Snuggie

Jeremy will probably kill me for this, but I had to post our most recent creation. Our friends, Debbie and Pat, were at a White Elephant Christmas party recently, and ended up with a Snuggie. Well, Jeremy and I have been really wanting one!! We always say during the commercial, Wow, that looks so Snuggie!! :-) You gotta love a good infomercial. Anyhow, they slipped it in our car one night and as a thank-you, we made this cheesy video. Enjoy!

Country Lights

We joined some friends at Country Lights, a Christmas event at a farm park nearby. We had never been in the past and we were excited for a new Christmas outing with the kids. Here they are in line for Santa's workshop, snacking on some popcorn. Debbie and I took the kids to Wendy's on the way so we could have dinner. Then we met the dads there after work.

The kids each picked out a wooden toy to build. Then they were paired up with one of Santa's elves. Carter chose a jet and Leah chose Tinkerbell. Here's Carter using the drill. Each toy consisted of three pre-cut pieces of wood. They then assembled the toy and painted it. What a cool experience for them. It was amazing how well organized everything was and the elves were really good with the kids. Plus, what's better than power tools...Carter was so intense about getting it right!
Elliot just watched, sporting the safety goggles.
Here's Leah hammering away.

The painting was so messy but lots of creativity took place! They even had glitter. Thank goodness there were paint shirts.


The jet, after drying at home for several daysLeah's Tinkerbell

After, they finished with the toys, Santa was waiting in another room. Carter and Leah were excited to meet him and ask for a remote control jet and doll. Elliot wanted nothing to do with Santa!

At the end we rode a horse drawn carriage through the freezing cold. There was a path through the park with lights set up everywhere. I would have taken pictures, but I was too cold to take my gloves off!

Singing Angels

Here's a few videos from yesterday's Christmas program at Carter and Leah's school. It's hillarious watching them perform. This time, Leah decided to sing rather than stare at all the parents the whole show. It took a lot of pursuasion on my part and tears on her part to get her into her dress. She insisted that she doesn't like pretty bows and was not going to wear it. Daddy and the grandparents telling her how nice she looked eased the upset.

This was one of my favorites. Carter is Angel #6 with the drum. He was so serious and sure to get it right. Sorry if it makes you dizzy...I was using our digital camera and watching at the same time.



Here's Leah in the back row with the bells. It was cute b/c she started to lose her halo in the end.

Christmas Decorating!

Saturday, the 28th we did all of our Christmas decorating. This included an Advent wreath making at our church. They ordered the foam wreath and candles. Then, a few people from the parish cut all the greens from our Garden of Life in front of the church. On a side note, this has become a hot spot for the kids after mass. Unfortunately, it's hard to keep them from picking the flowers. A stone walkway runs through it with the beads of the rosary represented by certain stones and there are benches all throughout. So, it was kind of cool that the greens came from there. The kids helped and were really into building it at first. They mostly liked using the clippers! We stopped at the new Dunkin' Donuts near our house on the way. Hence, the cup in the background. Their coffee is great, but their donuts don't even compare to the bakery in town. The one benefit, they have a drive-thru, so no unloading the kids and mommy gets her fix! I actually haven't done that yet though. ..trying to save for Christmas I guess. I just brew it at home.

Elliot hung out and sucked his thumb most of the time!
Ta-dah. The finished product. We've been praying each night before dinner. Sister Anne Marie gave us prayer cards for the whole season. Leah keeps insisting on lighting the pink candle and is having a hard time waiting till week 3.
Afterwards, we headed to get the Christmas tree. The last few years, we've gotten a pre-cut tree at a farm near our house. There's a little store that sells mulled apple cider and apple fritters as big as your head. They are the best we've ever had. It's more about the fritters and less about the tree selection. Next year, I'll include a pic of the fritters! Here's Leah going through the ornaments and showing me her favorites.
Jeremy insisted we all try on the "hair", which was actually the netting they wrap the tree in for transport home. He called it Santa hair.



So, we're officially decorated and ready for Christmas!!!!

Baby Williams Arrives!!

I just wanted to say a special congratulations to my brother Mike and sister-in-law, Kelly. She delivered a baby girl yesterday afternoon, their 9th child!! Kelly and baby are doing great.

Maren Alexandra
8 lbs, 10 oz
21.5" long

I'll try to post a picture soon. She's beautiful. Kelly was able to have a VBAC. They put her on a low dose petosin Tuesday morning at 41 weeks. Maren didn't drop quickly enough after 8 hours, so they took her off the petosin and tried again yesterday. Everything went great! We're all really excited to meet her at Christmas.

Happy Thanksgiving!!! Our first real snowfall!!

We had our first real snowfall overnight on Thanksgiving. So, after all the festivities on Thursday, first thing Friday morning, the kids were ready to play outside!!

You'll notice all pictures are taken through a window....Jeremy, Elliot and I were too wimpy to head out in the cold, so we watched from the sun room with coffee in hand.
Carter, making a snow angel
Leah, following suit.
They were really excited about the slide being covered b/c they said they could go even faster.
Happy Thanksgiving to all! I'm thankful for so much. Jeremy and the kids are healthy and happy. I'm thankful for my faith, our freedom and the blessings of being surrounded by so many wonderful friends and family! Life is so good!!

Apple Picking

The kids and I went apple picking several weeks ago, Oct 21st....yes, I'm still backtracking. Same place as last year - Patterson's fruit farm. The kids love helping (and sampling along the way). We ended up with 40 lbs of apples and made several batches of applesauce and apple crisp. For the apple crisp, I combined two recipes - Ina's topping and The Neely's apple mixture (both Food Network stars). We also just ate a bunch of the apples plain. The kids love apples so it wasn't hard to polish them off. Hopefully there's some truth to the old saying, "An apple a day keeps the doctor away".

A beautiful warm sunny day. We ended up with several different kinds. Mcintosh are the typical favorite but were already out of season so we picked golden delicious and jonagolds, also very yummy!

Wrapping up Fall

This post is a little past due, but I'm getting caught up before Thanksgiving arrives! My goal before the baby comes is to get organized. I have so many things to do, our den has stacks of papers I haven't filed. We've lived here more than a year and I still have yet to create our new filing system. Let the nesting begin! I also want to get more pictures hung around the house. The current debate is whether or not I'm going to send Christmas cards and then announcements shortly after or somehow lump both together. Right now, I'm leaning towards both. Anyhow, on to the pictures.....

One of our favorite Fall traditions is heading to Patterson's Farm nearby. This year, Jeremy left work a bit early one afternoon and we met there for a few hours. The weekends are really crowded, so a weeknight was a nice time to go.

Leah and Carter on the tractor ride.

Jeremy and Elliot. I love his hat, like all of his clothes, a hand-me-down from Carter.

As you can see, they had a blast!Jeremy attempting the stilts
The kids hiked the pumpkin patch. They would have taken every one home if we'd have let them.
Elliot riding the tractor with some help from Dad and big brother.
Carter and Leah checking out the tee-pee
Up in the tree house
Elliot, checking out the leaves

The slides through the woods are super long and super fast. The kids love it! Even Elliot had a few rides down.
Leah got brave after a while and decided to go head-first.
All three on a shorter slide coming out of a tree.
Elliot doing one of his favorite things, driving! He was making an engine noise while steering the wheel.
Sadly, Fall is coming to a close! We're hanging on to these last moments of semi-warm weather by spending lots of time outside. This equates to lots of muddy laundry, well worth the fresh air though. I'm sure I'll be bringing out winter boots and snow pants any day now.