More snow....

More pictures of the snow! It is already mostly melted, but it was fun while it lasted.

Henry made this snowman for Carson.  He watched out over things all day.

This is a sign in front of our local hardware store. I think they made some good money on sleds today.

Our house looking cold.

It is fun snow...very fluffy...I think this looks like cotton.

The bug looking chilly...

Love, Em

SNOW!!!

I know we are terrible bloggers,  but the last few weeks have been VERY busy.

I suppose I just needed a SNOW day to catch up!!!

Here is what I saw when I looked out the back door...

And the view out the front...

Judging by the railing on our porch, it looks like about 2 inches, but it is still snowing and will most of today!

Fun, fun! 

Peace, Emily

A fun New Years...

We decided that we would really love to be with friends for New Years, so we called Laura and Ryan Jensen...friends from seminary... to see if we could invite ourselves down for a visit. They agreed and we had a fantastic time. We bundled up on New Years Eve and went downtown to see what all the buzz about the Moon Pie over Mobile was all about. It wasn't amazing, but it did cause buzz for the city so that is good.

This is especially funny because I really don't like moon pies at all! Apparently they throw them from floats at Mardi Gras in Mobile.

That dot in the middle is the moon pie. I think it said 2009 when it hit midnight.

The Jensens in awe of the lit up moon pie.

On New Years Day we made a feast of fried shrimp and fried oyster po boys. I use the term "we" loosely as Ryan did almost all of the cooking. I'm not sure why I was even standing by the oven to be honest. He also made fried pickles and Laura made homemade cole slaw. It was all delicious!

Happy New Year to you all... a special hello to my family who are all in Sante Fe for an exciting celebration. Lots of love to Jenny and Elizabeth! Peace, Emily

A Christmas Miracle...

We found good Mexican food in North Carolina! Hallelujah! We went to a place tonight called La Paz and it was fantastic! $2 margaritas!

This is me pointing to a tamale. It is a tradition in both of our families to eat tamales at Christmas and there is NO place to find tamales here in Charlotte. We found this place that wanted to charge us $33 for a dozen! We said no thanks so I ordered one tonight...very different from Texas tamales, but still delicious.

Henry got fajitas...yum!

We had fun....we'll definitely go back when we need some decent Mexican food to tide us over until we can get back to the best Tex Mex food which can only be found in Texas!

Love to you all, Emily and Henry

Finally......a new post!

We have been VERY busy, so sorry it has been so long with no update. We made a trip to Asheville the weekend after Thanksgiving to see one of our favorite musicians....David LaMotte. He is moving to Australia so this was a farewell concert, for a while anyway. Henry wanted you all to know that someone thought this was such a great picture that they stole it off facebook and put it on their own facebook page. Or something like that. I got confused.

While we were there, we happened to run into (and meet for the first time) Henry's second cousins - Michael and Sarah Montgomery so we sat together. It was a LOT of fun!

Last weekend, we had friends come in from Colorado and Pittsburgh. The girls ran a 5K on Saturday morning and we had a good time hanging out. Caitlin stayed one extra night so we made Christmas candy. Caitlin is in seminary in Pittsburgh and was my co-chaplain last summer at camp.  It was fun and the candy turned out great. We made cherry, strawberry, wintermint, cinnamon, peppermint, buttered rum and lemon. All delicious!

We also popped some crackers after a yummy dinner.

Candy making in progress...

The final product....fun, easy and delicious!

Here is a shot of Leo. The cats have really enjoyed the cold weather and have been extra cuddly. 

And an update on the Christmas decorations... thanks for all the nice comments. We now have presents (way too many) and some beautiful stockings (thank you to our mothers!) 

Peace and love to you this Christmas! Love, Emily and Henry

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas!

Well, we had a very relaxing Thanksgiving yesterday and I hope that all of you did as well. We decided to get a jump start on Christmas decorating so we went to the Christmas tree lot....(a first for me)... and picked out our very first tree. It was a lot of fun. I even splurged and got a wreath for the front door. Now you all have to come visit! It looks great! Peace, Emily

There are lights on the tree...it is hard to see them in the picture. Dad, they are LED lights! 

Mom, notice the manger set and Crismon tree...both from you.

The cats were very curious...

Josie kept smelling it.

So Leo decided to take a whiff himself...

The lovely wreath...

A better view of the door...dents and all....

Happy Thanksgiving!

We know...it is a day early, but we moved Thanksgiving up this year. Andrew came to visit us from Minneapolis, MN and he has to leave early tomorrow morning (Thanksgiving Day) so that he can get home to make a flight to Australia for work. While I was at the office today, the boys spent all day in the kitchen cooking a fantastic meal: turkey legs with homegrown basil-olive oil-salt and pepper, pork shoulder roast cooked in cider-stock-carrots-onions-celery, mashed potatoes with rutabaga, Orange Mash (sweet potato spoon bread), green bean casserole, dressing (with rye and pumpernickel, bacon, onion and bourbon) and for dessert....homemade pecan pie with cream and bourbon on top. DELICIOUS! The orange mash and rutabaga potatoes are Owen family traditions. The rest of the recipes came from allrecipes.com which is a great recipe site! If you are reading this, then I feel certain that we are thankful for you and wish you a very happy thanksgiving! Peace, Emily

The Owen brothers proud of their successful day of cooking!

Getting ready to share a fantastic meal together...

A close up of the table....

This is a picture of some of the leaves as they were changing in October/early November. Pictures simply can't capture how beautiful it was...