Red Barn Tree Farm

Since we were in the mountains my dad's wife thought it would be fun to take all the kids to a Christmas tree farm to get their tree. Since we were going and had a van I suggested to Paul that we get ours too. His initial response was no - he wasn't sure about driving all the way home with a tree strapped to the top of the car. While we love a fresh tree the actual getting of the tree and getting it home can be sort of, challenging? The ride up to the farm was beautiful. It's been awhile since I've been to the mountains and I forgotten how stunning it can be.

I'd also forgotten how cold it can be on the side of the mountain. We got out of the car...holy wind! It was chilly! Unfortunately I wasn't very prepared and only had hoodies for the kids - oops! It was really neat to see the trees up on the mountainside. Once we saw the beautiful, fresh trees we started to change our mind about getting one there. And when they explained to us how well they can tie the trees on the car we were convinced. We went on a hayride (the wagon was designed as a sleigh) up to the top of the tree farm. We couldn't get over how beautiful the trees were - so full and big! We finally decided on our tree and I took the kids down to the Red Barn to get some hot chocolate and cookies while Paul waited for them to cut down our tree.

Sure enough they expertly tied the tree on the top of the car. It didn't budge on the entire ride home! Impressive! We got the tree in the house and wow - it's gorgeous - full and so fragrant! Hands down the best tree we've ever had. I hope this is a new holiday tradition!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving full of thanks, food and fun...we sure did! Our festivities started Wednesday afternoon when my mom, aunt and 2 cousins came in from Winston Salem. My brother and his girlfriend flew in from NYC. We enjoyed a pre-turkey day dinner of Chinese food. It was so nice to visit with everyone and my 15 year old cousin channeled her inner 8 year old and kept the girls entertained playing Barbies. So cute!

Thursday morning we met up with my brother and headed up to Asheville to spend the rest of the day with my dad and his wife and her family. There were 6 kids, ages 7 - 2 and 10 adults. It was a full house and very fun. The kids had a great time entertaining each other and playing Just Dance. My dad's wife is an excellent cook so our meal was oh so yummy!

It was so nice to spend time with my brother and my future sister in law (2 weeks until the wedding!) and our family. And since I didn't have to cook it was pretty relaxing!

Two for Tuesday

1. I turned 37 last Friday. I can't believe I'm closer to 40 than 30, that I will have been out of high school for 20 years come the Spring. I vividly remember my parents turning 40..how can that almost be me?? I went to Walmart on Sunday and bought a bottle of wine. The cashier asked for my ID and when she checked my age she said "for real? I thought you were much younger" I think she's my new favorite person. But I think it's true what they say - 40 is the new 30 so really? I am just 27.

2. I'm unnaturally excited about Prince William getting married. A Royal Wedding Ya'll!! I remember as a kid (about my oldest daughter's age) getting up really, really early in the morning to watch Princess Diana and Prince Charles get married. I remember my best friend, Wendy Mitchell was at my house watching it with me. We played wedding forever after that. It also made me think that all weddings, including my own, needed to be that grand and beautiful. I look forward to watching this one with my girls. I know it's sort of shallow but I don't care..I love a wedding.

Thankful Thursday

I'm feeling pretty thankful this beautiful Thursday afternoon. First, I'm thankful that's it's Veteran's Day and that we have a school holiday. I'm thankful I didn't have to get up early this morning and get 4 kids ready to drive to school. I'm thankful I didn't have to pack school lunches today. I'm thankful that it's 1:34pm and I'm still in jammies (I really am headed up to shower soon). I'm thankful that the sun is shining, that the sky is beautifully blue, that the temperatures are warm and that the leaves are beautiful. I'm thankful that we have playdate this afternoon with a dear friend we haven't seen in a while. I'm thankful that I get to go out tonight and play Bunco. I'm thankful that when I found Jacob naked in bed this morning with his diaper beside him that the diaper was only wet. I'm thankful Paul's on his way home from yet another trip but that means he's employed and that's good. Of course I'm super thankful for my kiddos, my family and our health. And finally, I'm very thankful for our Veteran's..the reason we have this wonderful mid-week holiday. We take far too much for granted the sacrifices our servicemen and women make for our country. Without them we wouldn't have the tremendous freedom that we do today. It doesn't seem like enough but many thanks...many thanks.

Family TV?

I'm becoming increasing irritated about this topic as my children get older but honestly what has happened to all the good family TV shows? Cosby Show anyone? Family Ties? Silver Spoons? Full House? And...where are appropriate shows for kids ages 5 - 12? It seems there are tons of shows for the preschool set but let's face it once a child enters Kindergarten they quickly realize Dora is so not cool anymore. It seems the shows even on kids networks feature sassy teenagers (iCarly I'm looking at you) and/or slutty teenagers (umm..Miley Cyrus I'm staring at disbelief at you). It seems there are VERY few shows that are actually appropriate for kids (in my opinion). "Good Luck Charlie" on Disney is about one of the few that seems to have parents that actually seem to like each other and a show that teaches family values. I realize all these other do have good messages but some of the characters just act so sassy, snarky and disrespectful. And in my opinion are just not good role models. Believe me, my 6 and 7 year olds have enough sass in them and don't need to see it modeled on teenagers they look up to.

Don't get me wrong I get that I have the power to turn off the TV I'm just wondering what happened to the good ole family sitcoms that used to come on when I was a kid. And I'm wondering if our parents thought they were inappropriate for us?

And another thing that really bothers me (and I realize I sound like such a prude) but what happened to 8pm being a family hour on TV. Now shows like "The Bachelor" and "Greys Anatomy" come on at 8pm. My kids are generally in bed at that hour but occasionally they are up later - I would hate for them to turn on ABC and see a guy in a hot tub with 8 girls in skimpy bikinis making out with several of them. What happened to those type of shows not being on until later in the evening? And when did I get so old that these thoughts run through my head......

Election Day!

It's Election Day ya'll! While I'm completely over the political commericals (though honestly with DVR I hardly watch any so it seems it hasn't been as bad this year), mailings and signs cluttering up every street corner in town I generally like election days. I find politics wildly fascinating and I will be watching a "more conservative" news station this evening while waiting for election results to come in. I *might* even DVR 16 & Pregnant so I can focus on the election results. Crazy...I know.

I do have an Election Day peeve. Our school, as I'm sure are many across the country, is a polling place. I believe if schools are going to be polling places then there should be no school on Election Days. I don't like the idea of random people being in my kids school. The school has done a good job of keeping the voting area as separate as possible from where children are but still what if some crazy person figured out how to get to the children. I realize this is an irrational fear but it still concerns me. Also? Our school parking lot is way too small to accommodate all the voter cars. This morning was a complete zoo in the parking lot.

I hope you exercised your right to vote. This election is really important. Do your homework and GO VOTE!

Happy Halloween!

We had a great Halloween weekend. We started our festivities on Saturday morning carving pumpkins with our next door neighbors. Saturday afternoon some good friends came over and we took all the kids to the our town's Spooky Trail.

Sunday we had church and Julia must have asked 4 times before we even left for church whether trick or treating was before church or after church. And of course when we got home the kids asked about every hour when could they get their costumes on? when was it time to go the parade? when can we go trick or treating? While slightly annoying their enthusiasm and excitement was cute.

We had a little neighborhood parade to kick off the evening festivities. It's neat to see how much our neighborhood has grown since we first moved over 3 years ago. All the kids used to fit in one picture! After the parade we came back to our house with two of our neighbors for a pre tick or treat party and dinner. Nana and cousin Ron also joined in the festivities. The goal was to get some food in the kids before the sugar took over. Finally about 6pm the group set off. Jacob, while not too happy about his costume, was excited to get to go this year and he rode along in the wagon. Apparently that slowed the rest of the kids down though! Jacob was so happy to have a bag of candy that was his....he just kept wanting to eat it and eat it and eat it.

A fun, fun holiday...now to figure out what to do with the million pounds of candy that it feels like we have!