More OBX and birthday x 3

OK I'm not quite smart enough to put the pics in backwards order so this is backwards. we had a great trip. James was there the first few days and then Nana and Papa the last part. We spent days at the park, swimming in the pool, visiting lighthouses, sliding in the sand, playing on the beach. yes, too cold for swimming but a great trip. Here's the kids out on the beach the last day.
I'll put some pics of our beach finds on our nature blog.
Sweet little ones headed down to the beach.
C's bday celebration #3- w/ Nana and Papa
Bodie Lighthouse- boys got badges- 3 Junior Rangers. I don't have pics of Wright Brothers, but we had a good visit there too. The boys enjoyed getting their badges and learning about early airplanes.
This tree (or one near it) by Currituck Lighthouse has lots of memories- from way back in 2001 with a little baby boy through this year & lots in between.
We hiked all around Jockey's Ridge- boys were so excited to find each number.
Sliding down Jockey's Ridge. Last year T couldn't go up by himself. This year he didn't want to stop.

Our kite- KG napping in the backpack.
T ready for some duck hunting. We had a great visit to the wildlife center by Currituck Lighthouse. Got to watch fish feeding- a little class about fish. A great movie about the history of the area, dressed up like duck hunters, and went home with new fishing costumes.
Bday celebration #2- w/ Grandma, Uncle B, and Pops Leon
Celebration #1 with the Lewcrew. We had pancakes for dinner & C requested carrot cake which we made from scratch (peeled the carrots, opened vanilla beans, ...) since we were snowed in and couldn't buy any shortcuts! Can't believe he's 5! Wow! It seems like yesterday that we were praying for him to make it. And now he goes a million miles an hour.

5 years ago (yesterday) our little miracle arrived. what a night! what a boy! We're so thankful for him. We went on our family walk for vasa previa this weekend- still praying for all the vasa previa angels and their families.
Chase's miracle birth

Outer Banks/ Snow Days

Here's one of our two snowmen from the last snow- the other wasn't dressed so no pic!
these turtles from the aquarium on Roanoke Island- could go on our nature blog but they were just so cute

you can really see how much they've grown when you compare pics. last year KG was too little to sit on the turtle. We were really blessed to go to 2 years in a row of free day at the aquarium.

More Christmas Pics

Happy New Year!

I can't believe it's 2011 already. well, my watch still says 31 DEC but the ball dropped, the whistleblowers blew, the fireworks sparkled here several hours ago so it must be 2011. It's been a great year and we ended with a wonderful day. We started off the morning with a Manna Multisports Family Run. KG and T ran their first races- 1/4 mile each while K & C did their first races- 1/2 mile. C thought it was so much fun that he did the mile with James and finished it 10:20!! he turns five in 2 weeks and that's faster than some of my old soldiers ran. Then James watched all our kids plus a friend (definite good husband points) so I could run the 5K by myself. Five families from our Tuesday morning run group were there plus another 3 from Manna Multisports- nice end to the year.

We had planned a quiet evening at home until a good friend turned our evening more fun by inviting 25 people over to our house for a New Years' Eve party. Between the two events, we were happy to have Pops Leon & Grandma work hard with us in the garage repairing the hole I put in the ceiling. And Uncle B to hang out with the kids.

The New Year's Eve party was a great success. I offered to provide meat and drinks but realized we didn't have any and called everyone coming asking them to bring those too. Great to have friends who are close enough to plan a party at our house and then I can ask them to bring everything for it.

Christmas

We've been blessed with a terrific year: James home except some short TDYs, all well except some colds and stitches, near family for lots of visits, blessed with lots of good friends, the good news of James' promotion and our move this spring, ...

we went to Boone, NC for my cousin's wedding and had a new twist of Boone Christmases from the past. Then we spent a couple days with James' family and back home for a quietish Christmas at home. here's some pics from our recent trips-

T making his house in our gingerbread village
K's house
C reading to great-grandma
visiting Great-Grandma
Uncle B and the kids sporting new clothes
T sledding- we had a great sledding spot. many hills ranging from bunny slopes to black diamond!
Uncle Steven helping C with cool new magnet building toys
Kids showing their new Christmas PJs
James showing his sledding skills
the kids ready for some snow!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Christmas Decorations

We got home tonight from our church's Christmas Eve service (& from a week away with family and friends- more on that later.) It was awesome to come home to beautiful flowers & a kitchen stocked with food for the weekend- what a great friend. I'm looking forward to some time over the next few days to upload pics from our trip but here are a few of our decorations this year. I'm pretty excited about our Advent Calendar and about these stockings that my friend made.

the flowers from the friend- aren't they gorgeous?

Merry Christmas!

Advent calendar

His Eyes

You've got to watch this video. My friend sent it to me- definitely changes how you look at people.