Welcome 2015!

We had a GREAT week! The week after Christmas is almost always as busy for us as the week of Christmas, thanks mostly to our wedding anniversary on the 30th, as well as the New Year's holiday.

Jonathan and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary on Tuesday. It's crazy how quickly the years have flown by! I remember our wedding day like it was yesterday-- and now one DECADE later, 8 of those years living solo on the East coast, plus three adorable, feisty children, homes in four different states (two apartments and two houses), three university degrees (one a doctorate) and four graduations (one a residency), 4 1/2 years of military service, five cars, two fish, countless church callings, definitely sicknesses (ahhh, the cries of kids puking in the night!) and definitely good health, thousands of adventures in over 32 states (whoa!!), and one more epic move across the country looming dead ahead, and I realize we're really doing it. Life is hard. Marriage is hard. But it is also really, really good. And I am SO thankful we've not only survived 10 of the hardest years ever, fraught with lots of ups and downs, but we've also thrived-- and I love our life together!    

 Not surprisingly, Tuesday was mostly like any other day. We woke up, Jon went to work, the kids and I ran errands, and the Traverse broke down. Again. For like the tenth time in the six years we've owned it. We took it in to the shop only to find out it needed a new catalytic converter, costing somewhere in the neighborhood of $800 to fix. And this, on top of the $4,000 we'd already poured into it in 2014 alone and Jon was NOT a happy camper. So we did the only impulsive, straw-that-breaks-the-camels-back thing we could have done in that moment and traded it in! We got a SCREAMIN' deal on a 2015 Toyota Sienna minivan, thanks to the fact that it was literally almost the last day of the year and they were pretty desperate, plus we traded in Jon's new Ford Focus as well, and they took our Traverse AS-IS-- busted catalytic converter, busted windshield, busted chair and all. In the words of my Dad to Jonathan on our wedding day: "She's your problem now." (That's what we said to the car dealer, and how appropriate seeing that this is the anniversary post).    

So here it is in all its glory: The new family minivan! Although it was a bit impulsive, we both felt really, really good about the decision once it was done. We're now down to two cars instead of three, cheaper insurance, much cheaper car payment, and ((hopefully)) a more reliable car!!  Let's hope that little white Toyota with its 200,000+ miles can last just a little bit longer... 

And as if to reassure us of our change in good car-fortunes, this little baby popped up in my email account the very next morning. HOORAY!! A lot of blood, sweat, and tears (okay, okay, no tears but a lot of laughing at myself) went into the earning of this piece of paper! I taped my class four days before Christmas, sick with a cold and a fever, with almost no voice, right after teaching Body Pump, so it was on a wing and prayer that we submitted it. Thank goodness it's done!

 Bring on the New Year's Eve party!! Jon had to work that morning, but that evening we set up a nacho bar with some fresh pico de gallo and some yummy 7-layer dip our friends the Bassetts brought. Throw in some Martinelli's and a batch of homemade Smart Cookies and we had ourselves a par-tay!!

 Zach, Leah, and Hermione, er, I mean Lucy, enjoying their nachos while waiting for the Bassetts to arrive!

After dinner we headed over to downtown Southern Pines for the annual "Pinecone Drop" at a very family-friendly time of 8 p.m. 

Here it is! The Pinecone in the Sky! And brrrrr! It was really cold.

 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2,1... Who doesn't love a good countdown?? We were all a little confused as to why the mascot was that Western-looking-cowboy-man-on-stilts, since this is obviously NOT the wild, wild west?? But there he was in the thick of the action! 

 Farewell 2014, you were indeed good to us and we're certainly thankful for that, but also looking forward to what 2015 brings! It's been a date floating around in our heads for many, many years, as it's always signified the END of our dental school/military payback journey....

 We danced, we partied, we were merry, and the kids threw confetti and made a HUGE mess! Here they are with their friends Jane and Grant Bassett. 

Sadly, not one of us made it to midnight, but that was in anticipation of our adventure the next day to Great Wolf Lodge. We got to christen the minivan on its maiden voyage to Charlotte. How exciting! We LOVE the new DVD system, tons of extra room, automatic sliding doors, navigation system, leather seats plus heated front seats, etc. That car is one sweet mom-mobile! 

 And about 1 1/2 hours later we made it to the CTL! And the place was boppin'! They told Jon in the 30+ people check-in line that the place was sold-out. Happy New Year!

 The decorations inside the lodge were FAB! And although it was about 10x busier than when we went last spring, we got such a sweet military discount on our room we didn't really mind.

We got checked in around 1:30 p.m. and headed straight for the indoor water park, and all things considered it wasn't actually that busy. The kids played for a couple of hours and did all of the slides, and then we headed back to our room to wash up and go out to dinner. I picked On The Border, because I needed my Mexican-fix, and their stuffed, deep-fried avocado is amazing!!

 We took the kids down to the lobby for the Bedtime Story Show, and Leah loved it. She sat mesmerized and didn't want it to be over. They even had real snow fall from the ceiling at the end!

 After a fairly decent night's sleep, we headed right back to the water park. This is the baby part, which Leah spent most of her time in, and thanks to Lucy and Zach's help, mom and dad got to just sit and watch for awhile.

 The big bucket drop is there at the top, right in the middle of the water park, and it was hands-down Lucy's favorite thing. As soon as the warning-bell started clanging that the bucket was ready to tip, she'd book it over there and stand right underneath where it spilled. She could spend all day in the water and never get sick of it! The rest of us, not so much... We played from about 10 a.m. - 1:30 p.m., which was plenty long enough for me!

We dried off, changed into our regular clothes, and headed over to IKEA to shop and eat lunch. You'd have thought it was going out of business, based on how insane the check-out lines were and with how much stuff people had packed into their carts, that we actually ditched ours (we just had a handful of things) in a furniture aisle somewhere and got the heck outta there! We loaded back into the van and got home just in time for bed.

 With one more day to play before "real life" resumes on Monday, Jon and I finally got our Anniversary date on Saturday night. We'd gotten a babysitter Tuesday night for a date then, but ended up spending almost the entire time at the car dealership! My mom and dad sent us some "date night" money for a babysitter since they couldn't be here to babysit, which came in VERY handy for Date Night #2-- which involved pizza at Mellow Mushroom with friends and watching Bilbo help save Middle Earth at The Hobbit movie. All in all, it was just a really, really great Christmas vacation. Happy New Year y'all!

Santa Comes to North Carolina!

I love Christmas! It really is the most wonderful time of the year. We had so much fun in the days and weeks leading up to Christmas this year-- with lots of traditions (old and new), holiday baking, movie watching, lots and lots of shopping, Christmas party-ing, and even a small town parade to kick things off! 

 We got there just in the nick of time, too-- it was held in Aberdeen, which is just a teeny-tiny little town south of Pinehurst. The whole parade only covered about 2 blocks, but we had plenty of sidewalk space to watch from as the "crowds" were a little sparse.  

Really, there was only like 10 other people on the street, because most of the town was IN the parade, but my kids got a TON of candy! Plus they got to see Santa close-up at the end of the 10 minute parade. Sometimes living in the country has its perks! We will miss how Aberdeen and Pinehurst hold little parades for every holiday!

 The Saturday before Christmas our ward threw a "Polar Express" party-- and gave all the children "tickets" to come board the train to head to the North Pole. They were allowed to wear pajamas, but adults were strongly encouraged not to, and judging by the likes of some of the characters in our ward, that was a very wise move because who knows what some people would have shown up in! 

 There were train tracks leading into the gym, where our Bishopric was dressed like conductors and they punched all the kids' tickets. Inside the gym there were tons of hanging snowflakes and Christmas lights draped everywhere. They did a great job with the decorations!

 A Mommy and Leah selfie! We got there a little bit late, and were relegated to sitting clear at the back-most table and were the LAST ones to go through the food line (about 45 minutes later), so we had a LOT of time to kill!

 It was a potluck, but they provided a Hot Cocoa Bar for dessert with tons of different flavored cocoas and toppings, and then had a small program featuring different people in our ward sharing their musical talents, and then that was it. It was very simple and the kids loved it!

 The kids have been busy helping me deck the halls. I was going to be a Scrooge this year, and not unpack all of our decorations because I wanted to go through them and make sure they were safely re-packed for our move this summer, but both Lucy and Zach had all three of our big Christmas storage bins unloaded the minute we got them out of the attic, and there was no consolidating after that! 

 My kids love setting up all of our different Nativities that we've collected over the years. Jon decided to moonlight on his days off from the Air Force, so he worked 8 a.m.-10:30 p.m. on Monday, and then from 8 a.m.- 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday. They were the loooongest days ever, for both of us, but I suppose it made us extra grateful to finally be together on Christmas Eve!

 Our little Holiday Leah posing in front of our Advent Calendar. We finally it made it to Day 24 and got to put Baby Jesus in His manger bed. They kids loved taking turns opening the pocket each morning and watching as the whole scene slowly came together!

 It's become kind of our unofficial tradition to get lunch at Chick fil A on Christmas Eve. I'm not sure how it started-- but I think the first year we lived here, we just wanted to get the crazy kids out of the house, and then ever since we've been going back on Christmas Eve. Plus it was my first and only chance to have their AMAZING holiday peppermint milkshake!!! 

 We ran some final errands, and then got home just in time to start "The Nativity" movie, which is how we get in the appropriate mood for our Holy Supper. For dinner, we eat foods that Mary and Joseph might have eaten that night-- things like fish, olives, unleavened bread, goat cheese, and grape juice. The kids love eating by candlelight!

 We invited the Spanish missionaries to eat with us, since it was just us, and it was kind of nice to have the excitement from extra visitors. We ate on the floor, and tried to keep it as reverent as possible with three very, very excited kids!

 Next was our own Nativity-- we read the story from Luke 2 and sing carols. Lucy was Mary, Jon was Joseph, and you can just barely see Zach-O in the background as our one and only shepherd (with a light saber staff). Lucy takes her job very seriously-- and you can see the expression of reverence and devotion on her face! We watched a few of the new Church produced Christmas movies, including "He Is The Gift," which is awesome, and at the end Zach turned to me and said to me very contemplatively, "Mom, that's what Christmas is really about, isn't it?" It was a great moment.

 I made a delicious ice cream peppermint chocolate pie for dessert that I'd gotten from Pinterest, and then it was time to take the missionaries back home.  Hopefully we made their holidays a little bit brighter and not quite so lonely!  

 Once home we quickly settled into our other Christmas Eve traditions: opening new PJs, reading one last Christmas story from off the stairs, setting out cookies and milk for Santa, putting out our stockings where we want Santa to leave our presents, and then going right to sleep! 

 Cute little guys in their new pajamas, all ready for sweet dreams of sugar plums to dance in their heads!

It's such fun having all three of my little ones still believe in Santa Claus. I'm not too sure how much longer Lucy will be a "Believer." She is really starting to ask some hard questions about the whole process-- and I have to come up with more and more elaborate explanations to answer them. Christmas Eve feels so magical with all three of them just hoping Santa comes though!

Cookies and milk for Santa (and carrots for the reindeer). Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night, indeed!

 The parents' tradition has become to sit up and watch a Christmas movie while we wait for the kids to really be soundly asleep, before we put out their loot and set up their stuff. So after watching "It's A Wonderful Life" (which is my fav), we quickly got to work! Lucy got three new Harry Potter posters, a Gryffindor shirt, hat, and socks, Harry Potter knick knacks for her collection (snow globe, wand pen, chocolate frog, Bertie Bott's Beans, Fizzing Whizbees, Fudge Flies, a HP calendar, etc.), and some fun girly stuff for stocking stuffers. 

 Zachary got a new Hot Wheels track with a loop de loop, a double light saber, a Wolverine costume, Star Wars sticker book, Ninjago lego set, and several Wii games-- for the Wii all three kids got from Santa to share!  

 WeeWee's got a Frozen chair (that turns into a bed), an Anna doll with matching dress-up dress, Frozen figurines, and some new bubble bath. 

 The kids actually slept really well-- all the way until 7:20ish, and Jon and I were the ones who kept waking up to check what time it was! Ancient tradition states that they can't come out until Mom and Dad have gone out to check and see if Santa has come, and have turned on all the lights, and then finally, when they hear Christmas music play, they can come out! Leah went right to her new Frozen chair! She knew it was hers!

 Three VERY happy campers! I'm so thankful they're still easy to please-- they were so thrilled with all of their new toys, even down to the littlest stocking stuffer, and kept thanking Santa out loud so that the Elf on the Shelf could go back to the North Pole and tell Santa how good he'd done.;) 

 J-Man spoiled me for Christmas, as usual, and got me a really nice new winter coat, and some fun gift cards for me to able to go shopping. What a guy!

 As I've said on this blog before, Christmas Brunch is hands-down my favorite meal of the entire year. Everyone typically is still happy and just basking in the glow of new toys and fun presents, there's no rush to be anywhere or do anything, and being all together as a family to eat a big breakfast is just plain FUN.

 We had creme brulee french toast, sausages, deviled egg casserole, shrimp cocktail, cinnamon bun white hot chocolate, and Martinelli's. It was fabulous, if I do say so myself! 

 My two favorite "mans" happily eating breakfast! 

 Oh yeah! Zach-O Man looking super legit in his new costume! He is amassing quite the collection of super heroes and bad guys. I think boys like to play dress-up just as much as little girls do.

 Miss Leah put her new Anna dress as soon as we opened it, and wore it the rest of the day!

My kids are so blessed to be on the receiving end of such generous and fun presents-- both from the grandmas and grandpas, as well as their aunts and uncles. Auntie Whitney hand-sewed these cute little aprons for Lucy and Zach to use when they help me cook, and they are adorable! Perfect for Lucy and the new Easy Bake Oven Grandma Cardon gave her. 

We spent the rest of the afternoon putting together and playing with toys, watching movies, playing Mario Kart on the new Wii, and just enjoying Christmas. 

 Unfortunately I lost my mind for the rest of the day and didn't take anymore pictures except for this last one: a picture I sent to my mom to show her the new necklace Whitney gave me! I, like most moms, usually sit at the other end of the camera and take all the pictures! My first resolution for 2015 is to be in more pictures, as proof I'm actually there! We had an awesome turkey dinner (which I brined, and it was fabulous), mashed potatoes and stuffing, rolls, salad, Grinch punch, and leftover peppermint dessert. It was a really good day. 

 The kids were happy to just spend the next few days at home, which was a refreshing change as usually they're bored to death, but we finally made it out of the house the next night when we tried the brand new Red Bowl Asian Bistro in town. Leah's fortune from her cookie totally cracked me up-- "The Night Life is for You." Ha ha! If two-year old's had "nightlife's" they would be SPOT ON. 

Saturday we drove up to Cary and did a little shopping at all of the after-Christmas sales. We got to stop for lunch at my MOST favorite place-- the Jasmine Bistro, which has made me addicted to chicken shwarma and falafel. It's seriously the bomb. With a little detour to stock up on Great Harvest bread, stops at REI, Old Navy, and Charming Charlie  (wohoo!), we wrapped up our wonderful Christmas holiday. We are SO thankful for so many things-- our blessings are numberless and we count among the most important of these our Savior, who truly is the first gift of Christmas, each other, and YOU-- our dear family and friends! Merry Christmas!