December 2018, part 1

We’ve been up to a lot, so I have hardly blogged! Here’s some catch up:

We went to the annual Breakfast with Santa fundraiser for Grow Our Kids, the non profit I work with to get food for kids in need at the elementary school Olivia and Leo attend. The kids had fun with the best Santa! And my friend Courtney who is my partner in Snack Pantry came with her family, too!

The kids tracked out December 6, and although we haven’t had so many adventures, we have had some. They LOVED the Apex skate park where they all rode their scooters over ramps and hills.

We made gingerbread houses at the library:

Then that weekend we took Daddy to the airport so he could help Mutti pack up and move to us!

It was crazy. Nicholas left at six o’clock on Friday and they made it back to us by 9:45 Saturday. So glad they made it back safely because the next day, we woke up to this!

Jane and Bug are settling into the guest suite and we are happy they are here. The kids are happy to have a dog some of the time—when it is cold or rainy or they are interested in other things, it reminds us all why we don’t have a dog. Nicholas is working on the ramp, and our realtor is working on finding Jane a condo. Winter isn’t the best time to be looking, but we’ll see what happens.

We made it to the Moscow Ballet’s version of the Nutcracker in Durham at the Carolina theatre on December 11. Olivia looked lovely in her new dress, though I didn’t get a great photo of it. We really enjoyed the show! Next year, Leo wants to go!

We went to the indoor pool for family swim one day...

We went to our friends for a pizza and pajama party one Friday...that’s a lot of boys!

Olivia ran her first 5K on December 15 in the Suggly Sweater race at Sugg farm with the run club from her school! We are thrilled with her perseverance! It was a muddy day, but she had a great time!

While we were there, Nicholas was at Leo’s last basketball game. Leo has had a great first experience with basketball and is getting out in our cul de sac to play on his own and with the neighbor boys.

Later that day, we went to the New Hope Santa Train. Despite the rain, we had a good time! 

We’ve had a lot of outside play time with the neighbors, cleaning inside, baking, and getting ready for Christmas!

 Bug got a haircut, and Jason thought it was awesome to have him ride in a car seat!

Sometimes the kids love each other!


Jason finished his preschool for the year Wednesday and had a small program in the afternoon.

The cardboard gingerbread house has been keeping everyone busy, too!

Our favorite fall photos!

The rest of November including Thanksgiving!

I am the worst blogger lately, but I don’t even feel guilty about it! I am doing all the things and blogging is low on the list. But, in an effort to document a bit, here are some activities and pictures from November!

I love our house and our after school playtime! Here are the boys playing in the front yard together using wands and pretending to “stupify” me! Love it!

Fast forward a few weeks and you see lots of kids playing with our kids! So glad we moved to this cul-de-sac!


And we have trees with lots of leaves for making piles and playing!

And we got into the holiday spirit at Thanksgiving—baking cookies and playing music!

Olivia was a huge help in the kitchen this year!

Nicholas’s intern Anan joined us for Thanksgiving dinner, and it was so nice to have company to share with! My favorite quote from the day was when Leo said, “Mom, you said we were having Chinese!” I had said we were eating on china!

We played outside and upstairs and had fun even though Leo had been sick that week. Then we all got sick for the rest of the weekend, but not before Olivia and I did a little Black Friday shopping and Nicholas built the platform in our garage to accommodate the ramp for his mom.

Pictures of the ramp to come!

We celebrated Nicholas’s birthday early with presents and cake the Sunday after Thanksgiving. The kids hung out on the platform while he built...