Christmas Traditions

We've established a couple of Christmas traditions for our little family. We make a gingerbread house and make a birthday cake for Jesus.

This year we made chicken and dumplings the week of Christmas as well and they really enjoyed rolling out the dough.

ll of these projects make huge messes in the kitchen but it it worth all the mess to see them happy and knowing we're creating those warm memories they'll always have!

Long Time No Blog

Once again, I'm behind on my blogging. I do have a list of all the things I need to blog about starting with Christmas and running through Gray's hernia surgery followed by massive blizzard in OK and now through the tragic tornado that struck my little hometown of Ringgold and demolished Susie's daugther's house. Since I want to make this blog into a book as a digital scrapbook of my our lives, I'm planning to play catch up and blog about our recent happenings in order.

We've just been a little busy! I've been working tons of hours getting the medical clinic opened at work and Michael has been studying non-stop. He has passed the first 3 parts of the CPA exam and he will take the last section on May 14th. Because this is the hardest section, he has set a goal to study at least 200 hours for it. He wakes up around 4:00 AM to study 1-2 hours before work, studies through his lunch break and then another 1-2 hours per night. The weekends are packed with Church events, Olivia's soccer games and trying to keep up with the house. I've been training hard for my first half marathon on May 21st so running is also filling the schedule as well.

In just a month or so, things will hopefully slow down and I will become a regular blogger again! Michael will be (hopefully) done studying, I'll cut back on running and dance and soccer will be over. So for those of you who have asked, I promise to update soon!

Christmas Time is Here

We LOVE Christmas around here! I started putting up the Christmas decorations the day after Halloween and the cutest thing happened. Olivia was helping me put up the tree in the dining room and Grayson woke up from his nap. When she saw him she said with such excitement "Grayson, Santa is coming tonight!" It was so sweet and so funny but through my laughter I had to explain to her the Christmas was still 2 months away. I told her that her Mommy was just crazy and loves the holidays so much that we just start a little earlier than everyone else.

My hubby, AKA Clark Griswald is at it again and put up the house decorations the same weekend. He has added to them each weekend and they are finally complete. This year there is a neighborhood decorating contest so this has made his desire to decorate go from "we love the outdoor Christmas lights" to.."no those neighbors didn't try to out-do me, I'm going back to home depot!"

The day after thanksgiving we went back to to the tree farm as always to pick out our real tree. The kids had a blast and we have the prettiest tree ever!

Olivia was so cute at the tree farm. She picked out a tree that was about a foot tall and said "I choose this baby tree." Grayson would have been just fine if we would have just rode the tractor and went home.

Halloween 2010

Olivia is really into Tinkerbell this year so there was no convincing her to be anything but Tinkerbell for Halloween. Since I like to coordinate them and Grayson is not arguing with me yet, I decided to let him be her Peter Pan. They were adorable! We had a lot of fun going to the fall festival in town and trick or treating with friends!

I also got to go with Olivia on her field trip to the pumpkin patch and that was so much fun. They got a go through the maze, do games, and crafts and pick out a pumpkin. On Friday I helped with her party at school and that was a so entertaining seeing her interact with her friends and teachers at school I am so thankful to be in such a good school system and her teachers are absolutely wonderful!

First Trip To DC

Dado and Nonna moved to Washington, DC about a year ago and we finally made it for a trip! It just so happened that I needed training for work that was in Fredericksburg, VA, only about an hour away from Dad and Susie's apartment. Back in the spring, we came up with the plan that Dado and Nonna could watch the kids while I was in training for 3 days and then Michael could fly over and join us to sight see in D.C. for a week. Then, the plan got even better when Aunt Sissy and Uncle Jesse decided to join us and I got to spend time with the sweetest niece in the world!

While we were there we did A TON including:

Dado and Nonna took the kids to the National Zoo

The boys went to a Redskins game

We did all the monuments..Washington, Lincoln Memorials, Korean War Memorial, Vietnam Wall

Spent a day at Arlington Cemetery

Went to a Nationals Game

White House

National History Museum

American History Museum

Ate cupcakes from DC Cupcakes, totally over priced but WAYYYY good!

Ate lunch at Mt. Vernon

And of course, lots of shopping at markets and the Potomac Mills shopping mall.

We had this really cool apartment to stay in was in the same building as Dad and Susie's apartment so we didn't have to stay in a hotel. It was very nice and homey and we got lots of quality family time in. This trip was a very busy one but we created priceless memories. The funniest thing that happened was Olivia busted out with her "flag of America" song on the way to the Lincoln memorial. We had never heard this song before but she had heard it at school and I guess all of the American History prompted her to sing it! She also said the pledge of allegiance.

We also had 3 strollers which was pretty funny considering we rode the subway pretty much everywhere we went. We were definitely a caravan of strollers and children all over DC!