Snow Day

We woke up this morning to snow!!  The forecast last night had called for it and they had cancelled school for the county, but we weren't sure it was really going to happen.  Glad we were wrong!  Kate and Carter were so excited about it...here they are camped out in her room watching the snow fall this morning.

Seeing everything so still and white is just beautiful.  Here's 113 W. Cedar Ave. in the snow.  Always like to get a shot when there's no footprints in the snow.  It was thick too...6 inches of powdery, perfect snow.

Kate and Josh out in our front yard.

Carter throwing his first snowball ever.  We had snow in Georgia exactly a year ago, but he was only 14 months old at the time, so he didn't do much playing in it, and doesn't remember it anyway!!

Bailey LOVES playing in snow...she had the best time!

Me and Hudson hung out together :)

We walked down to the Robinson's house to play.  The big kids wanted to have a snowball fight, so it was them against Josh and George, with Bailey and Scout trying to catch the snowballs as they were whizzing past.

Catherine working hard to build a snowman

Putting on the final touches

Love the Robinsons!

Team Reed

Christmas in Norcross

It was such a blessing to be back home for several days.  Christmas is such a special time of year!  This year was even more special to be with all our family and friends that we have missed so much!

This cracked me up.  They love to play on Mom's sidewalk because her driveway is a little too steep to ride on.  They were back and forth with such purpose that I had to take their picture.  Love the facial expressions :)

As Carter calls it, 'mugga-mugga' (aka rubbing noses)

Ah, morning time.  Love my kiddos!

Sweet Kate in her Priscilla Pig ears after riding the Pink Pig down at Lenox.  Such a fun tradition.  Josh and I both rode it as kids and now are taking our kids to ride it, although it has changed in the last 25+ years!!  Hasn't everything??? :)  

That makes me even more thankful to know that Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever...He is the only thing that never changes!

Here is Kate in her 'new' chair.  This is fun because it's a chair my parents bought me when we lived in Thailand.  I had it in my room as a little girl and now my little girl has it in her room at Mimi's house!

Carter in his new firetruck bed that Mimi gave him for Christmas to have at her house.  Do you think he likes it?!

Hudson has grown so much...doesn't he look like such a big boy?  He's cutting his second tooth and babbling so much.  Loves his baby food and is trying to figure out the sippy cup.  I absolutely love having a baby around the house!  He really didn't know what to think about all the Christmas activity, but he sure did LOVE being held and loved on by all his extended family!!

Here's the rest of our Christmas pics.  Too many to just post one-by-one...we'd have been here all day!  Enjoy...

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Christmas in Buford

After the whirlwind of finishing Josh's first semester of seminary and moving to our new house in Wake Forest, it was so nice to go home for a long visit with family and friends.  We split our time between Buford and Norcross (a post to come about that next!)  It was great to be back and to reacquaint ourselves with all that we have missed about being in Georgia.

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We were so excited to take part in the Jenkins' Annual Day After Christmas Breakfast!  Bowdie and Andrea have been hosting this gathering of out-of-town friends for several years now.  This was our first year to attend.  Bowdie is a pancake aficionado and we were very happy to enjoy great food and fellowship!

Here's a group shot, very nicely taken by Tori Beth Robinson.  From l. to r. Russ, Kristy and Josie Masterson; Larry and Stephanie Lyon; Becky Turner; Andrea and Bowdie (holding Hudson); Dustin, Erin and Emalyn Mattox; us; George and Catherine Robinson.  We had a blast!  

The Christmas celebration continued in Norcross.  Another post to come...

Barberito's

Our dear friends Hoovey and Stacia McGuirt have a Barberito's back home that has become an absolute "must go to" whenever we go back to Georgia.  For those who don't know what that is, 1st: I'm sorry! and 2nd:  It's yummy burritos, tacos and quesadillas.  Anyway, we have a group of friends that we've been getting together with since before any of us had kids.  We get together for Christmas every year.  This year we decided to meet up at Hoovey's Barberito's (which I jokingly call our own personal 'Peach Pit'...ha ha).  It was one of our first nights back in Georgia and was so great to just relax (as much as you can with 11 kids between the 4 families).

The McGuirts: (l. to r.) Brand-new baby Tison, two weeks old in this picture; Stacia; Claire (5); Hoovey; and James (2).  Stacia was fussing at me about putting her picture up on our blog, but she looks amazing with her brand-new baby boy!

The Mocks: (l. to r.) Christa; Will (4); Barry; Katie Beth (2).  Will Mock is one of Kate's big buddies...they were born about 3 weeks apart.  She was very excited to see him again.

The Robinsons: (l. to r.) Grace (almost 5); Lilly (3); Angie; Cory; Sarah Anne (5 months).  We have truly been blessed with sweet friends!

One family was missing this year.  The Slades usually join us, but couldn't make the trip up from Warner Robins.  Here's the annual picture of all the kids.  It's been fun to look back at these pictures from years past to see how our families are growing and the kids are changing so fast!

Our North Carolina Christmas

Here is Team Reed in front of the beautiful tree at North Wake Church.

When did Carter become such a little man?

Kate with some of her favorite things...pink shirt, pink necklace, pink earrings, and a butterfly purse!

Love the hat!  What a cutie pie!

Here's another cutie pie :)

We were really not planning to do much for Christmas up here in Wake Forest, considering we moved into our new house on the 15th and were leaving for Georgia on the 22nd.  However, it was really bothering me that we barely had any decorations up at all.  So we decided to surprise the kids by putting up the tree while they were sleeping one  night.  The look on their faces the next morning made it well worth the extra effort, even if it only had one ornament on it that I had gotten at a neighbor's ornament exchange before we moved.  We had the tree up for less than 48 hours, but it was just fine!

We went ahead and did our Christmas up here instead of trying to bring everything with us to do it down in Georgia.  Josh read the Christmas story from Luke 2 and then we gave the kids their gifts.  Always fun to watch kids, especially at Christmas time :)

Here's one of Kate's gifts...a Princess tent with matching sleeping bag.  This is how she wanted to take her nap that day.

Here's Carter checking out his new baseball tee.  He's connecting well and having so much fun with it!  Something innate within boys that they love to swing and hit things...I have so much to learn, since it was all girls in my house growing up :)

Moving, again :)

Wow, it's been so long since I've blogged!  I'm going to attempt to catch up, which should be a challenge with all that has happened in the last month, but I'll give it my best shot! It's going to take a couple days I'm sure.  So, our biggest news is that we rented a house here in Wake Forest and were set to move in December 15th.  It was crazy to think about moving 10 days before Christmas, but we really wanted Josh to be finished with the semester first.  Thankfully Mom came up to help out with packing and prep work and all the hundreds of other things she always does to help :)  We would've been in a huge mess without her!

Hard to believe that Hudson is old enough to be eating baby food.  Here he is getting his first ever bite of food...good ol' rice cereal.  He's a fan.

Kate has been wanting to paint her fingernails for over a year, but had to quit sucking her thumb first.  She did quit, cold turkey, and here we are painting her fingernails!!  We are so proud of her! We had a great time going to the store, just the two of us, and picking out a color. And then of course, we came straight home to paint nails!   

We spent a lot of time over at the new house getting it cleaned and prepped before we moved in all our furniture.  Here's my mom cleaning and lining all the kitchen cabinets for us.  She's a champ!

It wasn't all work that week :)  Our neighbor at West Oak gave us free tickets to see Cinderella in downtown Raleigh!  Mom and I took Kate for a girls night out...so much fun!  It did make me laugh though to find out that Kate really isn't a fan of the Cinderella story.  She much prefers to just play with things with Cinderella's picture on them :)

Here we are with Cinderella (my neighbor Michelle) and Prince Charming.

Kate and Carter cutting up in the kitchen

Fresh from naps and watching TV.  They can be so sweet together!

On the steps of West Oak.  It's hard to believe how fast those few months there went by!