background

Saturday, December 31, 2011

2011......

It is 9:40PM on NYE and I'm on the sofa in my pjs, watching The Big Bang Theory re-runs. Matt is in the driveway, cooking collards for tomorrow. Bless his heart for not stinking up my house with them. The kids are finally asleep after staying up late because we were downtown celebrating First Night Raleigh. Exciting, huh?

I've spent a lot of time today thinking back on 2011. I can't say it was the best year on the books. The economy stinks, I've got major career stress, my MIL has had bad back issues, my grandmother has been in the hospital and a rehab facility/nursing home, my bro has been going through a few things, Lindy seems to have really slowed down. I've got a child in the "terrible two's" stage!  I feel like I could go on and on.

But I can't think of those things without quickly recalling ALL the good things in my life and all the things I have to be thankful for.....Matt and the kiddos (including L&S), my parents, family and friends, our health, our jobs, the roof over our heads and the food in our pantry. We joined a new church that we love. Matt and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary and we were able to take a wonderful tropical vacation to celebrate. One of my very best friends got married and Will and I stood beside her on her special day. Another great friend is pregnant after years of trying. Little Lee's belly is all better.  We took our first "family of four" vacation. God is GOOD.

I am so glad I started blogging this year. I can't wait to get my first blog book printed. It will find a home right next to all of my scrapbooks from years' past. A few of my favorite posts from 2011:

Dance Parties

The beginning of wardrobe battles

First Goal

Potty Perfection

Church pageant

Santa Baby

I've got high hopes AND high expectations for 2012.  Hopefully my job stuff will get figured out soon. We're going to Disney.  Will starts kindergarten. I am really going to work on being healthier and more fit. I want to get more involved at church. I want to play more with my children. I want to save more money. There are a few house projects we need to tackle. "We'll see" is my response. I know it is all in God's hands. And that is why I can sleep peacefully tonight.


Happy New Year!!

Big Girls Don't Cry

Not when they move to such a pretty big girl bed!!

Even though I swore up and down I would not move Avery out of her crib until she was at least 16 years old, maybe even in college, we decided it was time to do it.  I found a great deal on a Stanley twin bed and trundle on Craigslist several months back. A Groupon later and we had a new mattress for her for a great deal.  Outfitting a new bed (in this case 2) is not a cheap endeavor so I had been picking up pieces like blankets and sheets, etc… here and there over the last several months.  I still have a few things to buy and once she actually has a need to use the trundle, we’ll have to rearrange her room, but for now, I love the way it looks!

She has done actually better than I thought she would with the transition. She is still pulling her bedtime shenanigans where it takes her a while to calm down and fall asleep. But she is sleeping great in there and looks so warm and snuggly in her bed. For some reason she doesn’t look nearly as small as Will looked in a twin bed when we moved him.

Her bedding is girly, but IMO, not baby girl looking.  I also decorated a little step stool for her.



I swear it is all the monogramming that has taught her how to spell her name at such a young age!!!! In fact, when I put her in bed the other night, she stood up, touched her monogram on the wall and said "The A is "Avery", the M is for "Modlin", and the E is for "Elizabeth."  Smart girl!!



Now while big girls don't cry in their new beds, mommies sure do when it hits them that there are no more cribs in their house.  Sniff, sniff.....

Christmas Continued....

On Christmas afternoon, we headed over to Mimi’s house for more gifts, more family and more food. I should interject here that by about this point, I was pretty much tired of eating. Although I can’t seem to stop!!  The children were once again spoiled and a little too rambunctious by this point, but hey, it was Christmas, what can you say??!?   Mimi’s sister and her family make the trek every Christmas afternoon from the Queen City and we have a really nice dinner with everyone. Unfortunately missing were G&G, but everyone understands that everyone has a million places to be, people to please, and scenarios to address.
Will is a champion gift opener

Magnetic dolls!




Taking a break from gifts to play a little Wii

Will got a real treasure chest with gold doubloons

Dragon pillow pet = big hit

Helping cousin Taylor open his gift


We went back to Mimi’s house on Boxing Day (ha!) for a brunch and Christmas celebration with G&G.  I forgot to take my camera (as well as their gifts but I did remember those in time enough to turn around and grab them) so no pics from our Christmas brunch. Just imagine it as me eating. Again.  

Matt had to go back to work the next day so the kids and I stayed home and played and played. We even met some friends at CFA for lunch because we were all tired of eating left overs. Plus, it was raining cats and dogs and I personally knew of 2 little sets of legs that needed some exercise so they wouldn’t exercise their vocal cords so much!!!!!

Friday, December 30, 2011

Merry Christmas

Merry, Merry Christmas!!

Wow, Santa was very good to us this year!!  Maybe a little too good. His helper, Mommy Elf, just loves shopping all year long and snapping up little (and big) goodies for Will and Avery.  Remember their lists here; well Santa did pretty darn good.

Everyone went to bed fairly easily that night and the elves got to work. Thank goodness we had Pops Elf to help out!!  Christmas morning, Avery woke up at 6:15, which is about normal for her. Being so young, she didn’t realize that she should be wanting to go downstairs. I guess it was maybe around 6:40 or so when Will started yelling for Matt, wanting to know if the stockings had been moved. You see, the stockings are hung on the fireplace in the family room but Santa leaves all of our gifts under the tree in the living room.  Pretty soon we were all racing down the stairs.
The big man himself left a note!!
I wish I could have recorded their noises as they rounded the corner into the living room. For several years we have struggled with the camcorder and trying to make it work with the remote and be in a good spot, etc…and it has always been a major stress point and a major disappointment for Matt and I. Nor do either of us want to be stuck behind it doing the recording instead of being there in the moment with the children. So this year we didn’t worry about capturing those first few moments, but in a way I wish it would have been easy to do so.  Will was just yelling about everything he saw and Avery was making these little happy grunting noises over all her baby doll accessories. 

Santa brought Will a few monster trucks, a Hot Wheels Stunt Track (which is a lot bigger and noisier than Mommy Elf thought), lots of race track, a huge marble maze, ladder golf and a few other assorted fun things. Avery received a princess bike, Cabbage Patch Kid, a baby swing and cradle, ballet shoes and a leotard,  a couple of monster trucks of her own, a cash register, and a couple more girly girl things.


Excited!

Showing NaNa Avery's monster trucks

Pushing a baby in her new swing

Boy Toys

Glue was a huge hit for both of them. Go figure!!

Rock a bye baby....

Will received a monster truck from his dad

Somehow Santa knew that Avery loves the cash register in Will's room at school so he brought her one of her own!

 The much anticipated gift from Will to Avery....... it was a Snow White doll and her pony. Avery loved it, of course. Snow White is her favorite princess.


 Lindy enjoying her new bone.


 Will and Avery are very lucky to have grandparents spending Christmas morning with them. When we went to open the door when Mimi arrived, Will discovered that Santa had left him a big basketball goal as well!!! It was on the front sidewalk.  A side note…..while Santa did great, Mommy and Daddy did not have much success locating Will’s basketball on Christmas morning. How can something that has been in the garage every day for over a year miraculously disappear on the one morning you really want it!!!!  Will took it in stride though and I remedied the situation first thing on the 26th. Even got Matt and I a basketball too!!!!


 We stayed in our pjs and played and played. Nana and Pops headed back to the coast fairly early that morning to go be with GG Jane and Uncle Matt so they missed out on the Christmas morning pj lounging! Thankfully the weather was nice this year since we did get quite a few outdoor toys that we played with, in our pjs. I didn’t miss not having a white Christmas this year at all!!!

After a lunch full of left-overs, everyone finally settled down for naps. Well, I don’t remember what Matt and I did but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t nap. At least not for me. I’m sure I was cleaning. The house looked like a tornado went through it. Still does actually!

We only were able to let Will and Avery sleep less than hour because had more Christmas celebrations to go to. To be continued……

Thursday, December 29, 2011

2011 Christmas Memories

The children were at such a wonderful age this Christmas. Will was old enough to have wonderful memories of Christmas' pasts and understand Santa and all that fun stuff. Avery was very "in the moment" and had lots of excitement about our Elf on the Shelf and singing Christmas songs.


Just a few things I want to remember about Christmas through Will and Avery's eyes....

-Will calling Santa "Sandy Claus" like my grandmother does
-Avery always saying "Ho Ho" instead of  "Ho Ho Ho"
-The sheer joy the children found in searching for our Elf "Tyler D Elf" every morning
-Will participating in his first Christmas pageant as a sheperd
-The children (and my mom) hearing Santa (my dad) say "Ho Ho Ho" on Christmas Eve while they were on the front porch looking for him.
-Will not knowing, even on Christmas Eve, whether he was on Santa's Nice or Naughty list
-Avery refusing to wear her Christmas pjs, and instead wore pink camo pjs
-The annual ride to look at Christmas tree lights and how funny the kids are as they see the outrageous light displays
-And our subsequent Christmas lawn geese we had to purchase the day after b/c the kids were so bummed at our lack of lawn decorations (pickings are slim on 12/23. Of course we got a set of 3 for $6.25 too....)
-Will and Avery taking Will's remote control truck to my parents ditch and playing with it in the mud for 45 mins, until it broke, with my parents' 87 year old neighbor.
-Will not knowing not to open up presents early
-Santa bringing a basketball goal, but Matt and I failing to locate Will's basketball prior to Christmas
-Will painstakingly creating the tag for his gift to Avery, and then watching her intently while she opened it and asking her if she liked it
-The kids singing their various renditions of the dreidel song....Avery's usually included calling it "play-doh" or "pickle"....
-The gifts the kids give me....Matt is very good about taking them shopping and while he may steer them in a particular direction, he usually gives them free reign in what they pick out for me.  It is so sweet to see what their little hearts and minds come up with. This year from Will was cultured pearl bracelets and Avery gave me 2 kinds of perfume!

Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Let's Go to Bethlehem

Our church, St. Michael's, just has the most wonderful children's program.  Will was able to participate in the pageant this year. He was a shepherd, and I'm not biased or anything, but he was the cutest shepherd in the world. Not only did he carry a staff, but he also got to tote a large sheep! He also didn't injure anyone with his staff!!!



Will, always the loud one, had a very distinguishable voice during all the singing. His Sunday School teacher had told us the week before that he was the only one who knew all the words to all the songs. Somehow this doesn't surprise me.

 Church was packed and hot and noisy with all the families. I was busy trying to say hello to everyone and keep Avery occupied and somewhat quiet...I didn't really get to take it all in while we were there. But now that I reflect back on the morning, I get very emotional thinking about Will, growing up, and taking part in a re-enactment of such a wonderful event.
My proud and sweet shepherd

After the pageant, Will joined us in the congregation for Communion. Of course Avery loved having her partner in crime to hang out with in the pews!

Speaking of Avery, how fancy are these sparkle shoes!?!?!

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve has turned into one of my favorite days of the holiday season. There is lots of cooking, family time and church. We did something a little different this year for dinner...I ordered the meal from Harris Teeter. We did this at Thanksgiving at my mom's and it turned out pretty good. Christmas was no exception.


Early that morning, we made cookies for Santa. I guess I should have checked our sprinkle colors before 
cookie making because we ended up with most pink and blue cookies!!!

This past year we joined a new church and their children's service is on Christmas Eve morning, including the pageant. Will got to be a shepherd in the pageant. More on that in another post.

After church we picked up some Char-Grill for lunch and then everyone settled in for a nap. My parents went to Kohl's for some last minute shopping, of course, and Santa and his elf got to work. After naps, the children went to the park with my parents for a bit so Santa could really get some work done.

someone was not being very cooperative for pictures



Dinner was very good and we all ate way too much. Or at least I did. I really needed my Thanksgiving pants!!  Prime rib, green beans, mashed potatoes, rice and broccoli casserole, cranberry apple casserole, roasted pear salad and homemade rye bread. Santa hat brownies for dessert!


An "Eye Spy" game turned silly

Very Silly


Every year, Matt and I let the children open up one shared gift on Christmas Eve. This year it was the "Llama Llama Holiday Drama" book.  Pops gave them a read while Mom and I cleaned up the kitchen.  Everyone got baths and that is where our own holiday drama began!!! Avery refused to wear her Christmas pjs, which coordinated with Will's. I should have known better than to investment so much time into this project, especially since they had buttons on them. Avery is in a very anti-button stage. So pink camo pjs it was. Whatever.


 The stockings were hung by the chimney with care and lots of cookies and milk were left out for Santa, and some carrots for his reindeer. Our sugar plums were soon tucked snuggled in their beds and Santa could finally get to finishing his work. Wow, between the basketball goal and the crib mobile, it is a good thing we didn't have a longer list that night!!