Back from the Frozen Tundra

Yes, it's almost a month after Christmas and I finally took the Christmas music down. It is a miracle!!! The boys and I headed up to my sister's this past weekend. We had a great time! The kids got to go outside and "skate" on the pond (well, soon to be pond - right now it's just an underwater spring that causes water to rise up to the ground) and they had a great time. I think Daniel even enjoyed himself. I know I did. My sister and I got to go shopping where I proceeded to spend entirely too much money. I got some great deals, though. It's a good thing I don't live up there so close to outlets or our bank account would be in big trouble! Ha! All I know is that it was FREEZING up there! When we took the kids out to lunch and shopping on Friday, it was 15 degrees! Brrr! That night, it was between 0-5 degrees. I don't know what I was thinking. I knew it was going to be that cold up there. But, it was only a 2-4 degrees warmer here at home, so it wouldn't have mattered where we were, I was still going to be cold.

Jacob had a four day weekend thanks to Lee-Jackson & MLK days. We woke up Tuesday morning to get ready for school and... SURPRISE! We had snow! Just under an inch, but it was still enough to cancel school. So, he ended up with a 5 day weekend. I have really enjoyed the break. I can't wait until summer vacation and we can just bum around. No schedules, no lunches to pack, no homework. Geez... you would think I was the one in school instead of him!


Daniel checks out the snow in the driveway.


So happy to have a snow day!


It didn't take long for a snowball fight to start!


They came after me once they were done with each other.


Jacob had to make a snow angel on the sidewalk since there wasn't enough snow to make one in the grass. There was about an inch of snow when we woke up, but there wasn't much left by the time we made it outside. The boys still had a great time, though. We're still hoping for more snow over the next couple of weeks.

Ahhhhh!

The rescue effort failed. I have lost 55 pictures from Christmas. Ugh. It had all of our pictures of Jacob & I making cookies for Santa and the boys opening their Christmas PJs on Christmas Eve. And God only knows what else, as I am sure that those two events couldn't have added up to 55 pictures. I hate technology. Digital cameras are awesome, don't get me wrong. But, this stinks. I fought the memory card, and it won. Booooooo!

Oh well - at least this photo was saved:

That's Daniel rocking out with his new guitar. Foot in the air and everything. Too cute.

OK - I'm off to finally change the music on here to something other than Christmas music! :)

Back in the saddle again

After having to rebuild my laptop, it took a little bit of time to get everything back up and running the way it used to be. Thankfully, it's all back to normal now and I can finally update all of you. Yeah!!!

We had a wonderful Christmas in our new home! It was really strange to actually just be at home and hang out on Christmas Eve and Day. Normally, we would have been at my parents' or Dylans' parents for one or both of those days. But, I have to say - it was kind of nice. We stayed in our PJs all day and just sat back and truly enjoyed watching the boys play with all of their new loot. Jacob was REALLY into the whole story about Santa this year and he was sooooo excited as he sat at the computer on Christmas Eve and watched the updates on where Santa was. Every time Santa would move on the computer, he would start screaming, "He's moving! He's moving! Where is he now???" and we would have to come running in to tell him which country he was in at that time. Daniel was really into opening presents! He was a madman! We had one present left under our tree to give to one of my nieces. Well, Daniel saw it under the tree later on Christmas Day and decided to just go ahead and open it. I guess he figured it was fair game since no one else had claimed it. Ha!

We traveled to Chester and Midlothian the day after Christmas and spent the weekend with both of our families. It was so good to go home! We even managed to squeeze in some time to see a friend of Jacob's (and mine!!!) I miss all my friends and I wish we would have had more time to see everyone while we were home. I'm hoping that I will get a chance to catch up with everyone on my next trip home. Now that we are settled in our home, I am looking forward to finding a new church home and making some new local friends,too. But, I am really happy that we are still close enough to Midlothian so that I can still see my good friends back home. :)

Jacob started attending his new school on January 5th and I think that he is really enjoying it. And to be honest, I am, too! I really like his new teacher and after just one week there, I already feel like he is learning more than he did at his last school. I think I am going to try to start going up to his school to see him for lunch a few times each month. On his last day of school before Christmas, I went up to his school and had lunch with him and he was soooooo excited! You would have thought he just won the lottery or something! It's amazing how kids get so excited about the little things in life.

After cleaning up all the Christmas decorations, we have been working hard on getting everything in order around the house. I have hung almost everything on the walls that there is to hang and I just need to buy a few curtains and rods and we should be good to go. I am heading out to the Starving Artists show tomorrow to try to find some art for our bedroom and master bath. I'm hoping to find some good deals. Dylan said he wants to find a picture of dogs playing pool so that we can hang it in the basement near the pool table. Ha! I guess if I can buy all the foo-foo art for the rest of the house, then dogs playing pool really isn't all that much to ask, huh?

Oh - and we even got to take the kids bowling last weekend! It was so much fun!!! And when in the world did bowling get so expensive??? Thank God I had a coupon and Thank God for the woman who allowed us to use the coupon for each of us instead of it just being good for one person! Jacob loves playing bowling on the Wii and I think he enjoyed playing the real thing even more. Daniel actually came in 2nd place the first game. Yes, a 2 year old beat me. And I must say, I think I took it pretty well!

Here's the recap with photos:


We don't have a chimney in our new house, but the stockings were still hung.


The tree on Christmas Eve after Santa came.


Coming down the stairs on Christmas morning.


Placing baby Jesus in the manger and getting ready to say a prayer before opening presents.


Trying to choose which present to open first.

More pictures coming soon if Dylan can rescue them from my camera. The memory card and I seem to be having a difference in opinions right now. You see, it seems to think that it is OK to not give me the 55 pictures that I took and I am oh, so delicately (yeah, right - I'll admit it - there was some screaming involved) trying to explain to it that it just doesn't work that way in this house.