Happy Birthday Will!!

It's hard to believe that FOUR years ago, our wonderful little boy arrived. He's not so little anymore. This big FOUR year old keeps us busy (and laughing) all the time!

Happy Birthday Will!

Why, yes! We did celebrate Christmas!

It's time to get the blog caught up! We celebrated our little family Christmas here in NC right before we headed out of town to celebrate Christmas with all of our big family.

Will was very sweet to help his little brother open gifts.

Ooooooh! Andrew likes his new toy car!

Will received his annual gift-baseball cards (from his Daddy, of course!)
Don't let the smile fool you. When Will opened these soccer PJ pants, he said, "Clothes aren't a very good gift for me." (this was a gift from Mommy, of course!)
Matt got me some warm and toasty CLEVELAND boots! :)
We gave Matt a collage of his "Turkey Bowl Glory Days".

It was a sweet little Christmas and a special night before we hit the road!

Christmas in MS

After the boys got back from the Cowboys game, we headed to MS to celebrate.
We had a great night visiting at Pop and Nana's.
Andrew read a great book to Pop. He even let Pop push the buttons!
Back at Pop Pop and Nanni's house, Will and Matt were pretty excited about their Christmas loot!
My snuggly little buddy. Some people say we resemble...
Pop Pop was pretty proud to have all his grandboys together
Check out our new grills we got on the trip!
Whew! Nash says that Christmas is exhausting!

Christmas in AL

On to Alabama for more Christmas celebration! Santa found us there and brought Will a Hot Wheels Power Loop race track and Andrew some Duplos blocks. Just what they wanted!!
When it was time to open family presents, Will found out the harsh rule in the Cav family...the youngest opens gifts first. I'm not a big fan of that either, but that's just because my turn doesn't usually come until about 2 hours into the process. :) It's hard to be so old!
Will recovered and was pretty excited about his Star Wars shirt from Aunt Ann and Uncle Jon.
One of his favorite gifts was actually a gift belonging to Pops...the program from the Cowboys football game.
It's hard work being so cute!


Pops and Mimi found out they are getting another grandson! (From Ann and Jon, NOT US!) Yeah! What a great time we'll have with all these boys!

The first picture with the THREE grandboys!

Cav Christmas

We ended the Christmas festivities with the entire Cav clan.Bill and Marinel Cav with their great grands.
Will and Mary Raines had a table for two with a great view!
This family get together actually took place on Will's real birthday, so he thought everyone was there just for his "party"! Ann made a delicious Italian Creme cake (I'll take one too for my upcoming birthday, please) and we topped it with candles. This was Will's third birthday celebration, so don't feel too sorry for "the poor kid who has to share his birthday with Christmas"!

It's Tough Being the Queen

There are days when I'm reminded that I am definitely in the minority in my household. That's when I say, "It's tough being the Queen of this castle!". Three crazy boys can sometimes drive this queen crazy. But it's SO much fun and they crack me up every day. Recently, I've been trying to remember the funny things Will says like, "Hey Mom! Santa's other workshop is Home Depot!" (Marketing at its finest.)

Or how on a trip to Michaels' craft store, Will asked me if we were really going to Michael Jordan's.

While little girls often bring home drawings of flowers or pink hearts to their mommies, Will often he brings me pictures of pipes ("you know, Mommy, like the ones that take water away") from school. 

We made some special Christmas memories this year like when I topped our Christmas bush with a big beautiful bow and Will screamed with dismay, "No! We can't put a bow on there. People will think a bunch of GIRLS live here!". 

And on one leg of our Christmas trip, Will asked, "Mommy, what are sugar plums? Are they just circles that dance on top of your head?". We were quite puzzled until we remembered that we had read 'Twas the Night Before Christmas last week.

And finally, the other day Will asked me how I got holes in my ears for earrings. I briefly told him how and he said, "Whew! I'm glad I'm not a girl!"

Yeah, I'm glad he's not too.

A Special Message from Santa

Santa sent Will a special message! Oh, the power of the internet...

Click here to see it!

Busy Weekend!!

Last weekend was crazy busy, but so much fun! The boys had 3 different babysitters over the weekend, which is very unusual. Saturday morning, I hosted a Cookie Swap for some girls from church and we had so much fun!

The boys had a pretty awesome babysitter! This is Mr. Ed and he is like our adopted grandfather here. He came and picked up the boys, took them back to his house, and they had a GREAT time with with him!

Saturday night, Matt and I got all dolled up and went to his work Christmas party. We had so much fun eating great food and hanging out with friends.
It was a great weekend and we're so thankful we have such great friends to help us out with the boys!

Will's School Picture

Will is having a great year at school! Here are his school pictures that were taken a few weeks ago.

Will's 4th Birthday Party

Saturday, we had a little birthday party for Will. Since his birthday falls in the peak of holiday madness, we've always just gotten together with family. But he has gone to a bajillion birthday parties while here, so I told him he could have a "friend party" this year.

It was a race car themed party and it was a blast!

Blowing out the candles...
Wiping the spit off after blowing. Who wants cake??
Me and my almost 4-year-old little buddy. How did that happen?
Has anyone seen Andrew? Oh, there he is! And apparently he found some of the cake that was dropped on the floor. I'm telling you...this kid is a beast when food is around!
The one thing Will REALLY wanted was a Helmet Heroes race car driver helmet. He has been talking about it since he saw a commercial for it while visiting Mimi's. When I told Will that I didn't know what it was, he said, "You know, Mommy. It's NEW from Playskool!". I think he's been watching too much TV. 

Anyway, this is what we got him and he's been driving around the house like a maniac ever since!

Just Andrew Being Cute

He's Back!!

Petcher arrived last week and someone has been on his VERY best behavior ever since!

We Got a Tree!

We got our Christmas tree, or should we say Christmas "bush", last week. Will was super excited about picking it out. As we were decorating, Matt kept saying, "That tree is just FAT!". Will seemed offended and kept taking up for the poor tree saying it was just "per-feck". I'm not even going to post a picture of it decorated because we don't have enough lights or ornaments to fill that fat boy up and it looks pretty pathetic.

Vacation!

Matt had a week of vacation after Thanksgiving and my mom graciously offered to stay and keep the boys while we took a getaway, so we took her up on it.

We stayed at some friends' cabin in Todd, NC and had a wonderful time! The mountains were BEAUTIFUL and we even got a couple inches of snow while we were there!

We had a great time just being LAZY! We did a lot of reading, napping, and we even made s'mores one night.

Turkey Bowl 2008

Thanksgiving morning brought Matt's 3rd and final Turkey Bowl game. This game is played every Thanksgiving morning between the Duke and VA medical residents here with weekly practice beginning as early as September. (And you all thought he came up here to work hard and get excellent training! HA!) As with everything Matt does, this game is intense. As I am frantically running around the kitchen making last minute lunch preparations, Matt is writing down X's and O's (which apparently have something to do with football plays and not hugs and kisses for me). Matt was the quarterback again and though it was a hard fought game, it ended in another tie. So for the record, 2006-tie, 2007-Duke (Matt's team), 2008-tie. I guess Matt can be proud to leave with a victory.

The Team (even the Blue Devil made an appearance!)


Lu and my dad analyzing a potential hook and ladder play.
Oh, who am I kidding, they were trying to figure out how many steel beams it took to build that bridge across the way.

Future QB


Will had a primo seat

Andrew was just glad when we all got home and he could start EATING!

Thanksgiving 2008

Our Thanksgiving was great. We really enjoyed having all our family here for the holiday. I cooked all but the turkey and I really and truly enjoyed it. This is the 3rd year that I've cooked while family has come and I am learning more every year about how to coordinate and prepare all the food. It was a lot of fun.

Will and Andrew loved having everybody here. Pops helped Will make this cute turkey while visiting last month and before we could eat, Will insisted that we pray for everything on it.
(Actually, he had a major meltdown about it, but we'll just pretend that it was a beautiful Thanksgiving moment...)

Will, Andrew, and Nash had a blast together! It is so much fun to see the boys playing HARD! Then Lu and Katie bought an early Christmas present to each other, a Wii, and all the adults played hard! 

It was a long drive full of traffic for my dad, Lu, Katie, and Nash and later, a long day of flying for my mom, and I'm so glad they were all willing to make it to see us. 

I didn't take ANY pictures....left that up to others' cameras...so I'll have to come up with some later. I'm too behind in posting and need to move on! :)

All Things Are (Almost) Ready, Come to the Feast!!

Our house is buzzing with excitement over Thanksgiving! For all three years that we've been here, our family has come up to spend Thanksgiving with us. This year, my parents and my brother's family will be joining us and we can't wait for their arrival!

Tonight, Will helped me make pumpkin pie (Matt's favorite!). Will LOVES helping me cook and we had so much fun together. While the pie was baking, we snuggled up and watched "Charlie Brown's Thanksgiving".

Then we had a little sample of our work! Yummy!