Weekend with the Taylor's

Last week I realized that we had some days off of school and I called Tracy to see if they had any days off. Her kids were out of school Monday - Wednesday and so I convinced her to bring the kids and come up. They had basketball Saturday morning so they came after Kelly and Nate's game. The only problem was that we were supposed to get a snow storm that afternoon.

She packed the car and started the 5 hour trek - thankfully she got her before dark and the ice. The storm ended up not being that bad but you just never know. Her kids haven't seen snow of any kind for a while having lived in Florida and on the NC coast. Joel was amazed at the falling snow and all the kids were excited. She got here safely on Saturday and the kids got a little time in the wet slush they call snow around here.


Austin trying to "snowboard" in the neighbors yard - as you can see more grass than snow!

Kiersten lasted about 5 minutes and was complaining that she was wet and cold. I don't keep snow clothes for them on the chance we get to use it one day a year. Brandon can fit in hand me downs from our Cincinnati days but the older kids were out of luck!

Joel and Brandon are the same age and they are the best of friends. They can play Planet Hero's and Rescue Hero's all day long! This was after baths with Webkinz and chocolate milk. Can't get any better than that!


Get this - after the "snow storm" on Saturday (remember the pictures from above) they canceled all of church and church meetings on Sunday. We were happy to stay home and enjoy each others company. I had bought all the things to make homemade freezer jam because we were on our last jar and Costco had some good strawberries. Tracy and I made 6 batches of jam on our lazy Sunday.

Joel and Brandon playing with the car track that Grandma Jody bought for Brandon for Christmas. It has been a hit - all the kids play with the Shake and Roll race track!

The Wii was on non-stop this weekend. All 6 kids (7 including Matt) took turns playing guitar, singing, driving, bowling, etc. We have really enjoyed the Wii!


Kiersten and Kelly have a great imagination. They formed the CHILL GRILL in Kiersten's bedroom and ran the restaurant all weekend. They made money, menus, order forms, etc Cousins are so much fun!!


The only bummer was that the weather was really cold. We didn't get out of the 40's all weekend. The kids tried a few times to go outside but they usually only lasted a few minutes and they came back in to play. We did go to the "Bee Movie" on Monday to get out of the house for a while. Tracy's kids had not seen the movie and it is really cute AND it was at what we thought was the $2.00 theater but when we got there they were having 50 cent Family Day. We took 6 kids to the movie for $4.00! Can't beat that!

Tuesday we went shopping to Concord Mills. Tracy lives in a great place (the beach) but there are very few places to shop. We bought the kids some fun new clothes and spent a lot of time in the book store as the kids were excited to show each other there favorite books. We bought them all some new books to read - they all seem to really like to read which is great!

Wednesday morning I got my kids off to school at 6:40 (killer!), Tracy back home and Matt was in Tampa working...and then took short nap and ready for the week. We have such a good time with our cousins and can't wait to go to Nate's baptism in March!!