Disney on Ice

Keira and I had a girls day out last weekend and went to see Disney on Ice. She loved it! We got there a little early and went to the Princess Preview before the show started. We walked around and saw all of the princess dresses (which she honestly could have cared less about), but she did get a kick out of seeing Cinderella (although she has no idea who she is). Keira's favorite part of the show was the Cars...she talked about them all the way home, and couldn't wait to tell Daddy about them. (obviously Keira is not a girly-girl...at least not yet!) She's never seen the movie, so we may have to get it for her for Christmas now. She loved seeing Minnie, Mickey and Donald Duck too. She got a little tired towards the end, and halfway through Tinkerbell, she crawled up on my lap. But as soon as "Spring arrived" she perked up as all the flowers were blooming and she thought that was really cool.

We probably won't get a chance to blog before the holidays....so we'd like to wish all of our friends and family a wonderful holiday season and a happy new year!

Caps vs Canes

The original plan was for Chris and I to go to the Capitals vs Hurricanes game on Sunday - with a few hours of tailgating beforehand. Unfortunately our babysitter's son got sick, and we couldn't find anyone at the last minute, so it ended up being a family affair. Maggie and I went to the tailgate about 2pm, and Chris joined us after the kids woke up from their nap. Tailgating for hockey was quite the experience...especially with my crazy Canes-fans family! Linda, Keith and their friends were the first ones there and got a prime spot on the grass next to the road. This way they could see all of the players drive in. They had made a few signs for the players to read as they were coming in...and a few for the Caps bus as it made it's way in. I have decided to embrace my new town...so I wore a Canes t-shirt for the game. Chris was not very happy about this, but who are we kidding, I wasn't a huge Caps fan anyway (sorry Jon Browning!). And it's a little more fun to have a rivalry in the house! :) The tailgate crew made Chris hold the Craps sign when he got there. He was a good sport about it all.

I want the record to show that Chris got Liam dressed for the game. He put the Hurricane onesie outfit on Liam (that Linda/Keith/Maggie got him for his birthday!). He said the only reason he did it is because the two other times Liam has worn the outfit, the Canes have lost. So he thought it was good karma for Liam to wear it. Looks like third time was a charm, as the Canes won 3-1 over the Caps (now I'm not sure if Chris will let Liam wear the outfit again...at least when they are playing the Caps!).

Surprisingly, the kids did great during their first hockey game. We actually were able to stay for the entire game and no major problems. Although we've decided we still will get a babysitter for the next Caps vs Canes match-up in March (and hopefully the tailgating will be a little warmer)!

Scandinavian Christmas Fair

As a salute to my family heritage, we headed downtown to the Scandinavian Christmas Fair on Saturday. It was honestly a pretty small affair - with Scandinavian crafts, food, music and dancing. We got there just as they were doing the traditional dancing around the Christmas tree....which Keira probably would have enjoyed doing if we had gotten there a few minutes earlier. After the dancing was over, they had a band playing and we had fun listening to the music. We had Swedish meatballs and waffles for lunch and made a stop to Pippi Longstocking's house where she was reading to the kids. Both kids were a little freaked out by Pippi...must have been her hair!

Thanksgiving Weekend (click here for more photos)

Thanksgiving weekend was a whirlwind trip to Northern Virginia to visit friends and family. We left Raleigh at 4am on Thursday, and got to Chris's parents house around 8am. Thanksgiving Day was spent with Chris's family - 10 adults, 10 kids and 4 dogs! It was a lot of fun....the cousins had a blast playing with each other....and the dogs enjoyed some great table scraps!

On Friday morning Chris's sisters, his mom and I headed out at 5:30am for some Black Friday deals. We hit four stores, got a lot of Christmas shopping done, and headed home just as the kids were waking up and having breakfast.

Shortly thereafter, we hit the road for our NOVA tour....First stop was a visit and lunch with Brian, Brandy and Zoe Loomis. It's amazing how big Zoe is getting...we hadn't seen her in quite a few months (she's almost 10 months old now and is on the move!). Our second stop was to the Johnson's for playtime and dinner. It was great to catch up, and the kids had fun playing together in the basement.

(back) Nate, Keira, Reese, Abby

(front) Ethan, Liam, Chelsea

The final stop of the night was a visit to the Maletick's. Regina looks great (she's due December 25th) and we took a peak at the nursery. The kids had a blast with the dogs. Actually I'm not sure who had more fun...the dogs or the kids! They played fetch, tag and climbed in and out of the crates (the kids!) for nearly 2 hours. Which was great because they were entertained while we caught up with Chris and Regina. After a long day we headed back to Chris's parents for some much needed sleep!

Saturday we went out to lunch with my aunt Barb and cousins (Deb, Brian, Haley, Kylan, Tessa and Ethan) at a local vineyard where my cousin Jen was working. Keira was a little cranky at first (she was still recouperating from the days before!)...but she finally warmed up and had a good time with her cousins in the playroom. (yes, every winery should have a playroom adjacent to the tasting room!) After lunch we headed back to the house to watch the second half of the VT/UVA game (GO HOKIES!).

After dinner on Saturday we drove home and enjoyed sleeping in our own beds Saturday night. But we were back on tour on Sunday, as my grandmother was in town. So we met up for brunch with she and Raleigh locals cousin Maggie and aunt Linda. We had a nice visit, and the kids took 3 hour naps when we got home...so Chris and I enjoyed a nice (quiet!!) Sunday afternoon.

We had a great whirlwind tour, and we thoroughly enjoyed visiting with friends and family....but we are so thankful to be spending Christmas at home this year!!

Growing boy!

Liam had his 15-month check up today. The tubes are doing their job, and he's doing great overall. He weighed in at 29 lbs 7 oz and 33 inches (which is the 95th percentile for both). That's up almost 3 1/2 lbs and 3 inches from his one year checkup!! Which explains why he's eating us out of house and home....

Liam gets tubes

Poor Liam has been on antibiotics for back-to-back ear infections since his first birthday (that's over two months straight!). After trying four different antibiotics, and nothing working, we went to visit an ENT. We saw the ENT on Friday, and Monday morning Liam was in surgery (talk about fast!). We were lucky he had an opening so quickly, and Liam is now a new man. The doctor said there was a lot of fluid and puss in his ears, so it was good we had the tubes put in. He's been talking a lot more this week, and falling considerably less...so we can already tell he's hearing better and the tubes are working. Liam was great at the hospital, he had fun playing peek-a-boo around the curtain in our waiting room, and flirting with the nurses.

Halloween Weekend

The weekend started with the Halloween parade at daycare....Keira was Dora and Liam was a fireman. It was a lot of fun to see all of the kids dressed up...I love Halloween!! After the parade we went home, grabbed a quick dinner and headed out trick-or-treating. We went to the first house and Keira was a little timid and not quite sure what was going on. But our neighbor Miranda gave her a piece of candy and she turned around and screamed "next house!"....so she figured it out pretty quickly. Liam rode in the wagon, and after we hit the houses on our street, Chris and Liam headed home to hand out candy to the other kids. Keira wasn't done yet, so she and I went down a few more streets. She was exhausted, but was having so much fun, she just kept saying "next house!" and kept going. Funny thing is, she really didn't care about the candy, she just loved the trick-or-treating part of it. Her favorite houses were the ones that had play-dough, crayons or stickers in the bowl...she'd pick those over candy every time. And she didn't eat any candy, all she wanted was raisins when we got home! Liam was too young this year to understand, but I really don't think we'll get off as easy next year with him!

The day after Halloween, the farm down the street had an Open House so we went to go see the animals (there's a recurring theme with our weekends...Keira is in love with animals these days!). The kids got to pet and feed the goats, a rabbit and a chicken. There was also a moon bounce which of course Keira had a blast on.

There are a ton of photos on Snapfish from our Halloween/Fall festivies...click on the blog title to see them all.