Santa Claus and Santa Cow

Our kids were fortunate to visit with both Santa Claus and Santa Cow this year. Although they met Santa Cow first, they wisely chose to hang onto their Santa letters until they could meet the real Santa Claus.

Getting Ready for a Family Christmas

Bonus Reason to be Thankful: Our New Bathroom!

Happy Thanksgiving! There are so many reasons to be truly thankful, I feel silly for blogging about this one, but I am so excited about our master bathroom remodel. We had no clue what we were doing when I started trying to do the demo myself several months ago. (It looked so easy on Youtube!) I never thought it would be finished but it was - and just in time for my parents' visit! (Well, in time for Dad to help put the finishing touches on anyway.) I'm actually looking forward to starting the kids' bathroom soon.

Why did I feel we needed this remodel so badly anyway? I'll let the before pictures speak for themselves!

Leaves, Leaves, Go Away! Archie's Girl and MORE!

I think we bagged 36 bags two weeks ago and 33 bags last weekend! Thankfully, the leaves are almost done falling now.

She's Archie's Girl

Grace can be funny. The other day she was wearing some pjs that said "Daddy's Girl." He asked her, "Grace, are you Daddy's girl?" She shook her head no. "Are you Mommy's girl?" No again. "Well, whose girl are you anyway? "I'm Archie's girl!" How sweet. She is deeply disturbed that she can't grow up and marry him... 

Pre-Halloween: 2 Trunk-of-Treats, 3 Fall Festivals, 1 Trick-or-Treat, 1 Pumpkin Patch Trip and 1 Parade Later

Whew! I'm tired of costumes and the big day hasn't even arrived yet!

Iron Man and Princess Sofia the First

Grace's Preschool Costume Parade

A Need for Speed...

A Visit from the Tooth Fairy

Archie's first lost tooth netted him six shiny quarters from the Tooth Fairy. He was so excited he carried them around all morning (and didn't lose any)!

Camel Fun

Archie and Grace chose to use some of their own money on this camel ride last time we were at the zoo. They had a blast!

Summer Series Fun Run

Most Tuesday nights this summer, we were able to run a one-mile fun run sponsored by the Howard County Striders. They had an awards ceremony on the last night, and all the five-and-unders got medals. Grace's PR for the season was 11:49, and Archie's was 10:36. It was a very hilly course. Congrats!

Happy Fourth Birthday, Grace!

My little Princess is four. This is the first birthday I've felt almost sad on. This marks my last year of having a preschooler. Where has the time flown? Grace, I'm happy to report, was not a bit sad and had a ball at her McDonald's party.

My parents made it extra special for her. We were glad they stayed for a week to help with our house and celebrate Grace.

Summer Portraits: 2013

Welcome to Our NEW Home

We are SO thankful to God for our new home! It's fun to be first-time homeowners. In Blacksburg, a lady at our church introduced me to one of her friends in Maryland. That lady became one of my friends, and I just bought her house when her husband got an out-of-state job offer! How cool is that? The house is in basically good condition except the whole inside needed paint. Thankfully, my in-laws kept our kids the first week, and my parents came to help all of last week. This resulted in us getting the whole downstairs painted as well as the stairwell, upstairs hall, and office. The upstairs bedrooms still need to be done. The other major fix is upgrading the two upstairs bathrooms, which I'm pretty sure are original to the house. I've bought my wallpaper steamer to remove the curling paper, and we're trying to figure out how much we can do ourselves. Pretty sure we're going to need professional help with the new bathtub.

Most of the rooms are still too cluttered for pictures, but here is Archie in his new room. When we do repaint it, I think we'll keep the same colors because they're pretty cool

Will try to post more pics soon :)

Tennessee Trip 2013

 Highlights of our Tennessee Trip 2013 included The Smoky's and the Knoxville Zoo.

Ready to hike:

 The kids loved this rustic cabin in the woods. When they went inside, they decided they wouldn't want to live there, though :)

Climbing around the falls was also lots of fun. We had to pull ourselves up on a rope. Even Grace made it, which speaks to her determination!

This big guy stole my heart at the Knoxville zoo. I could have watched him for hours. They brought out his lunch pail, and he rifled through it searching for his favorites to eat first. The lettuce was quickly tossed out. He dove on the carrots, then peeled a leek and ate it. He ate some kind of tomato paste from a bottle but got impatient and chewed through the plastic. Finally, he ate the lettuce and cabbage but only the inside leaves. His cage was strewn with the disco

The long trip!

Cutest Cows on the Block!

Everything tastes better when you're dressed like a cow! Chick-fil-A Cow Appreciation Day is rapidly becoming one of my favorite family traditions! Nothing like feeding a family of four for FREE just for showing some cow spirit!

Grace-isms

Grace says the funniest things!

Grace (while eating a PB&J she made all by herself): Daddy, when I'm done eating I'm going to fight you.
Daddy (playfully): Oh, Grace, don't fight me. I'm scared!
Grace: (giggly): Don't worry, Daddy! I'll fight gently so nobody gets vanquished!

Did somebody say vanquished???
Grace loves to latch onto a word someone says and ask the question "Did somebody say (insert word)?"

Earlier this year her two expressions that cracked me up the most were:

"Here goes nothing" (said before doing just about anything but especially funny when said before doing something daring like zooming down our giant, snowy hill on a by herself on a sled
)

"At your service"
Think I like this one. Pretty nice to call a kid's name and have them scurry to stand before you "at your service". Can I keep it?

What can you do in 1 min. 9 sec.?

Enough time to throw a load of laundry in the wash? Run upstairs to grab something and be so distracted by a screaming kid you forget what you were going to grab and head back down? For Archie, it is now enough time to swim a length (25 meters) of the pool. This is his first year on swim team, and he is loving it. We worked hard in the indoor pool for about two weeks to get him ready for the K.C. Waves time trials.

Archie is getting quite brave in the water. This is the first day he jumped off the diving board.

A Visit to the Land of CHOCOLATE!

Fun and chocolate? Chocolate and fun?

That's what we had at Hershey Park last month. They had tons of kid friendly rides. Archie was disappointed that neither of his parents would take him on an adult roller coaster (even though he was tall enough to ride one of the smaller ones).

It wasn't a particularly hot day, but a quick trip down the log ride was still fun!

Tower of Terror miniature style? Archie loved it!

Nothing like shaking hands with a Hershey Kiss (unless it's eating one). Grace was hilarious when she ran over to this guy and kissed him.

My favorite part was the Hershey Museum. They had an "It's a Small World" style ride that taught all about the production of chocolate. Archie, my non-fiction guy, and Grace both loved it, too.

Afterward, they gave a free sample then funneled you into the store to buy more. Looking down and seeing the hoards of people crowding to buy the same things you can get for cheaper at Walmart reminded me of China.