Kids' Christmas Programs

The kids had their Christmas program at school last week. The pictures aren't really that good because it was PACKED. It usually isn't that full, but when I got there, I had to get seats near the back before there weren't even any left. 

 

Addison's class had little antlers on and sang Jingle Bells and (I think) Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. She scanned the audience the whole time to make sure we were watching her. She would get the most precious cheesy little smile on her face when she saw us. 

Carter's class sang Do You Wanna Build a Snowman? and Let it Go from Frozen. Carter looked adorable in his Olaf shirt but got a little nervous up there and didn't do much singing. He, too, scanned the audience to make sure we were watching.

It was adorable and chaotic, which made it funny of course!

A weekend in NJ (and becoming aunt and uncle again!)

On December 12, Seth and I became an aunt and uncle for the ELEVENTH time! WOW! Ben and Salli officially welcomed J & J into their family through adoption, and we were thrilled to be able to be there! The kids were well-behaved so we actually got to listen and enjoy it, too. :) WIN! 

After, we went to their house for a delicious dinner and then stayed in NJ for the weekend. On Saturday morning, the kids, mom, and I went to their church for a cookie exchange Salli was running while Seth went hunting. They had a blast building gingerbread houses...and Carter even got called up on stage to participate in a game! SO PRECIOUS! 

Later that night, everyone came over for Seth's birthday dinner and cake. Mom made Seth's favorite--chicken parm, pasta, delicious NJ bread (seriously. SO GOOD.), and salad.

On Sunday, we stopped at Chris and Jess's house on the way home for lunch and playing on the farm. The kids loved it (and their dog, Le-rye, whose real name is Leroy). :) 

When it rains, it pours

I swear, this time of year is always frustrating in terms of financial things that come up. You know the drill, I'm sure. Annual car insurance due. Need new tires. Both cars need their "big" regular maintenance. Christmas shopping. New home needs. All in one or two months. Stressful and frustrating.

And--on top of it all--Bentley has a little tumor of some sort (been there awhile; thankfully doesn't seem to be growing) on his shoulder and his ear hematoma is back. He gets blood-filled ear flaps from excessive shaking of his head. In the past, they've gone away naturally, but the one he's got now is kind of bad and worse than he's ever had. And...I'm sort of over it. WHY does this happen every year with excessive expenses? Sigh...

For now, I'll be praying (really hard) that his ear issue resolves itself ASAP. The tumor removal estimate was $1000 so we obviously opted to not do that right now. I'm sure the ear surgery would be just as much so I'd love to avoid that at all costs. 

When it rains, it pours.

Home improvement

So 2014 (and part of 2013) has been the year(s) of home improvement for us apparently. I'm not sure it was intentional; in fact, we had several things originally planned which we've tweaked a bit to accommodate some of the other things that have come up!

Since I love to look back on these things years down the road, I'm going to write down the things we've done this year to "change up" the house. Some are super simple but make things feel new, nonetheless. I'm thankful we've been able to do all these things to the house--we work and save to be able to freshen things up!

- (this was really 2013 but I'm going to count it) A new bow window in the living room.

- (also 2013 I think...maybe the fall?) Painted the shed doors and trim

- Painted the metal fence

- I cleaned our white siding and patched and painted an area in the front that looked a little rough. Thankfully, I did it so well you'd never know it was there! 

- A new grill

- New patio furniture to replace the stuff that was leaving seat remnants on people's butts when they stood up :)

- A new-to-us lawnmower, which unfortunately kind of sucks. Not so sure this is an "improvement" at this point. Grrrr.
- A new stainless stove (finally!!!)

- A new stainless microwave (our microwave worked perfectly fine but when we replaced the white stove with stainless, the white microwave looked awfully weird above it); we sold the old one on Craigslist too which helped!
- A new stainless dishwasher (see above. Half white and half stainless look isn't working for me; plus, the thing has been in DESPERATE need of replacement for well over a year now.)
- New-to-us kitchen table thanks to Mom and Dad Ran, who got the set from a friend who no longer wanted it.

- "New" rooms for the kids...we converted the crib to the double bed and moved the dark wood furniture to Carter's room. Oma and Opa got him new bedding and it looks PRECIOUS! Addison now has the white furniture and little toddler bed. Her room looks sweet and adorable. :)

- Touched up the baseboards and doors with fresh paint

- Painted an accent wall in the living room
- FINALLY upgraded to a new TV - a Samsung Smart TV, which we're loving!  

Things that didn't happen like we thought:
- New siding (see above. My cleaning job took care of it well enough that it wasn't necessary.)
- New quartz countertops. Yeahhhhh, we're going to need to hold on that for a little. :)

Thanksgiving 2014

This year, we spent Thanksgiving on the Lauver side. With a new "family" now in Bradley and Ashley, we were all miraculously available to be there this day. As strange as it sounds, we got a bunch of little things done around the house the morning of Thanksgiving. The kids were a little "off" (as they tend to be on holidays), but thankfully they shaped up by the time we headed out. (We've since learned this weekend that Addison has an ear infection and is getting two two-year molars, which explains a lot). 

What I'm thankful for: my parents decided to sit at the kids' table in the kitchen to allow us the option to eat in peace. Do you hear the Hallelujah chorus singing too or was that just Michelle, Jason, Seth and I? :)

The kids went a little crazy at first, running all over the house, hiding in the shower and whatnot. I quickly decided that obnoxiously loud but happy is worlds better than miserable!

It snowed the day before Thanksgiving so the kids got a kick out of being able to go sledding. Shockingly, it lasted more than 5 minutes, which is generally the length of time my kids last before they want to come back inside. They made a cute little snowman, too. 

The rest of the afternoon was spent with playing kids, watching football, eating too many desserts, etc. Even Owen got tuckered out. SO CUTE. #tryptophan

We headed home around 7:30 because Seth's parents were coming for the weekend. It was probably one of the chillest Thanksgivings in awhile and thankfully, our nap-less kids were happy (and fell immediately to sleep at 7:30 for a blissfully peaceful ride home)...can we be thankful for that too?

We are incredibly blessed. Some days are really hard and some days are less hard. But at the end of all of them, we've got more than we deserve or need and are surrounded by people we love.

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving, too!

The twins' school fun run and 5k

Carter and Addison participated in a fun run that was held by the twins' school a couple weekends ago. It was a chilly morning but I'm not sure toddlers notice that. :) 

Silly kids before the race! 

Carter did pretty well -- he ran probably the first 1/2 a mile but then began to tucker out a little. Aunt Michelle found him and helped him along a little bit. Poor little boy's cheeks were so red! 

He just looks so tiny on the big course (and in his youth shirt). :) 

Sissy "ran" it too, but only did about 1/6 of a mile before she was over it. I carried her for a bit and then we headed back to the "finish" line. 

Bedtime - A Broadway drama by Addison Elizabeth

Broadway. That's kind of what bedtime is like in our house with Miss Addison Elizabeth. A full-out, award-winning D-R-A-M-A. (I know my parents are laughing because they think I'm dramatic, but NOTHING AT ALL like this child. See what I did there with the dramatic exaggeration?).

Literally, every single night is a production. To enlighten you, I'll give you a brief rundown of a standard night. And little miss follows the script to a T. She doesn't deviate.

Parents: Time for bed, Addison. 
Addison: NOOOOOO.
P: Yes, Addison.
A: Sing ABCs
[We sing]
A: Sing Jesus Loves Me
[We sing]
A: Um...sing Twinkle
[We sing Twinkle, Twinkle, pray and do kisses]
P: Night, night Addison.
A: Mommy?
P: Yes, Addison? 
A: I can't see my nightlight.
[Fix curtains]
P: Ok, night night Addison
A: Mommy? 
P: Yes, Addison?
A: Turn my fan on.
[Turn fan on]
(before it has a chance to start fully) A: It's not going.
[We reach up and give it a good push to get started FASTER]
P: Ok, night night Addison.
A: I need two cubbers (covers).
[Cover her]
A: Sing ABCs
AND REPEAT WITH EVERY STALL TACTIC THERE HAS EVER BEEN (Where are my dolls? Where's Carter? Mommy sleep on my floor? Where's my water? I'm firsty., and so on)

Then Seth has to go in and cover, sing, adjust curtains, make fan go faster, kiss cheeks. 

Lord, have mercy. 

Since we moved her to a big girl bed, this has been the new norm (for us....you know she'd go to my parent's house and go right to bed). She also wakes up pretty much every morning between 5:14 and 5:44 to go to the bathroom. And when we take her and then walk her back to her room...

YEP! You guessed it. She wants us to start that again.

My hair is graying and I'm low on sleep. Surely there is a brilliant idea out there for our lead actress?!?!! :)

Our annual tradition

Our annual tradition: 

Voting. 

Taking the kids.

Taking this photo. 

Dealing with the meltdown about the baked goods being sold on the way out. 

(All in a day's work.)

Playing in the leaves

This weekend has been pretty chilly here in central PA but we found the crazy wind to go outside today to play in the leaves. We didn't have too many but all of ours blew into one PERFECT pile in the neighbors yard, so we headed over there. They had an absolute blast and I ran inside to grab the camera to snap a few pictures. Addison wasn't so into the pictures (too busy playing) but I was able to capture a few. Love these two! 

Happy Halloween (and trick-or-treating)

Another year, another trick-or-treat in the books! Costume selection was pretty easy this year -- I had gotten Carter this TMNT costume from some secondhand sale a few weeks before and he thought it was for Halloween so SCORE! Sure made the decision process pretty easy. 

When Addison was an infant, I went to Walmart one day and they had all their Halloween costumes marked down 80% off so I guessed what size she might be in a few years and bought this one. It fit perfectly and she had no care in the world when it comes to what she wore (and I think she made a pretty cute little pirate)! ;) 

They also had a parade at school but because of my new job and the fact that I had a press conference at the exact same time, I couldn't go. I was so sad but thankfully my mom, Owen, Michelle, and grandma went to see them. 

To say that we have enough candy to last us until 2017 is probably an understatement--we had two FULL grocery bag fulls when we combined both of their things.