Polar Express

We got to go on the Polar Express. We went with our friends and had such a good time. We sang Christmas carol's, had hot chocolate made by our chef, and Santa gave us the first "gift" of the season, a silver bell.

Bowling

I haven't been bowling in about 10 years. Taylor suggested we go Saturday night. Morgan had never bowled before either. We had SO much fun! We bowled 4 games, Daddy was defintaly the winner! He was the only one to break a 100 - My mom joined us for fun, afterwards we played in the arcade and I won the "jackpot" on one of the games, so both girls got to go home with a new doll too!

Letters from Santa

Santa wrote a letter to each of my girls asking them to travel with him on the Polar Express to visit the North Pole! The Polar Express leaves from Bryson, NC nightly in December and we happen to get a set of 4 tickets for our train ride! Hot cocoa and story time with Santa himself! I can't wait to go, OH, I meant the girls are excited to go! We go Thursday December 20th - pictures to be posted soon! HO HO HO

Sunsets in NC

Our family loves to watch the sunset, I don't know how it started, or why it holds such fascination for us, but we always try to take the time to see the beautiful colors. We went to Key West last year for 10 days and didn't miss a single sunset, this year for Spring Break we watched the sun set into the golf, it was the first time our girls had seen the sun set "into" water, they enjoy the "show" also. These two pictures were taken from our sunroom in our house, the weather this week has been in the 70's, we haven't seen rain for months and the colors have been so bold - so I thought I'd share it with all of you. May you watch a sunset and think about all those watching it too and be thankful for another day.

Christmas Preparation.....

With the great help of my girls Great-Grandma MacDonald (visiting from Pittsburgh), Aunt Shelley (visiting from WV), my mom, and one of our single friends (Jeff) we have successfully drank lots and decorated our house! Each girl got their own pink Christmas tree in their bedroom. The sunroom got a Christmas Palm Tree and our living room holds our first ever "fake tree". This is the first year in 10 years we have not purchased a live tree. It seemed a little odd at first, but once it was up, the girls were busy decorating, and the pine scented candles burning all is well! We a great dinner, good wine, and family. Seems Christmas is comming to the Todd house!

Happy Birthday Taylor !

Happy Birthday Taylor! 8 years old today - What a fun gymnastics party with friends. We saw the movie Enchanted, have friends over to play, and tonight we are having a fire in our fire pit by the pool/hot tub, going to make smores and have more friends over! I can't believe my baby is 8!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Phil & Guy proud of their deep fried turkey!

We spent our Thanksgiving with Friends comming to our house. From the right: Tammy, who just moved down here from Pittsburgh about 3 months ago, My mom, Phil - a gentleman who goes to our church, who we know thru business, he has no family in town so he came to our house, Phil, my husband the turkey cooker! Guy, Michele and their baby Hannah - Michele and I grew up together, she moved down here in 2000 to help me take care of Taylor when she was born, and my two girls - Taylor & Morgan.

Sidewalk Chalk

Taylor & Morgan traced each other then decorated themselves. I don't remember having this much fun with sidewalk chalk. I thought the girls did a great job and just wanted to share!

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Daddy got a Steeler Jersey, 2 dvd's, a framed picture of his girls, a gun safe, and lots of love from his girls!!

Wild Wild West

Phil and I didn't dress up for halloween, but on Nov. 3 our girls school had a fundraiser - Wild West Dinner/Dance and Silent Auction, so we got to dust off our hats and have some country fun! It was adult only but the girls had fun taking pictures with us before we left. Phil's shirt says "one with dirt".

Halloween Party

Digging In!!

Trick-or-Treating with friends. David was the only boy last night with all the girls - we told him when he was a teenager we would remind him that "girls have cooties" as he told us last night!

Halloween Night

Wonder Woman!

Ballernina Kitty Cat!

Halloween Pumpkin

Practicing our scary faces

Digging In!

Our girls helped daddy get the pumpkin ready to carve! We were so excited to light it and put it outside we forgot to take a picture of the finished pumpkin! Guess you'll have to wait until we take our pictures in our halloween costumes!

Out!

Yeah no dentist!! After weeks and weeks of a tooth that refused to come out, the new tooth made an appearance behind it. The dentist gave us until this week to wiggle it out or it had to be pulled. Sunday night Taylor said "just pull it out mommy!" well i reached up in there and pulled it to one side and that side popped out - she said "did you do anything?" - she didn't realize I had the tooth almost out - then she saw the blood........ an hour later, many towels, and lots of "just finish pulling it out" we have save ourselves a trip to the dentist! I see braces in our future.....

Zoo

We went to the NC Zoo yesterday with friends. We all met at daycare when our kids were just weeks old, we have kept in touch since and enjoy an anual fall trip to the zoo. There are 5 miles of walking to see everything, and we saw it all!

Arizona

My mom just came back today from a week in Arizona with her sister Lou Ann.

"Snaggle - Tooth Baby"

One out, one to go! Taylor has lost her first top tooth, the second one is now "sticking out" - affectionatly she is now our "snaggle-tooth baby". You can see her new tooth behind it comming in, the dentist suggested pulling it, giving her two weeks to wiggle it out on her own. Last night she comes to her daddy with floss in hand and says "just tie it to the door knob and pull it out" - my husband laughs and sends her off to play and wiggle it out on her own. She had to have a bottom tooth pulled as the same thing happened (the new tooth came in behind the baby tooth) - memories of getting it pulled are still to fresh. We keep feeding her the candy apples from the fair..... Hopefully there will be another post w/out teeth soon.

NC State Fair

North Carolina State Fair - first a fact: We have the largest midway of rides in North America at our fair. I, personally, think the largest selection of food - we ate roasted corn, a turkey leg, fried tempura veggies, cheeseburgers, sweet sausage with pepper and onions, fried snickers bar, fried Oreo cookies and since we didn't get enough there we had to bring home candy apples! We lasted 8 hours, more upside down rides than I can count, and one roll of tums! Taylor is 48" this year, her first year to be able to ride the "big rides" (circle of fire, tornado - i think you get the point) - mom and dad took turns all day riding and any "surrogate" person who would ride these with her was gladly accepted all day! We had a blast, we'll be back next year!

School Memories

Seems like only yesterday I cried as I dropped off Morgan for her first day of kindergarden. Today I get a notice it's time for the parent/teacher conference for the end of the first semester. Don't blink.....

Todd's Poolside Bar

Finally! After signing a contract to build a pool at the beginning of May 2007, the last load of dirt is being hauled out of my back yard as I type. We were told "no problem, you will be swimming by mid-July". Labor day was our first day we swam, not that construction was done. But I can finally say, after 3+ months I won't wake up to the sound of trucks, have strange men in my yard and can finally lanscape! Now we have to pay the bill.........

Family Reunion

Family reunion. In July this year we had my grandmother (Lou) and most of her kids at my house. Starting from the top - Phil (my husband) holding Morgan (my daughter). Below Morgan is myself and to my left is Peggy, Ruth, and Nathan (Patty's son). To the right of Nathan is Carol, Ed, Lou, Lou Ann, and above Lou Ann is Mike. Bottom row from the right is Bernie and his wife Mary Ellen, Preston (Ruth's boy), Lauren (Peggy's girl), Abigail (Ruth's Girl), Taylor (my girl), Mark with Patty behind him. To the left of Patty is Rusty (Nathan's girlfriend), beside Rusty to the left is Debbie and below her is her son Zak and to his left is Patty's daugher Andreea. There were a few husbands, brothers, sons that could not make it. A good time was had by all, most of us spent the weekend together.

Work

Our Business. My husband and his brother have a business, we are in year 11. It's not easy being in a family business. Thought I would share what we do - check out http://www.majesticsolutionsinc.com/ This picture was taken at the International Auto Expo, we set up a booth every year to sell car care kits.

Mountain Vacation with the Paul's

Pigeon Forge, TN - What a fun weekend. We rented a cabin near the Smokey Mountains and went with our friends the Paul's (James, Angie, Jay (7), Nate (6)). Taylor rode her first triple loop rollercoaster (3 times!). We hiked into the smokey mountains and walked behind a waterfall. The kids loved the hike - 2.5 miles total and we didn't have to carry any of them! The sunsets over the mountains was beautiful, and the moon in the morning was just as incredible (almost full).

First Time Blogging

Welcome to my blog spot! Thank you Jennifer for reminding me of importance of family and keeping in touch. This is my husband and I, photo compliments of my 5 year old two weeks ago at the beach. I feel like I have lots of catching up to do. I can't wait to share our lives with you. Enjoy!