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!