A Dash Through December!

Lucy felt so lucky to have had Grandma and Grandpa Cardon fly in for her baptism, especially considering the fact that they probably spent about as much time in an airport (or on an airplane) as they did at our house, and we were all so sad to see them leave on Sunday evening! My Dad was able to stay an extra day however, and my mom was able to stay even longer-- until early Friday morning, so we had a few more days of fun and visitors to look forward to the following week. 

I started Monday off as usual, dropping Lucy and Zach off at school, but then detoured home to pick up the rest of the crew for breakfast at Waffle House, which is my Dad's absolute favorite. In fact, I'm not sure if he's figured out how he'll get his hashbrown and waffle-fix when we move, since this here is Waffle House Nation??

This picture is classic Leah! Jammies still on, crazy bed-head, and an expression on her face that is way beyond her two years of life. At least she's enjoying that waffle! Puhlease don't interrupt her!

My Dad decided he'd better get his golfing quota met for the day, since this is most likely his last visit to Golfer's Paradise before we move next June, so while he battled the bitter cold, my mom took this undercover picture of me teaching Body Pump, which is kinda embarrassing. But thanks for being my biggest fan, Mom! Ha ha!

 

After school the girls (minus Leah) headed to the nail salon for a pretty sweet pedicure. We ended up with some very beautiful (and sparkly) toenails just in time for Christmas! We met back up with Grandpa the Babysitter for dinner at Texas Longhorn and then had to bid him farewell as he left super early the next morning. 

We spent the rest of the week enjoying Grandma Joanie.  We made a Costco/ Trader Joe's run up to Raleigh, stopped for lunch at Jasmin's, read Christmas stories, went Christmas shopping around Pinehurst, had lunch at Panera, tried out a Body Step class, and just relaxed at home. It is so unbelievably nice to have another adult at home with me to break up the monotony of being stuck inside all day! 

We also took a couple of morning walks around the neighborhood with Leah in the stroller. Thursday morning was FREEZING, but Leah was a good sport and let us put on her kitty hat and gloves.

That afternoon we checked out one of our favorite local antique shops where I found me some cute shabby-chic shelves, and then we drove to Carthage to try the Pik N Pig, which was meant to be experienced with my Dad on Monday, but they were closed! Uggh! We had a yummy BBQ pork lunch in honor of Tom Tom in the car while Leah napped.

Of course now it's become a tradition to make Christmas sugar cookies with Grandma, and Thursday afternoon was our last chance. Zach literally flew off the bus after school ready to help Grandma, so while I took Lucy to piano lessons, Leah and Zach stayed home and "helped."

Not exactly sure how helpful this girl was, as there was a pretty sizable pile of cookies pushed to one side that had been licked by Leah, but she sure liked putting that frosting on! 

And don't worry, Lucy wasn't left out! They saved some cookies for Luce to frost and decorate when we got home. She is quite the sprinkle artiste!

Ta-Da! The finished product! This is my mom's recipe that I can remember all the way back to when I was a little kid at Christmas. I think it's from the 1970's Betty Crocker recipe book.

That night we got to attend Zach's Kindergarten Christmas concert at his school. The kids all caught the Chirstmas spirit and got dressed up in their holly-jolliest outfits! 

The concert was about Santa and Mrs. Claus picking out a Christmas tree, and was really cute. I was proud of Zach-- who was an elf, and knew just about all the words and actions to the songs. He's there on the second row from the top, second from the right side.

It was so fun to be Zach's fan club after the concert! Lucy looked so cute rocking her new shawl Grandma Cardon knitted for her. I love my little elf!

We had such a wonderful time with family this last week or so, and it's been really hard for my kids to say good-bye to everyone, one by one. Zach got VERY upset when he realized nobody would be staying with us until Christmas, but I have to consider how lucky we've been that this is the one and only Christmas we'll have to spend alone in North Carolina. As our time winds down, it's meant SO much to us to have family come and visit over these last four years-- especially for things like holidays and birthdays! We are so appreciative of the time and money sacrificed on our behalf. The only truly bad thing is that when family comes, it makes you realize what you've been missing all along, and when they go, it leaves a big hole that's hard to fill back in. Thanks for coming Grandma Joanie! 

It's Great To Be Eight!

Wow! What a crazy couple of weeks we've had since December started! We celebrated Lucy's 8th birthday on December 4th with a BANG, when both sets of grandparents flew in from the West coast for her baptism. But we'll get to that in a minute-- first things first: 

A happy newly turned 8 year-old girl on her birthday morn, all dressed up and ready for school!

I think she really wanted to stay home from school and play with Grandma and Grandpa Morris who'd flown in super late (or super early depending on the time zone) the day before, but since we'd missed a whole week in October due to Disney World, we decided she'd better go. We sweetened the day up by bringing her lunch from Subway, and her favorite red velvet cupcake from C Cups. She was sure cute to watch interacting with her classmates!

That evening we gathered everyone together for dinner at her favorite place ever-- Olive Garden, and enjoyed catching up with Grandpa Tom Tom who'd been golfing earlier that afternoon. 

Cute little birthday girl got pasta and a free piece of cheesecake. 

Once we got back home, we had to wait for Jon to get home from Scouts before she could open her presents, and the anticipation was killing her! He finally made it around 7:45 p.m., so she opened her big present of brand new scriptures with her name embossed, and a hot pink scripture case to put them in.

 More presents from Grandma and Grandpa Morris-- a pearl necklace and a tithing bank. She was pretty happy with her haul, so it was time to move on to the birthday cupcakes.

She helped me pick a recipe off of Pinterest for some Harry Potter-style Butter Beer cupcakes that were amazing! They were made with cream soda in the batter, and had a butterscotch ganache in the center and some really yummy butterscotch frosting. They tasted just like the liquid stuff we'd had in October!

Lucy really wanted me to decorate them like I'd done Leah's Frozen ones, so we printed off pictures of the whole gang-- Harry, Ron, and Hermione-- and topped each cake with one. It was a birthday treat fit only for a true fan!

Singing Happy Birthday to the Lu!

Oh our Dear Lucy! We love you SOOOOOO much! She is such a special girl, and has so many people that love her. She recently got accepted into the AIG program here (Academically Intelligent and Gifted), so she gets pulled out twice a week to go work with a specialist. They did her her reading assessment, and tested her at an 8th grade reading level. Thank you, Harry Potter! 

That night Grandma and Grandpa Cardon took a red-eye from Seattle and arrived early Friday morning. Luckily the kids had a half-day, so while I made Jon, and my mom and dad take my Body Pump class at the gym, they were able to pick the kids up from school. That afternoon the guys went golfing at Foxfire, and my mom and I took Lucy and Zach to go see "Big Hero 6" while Grandma C stayed at home with a sleeping Leah. We met everyone after the movie at Brixx for some delicious pizzas and even better company!

Saturday morning we woke up to cartoons and pancakes, and ran our errands to get ready for Lucy's baptism that afternoon. Grandma and Grandpa Cardon brought Zach two new Star Wars costumes to dress-up with and he had a BLAST playing with them and using Jon's light saber!

My friend Nicole made this darling invitation for Lucy's baptism. Lucy handed it out to all of her teachers at school (K-2nd) and some of her friends as well. Unfortunately none of them could make it, but I was SO proud of her for inviting them.

We made these little goody bags to hand out at the baptism to the kids who came.

Miss Lucy, dressed and ready for her baptism! She looked beautiful and SO grown up.

Lucy with her Grandma and Grandpa Morris, who came from Idaho to be a part of it. So thankful they could make it!

Lucy with Grandma and Grandpa Cardon, who flew in from Washington state. They were only here for 2 1/2 days which felt like the blink of an eye, but we are so very grateful they sacrificed and traveled such a loooong way to be here! Lucy will always remember that her grandparents were here for her North Carolina baptism, and that both Grandpas were able to help confirm her.

For her program, we had Grandpa Cardon give a short talk on Baptism, and then Lucy was baptized. Then Grandma Joanie gave a talk on the Holy Ghost, and Lucy was confirmed. It was such a special baptism because it was just Lucy-- so all the attention got to be focused solely on her. The Joyners, Winkley's, Bassett's, and Lyken's from our ward were able to attend as well. After the baptism we got to go to dinner all together, which was so fun for us to not only have visitors, but to also show Lucy lots of support on such an important decision in her life. It was a really special weekend she will remember forever! 

EIGHT THINGS THAT ARE GREAT ABOUT LUCY:

1. Her smile. It lights up a room!

2. She's kind. She treats everyone the way she'd like to be treated.

3. Her passion. From Harry Potter, to crafts, to school, she does it all with gusto!

4. She's helpful. Her younger brother and sister adore her because she'd do anything for them.

5. Those big brown eyes! They've had Jon wrapped around her little finger since birth.

6. She's fun! Lucy's always been our party girl and loves to socialize!

7. She's smart. Just ask her about history, mummies, or science.

8. She has a heart of gold and strives to be like Jesus!

Baby Lucy, 4 days old

Turkey Day 2014

Thanksgiving is officially over and the rowdy children must head back to school bright and early tomorrow... Which I suppose is good and bad-- I'll miss the sleeping in and not having to check homework, pack backpacks, and make lunches every night, but I'm thankful for a routine again after five days without one!

 Wednesday the kids didn't have school, so we hit the gym for a pre-calorie-consuming workout, ran some last minute errands at the grocery store, cooked up some pies and other delicious odds and ends, and then topped the night off with a killer bonfire out back that night. 

 It had poured and poured for a couple of days beforehand so the wood was totally soaked, and it was taking forever to get it started. Jon finally poured a hefty amount of gasoline on top to speed the process up, and I think we may have lost a couple of eyebrows in the process, but we learned a very valuable life lesson along the way! But, the s'mores were a hit!

 Fireside selfie!! Ha ha ha!

 Turkey Day dawned bright and COLD-- and the best part of all is that we all got to sleep in until 7:15 a.m.! Since we didn't have to be to dinner until 4 p.m., and most of my sides were made the day before, we had quite a bit of time to kill. We decided to head to the park and play for a bit, hoping the kids would burn off some energy. Hoping being the operative word in that sentence!

 Leah and the swing stick together like glue. That's pure joy!

 Zach and Lucy scooted around the park until they were cold enough they thought their fingers might fall off (and mine too)! We figured then it was about time to head back home.

 I decided that because I was only supposed to bring ONE pie, and we had TWO pies just sitting around, I might as well help myself to an early serving of banana cream pie for lunch. I figure the recipe is at least 100 years old, and when I tell people "banana cream pie"-- I mean the REAL deal. Not crappy instant pudding. Real old fashioned pudding. The whole nine-yards with heavy cream, a double boiler, and lots and lots of stirring (at least 20 minutes worth). H-E-A-V-E-N. It was quite a way to start the Thanksgiving feasting off. 

 Lucy and Zach started working on some Gingerbread Houses I'd bought the day before, and had a blast decorating their Christmas houses, while I started the laborious process of decorating for Christmas. Ugghh. So much work (I feel you now, Mom!), but worth it.

We'd been invited to share Thanksgiving with some friends in our ward, the Bassett's. They have two kids both the exact same ages as Lucy and Zach, and they get along great (if not a little wild together). I took this during a "selfie-competition" initiated by Whitney, so what you see is what you get: Us, loaded up in the car, me with boiling hot candied yams on my lap (that spilled all over the very first turn), and Luce dressed like an Indian. "Over the River and Through the Woods" to the Bassett's house we go! 

The one and only picture I took-- of the kids eating pie and ice cream right at the end. Oh well. The turkey wasn't quite done when we got there, and not wanting to give everyone the gift of salmonella, we waited and waited until that dang thermometer popped. We got a late start and that kind of threw me off, but it was delicious! Actually, I kind of hate turkey, but who cares.

The next day we spent unstuffing ourselves at the annual "Unstuffathon" at the gym-- a 90 minute workout with pump, step, and flow, that I got to teach at. It was super fun! We headed home to shower, then to a wicked rocket launch, then up to Cary for some power shopping for all the Black Friday deals at Target, Old Navy, REI. and a few other spots. Can't say that we found anything too out-of-this-world, just tons of people and lots of traffic. We decided to get dinner at Red Lobster before heading back home.

Can you see how much Zachary loooooved those garlic cheese biscuits?!? They were the best part of the meal. That night Jon and I organized the day's haul.

Saturday was like a glorious bonus day since we'd already had Thursday and Friday as a holiday-- so the fun just continued. We'd wanted to go to the new "Big Hero 6" but our local theater wasn't playing it-- don't ask (smh)-- so while we finally finished decorating the tree we brainstormed some fun ideas. I had LOTS of little helpers when hanging ornaments, and our tree looks beautiful! Leah LOVES our tree, and is constantly unhooking ornaments, examining them, and then rehanging them. 

 We decided to go paint pottery and make some special gifts for some special grandparents, so Lucy and Zach's pictures aren't posted. Ssshhhh! They're a secret! We ran some more shopping errands, ordered Mellow Mushroom for din-din, and called it a night. Phew! We were all turkeyed out, ha, ha.

All ready for church this morning in her Christmas dress! We are SO thankful for the countless blessings we have of love, home, and family. Being in the military and living so far away has certainly taught us the hard way how thankful we are for our Savior who knows each one of us personally, for each other, for the good AND the bad times, and for the sheer fact that we ARE making it, one day at a time. HAPPY THANKSGIVING!