It's beginning to look alot like Christmas!

If you don't watch TV or read or if you live under a rock, you probably haven't heard that North Carolina got some snow! The Winston Salem area got 3-5" of snow. I think we got around 6"in Advance. This was the ideal snowfall scenario. First of all, it is right around Christmastime and then it was the weekend so no worries of going to school or feeling guilty about going or not going to work! On Friday night, it was snowing so hard that it actually was painful to sled because the snow was coming down so hard and fast! We woke up bright and early this morning and sled for hours!

Brian, Caroline & Jake

Jake & Caroline

The kids were VERY excited to finally build a snowman!

Cooper piled on me whenever I tried to rest.

Cooper took snowballs pretty well...

Caroline + Snowball = Poor sport

We live in an ideal community for sledding. Our house backs up to a golf course so there are plenty of hills to find in our neighborhood. We live on the 12th fairway and this fairway happens to be where most of the neighborhood comes to sled. I seriously have never seen so many people sledding in my life! The best part was that a neighbor with a booming outdoor sound system had Christmas songs playing. It was great sledding and listening to Christmas songs! It was like a 21st century Norman Rockwell kind of day! Days like this are the reasons why we put up with an ANAL Homeowners Association! :)

Tis the Season!

This has been a busy weekend with Christmas parties and Christmas pageants! We had parties both nights and the kids' Christmas pageant at church tonight. All in all, a great and busy weekend! Pat-Pat and Pop came for the weekend to watch the kids and to see their play. Gram and Grand-Bob were able to make the trip over to see the play, too!

Cooper was a sheep. The picture doesn't do his little costume justice!

Caroline was a Heavenly Host/Angel

Gram and Cooper

Gram, Caroline and Grand-Bob

With Pat-Pat's help, we were able to get our Christmas tree decorated. It's always so nice watching the kids look admire all of the ornaments and hang them on the tree!

Dear Santa....

Scott and I took Cooper window shopping on Saturday to get an idea of what he wanted from Santa. We told him that he needed to make a list for Santa when we got home. He got right to work and needed help spelling from Mommy but did a great job!

Just in case you can't read his handwriting:

Dear Santa,

Remote (Control Car)

Percy Legos

Stanley

Gordon

That kid loves his trains! I just love my little boy!

Happy Thanksgiving!

appy Thanksgiving! I hope everyone had a restful and fun, long Thanksgiving weekend! We enjoyed ourselves very much! Pop, Pat-Pat, Grand-Bob and Gram came to our house for Thanksgiving. It is very rare for us to have a holiday at our house, so it was very nice to not have to drive anywhere all weekend. The kids really enjoyed having their grandparents to themselves!

Caroline was a big help setting the table!

We only had 6 chairs so guess who didn't get a name tag or chair? Yep, good ol Mom and Dad. Caroline made name tags and sat her and Cooper at the head of the table and the grandparents in the middle. Gram and Pat-Pat finally talked Caroline into adding 2 more chairs for us. Isn't she sweet!

The kids piled and wrestled on Pop after dinner.

Later, Scott and the kids had fun with the pillows.

We Did it!

It's been a long journey! Since we moved into our house almost 5 years ago, the one thing that I could not stand about our house was the kitchen. It was white, white and more white! Scott promised me that we would get to it one day, so we finally started the kitchen project this past summer. We kept the cabinets, but changed everything else. We had the wallpaper removed and painted from ceiling to the floor. Scott and a friend tiled the floor and backsplash. Last but not least, we got new granite countertops. It was a long, long project with many meals eaten away from the kitchen. Believe or not, we were actually sick of eating out! The kids moaned and groaned when we packed them them in the car to go eat supper! We are very happy with the final results!

I didn't have any recent before pictures, so I dug up some pictures that I took when we first bought the house. I literally did NO decorating since we moved in.




Look at Sweet Caroline. She was soo young!

Cooper's Thanksgiving Parade!

Cooper's school had their annual Thanksgiving parade on Friday. The 3 and 4 year olds have a parade around the entire school while the K-8 graders sit in the hall and watch them. It's a very exciting time for the kids. Each child has some kind of noise maker and they walk around the school halls 2-3 times.

Cooper and I decided to bring our arsenal of noise makers from our house just in case his class didn't have enough. Cooper decided to wear his drum. He was soooo proud of himself! We are so proud of him!

#3 Gave me a good laugh!

Sometimes it's not worth the fight!

While getting ready for church, the kids both had very different ideas in their attire. On Saturday, Caroline and I went to Build-a-Bear where she used her Tooth Fairy money to buy a bear. She decided that she wanted to wear her Easter dress from last year that had a matching baby doll outfit. She looked beautiful, but was in the wrong season.

Cooper, on the other hand, was a mess. He wore his Thomas t-shirt, brown rain pants and his plaid "church" shoes. The plaid shoes look so cute with his khakis and golf shirt. Not so much with rain pants. :)

Good thing our church is very casual!

My Little Monkey

When Halloween night came around, Cooper decided that he wanted to be a monkey again for Halloween instead of a ghost. It was probably a good thing since the ghost costume could be interpreted as a much different costume.

My little monkey eating his banana

Caroline and her friends geeting ready

Once Cooper's bucket got heavy, he decided that he was done. I asked him why he didn't want to trick or treat anymore and he said "because I have all of the candy that I want". So he plopped down in the wagon and began eating!

The day after Halloween he spotted Thomas underwear. We gave in. He was NOT going to let them go without a fight!

Our Pre-Halloween Festivities

We had a great time this Halloween season! We were able to go to a few parties and get-togethers with our neighbors and the kids had several Halloween parties. Good times were had by all!

Cooper and his friend, Peyton, waiting to go to their Fall Festival

Cooper got his face-painted. Look at that cute little smile!

Checking out the goods

The kids went to a Halloween party last weekend. Cooper was a ghost and Caroline was a hippie

Look at that face! Cooper cracked me up at the pinata. He was so serious and COULD NOT wait until it was his turn. As soon as he got the bat in his hand, he was swinging!

Caroline and her friends enjoying their Halloween snack!

Scott and I went to another Halloween party. He was Allen from the movie, "The Hangover". I took the easy way out and was a prisoner. (To Scott's defense, we didn't have a Halloween idea until about 2 hours before the party. Scott looked like a poor-man's version of the real guy.)

What kid does NOT like Pizza?

To put it mildly, Cooper is a pretty picky eater. His staples include chicken, peanut butter crackers, grilled cheese, bananas, oranges and yogurt. Of course he loves sweets and chips, but that is about the extent. We have been trying to get him to at least try some pizza. Because seriously, who DOESN'T like pizza?

I came to Cooper's school on Friday for his Fall Festival. (I don't visit his school during the day very often because he always gets upset when I leave.) So, this time when he started to get upset when I was leaving I told him that I would stay to eat lunch with him ONLY if he would try the pizza. He thought about it and said that he would take a bite, so of course I stayed.

This is Cooper before putting on a brave face.

This is Cooper when I reminded him that I was only staying if he took a bite.

After the crying stopped and I ate a bite to show him that it wasn't hot.

The next picture of Cooper I missed because he was literally GAGGING! Can you believe that? What child gags at pizza? Oh well! At least he tried!

Going on a boat ride!

After we came back from fishing today, Scott and I took the kids out for a boat ride. I had two items on our agenda that I wanted the kids to see:

1. See some Manatees - Check! You have to look closely, but they were trying to move around our boat. I caught their noses out of the water here. There is a cove right near their lake that usually has some manatees. Amazing creatures!

2. See some dolphins - Check! A mama and her baby.

Oh yeah, it hasn't been the greatest fishing this week but Scott and Bob caught two keepers today! Me? 6 Catfish. I haven't caught anything to write home about!

Scott caught a keeper trout. Bob caught a mammoth redfish! Lucky sucker.