Thanksgiving 2013

Happy (late) Thanksgiving from good ol' North Carolina! We just celebrated the most fun, most blessed, most delicious Turkey Day ever, thanks to the fact that Jon's wonderful parents flew in from Washington for a week long visit to help us celebrate!

 They took a red-eye from Seattle on Thursday night the 21st, and arrived in Raleigh early Friday afternoon. After recuperating a bit on Saturday morning (well, actually, we made them stay home and babysit the kids while Jon and I did some power Christmas shopping all afternoon-- child-free!), we loaded up the car and headed to the Festival of Trees at the Pinehurst Resort.

 We immediately bee-lined it to Santa hoping to beat the rush, and we were able to walk right in. Oh. Man. My kids were SO excited to see Santa and tell him what they wanted! Zach insisted I write up his Christmas list so he could give it to him, so that's what Santa's holding.

 It was a very good thing I obliged Zach, because he totally clammed up and didn't make a peep the rest of the time. I think he was a little star struck! Lucy however, was more than happy to chat with the big guy and remembered to tell him everything she wants...at the moment...because the list keeps growing and changing every time we hear it... 

 Leah (and her awesome tutu, I might add) joined the party and she really liked Santa for the most part! Zach and Lucy were super excited for her to finally get to meet him.

Not so sure about sitting on his knee, but she didn't cry, so that's a success in my book!

 After Santa we walked around the trees at the festival which were BEAUTIFUL, and Zach found his favorite tree which was the super hero one, totally decked out with all things Avengers and Spiderman.

This was the Pinehurst Resort tree, which was auctioning off for $10,000 buckaroos-- so I'm thinking it must have included tickets to the US Open next summer.

 Lucy picked her favorite tree, which was a hot pink Barbie tree with toooooons of girly-girl things to play with! Surprise anyone?

 Leah didn't really care which tree was her favorite, she was just totally happy someone gave her a sucker for being so cute.

 All three kiddos decked out in their new Christmas shirts. Lucy kept getting upset that we were "skipping" Thanksgiving by doing Christmas stuff already-- and it was kind of hard to explain why. I guess she doesn't understand commercialism yet.

 All five of us outside the resort. Cheese! (We had a fiasco trying to get my new camera to work, so don't ask why it's so blurry! Aaaahh!)

 Grandma and Grandpa with the little guys.

 The famous Pinehurst Resort-- host of the US Open in 2014. It was very nice inside and all in all, it set us in the right mood to start celebrating the holiday season! We headed to dinner that night at Olive Garden and splurged on some really delicious desserts, thanks to Grandma and Grandpa.

 Zach and Lucy both went to school on Monday, but that afternoon Zach "helped" Grandma (I think he assembled 1 or 2 before he left to play) make some cute turkey cookies to share at his Thanksgiving Feast at preschool the next day.

 It was so fun to see Zach-O in his element at school! They painted Indian shirts and his Indian name was "Playing Duck," and he was very excited Lucy got to come with me (she played hooky from school) and share their Thanksgiving soup.

 Here is Zach and his buddy Hudson. I have a picture of Lucy and her friend Brooke Lynn (Hudson's sister) EXACTLY like this! Crazy how those 2 years have flown by. Anyway, the kids got to go bowling with Grandma and Grandpa that afternoon, and Wednesday was spent cooking up a storm in the kitchen, going to a matinee of the new Disney movie "Frozen," and celebrating Lucy's birthday a week early with dinner at Texas Roadhouse. That night mom and dad got their own movie night and went to see "Catching Fire," which was awesome!    

 Turkey Day dawned bright and beautiful and we celebrated with a delicious feast! Grandma and Grandpa made the turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, and rolls. Yum! I helped with the salads, yams, and pies-- and it was banana cream all the way, baby.

 Gathered round the table for a delicious meal! Even Leah got to do her part.

 That night we decorated gingerbread houses and watched "Despicable Me 2"-- which was the perfect cap to a great, relaxing Thanksgiving. We are awfully grateful for all of our many, many blessings! 

 Friday rolled around all too soon, so we headed up to Raleigh to take Grandma and Grandpa to the hotel, who were flying out early the next morning. We did some Black Friday shopping at Target (which wasn't too crazy, thankfully), and then headed to the Crabtree Valley mall in Durham (which WAS totally crazy)!

 We enjoyed one last supper together at the Cheesecake Factory, and shared an amazing brownie dessert, which Leah was totally into! She actually sat still for most of the meal, which was kind of a Christmas miracle. I guess she knew that dessert was on the line.

 Then we took Lucy down to the Build-A-Bear for her big 7th birthday surprise-- to get to pick a stuffed animal to make. We always let our kids pick one big special activity for their birthday (a party with friends, maybe a movie, or a trip to the zoo, etc.), and Lucy chose this. 

 She picked "Twilight Sparkle" and was all set to stuff her and pick a cute outfit. Lucy is quite the fashionista!

 Leah decided to stay busy by dragging this poor stuffed reindeer around the store on a leash. Thank heavens for Grandma and Grandpa who watched her so we could focus on Lucy! About 30 minutes later Mt. Leah erupted in the car, so we timed it just about right.

 Doing the "heart ceremony" where they make good wishes for their new little friend. It was really fun for Lucy to get to pick and make her own toy. She loved it! 

They printed off a birth certificate, boxed it up in a cute little house, and we were on our way! We had such a FABULOUS week with Grandma and Grandpa celebrating Thanksgiving it was very sad to see them go. The week flew by for everyone, and poor Zach (who was shown 7 fingers at the beginning of their stay) didn't realize each day knocked one of those fingers down, so he was very upset when their stay dwindled to just one day left-- and he kept holding up 7 fingers! They had a blast being spoiled rotten and given lots of love and attention and many, many besitos! 

November News!

Believe it or not, November is already halfway over. We have been totally excited about the month of November too-- when my friend was over on Halloween night, Lucy said, "Tomorrow is going to be the BEST DAY EVER!" Confused, my friend asked, "Don't you mean right now is going to be the best day ever because it's Halloween?!?" Lucy replied, "No, I mean November 1st, because it means I get to see my Grandma and Grandpa this month!" And that certainly is better than Halloween!

 The leaves turn SO beautiful right at the beginning of November, but don't last very long. The tree right in front of our house turns this amazing fiery red, but it's so hard to capture fall colors on camera. Oh well. The kids are still cute dressed up and ready for church!

 This past Saturday we took a picnic and walk along the reservoir trail in Southern Pines, while the kids rode their bikes. They had a great time and the weather was a balmy 70 degrees, so it was nice to enjoy some fresh air. I'd prefer it a little cooler this time of year, but I'm sure I'll be eating my words when we end up somewhere cold and snowy in another year or two.

 The trail is about 2 miles long with some elevation gain, and Lucy was a total stud and rode her bike the whole way around without complaining or getting tired. Zach on the other hand made it about halfway and then Jon and I had to take turns pushing Leah in the stroller and Zach on his bike.

 Ahhhhh, life in the swamp. Perfect breeding ground for mosquitoes, snakes, and spiders. And speaking of snakes, that very afternoon Jon had to remove a 2 ft. long corn snake (?We think?) from our very own backyard! At least there are no gators, right?

 Leah sat awesome in her stroller the entire time, mostly thanks to the chocolate chip cookie we sneaked her before we started.

 Ain't she purty?

 After our little outdoors excursion, we checked out the new Aldi grocery store just opened up in Aberdeen. Just goes to show you how starved people are for anything new to do around here-- but last Saturday at its grand opening the line to get in was out the door!! It's just an Aldi, people! Imagine what a Target or Toys R Us would do to the excitement level around here...

 We decided to cap the night off with a little bonfire and the quintessential roasting of the s'mores.

 Zach was more than happy to oblige by eating his weight in chocolate. I have to keep an eye on him whenever the good stuff is out in the open-- he'd mowed through about 1 1/2 Hershey's bars before I caught him red-handed!

 Leah also had no problem contributing to the depletion of our marshmallow and chocolate supplies.

 Jon the Mountain Man taming the fire! He is hands-down the world's BEST marshmallow roaster. I don't know how he does it, but he gets them perfectly golden on every surface, every time. They sploosh magnificently! 

 All dressed up for church in her new birthday dress!

She's still not walking, and surprisingly I'm really glad. I think if it were the other two I would be kind of annoyed-- like, "Come on and walk already!" since she's sooooo close. But since she's the baby, at least for awhile, I'm glad she's content to just crawl around the house following me wherever I go.:) Happy November!

It Was Scary, But It Wasn't Halloween!

Scary Story No. 1:

This is a black widow spider. Want to know how I'm so certain it's the infamous black widow? Easy; I saw one. The forecast was calling for freezing temperatures on Thursday night, so as I was pulling out my petunias from the flower pots by the front door in preparation, one of the above little guys scurried out right next to my hand to say "hello." I know they're pretty common in the South East, but this is the first one I've seen. Naturally I didn't even have my shoes on to step on it, and my little Leah was playing right next to me, but at the sight of its tell-tale crimson hourglass I smashed it with a nearby broom and that was that. It just makes me sooooo much more wary to leave our strollers and beach stuff, etc., in the dark corners of the garage! Eek!

Scary Story No. 2:

The other night while I was cooking dinner, I assigned Zachary the task of watching Baby Leah. That was probably my first mistake. I had just finished pulling out some raw chicken from a Ziploc baggie, and chopped a few of the fattier pieces off and then thrown it all into the trash. Next thing I knew, I turned around to find Leah playing with the sticky chicken juice bag and she had the pieces of raw chicken stuffed in her mouth! GAG! I was totally freaked out that she was going to get food poisoning or salmonella, but the 36 hour incubation period has long since passed and gratefully, no sickies! Phew! That girl is unequivocally the cause of all these gray hairs I keep finding...

Happy Birthday Leah!

Happy Birthday to our beautiful, indomitable, Southern belle-- Miss Leah Gene! One year ago today, after a very looooong sleepless night for mom and dad, this little lady made her way into the world at 4:47 a.m. and joined our family.

  

This is one of the first pictures we took of Leah, and it turned out to be quite telling. Here she is, literally minutes after birth and she's wide-eyed, alert, and facing life head on. Not much has changed!

And here she is exactly one year later. It's amazing how you can love such a little person so, so much. She has spent the last 12 months bringing joy, laughter, spunk, and attitude to our home. I have to admit, I was a pretty content mommy with just Lucy and Zach to take care of, but I knew we always said we wanted "one more." I remember feeling so nervous back when I was pregnant with Zach-- that "what if" I didn't love my second child as much as you adore that first baby, and "what if" I can't give my first the same amount of attention when the new baby comes, and they suffer as a result of it? I remember Jon's Grandma Cardon gave me some pretty profound words of wisdom. She said, "Always remember that love never divides, it only multiplies." And that has been true not once, not twice, but three times over. I think our capacity to love only expands with each little baby! When I see my kids playing with each other, and looking out for one another, it melts my heart, and Leah has absolutely been a missing piece in our family puzzle!

 We started the day like any other: Up at 6:30 a.m. to get the older two kiddos ready for school and out the door by 7:15 a.m.  After a nap and a trip to the gym, we headed to lunch at Panera (mommy's special treat on this day, since one year ago she was practically a zombie). Leah loved the broccoli cheddar soup! 

 We had to wait until daddy got home before the festivities could officially begin, which was much, much harder on Lucy and Zach, than it was on Leah who was mostly oblivious to what was going on. We started with presents first! 

 She definitely liked the ripping-the-paper-to-shreds part, as she causes complete and total mayhem wherever she goes these days, but when she discovered there were TOYS beneath the paper she got very excited!

 With a little help from Lucy and Zach she got them all unwrapped and was super excited about her stuffed dog. She LOVES animals-- especially dogs. Look at that little grin with all those teeth!

Playing with her new birthday present-- the balls pop out of the top and roll out the mouth. Oh yeah! **insert Vector hip thrust**

 Time for cake and ice cream! I'm almost embarrassed to post the pictures of my kids' birthday cakes-- cake decorating is obviously not my forte, but it goes into the blog book for them to see many moons down the road, so here it is. Jon came home from work and asked, "Why did you make her a reindeer?" Guh. It's a d-o-g.  The cookies on top are floppy ears, not antlers!

 Oh well. It might not have been a good-looking cake, but I made up for it with a good-tasting one. Singing Happy Birthday! 

 I knew Leah would have no problems feeding herself the cake-- look at those two-fisted handfuls of cake being shoved in her mouth! Atta girl! She has definitely got a sweet tooth.

 And not even five minutes later.... Party's over! Cake chucked overboard onto the floor, and the kid's ready to dance on top of the table.

 Zach-O and Lucy liked my cake, and Lucy helped with the decorations. They are such nice siblings-- they absolutely adore Leah and she has them wrapped around her little finger. She figured out pretty quickly that if she squeals, and squeals loudly, she gets whatever she wants!

 A quick bath to wash off all the chocolate and it's off to bed for the birthday girl!

 HAPPY BIRTHDAY LEAH! I am so thankful to Heavenly Father for the opportunity to be this little girl's mama-- we are truly blessed to have her as a part of our family.

And one more for fun since I'm walking down memory lane tonight. Isn't she precious?!? (Don't mind me in the background-- I'm just gettin' ready to have my epidural ripped out of my spine, thanks). Love you, Leah!

Halloween 2013

Happy Halloween! Seems like Halloween was slowly beginning to take over our lives-- so I'm kind of relieved it's finally November. Now we have a couple of weeks to get back to our normal routine before Thanksgiving and Christmas hit!  

 Wednesday evening we had a pizza party and carved the pumpkins we got at the pumpkin patch last weekend. Unfortunately they were a bit mushy (it's been hot here! In the upper 70's all week), but Lucy was determined to do hers all by herself-- and true to her word she mucked it out and poked the holes. 

 I finished my jack o' lantern (in honor of Leah's little grin) fairly quickly, and Jon finished Zach's Batman pumpkin in a snap, so meanwhile we watched "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" cartoon while Lucy finished poking her holes. Leah loved the Headless Horseman part-- it had very exciting music!

 Jon did the carving on Lucy's beautiful owl pumpkin, and all 3 turned out great! I think one of my favorite scents of Halloween is that faintly cooked pumpkin smell when you've left a burning candle inside for a little while. Reminds me of my childhood!

 On Halloween night we threw a party and invited our friends the Durtschi's over. I hardly ever go all out on things like this, but I got excited about some of the things I'd seen on Pinterest, so the kids and I had a blast getting ready. Here are our "Witchy Fingers"--sugar cookies with cocoa powder dusted over, and a slivered almond for a fingernail.

 Chocolate dipped Oreo cookie brains and eyeballs. 

 Donut Vampires! 

 Monster Mouths with apples, peanut butter, and marshmallows (probably the only slightly healthy item on the menu).

Mummy Dogs and "Three Witches Potions" (cream soda and root beer). We also had taco soup which I loaded with veggies to make up for the complete lack of vitamins in this meal, ha, ha. It's only once a year, right?

Poor Zach could not wait to dig in, and asked like every 20 min. all day long if he could have an eyeball, or a donut, etc. I had some friends post on Facebook yesterday how much they hate Halloween, but I love that Halloween is so fun for kids! I really don't have a problem with all the candy and costumes, etc. I guess it does make more work for me, but it's nice to see my kids happy!

 Lucy and Lizzie drinking their potions and chowing down on mummy dogs before the main event.

All the kids lined up and rearin' to go trick or treating. So cute!

 Lucy and Lizzie are two very beautiful witches!

 My little Minion! She was very tired and lasted about 2 houses in the stroller, and then was a good sport as long as she was being carried. Jon had competed in a 6 mile "Zombie Rucksack Run" on base earlier that day with the Special Forces guys, where they have to run with a backpack weighing 30 lbs., so he was exhausted. And he finished in 3rd place. I know. He's awesome. But it meant I got stuck carrying Leah on our 90 minute trick or treating trek, and she's heavy! I kept remembering last year when I was hugely pregnant and lugging that kid around, so it put it in perspective. And then she was born 1 week later! 

 My little ghosties all set to cover some serious ground. I love Zach's action pose!

Aaaaand 2 miles, 90 minutes later. Zach ended up riding in the stroller, but Lucy and Lizzie walked, er, or ran at breakneck speed the whole time and were absolutely exhausted by the time we finished. The houses in our neighborhood are seriously far apart-- so they had to work for that candy! You can see how full their buckets are though, so it was worth it. Happy Halloween!