HAPPY HOLIDAYS

(I'll be back to add links and pictures...I'm still trying my computer back to normal after a surprise upgrade to Windows 7)

First of all, we wish all of our family and friends near and far a very merry Christmas and a blessed new year!

This year started out very rocky. First, Dennis had a ruptured disc in his neck that required surgery. We’re still unsure of exactly how it happened. In an attempt at preventing Dennis from hurting himself more, I tried to get something up high in the garage down and hurt my neck. The diagnosis for that was pretty wide, but we settled with it being a bulging disc. I’m so thankful to a physical therapist friend that worked on me and gave me a lot of advice and stretching activities. It was very stressful January for our entire family and we are so grateful that Mary (Dennis’ Mom) was able to come out and help us.

That was swiftly followed my some major vehicle repairs on our big truck. We went back and forth about making the repairs or getting a different vehicle for a while. Finally, we settled on making the repairs and hoping that it would last a few more years. So far so good, thus far.

That’s about the time that I also trailed off on updating my blog. I didn’t have much fun stuff to write about so I chose not to write anything. The rest of our year has passed in what feels like a blink of an eye. We have all had a very busy year.

Elizabeth is now a first grader and has adjusted to all the new routine of being a grade older. There are only 3 children from her class last year in her class this year. One of them is a little boy that adores her and gave her first love note. YIKES! Thankfully, she is still pretty smitten with two of her best buds. She loves math (no big surprise there) and has been doing well with her reading and spelling, too. She has continued speech therapy this year and is making great strides. We signed her up for gymnastics and she is doing a great job there as well. Her favorites are the floor gymnastics and bar. It’s amazing to see the growth since the beginning of the school year.

Katherine is in the 3 year-olds class in preschool and will turn four in January. This year she is in preschool 4 days a week and LOVES it! She loves to paint and color. Recently she started to ask for workbooks to do while I am working with Elizabeth on her homework. It is amazing to see all of the things she is learning and often times pretends not to know. She originally wanted to sign up for dance class, but that didn’t work out so we signed her up for gymnastics. On her very first day she was designated the beam queen as she refused for any assistance as she gingerly darted across the high beam. She likes the bar as well, but nothing could hold a candle to the beam.

Dennis has almost been with Time Warner Cable for 19 years now. This year he has traveled more than any other and it looks like that will continue into next year as well. He turned the big 4-0 this year and was very surprised by the girls and myself with 40 gifts for 40 years. After his neck surgery earlier this year he decided it was time to start scratching things off of his bucket list by jumping out of a perfectly good airplane. Yes, that’s right, skydiving! Our neighbor/friend, Gaz and Dennis both did a tandem jump at Carolina Skydive. The video is amazing! He had a blast doing it and is ready to skydive again anytime! Although, Emma (Gaz’s wife) and I say that we get to do it next time!

I am still staying at home, although, I keep myself pretty busy. I am one of the PTA Vice Presidents for our Elementary school and have had the pleasure of working with an amazing PTA board, school staff, and parents. We have had a very successful and productive year thus far and I look forward to continue being active in years to come. At church, I volunteer in the nursery and manage a small piece of the nursery ministry (the laundry). In addition to that I am still on the list for substitute teaching at preschool. I am sad that I have yet to be available when the opportunity has come up to sub this year. I really enjoyed it a lot last year. Hopefully the New Year will bring more opportunities for me to do that.

Although, we stayed close to home most of the year, we have had several fun adventures over the year.

Early this year we also received a few snow days. There were snow ball fights with the neighbors and sledding with friends down a neighbor’s hill. Our neighbor, Emma (also a Mom), and I were the snowman builders. The kids were tickled with it when it was all done. Although, I think Elizabeth & Gryffin would have been happiest to topple him over. It is funny how snow can turn adults into big kids.

Both girls had spring programs at school (which would have been last year). They were both adorable. They were both singing songs around the house for weeks before the program.

We planted a garden again this year, but the record breaking heat really took a lot out of the garden. I think we will be doubling the size of it next year. We also planted a Peach tree, a Pineapple Pear tree, and two Blueberry bushes. Hopefully we’ll get a little fruit from them this year. Both of the girls took swim lessons again this summer.

At the end of the summer we made a quick trip to Washington DC. That was a lot of fun and a lot of walking. We are hoping to return and see more of the museums when the girls are a little older.

This fall inspired the girls to want to spend as much time outside as possible. They want to ride their bikes every day. I’m certain it won’t be long before they are both asking to have their training wheels removed.

My Mom came out to visit over Thanksgiving. While she was here we took the girls to high tea at a local place here. It went perfectly with a book the girls have both enjoyed, Tea for Ruby. In the book a little girl receives an invitation to have tea with the Queen (who turns out to be Grandma). We enjoyed shopping and visiting Santa in the Mall. They were both sad to see her go.

Grandma Mary & Grandpa Royal will be here for Christmas this year and we are very excited about that as well. It has been a real treat to have family here for the two big holidays! We can’t think of a better way to finish up the year than with family!

Picture Time!

I took some time yesterday to try to capture some good photos to finish up a couple of projects and try to get a good one for our Christmas cards. Let me just say that it is not small feat to get two wiggly, giggly, giddy and eventually bored out of their mind kids to smile, stay still, and look at the same time. SHEESH! Hats off to professional photographers that I am certain have way more patience than I do. Here a few of the fun ones that didn't didn't make the cut....I don't want to spoil any of the fun for the Christmas cards and other projects. Enjoy!

Happy Halloween!

Good evening to everyone!

The last week has been a lot of fun. The girls have been anticipating carving pumpkins, a friends birthday, the neighborhood fall festival, and of course trick-or-treating. I have uploaded all of the pictures from the weeks fun.
Carving pumpkins was pretty comical this year. The girls cleaned out their pumpkins this year. Elizabeth dove right in with out hesitation. Katherine was determined to use the little plastic pumpkin scraper to remove the seeds one at a time. Finally, when I got her to stick her hand in and grab some the response was priceless. I got the wrinkled nose look and an immediate request for a paper towel to clean her hands. Once the pumpkins were clean, Dennis & I did the carving. The patterns were picked out by the girls. Katherine chose a goofy looking mummy (I carved) and Elizabeth chose an owl (Dennis carved). They both turned out quite nicely.

Another reason why Elizabeth was eager to clean out her pumpkin was because we were going to keep the seeds and toast them. They turned out quite nicely and the girls have been enjoying them every day since. I do believe that will become a yearly tradition from here on out.

Halloween day was quite busy for our household. We had a birthday party in the early afternoon. One of Elizabeth's closest friends has a birthday on Halloween and the kids had a great time celebrating with him. Then there was only a few hours before our neighborhood fall festival. Katherine ended up crashing out for a nap about the time it was starting. Dennis & Elizabeth attended while I stayed home with sleeping beauty. No sooner did they get home did we have to start to get ready to head out for trick-or-treating in the neighborhood.





























We snapped a few pictures and then headed out to meet up with neighbors and friends. There are a couple of families that we have trick-or-treated with for a couple of years now. The kids are becoming such pros at this. As always, we had a great time and the kids were all worn out.

When we returned home we had enough time to turn on our lights and decorations and had out a little candy. We received several compliments on our decorations and even had a few little ones that were very reluctant to approach. I'm sure it had nothing to do with glowing skeletons, thunder and lightning strobe light and sound effects, spooky floating ghost or the huge spider web. There are a few pictures of the decorations in the pictures I've uploaded (see link at beginning of this post). Elizabeth really enjoyed handing out candy, too.

I am certain that we will all sleep quite well tonight.....too bad tomorrow is a school and work day.

OKAY, OKAY!!!!

After two good nudges from a few friends I'm going to work hard to bring our blog up to date. For those that have Facebook accounts, my pictures there are much more up to date as well as the normal daily happenings around the Frambes household.

My plan of attack is to start with current stuff and work backwards so I'm certain the posting will be wacky for some time. So starting this next week be looking for some new pictures and updates.....who knows maybe a few will show up today!

Puzzle Pieces Everywhere!

Recently Katherine has discovered the joy of working puzzles. She will spend hours working and reworking puzzle after puzzle. However, unlike Elizabeth who is meticulous about making sure each piece gets back with the correct puzzle, Katherine prefers to leave them scattered in piles. When I asked her to pick them up and put them away she gathered them in a bucket all mixed together.

I can see my Mom somewhat giggling at this. When asked to clean my room as a child, I'd just shovel everything into the closet or under my bed with zero rhyme or reason. Where now I want everything in it's place.

After I asked her several times to pick them up. I finally resorted to the trash bag threat. Just like the typical kid, she was screeching, "NO!!!! I'm cleaning them up!" Still she was not putting them away. I handed a bag to Elizabeth and asked her to put all of the pieces into the bag so we could throw them away. Yeah, I think Katherine has her sister all figured out. Sure enough, Elizabeth went running into the playroom to pick up the puzzles for Katherine. There's no way she'd let me throw away those puzzles. Katherine lounges back while Elizabeth cleans up the room.

I'm not entirely convinced that all of the puzzle pieces are in their proper boxes, so next week sometime I'll be working 20 kid puzzles to make sure we have all of the pieces. Good thing I LOVE to work puzzles. Not to mention, I think I'm going to take a friends helpful hint and mark the back all of the pieces for a puzzle with the same letter to make sorting easier next time this happens. Yes, I'm certain there will be a next time.

Best Dinner Cook!

A couple of weeks ago, I was having one of those days where it seemed like every thing was a battle with the girls. You know, one of those times where you begin to wonder if you were cut out for parenthood. Dennis was working late and I was so ready for a Calgon moment.

I had dished the girls plates and sat them at the table. After the third, fourth, or was it fifth (I have lost track of how many) time I asked them to come to the dinner table. There was a battle for something another.....wanting to wait for Daddy....finish watching a show....working on a puzzle...who knows. They finally sat down. I was back in the kitchen dishing my own plate and doing a little cleanup at the same time. I could hear them doing their normal giggling and playing at the table. As I headed back into the dining room, I figured that they had not eaten a bite . I was surprised to find quite a bit of food already gone from their plates. Yes, I'm certain that they were not feeding Bandit under the table. I sat feeling exhausted and not wanting to fight any battles with either one of them.

As I started to eat my dinner. Katherine started to stand in her chair, but before I could protest she'd reached over to give me a huge hug and whisper (which is not really whispering for 3 years-old), "You make the best dinners ever, Mommy! I love you!" Elizabeth immediately echoed her sisters sentiments. It was as if all the bad moments of the day were completely wiped away with two simple sentences from my girls. I was smiling...beaming from my head to my toes. They melted my heart and made my day just like that!

Funny how they noticed the affect it had on me. I kid you not, every dinner since then one or both of them make sure to add those two simple sentences at some point during the meal and it has the same affect every time. What a great thing to experience! I love being a Mommy!

Trip to Washington DC

For our anniversary this year we decided to take quick trip up to the DC area. The girls did great on the drive up there. Settling down to sleep at night was the biggest hurdle for us to overcome. Silly giggly girls!!!! I do recall those days as a child.

The big plan was to go to the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum in Chantilly, VA, but on a whim we decided to drive into DC. The weather was questionable. It was one of those gray cloudy days where you were never quite sure when/if it was going to pour down. The good news is that the temperatures were perfect....a little muggy but I would take that over 90 degree temperatures any day.
We found ourselves on a neat little two lane green way with single lane bridges. It ran along a canal system that was parallel to the Potomac River, the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal National Historic Park. It made for quite the pleasant drive and it was certainly less stressful than city traffic driving in an unfamiliar city. Along the drive we came up with a new term for drizzle/mist, drist. We had quite the laugh over that. The one time we decided to park and check out the bridges and trails it immediately started to rain, so we had to head back to the car. Maybe on our next visit we'll get to explore that park more.

We drove around and past just about everything before we decided that it would be worth getting a little wet to see the sights. We parked in one of the free parking lots and headed out on foot with two umbrellas (and no jackets). Thankfully it was still warm even when with drist and eventually rain.

The first was the Jefferson Memorial, which under construction or restoration. It was quite the walk and it started pouring pretty good about half way there. I'm just glad that it was not cold. That would have been no fun. Dennis took a lot of pictures of the memorial, but missed the one that I wished he would have gotten. There was a spider dangling from Jefferson's nose! The girls were quite fascinated by it. Elizabeth had a blast posing for pictures on this trip. Here's her Ms. Jefferson Memorial picture:

From the Jefferson Memorial we could see the Washington Memorial across the Potomac River. We were pretty damp by the time we got back to our car, so we actually got back into the car. The thing we didn't realize was just how close we were parked to the Washington Memorial. So we took another scenic drive around only to find ourselves back in the same exact parking lot. Hahaha!

From there we headed to the Washington Memorial and had a great view of the Capital Building and several other sights! It was a little breezy there, so the girls were ready to move on to the next stop pretty quickly.

Next was the WWII memorial. It was neat to find our state, but I was the only one interested in posing next to it. Past that was the Reflection Pool and the Lincoln Memorial. The girls were pretty tuckered out by the time we headed toward the Lincoln Memorial, but they just kept going. Dennis was determined to make it to his personal favorite memorial. (I like them all, so I'm not sure I have a favorite.) Again, Elizabeth posed for the perfect Ms. Lincoln Memorial picture.
The girls were pretty much ready to just camp out there so Dennis and I ended up putting them on our shoulders and heading back towards the parking lot. Along that walk we stopped at the Korean War Memorial. Both Dennis & I would love to visit that memorial early in the morning before other people get there to really get some good pictures to get the full affect of the reflections on the slabs in front of the statues and reflections of the statues onto the etched wall. That one I could spend some time really appreciating the creative artwork.

Finally we made it back to the car and were all pretty much beat. The girls slept all the way back to the hotel. Both Dennis and I were wishing we could nap all the drive back to the hotel, too.



















The next day we went to the National Space & Air Museum in Chantilly, VA. Dennis and I really wish the girls had more patience, but considering they were great trooper in the city the previous day, we couldn't complain. We certainly did not get to see and enjoy it as much as we wanted. I did get to see to see my favorite plane ever (SR-71 Blackbird) and I got to tell the girls about my old job before becoming a Mommy! They thought it was pretty cool that Mommy used to build the pretty shiny things hanging above the space shuttle. Elizabeth had fun posing for pictures again and Katherine was ready to go back to the hotel from the moment that we arrived. The gift store was the biggest hit. Katherine picked out a fancy water timer and Elizabeth a space shuttle. Mommy bought a SR-71 Blackbird model and Daddy a cool paper airplane book.
We wrapped up the evening by hitting the worlds smallest swimming pool at the hotel. It was like an over sized hot tub. We weren't the only family with the same idea so that made it seem even smaller. The funny part was that there was a lifeguard on duty. Seriously funny! I wish I had thought to take a picture of it.

The next morning we packed up and headed home. It was a fun trip. We took the scenic drive up to DC and we wished we took the scenic drive back. There was a lot more stop and go traffic on the way home. It was interesting to see different scenery on the way home though. We look forward to more trips to the DC area in the future.

You can check out more pictures here.

Picture Links!

Hello, everyone! The week came and went with no updates. I am happy to say that this morning I did do a little updating. I was surprised at how many of the picture links were really old. I have now updated all of the links to this last year's events. WOW! I also realized that I have not even uploaded pictures from Katherine's 3rd birthday party. YIKES!

Please be sure to check out Elizabeth's Spring Program pictures!

Look for some new....back dated posts next week sometime (I hope). Thank you all for your patience while I try to get everyone caught up.

About Time!

I bet everyone is thinking that it is about time I get this blog updated! I can not believe that I still have Christmas letter up! There is so many fun things that have happened since then. I am going to try to make it one of my priorities to get some updates out here this week.

I have loaded a few new photo albums to Picasa since Christmas so I will start by adding those links to the photo page. I'll come back put an updated list on this blog entry once I get them linked to my blog.

Thank you for being patient! I am hoping to put out a few more inspirational entries out here. I'm hoping that it will blossom into an entirely different blog, but I'll just have to wait to see where the Lord leads me with that.