Daddy's away...

Bryant is away with work and we can not wait for him to get back!  Since he's been gone things have been going well and happily he will return in just a few days. 

On Monday, a contractor came to fix some floorboards and the kids (Eli in particular) were happy to watch him work his saw outside.

Skype.  It is wonderful.  There is a 3 hour time difference between us and Bryant so talking on the phone and Skyping is rather difficult.  But, just this morning Eli and I got to talk with Daddy on Skype.  Eli couldn't stop giving Daddy kisses and I can only imagine how excited he will be when Bryant comes home.  Just this morning Bryant was looking at his itinerary and discovered that he is coming home a day sooner then we thought.  We decided to not tell the kids, they will be so surprised!!  I told him that he shouldn't have told me either, and then he could have surprised me too... but then he would have been surprised when all he was eating for dinner was leftovers that night!!



The bookworm...

I never enjoy walking into a room and finding things have been dumped out.  Whether it is toys, laundry, or books it doesn't matter, it is one of the not so fun moments of being a parent.

This is what was occurring yesterday morning while I was making breakfast.  No, it doesn't take me long to make breakfast... just about as long as it takes to empty a book shelf.

The culprit?  Well, at first I believed it was Gracie.  She has been known to remove books from the book shelf and sit at the table pretending she's a librarian.  But, these books were not neatly removed... they were Eli removed.

He is the bookworm.

2 days later....

So, Saturday was 68* and then on Monday it snowed!  I just love how people around here (that aren't from here or haven't been through any winters here) believe that the snow is over.... oh, hunny just wait!!  February has been known to bring some snow!!

Baby it's cold outside...

Well, actually it was 68* and today is JANUARY 7th!  Have no fear it will be cold here soon enough.... soon enough.  Well, hopefully since I just bought snow tubes!

Nerf'in it up!

When going up stairs, beware of what may be waiting for you at the top.

One last Christmas memory from 2011...

As all of our Christmas decor is packed up tight (with the exception of the outside lights), I wanted to jot down one last Christmas memory for the blog.  It's actually a Christmas Eve memory....

We decided to attend Christmas Eve service here on Fort Belvoir instead of driving up to our church in Alexandria this year.  The church here is closer and we thought it would work better with our schedule for the evening.  So, after I got online to look up service times for that night, I saw there was one at 5pm and then a candle-light service at 7pm.  So, we decided to attend the 5 o'clock service. 

We walk into the church just a few minutes before 5, and some older gentlemen standing at the entrance to the sanctuary tell us that there are some seats in the front row, in the middle.  This church has 2 aisles going up the middle.  So, we were literally up front in the middle.  A minute passes, the kids are behaving nicely and then the choir stands (right next to us, on our right) and an older lady speaks softly into the microphone... "Thank you for coming to Christmas Eve Mass.  Please stand and join us as we welcome Priest..... as we sing, O Come all ye Faithful.".  WHAT??!!! MASS!!!

We are not Catholic, we are Baptist and there would be a whole lot of confusion and questions later on that night from our children!!  So... Bryant looked at me and said, "I am not attending Mass.".  Of which I obviously said, "well, what are we supposed to do? We can't leave. (we are in the FRONT)".  Bryant, "Oh yah, watch me!".  He then, walks past the choir and down one of the middle aisles.  I look at the kids and say, "follow your father".  As we are exiting, hoping that somehow no one sees us (yah right!! we were in the front, middle!!), the Priest is walking up to the front in the other middle aisle!

As we were driving back to the house I was still in shock over the fact that we just left!  Then Bryant started talking about the shared communion cup, hail Mary's and so on and I started to feel much better about leaving versus staying.  Then Nathan said, "it's OK mom, we can just do church service at home!".... and so we did.

If you are Catholic, this is not meant to be offensive.  This is a memory that I wanted to jot down, so that we can read back on it and laugh!!  Because every time I think about it I break out in a giggle, just remembering my husband say, "Oh yah, watch me!" and then ducking out.  

Fabulous Finds are getting great usage!!

From Rubbermaid containers to Kreo Transformers... we were thrilled with all of the gifts that we received this Christmas.  Here are some of our fabulous finds...

Paula Deen Cast Iron Dutch Oven.  Last night I fixed Short Ribs (from our new cow) after a thorough seasoning of the cast iron.   mmmm.... can't wait to cook up something again!  Oh, and I have been using my new Better Homes and Garden cookbook, 15th edition... LOVE it!!!



MY KitchenAid... that's right I said MY!!!  And it works great... of course it does!  Last night, Honey Whole Wheat Bread and tonight Chocolate Buttermilk Brownies (out of the BHG cookbook). 

Quilts.  Nathan and Gracie both got a new quilt made by Grandma this year!  Eli received his quilt last year for Christmas.

Make-up.  Gracie received make-up (play make-up) from Nana and Papa.  We have a new rule:  you can only wear it at home, not out and about.  When I asked her about why she has the green under her eyes, she answered that mommy puts makeup under her eyes...so makes sense.  So, what now?  Well, since mommy told her that I only use skin colored makeup under my eyes, now she has been putting ORANGE eyeshadow on in place of the green!!!  Oh boy!!

Happy New Year 2012!!

We packed our things and headed to New York for New Years and some belated Christmas gifts.  We got some fabulous things while there... I mean fabulous!!!  More to come on those soon!

The Treacle cousins.

Julia and Gracie.  They did their own make-up.  I sure do hope that their make-up skills improve with age!!

Jenna's new Barbie four- wheeler.  Eli was very excited about it too!  Happy Birthday Jenna-benna!!!! 

Sunday night it started snowing.  We contemplated leaving then, but decided to hold for morning like planned.  The roads were hit and miss with the snow, slush and clarity. 

This was around Edinboro, PA.... it was clearly the worst here.  But, soon after we got on clear roads.  We had flurries off and on the whole ride but luckily we drove the rest of the trip on snow free roads.

First Hair Cut...

Just before the New Year, Eli got his new do.  We decided it was time to cut off the baby hair when I found myself playing with it and putting it into pony tails with my hands.... woops!!

It went rather well, and I have no pictures of the actual cutting process, since he was sitting on my lap at the barber shop.  We both needed a good dusting after it was all done!