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!

Christmas 2009

It seems like every year this post starts the same way, with amazement that another year has just flown by before we knew it. Well, it's the same thing this year. We have had a very busy year filled with a lot of fun.

Dennis is still working for Time Warner Cable in one of their corporate offices. He celebrated 17 years with the company this year. Before he knows it he will have been there for 20 years! That is a long time to work for the same company. His work keeps him plenty busy with an occasional work trip. This year he traveled back to some of our old stomping ground in Southern California. While he was there he had the opportunity to frequent some of our favorite restaurants and visit some of our friends. I wish that the girls and I were able to make the trip with him. Maybe next time. Dennis has taken up toying around with some photography. Since we purchased a new camera we captured some great nature pictures on some of our outings. There are also some amazing ones from our times watching airplanes land and take off at the airport. He has really enjoyed taking pictures this year.

Dennis and I also celebrated our 17th anniversary. We keep saying that one of these years we'll plan and actually take a nice long over do vacation/2nd honeymoon. I'm hoping that we'll actually get to follow through on that for our 20th anniversary. It is even crazier to think that we have actually been together as a couple for 19 years already. Our life together has been and I'm sure will continue to be a great adventure.

Elizabeth started Kindergarten this year. The school she attends, River Gate Elementary, was just built over the summer, so she is the first Kindergarten class in it. I was not sure how she would do on the bus, but she really enjoys riding it. She loves being a Kinder-gator! Their mascot is a Gator so they have dubbed the Kindergartners the Kinder-gators. She has daily homework and is suppose to read every night. It has been amazing to watch her go from not being able to read at the beginning of the year to reading many words now. They have even started writing short sentences. She's even caught on to a few of the words that Dennis and I find ourselves spelling out instead of saying. It won't be long before we are unable to do that at all. She continues to see a speech teacher two times of week through the school system. Her progress has slowed, but we're still working hard on it. From what I understand, the carry-over to everyday conversation is the most difficult part.

Katherine has started attending Good Shepherd United Methodist Church's (GSUMC) preschool this year. She is in the 2 year-olds class. She attends preschool three days a week for four hours. It really is no surprise that she had zero hesitation about going to school. She's was ready to join in Elizabeth's class last year. Much like her sister, she absolutely loves school. Although, she has had a couple of trips to the directors office for biting and throwing fits. She may be small but don't try to push her around. She's one tough cookie. I believe that is in the past though. She has been having fun with all of the different activities that they do in their day. It is hard to believe that she will be turning 3 in a few weeks.

I'm still staying at home with the girls. I have been subbing at GSUMC preschool and that has really been a lot of fun. I have subbed three times thus far. Once in each age group. I was most nervous about subbing in the two year-olds room, but it turned out to be a lot of fun. I think the three year-olds were the most challenging group for me. I am looking forward to continuing subbing throughout the rest of the school year. I also continue to serve at church in the nursery and in handling the nursery laundry. I sometimes wonder how I was able to complete all of the household duties while working full time. As many of you know, I've taken up running. I ran in a 3K, a few 5K runs and a 4 Mile MS Walk. I have taken a break from running for a bit while I recover from having bursitis in my hip. Thankfully, it is nothing serious. I'm hoping to get back into the running routine in January. One of my running buddies already has a couple of runs lined up for us in the early part of the year with a half marathon being the goal. Who knows....maybe I'll even manage a full marathon. I am hoping that the bursitis will not flare up again.

Our big summer vacation was a two week trip to Oregon. It is one of posts that I am behind on writing. Dennis and I were so glad that the class of '89 let us join in some of the fun of their class reunion. There were many friends that we had not seen in years there. It was a lot of fun and has us looking forward to my 20th class reunion this year. The girls had a lot of fun with my Mom and Dennis' parents while we were there. It was fun to take Elizabeth & Katherine to visit the horse barn where I spent many many hours. I think they found the Young's dogs to be more interesting than the horses. They got to pet llama's, feed ducks and throw a Frisbee for a dog at Barb Mills place. Elizabeth loved going out on the 4-wheeler with Daddy! Katherine would rather play in the sand. They enjoyed playing at the school playground almost every evening. Both girls enjoyed being on Grandpa Royal's boat. They had a blast picking blueberries at Grandma Sue's and climbing the Frambes' Grandparent's plum tree. Elizabeth is one seafood loving girl. That girl can put away some crab and oysters. Dennis & Royal did not catch a keepable Salmon the entire time we were there. That was a little disappointing for all of us. I really enjoyed running outside for a change and running on the beach. Dennis and I were even able to spend a night away from the kids. That was very nice. I'm certain that there is much that I'm failing to mention as the entire 2 weeks was filled with many adventures. Overall, it was a wonderful visit.

This year was a great year. We are looking forward to many more adventures in 2010. You can check out many of this years adventures in the blog archives. We hope that all is well with you and your family. May you have a blessed Christmas and new year!

Bawling Preschool Christmas Program

Wednesday, December 16th, was Katherine's first Christmas program at preschool. We were very excited for her. Dennis was there early and got us great seats in the front row. I got there in the nick-of-time. Katherine was all dressed up in her Christmas dress. Her accessories were what she picked out and insisted on wearing. She looked very cute.

The beginning of the program was the 3's and 4's. The 2's then joined them. They were right up front! Katherine spotted us and was so happy to see us. Then she saw everyone else and panic set in. She was so overwhelmed. First, she covered her mouth and then her eyes. We could see the big frown and tears started to flow. By the time they were down to the last couple of songs she was just beside herself sobbing. One of her classmates even pointed us out to her and tried to console her.

Finally, at a break between songs, I stepped up to the stage and she ran over to me. She did calm down after a little bit and sat and enjoyed watching her friends in the program. I'm hoping that the next program will be a better experience for her. She is such the little entertainer so I was very surprised to see her be completely overwhelmed. Maybe next time we'll sit farther back where she can't see us. Either way, we are looking forward to many more fun and unpredictable preschool programs.

There are more pictures and videos here. (I tried to add the video to this post, but it wouldn't work. Please check it out it was very cute.)

If You Take a Mouse to the Movies

On Saturday, December 5th, we took the girls to uptown to the Children's Theater to their first play. We went with another family, the Callinan's (who were our sledding buddies earlier this year). Originally, we had planned to take the Lynx (train) uptown and then walk to dinner afterwards. There was a possibility of wintery mix and at best very cold temperatures with rain so we opted out on the train ride. The bad thing was that there was an accident on the freeway there so it took longer than expected to drive uptown.


Elizabeth C. and I waited in line to get into the theater while the guys kept the kids entertained in the play area. If we would have known that Santa was making an appearance there we would have arrived a little earlier so that we could have the kids pictures taken with him. It was nice that the kids got to get a little energy out of their systems before the show.

The play that we took them to was If You Take A Mouse to the Movies. It is part of an entire series of books that Elizabeth has absolutely adored. I believe the first Laura Numeroff book, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, Elizabeth received in a Chick-fil-a kids meal. Can you believe that? She wore that poor book out and easily had the entire thing memorized. We've since purchased a new copy and moved on to the moose/muffin, pig/party, pig/pancake, the cat/cupcake, mouse/school, best mouse cookie and of course mouse/movie. Yes, we have pretty much every book that follows this similar fun story. We are always looking forward to the next book written by Laura Numeroff.

Elizabeth C. (the other Mommy) and I were very curious to see how they were going to make this cute story into a play. It was amazing to see how they tied things together and changed the backdrop of the scenes in the book so effortlessly. The kids all laughed on cue at all the right parts. Almost everyone even sat tight for the majority of the movie. About 10 minutes before the end, Katherine started to get a little restless, but after a quick trip out to the lobby she straightened up and sat through the last part of the show.

It seemed like everyone had similar after show plans. Elizabeth C. thought that they might so she called ahead and make us reservations a pizza place just around the corner from the theater. The place was definitely packed with many of the families that had just attended the play. The kids all colored nicely and ate great. It was a lot of fun and I hope that we'll get to take them to a few more plays over the next year.

You can check out more pictures here.

Arnie Arrived

Our little Elf on the shelf, Arnie, arrived on December 1st. This is his third year at our house. We had hoped that he would arrive a day early, but he sent the girls a letter letting them know that their actions were making him sad so he had to decided to delay his arrival to our house. He gave them a list of things that they needed to complete in order for him to arrive the next morning. The list included:

• Listen to your parents and do what you are told to do.
• Do your homework.
• Do not tell your parents "NO".
• Be nice to each other and share.
• Use your good manners.
  

Thankfully, the girls met all of his requirements and he made his first appearance the next morning.

Normally, Elizabeth either gets up before Dennis leaves the house or she comes in a wakes me up and sadly declares that she missed sending Daddy off to work. Not on the morning of December 1st. Dennis was already gone and I was up early. Elizabeth appeared just as I was finished getting ready. She was so adorable and crushed. "Mommy, I can't find Arnie anywhere! Maybe he is hiding in Katherine's room." I told her that I was sure that he was around and that he would be downstairs and not in Katherine's room. About that time, Katherine woke up, so I headed to get her up and dressed. Elizabeth resumed her search downstairs. About two minutes later, I hear her hollering! "Mommy, Mommy, Mommy, Arnie IS here! He's here! He's up there!!!!!" I could here her continue to talk on and on as if she was sharing her entire year with her little elf friend. The girls were both so excited to she the little elf.

Yesterday evening we lost power at our house. I'm still not sure why, but whatever it was took out the power in quite a large area. The power flickered on and off for a good 5 minutes before going out completely. The first thing Elizabeth did was to go and ask Arnie if he could use his elf magic to make the power come back on. Katherine completely echoed Elizabeth's request. It was so sweet. They were so sad when I told them that Arnie was only allowed to use his magic to make his nightly trip back home to the North Pole.

It is amazing to me to see how much Elizabeth & Katherine just adores the little Elf. I look forward to seeing the girls search for him and talk with him every day. I will be adding pictures Arnie's Visit 2009 album, so please check back to see where our little elf has visited.

Christmas Eve and Day

The girls helped decorate cookies for Santa before bed time and we wrote Santa a short note on the plate we placed them on. There was a lot of excitement and a little sadness. Elizabeth knew that Arnie (our elf) would be gone in the morning..

As expected Santa made a stop at our house that night. He ate a few bites of the cookies (leaving a heart behind, do you see it?) and drank a little eggnog. He left the girls their Santa 'n Me plate complete with the addition of his hand print. The reindeer ate the reindeer food we left out for them in the bowls we made at the Santa 'n me event at Art Space Studio. Arnie (our elf) returned home to the North Pole until next December. It was a busy night. The empty tree became buried behind a pile of packages.

When the girls woke up Christmas morning the first thing they did was checked to see if the reindeer had ate the food they left out. Then they checked to see if Santa ate the cookies they had left for him. Elizabeth declared that Santa didn't eat all of the cookies (could she have them?) or drink all of his eggnog. Then Elizabeth went running to see if maybe, just maybe, Arnie had decided to stay. Much to her dismay he was gone. They finally checked out what Santa had left under the tree. I don't think they were too sure about where to even begin.

The girls had a great time with all of the gifts. Katherine still has not quite figured out opening gifts yet. I think that Dennis and I ended up opening most of hers. She just wanted to play with the items after they were opened. I'm sure that next year will be a completely different story. They spent most of they day playing with the new toys that they received. It was a lot of fun. You can find additional pictures here.

Dennis' parents joined us for a little video conferencing a little later in the morning. The girls enjoyed seeing them. We'd hoped to catch up with other family via video conferencing a little later on, but didn't get that opportunity. Hopefully, we'll coordinate that better next year.

Preschool Christmas Program

Elizabeth has been so excited about this year's preschool Christmas program. She has been practicing her songs. I couldn't quite figure out when she sang Happy Birthday to Poppa Royal why she sang "Happy Happy Birthday" in the middle of the song, but I now know why. That's how they sang Happy Birthday to Jesus in their Christmas program.

She did such a wonderful job. It was night and day from last year. Last year she spent much of the time on stage trying to hide behind the child next to her and eventually ended up sitting on Mrs. Amy's lap. This year she was completely into singing and the arm movements. She's growing into such a big girl right before our eyes. It has been absolutely amazing to see the transformation of her.

I had expected that one of us would be walking in the lobby with Katherine, but she was completely mesmerized by the kids on stage. She sat happily on my lap rocking out and clapping with the songs. I'm certain that she'll be quite the ham next year when she gets her first opportunity to be on stage. She loves to sing and dance.

You can find additional pictures and another video clip here.

Elf On The Shelf Arrives

To all of those who may not be familiar with the Elf on the Shelf see this link.

Elizabeth named our Elf Arnie last year. She wasn't into him last year until after he was gone. She looked for him and asked about him nonstop for several months. We have a little mail box just inside of her bedroom door and I told her if she was really good, maybe Arnie would send her a letter from the North Pole. She was good and was completely tickled to receive several short letters from Arnie. He told her how much he missed her.

So, this year she was so excited about his return to our house. Every morning she runs downstairs to see if she can find him. On a few occasions I (we) have forgotten to move him and that was very upsetting to her. I've told her that he told me that he likes that spot or more recently that because I was up late getting packages ready to mail he didn't get a chance to visit the North Pole that night. She seemed fine with those explanations, but a little disappointed that he was so easy to find.

Katherine hasn't quite figured out Arnies role in the Christmas season yet. She does squeal with delight and chase after Elizabeth searching for him and calling his name, but doesn't talk about him much more than that. I'm certain that she'll be more excited about him next year.

Recently, we went to a friends house and they have an elf named T that comes to visit. Tyler was considering touching him and Elizabeth was great at standing in front of him and telling him that he's not suppose to touch him, as she hollered for us. That was followed by a reminder from Tyler's Mommy that the reason why we can't touch him is because he'll lose his magic. It was neat to see that Elizabeth's been paying attention and was so concerned about her friends elf.

I've been trying to remember to snap a picture of the various places where Arnie has hung out this year, so we can revisit his stay long after he's gone home to the North Pole (Link to pictures).

Santa and Me Time

We signed the girls up for the Santa and Me story time at Art Space Studio (local paint your own pottery place). We were meeting up with a few friends there. Most importantly, Griffyn, our neighbor and Elizabeth's favorite friend on the planet. The kids had hot chocolate and cookies followed by a story read by the owner, Hillary. Then she explained that they would be putting their hand prints on a plate that would then be boxed up and shipped to the north pole for Santa to put his hand print next to theirs. He would deliver each child's plate when he delivered their gifts on Christmas Eve.
The kids also painted reindeer food bowls or them to place reindeer food (oatmeal & glitter) in and sprinkle in their yards so that the reindeer could find their houses. The girls were both tickled to paint and hang out with a great group of kids. Dennis and I helped with painting. The polk-a-dots were my doing.
Elizabeth and Griffyn didn't want to say good-bye at the end of the event. They wanted us to all go out to dinner together, but that didn't happen. They tried their best to convince us. I'm excited for the girls to see their Santa and Me plate Christmas morning.