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.