Wednesday, December 30, 2009

This is a wonderful, insightful, beautiful link...

You must take the time to read the link I've included in this post. She is a beautiful writer and this one was great.
I love when she says," What we speak to others, is what we speak to ourselves, is what we speak to God."


http://www.aholyexperience.com/2009/12/when-you-cant-figure-out-what-answer.html

Enjoy and May God Bless!

Well it's done...


See that picture ? The one with the loooonnnnggg driveway? It's mine...all mine..well and Darryl's too (-:
We closed today on a property. It's a little over 5 acres of land. I'm happy and scared and feel a little like I might throw up-I feel all these things at the same time. I've always *thought* I wanted to live in a small town-well, whether I want to or not, it's happening now....It's really small with just 1 grocery store, a pharmacy, a handful of locally owned restaurants, and a hardware and feed store. Oh, and of course, lots of churches. You can't call yourself a self respecting small town in the South and not have a bunch of churches. At least I'll have somewhere to go when I'm freaking out! Please pray for us..this is huge move...
My friend told me we have lots of Hickory nut trees on the property so I may name our little heaven on earth...Hickory Nut Homestead..what do you think?
The builder will start building in about 3 weeks. We are moving AGAIN over there to be close to the property so we can be involved in the building process and start on some projects like a fire pit and a chicken coop.
Nicholas asked me today if he had to wear overalls on the farm(I know it's only 5 acres-but its a small farm to us so bear with me when you hear me calling it a farm-especially if your reading this and do own a real farm I know this probably makes you giggle.) I told him he only had to wear them if he wanted too. He's already begun wearing his hat like a country boy. If he asks for a fish hook to put on the bill..we'll we will cross that line when we get to it...
(For all my Northern friends and family who don't understand that-Country boys in the South who like to fish wear a fish hook on the bills of their baseball hats-I don't know why... they just do-I guess it's in case they get an inklin' to go fishin' they at least have a hook ready)
Anyway, we all feel like little homestead pioneers now. I did get a bit scared last night when I thought of the nights when Darryl is away and we are all alone in those woods. Yes, I have neighbors and you can see them through the trees now with all the leaves off...but still...I'm glad Darryl agreed to buying me a rifle this year and Bo Bear can be pretty scary...
I've started to ramble...this is due to me freaking out a bit...bear with me as this may occur quite frequently during this whole process...
Pray, pray, pray for us please. It is a happy day, but a huge change.

Edited to add: Darryl just read this and laughed..he told me I've rabbit trailed all over the place and sound a little crazy. Well, hmmphhh..it's my blog so deal with it. I AM a little crazy, what of it? He's a little crazy to be married to me...so take that!
O.k....I'm getting cuckoo now and Darryl is pouring me a glass of wine..apparantly I need it for his sake and mine...

Sunday, December 27, 2009

Christmas in pictures, continued...

Moola... Handmade cards for Daddy...

Look at those cheeks!! I still bite them!


I love his cheeks in this one too. He looks so precious.





Christmas in pictures, continued..

Matthew's new Webkinz.. Nicholas's new Webkinz..

Daddy's gift from the boys.


Grandma gave us these great piggy banks-thanks Grandma TootsieAnna!! xxxooo



Oh! Money from Nana! Thanks Nana!






Christmas in pictures






Bo Bear gets presents too!









Christmas Eve Traditions

After we came home from church on Christmas Eve we opened our special Christmas Eve gifts, which always contain a new pair of pajammies to wear on Christmas night and a special new ornament. This year the boys got Mario pajamas (because they are obsessed with video games-even though we don't have any) and a new baseball ornament. They loved them!
Then we had an appetizer dinner in the living room and watched Miracle on 34th Street.



Here they are tracking Santa on the Nordic tracker. Hurry and get to bed he's crossing the Atlantic!!


First, we must get Santa's cookies and milk ready. We made monster cookies this year(it's what the boys requested) which contain practically every cookie ingredient known to man.


Nicholas didn't want to forget the reindeer and wrote Santa a special note.They promptly went to bed and were so excited!! They couldn't believe how Santa could get into our apartment without a chimney. We explained he has a universal key for those without a chimney(although he prefers the chimney route-I know we take it a bit far but it's so fun!!!)




Monday, December 21, 2009

Christmas menu

Christmas Eve after Church
Spinach Artichoke dip
Crockpot Pizza dip(for the kids)
both with homemade breadsticks and rosemary bread for dipping
Homemade chicken strips with homemade honey mustard dressing
Monster cookies for dessert(and for Santa)
Christmas Brunch
Homemade Cinnamon Buns
Mexican Chilies Breakfast Casserole
Christmas Supper
(we always have Italian)
Chicken Marsala(this is one of Darryl's favorite dishes I make so he requested this one)
Fettucinne Alfredo
Brussel Sprouts
Rosemary Bread with butter
NY style cheescake for dessert

Boys will be boys...

I really don't need to say much with this...the pictures say everything...oh boy Nini...






Birthday continued...

Waiting for it...

Yeah!!


Oh my!!





Birthday continued...

That night after we finished swimming and swimming and swimming the boys requested a special birthday dinner....
Chicken wings!! (they so are my boys!!) So, I brought back lots of chicken wings, some chips and sweet tea. (Not very healthy but it's what they wanted and it's their birthday) So, we chowed down on all these treats and then headed back to the hotel lobby. They had a storytime in the lobby with Rudy the Reindeer and Santa. Then it snowed!!








After all the fun in the lobby, the boys requested to go back to the room and watch a Christmas movie. So, we came back to the room and had some birthday cake, then we cuddled up in p.j.s and watched a movie together.



It was so sweet, they kept telling us how much fun they had and how much they loved this birthday. I was so glad. I wanted it to be so special for my special boys. I love you so much boys!



The boys birthday celebration

The boys turned 8 last Thursday. Boy has the time gone by so fast!
We opened presents in the morning and had a favorite breakfast(bagels and cream cheese).
Then we headed out to our surprise destination. They kept trying to guess what we were going to do but couldn't get it. We told them we wanted to drive over to the Great Wolf Lodge and look around for a possible vacation soon. Well, sad faces were had as we walked in and they saw all of the decorations and the pools and slides. Then we told them we were staying there for the night and they screamed with excitement!
Here is Darryl and the boys at the entrance.

After we checked into our cool room, the boys raced over to the pools. Here is Matthew crossing the pool. They loved this!


Here is Nicholas...

Matthew on the slides....






Here is Nicholas...

The played for hours and hours in the slides and pools. Their favorite slide was called the tornado. They wanted to go on it constantly. They had such a great time!





Thursday, December 17, 2009

Today is...

The boys birthday!!! We are off to celebrate in a bit and will update my blog after we get back home. I still can't believe 8 years have gone by-boy have they flown!

Another bit of news, the newcast has updated our snow forecast. It seems as of yesterday we were *maybe* getting a trace of snow, as of now it's up to 2-4 inches tomorrow with the mountains getting 10+ inches! I'm so excited we are getting a good snow storm tomorrow. I can't wait!!!

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Crisis averted...

For now...
Nicholas just told me Bear is in his backpack that he's bringing to his friend's house...I knew he couldn't leave Bear...

We have reached a sad milestone...

Nicholas and Matthew are spending the night at a friend's house tonight because I'm having surgery in the morning. Well, Nicholas doesn't want to bring Bear. Bear is his teddy bear from babyhood and he is missing most of his hair and has bandages all over because his stuffing is coming out. So, I just heard Nicholas tell Bear he couldn't come tonight because he was scared his friend would make fun of Bear and he didn't want to be embarrassed. I know Nicholas is really concerned with his *image* but that makes me sad that he wouldn't bring his most beloved possession, just because he was scared of being made fun of by others. What do I say to that? I want him to be strong enough to not care what others think, especially at the expense of a *family member*. I know that he is struggling with this... I hope that he will reconsider...I'll keep you updated...

Sneaky, sneaky...

Notice a theme in this pictures? Yes, that's Matthew at the snack table at the piano recital. He spent a considerable amount of time there and I noticed he would bolt out of his chair if he saw a new family coming in with a new treat. Embarrassing, one mother even made a comment to him that maybe he should leave some cheese for the other people...
He's like a squirrel storing his food for the winter....




Meg Art Continued...

This deserved it's own post because I thought this was a bit funny. Darryl wasn't thrilled about going to MegArt. I really think he just wanted to go home and relax, but in typical Darryl fashion, he will do what makes us happy before himself. So, I dragged..err...I mean coaxed him into going to paint some ornaments as a fun family project. Our Christmas tree has alot of sentimental ornaments that mean things to our family and I thought this would be a great addition.
Well, after we got there his tune totally changed. Boy, was he into this! He took WAY longer than all of us to complete his ornament and was really focused and having a great time. He kept erasing his ornament and redoing it and taking so much time on the color selection. It was really funny and I'm giggling about it as I type thinking how he changed from someone that had no interest, to completely immersed in this craft project.
He's so cute! And really, his ornament was the best out of all of ours. He personalized it with little stick people to represent our family.





Meg Art

Well, after our mishaps at the piano recital we thought we all needed a change of pace-it was a stressful morning and we needed some fun! So, we headed to a favorite pizzeria here in town(we are so going to miss this place when we move back over to the other side of Charlotte) and then headed to Meg Art to paint some ornaments. I love MegArt because they actually fire and glaze the pieces so they look beautiful. You do have to wait 8 days for pickup but it's so worth it.


Here is Nicholas working on his Rudolph ornament.




And Matthew putting his details on his Rudolph ornament.



Nicholas's ornament is complete!
Here's Matthew's!


Here is my snowman.

Here is all of ours!


Piano Recital

The boys winter piano recital was this past Saturday. It was a combined recital with three other teachers so there were alot of students. Matthew was nervous but was o.k. Nicholas was not. This is him in the picture below. He was so nervous he couldn't get up there at first. The boys were supposed to do a solo and a duet. Well, Matthew did his solo and Nicholas couldn't do it. At first, I'll be honest, I didn't have any compassion for him. He could get up there and be silly but not do a performance? But, then I started to realize he genuinely was petrified. We finally convinced him to perform after he saw everyone else perform. They were ending the program and he went up to the teacher and asked if he could play. He raced through the performance and left the stage in tears running for me, I started to get teary for him. He grabbed me so hard and cried and cried. I really think this was really hard for him but we expressed how impressed we were that he overcame his fear and do this. He was really brave. Little Nini...I just love him..


Here he is with that petrified look on his face looking out at all the people behind us...
Here he is playing his song.
This is Nicholas again..if you look close you can see him starting to well up. I felt so sad for him but I was so proud of him that he did it.
Here is Matthew playing his solo...he did a great job as well.