Santa Claus is coming to .... Farmville!

We had fun attending our small town Christmas parade.

The kids got lots of candy and got to see the old man in red.

At home date night

So, this was the setting for our last date. So cozy and pretty.

Danny and I enjoyed take out and games by the fire.

What a great date he is! I think I'll keep him.

St Nicks day

Danny's family celebrated St. Nick's day, so we do it too. It's pretty low key but fun at the same time. The kids write letters to Santa and put it in their shoe and leave it by the door. Here are two of the kids with their shoes and letters...

And here is the other child enjoying the treat that Santa left in his shoe! The big kids got push pops and this one got a bottle pop! Boy, did he love it! Not too surprising since he loves pacifiers and lollipops.

Oops, I skipped Thanksgiving

So, I have gotten so far behind on posting since we moved. I am trying to play catchup before the new year starts. Just a few pics of Thanksgiving.

We spent the night before at my parents house. Danny played flag football in the morning and the kids and I watched the parade and played at my parents house. I think I also did some couponing.

Then we went to GG's house for Thanksgiving. The kids had fun in the teepee and we all enjoyed the feast!

Just a cute pic of my mom reading to niece Ella.

Then we went to Danny's parents and celebrated Megan's birthday. Here the cousins are about to do the My Little Pony pull pinata.

Granddad, Danny's paternal grandpa, was there with his wife, Ruthann. They came from Massachusets and we don't get to see them too often, so it was pretty neat to get to see them. Danny and Grant and I spent the night at TJ and Whitney's house and we had fun with them. Victoria and Christian had fun having a sleepover at Geemaw and Papas with the rest of the family. Check out these two pics of V, Camila, and Megan. They have fun together. Soooo girly!

It was a fun Thanksgiving weekend and we have a lot to be thankful for. Life is good.

Basket rides!

Christian and Grant have come up with a few fun new games lately. This is one of them. I'm glad that they can have fun together!

I love a naked baby

Sneaky little Grant running away with a bottle of baby shampoo! He's so cute!

Playdate with Maggie

Victoria's friend Maggie came to play! That was super fun. And her step cousin, a little boy named Mikey, came to play too. So Christian was glad too.

The girls had fun playing with their toys, but really loved doing crafts. They made rings and did shrinky dinks! Here they are watching them shrink.

How fun to have a friend come to visit!

Branch Christmas Party

We had a good time at our Branch's Christmas party. We had a nice dinner, a white elephant gift exchange, Santa Claus, a little sing along, and a nativity. It was kinda nice to not be the one planning it, but it was still kinda tricky for me to get back from a 2 hour drive from gingerbread houses in Williamsburg, change clothes, reheat the turkey(which was so moist thankfully- we covered it in the drippings and it worked perfectly to make it the night before.), make stuffing, and wrap the pies, all in less than an hour. Without Danny of course. He was working a wrestling tournament. So, after dragging all of the kids and food in, taking pictures of Santa, serving the 4 plates, and feeding a busy 1 year old on my lap, Danny came late and had a blast with the white elephant gift exchange while I supervised the crazy kids running around our tiny church. I was slightly irritated, but oh well. I kinda liked playing games like "Santa says..." Plus, I think V and C like it when I play with them and their friends sometimes. The kids had a good time and Danny did too.

Victoria was one of the first children to be called to see Santa.

Grant was slightly terrified.

"Christian, tell me, have you been a good boy?"

Santa brought a present for all of the kids! About half of these kids are in the Branch and the other half are friends.

The kids loved being in the Nativity and did a great job singing afterwards! V and C were both angels this year.

Grant was very tired by the end of the night.

Gingerbread houses with Geemaw

Busy kitchen

Concentrating Christian

Delicious candy (for our 1 year old! We have definitely gotten more laid back with each kid.)

Sneaky Victoria- made a hole in hers and filled the inside with candy!

They looked awesome!

Walking to the Store in the Snow

So we've got 10 inches of snow and it's still falling. We wrapped the kids up and went out to go sledding. It was more like me pulling Victoria and Christian, then them actually sledding. After taking trips both ways up and down our street. We decided to walk (I pulled and walked, V & C rode) up to the shopping center. We went around in Rose's and then had some hot chocolate, peach cobbler, and cinnamon buns in Country Cookin'.
It reminded me a lot of the neighborhood I lived in until I was 8. My family lived in Newport News and our street was behind a shopping center with a drug store, barber shop, dry cleaners with a bubble gum machine, and a Sizzler. Bobby and I used to ride our bikes or walk to the store, just because it was fun. Sometimes we'd get lost and the pharmacist would call our mom and she'd come pick us up.
I think our kids will enjoy living walking distance from a shopping center. I like living in a small town. The cobbler's not too bad either.

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Hiding Grant

Grant just loves hiding in little nooks and crannies. He's so funny.

Making moving fun

So, moving wasn't the easiest thing emotionally for us, even though we felt good about it. We love Chesterfield and were completely happy to be there and wanted to always live there. Although we didn't move far, we knew things wouldn't be quite the same. We are so thankful for friends who made the move easier for us and a lot more fun! Thanks guys, you know who you are! You lightened our loads. Just a few snapshots of our last week living at Chatham Grove Ln. We meant to take a few more, including one of our whole family on the front steps, but as everyone knows, "I'm sorry, I'm crazy."

Christian and Greyson having fun in their hooded shirts. Thanks friends for watching the kids various times the last couple weeks before we moved! We actually finished packing before the night before! That is impressive for me to finish anything before the night before. So, thank you!

Soderholm and the Dubon kids minus the younger brothers from both families. Thanks for having us over to play and eat! That was so fun that Paulo was back for a couple days.

Belmont Mommies! Drea and Kasey hosted a girls night out for me and I was so happy to play games with some of my favorite women! You guys are awesome! I am so going to miss seeing these friends multiple times a week! Friends like these are hard to find.

Speaking of friends. V is really going to miss her friends from church and school, especially Maggie and her teacher Ms. Whitney.

We were really thankful for Ms. Whitney and that Victoria was able to be in her class even if only for a short while.

I wish I could write this post in another way. It's not coming out the way that I would like. The main point is, we love our Chesterfield friends and family. We will be back in town a lot and hope that you all will remember that Farmville isn't too far down the road! We'd love to have any of you come visit us! You now have friends in the "heart of Virginia!"

The best day of Christian's life

As the kids were playing in a leaf pile, Christian declared that today was the best day of his life. He really was having a great time jumping, flipping, and sliding into the leaves.

Victoria and Grant loved it too.

And each other!Joyful jumping!(Action shot)

Grant's first playtime in a leaf pile!

He examined each one and of course tried to eat a couple leaves and sticks too, Eww!

I had fun photographing the kids in the dry leaves

Fall is fun!

Halloween Night

After the trip to the storage place in Farmville, we finally carved our pumpkins! Seriously, we started after 4:00 on Halloween. That's how crazy we are.

And even though it was getting late. I had my mind set on what I wanted to make for dinner. We ate dinner cooked in a pumpkin. Yummy!

Then we trick or treated to Grandma and Grandpa's house!

We tried trick or treating down their street, but the houses are so far apart and not too many lights were on. Not too many were on in our neighborhood either. Boo!

So, I don't have any pictures, but we called Cori, one of my favorite high school friends, and went to her neighborhood, Smoketree, to trick or treat. It was a great neighborhood for trick or treating! It was fun to join Chris, Cori, Chance, and the crew(Sam and a baby that they were babysitting too.) The kids had fun and got lots of candy!

We enjoyed returning home to see these neat glowing jack-o-lanterns!