Christmas 2011

Christmas 2011 was a good one.  One major reason was....we did NOT have to travel!  Yahoo!  Braden's parents, Grams and Peep, made the drive up here from Louisiana with a car full of presents.  Unfortunately just before they got here, I came down with a really bad cold that lasted throughout their entire visit.  Boo.  We still managed some fun (some of it sans Mary).  Braden, Peep, Ethan, and Blythe hit up an NC State basketball game on the first night, we headed to Marbles kids museum on Friday, and Braden took his parents and Blythe and Ethan to Pullen Park and to show off his new office on Saturday.  We also made it to church on Saturday night (of which I have no pictures...I barely functioned to get to church, let alone take pics). 

Sunday was Christmas morning, and Santa actually made it to our house the night before.  Although the Indy Santa promised Ethan a bike AND drums and Blythe a purple guitar AND an American Girl doll, he did not deliver on that promise.  Ethan did get that blue bike and some Thomas trains and Blythe got that purple guitar and a microphone. Brynn scored a shopping cart and some dishes.  Here's a video of the kids checking out the living room to see if Santa came. First here's a pic of what the living room looked like after Santa came. 

Ha!  No mention of the presents Santa brought (at first)???

After a nice lunch, Grams and Peep drove off with a whole lot more room in their trunk.   And we chilled and played with new toys the rest of the day. 

The next day we headed to Durham to celebrate Christmas with the Mittendorf's.  There were some pretty exciting gifts given.  Ethan got a new train table, which he was super stoked about.  Blythe got a boombox and a cool NC State backpack on wheels. Brynn loved the Bogie look-alike she got.  Braden got a firepit (which we'll be trying out tomorrow) and I got a family membership to Marbles (yay for lots more trips to Marbles!).

Christmas shows

Something new for us this year were the Christmas shows our kids put on for us.   Ethan's class at school put on a show on Dec. 16.  They started practicing their Christmas songs even before Thanksgiving and it was really quite impressive!  They sang about a dozen songs.  Thank goodness for the one little girl in black who knew all the words to all the songs.  Ethan I think did too, but he got major stage fright and barely performed.  And with all fo the parents in the audience, many of the kids felt it necessary to run out mid-song and give hugs to their loved ones.  Ethan didn't for a long time, but since it appeared to be the "cool" thing to do, eventually he did too.  I'm so glad their day care actually celebrates Christmas and allows them to learn Christmas songs.  They all were really cute.


Next up on Dec. 21 was Blythe's Winter Show.  Because she's in a public school, it was not a Christmas show and they did not sing Christmas songs. They sang songs about snow, penguins, winter, and colors.  And skidamarink a dink a dink.  Organizing over a hundred kindergarteners is no easy task, but it turned out pretty well. 

Last up was also on Dec. 21.  Blythe's ballet show-off.  Time to actually see what we've been spending our money on every month for a once/week ballet class.  Clearly our money is not being wasted...I mean the natural grace and talent she has is so clear.  Fortunately Braden and I's lack of grace and dance talent has no affect on Blythe and must have skipped a generation.


Okay, clearly I am being sarcastic.  At this point it's about experiencing different things and having fun, which is what she is doing.  Do I think she will someday move to NYC in hopes of joining a major ballet company?  No.  But she's meeting friends and she loves to dance, so that's good enough for me.  Looking forward to the actual recital in June.

Lots of piggies!

These are Brynn's first pigtails!  She did NOT want me to put them in her hair, but when I put them in Blythe's hair, then she decided it was okay for me to put them in her hair too.

So cute!  I LOVE pigtails!

Bloomington, IN

Last Saturday Blythe, Ethan, and I hopped on a plane to Indiana.  That sentence makes it sound like an impromptu trip, but in reality I bought the tickets back in September when I found them really cheap and we've had a countdown to the trip ever since.  So first off, traveling with kids who are almost 4 and 6 is WAY easier than travelling with a baby or a 1 year old or a 2 year old.  Both Blythe and Ethan were pretty good on the plane (short of the occasion kick to the seat in front of them and the fascination with the tray tables).

We arrived in Indianapolis and Ashley, Luke, and Amy picked us up and we drove the hour down to Bloomington to see the Freel's new home.  The kids picked up right where they left off like the last 4+ months never happened.  Amy and I talk still at least 4 times a week, so of course we picked right back up too.  Their new house is beautiful and they (like us) have been very busy since they moved in painting, working in the yard, hanging stuff up, and trying to get acquainted with a new city.  Their hard work has paid off!

Ethan and Luke dove right into the endless supply of cars, trucks, and trains that the Freels have and Ashley and Blythe were out of their street clothes and into dress-up clothes in probably less than 2 minutes after getting  to the house.  Neither Blythe or Ethan have had much of that kind of play since we moved, so it was so nice to see them play so hard for the whole trip.  Makes us miss the Freels even more though.

The trip was Saturday to today (we woke up at 4:35am to catch the early morning flight).  The 3 day trip was highlighted by a visit to the Wonderlab...a science kid museum, a trip to the Indianapolis Zoo (which was decorated with lots of lights for Christmas and had an amazing Santa), some shopping, a trip to the park, and a movie outing to see The Muppets (do NOT waste your money on it!).

A few pics from the Wonderlab.  The place was super cool and the kids had a blast!

And some pics from the zoo.  Although the Santa was awesome, he did have a fault.  He told Blythe and Ethan they could each have 2 things (instead of 1).  So Blythe then also asked for an American Girl doll and Ethan asked for drums.  WTF?

And a few others from the trip:

Thank you Freels!  We had a great time and can't wait to come back!

Christmas shopping

So I have nearly finished all of my Christmas shopping and have purchased 2 things in a store.  EVERYTHING else has been purchased online and I am eagerly awaiting many of my purchased items.  Shopping online is SO much less stressful...why doesn't everybody buy everything online?  One of the things I purchased in the store was a guitar for Blythe.  I tried to buy it online on Cyber Monday, but had no luck.  So I had to go to Toys R Us to get it (which is only 5 minutes from our house).  The other was a gift for Brynn which was much cheaper at Toys R Us than on Amazon.

Problem is, I purchased a PINK guitar.  And as previous post indicated, Blythe has asked for a PURPLE guitar.  Now, normally I would not mess with exchanging it.  It's not like she's really gonna care.  In fact, I asked her if Santa brought her a PINK guitar, what would she think.  She made a face, but then said she would  still like it.

But I got to thinking about it and that whole write-a-letter-to-Santa-and-he-will-write-a-letter-back thing may cause issue.  She wrote in the letter that she wanted a purple guitar.  What if he writes her back and tells her he will get that for her?  SO - back to Toys R Us I went today.  Good lord.  Everybody and their mother was there today at lunch time returning things or picking up site to store items or trying to call every freaking Toys R Us this side of the Mississippi in search for who knows what.  I almost settled on pink right then and there.  But then some assistant manager finally came to the front and yelled to page all available cashiers, which appeared to snap everyone out of their stand-around-and-do-nothing-but-look-busy attitude, so after that I made it to the front relatively quickly.  Geez.  She better not change her mind to pink now.

In other news....the Walmart closest to our house finally has added a grocery section.  So that knocks off 4 minutes each way of my bi-weekly Walmart trip.  Yahoo!  It's the little things people....

Getting into the Christmas spirit

Now that it's December, we are in full fledged Christmas spirit.  The house is now completely decorated for Christmas (Braden finished the outside lights today, so will have to post decorating pics later).  We put up our 2 fake Christmas trees.  I need to plug in the pine tree scent my mom gave me, so it feels sort of like real trees. I saw a sign at one of the places selling real trees that said "Support North Carolina not China.  Buy a NC tree".  I thought that was a good sign, though it didn't change my mind.

Last night we headed to Durham for the "Santa Train" at the life and science museum.  We met up with Doug, Lynette, Ada, and Harper there and then afterwards went for dinner.  Although it was almost 60 degrees yesterday, the temperature did fall pretty fast, but still wasn't TOO bad.  They had hot chocolate for everyone, you could make your own reindeer food, and Blythe got her face painted.  Brynn enjoyed her free candy cane. The train ride was fun.  About halfway through, we stopped at an area that was all decorated with lights and Santa was there.  He went to each and every seat to ask each kid what they wanted for Christmas.  When he got to Blythe, she told him she wanted a purple guitar (despite us trying to convince her she wanted a PINK guitar).  When he got to mine and Ethan's seat, Ethan told him he wanted a blue bike.  That was after Brynn freaked out and yelled "NOOOO!!!" right in Santa's face.  This picture was taken right after that (notice Brynn as far away from Santa as she could possibly get):

After we left the Santa area, the kids had to keep their eye out for Rudolph's red nose, because Rudolph had run away earlier in the day.  Fortunately, the kids spotted the red nose and told Rudolph to go home.  Anyway, it was a good family affair to get into the spirit of Christmas.

A couple of weeks ago, Grams sent us some pre-printed Santa letters for the kids to fill out, color, and put stickers on.  Fortunately for us, the town of Cary has a "Santa Mailbox" that has been designated by Santa as a pickup spot for all letters to Santa.  So today the kids filled theirs out and and we went up to the Town Hall to find the Santa Mailbox.  Now we just anxiously await his reply.

November catch up

Man, what a sucky blogger I am.  6 posts in November?  Seriously?  That's right up there with July and August.  Was I as busy as I was in July and August?  Uh....hell no.  I seriously hope I am NEVER ever ever again in my entire life as busy as I was in July and August of this year.  Actually, things finally settled down in November.  I no longer had a worker at my house almost every single day.  Only a few days in November.  I actually started to get caught up in my job (the one that pays me money).  Imagine that.  I started planning for swim camps next summer.  I even started Christmas shopping (ALL online except I went to ToysRUs 2 days ago because I couldn't get their website to play nice with me on Cyber Monday).  We found a church we really like and will be joining later this month.

We went to a few football games.  NC State basketball games started up.  Went to 2 home swim meets.  Went to the Raleigh Christmas parade (that is held every year BEFORE Thanksgiving).  Went to Pullen Park, which is right next door to NC State, but has been closed for 2 years for renovations.  It is the 5th oldest amusement park in the country.  Let's not think Six Flags though.  It has a carousel, kiddie boats, a train, and peddle boats.  And they souped up their playground and swings.  The new additions are very nice and each ride is only $1.  We'll be going there a lot.

I also spent the month trying to figure out what causes Brynn's eczema break outs.  I was convinced it was food-related, but it doesn't appear that it is.  But it drove me crazy all month!

Brynn also had her 18 month checkup, where everything checked out fine and she is exactly 50th percentile in height, weight, and head circumference.

We also headed to my parents' house for Thanksgiving, which was quite relaxing (as relaxing as can be expected with 3 kiddos and then 2 more when Doug and Lynette arrived).

So why didn't I blog much in November?  Blame my Kindle.  I think I read 3 books in November.  It consumes me completely when I get sucked into another book.  And I'm reading another now (not on the Kindle though).  Maybe my New Year's resolution should be to blog more and read less.  And eat more junk food and stop exercising.  Okay, so maybe I should just take breaks between books.

So there you have it, now I'm all caught up and can start fresh with December.  Here are some pics from the month of November:

The kids playing Ride Horses - Giddy Up!

Forgot to mention I also painted the dining room

Kiddie boats at Pullen Park

Blythe and Anna Grace on carousel at Pullen Park

The kids made masks at Thanksgiving

Harper and Brynn cozy in the Cozy Coupe

Holloway answering service

Last night after I picked the kids up from school, we came home and played outside.  I was trying to hook up a light outside so the kids could play in the dark and of course, since I wasn't holding Brynn, she was crying.  Ethan went inside to get a snack and through the chaos I didn't hear the phone ring.

Never fear...my personal answering service was available inside (since he was getting a snack).  He came out some time later and told me someone called on the phone for me.  Good thing we have caller ID because "someone" is a little vague.  I figured it was a telemarketer, but Ethan said it was Daddy.  He didn't say anything about the conversation that took place other than that he talked to whoever it was.

So I checked the caller ID and saw that it was my co-worker.  I had called her from the house line earlier in the day, so she must have just called me back at that number.  So anyway, I asked her today if she got the privilege of speaking with my 3 year old.  She said yes, she called (not realizing what time it was) and he answered.  She asked if she could speak to me and he said "No".  And then he hung up.

Looks like we're going to have to have a discussion about phone etiquette :)

Ethan and Brynn

I love that Ethan and Brynn play so well together (most of the time).  Ethan really is a great big brother and lets Brynn get her way almost as much as she'd like to.

Here they are watching Dora together:

And being silly together:

Brynn has learned how to say "Cheese!" now when I break out the camera.  She looks so pretty in this picture, but also looks so much older.

Indoor Soccer

Last Saturday (or actually 2 Saturdays ago) Ethan started indoor soccer.

Here's what's great about indoor soccer:
1. It's for 3-4 year olds and does NOT require parent involvement
2. There are 2 coaches and they are actually making an attempt to teach the kids how to play soccer
3. There are no games, which means I don't have to bring snacks
4. It's indoors, which means no cleats
5. No cleats means no shin guards
6. There are no teams, therefore no jerseys I have to buy
7. Ethan has a lot of learning to do, starting with learning that soccer means no hands on the ball.  In the first class they had an exercise where the coach asked them to get all of the balls from one goal clear across the field to the other goal.  They should have been a little more specific as Ethan thought that was pretty darn easy. Just walk over there, pick up the ball, and carry it to the other goal.
8. Brynn LOVES watching Ethan play soccer.  And waving at him.  And yelling "Ethan! Ethan!" at him.
9. Ethan loves it

What's not so great about indoor soccer:
1. I have to entertain Blythe and Brynn for 50 minutes in a very small space
2. There are 2 coaches, but probably 2 too many kids.  And there's one kid who just cries the whole time distracting the other kids.  But the parents keep making him stay out there.
3. It's 20 minutes away and at 9am on a Saturday.  Means we got to get our butts moving in the morning!
4. If Ethan doesn't hear Brynn shouting at him or see him waving at her, she cries
5. Considering it doesn't come with a jersey or any other form of equipment, it's not all that cheap.

As you can see, the good list outweighs the bad.  Especially #9 on the good list.

And look....he's a natural! (he's wearing blue on the right side of the field)

Blythe's Parent/Teacher conference

Yesterday we had our very first ever parent/teacher conference.  Okay, actually we had one when Blythe was 2 (she had a really great teacher at the time).  But anyway, first one in public schools.  Since we have 3 kids, it's not feasible for both of us to attend, so Braden went to the conference.  Here is the report:

• Blythe is doing great in her writing
• Blythe is very interested in reading and is doing very well
• Blythe is a natural leader and the other kids listen when Blythe talks
• Blythe is popular
• Blythe talks too much

Okay, so nothing all together enlightening there.  I'm going to guess we'll get generally the same feedback at every parent/teacher conference we ever have for Blythe.  

In general, she has good behavior.  She's on "green" most days at school, but occasionally gets put on "yellow" because she's talking too much when she's not supposed to.  In ballet on Wednesday the instructor told me that  she has to separate Blythe and her friend Anna because if she doesn't, they talk too much and don't listen.

I guess the girl just has a lot to say.  

In school, if they are on "green" for the whole week, they get to pick out a "treasure" from the treasure box.  This motivated Blythe the first month or so of school, but now not so much.  I need to find something at home to reward her if she is on green all week that might be better than a pencil from the treasure box.  Ideas are welcome!

Halloween

It's ridiculous how much candy we have in our house right now.  Because:
1. My kids went trick or treating in my parents neighborhood on Saturday
2. Ethan and Brynn had Halloween parties at school.  The note said to bring in some candy and a treat for their party (all optional though).  So I sent Ethan with some Halloween fruit rollups (1 for each of the kids in his class) and 2 pieces of candy per kid in his class.  Brynn same thing except instead of fruit rollups, it was fruit snacks.  I must have missed the fine print (written in invisible ink) that said "put together really awesomely cute goodie bags and include at least 15-20 items per goody bag.  Make custom name tags for each child in the class and it's optional, but recommended, you have Halloween photos taken of your child and make gift tags from the photos".  Seriously!  WTF?  These other parents work full-time too.  Where do they find the time?
3. We have LOTS of kids in our neighborhood, so I bought LOTS of candy to give out (in our last neighborhood we would usually run out of candy at some point and I'd have to start giving away the candy our kids trick or treated for).  But this year it rained.  Boo for rain on Halloween.  It rained from 5pm until about 9pm with a few minutes here and there of no rain.  Therefore, I think the really little kids stuck to only a few houses instead of venturing out in their wagons to rest of the neighborhood.  So we ended up with quite a bit of the candy we started with.
4. Our kids went trick-or-treating in the rain.  They held umbrellas and away they went.  They hit up quite a few houses before they got too cold.  I think they did pretty well...basically all good candy and not any crappy or weird candy.

They were pretty proud of the costumes they picked out this year.  Blythe loved the makeup job I did for her (after I googled "Easy witch makeup for kids").  I love Google.  Makes my kids think I know EVERYTHING (which of course, I do....I just reference Google for verification).  Ethan's face is also a shade of yellow.  Yellow doesn't quite cover the face like green face paint does.

And with Daddy (as scary, mean-looking guy) and Brynn (as a beautiful butterfly):

I should clarify point #4 above.  By "kids went trick-or-treating", I mean Ethan and Blythe.  Other than the picture above where she is eating a fruit snack, Brynn spent the rest of the evening like this:

which meant no trick-or-treating for her.  Not if I had to carry the screaming, wiggly toddler while carrying an umbrella and a candy bag.  It's not like she needed to bring home any MORE candy.

Boo at the Zoo

My parents live about a half hour from the NC Zoo in Asheboro.  It's a beautiful zoo and it HUGE.  I've been a couple of times, but last year heard of their Halloween event, Boo at the Zoo.  So this year we decided to go.  The weather looked better on Sunday, so Saturday we drove to my parents house and spent the night there before heading to the zoo on Sunday.  Worked out well because my parents neighborhood had their big Halloween event on Saturday night.  It consisted of a hay ride, some trick or treating, and food and games at the clubhouse.  The event was free for kids 6 and under (therefore all 5 of my parents grandkids were free!).  Suckers.

Brynn didn't so much love the hayride, but the other kids had lots of fun.  We had to break out some secondary costumes so as not to mess up our real Halloween costumes.  And it was kind of cold, so had to get some WARM costumes as well.

Blythe was a cowgirl, Brynn was an owl, Ethan was a monkey, Ada was a skeleton, and Harper was a chicken.

Sunday we headed to Boo at the Zoo.  We didn't get to see ALL of the animals at the zoo (since that zoo is SO big), but we hit most of the big ones.  The best ones were the chimpanzees (because there was a baby/toddler monkey and she was SO cute!) and the ostriches, zebras, and giraffes.  The last 3 were all together and at one point the zebras were chasing the ostriches and the giraffes were chasing the zebras.  They were playing!  Those giraffes were running all over the place.  Giraffes are incredible to watch running. They look like they are floating on air!  I think my parents said something like, "Wow, they really put on a show for us!".  So the next day, Blythe and Ethan were pretending to be the ostriches and said to me, "remember the show we saw?"  I looked lost, so they said, "with the ostriches and the giraffes?".  Guess they  figured that was a planned show!  

Anyway, Boo at the Zoo was a success!

The back yard transformation

Our back yard transformation is (nearly) complete!  Just missing the door in the screened porch to our new patio.

Here is the before picture (which of course is the worst possible picture I could find of it...fallen tree and all):

Here's what we did (or had done for some things):
1. Had fallen tree removed from house
2. put up a fence
3. removed sticks, branches, vines, weeds from yard and natural area
4. had 4 trees removed
5. used wood chips from 4 trees and spread in natural area (removed some pine needles first)
6. painted inside and outside of screened porch
7. painted floor of screened porch
8. added a patio with seating wall
9. put in sod
10. planted a new crepe myrtle tree
11. planted a few new plants between house and patio

AND......(drum roll please).....

Looks a tad better, don't you think?

Back from Temecula

Well we made it back from our trip to Temecula (on Sunday).  Friday night was the wedding (Braden's best buddy from high school).  BEAUTIFUL wedding and beautiful location.

It was the first wedding I've ever been to where they served drinks BEFORE the ceremony (and afterwards of course).  The wedding was supposed to start at 4pm and people were still hanging around sipping wine at probably 10 after.  I guess that's how things are done in California?  Just that "we'll get around to it at some point" relaxed mentality.  Whatever.  Works for me.

The next day we were taking the red eye flight back and so our flight left at 10:30pm out of San Diego.  So, we needed to find something to do to fill our whole day.  I've already been to the San Diego zoo twice, but I had never been to Sea World (not any of the Sea World sites).  So Braden was a sport and took me to Sea World.  So weird being there with no kids.  In some ways good (no meltdowns, less potty breaks, no stroller, etc) but there were so many things we wished the kids could have seen.  So we took LOTS of video clips of the shows and sent some back home for the kids to see.  Then we showed them the rest when we got home.  Anyway, Sea World was awesome.  LOVED the Shamu shows and the Dolphin show.  Definitely would love to take the kids sometime.

Did not so much love the 10:30 red eye flight home.  But overall, was a really nice trip and so happy to have been able to spend some much needed alone time with my hubby.

Hot Air Balloon ride

So as I mentioned before, we did basically no planning on things to do for this trip.  Literally the day before we left I went on Google and searched for "things to do in Temecula".  Wine Tasting came up, which I already knew, and Hot Air Balloon rides.  So I thought that would be really cool.  Figured we would wait to get here and see what sort of deals there were.  I've always wanted to go up in a hot air balloon, so I was pretty excited about the possibility.

As soon as we got to the hotel on Wednesday, we found a place and made a reservation for this morning.  You have to meet there at 6:30am, which is no biggee since we are used to being 3 hours ahead and have not adjusted to west coast time.  The mornings here are cold, so we dressed in layers and met up at the winery where we needed to go.  From there, we got in a van and drove out to a launch site (a dirt field).  The guys there got the balloon laid out and filled it up.  We all climbed in (there were 10 people in our balloon plus the pilot) and just like that we started to float up.  It was spectacular!

They don't normally have low/thin clouds around here in the morning (usually no clouds...think desert).  But this morning they did and it was beautiful.  Sometimes we would go down really low (to the point where you could almost pick the grapefruits off the grapefruit trees) and sometimes we would go way up above the clouds (to about 2200 feet).  It was incredible how the wind would move the balloon in different directions depending on how high we were.  The balloon ride lasted about an hour and 20 minutes I think.  We had some issues trying to land near the other balloon in our group.  The winds changed after they landed and so we ended up on the other side of the street, but our pilot got us maneuvered up over the power lines and across the street.  Just takes experience and lots of patience I guess! 

Here are pics from our ride: