Once in a Lifetime

It's not often in Alabama you can experience 8 inches of snow and your team playing in the National Championship game all in one day. That's the epitome of once in a lifetime.

What a day! No matter what kind of season they have, it's always great to be an Auburn Tiger. Yesterday was like the biggest cherry in creation on top! I cannot wait to see pictures and get the recap from my friends who were there...hint, hint AK and Sixty. WDE!!!

We just thought we'd gotten our share of the pretty white stuff during Christmas. Turns out we hadn't seen anything yet! Sunday we braced ourselves for the winter storm that was rolling in. While J stocked up on necessities at the grocery that afternoon I took the girls to Madelyn and Braxton's 6th birthday party...
What kind of party would it be without the three stooges?
Brock, Cate and Ella were having a ball and burning up all their energy before we were officially home bound. These five are such sweet friends and get along famously...
While we were at the party, J sent me a picture of two men getting in a fight at Walmart when one man stole another man's gallon of milk right out of his shopping cart. Insanity! I mean, have you ever in your life? I don't think we really knew what was coming our way. It always seems like we get the opposite of what's predicted. We didn't take the forecast too seriously, but when it started snowing around 7:30 that night it was a different story. We definitely made the most of it. As in indoor snowball fights, J getting locked out of the house when he went to get more ammunition, freezing strawberry lemonade popsicles outside overnight, seeing how far we could slide down the street with slick shoes on, and riding around at 10:30 p.m. checking out the scene. Little did we know the roads were closed to everyone but emergency vehicles. Actually, I'm pretty sure my adventurist husband knew but wanted to take us for a ride anyway. Have you ever been out in the snow at night? It's the neatest thing. I couldn't get over how it wasn't dark outside at all. I took this picture at 11:30 that night of our back yard...

And that's without a flash! I'm not sure if that's the reason none of us could go to sleep or not. It's probably the lit up sky combined with sheer excitement. We were all like little kids and were up 'til midnight!
Monday morning when we first went out we had to see just how much powdery goodness we'd gotten overnight...
Right off the bat I spotted my red bird friend who has been hanging around our house for the last couple of weeks...
He's so pretty against the white snow!
Another way to tell just how much snow there was was to compare it to this bird bath that I took a picture of when it snowed Christmas morning...
That was then and this is now...
Doesn't even compare!

J had to go into work Monday morning to make sure his north Alabama offices were running smoothly. He left home at 6:30 that morning on his way to Huntsville which is usually only about a 20 minute drive. When he called me at 7:30, he was only halfway there. Truth be told, he probably could have worked out of Decatur. I think he wanted to try to get to Huntsville just so he could be one of the only people to successfully make it down I-565. Thank God he made it back safe and sound. If he hadn't have tried it, I'd think there was something wrong with him. He's quite the thrill seeker.

Him being at work meant I had to take charge and make sure we enjoyed the snow to the fullest. Usually it's J who's the fun one like that. I detest being cold and would rather have hot chocolate waiting for when everyone comes back in. I made up my mind to brave the cold for the girls' sake. It took what seemed like hours to get bundled up enough, but we finally did it...
Bethany's behind the camera because she had just rolled out of bed. :)
It was still early in the morning, but it was game day. It's never too early to get your game faces on! I bought those Auburn tattoos when I was on the Plains back in November and knew that I'd need them for a rainy day. Or in our case...a snowy day!
We tried to build a snowman. Our hands were frost bitten within seconds, though. So we opted for snowballs instead...
This was the last of the snow little blondie would see that morning...
She and her Bebby couldn't take it anymore. Cate and I stayed out for a while longer to go exploring...
I can always count on Buggy to hang with me!
With my car looking like this...
We had to use another method of transportation...
Our two feet!
All Cate-Cate wanted to do was see how far down the road we could go. It was doable because there were virtually no cars on the road. Until she spotted something...
The first sign of life! Another car was headed straight for us, but I assured her they were going at a snail's pace and couldn't take us out before we could move out of the way. She's such a worrier. Staying out of the street seemed like a much better idea, and she got the biggest kick out of walking around trying to see how deep the snow was...
It wasn't long before we desperately needed to thaw out and warm up. Nothing gets us going like making Auburn cupcakes...
Bet you can't guess who decorated them and whose fingers have been in one! Bebs got Cate's attention off of sticking her fingers in the cupcakes with this...
Squirting the icing right on in her mouth...leave it to B!
It seemed like forever before we could finally sit down to the ballgame, so we had to find something to do to pass the time. Call us crazy, but it involves an interstate overpass and inflatable pool floats...
Towns wanted to be the first to try it out...
Naturally, she loved it!
Buggy, not so much...
B was there cheering her on and subsequently loving on her when came back up the hill screaming her head off...
From then on our she was strictly a spectator. What really got her going was sending the floats down while we weren't looking and then watching us huffing and puffing up the hill after retrieving them. That was her idea of fun.
It was a good time and we all lasted much longer than I anticipated...
She's so stinking cute...And funny, too. Just ask her about the girl who kicked the hornet's nest.From our family (minus my Alabama fan husband) to yours...
WAR EAGLE!