North Carolina 101

After reading the comments to my last blog post, one really stood out to me.  Ben's Aunt Cheryl, who I think really should be blood-related to me instead (and on top of that we share a birthday!) asked me the question: "I don't understand why you had to stay another night at your parent's house because of the snow??? Doesn't Benjamin remember how to drive in snow?"

This made me realize something important: although I update our blog frequently (I think so anyway), there is no possible way for me to cram every detail of our lives into a blog.  There's no way, and I wouldn't want it that way even if I could.  

But, the key thing here is that I have realized that I have never talked about North Carolina.  This is where I grew up, so everything seems so normal to me.  I totally spaced it that "all y'all" don't know the details of this wonderful place.  

So allow me to take you on a tour.

Welcome to North Carolina, one of the 13 original colonies! *cue the 13 original colonies song.... wait, no don't.  It's pretty annoying*

Home of the Biltmore Estate

Cape Hatteras lighthouse

Appalachian Mountains

YOU most likely pronounce this word "App-uh-lay-shun"

WE NC folk pronounce it "App-uh-latch-in"

Potato, Potahto

Raleigh, aka my hometown

Wasn't that awesome?!  Great place to live right?  Are you already packing your bags????  

No?

Didn't think so.

But back to Aunt Cheryl's great question.  Why were we stuck at my parents' house for an extra night when 6 inches of snow collected on the ground?

Here's why:

We get snow in such small amounts that people here have no idea how to drive on it.  North Carolinians are like toddlers behind the wheel and just going to the grocery store is a matter of life and death.

We witnessed a perfect example of this on Boxing Day.  We were all looking out at the snow in our front yard when a 4-wheel drive truck drove up our street..... SIDEWAYS.  Then he got stuck right in front of us.  (It was actually quite hilarious) He thought it was best to floor it on the accelerator instead of rocking it out.  He went nowhere for a while.  Then miraculously he started moving again..... still sideways.  Sigh.

When the weatherman predicts snow, go grocery shopping early.  Don't wait until the night before.  You'll hit crowds.  BIG crowds.  Besides, there won't be any bread, eggs, or milk left anyway.  People always feel the need to stock up big-time when just a mere inch is predicted.

Why?  Because the whole city shuts down.  1 inch of snow means a few days out of school.  I was out of school for over 2 weeks when we got 18+ inches one year.

This place is CRAZY!

So if you have never been here and are planning a trip during the winter, come prepared with lots of clean clothes should your power go out, make sure you have a kerosene heater and/or generator, and please, stay off the roads.  We wouldn't want anything to happen to you, even if you ARE a wonderful snow driver.

Our White Christmas

 The kids meeting Santa for the first time went something like this:

Lily:  "OMG I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die!!!!!!"  

Skyler: "Holy cow look at all of these awesome decorations!!!!"

Camera lady: *squeaks toy to get them to smile*

Lily: continued screaming

Me: I give up.  Take children away from Santa toward exit.

Lily: (super happy now) *waves* "Bye Santa!   Bye Santa!!!!!!"

Me: Figures.

 So to get over all of the trauma of meeting Santa we took them to play in the kid area.

 Then we ate Chick-fil-A.  Lily's smiling because she just finished licking out all of her ranch dressing.

 Christmas Eve jammies.  

Lily was lucky enough to get a doll from each set of grandparents.  Thank goodness she's obsessed with dolls right now.

 The helicopter that held Skyler's attention for so long that he didn't even want to open presents.  Lily had to open all of his for him.  Poor girl.  ; )

 Showing off her toddler bling.

Getting totally spoiled by Aunt Becca (sometimes Aunt "Beck" to Lily) and Uncle "Sesston."

Then came something that Becca and I have waited our whole lives for: a white Christmas.  It started snowing during Christmas dinner and continued through the next afternoon.  We got at least 6 inches.  We were stoked! This was the first white Christmas since 1947!  Glad I got to witness it!   As you can see Lily was excited too!

A picture of my parents' deck.  We were so thrilled by the snow but it also meant that we had to spend another day at my parents' house.  Don't get me wrong, it was awesome.  We played games to our hearts' content.  BUT, Ben and I only packed enough stuff to stay one night so we lived in our PJ's.  

Ben and I were so grateful to be able to have such a wonderful Christmas.  We're glad that Becca and Preston were able to come.  We had a BLAST playing Pictionary Jr. (lightbulbs, haha), Bananagrams, and other games.  I'm so glad that Christmas is such a family holiday.

We hope that all y'all had a wonderful Christmas, too!

Phone Call From Santa

So my sister, Lizzie, is due with her twin girls any day.  What does this mean?  Oh a lot of things.... but one thing's for sure: having kids on the naughty list is not an option when you're that big and two siblings are about to join the family.  So what did she do?  Call Ben to play Santa of course!  In case you can't tell what little Benjamin said it was something to the effect of, "I don't know if I'm being good.  I'll be sure to be good."  And Rose was too scared to talk to him.  Haha.  So if any of you have kids who might be on the naughty list give us a call anytime.  We'd love to freak out check on your kids.

Hurricanes

Ben and I will freely admit that we are not sports people.  May I completely embarrass myself with a secret?  OK.  Prepare yourself.  I don't even know how football works.  There I said it.  Wow I feel so much better now.  And yes, that is an "L" on my forehead.

BUT (of course there has to be a but), in 2006 I really started getting into hockey.  I watched almost the ENTIRE Hurricane season and believe it or not but that just happened to be the season when they won the Stanley Cup.  WOOT!

So fast forward to the present.  On Friday afternoon Ben came home telling me the news that CarQuest has it's own box at the RBC center and that they gave him two tickets.  They told him to eat a tiny lunch so we could stuff ourselves at the game.  And how was the game????  Oh I don't know.... AWESOME!!!!!!  It was so much fun.... we totally beat the Anaheim Ducks (seriously you guys?  You couldn't have come up with a cooler mascot????)

Ben and I would rate this as one of our top 5 dates easilly (especially since it was free).  But then again we had never had box seats before and it was a completely surreal experience.  Does that tell you how cheap we are???  I don't know about y'all but date night over here usually involves a Redbox movie and popcorn or ice cream on the couch.  Maybe the dollar theater if we're feeling expensive.  Yes, we know we're cool.

 Getting more food.  NC BBQ please!

 That oh so rare picture of just the parents.  And another secret... I am the only wife in America who likes loves a hubby with a beard.  Say gross all you want, Ben is HOT.

 OK I couldn't avoid talking about my children for very long.  I'm quite addicted to them.  So Friday night I wasn't feeling all too well, so it turned out to be a "grab whatever and make sure it's a balanced meal" kind of a night. Lily thought it was ooberly cool that I let her eat dinner at the counter standing on a stool.  Then I thought, "I would seriously be the coolest mom ever if I give them whipped cream."  And believe me, I think I achieved it.  Not so hard with a 1 and a 2 year old.  Ben wasn't too thrilled though.....

I posted this picture because this is my complete reality of when we watch movies.  Lily is SO into it.  Nothing else exists when the TV's on.  A bomb could go off in our backyard and she would be completely unphased.  Skyler, on the other hand, is totally jumping around, giving out kisses, and playing hard to get.  It's so funny how completely opposite they are in almost every way. 

Advice please!!!!

 Their "drums"

 Note to Self: let kids help make banana muffins BEFORE bathtime, not after.

 Lily decided that it was cool to put on her swimsuit over her tights.  I sense a ballerina in the works...

 Then when I was busy cleaning up the kitchen she took all of her books out of this bin so she could chill in it. Where did the books end up???  Hmmm......

OH YEAH.  ALL OVER THE PLACE.  This is their toy room which should really be called their junk room since it almost never looks awesome.  Sadly they don't really like to play in it until I clean it up.  And then they do this ALL OVER AGAIN.  No wonder they like their empty kitchen cabinet.

So what has happened this week?

We were told that Lily no longer needs Developmental Therapy!  WOOHOO!  Go Lily!  The little lady can now count to 13 and can say quite a few letters in her ABC's and recognize them on my keyboard.  She amazes me now!  Her vocabulary is constantly growing and she speaks so much better than she did just a couple of months ago!  I also just showed her some of her baby pictures and she kept saying, "aaawww!"  HILARIOUS.

Skyler fell down the stairs today.  Not all of them, thank goodness, but it was enough to shake both of us up. He loves copying whatever Lily does and his vocabulary is getting bigger, too.  

Ben and I got to play Mary and Joseph at our stake's live nativity.  It was outside.  It was 30 degrees.  And we did it for an hour.  Luckilly I dressed in layers and baby Jesus had a sweet felt blanket that I could hide my hands in.  LIFESAVER!

I have to admit that I feel a little guilty because most of my good stories are about Lily because she's at the age where her personality is developing so quickly.  Here's this week's story:  Skyler had done something small that I said, "No!" to.  I let him go off to play and Lily just looked shocked.  She then shook her head at me like I'd done something wrong, grabbed Skyler's hand, and yelled, "time out!" while then taking him to the bathroom and closing the door.  Sigh.  Lily if only you knew that you should enjoy the time when you don't have to be the bad guy.  Now Skyler takes himself to timeout when unnecessary.  I really shouldn't laugh but it's actually pretty funny.  

Well, this Christmas Santa is bringing Lily all sorts of exciting potty training things like Sesame Street panties (ooooooh aaaaaaahh).  I'm already trying to get her super excited about using a potty, and then I thought, I should ask YOU for advice!  So what advice can YOU give that might make this process go a little more smoothly?

Lily's Quote of the Day

*I try to stay away from "girly" posts, but this just happens to be one.  Feel free not to continue if that kind of stuff makes you gag, aka you're a guy.

So today I was getting Skyler dressed in his room and I left my bedroom door open, which I NEVER do.  It always stays locked so that the little people can't go in and try swallowing my ear plugs or who knows whatever else.

So I'm just changing him away when Lily runs in yelling, "Poopy!" 
I keep changing Skyler and don't pay attention.  That is one of her top five words.  Everything is poopy.  She's poopy.  Her stuffed animals are poopy.  The TV is poopy.  The ladies in nursery are always bringing her to me with false alarms. (Potty training is going to be such a joy.)
She runs back in and yells, "Poopy!" again.  I still don't look up but I ask her if she's poopy this time.  She says she's not so I keep changing Skyler.
Then for the last time she yells, "Poopy!"  I look up to see her handing me a new pad which she stole from my room and she said, "Mommy poopy!" 

Thanks for making sure I have an extra diaper, Lil.  I knew I could count on you.

Welcome To My Kitchen....

Welcome to my kitchen!  This is the room that totally sold me on our house!  But let me start off this post with a flashback to when I was 10ish.  I had just discovered Food Network.  I was OBSESSED.  And ever since I have dreamed for years about my dream kitchen.  And I got it.  (This is the part where I do an embarrassing victory dance.)

Oh and have I ever mentioned in detail the kitchen that Ben and I first started out in?  We lived in what I lovingly call "the ghetto shack."  Don't get me wrong, I loved that place.  So many awesome memories.  So many ghetto features.  In one word: AWESOME.  The not so awesome part was our kitchen.  How much spare counter space did we have.... hmm... let me do some mental math..... maybe a good 2x feet.  And that was usually covered in old mail.  So I often had a cutting board in my lap on the sofa (that wasn't so awesome when I was preggers).  After living there I swore to myself I would have a kitchen with counter space to spare someday, and VOILA!  My dreams came true.

So here's the basic tour:

 The kids' craft table.  Thank you Ikea (also for the kitchen table/chairs and those awesome window panels covering our sliding glass door).

 The cabinets to the very left are the empty ones the kids play in.  The door on the far right (facing us) is the powder room.  To its left is the laundry room.  And to its left is another closet.

 The door to the right is my ginormous pantry (look below).  As you can see I dumped all of our junk next to the toaster oven.  Someday I will figure out where all of these things belong.  On the left you can see more junk in a heap on top of a built in desk.  To the left of that is the garage door.

Once again forgive me for the poor quality of pictures.  Once again they were taken at night.  Catching the pattern here?  I take pictures while the kids are in bed, or in other words, while it looks somewhat decent.

Now if I can make one complaint here it is.  Sure stainless steel appliances look awesome.  Sure they're "the thing" right now.  But do those people who decide what's fashionable have kids?  I'm guessing no, because my appliances are always covered in finger prints that wouldn't normally be as noticeable on white or black.  But really I shouldn't complain.  We managed to get them all for free.

So there you have it.  My favorite room.  So let this be my cheesy blog post about hopes and dreams.  Did I ever think I'd have it so good?  Nope.  I still want to hop on top of my island and give it a big hug every morning.  So if you have something you're hoping for right now, allow me to sing/write this song to you (please imagine Cinderella's voice, not mine, singing to you)

Have faith in your dreams and someday
Your rainbow will come smiling thru
No matter how your heart is grieving
If you keep on believing
the dream that you wish will come true

And there ends my super-weird blog post.  Until next time dear followers.

Lil's Room

I've decided to keep my promise.  Here are pics of Lily's room (even though it's not complete yet).

Lil's windows face the front of the house (South) so it gets REALLY warm in her room with all that sun!  I've got some sweet IKEA fabric that I'm planning on sewing into curtains for her, I'll post that when they're done.

I found this tutorial on Ucreate (or here ).  I instantly fell in love and since I was looking for an EXTREMELY cheap way to put color in Lily's room, this was perfect.  I spent $5 on a big booklet of cardstock, used one page of each color, and 3 Harry Potter movies later I ended up with this.  The only problem is that half of the time Lily tries to convince me that they're actually stars.

This part of the room is dedicated to my mom.  Although we bought the crib itself, my mom sewed that awesome quilt and headboard piece herself.  I also stole that fitted sheet and pillow case from them.... mwahaha.  Then my mom cut up one of her old Greg Olsen calenders and framed a couple of pictures.  "I Love New Yorkies" is one of my all-time favorites.  It was only fitting that Lily had a few "bark barks" in her room.  :)  And it really is only fitting that this is dedicated to my mom because apparently Lily thinks that everything in our house belongs to Nanni anyway.  I don't think she'll ever grasp the concept of "OUR" house.

Sorry for the bad quality of pictures.  I blame it on the fact that I took these at night and had terrible lighting.

Tomorrow my goal is to get the kitchen pictures taken.  P.S. This is by far the coolest room in my house.  Stay tuned.

Gobble Gobble Goo and Gobble Gobble Gickel, I Wish Turkey Only Cost a Nickel

 Every now and then it's not so awesome to get a jumbo pack of something when all of your drawers aren't childproofed yet.

 Thanksgiving was a half success.  Food = success, which is super awesome since this was the first Thanksgiving where Ben and I cooked.  Company = not completely successful.  It was awesome to have my parents there but Skyler ended up getting croup on Tuesday and so Ben's sister Trina's family wasn't able to come up from Alabama.  Boo.  It was a serious bummer.

 The entertainment of the evening was fabulous and consisted of Skyler trying to figure out my mom's nylons.

My kids made me go on an "olive hunt" this morning when they stole them off of a plate on the island.  Wrong holiday guys!

So here's my not so serious thankful list.  I'm thankful for Sesame Street and how it has helped Lily learn how to count (as well as let me make dinner).  Oh and also for teaching her how to rap to the letter A, I know she'll use that at some point in her life.  I'm thankful for humidifiers so that Skyler no longer has to sleep in our bathroom with the shower on.  I'm thankful to have a seriously loud toilet seat lid that scares the bajeebers out of me in the middle of the night (Ben and I have some weird luck in that department and we always end up with some kind of weird toilet wherever we move.... strange.).  I'm thankful for ear plugs and that I can actually sleep now.

Onto my serious thankful list.  First of all I should say how grateful I am for Ben.  I really don't give him enough credit on our blog since it's just a very rough synopsis of a small fraction of our lives.  For those of you who unfortunately haven't been able to meet him, he's seriously amazing.  No we don't always see eye to eye, but he's so awesome.  I don't think I could have married anyone else who would have as much patience with me.  He's one of the hardest workers I know, and for that reason we were able to buy a house.  Which leads me to my next subject.  I am thankful for our house.  It's AWESOME.  I'm thankful for Lily and Skyler.  Even though they require lots of patience I've decided that there are probably 5-10 amazing moments to every one terrible moment.  For an example, keep reading below.  I'm thankful for the gospel and the impact it's had on my life.  I'm thankful for the spirit and that it guides me on a daily basis whether it's "pack one more diaper" or "you need to buy this house."  And most of all, beyond any of these things, I'm thankful for Jesus Christ and that all things are possible through Him.

I hope all y'all had a fabulous Thanksgiving!  Now onto Christmas!  (And Ben and I have decided to keep up my family's tradition of decorating for Christmas on Black Friday, so pictures of the house will soon be inevitable.  I promise to post pics this week.

Cute Skyler

Now for the quote of the week:  Ben and I were downstairs playing cribbage after the kids' bedtime when Lily started yelling, "Mommy Mommy Daddy Daddy!"  We knew that was a big deal because Lily is the world's best sleeper so when she yells in the night we run because something is seriously wrong.  So we sprinted up to her room to find her still awake and just lying under her covers, happy to see us.  When we asked her what was wrong she immediately started jabbering away telling us all about different colored bunnies, how Pop Pop drove to church in his car, blah de blah de blah, you name it she talked about it.  When we realized she just needed to talk we started leaving so she could go back to sleep.  As soon as her door closed she screamed again so we went back in.  She happilly started jabbering away again and then I realized what she was doing: monologuing.  Holy cow, this is seriously in her genes (for those of you who are unaware I would "monologue" to my parents every single night between scripture study and prayers, while my mom would listen to me for at least an hour while my dad passed out on the couch).  When all of this became clear in my mind I burst into laughter and then Lily said, "Yeah, Mommy.  I'm so funny."  Which made me laugh harder so I collapsed on the floor and started my "laugh/cry" to which Lily said, "Daddy, Mommy's laughing on the floor."  Love that child.  She totally came to the right parents.

One of "THOSE" Days

 This is just down the street from our house.  It didn't turn out as well as I'd like, but I am seriously loving how long the fall leaves have been here!

We're in our new house.  It's awesome.  I'm loving every room and putting everything I love into place.  It is such a fun experience.  And Ben and I are super duper happy.  I have had a few requests to put up pictures of the house, but I don't feel quite ready to do that.  I still have junk in random places and we have one picture hanging in the entire house.  Give me a few days and maybe (MAYBE being the key word here) I'll have a few pictures of just a couple of rooms.  No promises, though.  Sorry.

 Saturday morning snuggles

 I think Seseme Street has taught Lily well about patterns: lettuce, noodle, lettuce, noodle.... now if I could get her to eat them, then that would be even better!

I thought he looked like a mini storm trooper when he did this.

The kids' new play room!  Seriously, they spend more time in here then they do in their toy room.  I figured something like this would happen.  I'm going to leave this cabinet empty and unchildproofed for them. 

So yes everything has gone beautifully until today.  Today was not such a good day.  Here's the story:  We were all sitting in Lily's room playing when Lily ran out into the hall and got two night lights and started banging the bulbs together.  As soon as I yelled for her to stop the glass had shattered all over her floor and I freaked out.  So I pulled out my weapon of choice (yelling) and told them to climb onto Lily's bed so that I could pick up the pieces.  I'm ashamed to admit that I yelled more than I should have.  Now that I look back at it, really is it that big of a deal that she broke a night light???  No.

So I thought fast of where I could put the pieces of glass.  I didn't want to go far so I decided on the master bathroom since I leave our door locked and they wouldn't be able to get into it and cut themselves.  Then I did some personal business *em em* and was in there for maybe a minute.  When I came back out I was surprised that only Skyler was still in Lily's room because I had told them both to stay on the bed.  Then I noticed the bonus room door was closed.  I ran inside to find that Lily had chosen (for the third time ever) her weapon of choice, that's right, vaseline.  WHAT?!  NO!!!!  THIS IS A NEW HOUSE!!!  WE JUST MOVED IN WEDNESDAY NIGHT!!!!!  But what does that mean to a toddler?  So we now have three nice spots of vaseline all over the carpet upstairs.  Goody.  I originally thought that I had put it in a place where Lily couldn't reach it, but now I think I'm going to have to build a secret passageway that leads to a secret stairway that leads to a guard dog that protects a vault with a 25 digit password that holds the vaseline.  That is my next assignment for Ben.  (Good luck, hubby!)

So I got even more upset with Lily and then I had to regain control of myself and think of cute memories of her.  I also had to think of when I looked at the + on my pregnancy test and how Ben and I were bouncing up and down with excitement.  Didn't I want this?  Of course.  And so I'm trying to control my emotions and I made a batch of brownies.  

Then I thought about my life and the billions beyond billions of second, third, etc. chances Heavenly Father has given me.  So today was one of the many times that I looked at Lily and saw myself and realized that we are not so different from each other.  Not always doing the best thing but always offered second chances because we are unconditionally loved.  

So with that thought in mind I am going to get myself a rather large piece of brownie and remind Ben to bring home some Spot Shot.  Aaahhh..... this house is going to be full of adventures.