Best photo of the season so far. Hands down.

Sure-- I'll just throw her on Santa's lap- no problem :)

Harrison's first ice skating- at Reston town center

Such a fun day! New family tradition for sure.

Carter didn't care about skating she just wanted to practice new found walking skills 

seriously worst expression ever. What is up with my face? 

After a couple of times around harrison was ready to (slowly) go it alone without daddy's hand. I though he would have more trouble with this then he did, frankly.  

I insisted on a family picture. Harrison did NOT want to do it and we basically forced him (hence the cowering in the back). Totally worth it because this one is goin on the christmas card :) 

Sometimes carter thinks it's funny to throw herself down like this. She's right.  

watching the zamboni was almost as a good as skating 

slightly improved expression 

Seriously. How cute are little tiny ice skates??

After skating we had some lunch at a chinese/thai place. I got yummy yellow curry which carter happily gobbled up. She loves to eat anything. As long as it is on mommy or daddy's plate (if it's not the aforementioned bread, cheese, frozen blueberries only rule applies).  

Purged

This morning I broke down and cleaned the last of Harrison's 3t clothes (they fit but the pants are definitely too short and shirts are a but small) and Carter's 9 month clothes (ha!! like she can wear those) out of their dressers. Some thoughts on this endeavor:

1) Heidi thank you thank you for all of the hand me downs from your sister that have been the majority of Harrison's clothes for the last 2 years. Huge blessing.
2) I wanted to get rid of Carter's 12 month stuff too but that would leave her with one outfit, Harrison's old Jammies, and 3 pairs of Harrison old pants. How does this girl grow so fast??? In the future I will make it my goal in life to throw baby showers for women (like me) having a second different gendered kid who insist they don't need a shower (you do!!! Trust me!!!)
3) advice to new parents: buy dark colored clothing-- the light stuff gets ruined SO much easier.
4) as much as you think you don't want to buy too many baby clothes because they grow out of them too fast, the desire for a cute child and to not be doing laundry constantly will probably win out. I'm learning to accept this.

All for now :)

New thanksgivmas eve- Ohio edition!!!

This weekend we celebrated year three of the best holiday ever situated between thanksgiving and Christmas. DC folks trekked it out to shalise and frank's house in Ohio. Year 3 and I think the first time all six of us (plus Taci :)) we're there with our spouses and 9.5 children. We trickled in Friday night, Saturday we took the kids to Home Depot for a little crafty activity and then to a nearby skate park so they could climb big ropes and run up and down hills. Later we went to downtown westerville,oh to meet santa and do other fun christmasy activities like decorate cookies, write letters to Santa, and watch a plastic chicken Lay eggs (of course!). Saturday night after filling our kids up with sugar ( yummy gelato at the cutest shop ever) and letting them watch Brave we had the traditional fancy pants dinner sans kids. I contributed the plates since I recently scored a beautiful 24 place setting set of holiday dishes (for free from someone in my ward who was moving :))..after that we had a white elephant gift exchange. I vowed to not forget any gifts this year but forgot that Cory required a gift as well--- luckily both of our kids started screaming during the exchange so we saved some embarrassment -- phew!!! This morning we exchanged stocking suffers and I was as impressed as always at the creative skills of some of my favorite friends ever. Everytime we all get together I laugh more then I've laughed all year. For real. Thanks ladies for being amazing and inspiring me to be a better wife/mother/cook/maker of things/dresser/decorator/vixen/gardener/recycler etc. etc. I can't believe it was EIGHT years ago when we lived together on Crothers lane. I love us still!!! (and if you are wondering about the strange order of the pictures for some reason this happens when I blog from my phone)

climbing up the big ropes. Harrison made it all the way to the top.  

waiting for santa 

Taci, alissa, me, april, erin, shalise, and marci. LOVE YOU GUYS!!!

running around a big christmas tree 

This cute Santa gave us a personal visit with lots of pictures. Harrison FREAKED out at first but came around 

playing with window stickers together 

drew tells the kiddos a story about the origins of Thanksgivmas and stockings 

SANTA!!!!!

Look!!! I see Santa!!!

This was on the way home. Note Carter is wearing Harrison's shirt and a diaper since she peed through her clothes...

Harrison and Alesa checking out some sticks 

Hey guys-let's buy some amish made chairs

Carter and Van are bonding

Brief moments of awesomeness

I think what you get in parenting are brief moments of wonderful interspersed between much more frequent times when it is just plain hard. You live for the great times when everyone is happy and unicorns fly by and spit rainbows and glitter rains down from heaven. Maybe some families have all happiness all the time, but I have my doubts. Every single time we take a trip with our kids we tell ourselves 'never again' and wonder why we go to the trouble, but then you remember the fun and sign up for some more of the 70/30 (80/20??) torture v. Magic. Today's thanksgiving getaway to Philly fit the mold perfectly. We drove down yesterday afternoon and it took twice as long in traffic as it normally would. This was expected, what was not expected was carter crying for a good five of those hours. Cory says we had more than five minutes of quiet at one time before she finally fell asleep at 8:00 pm but I dispute this. At one point I forced Cory to stop at a grocery store somewhere in Delaware where I bought them out of snacks and teethers (i'm pretty sure she's getting a second molar...or seven...)and then went to a second store because the first one didn't have Advil. Holy hell. it was terrible. And then miraculously she took a nice nap and we arrived at our fantastic downtown hotel with the most amazing view ever. Harrison was so excited just soaking in the city and the lights and the Christmas decorations.
It was awesome. For about half an hour. Until we had screaming fits and twenty time outs in the bathroom because Harrison wouldn't sit quietly so we could say prayers and go to bed. And after that carter screamed bloody murder for about an hour before finally going to sleep (I'm sure
our fellow hotel goers just loved us.) I told myself today would be better. We set out this morning for a short walk to the thanksgiving parade and carter cried and cried (I wrapped her up in several jackets but had left her mittens and I think her hands were cold. Or she just hates me. Whatever. And we couldn't find food. And Cory and I started yelling at each other (bad form parents!). Once the parade started Harrison immediately complained that it was too loud and he wanted to go back to the hotel. And then some lady fell on him and he dropped his breakfast. The world is ending!!! and More crying and snot from carter. No matter what. At this point I'm wondering why I've opted to ever leave the house since procreating. Seriously. Just stay home where your kids can be warm and fed and have naps in their regular beds. This was supposed to be fun AND IT IS NOT fun!!! Eventually i got myself together and daddy came to poor Carter's rescue. And the parade was very cool. And then smooth sailing. We saw the liberty bell and carter miraculously slept in her stroller!!! (Yes!!!) the weather turned warmer, we went to independence hall, and played in the grass, and then had a delicious thanksgiving dinner at a cute restaurant. Totally what I was going for. And now were driving home listening to Christmas music and both of my angels are sleeping :) Bliss. Totally ready for the eight hour drive to Ohio next week, right??? Every day my kids push me to my breaking point and then I feel overwhelmed with gratitude for their sweet spirits after they are peacefully in bed sleeping. On thanksgiving I'm grateful for the battles that stretch me further than i can go and force me to see my faults and strive to do better while allowing me to appreciate every smile and giggle and silly knock knock joke so much more. Happy thanksgiving! Here's some pictures!