January Snow!!!

Snow is rare here in Alabama, so when it happens (or there's even a chance for it to happen), we get very excited. The local weathermen had been talking about the chance for snow for a few days, but I honestly didn't think it would happen. I was at work and kept waiting for it to start, but nothing. Finally, a little after lunch, it started to snow! And not just flurries, big huge snowflakes! I looked at my weather app to see how much was on the map and there was a ton. I kept checking to see if Shelby County would have the schools close early, but no such luck. They never close early but thankfully I got off at 2pm so we were able to enjoy it. By the time I got off, it was really coming down. It had already started to stick to the ground and roads and it was very hard to see while driving. Thankfully I only live a few minutes down the road from work so it was no problem getting home. When we got home, we ran in, threw all of our stuff down and went back outside to play in it! Bryson didn't know what to think at first. He just stood there and stared at it. He then decided he wanted a snowman, but he didn't want to make it. He wanted me to make it. So I got to work. Bryson just stood there and watched me. He refused to touch any of the snow. Once I was done with our puny little snowman, he was so excited. He loved him! He talked about him for days. But soon after that he decided he was done in the snow and wanted to go in and drink some hot chocolate. Even though it wasn't much, I'm glad we had one day of decent snow. Hopefully before the winter is over we will have more, but since it's already March, I highly doubt it will happen. Here are some pictures from our fun snow day!

The Cursed Car

When I decided to stay home with Bryson after he was born, we sold our X-Terra to my mom and bought a Civic so we would have a lower monthly payment and to save money on gas since Robert drives so far to work. But it seems like the Civic has been cursed from day 1. Not long after we had it, Robert was ran off the road into a curb and messed up the front of the car. Another time out of nowhere, something hit our window and cracked it. There were no trees or cars around. It was like it just fell out of the sky! The most recent was on Robert's drive to work mid-January. He now works in Montgomery so he leaves the house at about 5:30 when it is still dark and there are not many people out. He usually drives with the cruise control on since it's such a long drive. This morning it was raining a little (it was the day it snowed) but not too bad. Out of nowhere there was this big thud and he had to pull over. He had hit something without putting on his breaks. It tore up the car pretty bad (thankfully he was not hurt at all!). When he pulled over it was just passed the exit and the next exit was not for another 13 miles or so, so he backed up to get off and the Jemison exit. That's when he passed the dog he hit. It was huge and came out of nowhere. The poor dog didn't have a chance, but why in the world was a dog on the interstate?! Thankfully he had some zip ties in the car so he tied up the hanging pieces of the bumper and drove it to the rental car place in Alabaster so we could get towed to the repair shop. We ended up getting a nice rental to drive for a few weeks. Bryson loved it. He still talks about wanting to ride in the new car. It was a 2013 Ford Edge. It had a back up camera, heated seats, and so much more. I like it, but it was way too high tech in my opinion. I like to be able to just flip a switch to turn on the air or the radio. Thankfully we only have a $100 deductible (especially since I had just quit my job). Ironically, the window that had been cracked before, got cracked again when he hit the dog so it got fixed! It was never bad before so we never wanted to pay the deductible to get it fixed. Now it's like we have a new car again. Let's see how long it takes before something else crazy happens to this car. We are convinced that it is cursed. I mean, who hits a dog on the interstate! Here are the pictures of the damage.

And here's the awesome rental car we got to drive! Unfortunately it was red. 

Happy New Year!

Well, another year has come and gone and we had a great time ringing in 2013 with our friends. (Bryson stayed with Lola to ring in the new year). We started out our night with our traditional New Year's Eve dinner together. This year we chose San Antonio Grill here in Helena. They have awesome cheese dip and it's so close to the house. After dinner, we headed to Steven and Jessica's to ring in the new year with friends. For some reason, they do not time delay the Times Square ball drop for us anymore so we had to ring in the new year at 11pm with the east coast. But don't worry, Alabama has their own way of ringing in the new year. As embarrassing as it is and as crazy as it sounds, the city of Mobile does a Moon Pie drop. They have a giant Moon Pie instead of a fancy crystal ball and they literally drop it from a tall building. It is very redneck but it's the only way to do a countdown in Alabama since they do not time delay the Times Square countdown anymore. We had a lot of fun hanging out with our friends but I sure did miss Bryson. As much as I love ringing in the new year with friends, I think next year I may keep Bryson at home with me and ring it in with him and a bottle of sparkling grape juice, just like I did growing up.
Our little camera broke on Christmas Eve and I didn't feel like taking the big camera so I only got a few pictures from my new phone. It really does take amazing pictures, but there's still something about camera pictures that I like better than phone pictures. Here's the few that I took.

 Our Yummy Dinner!

 Robert needed a little snack.

 Moonshine cherries and Wild Turkey. I was not brave enough to try this.

 Me and Jessica.

 Bryson ringing in New Year's with me a few days later.

He loved the sparkling grape juice.

Mooneyhan Christmas 2012

This year we had our Mooneyhan Christmas at my Aunt Linda and Uncle Ron's house in Elkmont AL. Bryson did great on the drive up there. He slept almost the whole way. Once we got there, he was kind of grouchy since he just woke up and wouldn't eat his lunch but once he got in the toy room and played with his cousins, he was fine. We got a big surprise while we were up there. It snowed! It didn't really stick but it was really coming down hard! We took the kids out to play in it and they all loved it. While Bryson liked the snow, he was more interested in all of the inflatables they had in their front yard. When looking at lights this year, Bryson loved the houses with the inflatables. He was in heaven with these. I think the Dora one was his favorite, but he also loved the snowman and the penguin.

After playing in the "snow", it was time for presents. Everybody gets the kids a gift and they open those first, then the adults play dirty Santa with gift cards. The kids had so much fun opening their gifts and all got things the really enjoyed. We bought Leo a video and him and Bryson sat in the recliner and watched it the whole time we played dirty Santa. It was pretty cute. Dirty Santa was fun this year.Everybody gets a $25 gift card, some added a little extra something to it to make it fun. (I'm not that creative though). For example, one gift was a can of baked beans and a gas gift card. Another one had a yummy Panera Bread muffin in it and a Panera Bread gift card (I got this one). The funniest one was from Ronda and Stewart. When the box was opened, it was a pair of men's underwear that had poop and pee stains on it with a velcro pocket in the front. That's where the Best Buy gift card was. I thought they had made this themselves but apparently you can buy underwear like this to hide your money and valuables in while on vacation. It was hilarious! We had a lot of fun with it this year.

 After we opened presents it was time to attempt a family picture. It turned out pretty good which is great since we have 4 wiggly little kids to get in the picture. We finished in enough time for the kids to play together some more and the adults to get to chat.  Bryson and Maya had so much fun playing King and Queen in the dollhouse. This dollhouse used to be my grandmother's and I remember playing with it as a kid!

Then it was time to load up and go home, but not before saying goodbye to all the inflatables.

We had another fun Mooneyhan Christmas! I hope it's not that long before we see everybody again!