We moved!

Wow what a week we have had!!! Biggest news is we finally moved last weekend into our new home.    We are so excited to be in and semi-settled before Christmas.  We started the week off with some ginger bread man decorating at the Harrell's!  Holly had tons of kids tables set up, a ginger bread man and icing bag for every child and lots of candy to top them with.  The kids all loved it!  She even had every child decorate a brown paper bag to take their cookie home in with their names on them.

 On December 1st our elves came to visit and took out all our Christmas books for the twins.  They named them Dorothy and Wolfpack!

We had pajama day at school.  This is the face I get now when I say "ok look at the camera and smile..."

The twinkies and I joined our favorite twins for a train ride, lunch and singing the Christmas bears uptown.

 On Friday morning our sad elves were on an empty shelf when the kids woke up the last time in the house we brought them home in.  Friday was full of a roller coaster of emotions.  Still can't believe we are not living in that sweet little house with all those wonderful memories, but Ryan keeps reminding me we will make many many more in our new home.

 The twins had school Friday, but didn't have to leave until after the movers came.  They loved seeing the big truck pull up the drive way and showing the movers all around the house.  Graham said "Mommy them have big muscles just like me."

If Gentle Giants moving company is in your area and you are moving you should use them!  We have nothing but excellent things to say about them!  They even asked the kids if they wanted to climb up in the truck and drive it!  Of course Ellie is the one in charge here haha.

We were so lucky to have Ryan's parents offer to keep the kids the first night so we could unpack and get settled.  We woke up the first morning and had coffee on our new porch!

On Saturday night we had our Club Ball and shocker I didn't take any pics!!!  I was honestly just proud of us for getting showered and dressed and staying out that late after the day we had!  The next morning the kids came home and we spent the day playing, organizing and watching the Panthers dominate the Falcons!  That night we made chex mix in our new oven!

We snuggled on the only furniture in the living room....the kids Pottery barn chairs and watched a Christmas movie by the Christmas tree.  It was truly the best way to spend the first night as a family in our new home.

 Monday morning was gorgeous so we had milk and breakfast on the back porch before school.

 Bobo kept saying "morning duckies"

 The biggest change for us in this new house is the stairs!  The house is technically 4 stories so there are 3 flights of stairs!  I don't mind climbing the stairs when this is my view going up though!

Graham and Ellie love all the big open windows and stood this morning waving at all the dogs and cars while I made breakfast.

I will blog more about the house and all the changes and before/afters later!

Christmas Tree Priorities

We spent the day getting in the holiday spirit!  We stopped by the local market to purchase our Christmas tree! 

The ceilings in the new house are high so Ryan made sure we got the tallest tree for the space!

We snapped a family picture while they loaded the tree on top of Ryan's car.  The twinkies thought it was so funny driving down the road with a tree on top!

After dropping the tree off we headed back to the old house for naps.  I snuck out after they kids were asleep and headed back to the new house to prepare the tree for decorating.  We made a pack that even though we are moving in the week before Christmas we would not compromise any of our traditions.  I still want this year to be magical despite the untimely move.  So I wrapped the kids ornaments from the year and put all lights and trimmings on.

I carefully unwrapped all our ornaments and laid them out.

Once Ryan and the kids arrived we were ready to hang all the ornaments.

Ellie of course was very interested in picking the perfect spot for each ornament.

She got Princess Sophia and Dorothy ornament.

Graham got the lion and Lightening McQueen.  Ryan and I got the Tin Man and Scarecrow (wizard of oz was such a large part of our year due to the kids loving the movie and us dressing up for Halloween like the characters so we wanted to remember that years to come).  We also got a copper pan ornament for our 10 year anniversary since copper is the gift for 10 years and several ornaments we picked up over our travels this year.

We even put up the little tree in Ellie's room.

After decorating all the trees we got some chores done around the house and played and ordered pizza!

Even though we should be totally focused on the move and packing we just couldn't help taking the time to bring some holiday spirit into the new house.  I have actually finished all Christmas shopping and its all wrapped and under the tree now!  Our priorities may be off since the trees are the only things in the house haha!

Thanksgiving Week!

We have so much to be thankful for this year.  Most of all I am thankful for our healthy kids.  We have several sweet kids in our lives that have been very sick lately and it just breaks my heart.  Healthy and happy children is something I often take for granted and I shouldn't.

Since the kids didn't have any activities last week we had lots of free time to play!  I met up with their favorite twin friends at Discovery Place Kids!  Henry loves Ellie (their teacher often sends pics of them kissing at school!)  He brought her flowers and as you can see by the look on her face, she was pleased.

 Here is a group shot of them all!  I really can't express to you the love and bond these four have for each other.  I could watch them play and interact all day.  They see each other 5 days a week between school, their little gym class and ballet and they still want to see them more.

At one point in the day I heard loud giggles coming from inside the ambulance and when I peaked in this is what I found!

 We stopped by the new house a lot over the break too!  These kids love watching the ducks swim around in the pond.  The new house is coming along and we are on schedule to be in by Christmas!

 Our annual screaming with Santa pic is checked off the list:)

 On Wednesday Ryan really wanted to play golf so we started a new tradition.  Boys play golf and girls bake!  Graham had a blast!!!  They played 9 holes and can't wait to go again!

 Ryan said on one of the holes he was in the middle of his back swing when he heard a loud click and he looked at the golf cart and Graham had pushed the break and was rolling forward haha!!!

 I pulled up some pictures on Pinterest and let Ellie pick what she wanted to make.  Then we went to the store and the candy store to get all the ingredients and toppings needed.

Ellie loved counting and putting all the candy into bags at the candy store and then counting and placing them on the cupcakes at home!

 I see lots of baking in our future!  Perfect girls day.

I had recorded Great Thanksgiving Charlie Brown and we made a bed on the floor, made a fire and popped some popcorn!

 I know our nights of dates and movies and cooking are numbered with the big move coming up so we went all out Wednesday night (plus Ryan said we needed to expand our stomach for the big thanksgiving meal to come).

 Finally Thanksgiving Day arrived!  We watched the Macy Thanksgiving Day parade and watched all the turkey trot runners run by the house before heading to Ryan's parents house.  These two turkeys have lots of energy these days and won't sit still for a picture!

 Ellie is in her element in the kitchen.  She made a turkey cheese ball.

Pop and Ryan made a smoked turkey! 

 The kids spent the night at Mimi and Pop's house and Ryan and I went to a friends to watch the Panthers Game and got up to do some MAJOR black Friday shopping!  The only good thing about moving during the holidays is the sales!  We bought all our kitchen appliances, washer/dryer, tvs, new can lights for basement, vacuum cleaner, sound system, 4 smoke alarms, 3 new thermostats, some gifts for family and 2 blue ray players!  And saved a ton!  Best part is we didn't start at the first store until 9AM!

 After a lot of shopping we picked the kids up and headed to see my family!  I really wished they didn't live 3.5 hours away!  The kids love it at my parents.  They get lots and lots of attention and there are tons of toys to play with!

 My family is full of boys....no girls at all, so Ellie made sure to give them their share of girl!  BG (bonus grandma) bought some girl toys for her and Ellie immediately put all the accessories on and insisted on a tea party!

 Love my crazy loud family so much!

On Saturday we woke up and made a big breakfast and played for a while.  

Then Ryan and I left the kids at my parents and headed to the NC State vs UNC game.    My Bonus Mom takes great pics and even she had a hard time getting the twinkies to look at the camera!  

I love this pic because my kids have no clue how to use these ride on toys and here is Ellie sitting patiently waiting for Bobo to drive her around and Graham trying real hard to figure out how to get it started (pretty sure the battery was dead haha).

The Pack gave the game away in the first quarter, but we stayed until the end and did our part as fans cheering them on.  I really hate losing to Carolina, but happy to go home to two real happy kids!  I am always Thankful and feel so blessed, but glad that this time of year there is a day that allows you to reflect on your life and focus on the things that truly matter.  When we asked the kids what they were thankful for Ellie said "Dorothy, my purple shoes, Mommy, Daddy and Bobo" Graham said "My Mac truck, lighting McQueen, Henry and Caroline, and my Ellie".  Now it is back to packing and preparing for the move and the holidays!