Christmas - Part II

After celebrating our own Christmas in NC, we headed to AL for part II. We made a pitstop in Charlotte where Will picked up some loot from "Uncle Wes", then we had Christmas with Pops, Mimi, Ann and Jon. Once Will opened some trains and a track, he was in a trance the rest of the night. The celebration continued Friday night as we celebrated Will's birthday "Elmo style". Will was not a big fan of the hats, but all of the "adults" enjoyed being goofy.

Merry Christmas!

Sugar High

Will's friend, Cooper, spent some time with us over the holiday and the boys made "Frosty Snowmen" (aka chocolate covered marshmallows). It was a HUGE mess but they loved it.

A Christmas Surprise!

Katie (sis-in-law) and Lu (bro) called us Christmas morning to teach Will a new word...COUSIN. They are expecting and due in July!
Congratulations Katie and Lu!!!

Day at the Doctor

Will had his 2 year check up today. He did great. After he got warmed up to the doctor, he was a little ham. He showed the doctor his Elmo stethoscope; he looked in his doctors ears; and after we left, he even asked to go see "Doctor Baker".
He's in the light-weight division weighing in at 24 lbs 11 oz and 34" tall.
The funniest part was while we were sitting in the room by ourselves waiting on the nurse, there was a baby crying next door. Will looked at the wall and said "HUSH BABY!!!"

P.S.

Didn't mean to leave you hanging...after over 3 long weeks, who knows how much $$$, and burn marks on my kitchen floor (left by the legally blind repairman), the home warranty company finally bought us a new fridge. Of course, I had to wait 7-10 days for it to arrive, but at least we have a new fridge that will be promptly registered with Whirlpool lest we have this problem again. Thanks for all your kind words, support...OK really, you all just made fun of me. I'll remember that.

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas!

Drive-By Santa

This was our first attempt at visiting Santa. It wasn't crowded, so Santa's elves suggested that we just drive thru and chat with Santa. It didn't work.

Party Time!

One of Matt's coworkers had a Christmas party Saturday night and even Will was invited. His buddy Seth was there (Seth's mommy was smart and brought along his pajamas). Will had fun playing with "Coach G", the nice man who has given Matt basketball tickets TWICE! I think they represented each end of the age spectrum of the party. Will had a great time and was a perfect gentleman to all the party goers. But when he ran out of fuel, he let us know by hanging out at the front door.

Ho Ho NOOOOOOO!!!!!

Busted!

Mommy is not happy when you color with markers on the floor...

Timberrrrr!!!

Apparently, if the box says "UP TO 7 FEET", it really means don't go over that height. Who knew?
When it fell, Will's bottom lip puckered out and he said, "Oh no! Christmas Tree!!" and he started crying.

Day 21

Rumor has it...we are getting a new fridge on Thursday. I'm not getting excited until I see it. It will be hard getting used to the fact that all of our cold food is actually in the kitchen. Even Will has caught on. The other night, Matt had a memory lapse and headed to the kitchen to get milk for Will and Will said, "No Daddy, 'side!" (meaning it's OUTSIDE)
Kids...they're so spoiled with their indoor plumbing and appliances. I hope this taught Will a good lesson.

O Christmas Tree

Saturday, we went to a local tree farm to cut down our own Christmas tree. We found a nice big tree, that was a challenge to get straight in the stand. There should be a study on how many divorces are caused by stress from holiday decorating. I am convinced the number would be high...

Will checking out future crops of Christmas trees.













This is the one!!














Will was so meticulous about putting the ornaments on the tree. We would get one on just right and then he would say "OFF!".

Comments?

Just wanted to let you know that I've reactivated the comments portion of this blog. But people, let's keep it clean OK?

Just in case you were wondering....

Day 19: Our refrigerator is STILL broken. It a good thing that American Home Shield upgraded us to emergency status! That's really getting the job done!

Is there a doctor in the house?

How does this thing work?



















Oh, I got it now!

Duke Basketball

Last week, Matt managed to find some Duke basketball tickets. It is extremely hard to find these tickets, but Matt managed to find the right connection. He took his friend Daniel, but I thought I'd post this picture because this is probably the closest the rest of us will get to seeing a Duke basketball game. Matt seems to have taken on almost as much passion for Duke basketball as he has for Auburn football. When in Rome....

Bah Humbug!

Each year, my mom tries to organize a big family picture for the Christmas cards. This idea always meets much resistance among the family because it always takes a long time to get the perfect picture. Here are some of the great shots that we got.
Even Will decided to be difficult when we tried to take a picture of the three of us.

No more babies for now...

Lu and Katie spent the weekend with us. This was their first time to visit us in NC so we did the typical sightseeing of Durham while working in the fabulous mall near us (thanks for being a good sport, Lu). I think this visit may have sealed the deal that Will will be an only grandchild for a long time. He is still getting over his ear infection, I guess, because he was a terror all weekend. Needless to say, I don't think he gave Katie and Lu "baby fever".

Come Ye Thankful People Come

My parents came to town Wednesday and celebrated Thanksgiving with us. After Matt's football game, we had a big lunch. This was my first time preparing Thanksgiving lunch, and everything went great, despite the fact that our fridge died a week ago and we are using an outside unit.
(side note: Tuesday, was the worst day. The fridge died last Wednesday and 3 repairmen later I spent the day fighting with the home warranty people who, of course, are in NO hurry to have it repaired; Will woke up with an ear infection; Matt was on call so was not around to help at all; it rained for 3 days, and someone stole my umbrella while I was at the library trying to find cell phone service because our home phone was out!)
But that is enough whining...Will is feeling much better, hopefully the fridge will be fixed tomorrow, our home phone was back up after a few hours, and I have another umbrella. We definitely have much to be thankful for. The move to Durham has been so smooth. We have made so many new and wonderful friends, and we have been able to see our friends and family from back home several times. I am so thankful that my family was able to join us this weekend. My brother and sister-in-law are coming tomorrow to join us for the rest of the weekend.

Glory Days

Each Thanksgiving the residents from the Duke hospitals have a flag football game called "Turkey Bowl". The teams have been practicing for several weeks. You would think they were playing the Super Bowl. This was a serious competition which HAD to be played before our Thanksgiving meal. Matt was the quarterback for his team and he played hard (so hard that he can hardly move tonight!). His team led 2-0 (I think that is how you keep flag football score), then the other team tied the ballgame on the very last play of the game. The game ended in a tie, and we could finally stop talking about football and eat our turkey.
Seriously, who plays football in scrub pants?

Me and My Friend Jack

Rebecca and Jack came to town last weekend. Will and Jack had SO much fun together. We went and saw the Duke chapel, did a little shopping, went to a children's museum, and Rebecca and I had a girls' night out for dinner while Matt entertained BOTH boys! Jack taught Will how to say "Go Bulldogs" , which is good because I was losing that battle to the Tigers.

Jetlag

Click play to view Will trying to eat supper the night after we returned from vacation.

Look how much I've learned!

Check out Will showing off his smarts! (Note: poor camerawork is result of moving target)

Auburn bites the dust...

Saturday, we headed to Auburn to see Auburn vs. Georgia. What started out as a beautiful day (glad we got the pictures early) turned into a cold, rainy day for a pathetic ballgame.
But did I mention that the Bulldogs beat Alabama last week???

Pictured here: Katie (Matt's cousin), Matt, me, Kerrie (Matt's cousin), Ann (Matt's sister), and Jon (Ann's FIANCE, congrats!!!)

Vacation at the Lake

We just returned from a week of vacationing in Alabama. We left last Monday morning at 3 AM (yes, you read that right 3 AM!) to head to Florence, AL to relax at Matt's parents' lakehouse. We figured we would be smart and just slip a sleeping Will right into his carseat and hit the road. HA! Will's eyes popped open and he stayed awake until 5:30 at which point he started yelling "MORE PANCAKES!!!!". So, of course, we stopped at McDonalds for some pancakes which sent Will drifting off to sleep....for an hour. Then he woke back up and stayed awake until the last 30 minutes. So, if you're keeping score, that's 1.5 hour of sleep for a 9.5 hour journey which started at 3 AM. He's a little trooper!
We had a great time at the lake. Matt's grandparents were there for the first night and we enjoyed visiting with them. The weather was nice. We were able to take the boat out a few times...the trees were gorgeous on the water. The nights were cool, and Will enjoyed warming his hands up by the fire.
Will had a great time. He kept saying "BOAT...RIDE...BEEP, BEEP!". He enjoyed riding in the boat and the "tractor" (aka lawn mower).