Scouts at Mount Vernon

Near the beginning of December, Wesley and Chris went to Mt. Vernon.

I think they had a lot of fun there with Wesley's boy scout troop.

The President always pardons a turkey or two for Thanksgiving.

There is Wesley with one of the turkeys.

 A highlight of the visit was seeing the blacksmith.  When I took Wesley almost two years ago, the highlight for us was talking with Martha Washington.

They got to go into the house and go on the third floor which is only open during the slower winter months.

The boys explored the outside of the house also.  I can't wait to go back to Mt. Vernon.  There is a nice museum there and several trials to explore and farm animals to see.

The boys placed a wreath at Washington's tomb.

Did you know Gorge Washington had a camel at Mount Vernon?

Here is a picture of the camel that visited the estate this Christmas season.

So far, Wesley and Chris are enjoying Boy Scouts.

Train Trip

The weekend before Christmas, Chris surprised Wesley with a train trip to South Carolina.

It was Wesley's first time to take Amtrak.  I think he really liked it.

They spent one night at Chris' parents' house and then drove a moving truck to our house.

Wesley was so excited to sit in the front seat!  He told me his favorite part of the trip was rolling the window up and down!  Ha!  He sits in the middle seat between his siblings in my car and in the third row of the minivan where the windows don't go up and down.  I didn't realize he was missing out on controlling the window!

What was in the trunk?  Chris' mom's piano.  She got a new one and gave us her old one. Here is a picture of the piano movers moving it into our house.

Here is our new piano!

I think it looks good and it fits perfectly!

  The kids are so excited to have a piano!

A Cousins Christmas

On Thursday last week, we headed to South Carolina to see Chris' family. It took us two hours to go the first 25 miles but traffic improved after that.

It was great to see everyone in South Carolina.

Josiah had a lot of fun playing with Ryan.

Wesley was so happy he couldn't contain himself.  He was more than a little crazy when we were opening presents.  I think this was even before we told him was going to spend the night with his boy cousins at their house.

David, Amanda, and Claire.

Tricia and Stephen hosted Wesley Friday night, all day Saturday, and Saturday night.  We briefly saw Wesley for dinner on Saturday.  He had so much fun with the boys.

Daniel

Lydia and Lucy got some fun presents.

 They loved wearing these matching hoodies.

They played together all day Saturday.  They also decorated cookies.  That night Jacob and Daniel decorated cookies but I forgot to take a picture of them.

What did Chris, David, and Wayne do all day?  Well, I don't think David played games all day....

Right before we left we tried to get a picture of the cousins.

Of course, it was 2:00 in the afternoon and we made them look into the sun.

We missed getting a picture of Mike and Ieda but we enjoyed getting to catch up with them.

It was so much fun to see everyone in Chris' family.  Neither Chris nor I grew up with first cousins.  He doesn't have first cousins and my first cousins are 18 years older than me, so we think it is pretty special to get to spend the weekend playing with cousins.  And we can't wait to see them again.

Pump It Up

The day after Christmas, I took the kids to Pump It Up in Manassas to meet up with friends.  The weather here was horrible so an indoor play place was perfect.

My kids  love moonbounce places and they were happy to try out a new place to us.

I think Josiah liked the water fountain as much as he liked the slides.  He played in the fountain so much that he soaked his shirt.  He likes to play in every sink and water fountain he can find.

Here is a funny picture of Rachel and Lydia.  I forgot to get a picture of all the kids together.

We had not been to a Pump It Up before because they require that the kids be two years old and 34 inches to play.  The other places we have been to don't have a minimum age or size.  Since Josiah is under 42 inches, he had to wear a little wrist band.  He was not supposed to do the large obstacle course but because he has done a similar one before, he really wanted to do this one.  He kept asking the attendant if he could do it and the guy finally said yes if someone would do it with him.  He said Wesley could do it with him but I went with him a few times.  Here is a picture of one time when Wesley went with him.

It was so fun to see our friends and let the kids bounce off some energy.

Christmas 2012

This is what our living room looked like on Christmas Eve right before Chris and I went to bed.

On Christmas morning, we had cinnamon rolls for breakfast. Then Chris read the story of Jesus' birth from Luke 2 and then we opened presents.

As soon as Lydia saw this box she was so excited hoping it was McKenna. She had heard from friends at school that McKenna had sold out and was no longer available. She had no idea that one of my dear friends was looking out for her and picked up McKenna for her back in November.

Josiah loves Curious George.

He is also a huge fan of Mickey Mouse so we gave him Mickey's rocket ship.

Lydia made Chris a present.

Wesley got one of the Legos he really wanted.

Josiah practiced his cutting some more.  He can now cut all the way across a piece of paper.  I try to keep the scissors picked up and out of his reach, but Lydia keeps getting them back out.

Wesley got snap circuits.

Josiah mastered this rev and go track.

That evening we made Christmas cookies.

Lydia and Josiah were very into helping me.  Wesley just wanted to play with his favorite gift, Skylanders Giants.

Josiah placed the gingerbread men on trays.

He really enjoyed his turn with the cookie cutter.

My parents read books to him.

Josiah even got to roll out some of the dough for the cakie cookies.

I didn't take any pictures of our Christmas dinner, but we had what we have every Christmas (because I love it), beef tenderloin with mushroom and wine sauce, roasted asparagus, roasted potatoes, salad, and cheese and garlic biscuits that Chris and Lydia made from scratch.  We had left over strawberry cake.  On Christmas eve, we celebrated Jesus' birthday with a cake and the kids sang Happy Birthday Jesus.