A Different Christmas

Whitney enjoying his Christmas Gift
Cortney is so into her gift she can't even look up for the camera

Ah, Jaime! That sweater will be swell for a New Year's Eve party

Good Laughs, Good Times :)

Random pic of Toby flying an airplane (just thought it was cool)

Going out on the town to see The Nutcracker

Arielle, Miah & Athena (The Chorus Girls!)

Southwest Elementary's "Up On A Housetop" Performance

This is great for Jim's back...

Putting up the tree

This was our first Christmas alone since Toby was a newborn! We usually always have a huge family gathering with my side of the family in Utah or go to Florida to be with Jim's parents & my grandmom. But being the last year in anesthetist school, we couldn't afford to go ANYWHERE. At first I was bummed and thought our holiday would be boring & lame, but soon I came around to the idea that sleeping in, setting our own schedule & doing whatever the heck we want (within our budget) sounded pretty good! Relaxing and quality family time were top of the list. Here's some of the highlights:

1. Alison from work giving us free tickets to The Nutcracker!


2. LRB (my work) spoiling us with parties & gifts


3. Getting a REAL Christmas tree (haven't had once since we've had kids)

4. Enjoying Tanglewood Lights

5. Going Bowling

6. Watching Arielle sing with the chorus in her school Holiday Production

7. Seeing Tangled at our new favorite $3 dollar theater! That's right- new releases, anytime of day for $3!

8. Getting LOTS of snow. 4 inches on Christmas Day & Dec. 26th, that is record breaking around here. It was beautiful and a great excuse to stay inside & be cozy. Church & all activities were cancelled.

9. Getting together with my running buddies & their hubbies for some good "White Elephant" fun

For Christmas Eve the kids opened PJs and a couple Liken videos. Likens are great musicals that tell a scripture story but with modern flare. Only the Christmas one had a little too much flare! It was SO Cheesy that we laughed our way through it...so much for spiritual Christmas Eve's...

Christmas morning Santa brought Arielle a saddle pad & a robe. Toby got soccer gear. Both kids were spoiled rotten by their grandparents on both sides and received some spending money. Arielle quickly went out and purchased an IPOD touch! She is rocking out at the top of her lungs in her bedroom right now as I write this :) Toby bought a couple Wii games, but is also saving some money for movie admissions and other outings with friends.

This quiet Christmas has turned out pretty good. And the kids' break isn't over yet. Still have Ice Skating with the church group & New Year's long weekend to look forward to :)

Thanksgiving in Asheville

Julie showing me her new phone

Grove Park Inn

Me, Grandmom Hazel, Mom

Izzy, Toby, Conner

Dad, Mom, Nancy

Dad & Jim (they were actually having a nice conversation here even though it looks like my Dad is grilling Jim- LOL)

Toby, Arielle & Lincoln at hotel pool

Lincoln

Arielle & Grandmom

The Hostesses w/ the Mostest

Jules, Mom, GrandmomTobes & Conner

Steve working hard in the kitchen

Jim pretending to work hard, LOL :)

Well, I should be banned from taking pictures. I went to Asheville and saw relatives I only get to see 1x or 2x a year and did I take pictures of them? NO! What the? Oh well, guess we were so busy visiting that I forgot all about taking pictures. So Thanksgiving went something like this...we went Thanksgiving Day to Asheville where we helped the Sloans make the big spread in anticipation of Mom, Dad & Grandmom Hazel flying in for the weekend. We took it easy this year and did lots of Costco and "easy prep" food which had its pros & cons. We missed the homemade taste and quality of our favorites, but on the up side we had time to get out of the kitchen and take a beautiful hike overlooking Asheville on Thanksgiving Day. After a good meal, the girls (Julie, me, Arielle, Isabelle & Nancy Clare) went Black Friday SHOPPING from 12am-7am. Yes, we are nuts! It was a good, delirious time and deals were found by all. After sleeping in half the day Friday we took the kids swimming in Mom & Dad's indoor heated hotel pool and enjoyed another evening of visiting and noshing on leftovers. Aunt Nancy came to visit, she is always a joy to be around. Saturday we headed to Grove Park Inn for the Annual Gingerbread & Christmas Tree display. It is gorgeous and always puts me in the holiday mood. Grandmom Hazel treated all 13 of us to a beautiful buffet at GPI. WOW- it was classy and scrumptious. Saturday we had more Lovelaces over (Bahnson's family, Paul's family, & Nancy Clare, Anna Clare & Jeff). I think my favorite part of the night was snuggling with little Anna Clare. Wish I had a picture! We had a great time laughing with the cousins before we headed back home to W-S late Saturday night.

Trip to Florida

Toby just loves having his picture taken
Look at those dimples!

Nice shot Jim ;-)

Pineapple Dole Whip Float- classic Disney, yummo!

Never too old to take a shot at pulling the sword from the stone

We had free tickets to Disney burning a hole in our pockets, so over Veteran's day weekend we decided to drive the 10 hrs to Florida for a couple days of fun in the sun. Fri. we had dinner at Giordano's Chicago style pizza followed by an evening walking around Downtown Disney and enjoying entertainment, checking out the awesome Lego sculptures at the Lego Store & sampling free Ghiradelli chocolates. Saturday day we spent in Magic Kingdom from open to close (14 hrs!). Sunday & half of Monday we played at the beach and relaxed before heading home late Monday. The waves were big and the water was cool. The kids played for hours in the shore break and had almost as much fun as they did at Disney. Can't believe I didn't take any pics of the beach!

Halloween Happenings

Jessica, Athena, Arielle & Haley
Toby After

Toby Before

Miah, Teddy & Arielle

The kids were out of school the Friday before Halloween and they enjoyed a long weekend of fun. Arielle had a couple parties with her girlfriends and went to two haunted houses- Spookywoods & The Spook Trail at Waterford. Toby had a party at a friend's house. There was also the church Trunk or Treat. On Halloween we got together with the Parkes & Shulzs and had mummy dogs, mac n' cheese & yummy pumpkin brownies then went Trick or Treatin' around the neighborhood. We had a great time but Jim & I felt a little sad that the kids are now "too cool" to walk around with Mom & Dad- they ran off with friends!

End of Fall Soccer

Toby had fun playing on 'The Strikers' this season. He played forward and scored many goals. The team only lost one game all season. His coaches were great guys and treated the players & families to a big finale pizza party at Mario's :)

Lazy 5 Ranch

Toby slingshooting a pumpkin
Lemurs!

Arielle feeding a llama

We took advantage of a beautiful fall weekend (and a coupon :) and headed to Lazy 5 Ranch in Mooresville. That place is worth every penny. We laughed SO hard at our close encounters with the critters. We drove our car 3 miles through an open safari with pigs, ostriches, water buffalo, cows, giraffes, llamas, rhinos & more. The kids each had a bucket of feed and fed the animals from the car. It was hilarious getting eye level with all the animals.

Wake Forest Football

A co-worker was kind enough to give us football tickets to Wake Forest University's Homecoming game. Jim, Toby & I went on a beautiful fall evening. It was an exciting game against Navy with a few touchdowns but unfortunately Wake Forest lost by a point in the last few minutes.