So Far Behind!!!

Long time, no post. I know. I'm not alone though. I've tried to catch up with my other friends who "blog" and I think we've all been so busy with the holidays, it's too overwhelming to keep up. That being said, we had some great highlights this December. We started out with a surprise trip for Jeff''s 30th. He knew he was coming home and going somewhere. The Stauffer's have a house they like to rent in Montreat, NC (GORGEOUS place). It is twenty minutes from Asheville. We surprised him at a special lunch there. His brothers (Chuck, Tom), us wives and kids were all there. We then went on to spend the weekend in the Montreat house. It was so much fun. Margaret surprised Jeff with a "boys' trip" of fly-fishing with a guide for the day, and a candlelight tour of the Biltmore for us adults, minus her. She volunteered to stay home and babysit the THREE kids (not an easy task, given the ages!). We really enjoyed that and would highly recommend this...it wasn't one bit crowded and was nice to see the house at night. At the height of our recession, it was ironic to see such a miraculous home, vacation home at that.

Christmas was so much fun this year. The girls are each other's best playmates, for better and more often than not, for worse. But they loved the spirit of church, family time and fellowship, and of course, opening gifts. All of it was new and exciting for them. Do you all have the Elf on the Shelf? I would highly recommend this neatly devised Elf. He saved us from some bad, bad behavior. I wish we had Kip year-round. Even MS still talks about him. We need an Easter, Halloween, etc Elf.

We finished the year with our second annual trip to (same Montreat home mentioned above) the mountains with our dear friends, Jennifer and Derek. They have two kids similar in ages to ours. It was a great time. I would highly recommend a mountain trip for New Year's. It is a way to relax with friends without the hassle of babysitters. Well worth it all!!

So, Happy New Year to all of you. I hope for health, happiness, and prosperity in these trying times. Hopefully I'll be better about our blog in the New Year. I love reading all of yours!! Cheers to 2009!

Ballet Recital

On December 14th, Mary Stuart and Molly had their ballet recital at Theatre Charlotte, a landmark theatre in Myers Park. It is small and quaint and a great place for a Christmas performance.
First up was Molly. She had us all in smiles and stiches. She was a little shy on stage. That being contradicting, as Molly is far from shy. She usually enjoys the center of attention. However, she is the youngest, and actually under the "age limit" in her class. But she LOVES going to class and has a great time.
Molly did not MOVE her feet on stage. She completely froze. We waited for her feet to move..nope. It was hilarious.
Here is a picture, not so great as we were mid-row, much too far back for my pocket digital to flash strong enough!

Molly is the last one to the left.

Next up was Mary Stuart. As we all predicted, she did just what she should have done.
Again, a picture, too dark:

MS is the second from the left.

It's hard to put into words how special this is. They just are so angelic, innocent, and pure up there on stage, alone left to "perform". It captures the girls so perfectly. We all enjoyed that day so much. Well, Molly may dispute that one day....

Thanksgiving Fun

Stuffed, is what we are! Let's just say the END of Thanksgiving was spent at Lexington Barbeque.
We went to Martha and Harrison's around 11:00 am on Thursday. We enjoyed Bloody Mary's and snacks. Then we had the most wonderful Tuscan Soup. Oh, and the girls indulged in their favorite, Martha's Carrot Cake


See, that's Mary Stuart, eyeing the Carrot Cake, for the umpteeenth time.

Then, we went on to Granny Charlotte's house. This is Tom's Great-Aunt, who is very close to the family. We spent the night there and had lots of fun. Mary Stuart helped set the table, take dessert orders, and played a lot. Molly entertained everyone. With her lack of nap, she was full of energy due to the loads of sugar she had consumed.
We had a wonderful day. This is one of our favorite pasttimes.
Oh, and now we are upon Christmas. Merry, Merry!
To quote MS's very special blessing, that you may use one day,
"Thank you God, for the food you provide,
for friends and family, and you by my side,
Amen."
Hope you all enjoyed your special day!!

NC State Letdown

The letdown of the season!!!!! Mary Stuart had been planning a special visit to Raleigh with Mommy to visit our best friends, Jaime and Peyton. We arrived last night with a cold, which quickly progressed to a fever, which landed us at the local Urgent Care at 8am. She's fine, but has croup (which has been a constant each year). This included a loss of appetite, fever, and lethargy. Last year, same time, same place, Mary Stuart brought with her the stomach flu.
So, at 9am we hit the road to go back home to Charlotte. No cheerleader uniform, no pre-game festivities, no tailgate food, no getting to know "Mr and Ms Wolf". Oh, well. There will be next year. Let's just hope we won't harbor more illness the next time we visit.

Halloween

The holidays, as I can see it, are about to be really fun. For the first time, I was so excited for both of the kids...they "got" Halloween this year. Feeling that emotion, you just can't help getting giddy inside, remembering how fun your past holidays were. I can only imagine how fun Thanksgiving and Christmas will be. Speaking of Thanksgiving, I was riding in the car taking us all to school last week. Mary Stuart and I were having a conversation about the holidays. I asked her what we did at Thanksgiving, wondering if she had any clue, and she said, "We eat carrot cake at Martha's". For those of you who don't know, our dear family friends, Martha and Harrison, live in Greensboro and they are first in our Thanksgiving eat-a-thon. The culmination of that soup lunch is Martha's wonderful carrot cake, which has made it's debut on one of the morning shows and in a cookbook. How in the world Mary Stuart remembers things, I don't know, but that would be a memory to keep!

Back to Halloween, we started the week with a Halloween playdate at Shayle's. Shayle is hiding her child development degree from me! I got there, and she had huge pumpkin, ghost, and bat (?) cutouts from butcher paper for the kids to color, pumkin paper plates with stickers for each child, homemade sugar cookies....on and on. The kids had a lot of fun.

Halloween night, we went back to Jennifer and Derek's for a second year in a row. Two other couple's, Jenn and Mike, and Karmin and Travis, were also there for the festivities. The girls had such a wonderful time. We stayed up late and had lots of fun. And we all are still eating the tons of candy. Molly says, "I like chocolate" every time I bring the treat bags down. That's new! Oh, and she uses the spanish version of chocolate, like Dora: "choc-o-latte"

FINALLY, Sunday night, Jennifer and Derek rented a bouncy house, just for fun, and we were back over there for football and fun. Shew!

Needless to say, we are blessed with friends! We have had lots of fun so far this fall. Oh, and we have new neighbors with two boys almost identical in age. They live directly across the street, and the kids are having so much fun with them. Life goes on! We will have lots of holiday pics to post, I'm sure. We hope you all have lots to be thankful for....

Hudgins, Pumpkins, and Ballet

We had a busy weekend. Tom's cousin, Sarah, and her husband, Robbie, had a wedding to attend in Charlotte. They stayed with us and gave us a wonderful opportunity to meet their 6-month-old, Hudgins. The girls LOVED the visit. Mary Stuart enjoyed being a mommy to Hudgins, and Molly enjoyed being a girlfriend to Robbie. She even had him serenading her with the guitar. Oh, and he tuned it. L-O-V-E.




Next up was our annual Pumpkin Patch visit. It was a little stressful as both girls wanted EVERY pumpkin they had to offer. Thank god they didn't see the Dora painted one. We cut our visit short with two mean temper tantrums. But the pictures are good!!!





Last, we had our observation day at ballet. Since both girls have ballet at the same time, I had to run in and out as time and temperaments allowed. I must say, Mary Stuart was a treat to watch. She knew there was an "audience" and really did her best. I was so proud of her. Especially since she can already dance better than her mommy and has more balance than I do.
Molly...oh, Molly. I signed her up early (they should be 2 and a half, Molly was just two, and most of the girls are three in her particular class). She is having a ball, loves going, but has such a limited attention span. I am just happy she's happy, but wonder what other moms think when they see this:



Yep, that's Molly...waaaayyy over there. I must say, she usually follows directions, but by the end of the session, she's done.

Here are these pics:

Great Times!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Trying, yet funny, times.

I have no pictures yet, but I did want to post about the "emotional" side of the weekend.
We went to Davidson for the Fall Festival...Of course, my camera lost it's charge, so I borrowed my mother-in-law's camera. So we will post pictures from that as soom as possible
I have previously posted "out of the mouths of babes" comments before. We had a doozie tonight. This is no slight to either daughter...Molly just isn't as verbal. So when Mary Stuart has funny things to say, and she has plenty, some are post-worthy.
Tonight, she was playing with an old loveseat from my great-great-aunt. It just got recovered and I tried to explain to Mary Stuart to NOT play on it.
Our conversation,
Me: Mary Stuart, please do not play with this chair. It has been in my family for a long time and it's really special to me. I need you to take care of it for me. See the new fabric??? It's so nice. Let's look after it, okay?

MS, eyes squarely on me: "I am going to break it"

Hmmm, what do you say to that...

I enlisted Tom's help at this point. She went to her room, Tom scolded her, and then she called Tom a "big elephant". When I heard this, I was in stiches with laughter, hiding it, of course. Tom told MS I was crying, so I went to my room, let it all out(laughter), and by the time I returned, Mary Stuart was so upset with the thought of ME crying, she cried. I began crying, and she said, "Mommy, don't put your tears on my pajamas or they will be dirty."
Okay.
Oh, me. What are we in for with our girls???
On the fun side, Mary Stuart and Molly really are playing well together. Mary Stuart includes Molly in all aspects of her pretend play. I love watching them play together. Cooperative play is something you see in three-year-olds, but Mary Stuart has definitely brought it out in Molly at an early age. It is remarkable to watch. Mary Stuart works really hard on being a great big sister. She is my second-hand most days, and Molly loves it.
Well, that's our latest. I will post actual pictures soon!