxiously for her to get up and see what Santa brought. We videotaped her first seeing all the presents under the tree and her new princess piano and zebra bouncer. See, if you didn't know, Mia is going to be a piano prodigy. I've already got it all planned out. She loves playing the piano and not just banging away at it. She pretends to really play a song. She gets that from her Gramma DeeDee and her cousin Ben. So we bought her this pepto pink piano that she loves. You can even record the songs she plunks out. She loved playing it until she found the extra buttons that add a beat to the music. Now she just runs up and presses the beat button and dances around like a hip hop baby. My plans for piano prodigy have been put on hold.

Mia really got into opening presents.

She's a natural!

Pigtails are flying!

She wouldn't wear these antlers even for a 5 second picture.

Ginger

This Christmas I really wanted to start some traditions for our little family. I thought we would try out decorating a gingerbread house the week before Christmas. It was really fun and Mia LOVED it most of all. I should start out by saying Mia has a serious sweet tooth. When she wakes up in the morning she says "Breakfast! Chocolate!". When she wants a snack she says, "Crackers! Chocolate! Candy!". It was challenging to get her to put the candy on the house at first but she finally got the hang of it and did a great job decorating. She called it ginger and every few minutes from the time we finished it until I threw it away Christmas Eve (I had all I could take) she screamed to have her ginger placed on the ground where she could eat the candy off it. She still asks for it sometimes. I think we will make it a tradition and I just pray she gets over the "ginger" obsession next year.

If I've said it once I've said it a million times, this child is a mess.

She really worked hard!

She has frosting in her hair but she is soooo pleased with her ginger!