Lots of Laughs

Laughter is a wonderful thing. I am grateful that I have a family on the West coast with a great sense of humor and a family on the East coast that is equally as funny. We have missed our West coast family this Christmas season! Here are some moments from the past week that were captured on camera...these still make me smile

Mom cracks up Penny---is there anything better than a baby giggle??

We went down to see the Christmas lights at Tanglewood and stopped at my house for dinner. While we were there, we busted out some Christmas carols. Reed felt the need to dance super creepy.

Kristin really enjoyed the country ham biscuits Christmas morning.

Cleve and Reed bought matching shirts and they posed with monkeys. I really don't know why, but it was fun to take their picture.

I was really surprised by how bright my cake was with 27 candles. Number 30 won't be good...just a warning.

Dave loved his Christmas presents!

The family was not thrilled or showered for a picture, but we had to take one before Dave had to leave for work. Here is one of the last shots.

The boys have it made...

Carson and Lincoln have been in heaven the past couple days, and Christmas isn't even here yet! Yesterday we went to the Snow Village, a big model train village by the science center. They got to see lots of model trains, and the workers let the boys push buttons to make the train whistles blow.


We walked over to the aquarium and science center after they had their fill of trains. Carson was too scared to pet the sting ray that kept coming to the surface, but Lincoln was more than happy to grab it and squeeze the sides. Why does he not listen when I say, "Softly?"


The boys played so hard that they both crashed for a long nap. They needed their rest, because we went to the mall later that night to visit Santa. I don't know why we chose to go at 6pm, because we had to wait in line for over an hour! Lincoln wasn't really sure about talking to Santa, until I told him he needed to tell Santa what toys he wants for Christmas. Then, he started yelling across the line gates, "Helicopter, Garbage Truck, Airplanes." I was relieved he wasn't scared of Santa when we it was our turn. He told Santa he wanted a helicopter. You can see the wait was worth it: we got an amazing picture (just kidding---I'm the only one kind of looking at the camera).

Today we went to the NC Transportation Museum. This is a great museum we have been to once before when we saw Thomas for Lincoln's birthday. The boys had a blast looking at all the old cars, airplanes, trucks, motorcycles, and trains. We even went on a ride on the train turn table.

Busy Times

It always seems like there is so much going on during the Christmas season. I love staying busy, so this has been such a fun week. I wish I had more pictures of our different adventures!

The week started off with the good news that Dave's older brother Brent and his wife, finally got to pick up their daughter in China. Kaylee Mai is almost 18 months old and is beautiful! We are so excited for the H family. They return to the States on Christmas Eve. What a wonderful Christmas present to bring back to their 4 boys. It has been great reading on their blog everyday about the places they are visiting and the food they are eating.

Lincoln enjoyed his playtime at Shay's house this week. She lives in a huge house with super fun toys. His favorite is the mini roller coaster in the basement. Shay's mom made a fantastic lunch for all the moms after the play date. It was wonderful to sit and chat with new friends. I feel blessed that I have met a great group of people in our new city. Lincoln left the play date with hugs all around to his buds.

We had a nasty ice storm that kept us inside all day Thursday. It is challenging to entertain a 2 year old in the house all day. We played some indoor soccer, and Dave had to wrestle Link to tire him out. I just love watching them play together! Dave taught Lincoln some new ninja moves. I forgot about them until one day when I was changing his diaper. I leaned forward to give my little guy some kisses. All of the sudden, I see a little smirk and he yells, "TRIANGLE!" The triangle move is when one person wraps his legs around the opponent's neck and lifts up the hips to make the squeeze tighter. I haven't laughed so hard in a while!

As usual, Lincoln helped me make cookies for a cookie exchange I had later this week. I made Maple Pecan cookies with a Maple glaze, and they were tasty. I also made homemade hot chocolate and apple cider for us to enjoy with all the cookies. We had a small group because of the icy weather, but we still had a great time just chatting and sugar binging.

Mom and I picked up Reed at the airport on Friday. We hit up Trader Joe's and by the time we were done, it was 9pm. I had not eaten dinner yet, so needless to say, I was starving. I have been trying to eat every 2 hours, and it had been 5 hours from my last meal. Reed and I spotted a Mexican restaurant in the same parking lot as T.J's so we started walking over. Mom couldn't believe that the first thing I said to the waiter was, "We are not here for the experience, we already know what we want to eat, and we are hungry." Just so they wouldn't spit in our food, I apologized and told the waiter I was pregnant. He was excited for me and showed me a 4D picture of his baby girl that will be arriving soon. Phew, I almost asked for food poisoning for the 3 of us!

Cleve and his family arrived and we have been playing hard ever since. Carson and Lincoln were instant friends: they are so cute playing together. We have lots of other plans to stay busy. I will be a good girl and take more pictures, or just have Cleve take them with his fancy camera.

Hair Cut and The Death of a Christmas Tree

Dave and I decided a long time ago that we would wait until Lincoln was 3 to get his haircut. I didn't think that would be a problem, because it took him FOREVER to grow hair! For the past couple weeks, his hair had been out of control. He constantly brushed it out of his face, sometimes with 2 hands at the same time. That wasn't the breaking point for me...it was the snot. Lincoln got a runny nose, with all the hair brushing with his hands, snot always got smeared on his face and hair. He had hair stuck to the sides of his face with the gunk.


I warned Dave I was going to get it cut, and I really don't think he believed I would be strong enough to do it. He wasn't doing the snot cleaning though. So, after our Wal-Mart shopping (They do not have a Super Target in Winston!), we pushed our shopping cart over to Smart Cuts. "Quita," the hair stylist, was very nice and did a great job with Lincoln's hair. I'm so shocked he didn't cry or scream. I just gave him a lollipop, and he was ok with it, even though he did shrug his shoulders up and tried to grab the scissors a few times.

My family always celebrated St. Nickolas day on Dec. 6th with stockings. The cars in the picture were in Lincoln's stocking along with Wonderpets fruit snacks and a Santa Pez dispenser.

Do you notice how beautiful our Christmas tree is/was. I was so excited to have a real Christmas tree for the first time since Dave and I have been married. We were gone this weekend and came home to a bug infested living room. Gross!! The tree had hundreds of black, tick-looking (but not ticks) all over the trunk. They climbed on top of my piano, they crawled up the legs of our table, and even made it to the kitchen. I do have an artificial tree, but of course it is in my parent's garage. Lincoln loved our Christmas tree, and I didn't want him to go without one, so...

We decorated our Bamboo!

Shutterfly is the bomb!

I have always loved Shutterfly and have been using their services for years. Shutterfly is an online photograph store. You can do just about anything with your pictures on this website. I have made scrapbooks, posters, birthday invitations, stationary, and just enlarged pictures. There are also great photo gifts if you need a Christmas gift idea, just go to the website. My mother-in-law does a Shutterfly calendar for everyone in the family, it has everyone's birthday and anniversaries, plus the grandkids love to see pictures of themselves on their birthday month. We love to tease her about how she pics out the most unflattering pictures of the adults. Just so she won't get teased again, she sent out an email to post pictures that we like onto our shared Shutterfly family website. This is another great tool that Shutterfly offers! Here is the link to start creating your own personalized calendar... http://www.shutterfly/calendars.com



Dave and I have had a bunch of moving expenses, and since he was out out of work for 4 months, we didn't have Christmas cards in our budget. I was so excited when I was on facebook and saw my friends posting about how bloggers can get free Shutterfly Christmas cards if they write up a blog about them. So, I get to tell you more reasons whey I love Shutterfly, just so I can make this 200 words. We have used their Christmas photocards in the past, and I love all the designs. There are so many different designs: if you like retro/classic/colorful/black and white, you can find them here... http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationary/christmas-photo-cards



Last year, we had this picture of Lincoln,



and chose the design from Shutterfly that said, "Have yourself a merry little Christmas," and we wrote, "Lincoln had a little too much Christmas." I feel bad now for throwing my precious boy into a panic attack over Santa, but the card turned out really cute!

If you don't want to use any pictures, they also have cute Christmas stationary here... http://www.shutterfly.com/cards-stationary/christmas-cards

I'll leave what we are doing this year as a surprise, but it will be just as cute as last year, thanks to Shutterfly!