❊ Snow in Alabama! ❊

It's rare but it happens. On January 17th it happened. :) Parts of Northern Alabama got up to several inches. Parts of central Alabama saw around an inch. Here at our home we saw the first flurries around 9am that morning and it continued to snow off and on all day long until 4pm. That was unusual as typically in the deep south, if you have snow, it happens overnight or early in the morning and by noon it has melted. It was very odd to have it snow all day long. It was beautiful! We gave up trying to do school that day as every time the snow stopped for a bit or slowed down we would come inside to warm up and start some school and by the time we were ready to start, it was starting to snow heavily again, so back outside we all went to enjoy it. :) It actually snowed pretty heavily at times but not for long. It moved back and forth from heavy to flurries all day long. Because of that, it never really stuck and built up here at our place. It would start to stick and then move to flurries. It did stick just 15 minutes from us though. We were on the tail end of the storm. It had also rained for 4 days and nights straight prior to the snowfall so the roads were very wet and the temps were above freezing throughout the day when it was snowing. 

The kids had a ball all day long, as they always do when it snows. I enjoyed watching it fall. Snow is so beautiful and I have always loved it. 

Here are my favorite pictures from the day. If you live up north, or anywhere that receives really heavy snow, I am sure you will laugh at us but we get excited over even the smallest snowflake in our family.
☺

First flurries starting to fall that morning. 

Ally- "Will we get enough to build a snowman?" Me- "Probably not this time." 

How many snow flurries can I catch on my tongue? 

Emmy- "Houston your in short sleeves!" Houston- "What? It's just a few flurries. It's not cold out here!" ☺ 

Houston ended up in his jacket. ☺

One of the moments throughout the day when it started coming down heavier. 

Check out how the camera caught Annie's breath as she was talking. ☺ 

We warmed up during the day with some hot chocolate. 

And since we didn't get enough snow to build a snowman, we made our own inside on top of our hot chocolate. ☺

Our yummy snowmen! 

Ally's 9th Birthday Celebration

As mentioned in a previous post, we almost always wait to celebrate Ally's birthday until the first or second weekend in January. She doesn't mind waiting and it is nice to have a little time in between New Years Eve and her celebration for me to catch my breath. It also gives us something really fun to look forward to in January, during our post Christmas blues. :) 

From the time the kids were young we have always let them chose a theme for their birthdays each year. We also let them chose what they want to DO to celebrate their birthdays. As they get older they start to outgrow the whole theme idea but they still chose what activity they want to do for their celebration. Ally is at that age where a theme and activity are both still fun. :) 

This year she decided that she wanted to go ice skating with friends and have her other friends over to our house for her theme and cake.

Some friends met us at the ice rink to celebrate on a Saturday. 

Daddy helping with her skates. :) 

Emmy & Abby 

I love this picture! 

Ricky and Ally racing. They raced across the rink several times. I was so proud of her. She is my competitive girl and even when she saw that Ricky was getting ahead of her she didn't give up. She pushed herself even more. They had fun! 

Watching the Zambodie on the ice after the public session was over. 

Opening her gift from the Geiger family. 

The next day we had her birthday party with lunch and her cake here at home with some different friends.

This is what Ally woke up to on the morning of her party. She loved it! 

Annie, Emmy, and Natalie did all of the streamers and balloons for Ally. 

Emmy did the doorway 

and this balloon grouping. 

The girls blew up a lot of balloons and placed them all over the house. 

During the party we had a video slide show of pictures of Ally from birth through this past year playing to music. 

Ally requested the theme Brave for this birthday. 

With her friends Fatima and Julia. 

Opening her gift from Nana and Papa K 

The Kaya American Girl doll! She was so excited! 

and 20$ to spend! :) 

A Mermaid that can go in the bath

The Brave boys with bear costumes. 

Emmy & Marcus playing chess. 

My Princess with her princess cake. 

She had 4 princesses on her cake. 

Licking the icing off of the bottom of her castle. :) 

Camden and Julia. 

Fatima playing with a balloon. 

Pinata time! 

Her stash from the pinata 

Natalie's stash

Our birthday girl! She raked in 70$ total at her party, getting money from Nana and Papa K, Meme & Larry, and our neighbors. She is looking forward to spending it. 

She had loads of fun as did her guests!