The start of Christmas Vacation--part 1!

We spent two weeks up in Northern VA for our Christmas Vacation. George had two solid weeks off and we jumped at the chance of spending so much time together with our families.

We got up to Ashburn on Saturday afternoon and spent the evening with the Glass family. Callie and Bryce were busy getting into the Christmas spirit by baking some gingerbread cookies!

George and Nate both got the same game: Grand Tourismo. Nate bought the wheel that goes with the game and the whole family had a great time racing Lamborghinis and Aston Martins around real-life tracks.

Even Bryce got into the action and actually did a really good job. He thought it was a blast!

Jude and Allen checking out Nate's hamster.


Sunday we headed over to my mom's house to help her decorate her Christmas tree. It's a family tradition to do it all together. George was feeling pretty sick that day and didn't make it over until much later.

Lance was much more interested in playing "Angry Birds" on Jason's Touch. Every time he beat a level, he would show everyone who was willing to listen how far he got.

Mason's first Christmas tree!

Hanging one of my ornaments from when I was a little girl.

I think this one was my dad's favorite. A bike enthusiast, he thought this one with Santa looking fit and cycling was pretty funny.

Stephen. What a goof!

Lance wanted to hang up the ornament with wolves singing carols. It was a lot of fun looking at all the ornaments my family had collected over the years and reminisce about the years we got them, or why they were important to us.

And of course we had to have treats! Amy made cherry bars--a family tradition--and we all had a good time talking and eating. I love the holidays!

December Happenings

After Thanksgiving, we all returned to Charlottesville for three weeks before George's 2-week Christmas vacation. The weather is getting colder so that means more time inside trying to find things to do. Between friends coming over to play, walking a dog (we do it as a job for a resident that works at the hospital), and trying to get ready for Christmas, the time seems to have passed quickly.

George spent the last four weeks of school doing his Family Medicine rotation. Although he had reservations going into it, by the end of the four weeks he decided that if it wasn't for the lousy pay, it would be an okay career choice. He's still pretty set on Emergency Medicine, but at least he enjoyed his month of clinic work. We even got invited to the staff Christmas party where everyone I met was impressed with George and loved working with him. No surprise. George is pretty amazing.

Jude is saying a few words now! He says "this" and "that" when he points to things, will say "ba ba" for bottle and signs "eat", "drink", and "more". Super cute! He even squeezes a "mama" in every now again, but, of course, his favorite word to say is...

"DA DA!"

Every morning when he wakes up, he asks for Da Da and then points to our bedroom until I take him over to our bed where he proceeds to clobber George until he wakes up. George loves it! What a great way to wake up in the morning! Jude also LOVES our neighbors (the Elmers--good friends who have twins Lance's age that are always playing together). Jude will crawl over to our door and pound on it and whine until I open it, and then he'll smile really big and point to the Elmer's door across the hallway and say "this... this?" until I walk him over to their door. Once we're finally there, he'll knock and wait to be let in. It is hilarious! If ever I leave the door open when I'm rotating the laundry, he'll take it upon himself to crawl across the hallway and start banging on their door himself. They feed him chocolate and let him play with their computer mouse... can you blame him for wanting to visit? We love living next to them!

Lance is still really into Transformers, Legos, and Bakugans. One of our favorite things to do during the day while Jude is asleep is to play "Lego Indiana Jones" on the PS3. Lance is getting to be really good and together we have beaten every level in the game! Now we go back to win "money" to buy more characters we can use when we replay levels. It's a lot of fun! He also loves Phineas and Ferb on the Disney channel and will watch episodes on YouTube if it's not available on the TV. It's a great show (in fact, I would love to get all the episodes on DVD if they ever offer them) and I am often watching and laughing right along with Lance.

I've been staying busy playing with the boys while George is at work and surfing my new internet obsession: craft blogs! I even posted to my very first "linky party" last week with my photo block ornaments I made. It's fun to browse the blogosphere and see all the great ideas people have to reuse and create beautiful things from what they have or find at thrift stores and such. 

I think that's all the updates so far. I posted a few pictures I took over the past month with some of the things that have kept us busy at home.

Jude keeping a sleeping George company in the morning. :)

We have tons of squirrels that come to eat the acorns that fall off the trees in our back yard. It is fun to watch them run and play (or eat at the table). They are pretty brave and come all the way up to the door, even though they can see us standing there watching them. The boys think it's pretty neat:


A few years ago, Grandma Brewer gave Lance a stuffed snowman for Christmas. It's been a standard decoration in our house since then and this year, Jude discovered it.

One of his favorite things to do is climb all over him and lay on top. I'm glad he likes it so much. It reminds me of Grandma Brewer and how much she loves us every time I see it.

The boys are getting better at playing together as Jude gets older. They both love the large Legos I used to play with when I was their age. We broke them out one day and they sat for a while and played together.

Mom and Glenn came into town to watch their home HS Football team compete at UVA for the State Championships and we got to see them and go out to dinner at the Wood Grill Buffet (kinda like Golden Corral, but better). It was so nice to have them visit us! Amy came the night before and spent the night, too! It was a lot of fun! That same night we had some friends over and we all watched "Inception" together. Great movie!

Killian and Kendall from next door come over almost every day to play with Lance, but inevitably Lance and Killian end up playing "Lego Indiana Jones" together. Jude loves to watch (which really means crawl up and turn off the TV at every opportunity and then laugh when the boys get upset... stinker!).

We try to do an Advent Calendar every year and this year instead of chocolate for each day we are doing a Lego Advent. It is super cute and Lance can't get enough of it! The completed set is a scene from a home where the family is getting ready for Christmas plus some from Santa's preparations. Every day is another figurine or toy to put together or a piece of furniture for the scene. My favorite ones so far have been a mini drumset for the Lego boy, a toy firetruck for the lego boy, and a shower you build for a Santa figure (the Santa is wearing nothing but a speedo and comes with a bath brush so he can shower before he starts his run). It's very clever and fun and Lance has a great time putting together the pieces as the instructions say, then promptly taking it apart and building his own creation. It's also a great way to get Lance to get ready for bed at night without having to ask him twice... we always do the advent calendar AFTER bath, teeth, jammies, and prayer.

It's been a good month, but we are so excited to be up in Ashburn with our families for the next two weeks to celebrate Christmas and New Years! Lance is headed to California on Christmas Eve to spend a week with his dad and his Dahlquist cousins. He loves his family so I know he'll have a blast playing with everyone in California. Sad for us, happy for him. We will miss him!

Rachel's Baby Shower

On December 4th, several of our friends got together to celebrate Rachel's Baby Shower! It was a great time and had a fabulous turn-out!

There was tons of yummy food!

The whole gang! (Rachel is in the middle wearing red and white)

We are so excited for Rachel and their soon-to-be baby James!

Photo Block Ornaments!

Every year around this time, I'm usually looking for ornament ideas. This year I wanted to do something with pictures that would capture some of the fun or special moments that have taken place over the last 12 months and came up with these photo block ornaments! They are incredibly simple to make and look great!

First, gather up your supplies:

- wooden blocks

- paint (whatever color you like--I used black)

- Mod Podge

- 4 photos per block

- eye screws

I used building blocks I found at WalMart (a set of 50 for $12--about $.25 per block) because they were cheap and easy, but I'm sure you could find some great blocks of wood at any Lowe's or Home Depot.

To cut my photos the right size to fit the blocks, I used a square hole punch I found at Michael's. It was originally $13, but I used my 40% off coupon so it ended up costing about $8.

My blocks are about 1 3/4 inches square, so obviously most photos would not fit. I got around that by going to WalMart and using their Photo Kiosk to print out a 4x6 collage. If you turn all your pictures landscape and have only 4 to a print, they are the perfect size!

Next, I used the punch to crop the pictures. See how perfect the size is? When I went to Michael's to get the punch, I brought along a block so I could ensure my punch was the right size.

I painted the top and bottom of the block I wanted to use and let it dry.

Then using Mod Podge I carefully glued one photo to each side of the block. Make sure to get the Mod Podge all the way to the corners to ensure a tight seal and secured corners!

The photos fit perfectly next to each other and formed an almost seamless square of joy!

Allow the block to dry. At this point, I would recommend spraying your ornament with a photo-safe spray to protect against moisture and inevitable fingerprints from curious kids. You can also paint over the pictures with another layer of Mod Podge and allow it to dry completely. I have yet to do this, but it's at the top of my to-do list! 

Finally, mark the center of the top of your block and screw in an eye screw. I didn't have any trouble getting the screw in and was able to use nothing but my hands. You can run a ribbon through the top of the loop or simply put an ornament hook directly on the loop.

Viola! Preserved memories in a cute little package! It would make a great gift for grandparents or family that might be far away.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial! I'm linking to a few Linky Parties below. Don't forget to check out the other neat crafts posted!

Baby Jesus

For as long as I can remember, my family has had the same Christmas tradition. My parents tried very hard to make sure we remembered why we celebrate Christmas--to remember Christ, that he came to earth to help us return to our Heavenly Father. Every year on the first of December, we bring out a small wooden manger my dad built about 20 years ago. Each night before bed our family would gather around the manger to read scriptures, sing a Christmas Song, have family prayer and give our gift to Christ: service. We would each take a turn and recount any acts of kindness or service we gave to others that day. For each act we got to place one piece of hay in the manger. We would work all month long to try and build up that small pile of straw so on Christmas Eve when the Christ child was born, He would have a soft bed to lay in. I have loved this tradition. No, it wasn't always a spiritual experience every night and there were often days that would pass and I hadn't done any service that day, but I can honestly say it helped keep Christmas in perspective and encouraged us to give to others, to look beyond ourselves and try to help those in need.

Last week when I was at my mom's house, Jude discovered the manger that was tucked under Grandma's Christmas tree. Baby Jesus was laying inside atop a meager pile of straw (the month had only just begun). Jude crawled right over and looked, and looked, and finally he took that baby doll out and held him. I had to take a picture.

It was so cute and reminded me of all those years past when the six kids would sit around the manger at night, the only light from the fireplace and a candle we would light. We took turns holding Baby Jesus as we would add our straw to the pile. It made me smile as I thought about the fun times, the giggling as we (sometimes irreverently) played with the baby but would always wrap him up tight in his blanket at the end and return him to his little bed of straw. This poor baby has seen a lot in his days--he's smudged from grubby fingers, missing a couple toes and fingers from a curious puppy, and look less than pristine from the years of love--but it just wouldn't be Christmas without him.