Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Christmas 2009



Monday, December 28, 2009

It's A ...

Saturday, December 26, 2009

Jingle Bells!

One of our favorite gifts this year was a digital "Flip" video recorder from Steven's parents. We're thrilled to ditch the ancient video tape recorder that we never pulled out, and finally take videos that can be uploaded on our blog. So here's our Christmas greeting from our three little singers:

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Christmas Card 2009

From our family to yours:






Monday, December 21, 2009

Isn't This Virginia?!

As you probably already know, I spent a large part of my growing-up years in Michigan where winter equals snow. To the chagrin of my snow-loving family, I grew to despise the snow. For starters, I can't stand being cold; and the wayward snow finding crevices between my wool socks and snow pants drove me crazy. As I got older, going out in it triggered my asthma; and the presence of it often meant interruptions to my social calendar. You had to shovel it, wade through it, drive in it, and clean what was tracked into the house. I'm a summer girl all the way. To add to the many reason I adore Virginia, when we moved here I was thrilled to discover that they usually receive only a couple of snowfalls a year, most melting within a day. It's the perfect amount, just enough for my kids to get to play in it a bit with no serious repercussion.
The autumns here are long and usually there is no snow until January. Last year it was 70 degrees on New Year's Day....ahhh. So we were very surprised when we got some snow at the beginning of December. You can see my ecstatic children enjoying the whiteness:

But our winter story doesn't end there. This past weekend we received 21, yes, 21 inches of snow. The local radio stations were calling it a blizzard for the Virginia history books, but because it arrived sooner than warned my children we 30 minutes away at my parent's home when it hit. Donning our Michigan driving egos and dodging insane, and I mean insane, Virginia drivers, we made it out to our kids and ended up snowed in at my parent's (without my camera). My children have never seen so much snow and their wiser aunts and uncles introduced them to the joys of snow forts, while the ladies stayed warm inside while baking Christmas cookies like mad. It was actually...dare I say...enjoyable.

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Our Michigan Christmas

We spent the weekend celebrating Christmas with my husband's family. We had a great time; and as an added bonus, it was warmest Christmas visit we've had with temperatures in the high 20's and 30's. I'm shamefully low on photos since I spent a large portion of the time off my feet trying to keep all my mother-in-law's yummy food down. My sister-in-law, Autumn, is due with her second baby 8 weeks before me so we enjoyed lots of good pregnancy talk. They had recently found out that we'll be getting our first nephew on that side!




Wednesday, December 2, 2009

My Welcome Home Gift

My dad has poured countless hours of time using his excellent construction skills to save us thousands of dollars as we have slowly renovated almost every room of our house. But we saved the biggest project for last...
For those of you who have not been in our home, I wish I had more "before" pictures show you. But trust me, this room was in need of some serious help. One of the biggest parts of the project was that I really wanted to blow out a couple of walls to take the "window to the dining room" an open counter pennisula instead.
The same week that I became sick was the week that we had started finally renovating our kitchen. It worked out nicely that my need to move out of my home because of my illness got us out the way of the construction.
So think of it like an HGTV show.
Picture me as the designer who had all the big ideas and never lifted a finger to help.
Picture Steven as the hunky host who is also obligated to chip in on the work.
And picture my dad as the entire crew of people who descend upon the home, work their magic, and make it more beautiful than you could have dreamed.
And here's the finish product, though I promise you it's far more wonderful in person:



Steven and I can't thank you enough, Dad!

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Thanksgiving 2009

We had a great Thanksgiving with my parents and unmarried siblings. My mom make indisputably the best Thanksgiving food you could imagine, and I was in heaven for entire 1/2 hr. that it all stayed down.
Elijah was beside himself with sheer joy over a holiday that was centered around food. He was giddy the whole day as the food was being prepared; and he talked over and over about how he would be able to "stuff himself" with dinner.