Gingerbread House Destruction

One of our friends has started a tradition where they will crush all gingerbread houses after Christmas.  This season we decided the boys would LOVE to start this as our own new tradition.  They made a gingerbread house at school one day and then made another one at Ms. Joan's house down the street.




Look at how happy they are:

Ready for demolition! - Jack

Destruction in progress.  - Mark

Christmas trip to Kingsport

After we played some with Santa's gifts, we got into the car and drove over to Kingsport to spend a few days with Mimi, Poppy, and the Morgan clan.  They were ready for us to be there (especially Kate and Macy).

The cousins had a great time with each other (although poor Kate got the flu on the day that they left to return to Knoxville).

We had a really good time there.  While we were there, we were able to spend some time with one of Daddy's best friends growing up, Billy Luttrell.  I haven't seen him in a couple of years so it was good to talk to him while the kids played at the playground at Warriors Path.

We were glad to see that Poppy was doing OK.  He has stabilized for awhile now and that is good.

Mimi really enjoys when all the kids and grandkids are at the house, even though it is much more of a crazy few days.  We all love it.

Here are a couple of pictures from our trip:

The Morgans

The grandchildren

Mimi and the grandchildren

Is it time to open gifts?  - Jack and Mark

Santa visit

After opening the gifts, the boys got ready for bed and they were ready for Santa:

We are so ready and hoping very much that Santa shows up tonight! - Jack and Mark

Yes, Santa did show up!

It's foosball time in Raleigh!

Christmas at the house

After the Christmas Eve service at church and a good meal back at the house (crockpot lasagna), it was time to open some more presents, this time the ones that were found under the tree at our house.  The boys were definitely running on adrenaline (but they probably will be running on adrenaline for the rest of the week).  They really enjoyed this great family time.

Here are some pictures from opening gifts:

Ready to open!!!

Look at my new stuffed snake that Jack bought me.  I love it! - Mark

Look what I bought Jack.  A basketball! - Mark

Not just any basketball, but a NC State basketball. - Jack

Christmas at Granna and Grandpa's

On Christmas Eve, we went over to Granna and Grandpa's house to open some gifts and have a quick bite of some desserts.  Even though it had rained for at least the past 48 hours, everyone was excited as it was almost Christmas.  Jack and Mark were very excited.  We have determined this is the first age that they completely get it.  They are so stoked over everything this year.

Look at some of their faces for in these pictures:

Ready! Set! GO!!!

I got a baseball game! - Mark

I got a football game! - Jack

Showing off my skills opening gifts with my new gloves on!  - Jack

This game looks so much fun.  - Mark

They just had to wear their reindeer antlers.

OK, now one without any antlers.

Christmas visit to Gastonia

On the Sunday before Christmas, Mommy, Jack, Mark, Granna, and Grandpa went down to Gastonia for a couple of days to see Mawmaw, Roger, Rachel, and Evianna. On the way down, they stopped off in Belmont to see Aunt Martha. Everyone had a great visit with Aunt Martha, and she had fun with the boys. She got the boys several sports books for Christmas. Jack and Mark LOVE them!

Then, they drove the rest of the way to see Mawmaw and the rest of the family in Gastonia. They enjoyed the visit. It was good to see everyone. The boys had fun. They enjoyed playing with Evi and hanging out with everyone else. One of the highlights for the boys was playing Twister with Evi. One night while there, Granna and Grandpa and Mommy wanted to take the boys to see the Christmas lights in McAdenville. After sitting in traffic for 2.5 hours and not even being half way through the lights, we all decided to turn around and go back to the hotel to go to bed. It was a short, but good trip. Everyone was glad that they were able to go.

Sorry, we have no pictures as Mommy was enjoying the festivities and visiting with family and forgot to take any pictures. :(

The Griswolds in Cary?

We took the boys out to drive around Cary to look at some Christmas lights.  The entire family enjoys going around town and seeing who can pull out their inner Clark Griswold.   We went to several houses, but there was one house that took the prize.  It is right off Green Level Road near the intersection of High House and 55.

When we were looking for places to go see, a friend told us about this house.  Then we had another friend tell us it was his in-laws place.  When we got to the house, we noticed a Christmas party was happening in the house.  However, our friends were at the party and they came out and talked to us for a little bit.  It was good to see the Robersons as we hadn't seen them too much lately.

Talk about some yard ornaments, check out some of these pictures:

A bunch of soldiers.  Did the boys join the army?

Jack and Mark join Santa's band.

Are our presents in here Jack?  - Mark

This house is in Preston, but with all of these lights, it deserved its own picture in this blog.

Gingerbread Party

Every year, one of our neighbors throws a Christmas party where all kids in the neighborhood are invited over to make gingerbread houses.  The boys earlier had made one in the week.  But they were looking forward to making this gingerbread house and then playing with some of the games in her house.  Ms. Joan has said this is her favorite day of the year.  We have done this before but the boys were really excited.  They had a great time making their houses.  Mark was very happy with his snow drift he added while Jack enjoyed having doors on each side of his house.

Here are some of the pictures from our fun time:

Look at all this candy to choose from.  Our houses will be awesome! 

Most people start building a house from the bottom up.  I start on the roof.  Don't mess with greatness.  - Mark

Putting some icing on the house was one of my favorite parts.  - Mark

My house needs a fence.  - Jack

I love air hockey! - Mark

I am going to beat you Mark.  Watch this! - Jack

The finished product, with Ms. Joan.

Elf on the Shelf

The boys have really enjoyed their Elf on the Shelf this year, who is named Elfie.  He has gotten into some interesting positions this past month:

The Matryoshka doll

Air Hockey

The Nativity Scene

Holding court at the front door

Trip to Hill Ridge Farms

On Friday night, we went to Hill Ridge Farms up in Youngsville, to view all of the Christmas lights there.  We have been to the farm before for all of the Halloween setups, but this was the first time that we have been there for the setup at Christmas.  We got into a hayride to tour the farm.  It was cold but the boys had a good time.  They had the entire tour synced to music that was playing on the hayride.  Very neat.  Everything from the 12 Days of Christmas to God Bless the USA by Lee Greenwood to classic Christmas songs.

After the hayride, the boys ran threw a maze for a little bit before they told us it was cold and they wanted to go to the car.

Here are a couple of pictures from the night out:

This hayride is fun, but man is it cold.  - Mark

Here we are in the Hill Ridge sleigh.  - Jack and Mark

Christmas Concert

At church, the children always give a concert around Christmastime.  This year, Jack and Mark are getting more comfortable singing in front of people at church.  We didn't see any hand holding this year which shows how comfortable they are.  The boys sang four songs this year and did a really good job.

Here they are at the concert:

Jack and Mark sing for everyone.

We love our brother as well as our Christmas tree sweaters.

After School Kid of the Week

This week Mark is the After School Kid of the Week at Cardinal Charter.  He got his picture up and answered some questions.  Look at what he said:

The thing that makes us laugh is his favorite movie "The Hurricane Movie."  Mark is referring to the Carolina Hurricanes 2006 Stanley Cup DVD.  On it, they have the entire Game 7 broadcast.  Jack and Mark love to watch that game on road trips.  He is hysterical.  

Another thing that makes us laugh is his favorite TV shows of SpongeBob.  It makes us laugh because he has never seen SpongeBob at home.  We don't know where he get it.

Annual Christmas Picture of the Boys...goes awry

This past Saturday, we went to our regular photo studio for a photo session, where the goal was our annual Christmas picture of the boys.  We weren't too concerned with the possibility of not getting at least one good picture, as we have always gotten at least one good one.  So the boys took some really good pictures.  Lots of good smiles.  However, when we looked at the images, all of them had some issues that weren't related to the smiles of the boys.  The shoes were cut off in half in one,  a full length shot was cut a little past the waist, etc.   We decided that there was an immediate retake session with a different photographer that we have used several times over the past few years.  More good smiles of the boys...and yet we walked out with nothing.  The pictures still weren't good.  Oh well, we decided to come home and take some ourselves. Due to extension cords near the boys feet, we still had to wind up cropping the picture to not include their feet.  Oh well.  We've never had such difficulty with a photo session!  Jack and Mark did so well, but to no avail (at least at the photo studio).

This is the Christmas picture of the boys we took:

Santa Visit

On the first Saturday in December, we went to the mall to visit Santa.  We fully anticipated that showing up 30 minutes after Santa showed up at the mall would mean that we have a long wait.  Surprisingly, we only had about a 20 minute wait.  The boys wrote down their wish list for Santa:

A big fuzzy bear
A Carolina Hurricanes jersey (Eric Staal)

The boys gave Santa their list and talked to him about why they wanted them.  Then they got in his lap for a picture.  That is a first for the boys that both of them sat in Santa's lap.

We got this cute picture from Santa:

Hanging of the Green service

The Sunday night after Thanksgiving is always a special service at church.  It is the Hanging of the Green service.  This service decorates the church for the Advent season.  For the second straight year, Jack and Mark were a part of the festivities.  Their Music Makers choir sang a couple of songs.  Jack and Mark did a really good job.  They said louder and were more confident than they were last year.  We were proud of them.

Here are a couple of pictures from the service:

It is time to sing.

No matter what, Delaney always tends to stand next to Jack and Mark.

Am I cute or what? - Jack

Look, we are holding lit candles.  Cool.  - Mark

NC State vs. North Carolina

On the Saturday after Thanksgiving, the Wolfpack played their arch-rival, North Carolina.  The Tar Holes, also known as UNC-CHeat, the University of No Consequences, etc. were expected to win easily.  Jack and Mark were ready.  We were putting put the Christmas decorations while watching the game.    Here is the family before the game:

The new co-hosts of College Gameday?

As Gameday continues on, the signs in the crowd tell the story.

And then this happened during the game:

Everyone enjoyed the 35-7 beatdown of the Tar Holes.  It was a fun day.

A Tennessee Thanksgiving

Seeing snow in the forecast the day before Thanksgiving is not something we have come to expect.  Therefore, we drove to Kingsport a day early.  Although we arrived late at night, we were glad to be there.  The next day, we went out to see Poppy at his hotel.  We fed him lunch and then ran a few errands of our own.  The boys enjoyed the day with Mimi and Poppy.  After dinner, the boys made some sugar cookies with sprinkles on them.  Well, in reality, they baked sprinkles with a little cookie dough as they really load up the cookies with sprinkles.

On Thanksgiving, Aunt Janet and Uncle Jarett along with Kate and Macy came up from Knoxville.  The kids really enjoy seeing each other.  They played all over the house and outside as well.  We helped Mimi get the Christmas Tree up.  The four grandchildren all helped put up the ornaments.  It was really cute seeing everyone help get the tree up.

We had a great time in Tennessee and are looking forward to Christmastime in Kingsport.

Here are some pictures from the weekend:

Driving late at night means it is sleep time.

It's Football Time in Tennessee!

Helping Mimi make some cookies while the iPad shows the Wolfpack game. - Jack and Mark

The Annual Thanksgiving meal picture taken by Uncle Jarett

Macy, Jack, Mark, and Kate

On the way back to Raleigh after a great trip. - Jack