Snow Days

We've had 2 'snows' in the past couple of weeks. The first one was about 5-6 inches and kept us in the house for 2 days and the second one was about 2 inches, but the roads remained clear!

Here are some pics of the first snow. I don't have any pics of snow #2 cause it melted away too fast...but not before I was able to scoop up enough to earn another punch on my southern card (as my hubby would say) by making some snow cream!!!

Happy Birthday, Madeline!

Madeline turns "4" on January 9th. Enjoy pics of Madeline through the years.

Janaury 2006

Age 1- 2007

Age 2- 2008

Age 3- 2009

Age 4- 2010

Surprise Annivesary Trip!!

Chris and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary on December 4th. A few months back Chris announced to me that he was planning an anniversary trip...and it would be a surprise. Yea right, I thought. He can't keep any secrets. But he proved me wrong.

We left on Saturday December 5th. All I knew was that we had a connecting flight in Charlotte, how long we were going to be gone and what type of clothes I needed to take. Now if you know me at all, you know how big it was for me to not be in control. I am the family/friends travel agent...I make ALL of the travel plans. So we boarded our plane in Raleigh, flew to Charlotte, and it wasn't until we got to the gate for our next flight that I found out we were going to New Orleans!!! Yep, back to NOLA, the city I fell in love with this past September.

WHAT?? You didn't hear about our last trip to the Big Easy? Read all about it by clicking here.

Anyways, it was great to be able to go back and not have to worry about what we were going to do with Madeline (did I mention that we got to go on our anniversary trip WITHOUT Madeline this year??).

We stayed in an awesome Bed & Breakfast just blocks from the French Quarter. It's called the Royal Street Courtyard Bed & Breakfast. If you ever find yourself staying in NOLA, this place is an awesome place to stay.

We walked ALOT, ate incredible food, yummy Muffaletta's, had beignets at Cafe Du Monde, rode the St. Charles Ave street car....here are some pics of our trip.





Audubon Park....

Beads from Mardi Gras parades are stuck in trees all over the city.


Street performers at Jackson Square.


Cathedral-Basilica of St. Louis King of France facing Jackson Square. It is the oldest Catholic cathedral in continual use in the United States, established as a parish in 1720.

You never know what you'll see in New Orleans. While we were in the French Quarter I think we saw Santa's of all colors. Apparently there was also some sort of a "dress like Santa and drink on Bourbon Street" thing going on, so we saw lots of drunk Santa's. And then Mr & Mrs. Clause on motorcycles (the Mrs. was even smoking a cigarette!!).



All in all, we had a great time and I can't wait to go to NOLA again....soon!!

I'm here...

OK, so I have been slack about posting, but here are some Halloween pics to hold you over. I will post more later....promise!!

Madeline had a lot of Halloween activities, and she has so many princess costumes that she was able to wear a different one to each event. Here are a couple.

She is dressed as "Ariel" here for the Fall Festival at one of the local churches. Here she is on the hay ride.

She was "Sleeping Beauty" for her school party.

And the grand finale....she was a juice box for trick-or-treating!! Yep, I pulled out my Marth Stewart persona and made her this costume!!

The Big Easy

The Joyce's have returned from their latest journey. This time it was a road trip to New Orleans!! We had a GREAT time visiting more of the Joyce Clan, relaxin' by the pool, eating spectacular food and some surprises in the French Quarter,

We left NC on Thursday afternoon and made to south of Atlanta for the night. We were back on the road by about 7:30am. As we crossed the state line into Alabama, we felt it was only appropriate to listen to some Skynard....Sweet Home Alabama.

We hit some hard rain in Alabama...in fact a SUV hydroplaned and spun across the interstate and ended up in the swampy median right in front of us. I was driving and my heart stopped! But crazy rains lead to this beautiful scene.

We arrived in Covington, LA (just North of NO- across Lake Pontchartrain) on Friday afternoon. We stayed at Resort Joyce, aka Chris' Aunt and Uncle's awesome house. While there we Madeline watched Princess movies in their media room....

and we all had a blas swimming! This was the first time Madeline has been in the pool since swimming lessone back in May. She did awesome.

This is the scenery from their back patio. The weather was awesome when we were there, and there was nothing better than sitting on the patio, listening to the water fall and looking out over the lake.

On Saturday we headed into New Orleans to go to the Audubon Zoo. Now, in order to get to the city, we has to cross Lake Pontchartrain using the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway...which is a 24 mile bridge across the lake. Good thing Chris didn't find this out until it was too late. But he did great, making 2 rount trips over the bridge (good thing he wasn't driving any of the times!).

Madeline and Chris take pictures in front of the 'Mingos everytime we go to a zoo. It started with her first trip to the Fresno Zoo when she was a year old.

On Sunday, we ventured into New Orleans. Luckily we had a great tour guide in Cousin Andrew. Here are some scenes you would expect to see while in NO.

Cafe Du Monde.

Cafe Au Lait.....

and Beignets.

A Mardi Gras Princess. Madeline did not go into the city with us...swimming and Princess movies were much cooler than anything Mommy and Daddy wanted to do.

Scenes from Bourbon Street.

Now, there is ALWAYS something happening in New Orleans. I have seen COPS enough and heard enough stories from people that I have no desire to attend Mardi Gras. But not to disappoint, we did get to experience Mardi Gras....called Southern Decadence- aka gay Mardi Gras.

So, here is my disclaimer.....you may want to take your little one's out of the room.....

Luckily we were in the quarter during the day, so things were pretty mild. We did get to see part of the parade and yes, they threw beads from the balcony (yes, you had to show something to get them...).

It was really a hoot. Costumes, parades, beads....and some new friends. I think the pictures speak for themselves.......

Until next time NOLA......

Madeline=beautician

Madeline finally did it....she gave herself a haircut. Luckily it was only the bangs so I was able to salvage most of them.....