I love the snow!!

I have found that when I say, "It's snowing!  I love the snow!", I get a lot of growls from people up north.  We have had such a warm winter this year - it only snowed once before Christmas!  You can imagine the weird looks I got when I decided to take my camera for a walk and capture the landscape on film.  Seriously.....people thought I was nuts taking pictures of snow.

I can't help it.  It feels like we're on vacation.  Texas was always so hot!  There are so many things I am looking forward to doing up here:  snowshoeing, ice fishing, innertubing, snowskiing.  If you look at the snow just right, it looks like there are tiny diamonds sparkling through it!

My neighborhood....

I love this picture.  Black and white prints are my favorite.  This picture is completely untouched.  Isn't it amazing?

There are outdoor Christmas trees everywhere up here!  Over the holidays, several people wrapped Christmas lights around the ones in their yards.  It was really gorgeous!

Hound dog

Puzzles & Pajamas

One of our favorite pasttimes......puzzles in pajamas!

Teenagers everywhere!

Delanie turned the big 1-3 this week!  No more babies.....both my kiddos are now teenagers.  She had such a good time celebrating.  The party theme was SpongeBob Square Pants.

She hung a big "Happy Birthday" banner in the basement and declared no boys or adults allowed!  She invited Jessica and Lexi to go to the movies and spend the night.  Needless to say, there was a lot of giggling, music and dancing involved!

The first order of business was the movie.  We went to see Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol.  The parents had to sit across the theater from the kids.   When did we stop being cool? 

After the movie, the kids settled into the basement and did what young teenage girls do.  When we checked on them in the morning, they were still snoozing at 11am.  Delanie said they stayed up until 4am watching movies.  Thankfully, the next day was a pajama day!

Happy Birthday, Delanie!  You're my favorite girl!! :)

Life is good

"Life is simply and purely good" - Delanie Albaugh

This was Delanie's Facebook status update Sunday night.  Doesn't it just warm your heart?!  :) 

This move has been difficult for the kids.  There are some times that I worry about them so much.  Making new friends, getting to know a new city, new home......it's a lot of "new". 

Needless to say, seeing affirmations like this puts my heart at ease. 

I am so proud of my little ones.  Garrett misses his friends (and Maci!) so much but he's got a great outlook.  He is steadily making new friends and working to save up for a car.  He had a sleepover for three of his buddies last weekend.....definitely a good sign.

Delanie is focusing on her writing and making new friends.  She always has funny stories to tell us at the dinner table about her latest adventures.  Her birthday sleepover was full of her giggling & dancing friends.

Life is definitely good!

Thanksgiving in Canada

We went to Michigan for Thanksgiving.  It was a weekend jam-packed with activities.....2 Red Wings games, 1 University of Michigan game, Thanksgiving dinner and 2 days at the casino!  It literally felt like we were awake for five straight days!

Sugar can always tell when we are about to leave.  She sees Jim's suitcase and crawls right in.  Bailey got to spend the holiday with her canine friends at Auntie Ruth's kennel.  Garrett and Delanie jumped a plane to Texas.  As you can see, my husband is not much company on the airplane.

After watching the Red Wings game, we crossed the border into Canada to the Windsor casino.  This is the first time I've ever been to Canada and I couldn't wait to see everything!  (It is another country, after all!).  Let me tell you......Canada doesn't know what to think of the Richardson bunch! :)
It's amazing that you can stand in Detroit & look across the river to see Canada.  You wouldn't expect things to be so different over there but they really were.  First of all, if you use your cell phone, the roaming rates are astronimical.  Truthfully, it was a great excuse to turn our phones off for a few days.  What a wonderful break from our daily life.  :)

There were tons of signs saying "Welcome to Canada".  All the signs were in English & French.....I thought that was cool. 

When we got through the tunnel under the river, we had to stop at the Customs booth.  I really wanted my passport stamped but they thought I was crazy.  Jim kept saying, "Charlotte, it's just like going from Texas to Oklahoma!"  I beg to differ......IT'S ANOTHER COUNTRY!!!  The booth attendant didn't have a stamp so I talked Jim into going into the Customs building to ask.  As we were approaching the building, there were several policement standing around.  When we started to approach them, we were quickly stopped and interrogated.  Evidently they take things very seriously!  Who knew asking for a passport stamp would be such a big deal?  Bottom line......no stamp for me.

Check out the Canadian money.  I'm sure you can imagine Jim's reaction when I told him I wanted a copy of every denomination for my scrapbook.  :)

Stay tuned.....more details to come!