love notes

The girls have been writing eachother secret notes this week. Just found this one from Caroline. 

My heart has melted. 

Sunday morning snuggles

These two are so sweet in the morning. Lots of lazy snuggles today. 

Love these two to the moon and back!

Maddies first road race!

Maddie and Jim ran Maddies first ever race on Saturday as a Y-Guide activity.  She was signed up for the 5K but it was so ridiculously cold... We decided to switch her out to the 1 mile. I'm pretty certain she would have been miserable doing all 3 miles.  

Here they are at the start...Jim's in the blue hat. 

Ready... 

Set...

Go!!!!

And here they are just about to cross the finish line. Aren't they cute? 

I hope my girls have a passion for running like I do. I'm always looking for a running buddy! 

old friends

I still am able to enjoy Fridays off with my sweet sweet Caroline.  Last Friday we met up with our old friend Tingen at Chick Fil A for lunch and then invited him over to play after.  

How sweet are these faces? The Tingen boys have a reputation of being wild ones (this goes way back to when daddy was growing up!) but look at this face!  He's the sweetest little thing.  Let's see if I'm saying this in about 12 years...

another early release...

Snow is a comin' so Caroline and I hunkered down and made some chocolate chip muffins. 

a visit to duke chapel

The girls love seeing where mommy and daddy got married and we love showing them. 

Love this spot!

snow, snow and more snow!!

Yee haw we got ourselves some real snow here in the Carolinas!!  We have had a crazy few weeks and the kids are really enjoying it!

Of course we are wildly unprepared for this. So they're rocking running shoes, rain boots and cowgirl boots... But we are making it work. 

We learned how to make snow angels. 

And make snowmen.

And have some seriously fun family time in the snow. 

Happy Snow Day to everyone... Let's hope we don't have any more of them! 

1st time ice skating

We have had a fantastic winter I have to say!  A few weeks ago our neighbors asked if we'd like to go ice skating with them one Saturday morning. Well of course we would!

Caroline had been on the ice once before when visiting nana and pop pops but Maddie had never been so she was excited!

Here she is skating with Dick. She held his hand the entire hour out on the ice. 

And she loved it!! Caroline on the other hand... Notsomuch. Not a big fan of the falling down part. She did a few whirls around the rink and decided to get warm and watch with me. 

Maddie went back with Daddy and the Y-Guides the very next weekend and we even got her her own pair of figure skates. She's loving it!

(grand) daddy daughter dance

(Gran) Daddy-Daughter dance at MCES was another success.  Daddy was out of town again this year for the special event but Grandad stepped in once again and was the perfect date. 

Grammie took Maddie to pick out her dress and this one was the winner!  My girl loves her animal prints! She looked beautiful. 

We curled her hair.. and she wanted to make sure we had a picture of it.

And we can't forget about this little peanut. She and I had a special movie night while Maddie was gone. 

The much anticipated arrival of Grandad finally came. And he brought with him a wonderful corsage.  So special!

The couple...

And they were off! Another successful dance in the books!  Im not sure Jim will be allowed to go next year since Maddie's already got the perfect date!

more disney...

It's cold today. 25 degrees to be exact and boy and I missing Disney today! I was browsing our Disney pics and decided to post a few more.

If you know me, you know I love some Wreck it Ralph.  I was so excited when we found them.  Caroline gave Venellope her best "Ralph my man... My main man" impression and they both looked at eachother and gave her a ginormous hug. How CUTE IS THAT????

Ugh. Love. 

I mentioned I ran my first ever marathon during the trip and... It was amazing. Ran with my neighbor and good pal Brad. Here we are running down the amazing Main Street which was jam packed with spectators cheering their loved ones on. 

It was LOUD and CRAZY and always gives me the chills. 

We did great and had these cuties cheering us on. 

Done! 26.2 in the books! Will I do it again? Absolutely. Worth every minute of training. 

And yes that's a beer in my hand... And it tasted so good!

Beautiful isn't she?

So on to more Disney fun. We stayed at Port Orleans Riverside in one of the brand new princess rooms. The best part? The headboard that displays fireworks above your head at the push of a button. So awesome. Girls LOVED that of course. So did I!

We couldn't leave without visiting Ariel's Grotto. We had never done it before and wow... Up close and personal with one of the girls favorite princesses. She spent 4-5 minutes with them asking them all kinds of questions and answering theirs of course. 

And this year the girls were NOT afraid of Goofys barnstormer roller coaster! In fact, because there was no line- we went on it over and over! Caroline had her arms up the entire ride when I rode with her and wouldn't let me hold her at all. She's a brave little one. 

And I FINALLY got one of my girls to want to buy Mickey ears. We have been a handful of times with them now and they were just never that interested. Finally, Caroline said she wanted some and of course... It needed to be this one. 

Fine with me! 

Because we were there during track out, we were able to meet up with one of Maddies shoolmates Ava for a quick hello. 

That's it for this trip.  Another awesome Disney vacation packed full of wonderful memories I will remember forever. 

And you know what the mouse says, "See ya real soon!" You know it Mickey.