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!