WINTER ADVISERY! (gotta love it!)

We have had some serious snow here. I would say we had about 3 inches. We are use to living in Texas (well, we've been here for 6 years) but SNOW is not a part of our lives. We have loved it but I honestly am over it! It is beautiful to look at but the driving... not so much fun :-)

Because we are ILL PREPARED for snow, we have NO SNOW clothes or equipment. So we used laundry baskets. Behind our back yard there is what I call a crater. It's a "run off water place" - that's a direct quote from Ted. Thank you Ted. Well, it's never full of water and it's awesome when it snows because it's like a BIG HUGE BOWL to go sledding in. So that's what all our neighbors and kids did (Well, Aidan and Abel opted to stay inside w Daddy).
In the picture above... Addie fell out of her laundry basket... so she just went down on her tummy.
Sweet girl
Make a train!!! They did this over and over again.
None of the kids above are ours but I thought it was too cute not to take a picture of.

Addie... sitting in the snow.
Avery - WIPE OUT!
The front of our house
I guess Mother Nature got our message... Now I need a sign that says "COME ON SPRING!"


This is our view from our front porch. SO pretty. I feel like it looks like a snow village. ok, the snow was fun. NOW BRING ON THE SUNSHINE!

Too Sweet Not To Share

Tonight we (Ted and I) got home from a church meeting and there was a leak in our kitchen ceiling (that's not the sweet part). There had been a toilet that overflowed upstairs while we were gone and it was leaking through. We have had trouble with this toilet since we moved in. HOPEFULLY it will be fixed under our 1 year warranty with our builder. It's not a big deal in the grand scheme of life.

We had to call our friend Bruce because we weren't sure if it was a pipe that was leaking or if it was from the overflow. Bruce is our handy friend who pretty much knows how to fix anything! (A HUGE THANK YOU to Bruce and to Christy who gave up having her husband home so he could come help us).
Ted was having to go under the house to turn the water off and I was trying to assess the leak and clean up some in the kitchen.

We were about to put the kids to bed when the realized there was a leak.
So I told Avery she had to step-up and lead the bed time routine in our absence. I asked her to read to her brother and sister and if Aidan needed her to, hold his hand. Ted holds his hand at night after he reads to them. Aidan always falls asleep holding Ted's hand.
So after the leak assessment was all done (which took about an hour total), we went in to check on the kids (who we knew had fallen asleep because they were so quiet) and this is what we saw.

Avery and Aidan are holding hands. HOW PRECIOUS?!

The funny thing is that we have 4 beds (2 sets of bunk beds) and Aidan and Addie sleep on the floor every night. Abel has started sleeping in Aidan and his room on the bottom bunk and Aidan can join him on the top bunk but he is so use to the night time routine that he hasn't want to make that transition yet. AND Addie just wants to do what her big brother is doing so she sleeps on the floor as well.
Ted reads with them at night and says prayers and then stays in their with them until they fall asleep. Tonight, they stuck together in his absence. HOW SWEET IS THAT?
So proud of you Avery Rene'.

ADDIE GOT HER EARS PIERCED!

My sweet Addison KayLee got her ears pierced. Ted and I do not have a "magic" age that our kids can get their ears pierced. We've told them when they are ready, we are fine with it. Well, Addie has been asking for about 6 months. FINALLY, we said "let's do it!".
Of course, she had her cheerleaders (and fan club) join us. Aunt Charli (Charlotte) was called two nights before by ADDIE to see if she could come with her to get her ears pierced. This is how I found out she wanted to do it. She said "can we call Aunt Charli?" I said "Sure, why?" and she said "I want to see if she can come with us to get my ears pierced tomorrow."
We waited two days because we also wanted to Hornes to join us. The Hornes girls are like big sisters to my girls. And Angela is "sanity" for all of us. Her calm and wisdom is always appreciated!!

Here's Addie... before the guns were fired. I told her it was going to hurt (wanted to prepare her).

Still isn't in pain ... YET....
IT HURT!
SO SWEET... and sad!
celebrating and trying to have her get excited with us!

BIG KISS FOR THE BIG GIRL!


Miss Angela bought Addie her first set of earrings - THANK YOU ANGELA!
My big girls!

Christmas Time in Tennessee

I really am trying to be a better blogger :-) AND since this is my "virtual scrapbooking", I have to stay on it so I can preserve the Ancelet Family memories!
We really had a great Christmas!
Thank you to Mawmaw and PawPaw (Ted's mom and dad)! They sent us some Christmas money and we put it to good use! The kids have been saving for special gifts so we combined some of their savings and the money we received and purchased them the gifts they had been wanting! It was so fun to see the surprise on their faces.
They were so excited to finally get these things on their wish lists... They were so grateful and that is something a parent takes JOY in... a child that is truly grateful for the gifts they have received!

I took a picture of each one next to their Christmas morning goodies.



We had to wake Abel up to get started in our Christmas morning festivities.
Can you tell he just woke up??
Abel was truly most excited about HIS PASSIES. He would hold one in one hand and suck on the other and then switch them out. It was so funny!

This is Addie opening her American Girl Doll. She wanted the Addy doll. Addy is an African American doll. I love that this is the one she chose. I am thinking it had to do with the doll having the same name but she loves that her doll has brown skin... just like her brother :-)

This was my FAVORITE GIFT! We have had LOADS of fun playing this game on the Wii.
Avery got a camera for Christmas. I am so excited for her (and for myself) because she loves taking pictures and I don't have to stress about having my camera up and running at all times. She has been having a BLAST taking pictures! and I've loved watching her taking after her momma with a love for photography!


Addie and Addy.
Aidan got a DS Lite for Christmas. HE IS PUMPED. I am such a stinker. I hid it and let him open all his other gifts and then took it out for him. He had saved his birthday money and knew that combined with CHristmas money, he had enough to get the DS. He didn't know we had gotten it already. He was so excited... Bless his heart. He opened a few DS games that we had gotten him and afterwards he said "now, all I need is a DS". I think with every gift he opened, he hoped it would be THE DS. FINALLY, the last gift... IT WAS THE DS!
After we opened our Christmas presents. We relaxed around the living room and played for about an hour. Then we headed out (IN OUR PJs) and went to the Mazons for breakfast. It was a sweet morning with friends. We enjoyed our time with them so much!

That day we had a low key, hang around the house and enjoy each other's company kind of day. Then that afternoon, I made a big pot of taco soup and the HORNES came over for dinner.
We had a BLAST!!!! We played Just Dance (the game I got for Christmas). We laughed and danced, and ate. Mr. Cliff and Aidan spent probably 2 hours putting together a Star Wars lego set they got him for Christmas. Abel got a soccer goal and ball from them...
Savanna and I tried to put it together but we just put it back in the box for Ted to later assemble.
After lots of dancing, we roasted marshmallows and sang Christmas Carols AS LOUD AS WE COULD off of the back deck. It was SO MUCH FUN!
Over all... I would say this face of Abel's sums up our Christmas...
IT WAS A GREAT ONE!

We had a real sweet time at our Christmas Eve service as well. Thanking God for the sweet sacrifice of HIS SON and what this season means to us! We are so very thankful! We spent our 7th Christmas Eve at Granny and Papaw Cruze's house. We had a great time there. The kids love opening their gifts from Granny each year. Aidan got the Mario game for the Wii (fun for the whole family!), Avery got an art set and baby in my pockets. Addison got some barbie outfits and coloring activities. Abel got some really fun toddler toys.
SUCH A FUN CHRISTMAS. WE ARE SO GRATEFUL! THANK YOU GOD FOR THE GOOD YOU HAVE BESTOWED UPON OUR FAMILY.