Christmas with Ray and Kati!

On the Sunday before Christmas, we had a dinner at my parents' house and opened presents with Kati and Ray. We had a great time eating, singing, laughing, playing, and exchanging gifts! Here are some pictures from our time together:

Ray, playing the piano with our kids:


Isaac playing with Uncle Ray:


Isaac opening his ambulance from Ray and Kati (which he loves!!):


Steven and Elise having their first tea party together. My mom got this tea set for Elise to play with, and the table and chairs were made by my Pawpaw when I was a little girl!


Elise playing with the vintage cow pull-toy that my parents pulled out for her (I think this one was also a toy that I used to play with):


Elise checking out her new pair of keys from Ray and Kati (they are so cool!):



YAY for a really cool sister and brother-in-law! And lots of fun times together!

Christmas with Pawpaw Ronny and Theresa!

On the Saturday before Christmas, we celebrated the holiday with some of Steven's family, Pawpaw Ronny and Theresa. We had a wonderful brunch of cheese pastry, sausage balls, baked apples and fruit. After eating, snow started falling outside at an alarming rate! Huge snowflakes fell and it was absolutely gorgeous, but we all were a bit concerned that Ronny and Theresa might not make it home before the snow started sticking to the roads, especially since they had long drive back home. So we exchanged gifts quickly and said our goodbyes. In spite of the shortened visit, we had a great time with Pawpaw Ronny and Theresa! Isaac was sad to see them go!

Here is Isaac, checking out his gift from them (which he had me open because he was still a little afraid to open gifts by himself. NOTE: He is no longer afraid, and now he "helps" everyone else open their gifts!)


Pawpaw Ronny, Isaac and Theresa checking out Pawpaw Ronny's new book:


Another great family Christmas memory!

Bedtime!

Check out that hair in the back!


Still not so much in front... BUT completely A-dorable!


Elise in her monkey pajamas, standing on Isaac's bed (she now crawls up there herself!)


We don't think there's anything cuter than kiddos in their pajamas, especially after bathtime! (Only thing is, it's not too easy to get their picture together!)


Man, do we love our two little PJ-wearers!

Bathtime!

Elise and Isaac both love bathtime! Here are some pictures we took of them last week.






We love watching these two precious cuties splashing around!

Merry Christmas!

Gingerbread Christmas Tree!

Isaac and Gramps made a Gingerbread Christmas Tree a couple weeks ago, and it is now our table's centerpiece. They had a great time making it together! Can't you tell?!


Happy Christmas Eve!!!

Christmas at Sylvia's!

Last Friday night, we celebrated Christmas with my extended family at my Aunt Sylvia's house. We had a great time of delicious food, laughter and fun.

Before we headed out, I had to get some pictures of Elise in her cute Christmasy outfit: (Isaac wanted nothing to do with the pre-event pictures although I really tried to get some pictures of him too!)




Once we got to Sylvia's, we ate (so much yummy food, thanks to Sylvia and Leon!), then we played a game of "Dirty Santa". Before the game started, Sylvia gave each of the children their own gift to open. Isaac actually shook his head and indicated that he didn't want to open his gift! Elise, on the other hand, went right for hers!

Elise and Gramps, having fun together:


Isaac loves his Aunt Kati!


Elise enjoyed watching everyone play "Dirty Santa":


Here she is, going for her gift (which was a sweet little stuffed bear):


She loved the tissue paper!


Isaac helped Kati open her "Dirty Santa" present:


He was still shy about opening his gift, but when Gramps offered to help, Isaac got a little more excited. Wow - a Caterpillar bulldozer!!


Now, this is fun!


Other than my cousin Frank getting a china teacup for his gift, the highlight of the night was Granny opening her present and pulling out this pair of Natural Light beer boxers! We all laughed so hard!


Thanks Sylvia and Leon for a great time! It was a wonderful start to the Christmas festivities for our family!

Pillowcase Aprons!

My latest sewing projects have been a few pillowcase aprons, which I'm loving! Here is one that I made for Kati for Christmas (Don't worry, I've already given it to her, so it's not a surprise):

Video: Isaac spreading guacamole on his burrito

New table!

Last week, we got a new kitchen table! I was so excited about it! You see, we'd been using my Nana's kitchen table, and while it served us well, the cane of the chairs just wasn't holding up to our little ones' daily food accidents. Also, we were only able to seat 6 people comfortably, and since our dining room has space for more, we wanted to take advantage of it. For Christmas this year, my parents offered to gift us with money, so we decided that a new table would be the perfect gift! And, boy was it! We found a local table builder on craigslist, and he built it to order for us. He made it out of less expensive knotty pine, so it was very affordable for us. And the chairs are more durable than the ones we'd had. Plus, we now have a bench that will seat four people! So that means we can seat nine people comfortably or we could squeeze 11 if we needed! Eleven! That's our family plus seven more! YAY! We've already had one Christmas brunch at the table with some of Steven's family, and it was great! We look forward to more and more opportunities to gather folks around this table for wonderful mealtime fellowship. Here are pictures of our old and new tables:

Before: (this one is now back in it's old spot - at Ray and Kati's house, which used to be my Nana's house! They are enjoying it now!)


After:


We were very pleased with Jeff's work, so please let us know if you'd like us to put you in touch with him! (He also built an octagon picnic table for our backyard, which we also love!)

Here's to many wonderful memories at this table!

12 years ago today...

Steven asked me to be his girlfriend! We were on a youth group trip to see the Tanglewood Lights, and we'd been getting to know one another for a month or so before that. It was such a sweet time! We celebrate this day every year, and this year it's our twelfth anniversary! As those of you who know us best know, we love studying Biblical numerology. The number 12, according to numerology, deals with placing things within perfect order or achieving governmental structural perfection. We like to think about the symbolism of the number 12 and what God has done in our lives. God, in his perfect divine plan, crossed Steven's path with mine at just the right moment twelve years ago. And twelve years later, here we are, still in love, married, with two sweet babies and a life full of blessings! We are learning that as we surrender to His leading, He truly does place our lives in perfect order. And while we are so thankful and joyfully reminiscent about that day many years ago, we are even more excited about what is to come! God started a good thing in Tanglewood... we know He'll keep working out great things as we continue to walk in His presence and His joy!

Here is a photo of the Tanglewood brochure from that night: (this was taken from the scrapbook I made during our dating years)


And here we are, back in those early dating days (circa 1999):



Happy Dating Anniversary Sweetie! I love you so much and am so glad you asked me out that night! It forever changed the course of my life, and I love you for it! :)

Mommy's scarf is so fun!

Last week, Elise tried on my scarf. And she rocked it. Don't you think?! This is one of my favorites, a gift from my great friend Ashley probably five years ago when we both were still working at Premier. We both have left the corporate world to raise babies, but the scarf, just like our friendship, still makes me smile!




Thank you Lord for great friends, warm scarves, and precious baby girls!

This princess is NOT happy!

But isn't her new little skirt CUTE??

Best buds!

Isaac is SUCH a great big brother. He is helping more and more with Elise these days. He loves to get her sippy cup off the floor when she throws it down (of course, she thinks it's a game and keeps throwing it down... and he keeps getting it... so sweet!) He also has recently started to spend time with Elise playing in the pack-n-play. Earlier this week I got this picture of them playing together. Elise was handing Isaac toys and saying, "Thank you!" each time she handed him something. It was precious. He is working on being gentler when he touches her, and we are constantly working on sharing. But overall, these two little ones dearly love each other and are starting to really enjoy playing together. I can tell they are going to be best buds!

Little Rudolph...

Merry Christmas from Preschool!

Last week Isaac's Preschool had their Holiday Program. We were a little apprehensive about how Isaac would do since he didn't do so well at the Preschool Olympics program as you may remember. This time, however, Isaac walked into the sanctuary with his class and stood on stage during the entire time they sang. He didn't sing any of the words or even open his mouth, but standing on stage all by himself (without me!) was definitely progress! After his class sang, we headed for a dinner in the fellowship hall. Gramps and Nana were able to join us, which was extra special. Here are some pictures of our first Preschool Holiday Program experience:

Steven and Elise waiting to see Isaac up on stage:


Isaac's class, along with the one-year-old class, on stage. Isaac is at the far right, in the green and white striped shirt:


Elise protesting for more food at dinner:


Isaac smiling after eating a cupcake:


On the wall beside our table, we saw this decoration, which included artwork from Isaac's class:


Cute, right? We looked closely for our little angel, and here is what we saw...



Yep, that's exactly what I think an angel looks like when it appears to someone and says "Fear not!" (Note my sarcasm! [wink]) Seriously we are still laughing at that picture!

We had a great night, and we were so proud of our little "angel" boy!

A dress for our princess!

I've been wanting to try my hand at making a pillowcase dress for a while now. Thanks to my mom, I have a new sewing machine to sew with, rather than the 35 year old one that I learned to sew on 15 years ago! Earlier this week I had some time while the kids were napping and I gave it a try. Since Elise wasn't awake, I wasn't able to take her measurements or grab a dress from her room to use, so I just made the dress up and figured I'd take it up later if it was too big. I was able to finish everything except threading the ribbon before I heard Elise crying out, ready for her afternoon nursing.

Once she was feeling better, fed, and Isaac was awake, I added the ribbon and tried it on Elise. The armholes are a big big, but I plan to take them up. Other than that, the dress turned out well! I had a great time making it, and Elise looked so cute running around in it. Isaac showed it to Steven when he got home and said, "Look at Elise's pretty dress Daddy!" :)

Here it is (I made it from a pillowcase I got at Goodwill for $0.49!):


Can you tell Elise is thrilled about her new dress?!

Christmas Tree 2010!

Before we had kids, Steven and I had started a tradition of getting a real Christmas tree in the NC mountains on the day after Thanksgiving. We loved taking that day to make the drive, pick out the perfect tree, cut it, and tote it down the mountain on top of our car. However, in the three years since Isaac was born, we've only put up a tree once, and that was an artificial one. I think having two babies in two years overwhelmed me in the area of putting up holiday decor. Hormones, exhaustion, or whatever it was, kept me from being able to get excited about getting our home decked out for Christmas. Well, not this year! Steven and I were both in the Chrismas spirit early, and we made plans to get a real tree once again. We decided to stay local, though, and made a trip on the Friday after Thanksgiving to our local nursery, Bud's, and picked out a great tree (and wreath! We couldn't forget the wreath!). The kids loved running around the nursery! We took the tree home and got lights on it before lunchtime. Then, during naptime, Steven and I added the ornaments. Next year we think Isaac will be ready to help us, but he didn't seem too interested this year. He loves seeing it decorated, though. Both Isaac and Elise love the tree, and I am SO glad we decided to get one.

Here's Isaac, pushing a cart at the nursery:


Isaac and Elise were quite "at home" running around at Bud's:


Our friend Angel from Bud's toting our tree to our van:


And... drumroll... the decorated tree:


We skimped on ornaments near the bottom so that Elise wouldn't be tempted to take them off. I'm so glad we did because she's taken off the few that were still within her reach, and we've had to move them even higher. Both kids know that the tree is off limits, and they seem to be abiding by that rule pretty well so far.

YAY for fun family memories!