While Dad was away

It is very very rare that Ryan travels for work, being a dentist just doesn't require travel.  About once or twice a year he will go to a conference or CE corse and when he leaves we all miss him a ton!  I am also a huge sissy when it comes to staying home alone so when I found out our neighbors and sweet friends were in the same boat with Dad being gone we decided to have a sleepover!  So we said bye to dad on Wednesday night...is this not the sweetest pic??

And on Thursday I told the kids we were spending the night with the Harrells!  They were so excited!

 We took kids out to eat and came home for baths.  My kids still use bath seats so they thought being able to swim around and stand up was the absolute coolest.  Plus they think that everything these two boys do is hillarious and totally look up to them!

 Then we put on pjs and read books (and jumped on the bed)!

Kids slept great and had a blast!  Plus it helped us keep our mind off of the fact that Dad was gone.
The next day I took kids to Imaginon and lunch uptown.

Saturday we met a friend at the farmers market and got some fresh local goodies! 

 Overall the twins were so sweet and we just snuggled and watched movies and made fun meals together!

 Oh and G didn't nap two days due to two new teeth...that was not the highlight of the weekend.

Luckily Ryan's plane landed at 10PM last night and he is officially home....phew we made it!  The first two days he was gone was so fun!  Loved having the kids all to myself, but then we started to really miss him and counted down the hours until he got back.... Fingers crossed he doesn't have to leave again for a while!

Wanna make a fire???

One of my favorite things about our house is we have real fire places!  At first I was a little sad that we wouldn't be able to flip a switch and have a fire whenever we wanted, but I have to say I am such a real fire lover now!  We have been very careful with the twinkies around the fire, but also don't want to not make fires until they are old enough to fully understand the dangers.  So we decided to get them in on the process and watch closely while they are awake and around the fire.  Since we do it so often they are really not phased by the "hot fifi" but they do LOVE to help!  We have countless videos and pictures of the process and I just had to document this before they are too old to love small activities like this.
Step One: Hold hands and go get the wood outside....

 Step Two: Hold out your hands and wait for daddy to give you a piece of wood...

Step Three: Carry wood back inside....

Step Four: Help Daddy arrange the wood....

Step Five: Light the wood (this pic is fake...E is not actually lighting the wood!)

 Step Six: Stand no closer than the edge of the carpet and warm up your hands!

The best part is they will walk by the fire and watch it and hold their sweet little hands out like this...I can't even take the cuteness!

Much needed girl time

I am just returning from an amazing weekend away with some of my favorite girls.  We traveled to Asheville and stayed in a house and the very top, top, top of a mountain with the most spectacular views!  It was pretty fun driving straight up and then like a roller coaster on the way down.  I don't get to see some of these girls often so it was such a special time with us all together under one roof!  We started the weekend with lunch and beers at Wicked Weed!  They had gf calamari and beer!

After lunch we went shopping and walking around downtown Asheville before heading back to the house.

 This was the view from our back porch.

Sweet Sarah brought a monogrammed wine glass for everyone!

 Then Traci and Sarah made a fire...a real one so we could make s'mores!

 Ashley was in charge of sweets and she really went all out!

Then we laughed and talked and played games until the early hours of the morning!  Perfect girls night!

 I made everyone acai bowls with homemade granola for breakfast.

 Another amazing view from our back porch.

 We went on a 2 hour hike.  This is not my normal way to kill time, but it was so nice to be outside getting fresh air and a little exercise.

 Lunch and more shopping occupied most of our day until I had to go home. Ryan doesn't get MLK day off so it was back to reality for me.  Even though Abby is headed back to Australia and Traci to Kentucky I can't believe we will all finally be back in Charlotte this summer for good!!!  I miss these girls already, but am so thankful for our time together.

Goodbye 2014, Hello 2015!

We said goodbye to 2014 as a family this year.  We had plans with some friends, but with all the germs going around their sweet family was hit hard right before our big party.  We quickly ran to the party store and decided to just stay home and celebrate together!

 The kids loved eating with a fancy tooth pic...its the little things these days!

Our kids have not had candy so I put about 10 jelly beans and chocolate balls in a champagne flute for them as a "treat".

 They thought they were so cool!

 We had as much fun doing "cheers" as we did eating the candy.

After dinner the real fun began!

 

 Ryan made us Espresso Martinis to help keep us awake until 12.

 And we played with these glow sticks forever!

 This girl loves to accessorize!

 Ellie didn't want to give up her glow stick to take a bath so I decided to turn off the lights and run a big bubble bath.  They not only loved this, but they stayed in until the water was cold!

 After baths we filled up a pack-n-play with balls and the fun continued!

I love these two so much and was so excited to have such a fun time playing and ringing in the new year with them(well they went to bed at 8, but we did make it to 12:15!)  Happy New Year!

2014 brought us so many happy times and wonderful memories.  I can't imagine 2015 being better, but I have a feeling it will be just as amazing!  CHEERS!!!