Angus Barn

 On November 19, our family, including Grandma Barbara, ate dinner at The Angus Barn, a fancy steak restaurant that was beautifully decorated for Christmas. We ate cheese and crackers for appetizers. For dinner, we ate chateaubriand, prime rib, and pork ribs with salad and mashed potatoes. For dessert, we ate chocolate chess pie and chocolate cheesecake. Everything was delicious! The Angus Barn is one of our favorite holiday traditions, and we already have our holiday dinner reservations for November 2023! 

Fenton

 On New Year's Eve, our family explored Fenton, a new shopping center. We enjoyed visiting the stores and seeing the wall murals. At Honeysuckle Gelato, we sampled four different flavors: Nutella, creme brulee, salted caramel brownie, and brownie chunk. 

On our way home, we picked up soup and sandwiches from McAlister's Deli. Savannah loved seeing her name on the menu!

Christmas 2022: Part 2

 Santa came to our house! Last night Hadley left a note, cookies, and milk for Santa, as well as carrots for his reindeer. Hadley loved reading Santa's message this morning. 

On Christmas Day, our family celebrated at home instead of traveling. We enjoyed sleeping until 8:30 AM, opening presents, and watching movies. Tal cooked turkey and sides for lunch. It was a relaxing family day!

Savannah received a home coloring book.

Hadley's gifts included a bathrobe, bath bombs, sticker book, coloring books, markers, socks, and friendship bracelet kit.

The girls received gift cards to Starbucks, McDonald's, Chick-fil-a, and Panera.

Savannah's gifts included markers, coloring books, jigsaw puzzles, socks, a fitness watch, and Lindt chocolates.

Over the last two days, Savannah assembled this Lego set (Emma's Art School) from Grandma Barbara. It was 844 pieces!

Christmas 2022: Part 1

 This weekend we celebrated Christmas with our family who lives at the beach. We ate oysters, shrimp, mahi, cornbread, and steak. We were blessed with many gifts, including cash, gift cards, candy, and the gifts below. 

Hadley (8) and Savannah (13)

Lego Set

Matching Friends Shirts

Hey Dudes shoes for Savannah

Hadley outgrew her bike, so Grandma Barbara gave her a new, bigger bike and helmet. Hadley loves the hand brakes!

Crocs for Savannah

For Christmas every year, I make photo calendars for Gran and Grandma Barbara that include our favorite family photo memories from the year. 

Tal's mom gave him the NC State golf bag that was on his Christmas wish list. 

The weather has been unseasonably cold for NC. When we arrived at the beach yesterday, it was cold and windy. The ocean was rough, and the tide was high. When we woke up this morning, it was 10 degrees and bitter cold. 

Fall Vibes

Fall vibes. Home again in NC after our road trip through six states to attend my grandma's celebration of life service in IL. 

Celebration of Life

This week our family will celebrate my grandma who passed away on October 6. She was 106 years old. Grandma would have been 107 on October 27. When the girls and I traveled to Illinois in April, we enjoyed playing Skip-Bo and Uno with Grandma in the nursing home. Grandma was a kind, caring, and godly woman who loved and influenced many people during her long life, including her 5 children, 12 grandchildren, and 24 great grandchildren.

From my childhood, I remember Grandma telling stories from the Great Depression and how she worked in a children's home before she got married, playing hymns on the piano, baking 8-cup cookies, teaching me how to cross-stitch, sewing doilies and Christmas ornaments, showing us how to play croquet in her backyard, taking us to the nursing home to sing to the residents, cutting coupons, doing jigsaw puzzles and crossword puzzles, praying and having devotions at breakfast, referring to a sofa as a "davenport," and watching Lawrence Welk and Hee Haw on TV.  (Photo from 2018)

Hadley is 8!

Hadley is 8 years old! Our precious girl has a kind, generous heart and an infectious giggle. Hadley enjoys coloring, swimming, and playing with slime. Being 8 is great! Happy 8th Birthday, Hadley V!

Car Seats

After 8 years, Hadley now weighs enough to ride in a car without a carseat. After 13.5 years, our family is done with car seats! 

 

Build-a-Bear Birthday Visit

When Grandma Barbara asked Hadley what gift she wanted for her 8th birthday, Hadley asked Grandma to take her to Build-a-Bear. When we went to the mall, Hadley selected a stuffed rainbow cat that she named Rainbow Girl (aka Miss Whiskers). Hadley loved the entire Build-a-Bear process and took her time selecting two outfits and shoes for her rainbow cat. Hadley was a happy girl!

Party in the Park

We celebrated Hadley's 8th birthday with pizza, donuts, and birthday Bingo at the park in our neighborhood! Hadley was so excited to share her special day with our family and her 2nd grade classmates. It was a beautiful day for a party in the park! 

We played several rounds of birthday Bingo, and the winners received king-size candy bars and packs of gum. 

Thanks to our family for driving 3 hours to celebrate Hadley's birthday!

After the party, Hadley opened her birthday gifts. She was blessed with many of her favorite things, including colored pencils, craft projects, Kit Kats, and Reese's Cups, as well as gift cards for Chick-fil-a and Starbucks.

Hadley made a "best mom" bracelet for me using a bracelet kit that she received from her cousin Harper.