Snow Days

Snow tends to bring out the kid in us all, don't you think? This week it snowed between 4-6 inches here in Greenville which only occurs every few years. It was so much fun to see the excitement in the kids eyes as they woke up to find "white stuff" all over the ground. Craig and I were excited to take Caleb and Lydia out to play in it since it was their first snow ever. Caleb, three and a half, had a snowball fight with daddy and he thought that was super cool. And Lydia, who will be two in March, was into eating the icicles and tasting the white powder. We had a great two days playing in the snow . . . I'm glad because it could be another 3-5 years before we get this much again!

They both wanted to ride their bikes in the snow. As you can see, it didn't work very well.

Caleb could hold his own against daddy in the snowball fight. I think it actually took Craig by surprise.

I made snow angels and a snowman. I was not going to put the picture of the snowman up because I was so embarrassed of how he looked. Craig insisted - so here it is. Our yard is full of pinestraw so he looks like he's a snowman/scarecrow. If you look really hard you can see the tiny carrot nose that Caleb put on him. All we had was baby carrots so it had to do.

After an hour and a half of playing outside, Caleb was cold and ready for some cocoa.

I love those little feet next to Craig's.

Word to the wise: sometimes fun comes at a high price. Caleb and Craig have both been very sick. High fevers, bad colds and bed ridden. Craig has bronchitis and was on the verge of pneumonia, according to the doctor. I just asked him if playing in the snow with our kids was worth it and his answer: YES. That's saying alot because he hasn't been this sick in the last 11 years that I've known him.

Allie Noelle

A friend of mine, Abby, had her baby on December 22, 2008. Her name? Allie Noelle, which means Sweet Christmas. What a sweet Christmas gift this was to the Whaley Family. Allie is beautiful, sweet and a miracle according to doctors. Abby has another daughter, Madalynn, who is Caleb's age. It was so much fun to see Madalynn anticipate her new little sister's arrival. She is so gentle with Allie and very eager to help out mommy. I love this family very much and enjoyed capturing some of the tender moments between Abby and her daughters.

What a sweet moment: Allie holding her mommy's finger while Abby gently kisses her on the head.

Congratulations Brock & Abby! Get ready - it's just a matter of time before the boys are knocking on your door.

Justin + Beth

Stick with me, this will have a point. I like Bojangles. I do. THE BOJO is addictive. Those of us who are secretly addicted know that this addiction is not something you share with people . . . until you eat with them at THE BOJO. The confession almost always occurs in a situation like this: As both of you are cramming the signature seasoned fries in your face you hear a comment like, "Man I really like Bojangles", {emphasis on "really"} or "I eat here, like, all the time". It is usually at that point that one or both of you share how truly addicted you are to the BOJO. Ok, here comes the connection. Last year, I met with Justin and Beth for a consultation at Bojangles. I mentioned it as an option in conjunction with other places, "We could meet at Bojangles, Panera, or Starbucks." Justin kinda jumped at the chance to eat at Bojangles. It was then that I knew, I'm going to like this guy. Justin said later, "If Bojo had a fan club . . . I'd be in it". {Did you know that Bojangles has an online store?} He about lost it when I mentioned that I once went to a wedding that had Bojangles cater it! Beth, a very soft spoken and fairly agreeable young lady, quickly stepped in to curb Justin's excitement before it got out of control and led to a Bojangles smorgasbord on their wedding day.

All that to say, this couple is a lot of fun and they were up for anything for their e-session. They requested that we go to the ECU football stadium {yea, they're fans. This was another moment when I said, "I think I like this guy."} Turns out, the field was freshly painted and greener than I've ever seen it. We hiked our way to the upperdeck and once we caught our breath, we started shooting. The sky was perfect which made for some rock'in images. After shooting at the stadium we headed off for some cool urban shots.

Justin and Beth: We are looking forward to the wedding and can't wait to see how it all comes together. Personally, I'd love it if you had some seasoned fries, bo-berry biscuits and God's nectar: sweet tea.

Liberty Bowl

You knew I was going to go . . . and I did. Memphis, Tennessee home of Elvis and world famous Ribs. By the way, I can not believe how many people are completely INSANE about Elvis. Seriously. Check out the craziness here. The Pirates of East Carolina University, my alma-mater, was playing Kentucky in the 50th Anniversary of the Liberty Bowl. The tickets and plans had been made back in December. It was Kim and me along with my folks and the infamous Bob. Bob is my Dad's good friend and he has been traveling to bowl games with us since as long as I can remember. So, we all hopped on a plane in Raleigh and headed off to Memphis. Upon landing we pomptly headed over to Beale Street, THE place in Memphis to hang out. The Liberty Bowl Parade was in full swing when we arrived.

You gotta see the other King in Memphis, B.B. King and his club.

During the Parade all I heard was "This is a Boweevel".

I would assume it feels strange walking in a parade without a costume, cool car, float, or even candy. No, none of that, just waving your pom-poms and expecting people to be excited about it. Well, the Kentucky cheerleaders thought it was pretty incredible. So, I guess I'm alone in that thought. I just pointed to my ECU hat I was wearing as they walked by. I think they tried not to look at me. (I realize the ECU cheerleaders probably also did this, but I am going to pretend they didn't).

This is my good friend Denny. He writes about the Pirates for a local website called Bonesville. I really enjoy reading what he has to say. Check out his article on the game HERE. He was taking in the festivities and stopped for a picture. It's always great to reunite with friends at a Bowl Game.

Ok, here's the story. We wanted to eat at a certain famous Beale Street Restaurant and enjoy some world famous ribs. But, of course it was packed so we opted to try a different restaurant, one we had heard of from friends called Corky's. We were asking a local guy for directions when he just said, "I'll take you in my Limousine." Now, I'm not accustomed to riding in limo's. In fact, I think I've ridden in a limo twice in my life. Both for funerals. About the only thing I know about a limo is that they are fairly expensive to ride in. So, sensing a scam we asked how much. "Thirty dollars", he replied. We all looked at each other and thought to ourselves, "thats a pretty good deal." (In retrospect I now know not to agree to a price before you actually see the vehicle you will be riding in.) He led us over to his limousine. Once the limo came within sight I thought it looked more like a hearse than a limo. A really old hearse. I would have sworn I saw some bullet holes in the side of it. So, before we stepped into our semi-white chariot, we had to take a photo like true tourists. I think my mom is laughing at the smell that's coming out of the hearse . . . I mean limousine. As we rode down the highway the exaust fumes began to trickle into the limo. Seriously, it felt like we had left the car on and parked in a closed garage. Of course the automatic windows didn't work. You should have seen the faces of the crowd waiting outside Corky's as we pulled up. I seriously thought the engine was going to blow like a scene out of "Uncle Buck". We all had quite a laugh from the ride.

Game Day. Pirate fans are always a fun bunch.

I 'll let you create your own caption for this one.

I thought this was a "cute" shot of my folks.

Pee-Dee!

Planes flew over the stadium all night.

You gotta love Pirate Fans!

Game Time!

Bald and Beautiful.

After the first half, Pirates lead 16-3.

Night Game.

At the very onset of the second half I began watching my team self-destruct. (But, Kim's still having a good time). This was only the beginning of the slow roller-coaster ride that was to be my life for the next 24 hours. Here's the play-by play: The morning after the game I awoke at 8 A.M. Once at the Airport at 9:30 A.M. we learned of the four hour delay for our 11 A.M. flight out of Memphis. After spending $20 on lunch in the Memphis airport we were cleared to fly to Atlanta which was completely shut-in with fog. As we cruised into Atlanta, I looked out the plane window and I seriously didn't see the ground until we were 25 yards from touching down on the runway. Felt a little scary. From there, a 'brisk' walk through Atlanta International Airport to make our connecting flight where we literally walked to the gate and directly onto the flight to Raleigh. Once comfortably crammed in the seat directly behind the exit row, we waited another hour and a half on the tarmac where we were # 31 to take-off. Upon landing in Raleigh we actually waited for our luggage, hoping for the slightest miracle of seeing it . . . which of course didn't make the flight. Exhausted, we piled onto a crowded bus to take us to our car. Lets just say we finally made it home about midnight. Ohh, and at 1 A.M. the airline called to tell us that if we wanted our luggage (which was to be delivered in the hour) that we needed to put a note on the door. So, as you can probably tell, a Pirate win would have REALLY gone a long way.

Ok, so that is the longest post I've ever done. So, if you read the entire thing you're a champ. Leave me a comment. Also, if you want to see other photos I've taken this year of the Pirates including Chris Johnson, ECU baseball and football stadium pictures you can click HERE to visit my 'everything else' site.

Seriously, I have not seen my team give away a game like that in a while. It was painful to watch. But the ribs in Memphis . . . the ribs are totally worth it.
Some of you are now concerned if I can be a good sport about the loss. Well, here goes. Congratulations to Kentucky on their win. The Kentucky fans I met were great fun and handled their win with class . . . Go Louisville!

Christmas Goodies

We celebrated Christmas a few different times with our family. Craig and I hosted the annual Edwards' family Christmas Dinner, which entailed an evening of good food, fun family games, lots of laughter and a cookie contest. After dinner was cleaned up the men sat down at a table and judged 5 different cookies. They had to rate each cookie on a scale of 1-10 for taste, texture and overall score. I am proud to say that my entry won! It was fun to see the men really concentrate as they took a bite into each cookie. They took this contest very serious - it was almost comical to watch.

Caleb joined in on the fun too! He said that one of the cookies had worms in it . . . which evoked lots of laughter.

On Christmas Eve we went to my sisters' house to be with her family and my parents. The kids had a blast playing, as always and they even got to open a few gifts from each other.

My parents loved the picture of all of their grandchildren sitting on the bench eating popsicles.

On Christmas morning it was just the four of us. We do this every Christmas and it's nice for us to take our time as a family, enjoy the moments and reiterate to our children why we give them gifts on Christmas. We do not do "Santa" which Caleb understands this year. He has eagerly told people that santa does not come to his house but that his mommy and daddy give him gifts because they love him and celebrate Jesus' birthday. It's interesting to hear his thoughts as they come out - which gives us great insight into his heart and mind. Lydia hears us talk but I'm not sure how much she understands. I'm sure the conversations will get more in depth as they get older, which is a great opportunity to share WHY we do certain things in our family.

The theme for Caleb was Spider-Man and for Lydia it was baby dolls.

Caleb is really into to playing Policeman so this gift was a hit!

Lydia was eager to try out her big brother's bicycle. She didn't know that she was getting a bike too - from Gram and Gramps.

I got Craig a sweatshirt with our logo monogrammed on it - I think it was the only thing that was a surprise. He figured everything else out.

Mom and Dad, (Gram and Gramps) came that afternoon to enjoy some time with us. We went in with Craig's brother and his wife on a gift for them. What do you get someone who has everything they need/want? PICTURES of their grandchildren! So, Todd and Ginger sent us a disc of images of their little girl, Grace and we made them a book and a calendar full of pictures of their grandchildren. Did they love it? Oh yes, and there were tears of joy streaming down moms' face! I think we scored and we know what to do from here on out:)

Gramps, you are under arrest!

And now for the grand finale! Gram and Gramps got Caleb a real drum set - yes, that's right - a REAL drum set. For those of you who do not know, Caleb has some real natural talent when it comes to drumming. I know, every mom thinks their kid can do something special. We have had neighbors come over to hear Caleb play the drums because they can't believe the natural beat and rhythm. Needless to say: HE LOVED THEM! Just so you know, they are staying in the garage and he can practice to his hearts' content.

Watch out world! His face says it all.

I hope your Christmas was as good as ours. Happy New Year!