Beech Mountain Sledding

A couple of weekends ago, we headed to the mountains with our friends/neighbors the Callinans (Kevin, Elizabeth, Katrina, & Aiden) to take the kids sledding. The idea was to head up to Boone on a Sunday so that we could avoid the busy weekend time and hopefully have the sledding hill at Beech Mountain to ourselves on Monday. It worked out pretty well. The bad thing was that it had warmed up so there wasn't a ton of snow and what they did have was mostly man made. The kids didn't seem to mind one bit and the warmer weather (upper 30's-mid 40's) meant we didn't get as cold so we could enjoy the outdoors a little longer. The mud in the parking lot.....was a little sticky. It made putting on snow clothes/boots a bit interesting. I have to laugh at myself for being so concerned about mud when I typically have no reservations about getting a little dirty.

For the most part an adult went down the hill with a kiddo or two, but the kids went on their own a few times. Elizabeth went down the hill with Katrina and with both Katrina and Katherine a few times. I think Katherine and Aiden went down the hill with Elizabeth (the other Mommy). The adults even got to go down a few times by ourselves and that was fun.

Elizabeth quickly fell in love with sledding and going fast. Our once reserved cautious little girl couldn't get back up the slope and on the sled fast enough. That was tough on Sunday when there was a line to wait in at the top of the hill. Don't be surprised to see her name on the US women's luge team one day. On Monday we had the hill to ourselves. Elizabeth & Katrina went down the hill together quite a few times, but Elizabeth was determined to break them through the hay bale/picket fence barrier. It wasn't the softest of landings/stops (that being a nice frozen bale of hay).

One of Elizabeth's last runs was from the big hill and the girl didn't touch the break once. We're going to try skiing next year and I have a suspicion that we may never catch up to her once she gets it down. I don't think that Katherine will be too far behind her. We headed up to the ski resort after sledding on Sunday with hopes that we'd catch the cardboard box races. We missed them by 30 minutes. There were still a few remnants of the boxes though. There was one that was still in great shape and looked like a miniature air plane painted red. Another one that resembled a train, but it was pretty trashed. I'm sure the kids would have loved to see them race. We'll have to try to make it to see them next year along with trying to get the kids started on skiing.

We had a blast with our friends and hope to make another trip up there before the snow season is over. You can check out more of our pictures here.

SNOW DAY!?

It was kind of surprising to have a snow day today. There was hardly a dusting of snow in our area, but the rule is that if Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools are closed so is the preschool. That was the case today. We started out yesterday with the potential of 1-2" then it was 2-5" and possibly up to 8". By the 11 o'clock news we were back down to 1-2" of accumulation anticipated. We ended up with maybe a 1/4" of snow. That certainly did not stop the excitement around our house. I could hardly sleep last night because I was so excited about seeing the snow. Elizabeth was bouncing off the walls with excitement when she saw it this morning.

We finally bundled up and headed out when our friends, theadf Callinans, stopped by on their walk. They came in and warmed up while I got the girls in their snow clothes. They were all so cute all bundled up. Both Katherine and Aiden had a little trouble with mobility. Aiden kept falling after a few steps and couldn't get up and Katherine could get around, but had a difficult time getting back up when she did fall down. Elizabeth will certainly not get lost in her bright snowsuit!

We pulled out one of the new sleds we bought the night before and Kevin pulled the kids around the yard. He certainly got his exercise. Everyone giggled and laughed, except for Aiden who wasn't to sure about sledding. Elizabeth laid down a couple of times attempting to make a snow angel. No luck this time, but it was good practice for next weekend when we go to the mountains with the Callinans. I can hardly wait for the weekend now!

Two Years and Minus Two Ounces

Katherine had her two year check up this week. She was, as usual, quite the charmer and won over the hearts of all of the nurses and her doctor. That didn't seem to apply to the scale though.....wishful thinking on my part. We knew that she probably wouldn't break the 20lb mark, but did not expect it to be minus 2 ounces since her 20 month weight check. She's great on her height at 32 inches and her head circumference. All of her fine and large motor skills are right on target and she's quite the jabber jaws as far as talking goes.

As a precaution the doctor is running a few more test to make sure that she doesn't have a growth hormone issue or an issue where her body is just not absorbing the nutrients. Katherine was quite the little trooper as they took her blood from her arm just like they would an adult. She let out one little cry when they first poked here and then she was quiet. She held on tightly to one of the nurses hands the entire time. It didn't seem to phase her one bit. She was very proud of her flowery band-aid.

She, for the most part, is quite a good little eater. She's all about her meat and potatoes. No green veggies please (unless it's frozen peas (yes, she eats them frozen like her cousin Alexis), lettuce with lots of ranch dressing or coleslaw). Sure she has her days where she doesn't eat well, but nothing like what we went through with Elizabeth. We've even tried not to make a big deal about it because we certainly didn't make it any better by stressing us and Elizabeth out about eating.

We're also off to see a nutritionist for a calorie count and maybe a few more ideas for calorie boosting since she doesn't like peanut butter (crazy girl) next week. Then we'll go to the endocrinologist in March. I was glad to hear that the endocrinologist did not think that they needed to squeeze her in any sooner. I'm hoping that's a good sign.

We adore our doctor. It is a blessing that she is thorough and wants to make sure that there is no underlying problems even if it causes us a little worry. I would rather have it that way that miss something. It is more likely that the outcome will be that we just have yet another petite princess. Elizabeth was back on the normal growth carts by three so hopefully Katherine will follow close to her big sister's foot steps.

Snow Much Fun to be Two!

It is hard to believe that Katherine is two. Where does the time go! We celebrated her birthday with a few of her and Elizabeth's friends on Saturday. I really wanted to find a winter theme, so we went with snow. It was pretty challenging considering there's not many wintry kids party themes, but snowflake decorations fairly were easy to come by.


Katherine was ready to blow out the candles well before we were all done singing Happy Birthday to her. You would have thought that we'd been practicing that, but we had not at all. It didn't even cross my mind that she might not know what to do with the candles until it was time to sing. She knew exactly what to do though. She's one smart little girl. Some days I can hardly believe that she's only two. She's wants to be a big girl like Elizabeth so badly.

Just this weeks she started showing interest in potty training. There's nothing like having your kid waddling past you and into the bathroom pants around her angles declaring she needs to go potty now. Although, she proudly sits down on her little potty with her diaper on, she does nothing once I take it off of her. I realize this is probably just the first step in the whole process. It seems like such a long time ago since we went through this with Elizabeth.

Katherine is quite into dressing up. She'll bring a dress into us and ask us to help her put it on and then she'll prance around or play Mommy pushing her puppy or baby around in the stroller (purse in hand) for hours on end. She is quite the girly girl. Although, she'll rarely pass up an opportunity playing with cars with her big sister either. It's been amazing to watch Elizabeth & Katherine's friendship blossom grow. We look forward to many more milestones (at what feels like warp speed) over the next year. I'm certain she'll be three before we know it and before we are ready for it.