Decorating the Christmas Tree

We started the process of decorating for Christmas today and put up our Christmas tree. Here it is before we put the ornaments on. The kids and I had a great time hanging all of the ornaments and remembering who gave us which ones and seeing some of our all time favorite ones. I love this time of year!

MLS Cup

Tonight the LA Galaxy played Real Salt Lake for the MLS Cup. Dave got us all excited and we showed our support by us all wearing our LA Galaxy Jerseys. Dave got an awesome fire going and we let the kids stay up late to watch part of the game. It was exciting and nerve-racking. There were so many injuries and after 90 minutes, the game was tied 1-1. There were 2 15 minute overtimes where no one scored so it went to penalty kicks. It went back and forth until Real Salt Lake made one more penalty kick than the Galaxy to win the game. So disappointing!

Boys Will Be Boys.....Forever and Always

Zachary loves all of his wooden blocks. He plays with them and builds things and has so much fun with them. Yesterday Grace and Zachary wanted to go to Toys-R-Us and spend some of their money. Zach knew exactly what he wanted to buy - army men and tanks and he found exactly what he wanted.

Today Dave and Zachary did what I'm guessing all boys like to do - they played war. They built bases and arranged their army men, tanks and helicopters and had an all out war. And they had a blast!

Zachary's Base

Dave's Base

I Am Not a Cook

I am not a cook. Anyone that knows me and knows me well can tell you that. I had rather eat out every meal than cook at home. Now, don't get me wrong. I LOVE a good home cooked meal. I just don't like to be the one that is doing the cooking. I cook because I have to. I don't cook anything fancy; my family eats lots of tacos, spaghetti, Bertoli in a bag (I know that's not really cooking), and then I have a few recipes out of a couple of cookbooks that I use regularly. Two things that I can cook and I do cook them well if I say so myself, are red beans and rice and banana pudding. Dave loves my red beans and rice and anyone that ever tastes my banana pudding loves it. It's the kind that your Grandmother made.....from scratch. There is no "banana pudding" in my banana pudding and it has meringue on top, not cool whip. Anyway, those are two things that I do well.

I've always loved the idea of being a good mom and my children coming into a house that smells like cookies baking or better yet, letting them help me bake the cookies. But I've never enjoyed that either. It was always just easier to do it myself than to let my kids help me bake.

I was at a birthday party yesterday and my friend, Renee, said something about making homemade chocolate chip cookies (although she calls them hemi cookies - don't ask). I said, "You know? I have never made homemade chocolate chip cookies. I wouldn't even know where to begin." And she said that she just uses the recipe on the back of the Nestle Morsels bag. Today I was in the commissary and I have no idea what came over me, but I looked in the baking isle and picked up a bag of Nestle Chocolate Morsels and looked at the recipe. And I bought the ingredients that I needed to make homemade chocolate chip cookies.

This afternoon after the kids came home from school, I helped them with their homework and then I asked them if they wanted to make cookies. Grace thought I meant the slice and bake kind because that is all she has ever seen me do. She was so surprised when I started taking out the flour, sugar and eggs. And I let them help me! They each got to break an egg and Grace helped pour the flour mixture in and Zachary poured the chocolate chips in.

And now my house smells like warm, yummy chocolate chip cookies baking and Grace and Zachary just enjoyed their first homemade chocolate chip cookie made by me with their help. Hopefully, there will be more afternoons like this and when they are older, they will remember these and think what a good Mama I was.

Ethan's Birthday Party

Zachary's friend, Ethan, had his birthday party today at Recreation Station and the boys played laser tag. It was the first time Zachary had ever played and he LOVED it! It was so much fun to watch all the little boys (and big boys too!) run around and pretend they were Rambo. Thanks Ethan for inviting Zachary to such a fun party!

Gia, Ethan's Mom, and me

Jill and Renee

Zachary aka Rambo

An American Girl Tea Party

Today Grace and I played with all of her American Girls. We changed their clothes and brushed their hair and had so much fun playing with each of them. Grace sat them all up as if they were having a party and then wanted to take pictures of them. Aren't they cute?

What a Great Surprise!

A couple of weeks ago, Gia told me that since my birthday was during the week and our ball was on the same night for me to get a babysitter for Friday the 13th and we would go on a double date to celebrate. I immediately lined up Aura to babysit and Gia said that I could pick where we were going to go. She knows how much I love Swansboro so she suggested that I pick somewhere there and I chose The Icehouse. We had never been there before but everyone is always talking about how good it is.

So, Gia and Jason were supposed to have picked us up at 6 last night but they were running a little late. They got here probably about 6:15 or so and we kissed the kids goodbye and headed to Swansboro. We arrived at The Icehouse and my first clue should have been when Dave and Jason just walked in and didn't wait to be seated. I asked Gia if we were just supposed to seat ourselves and she said "yeah, we did the last time we were here". Actually, I should have had a clue all along when Gia talked about celebrating big for my 39th birthday. She said 40 would be depressing and she didn't understand why everyone always celebrates it; she thought we should celebrate my last year in my 30's. Anyway, we followed Dave and Jason and I was still clueless and about the time I saw Renee standing there with her camera, everyone said "Surprise" and there was Renee, Greg, Stacey, Erin, Stacy and Jon. I was so surprised! I couldn't believe it! I asked Dave if he knew about it and of course, he did and I just couldn't believe that they pulled it off without me even having a clue.

It was a great night! We laughed and talked and ate for about 3 hours. Greg finished off the bread loaf that the crab dip came in which was just too funny. He literally ate the entire thing and then proceeded to eat all of his dinner and dessert. And that was just one of the funny things. I haven't laughed as much as I laughed last night in a very long time. After dinner, I opened up my presents and what great presents! Stacey gave me a bottle of wine, Renee and Greg gave me a Starbucks gift card, Erin and Stacy and Jon gave me a box of Lush bath bombs, Dave gave me a beautiful Silpada necklace that I wanted and Gia and Jason gave me the matching earrings. I loved everything! And since it was my birthday celebration, we all had dessert. Gia wanted them to sing Happy Birthday to me and our waiter politely said that they didn't do that but he did bring me my Creme Brulee with a candle and Happy Birthday written on the plate and everyone did sing Happy Birthday. Of course they were all making jokes about me blowing out the candle and had me laughing so hard that I could hardly blow it out! It was a great night - good food, good wine, GREAT friends and lots of laughs! Thank you Dave, Gia, Jason, Renee, Greg, Stacy, Jon, Erin and Stacey for making my 39th birthday such a special one!

Walking in to the restaurant and just realizing I had been surprised!

My awesome friend, Gia

Everyone!

Jason and Gia Ellis

Gia and Jill

Jon and Stacy Hamrick

Erin Smith and Stacey Reynolds

Renee and Greg Miles

Opening my presents

This is the necklace Dave gave me.

Renee and Greg's card was hilarious and perfect!

Lush Bath Bombs - I've been told they are the bomb!

Greg with his new manly confetti chest hair

Erin and Jill

Thanking everyone for my gifts!

Gia and Jill

Renee, Jill and Greg

Jon, Jill and Stacy

Jason, Jill and Gia

H & HS USMC Birthday Ball

Dave and I celebrated the 234th birthday of the United States Marine Corps last night at the Hilton Riverside in Wilmington, NC. The kids spent the night with friends so Dave and I had a nice night away. It was an evening of dressing up, cocktails, good food, music and fun!

Dave with Mary and Karl Kuga

Dave with 1stSgt Higdon

Claire Woodward and me

Lisa, Jill and Claire

Sleepover and Dress Up!

Grace and Zachary spent the night with Ava and Ethan last night so that Dave and I could go to the USMC ball and spend the night in Wilmington. Ava evidently got a ton of new dress up clothes and she and Grace put on a fashion show.

Bride and Vampiress

Rock Star and Cheerleader

Cheerleader and.....I'm not sure what Ava is supposed to be

Fake bed heads at the end of the fashion show and evening.

Pine Knoll Shores Aquarium

Gia's kids, Ava and Ethan, spent the night Saturday night so that Gia and Jason could go to the USMC Birthday Ball and have fun and not have to worry about kids. They played outside all Saturday afternoon, we ordered pizza for dinner, they watched a movie and actually went to bed at a decent time. On Sunday we took them to the Pine Knoll Shores Aquarium in Emerald Isle. Dave wanted to make it a fun adventure so on the way, he told them that they were going to be in two teams: Ava and Zach were a team and Grace and Ethan were a team. Each team was given five "quests" that they had to complete at the aquarium. Some were things that they could find easily for themselves and some were things that they needed to ask one of the workers. They had a blast. They ran around with their little notebooks and pens looking for the answers to their "quests" and they did a great job. And they all, including Dave, got scared when they they were looking at a cottonmouth snake and Ava accidentally bumped her head on the glass and the snake struck out at them. Even though there was glass that separated them from the snake, they all screamed and jumped backwards. It was actually pretty funny, especially to see how far Dave jumped back! They all had fun, were well behaved, used good manners and learned some things too! Dave and I decided on the way home that they were all winners and their prize?............McDonald's Happy Meals because it was lunch time and they were hungry.

Zachary and Ethan thought these gigantic frogs were pretty cool since they are both on the Frog Team at school.

The otters were so active when we were there. We had a great time just sitting and watching them swim and play and we also got to see them be fed.

And of course, they all LOVED the sharks!