When did the 12 days of Christmas begin to include 3 strep throats???

Well, we made the move and we are almost completely settled in. It's only been 8 days and we only have a few boxes left to unpack in the office. And I actually have a reason for not unpacking them! They all contain pictures or other various items that can't be put out until we clean up all of decorations after Christmas. Jacob loves his new room and Daniel, well... he's still pretty oblivious to it all. The first night we were here, I was prepared for an epic battle at bedtime trying to get him settled. Nope. In fact, when he went into his room, he was actually trying to put himself in his crib. I put him in his bed and covered him up and when I went back to check on him a few hours later, he was still in the exact same place where I left him. Well, you know - except now he had his mouth closed and was drooling in true Daniel-style! Jacob, on the other hand, took a bit to get him to stay in his room. I think he was just too excited to finally be in the new house that it took him a while to wind down.

Dylan's sleep schedule the weekend we moved in was a whole other story. They were having a problem at his work and from Thursday night to Monday morning, he only had 17 hours of sleep. Two of the nights, he came home at 4:45 am and 6:10 am. So, needless to say, the only thing he was able to accomplish that weekend was getting all of our stuff over here and then he left me to sort through everything. Luckily, since we had already moved a lot of stuff over before the big moving day, there wasn't a whole lot to do. Unfortunately, we didn't get our Christmas tree over the weekend like we had hoped, but we did finally get one on Monday night (yes, 10 days before Christmas!) and it took me until Wednesday to decorate it. Thankfully, it's done now and I am actually sitting here trying to finish up writing our Christmas cards so that I can get them mailed out by Monday or Tuesday. So, if your card is a little late, just remember - we've been a wee bit busy around here. :)

OK - now to the strep throats. The boys were sick with a cold for most of last week and Jacob had a fever that kept coming and going, so I took them to the doctor on Saturday. They both had horrible runny noses and congested coughs and I expected them to have ear infections or bronchitis. Nope. They had strep throat. Well, at least Jacob did. Daniel wouldn't open his mouth for the doctor to look into without being held down, so needless to say, there was no way he was going to let him swab the back of his throat. The doctor went ahead and gave Daniel antibiotics, too because he said he probably already had it and if he didn't, then he probably would have it soon. Wait. What's that? That's only 2 strep throats? Where's the 3rd one, you say? Oh, yes - that would be mine! Saturday evening, it hit me like a ton of bricks. All of a sudden, it hurt to swallow and I could feel the beginnings of a fever. Ugh. Luckily, there was an awesome doctor on-call. All I had to do was tell him that my kids both had strep throat and - Bam! He called in a prescription for me. Love it! And now, 24 hours later and I'm as good as new.

Yes, Virginia - it will be a strep-free Christmas, after all. Or something like that. :)

I'm becoming quite a blogging slacker

I was doing so well. Or at least, I thought I was. I have never been great about updating our blog on a regular basis, but since we have moved, I have really been trying to update it at least once a week. That was all before we starting painting, packing and moving. I promise I will get back to my weekly updates after the move. Which, by the way, we are now officially down to only 6 more days until the big move! Yeah!!!!

So far, we have moved over all of our storage stuff. You know, our Christmas stuff, clothes that are in between Daniel and Jacob's current sizes, clothes that are in between my old and current sizes (ha!), etc. We have also moved over all of our linen closet and toiletries that we don't need for the next week and a little bit of our kitchen stuff. Now that we are down to less than a week, I can really start packing up the rest of our kitchen. We're going to go ahead and move over all of our clothes and just keep a suitcase here for what we will need through Saturday. In the meantime, I am going to head to the pantry and see what all I can help clean out so that we don't have to move it. I hear the chips and salsa calling my name. :)

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with our family in Georgia. Luckily, the trip is actually a whole hour shorter since moving to Lynchburg. A 5 hour drive instead of a 6 hour drive is, surprisingly, a huge difference when traveling along with two small children. My sister and I hit up the Black Friday sales for the 3rd year in a row and we got some really good deals. I'm so glad we went out and did our shopping with the rest of the crazy people because we have been so busy getting ready to move that I probably would not have been able to do even 1/2 the shopping done that we accomplished in that one morning. Well, I say one morning, but when you leave the house at 4:45 and don't come back until a little after noon, then I guess that's really considered a full day of shopping. Either way, it's a tradition that I look forward to. Some years, I have a big list of stuff to buy and others I only have one or two things that I'm looking for. But, it's the one day of the year where I know I'm guaranteed at least two things: some good deals and some good bonding time in with my sister.

Me & my Grandfather.

Laura and Jacob getting ready to go through the buffet line.

I don't think I have ever seen him so excited to be putting his bib on.

The kid table. Technically, there is actually one adult sitting at this table, but Dylan and I had to sit at the kid table a few times, even after we were married. The kid table vs the grown-up table used to be a big deal to look forward to when I was a kid, but with a family as big as ours (there would be 31 of us if everyone attended - this year we only had 22 + 1 fiance), you usually just take a seat wherever you can get one at this point.

Jacob & Daniel on the moon bounce.

Laura & Jacob having fun together, as usual.

Emma & Daniel

Daniel & Sarah - It looks like they are taking a rest, but I actually just barely managed to snap a picture right after they fell down.

There was a slight change in plans since the last post. You see, apparently when my mother and I get together, we tend to bust our rears a little too much! I don't know why I wasn't expecting us to get so much done, but we did. Over the weekend, we painted the master bedroom, kitchen, dining and the first coat on the living room. Wow. Again - WOW!!! I went over on Tuesday morning and put the second coat on the living room so I have officially completed 7 of the 8 rooms on my to-do list. Yeah!!!! The only room left is the 1/2 bath and with any luck, I should have that done before my mother-in-law arrives on Friday. There is still a huge to-do list for this weekend that involves lots of carpet, windows and cabinets - oh, my!

Tonight my friend, Kristen, is coming to see the new place and for some much needed down time. There will be lots of good food, wine (cosmos for me!!!) & laughing (snorting from me!) I can't wait!!!!

Must... keep... painting!!!

Well... here it is. Only 8 days after we bought our new home and we have officially painted 5 of the 8 rooms that need to be painted. (And by we, I mean my Mom and me.) Yeah!!!! I am so excited with all of our progress. I couldn't have done it without my Mom. She came in town last weekend for a day and is here again this weekend helping me paint like a mad woman. Tomorrow we will be tackling room number 6 on the list. And next weekend, Dylan's Mom is coming to help me finish up rooms 7 and 8. Have I mentioned how much I LOVE our families??? :)

We are definitely ahead of schedule for moving in on December 13th. At this rate, I'll actually have plenty of time to pack us up and move everything over little by little. Our plan is to try to move all of our "things" ourselves and then rent a small truck to move just our furniture. It looks like we will not only be home for Christmas, but we may even be unpacked, too!

Moving Pains

Well, we closed on our new house on Friday of last week. Yeah!!!! Since then, I have been doing absolutely nothing but scrubbing and painting. Today, when I woke up, I could barely move. So, I took the day off. Don't worry - I'll be back at it tomorrow. I figured when it hurt to put my socks on this morning, maybe that was a sign that I might need to take a break. The sad part is that after 2 full days of cleaning (I won't even talk about the nasty things I saw during this process...) and painting, I can't say that I'm close to even being half way done. So far, I have only cleaned the 1/2 bath and the entire upstairs with the exception of the boys' bathroom. Then, my Mom (God Bless her!) came and helped me paint Jacob's room and the master bath. Dylan spent over an hour using our new shop vac in the basement. And the sad thing about that is that the entire basement is empty with the exception of the pool table that we got with the house. That's how much dirt and dust there was down there. Oh, and dead bugs, too. Yuck.

Now all I have to do is figure out how to cram a month worth of painting into the next 2-3 weekends... Anybody want to come out for a painting party??? :)

The Good Ol' Days

Aahhh... the good ol' days. Yep, these were the days when we thought that John McCain could possibly be our next President. The days when we thought maybe America wasn't so screwed after all. The days where I looked forward to watching John McCain and Sarah Palin being sworn in on January 20, 2009. The days when I still had hope for our country.

Thank you, President-elect Obama. Thank you for crushing all of my dreams.

(OK, so maybe I'm being a little dramatic. But, this really does stink. Big time.)

I'd Rather Kiss a Wookie!

OK, only if it was THIS wookie (and his jedi friend!)

In case you can't tell, Daniel is dressed up as Chewbacca and Jacob is Anakin Skywalker. It was really a hand-me-down Obi-Wan Kenobi costume, but we told him it was Anakin. (Hey, it's close enough!) He is carrying an Anakin lightsaber, though, so it's not the wrong thing completely. We originally wanted to dress up Daniel as Yoda since he is the right height at this age, but they were all sold out of the Yoda costumes. I guess that's what I get for waiting until 3 days before Halloween to go costume shopping. Oops!

I'm starting to see a pattern here

OK, so you tell me if you can see the pattern, too. Here is a list of all of the neighborhoods we have/will have lived in:

1. Great Oaks
2. Standing Oak
3. Spring Oaks

Hmmmm... I'm not sure why we keep buying houses in these "tree" neighborhoods considering neither of us enjoy raking up all the leaves that come along with them. Luckily, our new house has NO TREES in the yard. We do have woods behind our house, but other than that, there are absolutely no trees in our yard. Yeah!!!! Here's to throwing out all of our rakes! :)

One week to go!

We should be in the home stretch now. We haven't heard anything different, so we should be all set to close on our new house next week. Holy Cow. I can hardly believe it myself. I've never been so excited in my life to clean and paint a house as I am right now. Jacob is getting really excited, too. That's a relief. He doesn't really seem too fazed by switching schools yet, but we'll see how it goes as we get closer. Luckily, we still have about two months left before we have to actually cross that bridge.

My birthday was GREAT! Our dinner was awesome. It wasn't as nice as Yamato's back in Midlothian, but it was still really yummy and a lot of fun. We're definitely going back. And SOON!!! :) Dylan did a great job with the shopping, but he went a little overboard. You would have thought it was Christmas around here, but you're not going to hear me complain. OK, so I complained when I looked at the bank account after he was done spending, but what do you expect? At least he used the coupons I gave him. Yes, that's right - I sent my husband with coupons when he went out to do my birthday shopping. Would you expect anything different from me? Oh, and one of the items he bought came with a free gift card which he was able to use on another gift. That news was almost better than the gifts themselves. :)


All my birthday loot.


I would like to say that it took a lot of convincing to get me to wear this hat. Yes, I would like to say that, but I can't.


Me and the boys. Daniel stole my hat!!! :)


Me, Jacob and Will at dinner.


Dylan & Daniel at dinner. Too cute.


My cake that my loving husband made for me. Jacob picked out the candles. If you look closely, you can see that the flames on the candles are different colors.

All this math gives me a headache...

So... our contract was accepted and we got through the home inspection with flying colors. Yeah!!!! I wish I could say the same about the current interest rates. Ugh... We are scheduled to close three weeks from tomorrow and as of right now, we are less than pleased (to say the least) with our current interest rate. Best case scenario: the rates go down in time for us to re-lock before closing. OK scenario: the rates go down before we close, but we may have to postpone closing for a week. Worst scenario: the rates don't go down until long after we close and we have to refinance sometime within the next year or so. And with all of these scenarios, we still get to buy a house. And that makes me happy. :)

Updates on the boys

I was going through some of my old posts here and I stumbled across this. Apparently, I had it all typed up and ready to go, but I must have saved it instead of posting it. Here's an update on how big Daniel is (well... how big he was at his 2 year check-up) and more on how his birthday went.

My parents came out for Daniel's birthday party and brought Emma and Laura with them. (Sarah stayed at home with Jenn & Dave to help finish packing for their move this weekend.) I can honestly say that Daniel enjoyed his birthday. I'm still not completely convinced that he knew what was going on, but he loved every minute of it!

I can't believe that he is two now. I know everyone says this, but it really does feel like just yesterday that we were bringing him home from the hospital. Seeing him get bigger everyday is great. He has learned so many new words in the past month, I can hardly believe it myself. I swear he learns a new word every day. We went to the new pediatrician yesterday and we really liked him. Daniel even talked to him. That's a huge deal because Daniel does NOT like the doctor and usually starts to claw at me the minute he walks in the door. I guess being two really does make you a big boy. Literally. The doctor said that at this rate, Daniel will be at least 6' 3". That may not sound like a lot, but I'm only 5' 6" (yes, it's true - apparently I have actually shrunk an inch since high school. I used to be 5' 7"...) and Dylan is 6' 1" (sorry, 6' 1 and 1/2" - is that better, Dylan?) And at Jacob's last checkup, they said he would be 6'. So, that would make Daniel taller than all of us!

Here are his latest stats: 30 1/2 lbs and 36 1/2 inches tall. That puts him in the 75-80th percentile for weight and 95-97th percentile for height. And yes, he is still off the charts for his head (or as the nurse put it, he is above the 97th percentile because our chart only goes up to 97 percent and he doesn't fall anywhere on it.)

Now back to where he is at today (October). He's known most of his body parts for a long time now (i.e. you ask where is his head and he would point to it), but now he can actually say most of them. He also now says Mickey (as in Mouse) or something that sounds like it. He does say Donald (as in Duck), drink, football and lots of other new words. I can't believe how much his vocabulary has grown since we moved here. He still does not talk to strangers. When I picked him up from his MOPPETS class last week, they told me that he hadn't made a single sound while he was there. It's amazing how shy he can get. When he's around us and other people that he knows, he is so outgoing and full of energy. But, the good news (GREAT news, actually) is that when I dropped him off to his class, HE DIDN'T CRY!!!! He has cried EVERY time we have ever left him anywhere. This includes if he actually sees us leave when he would drop him off at my parents' or in-laws'. Yeah - you could say he is a tad bit attached. Just a little bit. OK. A lot!

And that should bring us up to speed on Daniel. As for Jacob, he is loving school and is a soccer junkie! We have soccer practice/games every Monday and Wednesday and he just loves it. He is actually VERY good, too. He stays right up there with the other kids, running up and down the field. He even gets in there and kicks the ball up and down the field. He has been working on his "drop kick" for when he is the goalie and has gotten really good at that, too. Daniel gets just as excited as Jacob when it is time to go to soccer. He loves watching Jacob and is his #1 fan. He stands on the sideline and shouts, "Go, Go, Go!!!" He is just dying to go out there and play with everyone. We've had to run after him on the field at least once or twice every game. All the other parents think it's funny. Of course... you always think it's funny, unless it's YOUR kid. :)

Here's Jacob doing his soccer pose. He said he was pretending that he was getting ready to kick a ball.

He got to choose his jersey number. I can't tell you how proud Dylan was that he chose John Elway's number. Totally different sport, I know. Apparently, that detail is minor when it comes to men. :)

Oh and did I tell you that I am so stinkin' excited that my birthday is now only 2 days away!!!! I LOVE my birthday. Dylan and I have even found a Japanese steak house to go try on Saturday. The tradition will live on!!! Ever since my 20th birthday, my family and I all would gather at Kabuto's (later on we switched to Yamato's) and celebrate my birthday. I loved being around both of our families. I miss that so much. The first time we didn't go was in 2006. Or what I like to refer to as, "The year that everything changed." Grandma passed away, Daniel was born and my sister moved far away. Anyways, I know we didn't all go in 2006. I was busy with a newborn, Jennifer had a crazy schedule and we just couldn't find a date to get together that would have worked for everyone. I think Dylan and I may have gone by ourselves on a date night sometime after my birthday, but I really don't remember. Last year, we ordered Outback to-go and just had an evening at home. This year, we're going out! I miss doing that for my birthday and even though it won't be the same, I know we'll still enjoy it. Maybe next year, we'll go back home for my birthday and our parents can go with us. Our friend, Will, is coming into town, so he'll be going with us. I can't wait!!!! :)

The ink isn't quite dry, yet....

As I write this, the sellers of the house we have been looking at should be signing and faxing our contract offer that they have accepted!!! Woo-hoo!!!!!! I can hardly believe it. Negotiations were painless and moved relatively quickly once they had all their payoff info on hand to work with. We made an offer, they countered. We countered with a 2nd offer and they agreed. Phew! Luckily, the cards were in our favor in this crazy housing market. Their house had been on the market since June and we weren't looking to completely rip them off or anything. They have only owned the house since May of last year (only 17 months) and by the time it is all said and done, we are only paying them $2100 more than what they bought it for. Plus, they have to pay realtor's fees on top of that, so they are really walking away with less than what the house is assessed at. Well, actually, they are having to write a check themselves to pay off the rest of their mortgage and fees that go along with selling the house. I know that must stink for them, but I had to keep reminding myself that this was strictly business (especially in this market.)

Dylan and I are very excited and we really feel like for once in our lives, we got a pretty good deal. I am in love with the house and the floor plan will be great for us. It has 340+ more sq. feet than our last house (which was almost impossible for all of us to fit into), plus it has a full unfinished basement with a roughed-in bath. By the time we finish off the basement, our new house will have about 1200 sq. feet more than our last home. I can't tell you how happy that makes me. That's almost double the size of our last home!!!!

Here are some pictures of what will soon be our new home:




Ahhh... just look at the size of that kitchen!!! (If you have seen either of our last two houses, you would totally understand why this kitchen makes me absolutely ecstatic!!! :)


The half bath. The only room that they painted in the whole house. The purple will be making a departure sometime shortly after we get the keys. :)
(And while we are on the subject... why don't realtors tell their clients to leave the toilet lids CLOSED when you are trying to sell your house??? I can't tell you how many houses we went in and the toilet lids were up . And they were open in the most of the pictures on the MLS listings, too!)


The hallway downstairs. I was standing in the living room while I took this picture. To the right is the dining room and you can see that the kitchen is right through the "window" in the wall looking into the living room. Down this hallway is the 1/2 bath and the door to the basement.

Those are all the pictures I really have for now unless you are interested in seeing more open toilet lids. :)

OK, time to get the boys to bed. I don't think I'll be far behind them tonight. I'm exhausted! Although, I should probably stay up to watch the debates to see who can make a bigger fool of themselves. All I have to say is: NObama! Go McCain!

The search is over... almost???

I think we may have found a house to put an offer on. It's got the perfect floor plan, the perfect amount of space and very few things that I could actually complain about. Imagine that! I'm so picky that after looking at 8 houses, I thought I would never find a house that I would want to buy. The house that we are looking at right now only has one problem that I wish we could change, but we'll never be able to - it's on a street that is a big hill. The yard is flat, but the street that it's on is a hill. Well, I should say, it's a mountain because that's what it is! It's a great street, though. It just means that if the kids want to ride their bikes, they have to walk them up the hill first to get to the flat cul-de-sac. Basically, it looks like we will have to make use of the local park with bike trails. That's fine by me, it's just different. They just don't do neighborhoods here like they did in Midlothian. First of all, they don't have a ton of neighborhoods here and second, I haven't seen a single neighborhood that has playgrounds, bike trails or pools in them. Again, it's just different out here.

So, we're going back on Friday to take a 2nd look at the house before we put in an offer. Wish us luck and pray that the interest rates will stop going all over the place long enough for us to lock-in! :)

It's official... I'm a terrible mother!

It's been over two weeks since Daniel's birthday and I JUST realized that I forgot to post the pictures from his party. I can't believe that I got so caught up in Jacob starting school that I forgot this! Can you tell he's a second child???


The cake - you know, Daniel and the lion??? :)
I was actually supposed to make this cake for his 1st birthday, but we ended up going on vacation to the beach the week of his birthday, so that didn't happen.


Daniel smiles as he opens his card from Jacob. It sang the song "Who Let the Dogs Out?" He's still dancing around to that card more than two weeks later.


Emma helps Daniel read one of his cards.


Daniel shows off one of his presents from Jacob.


At the time that he opened this, I truly think this was his favorite gift... SNACKS!!! Now, I would have to say his favorite gift is probably a tie between the aquadoodle and the knee hockey set (both gifts from the Wilsons.) They always come up with the best gift ideas!


All the kids sit around while Daniel opens more of his presents.


Daniel on his "new to him" rocking horse. AKA Jacob's old rocking horse. Again... second child syndrome. What can I say? I love to go "shopping" in our attic. Well, now I do my shopping in our basement, but you get the point. :)


Blowing out the candles. I was amazed that he remembered what to do. I put the cake down in front of him and had to light the candles three times (and I had to move the cake further away from him each time) because he kept blowing out the candles as soon as I lit them.


Mmmm... cake!


Party's over! Time to take out the trash. As one of Jacob's chores, he helps Dylan take out the trash. As usual, Daniel has to do everything his brother does and insists on helping, too.

Ladies and Gentlemen... the binkie has left the building!

That's right. Most of you already know that Daniel has been attached to his binkie from day one. But, now... he has officially been binkie-free since Thursday. He only used the binkie in his bed and in the car, but I thought we would never get that thing away from him. Especially when he started to have a favorite binkie. Sure, it was cute - each night, he would reach into the drawer and pull out his favorite binkie. But, what wasn't so cute was when he would wake up in the middle of the night because he couldn't find it. I've known for a while that he needed to get rid of it, but he's just so stubborn that I was literally terrified of going cold turkey.

But, once again, my children amaze me. He hasn't screamed at all and has done great. We let him throw them away himself so that he would see it for himself and know that they were gone. (I pulled them out of the trash when he wasn't looking in case of emergency!) And since then, he's only asked for it twice and both times we just told them they were all gone and that was the end of it. We did have a close call today when he found my hiding place for the "in case of emergency" binkies. He pulled one of them out and put it straight in his mouth (yes, for all you germ freaks out there, they were cleaned after I pulled them out of the trash can!). I went (ok, ran...) straight over and pulled it out of his mouth. I then grabbed the bunch of binkies and proceeded to sneak upstairs and hide them in Dylan's sock drawer. Again, amazingly, Daniel didn't even cry.

Here's to no more binkies!!!!!! Now, if only I could get him to stop beating up on his older brother. Oh, well - baby steps, right? :)

What happens when you ask a 2 year old to smile?

Well, apparently, THIS is what happens:




Now, that's better.


Not sure what this look is all about...


Getting silly again.


Oh, Daniel - you are such a ham! I love it!

Settling in

Jacob is at his 4th day of school right now. I can't believe it, but we have already fallen into a pretty good routine.

Day one was a little strange. I drove him to school and when we pulled up to the drop-off line I realized one huge difference in preschool and elementary school. In elementary school, there is only one teacher outside watching the kids get out of the cars. I was surprised that there weren't more teachers outside to help the kids get inside to find their classrooms. Jacob said that when he went inside, the lady from the library helped him find his class. I'm pretty sure that means that Jacob walked down the hall and wandered into the library, at which point she helped him find his way. Oh, well - at least he made it there!

Day two - he came home and told me that... wait for it... he found his class ALL BY HIMSELF!!!! I asked him what his classroom number was. He said, "211". High-five! I asked him what his bus number was. He glanced down at the tag hanging around his neck that has his bus number on it. OK - so he doesn't know it all, yet, but it is only day two.

Day three - he found his classroom again and now also knows his bus number (without looking!). Phew! It's a relief to know that he knows what he is doing. Not that I was really worried to begin with. After all, Jacob is a pretty self-sufficient child. He always has been. (And, yes - he totally gets that from me!) And as an added bonus, he also has learned his student ID number. Each child has a student number and this is what they use if they buy their lunch (which we don't do), but it is also used if they want to check out books from the library. I didn't know that until we went for his orientation. The paperwork that they sent home just said it was for the cafeteria and it had a picture of a keypad so that your child could practice pushing the buttons with their numbers and then pressing enter. I came 'this' close to throwing that sheet of paper away. You would think they could have mentioned something about them needing to learn this for the library. I'm just thankful that Jacob is a quick learner. Since Monday, he has had to learn his classroom, bus & student ID numbers. I guess we will have to move on to learning our new home phone (well, my new cell phone) number next week. He already knows our new address and I taught him my cell phone number (my old one from Midlothian) so that he would know it for his Brigance screening, but now that I have a new number, he'll have to learn that, too. Poor kid.

Anyways, he's doing great, I'm doing great and I think Daniel has really been enjoying the alone time. (And no, I did not cry on his first day of school. I know - I'm a bad mother!)

Here are the pictures:


Orientation Day - Friday, August 22nd


Here comes the bus!


So excited to be riding the bus!


The most handsome Kindergartner I've ever seen! First Day of School - Monday, August 25th.


Daniel wanted to be in the picture, too. It was also his birthday today and you can't say no to the birthday boy!


In the car on the way to school.


He made it home! Yeah!!!!!


I think he was happy to be home after a long day.


The "after" picture. Someone needs to give this kid a "I survived my first day of Kindergarten" shirt.


My parents came into town for the day and brought Emma and Laura with them. Jacob was so surprised to see them when he came home.