Merry Christmas!

For Christmas this year Grandpa and Aunt Holly made the journey down south. Raleigh, as usual, had better weather than the blizzard Winona was getting...but it was cold and rainy here- so not much better. Christmas Eve. The kids have the Christmas jammies on and anxiously await Santa's visit!

Christmas morning. Isaac and Grace patiently wait for Grandpa and Aunt Holly to get up and around so we can all head downstairs and check out the loot!

Santa left a little of one of his cookies- Isaac was more than happy to polish it off.

Santa worked a deal with Disney World and got Grace this official Cinderella Castle with lots of extra princesses and princes, lights and sounds. Good find Santa!

Grandpa and Isaac figure out the guitar that Grandma sent.

Not surprisingly, Grace already knows how to use hers.

Didn't you know that stockings are not to be hung by the chimney with care- they are to be worn.

A tea party.

Go Winona State! (Note that the jerseys sport the number 58...which just happened to be Daddy's number in college and Papa's number too!)

Mesmerized by a movie on a cold and rainy Christmas day.

Mother Mary

Grace was Mary in the preschool Christmas program this year. (The program was last week...I am a little behind) There were no speaking or acting parts, she just sat on stage and played the roll. She had a good time, and I personally think she seemed to fit the part well- with her sweet little face. :-)

Waving at Mommy (Who was standing on a chair in the back with a zoom lens!)

Here is Grace with her good friend Grayson who was the angel.

Isaac LOVES leaf blowers. He especially loves when his daddy blows leaves. On this day Isaac got to do it himself.

He wasn't thrilled with the amount of leaves blowing in the air, so he is now placing the leaves in front of the blower to ensure a bigger flurry.

An Evening with the Elves

We headed back to Marbles this year for the "Evening with the Elves" party. A little different this year- most noticeably the additional 500 people to whom they sold tickets. They ran out of food by 7:30. That was also not good. But all in all we had a good time. The kids got to wear their jammies- which they loved. We also invited lots of friends. So I hated that it was crowded and foodless for all of the money we paid, but the kids had so much fun playing with each other. Since the desserts had run out before we even finished dinner, we had to stop at McDonalds on the way home and get ice cream cones. The kids didn't get to bed until after 10, but slept in until 11 the next morning! Yeah!

Isaac and Sid listen to the awesome band. They really were good.

Sid has only been to Marbles a couple of times. He has never been upstairs...but of course Isaac feels right at home. So Sid took Isaac upstairs and Isaac took off for the tool benches. Sid lost him momentarily and was in a panic. In the distance he saw the tool benches and knew right away that was where his son had run off to- and sure enough!

Grace and Bella built a huge Lego tower and trapped themselves within.

Mommy and Isaac built a big tower too.

Isaac was so proud of his tower. He really did a great job of randomly stacking the blocks.

Grace and Caleb built this tower all by themselves.

Santa, Christmas Tree, and Our New Living Room

We have had a busy week...and truthfully looking forward to things slowing a bit before Christmas. I took the kids to see Santa last night. Grace was so excited and had a nice chat with Santa before we tossed Isaac into the mix. He was fascinated by Santa, but didn't really want to sit with him or talk to him. So I was pretty pleased with what we got.

Last weekend on a 40 degree rainy day we headed out for our Christmas tree. Thank goodness for mud puddles- they always make things more interesting.

And finally our new living room: We love it. No more wet bar and ill-placed door. We have a whole new color-scheme too. It is so nice to utilize the entire room and there is room for lots of seating. We are still waiting on the cabinet doors for the television...but we are in the process of hiring someone to install those as our original contractor decided to get a little too greedy.

Thanksgiving and the Zoo

For Thanksgiving this year we headed down to Albemarle to celebrate with Nana. We had a nice long weekend and got to spend lots of time with Aunt L and Uncle Craig too. Isaac LOVES to help me cook and bake. So, here we are the day before Thanksgiving making a turtle cheesecake.

TaDaaa! By far one of my best ever. I'm sure it was all because of Isaac.

Cousin Margaret drove down from Raleigh. Cousin Mack and his friend Joy also joined us for the feast. This photo was taken post lunch. We are all chatting and wishing we could just join Isaac for his afternoon nap. Nana and Grace are in the living room playing dominos.

Isaac- once again helping. This time with clean-up. He really wanted Nana to wear her gloves.

Maybe it really is genetic.

Nana got a very cool gingerbread house for her and Grace to work on.

But the whole family had a blast decorating it.

And now for the zoo! On Saturday morning we took a 45 min drive up to the NC Zoo in Asheboro. It was a chilly morning in the low 50's. We bundled up the kids with layers, warm coats, and blankets and headed out.

The elephants were so close- maybe 20 feet away- and the kids were mesmirized. It almost made up for the fact that the giraffs were not out. Apparently the ground was still too wet from the prior day's rain and there was a concern that the giraffes could fall and get injured. blahblahblah is all we had to say about that.

We like to hang with the lions.

This chimpanzee loved Grace! I think it was her red coat, truthfully. But he stared/played with her for a good 15-20 minutes. She was so excited.

And of course there is the carousel. Notice that the 7-month-pregnant mommy is on the ride and not the easily sea-sick daddy. Wimp.

There is a fabulous play area at this zoo. It is kind of a giant "insect" playground.

We played at the zoo for about 4 hours and then headed for home. Isaac slept almost the entire trip. We was excited to "nap in car. no nap in bed." Grace watched Cindarella and Sid and I enjoyed a quite drive home...I think Sid actually slept some too. But that's okay since I was the one driving.

The Renovations are FINALLY Finished!

First, we are truly thankful on many levels that this renovation is finished. We are thankful that our not-so-great contractor was able to hire a crew that he had never used before and that they were really good. Messy, but quality of work was good. We are thankful that even though we were completely nickled and dimed by our contractor, we still came in within a reasonable percentage of the original estimate. We are thankful that no one was injured- by me or on accident. :-) We are thankful that we like the finished product. We are thankful that we did not pay for the work that was not completed. Some of the more frustrating elements of the renovation was of course that they finished weeks behind schedule. And not because of any "surprises", just poor planning and project management...our GC did not possess project management skills on any level. I spent hours upon hours managing this project. I also spent hours upon hours meeting with various contractors and inspectors- of course all of these things are things that we paid someone else to do. Isaac got a big scare during naptime one day when our GC, who of course randomly showed up on a Sunday afternoon, dropped a huge door on the floor right above where Isaac was sleeping. Isaac was terrified of naps for over 5 weeks. That was very hard on both me and Isaac. The amount of cleaning we had to do was ridiculous. But again, we are finished and enjoying our new spaces immensely! Praise God! This is the new room in the attic. It is huge.

We have our treadmill up here and TV. This is also our main "guest suite."

This is the hallway leaving the new room and heading towards the stairs. On the left are storage closets and on the right is a huge unfinished storage area. The kids love running up and down the long hallway.

This is the new stairway leading up to the 3rd floor. We already had the stairs in place. Because of miscommunication these stairs were rebuilt 3 times. No kidding.

This is Grace's new room. She has the bonus room that is over the single car garage. We put in new carpet, built-in closet space, new lighting and ceiling.

These are her built-in closets. They turned out wonderfully!

This is her little reading corner.

This is Isaac's new room...Grace's old room. He got lots of new paint and a new closet.

He loves having a big room- and at the rate he is growing we will be putting his big boy bed up in a few months.

This is the kid's new bathroom. Sid put in new tile and the cabinets. We ordered new countertops with a dual vanity instead of a single. Which is one of the smartest things we have ever done. We had the bathtub and shower tiles reglazed and they look better than new. We also had the ceiling smoothed.

And this is our new paint job! We went from almond colored trim and navy blue shutters/doors to white trim and black shutters/doors. We also got new windows! I cannot even begin to explain the difference just because of the windows. Not only do they look great but they are so much warmer.

The only thing we are lacking is our new living room. Hopefully that will be finished in a week or so and I will add some pictures. We are already enjoying the new changes, just waiting on some finishing touches. Leah's room is painted, but will starting working on that after Thanksgiving.

Happy 2nd Birthday, Isaac!

Isaac's second birthday was on Thursday, the 19th. He was super excited about the big sign hung in the kitchen and the future prospect of cake. But nothing else really seemed to register about his big day. As is tradition now in our family, all birthday mornings are celebrated with fresh from the oven cinnamon rolls and a candle. Isaac also got to take blueberry muffins to school. He was so proud to take "cake" to his buddies. Later that afternoon we went to Isaac's favorite place...the mall. He loves the trains at Barnes and Noble and the play area. Daddy met us for a McDonald's dinner and the kids got to play until 8pm! It was a very busy birthday for Isaac, but full of his favorite things.

Watching him blow out a candle for the first time in his life was pretty funny. But he did it!

Sid took off Friday (His first day off since our 4-day vacation at the beginning of July!) We gave Isaac his new tool bench and he was thrilled. Of course the new hammer was the big hit.

Later on that day Grace took Isaac out for a spin in the leaves. We have plenty.

And then for the Main Event...Isaac's big party at My Gym! Friday afternoon we had 15 kids and their moms, plus Janice, Aunt L, and Sid for a big party at My Gym. In this picture Isaac is standing by his balloons that Grandpa had delivered.

I think that Happy Birthday was sang to Isaac 7 or 8 times. No kidding. But he LOVED being the center of attention.

Here is my little guy dancing right along with the big kids.

More entertainment for the kids, and more time for the moms to sit back and let someone else entertain our children for a while.

Like I was saying...loves being the center of attention!

Aunt L and Nana keep things under control...doesn't everything seem under control?

And now for the pizza and juice boxes. The perfect dinner...for anyone. Grace had a lot of her good friends at the party too. She received lots of special attention and was thrilled to eat whatever she wanted-whenever she wanted.

Isaac had fun with his juice box. At this point he'd had so many crackers, Reese's Cups, pieces of cheese and a variety of fruit- there was just no room for pizza.

But there was room for an ice cream cone clown and a cup cake. He had been asking for the ice cream for over an hour. Finally, the waiting was over.

Here we go blowing out that candle. He was ready this time and started blowing ahead of time.

Still working on it.

Finally, the candle is out. His little buddy Hampton looks on in anticipation.

The ice cream cone clowns were a HUGE hit. Sid and I made them in about 20 minutes. That's what I'm talking about.

After the party we went home and had lollipops. 'Cause we just needed more sugar.

Lovin' on Nana- cause she let's us do whatever we want to do.
And of course we had to open the presents. Grace helped out A LOT...if you know what I mean. Isaac received some great toys and gift cards. His favorite was a new truck that came with a drill that actually turns the screws on the truck.

Here we are trying out the new drill on the new built-ins. Gee, thanks, Isaac. Daddy was cringing during this activity. Didn't want any scratches...haha. Good luck with that.

Finally, this morning, Aunt L and Grace escape the chaos and do some reading together.