Happy New Year!

The year ended the way it began - with a playdate!  As usual we headed over to Dan and Jen's for some NYE festivities with the neighborhood gang, so I had the kids over in the afternoon while they prepped. The result was roughly a 12 hour play date, starting at our house, and ending at theirs.  

The kids play so well together it's really no problem having the 4 of them together.  Roddie sometimes gets the short end of the stick, being the youngest and only boy, but he seems to be enjoying playing with Erin and Allie as much as Norah does these days!

Roddie (3), Erin (6), Norah (5), Allie (4)

Foto Finish Friday 2013 Week 50

MERRY CHRISTMAS 2013!

It's been a quiet Christmas here in the new house, as quiet as can be expected with two kids under 6 that is!  Turns out, "not quite 6" is a fantastic age at Christmas time!   Norah both fully believes in Santa and fully understands that he brings good stuff, and I really feel like we got to experience the magic of Christmas in her eyes.  Roddie enjoyed the festivities as well, of course, but I don't think he was nearly as excited as Norah was.  We went to "midnight" mass at 8:00 last night and it was all he could do to keep his eyes open until the end.  Norah was very literally flitting about, she was so excited.  It was her who stayed up "late" to hang the stockings and set up the snacks for Santa and the gang.

We had a nice mix of secular and religious Christmas excitement - they were pretty excited to see that the Baby Jesus had arrived in the manger at church when we got there, and - at Norah's suggestion - we sang "Happy Birthday" to Jesus before we began opening our gifts.  Mind you, once that was done, it was hard to slow her down as she tore her way through her gifts!  Roddie, as always, was a little more methodical, stopping to play with each gift before moving on to open the next - much to his sister's frustration.  

They slept in until their usual wake-up time of about 7 this morning and were content with a family Christmas snuggle in our room for about a half hour before Norah exclaimed, "We almost forgot to open presents!"  

Santa hit the nail on the head with Rainbow Looms and a faux "American Girl" doll for Norah.  Roddie was pretty pleased with his Imaginext town and keyboard. 

Ready to head to Mass

BFF's forever!

My handsome boy

My beautiful girl

My loves, my family

Family shot, Merry Christmas!

Laying out the goods for Santa

... hung by the chimney with care!

Our musician, playing a tune

Yeah, that's right, they are sharing!

Norah News: Finally, a Santa picture!!

 
All I want for Christmas is some new red tights...

If you're a regular reader of the blog, you may have wondered, over the years, why you've never seen a picture of my kids with Santa Claus.  Well, the reason is, they don't exist.  I have one of Norah just before her first Christmas, but attempts in subsequent years, despite the excitement in the lead in, resulted in tears.

As a result, I didn't even try the last couple of years.  However, this year, Norah was so in the the Elf on the Shelf that I thought she might be into it.  So on Friday, her last day of school for the year, and my last day of work for the year, the kids and I headed to the mall, to see Santa, among other things.  Both kids were very excited, but when push came to shove, Norah marched right up to the big guy with her requests (American Girl doll and Rainbow Loom) and Roddie hung on to my leg for dear life.

So, I passed on the professional photos, but managed to get this nice one of Norah chatting up Santa.

Foto Finish Friday 2013 Week 48

Foto Finish Friday 2013 Week 48

Foto Finsish Friday 2013 Week 48

Foto Finish Friday 2013 Week 47

DW2DT 2013: Day 148, the END!

I know, I know, I've been pretty lazy with updating the blog lately, but we've had a lot to do!  Moving in is one big one, cleaning as we go is another.  Then, on top of that, we're trying really hard to get back to normal living.  Also, Nanny and Papa came to visit us for a few days and we just got back from Thanksgiving in PA!

In fairness to Tim, I think the last day he did real work here was about a week ago, call it Day 141.  However, TODAY was the first day since July that he wasn't going to be here while we were at work.  It was a little strange, as I've kinda gotten used to having someone here during the day - picking up my Zulilly and Amazon packages and taking them inside before Matt notices them, signing for furniture deliveries, letting in the furnace guy and so on. 

We've got curtains or blinds on all but three windows now and at least some furniture in all but 2 rooms - some is on order and some is in the basement.  We still have more cleaning to do, but most of my clothes and the kids clothes, linens and coats are all in their proper (and oh-so-spacious!) closets.  I still can't believe this is our house most days, but bottom line is -

We're done!!!

PS Dad, I finally found that HDMI Cable :)