Why I Love Living in NC in the Winter

Taken in the backyard on January 13!!

Debut

Just after Christmas Katey had her first-ever piano recital!  It was a special day and we were glad to have lots of family in town to witness and enjoy Katey's performance.  She was a little nervous but she put on a splendid performance for us! Katey played:  Sunrise, Skip to My Lou, Turkey in the Straw, Angels We Have Heard on High (a duet with Alison, her teacher) and Jingle Bells.

 

Katey with her teacher, Mrs. Alison

Katey's first recital!!

We were also treated to the musical talents of Aunt Christy and Aunt Joanna, playing a beautiful duet! We hope Katey was inspired by their performance and sees what diligence in practicing can produce!

Christmas

Our family enjoyed a wonderful Christmas and New Year with family and friends.  This chica was rather lax with camera usage so there aren't many pictures after Christmas (and thank you to Brandon and Annie for taking most of those!). 

The quick overview is:  we celebrated Mike's sister, Joanna's 18th birthday together (partly by making pizza and throwing crust in the air to stretch it!);  we opened lots and lots and lots of wonderful gifts; ate lots and lots and lots of wonderful Christmas cookies and candy; laughed while playing games and watching movies; enjoyed seeing our kids play with Nate and hearing him boss the dog around; passed around some colds; played laser tag; went to Katey's first piano recital (more on that in another post); took a quick trip to Morganton to visit with the Molendorps for a couple of hours; rang in the New Year with Mom, Becca and Kevin.

And, here are some pictures to prove it all (well, some of it, anyway) happened.

  (No, Nate isn't hurting Seth - that is just our ham-ball, hamming it up for the camera!)

Out-takes

40 pictures.  That is what it took to get a nice picture of my kids together and a nice one of each of them separately.  Have I mentioned that they are 8 and 10?!?! 

I did finally get some keepers, but thought I would share a few of the ones that didn't make the cut...

Just for the record...

Each year our kids are visited by a Christmas elf.  No, I'm not talking about the little Elf-on-a-Shelf, but an elf that comes and delivers surprise presents under the little tree upstairs.  Last year and this year, they even got a letter from STAR the after-Christmas elf!

The kids are completely convinced that this elf is not real, but is actually one of our Averill family members (Katey says she has it narrowed down to Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Jo or Aunt Christy).  And, for the last couple of years they have set traps in the playroom in a ploy to catch "the culprit". 

Because they are so very adamant about STAR not being real, that got me to wondering what else they deem to be real or not real.  Last night I asked them:

If STAR isn't real, is Santa?
K:  YES!
S:  Yeah.

How about the Easter Bunny?
K:  I don't know...maybe
S:  Probably

The tooth fairy? 
K:  YES!  I know for a fact that the tooth fairy is real!
S:  No...Katey, remember, Daddy told us.

The Grinch who Stole Christmas?
S:  I don't know
K:  No...Dr. Suess made him up

I love it!! 

Alabama!

As mentioned in my previous post, we took a little road trip to visit Mike's sister, Christy, in Louisiana Alabama a few weeks ago.  (After Christy moved there I could never remember if she lived in AL or LA!  No worries Christy, I have it straight now that we visited.)

Christy and her roommate, Stephanie, were wonderful hostesses and we had a great time hanging out at their apartment and going on our many adventures.  

We got to tour Beeson Divinity School where Christy is attending.  What a beautiful campus!  The kids had fun climbing trees and collecting nuts (where we found the infamous "Nutty" the acorn).

Then it was off to the botanical gardens to smell the roses, touch cacti plants, explore nature, enjoy time with Aunt Christy, hang out in some bamboo and, of course, collect more acorns!

Finally, our day ended with a tour of Hogwarts at the zoo!  We got to ride the Hogwarts Express from Platform 9 3/4, tried Butterbeer, which tasted oddly like warm rainbow sherbert..., got sorted into houses by the sorting hat, made wands, had faces painted and played on roller racers (which have nothing what-so-ever to do with Harry Potter but were awesome fun!).

Our weekend adventure ended with visiting Christy's church and getting to meet more of her friends.  It was such a blessing to get a glimpse into the life of our sister and to hear the words of praise her friends had to speak about Christy.  She is one incredible, giving, passionate and loving young woman!!  We love you, AC!!

Simplicity

We spent last weekend with Mike's sister, Christy, in Birmingham.  While I plan to do an entire post on all the fun things we did there, right now I want to focus on Seth and his wonderful ability to find fun in the simple.

For many years now Seth has snubbed most toys (unless they are the Wii or the DS) but preferred to entertain himself with things like stuffed animals, his hands or, in the latest case, an acorn.  We love that he uses his imagination to give life to inanimate objects.

Ever heard of Pee-lo and Pie-lo?  Didn't think so.  Seth made them up...and they are his hands.  Pee-lo is the right, Pie-lo is the left.  From age 3-5 or so they acted like spiders, they climbed up head mountains, they crawled across floors and tables, and they got blamed for things.  If a glass of milk was spilled and Seth was scolded the response would undoubtedly be, "It wasn't me, it was Pee-lo and Pie-lo".  Mike and I spent countless minutes and hours trying to pound in the fact calmly explain that if Pee-lo and Pie-lo did it then SETH did it.  Have I ever mentioned that Seth is a little on the stubborn side?  Wonder where he got that from?!


While Pee-lo and Pie-lo have been in hiding for a couple of years, they seem to have made a recent come-back.  It is fun to relive old times and watch our kids do the same!

So, the acorn.  While visiting Christy we spent a lot of time outside walking around.  The kids collected many acorns but none so special as "Nutty".  Seth found Nutty on Saturday morning and spent the rest of the day, as well as all day on Sunday, playing various games with his new-found friend.  He spun Nutty around in a frisbee, rolled him along the floor, fished him out from under the couch more times than we can count, made up stories about Nutty, carried him in his pocket and gathered more acorns just so that Nutty would have friends.  And, after we got home, Seth drew a face on the beloved acorn!

I absolutely adore the little kid that still exists in our almost 8 year old!!  I know it won't be much longer before imagination games are pushed aside and the seriousness of "big kid stuff" takes over.  *sigh*  For now we are thoroughly enjoying Seth's simple creativity and nuttiness!