School Party and other videos

Last Thursday was Drew's Preschool Christmas Party. Each class had their own party in their classrooms. They had brownie santa treats, and Drew (I) brought gingerbread cookies for everyone. (And while Drew was handing them out to his friends, I saw Emma swipe his and eat part of it!! haha) And they made a craft to leave out for Santa. Emma wanted to help - and Drew actually let her scribble on it some too! It was very sweet how he wanted to walk Emma around the room and show her everything. The teachers even sent home a wrapped present for each child, which was a very cute book. And there was a bag for the parents that held 6 ornaments he'd made over the past few weeks. Those are definitely keepers and are hanging proudly on our tree!

Then they played some weird game where they all pulled on these paper things and they were supposed to pop open and find a surprise. But of course they pulled everyone on top of each other!

And the best part - they sang a song to all the parents! Drew had been practicing this song at home...a bunch!!

In the video, you can hear Emma yell, "Dreeeew!" in the middle of their song!

Drew is nearly obsessed with the Fresh Beat Band show...he gets upset when we don't get to watch it! And it usually falls right around dinnertime, so we rarely miss it. At the end of each episode, they sing and dance to the same song...and he knows all the words and all the moves! I caught the end of the dance on video! LOL

Emma finally got a turn at the Wii! I didn't think she'd know what to do, but I guess when you watch everyone else play, you figure it out! I wish I got on video when Chad told her to "run!" and she ran right off the board and into the bench! haha

My parents didn't want us to have to fly home with their gift to the kids, so they had it sent to our house. It arrived yesterday, and the kids HAD to have it put together - they were so excited! So, Chad got to work on it when he got home - and they love it!

Santa and some random pictures

We met Santa at the Huntersville Christmas event...and this is as close to Santa as Emma would get! Drew, of course, sat down and told him all kinds of things!

Emma gave Rudolf probably 5 hugs! Every time we'd get her back in line to meet Santa, she'd escape and run over to Rudolf again!

Here's Emma modeling her red coat and Santa hat!

We made snowmen with all things that the kids love - marshmallows, graham crackers, icing, craisins, pretzels, oreos... but they wouldn't eat them! I guess b/c they all had touched each other?? Or maybe b/c they are a little scary looking...

Here's two silly kids on the couch!

Here's Emma posing in front of the Christmas tree. I was attempting to get some cute pictures for Christmas cards, but I didn't end up using these...maybe I should have - they're pretty cute!

And here's Drew with his Christmas-card pose that I ended up not using.

I love this one! I might have to print it and frame it!!

We discovered some gingerbread cookie mix that Drew can have so we made lots of them!! I think we'll make them again for Drew's Christmas party at school this week!

Thanksgiving

On Thanksgiving Day we went to the parade in downtown Charlotte. It was great weather (in past years, it's been freezing or rainy). We thought Drew's reaction to the marching bands was pretty funny... (sigh of relief!)

CHEESE!!


Emma wanted to get down and run around, so it was a little hard to just sit and watch. She's at that tough age where she doesn't want to be in a stroller, but she is a really fast runner and just takes off if we set her down.

Then we came back home and I got our turkey in the oven. I even got to run to Old Navy and score some great deals while our dinner was cooking. Then I hit up several stores at midnight and didn't get home until around 2am or so! On Friday, we went and picked out our Christmas tree - the first time we've had a real one!! We decorated it while Emma was napping (just too risky to have TWO helpers! We only lost one ornament with one helper - not sure we'd have any with two!) Do you like how Drew did a candy cane display right in the center of the tree? =)

And the finished product!

Then on Saturday we celebrated Thanksgiving with Chad's family. Poor baby Owen wasn't feeling the best and was giving Grant and Sherry quite a scare, so it was just us and Chad's parents and Nana. After eating, we headed outside to play. Here's the kids with Granddad and Grandmom and Nana.

And here's our family of four! (it's black and white from something else, and I just forgot to switch it back...)

This picture is so sweet or Emma and Nana.

Emma LOVED the four wheeler and cried when it was Drew's turn!


We ran out of time to make Drew's muffins on Friday, so we brought the ingredients and made them there.

The week after Thanksgiving, IU played NC State - which rarely happens!! Here are the kids wearing their NC State gear as we are heading out to go to the Y.

This was Olivia's dress, and it looked really cute on Emma!

Parents visit & Drew's school performance

My parents came down for a visit a couple weeks ago. We had great weather, so we went for walks at the park and played on the playground a couple times. The kids liked walking out on the dock to check out the lake.
Drew likes how Grandpa pushes him on the swing - HIGH!! He keeps saying, "higher, higher!" And when we went to the park while Chad was at work on Friday, Drew said, "I wish Daddy was here to see this!!" haha

Weee!

Here's Drew and Grandpa walking through our neighborhood.

Last Thursday Drew's school had a Thanksgiving celebration. The kids all sang songs, and then we had a big lunch. Here's Emma wearing Drew's turkey hat...upside down!


Drew was so giddy and excited (must be pretty cool to have both parents come eat lunch with you!!). He even knocked over his whole drink!

He knew all the motions to the songs and was VERY in to the performance! (front and center)

He especially liked when the crowd clapped...so he did too!

Drew and Emma play really well together (for the most part!) I love catching moments like this in pictures!

Mountains, Halloween Party, Trick-or-Treating

October 22nd, Susan and Alan watched the kids for us...overnight!! That was a first for us! We headed up to Boone and went on a 5 mile hike and then got to go out to eat with NO KIDS!! We had a great time - especially on the hike! We did the Boone Fork Trail (I think that's what it was called.)

There were some challenging parts where we had to climb across rocks - and amazingly enough, we both stayed dry!

Close up of sweet Emma! I can't believe my baby is 18 months old!

And here's a close up of Drew! He is growing so fast - and not just tall, but is getting broader and stronger! He loves doing strength things (like putting his hands on the ottoman and his feet back on the couch so he's in a push up position, and walks his hands and feet back and forth! haha) and is dying to learn a handstand!! Maybe he'll be the football player that does a backflip in the endzone!

Drew and Emma helped carve the pumpkins. Here's Drew trying to convince Emma that's it's not totally disgusting...she didn't believe him! She reaching in once, but then kept her distance!

Our pumpkins weren't the best...and slugs kept eating them at night! yuck! here's the back of the pumpkin that we carved. I talked with a bunch of others that had the same issues - and apparently the flooding that we had in September caused the pumpkins to not be the best quality.

Drew loved helping with the gooey goo. They had caved a pumpkin at school, so he was a pro!

Charlie loves his baby Emma!

Last year I hosted a Halloween party for Drew and his friends, so this year my friend Ayesha hosted. The kids had a great time! Here's Emma the bumblebee at the Halloween party!

Here's Drew as Elmo before we left for the party. Emma kept wanting to hug him!! haha

The kids had a blast on Monday going Trick-or-Treating! We started off our adventure at our neighbor's house. She goes all out for every holiday - especially Halloween!

Here's Drew and Emma making their way down the street. We only went down one street and back (which still took a long time and earned them LOTS of candy), so we could get back and let the kids hand out candy. Drew really liked that part. Every time the doorbell rang, he scream, "More customers!!" And he was all about saying, "Happy Halloween! Have a good night! Thanks!" LOL

Pumpkin Patch

We met a few friends at the Pumpkin Patch on a Sunday morning a couple weeks ago. The kids had a great time on the hay ride, feeding the animals, and picking the perfect pumpkins. Unfortunately, one of the ones we picked wasn't so perfect. After a few days on the porch, it wilted and then we found it completely smashed beside the steps. I think some of the critters that eat my flowers decided to snack on our pumpkin every night until it just fell a part! At least our two bigger ones are holding up!

Emma wanted to take the dog home with us! She hugged all over him and chased him around!

The pumpkin had a sign, "do not sit," it didn't say "do not drum!"

Emma and Drew getting ready for the hayride!

Emma and I on the hayride!

Family shot on the hayride! =) Don't the kids look thrilled... I think they were just getting impatient and ready for the thing to move! haha

Emma loved the animals and had no fear! She'd feed them and reach in and pet all of them. She likes to point at their eyes and say "eyes," so we had to keep an eye on her!

Drew was a little nervous to let the animals eat out of his hand (understandably). But he finally tried it and thought it was pretty cool!

After the animals, we took the hayride to the pumpkin patch and searched for three pumpkins to take home. Emma liked these two!

And here's Drew's pick!

Later that day we attempted pig tails again in Emma's hair!

And here's our big hitter practicing! He likes watching the World Series on tv!