Santa Claus is Comin' to Town

Today we celebrated a Richmond tradition by visiting the legendary Santa. Amazingly enough there were no tears. I thought Clara would do OK but wasn't sure, and I really thought Jack was going to scream. He was clearly trying to scramble out of Santa's lap, but he didn't cry! Clara asked Santa for a doll and some surprises (after telling me all day yesterday that she wanted a robot). And she told Santa that Jack wanted bowling pins. :)

Happy Christmas Adam!

Happy Thanksgiving!

This year we hosted Nay-nay, Pop-pop, and Lucy for Thanksgiving at our house. Despite Nay-nay's misgivings that I was sitting around too much Thanksgiving morning, everything went off without a hitch and our meal was delicious.

During the Macy's parade Nay-nay noticed that the black and blue outfits were much more slimming on the marching band members than those that wore white uniforms. So Pop-pop immediately quipped that they were "very slenderizing". Clara had a lot of fun with it.

"Black & blue and very slenderizing"


Meanwhile Nay-nay was teaching Jack about his face.


Later in the day lounging with Luc, eating bolts and nuts!


Lunch in front of the tv.

November Trip to Richmond

Woohoo, now we're only 1 month behind! November...

The week before Thanksgiving we traveled to Richmond to meet our new cousin from the Pacific Northwest - Annabeth! She, accompanied by Auntie Jo and Uncle Ed , embarked on her maiden voyage across the US and stayed for 10 days with the thrilled Su-su & Gramby.

Clara greets Annabeth for the first time with Gramby.


Brec holds his niece.


Annabeth checks out her relatives while the rest of us pose for a picture.


All the cousins in one picture... and what a great one it is ;)


Auntie Em, Jo, & Annabeth


Jo & Annabeth


Beaming grandmother.


The Hedval(l?)s back East.


Family picture.


Also during our time in Richmond we got to spend lots of time with Luke. He and Clara had their first sleepover together at Nay-nay's house! They had lots of fun playing in the leaf pile a la Lucy & Pop-pop.


Skeeker Jeeks joins in the mix.


Luke & Jack


All three kiddos


Riding together in the double stroller on the way to the playground.


Jack hit a milestone in learning how to jump! He's too busy moving to learn how to talk. :)

Rest of October

Here are some other random moments from October...

Hanging out dressed to dance


Taking a rest from tea pot spinning


Toy pick-up gone awry




Jack going down the slide is about to give Gramby a heart attack.


V. proud of his efforts


Taking a quick morning nap in the middle of the floor


He was curled up on the couch pillows reading, but of course he'd moved by the time I got the camera.


Cuddling in the chair together.


Showing off his new found skill of eating an apple off the core.


Clara, Molly, and Carmen at their preschool fall picnic.


And now to November! :)

Boston Visitors

We will be caught by the end of the year!

Early October, we had some excitement - visitors from the North. The Barnes family came down to NC for a week and visited us on their way to Emerald Isle. It had been about a year since the last time the kids were together, and it was great to see them interact, especially now that the "babies" aren't so little anymore. The Friday morning they came over to play was gorgeous. We played outside on the swingset and had lunch on the patio.

Lunch!


The "babies" - Adelina (20 mo) & Jack (17 mo)


Swinging on the swingset




Jack's unique flirting methods with Adelina (when he wasn't batting her pigtails, that is).


Clara showing Caleb her room.


Hugs goodbye.


The deal sweetens. :)

Fun with Photobooth

Brec and the kids were having fun playing with photobooth, a photo/video program for the mac. Here are two videos they created with the fishbowl lens. The first is a longer one, while the second is much shorter.



I'm gonna eat you!

Christmas Card Outtakes (Edited)

Yep, that's right. It's that time of year again when I get to stress - not over the perfect picture - but of ever obtaining a picture in which both children are looking at the camera. This year so far has proven to be no different than last year. Here are some of the beauties taken so far. (Edited 12/8/10 to add a few more pictures.)

Never Thought I'd See the Day...

...that Clara's nose would be healed. For 21 long months we despaired of ever seeing it wound-free. Then after hitting rock bottom one night (which consisted of discovering a "picture" painted in blood on the shutters above Clara's bed), we began the long, slow road to recovery. Here is our journey in pictures...

January 2009


February 2009


March 2009


April 2009


May 2009


June 2009


July 2009


August 2009


September 2009


October 2009


November 2009


December 2009


January 2010


February 2010


March 2010


April 2010


May 2010


June 2010


July 2010


August 2010


September 2010


October 2010 aka rock bottom

November 2010!!! Ice cream celebration in honor of her beautiful no-picked nose!