So much to blog, so little time...

Yikes! We're just days away from Christmas and I haven't blogged since Thanksgiving! Where has the time gone? So here's what I'm going to do - I'm going to cheat and just squeeze all of December's activities into one entry. So, to start off we had Alex's birthday party the first of December. He turned 7 today(the 21st) but we celebrated with his friends early. His friends came over for pizza and they got to decorate their own cupcakes. After that, off to the races! Alex absolutely loves to watch arena racing, so we incorporated that into his birthday party. Just so you know how insane I am, we had already attended 2 other birthday parties that day. His was the third. And to top it off, my kitchen was out of commission thanks to the plumber who jackhammered through my floors (but that's an entirely different story). So I came to the conclusion that I'm either crazy or just can't say no to my birthday boy. Maybe both. Definitely both.





Caleb and I spent a day with friends visiting the fire station. Our timing was perfect, because as soon as we finished with our tour, they got a call and we got to see them leave.






Andy and I are in charge of the couple's ministry at our church. We coordinated a trip to New York City. It was absolutely tiring but SOOO much fun! The city is amazing all decked out for the holidays. The boys spent a wonderful weekend with their Mimi and Papa, so Andy and I had a great time to ourselves.





Both boys had Christmas programs at their schools. Unfortunately at Alex's, we were sitting too far away from where he was to get any good pictures, and Caleb's preschool asked parents not to take any pictures so the kids wouldn't get stage fright in front of 300 cameras. How devastating for a mom! :) I was able to get a few pictures of Caleb when Santa visited his preschool.




Today is Alex's birthday. Andy was going to take off work for it, but Alex said he would rather go to work with Andy instead. He LOVES going to the golf course. So, I got up at 5 a.m. with the 2 of them (I'm still recuperating) so we could give Alex his skateboard before they left. He has been begging for one for several years, and Andy decided that age 7 was finally old enough. We're not talking about a kiddie one either. He's got the real thing and he's proud of it. Of course I'm worried senseless. They grow up way too fast, don't they?

The Christmas House

While we were in Nags Head for the weekend, we visited this amazing house. My parents had taken Alex last year after they saw it in the newspaper, and we all got to go see it this year. This couple, all by themselves, starts decorating in August to finish by Thanksgiving. The pictures I took just don't do justice to how it really looks in person. Believe it or not, with as much as they have out there, it doesn't even look tacky. It looks like a winter wonderland. They do this every year, and their entire street is just full of parked cars because so many people come to see this place. The picture with the boys in it is in the couple's garage. My camera batteries died, so I didn't take near as many pictures as I would have liked. For those of you locals who have ever visited Coleman's Nursery, that's nothing compared to what this couple puts out. They have an estimated $100,000 worth of decorations and lights on their property. I was in absolute awe.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Running the bases during kickball

Mohawk Madness

The Big Boy Table

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! We hope you all had a wonderful holiday. We sure did. We did our usual holiday ritual of going to my parents for lunch, going to Andy's parents for dinner, then going home stuffed and exhausted. The boys loved it! And if you're looking at the pictures wondering if there's something strange about the boys' hair, you'd be right. Andy usually gives them their buzz cuts. He decided that since they had off for a long weekend, they could sport mohawks until school started up again on Monday. The boys thought that was the coolest thing ever! I of course had my own opinions, but whatever. They are back to their normal hair-dos now for school tomorrow. Anyway, Thanksgiving was great. We had a wonderful time with our family. It was my nephew Eli's first holiday meal out of the high chair and sitting with the big boys. What a milestone! Graduating to the big kids table! Lunch was followed by kick ball for the boys and looking at all those great ads for the girls. Then we headed to the Weissingers and looked at more ads! Can anyone guess what I did the day after Thanksgiving? :) Friday was Andy's birthday. We had such an awesome family day, and after an early birthday dinner headed down to meet my parents in Nags Head for the rest of the weekend. We had such a fun weekend. Now we just need to recuperate in time for Christmas.

Happy Halloween!

See a family resemblance?

You're under arrest!

Can we stop taking pictures and go get some candy?

Finally, I am getting our Halloween pictures up. It was such a fun-filled week! The Saturday before, we had a chili cook-off/dessert bake-off/pumpking carving contest at our church. It was so much fun although it will be a while before I want to look at chili again. I served up close to 200 bowls. Anyway, there were 3 different categories to enter your pumpkins in - scariest, funniest, and most originial. Caleb said he wanted Andy to carve his (Caleb's) face into the pumpkin, so he sat there and made his scary face while Andy worked on the pumpkin. The child did not move the entire time Andy was drawing the face on. After the carving was all done, trophies were given out for the pumpkins. Ours won funniest! Caleb was so upset he cried because he said that was his scary face, not his funny face. Unfortunately, we have no pictures of him with his Caleb pumpkin, as he called it, because he refused to be photographed the entire evening. Wonder where that stubborn streak comes from. :) So, onto Halloween. I was so excited to do a cop and robber theme. Caleb thought he was a zebra. We went trick or treating with some of our friends. The boys had a blast! Alex went from house to house so fast, that I barely saw him while I waited for Caleb. Caleb squealed every single time he ran down from someone's front door. He was so excited after each and every house! At one house, the woman who answered told Caleb he could choose 2 pieces. Caleb told her he'd rather choose 4. While I apologized and hid my head in shame she just laughed and gave him what he wanted. She said he was the first kid all night to try and bargain with her, so why not. Needless to say, our house is just full of candy.

Our New Addition

Andy had a double suprise for us today. First, he came home from work two hours earlier than expected - always a wonderful treat. Second, he did not come home alone. He came with the newest addition to our home - a turtle he found on the golf course. The boys were crazy excited! We went on a camping trip with some friends a few months ago, (yes that's right, I said camping. Those of you who know me are probably dying of shock right now at that revelation. Too bad I wasn't blogging back then.) and one of our friends found a similar turtle that they have kept as a pet ever since. The boys have been begging for a turtle since that trip. Way to go Daddy! Now just pray that I know how to keep it alive for a while. So, one of our first orders of business was to select a name. Caleb right away piped up with Jonathan (not sure why). Alex talked him into Franklin, after the cartoon turtle. Caleb agreed as long as he can just call him Frank. So we would like to officially introduce you to Frank the Turtle Weissinger.

Fore!

Golf in the front yard on a gorgeous Sunday afternoon - what else would you expect to find at the Weissinger house? Not a day goes by that I don't trip over at least a dozen golf balls. The boys in my house live and breathe golf, that's for sure. Alex is getting really good. He won the long drive competition at golf camp this summer and hit one of his shots over the house this afternoon. Could we possibly be looking at a future Tiger Woods? He is just so proud and his excited about his new "just my size" King Cobra clubs. And he's not the only one following in his father's footsteps. Caleb was right there with him this afternoon and he actually hit some pretty good shots himself. Watch out Tiger Woods - here come the Weissinger brothers!

Ocracoke Island

Another busy and fun-filled weekend! Friday after Alex got out of school, the boys and I met up with my sister and my parents and headed down to Nags Head to stay at my parents' beach house. Alex was sooo excited to drive down to Hatteras Island on Saturday and take the ferry over to Ocracoke Island. We take the ferry from Portsmouth to Norfolk all the time, but he couldn't wait to see a ferry that could actually take cars on it. The weather was warm and beautiful - you would have never guessed it was the middle of October. The lighthouse was gorgeous, but Alex was a little disappointed that we couldn't climb up to the top. My sleep deprived body was secretly glad. My nephew Eli had so much fun with his big cousins. He gets so excited to see them that whenever they come into the room he just jumps up and down in front of them and looks from one to the other like he can't figure out what to do next. I wish I could get that kind of reception when I went places. :)

Pumpkins and Pizza

Andy was off work Monday and Alex was off school, so we got to enjoy a family day. We went to Clark Farm for a hayride. They have goats and geese for the kids to pet and feed, and the boys had a blast feeding the goats grass and watching all the animals fight over apples. Some of those geese can move fast when food is involved. After the boys were done with the animals, we grabbed our ice cold drinks and headed for the hayride. Usually we like to bundle up in our jackets and drink hot chocolate for this event, but we improvised since this fall still feels like summer. No matter, it was still tons of fun. The ride took us over to a pumpkin patch where everyone could pick out their own pumpkins. Little did I know that at the other end of the trailer we were riding in was Alex's girlfriend from school and her family. Yes, that's right, I said girlfriend. He's only in first grade!! When introductions were made between the families it was like a light came on for the parents, since we hear Rachel's name every day and they hear Alex's. Her mom said that Rachel comes home EVERY day with the Alex report - what color shirt he wore, what kind of shoes, who he played with. Hmmm...I'll need to keep my eye on that one. They grow up way too fast these days. So after our hayride and meeting of the future inlaws we headed over to Aunt Tammy's for make your own pizza night. The boys couldn't wait for pizza and playtime with their cousin Eli. Tammy had a table set up with all sorts of pizza toppings the boys could load up with. They piled their pizzas with everything available....then picked off all the toppings before they ate them. I knew that would happen. It's much more fun to pile all those vegetables on top than to actually eat them. They are, after all, die hard pepperoni fans. To top off the evening, we all went for ice cream and ended our family day officially stuffed. I just love 3 day weekends!

Busch Gardens

Today was, as Alex would say "the best day ever!" We took the boys to Busch Gardens for the first time and we had SO MUCH FUN!! Alex braved his first roller coaster ride on the Big Bad Wolf. He said he wasn't expecting it to go as fast as it did, but he came off of the ride all smiles. Caleb wanted to ride too, but we told him he was still a few years away. The boys rode everything they were tall enough to go on and ate ice cream cones that were HUGE. What could be better than that? We discovered that Caleb is not fond of 3D movies when we took them to the 3D pirate movie. He screamed every time something lunged out of the screen, but refused to take the glasses off. That's three year old logic for you. He also kept asking when the pirates were going to shoot us. So...our next trip to Busch Gardens will probably not include anything involving pirates or 3D. Anyway, this entry is taking me forever to post because Desperate Housewives is on and I keep returning to the computer during commercials, so I'm going to return to see what's happening over on Wisteria Lane. Bye for now!