And Finally...NC for Christmas (Travels, Part III)

The final installment of our Christmas travelogue takes us to NC to visit my family. Like Virginia, western NC was blanketed with snow a few weeks ago and it hadn't melted very much. The roads were clear but the snow itself had an icy sheen to it! We drove up Christmas day.

December 26 we drove over to Ashe County to visit the Cheese Factory (yum!). As you can tell from these pictures, they had snow and then an extra layer of ice on the trees.

Papa took this picture of the New River (the second oldest river in the world)...so beautiful with the house in the corner.
At Mama and Papa's, Levi always finds things to do. Like plopping himself in the middle of Mama's stuffed animal collection. So funny! His other main activity was taking keys and trying to unlock the doors in the house (Mama and Papa have old fashioned locks and knobs, which have actual key holes--what a discovery for Levi!).
Ashley built a snowman for us.
And Levi helped with the carrot nose.

One of my favorite high school friends, Jennifer Powell, and her boyfriend Scotty came to visit. We had a good time playing dominoes and catching up.
And my cousin Heather also has babies on the way for 2010--twins due in June! Here we are showing off our prego bellies!~
My aunt Jeanette made Levi a wagon. He loved it!
Loved it so much that he found her other wagon and pulled both of them around the living room numerous times! Check out Levi's cowboy boots and pjs!
On the way back to SC on Monday, we stopped at the Chic-Fil-A in Gastonia, NC. This was Levi's first experience climbing in the kid play area. And boy did he love it! He cracked me up being up high in this car!
Once again, I didn't do as a good of a job capturing my parents or Levi opening presents--but the holidays are just hard to keep up with.

Although it was wonderful to see all of our family--in VA, SC, and NC-- I am very happy to be home and rest for a while. Traveling with a small child takes more energy than I realized.

SC Christmas (McBee & Gilbert)- Christmas Adventures, Part II

Dec. 23 we traveled to McBee, SC, to visit with Ashley's grandparents for Christmas. On the way there, we went to Bishopville to sell our four-wheeler to a peanut farmer. What a pretty farm they had--and lots of big machinery for Levi to inspect.

At Bob and Ann's, we enjoyed desserts and opening presents. Here are Ashley and his grandpa with Mallory and Levi.
The grandparents with the great-grandkids-- Ryan, Levi, Mallory, and Weston.
The whole crowd getting ready for a picture.
Back in Gilbert for Christmas morning....Ashley's mom cooked us all a big breakfast. The highlight of the morning was Weston and Ryan receiving their Marshmallow Guns!
I'm sorry to report that I don't have any pictures from our house for Christmas Eve (we made grilled pizza and went to see Christmas lights with Robert and Debbie) or our Christmas morning (we were in a rush to get to out to Gilbert and didn't open our presents until we got back to the house...and then rushed around to get ready to head to NC).

15+ inches of snow in Virginia! (Christmas Travels, Part I)

Our Christmas holiday travels this year began with a trip to Roseland, VA, to visit Ashley's mom's family, the McMurry's. Levi and I rode up with Robert, Debbie and Holly on Thursday and enjoyed a nice dinner at Papas Grill with Robert's aunt Florence in Durham. That night, reports of "winter weather" were coming fast and furiously. Friday morning the McLeod clan pressed on to Virginia. When we arrived in Roseland on Friday afternoon, the first flakes of snow had started to fall. Ashley arrived right after us so we were all in one place before the true snow fell.

On Saturday morning, we woke to a very THICK blanket of snow (Ashley's Uncle Mike measured it around 15 inches). Notice the bird feeder in the front yard and it's "extra" roof.
Cousin Will (4 years old) spent the night with his grandparents (Ashley's Aunt Becky and Uncle Mike, where we were staying). He and his older cousin Brendan were chomping at the bit to get out in the snow. Check out the cars!
We bundled Levi up in a snowsuit, thanks to Karen (wife of Ashley's cousin William) sharing a hand-me-down from her youngest son.
I love this picture!
Here Levi is learning how to use the snowball scooper.
And here is Ashley playing with the boys, Brendan, Will, and Levi (pulled in the sled). The snow kept on falling all day!
A cold McLeod family! Levi had enough after 10 minutes outside--I couldn't blame him!
Ashley's Aunt Becky...up to her knees!
This picture reminds me of one of my brother (Joshua) when he was this age. Not too happy. Definitely ready to go in.
Ashley's Uncle Mike.
A reason to come back inside...Mike and Becky have a great playroom in the basement. I'm pretty sure Levi thought he had arrived in heaven when he saw all these toys!
Sunday when we left, the sun was shining. Ashley captured this perfect photo--the view from Mike and Becky's. See the bird?
Mike and Becky's driveway. Amazingly, once we got on the main road, we drove in 2-wheel drive and were fine.
I love this picture...it's of Ashley's mama's homeplace.
"Snow-hawk" as Holly put it...The car has been scraped off for driving but still has a nice 'do up top!
Riding home...6 hours and Levi was great. As long as he had his milk, he was happy. And here he's sporting his Pooh gloves (thanks Weston and Ryan!).
Our truck bed was full of snow when we left VA. By the time we reached SC, most of it had melted but there was enough left for Ashley to make Levi a small snowman (and give our neighbor girls a few scoops to save in their freezer).
Snowman, complete with underneath snow and the warm SC sun!
Monday night we went to the Lights at the Zoo at Riverbanks.
And Aunt Holly got to join Levi for his first zoo lights experience!

A great Christmas present

A few months ago we found out that we would be expecting Baby McLeod #2 in April 2010. Last week we found out that baby was another BOY! We're so excited, especially with the Christmas season. I can't wait to see what life is like with two little boys at Christmas time next year.

Levi has been a blessing in so many ways and we already know his little brother will be, too.

I'm sorry there are no pictures to post--I can't figure out how to get them from the DVD that the ultrasound tech made for us (but trust me, they're not that revealing!). And no, we do not have a name picked out. As with Levi, we'll wait until Baby Boy arrives!

Merry Christmas to everyone on this Christmas Eve. May your holiday season be filled with joy and time with family and friends.

Love,
Anna

Christmas goodies!

One thing I love about Christmas is making things to eat for other people (well, I love that all the time, but Christmas means sweet things for people to eat). Here's a rice krispy Christmas tree I made for Weston and Ryan.
And my favorite (and others, too!)--my Aunt Tib's Molasses Ginger Cookies--made for Levi's teachers at his preschool.

¾ cup of Crisco

1 cup of sugar

¼ cup of molasses

1 egg

2 tsp. baking soda

2 cups of all-purpose flour

½ tsp. ground ginger (dry)

1 tsp. cinnamon

½ tsp. ground cloves

½ tsp. salt

Mix sugar, egg, Crisco and molasses well. Sift together flour, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, cloves and salt. Add to egg mixture and mix until combined. Chill for at least 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Roll dough into 1-inch balls and then in a cinnamon/sugar mixture. Place on ungreased cookie sheet 2 inches apart. Bake 10 minutes.

Don’t overbake unless you want ginger snaps!

*Note: I always use more spices than called for by the recipe.

Trying for that infamous Christmas card!

Of all the pressures associated with the holiday season, trying to find time to capture a picture for that perfect Christmas photo about did me in. I almost gave up on worrying about sending cards but I did eventually finding a picture I liked enough to have a few photo cards printed.

Below are some of the runner ups.

I really loved this one but you can see Levi's lunch on his mouth, a red bump on his forehead, and I had to almost completely crop out the Christmas tree to reduce the drool on Levi's shirt (yes, he's teething again!).

And here is Levi and his monkey. For those of you who visit us, you know that Monkey plays a big role in Levi's life. I just couldn't decide if he should be on the card or not.
Maybe a little too serious here?
And a family portrait would have been nice but between Levi's vest covering his face and Ashley shutting his eyes, we couldn't get that figured out either!
This is just sweet...but didn't show his face.
And here is the perfect one...but like his daddy (GaGa), eyes were WIDE SHUT!
Tried for a picture at Grandma and Da's in the sleigh but Levi was not happy with that!
Ah, but here he is, happy with snowmen (which he loves) and his milk (his main source of nourishment).
Merry Christmas, y'all!! I hope your Christmas card photos were a great success!

Thanksgiving (kind of)

Thanksgiving has always been one of my favorite holidays, probably because it is my mama's favorite holiday. I've been lucky enough to make it to all of the Mitchell Thanksgiving meals since being married to Ashley (his parents are understanding and generous--we celebrate other times with them)-- and this year was special because my brother Joshua and his wife Kelsey flew in from Colorado (for the first time since Joshua moved west). It was a good time to visit with family and eat yummy food. Unfortunately, I didn't take many pictures to document our time there. Oh well!

Here is Levi in his overalls (I've held off on putting him in overalls because they can be such a pain with diaper changes...but gosh, they're cute!).
Walking up the hill to Grandma Mitchell's.
I found some more of my toys in my parents' attic and cleaned them up for Levi. His favorite? My old Fisher Price shopping cart. I remember getting this on a vacation--so happy that Levi is getting to enjoy it now (and Monkey, too).
Levi snacking while lounging on his Granna.
Back in Columbia, Levi looking like a BIG boy, thanks to his jeans, t-shirt (minus the drool) and hat (Ashley's).
Now, would you mess with this 17 month old? Ha! Maybe I need to let him wear this outfit to school (he's been scratched/pinched and bitten in the last week by two boys in his class--so maybe he needs to beef up his tough guy look!).
And finally, the first Christmas picture....last night I added the ornaments to our tree and Levi loved looking at them (and touching them..and taking them off the tree...and trying to put them in his mouth). I was outside feeding the dogs and thought this photo really captured him checking out the tree.
Oh...and grubby paws....The sun was shining bright in my kitchen and I noticed a few hand prints on my cabinets (yay for white). The funny thing about these cabinets is I put the child-proof locks on them...but they only worked for a week before Levi figured them out. Luckily, he's been pretty good about leaving the things alone.
I'm going to try to be better about sharing stories about Levi (and our lives, too)--here's one: Last year for Christmas, Grandma and Da (Ashley's parents) gave Levi a rocking horse. He's always loved it but has taken a new interest in it because we've moved it out of the living room and into his room. Combine this with a nursery rhyme book...what do you get? Well, if you start reading the "Yankee Doodle" rhyme...Levi jumps up and gets on his pony. And asks you to read it again (and again and again). Makes me smile!