NYC December 2018

After just having gotten back from an adventure in NYC (more on that soon), I thought it was finally time to post photos of my last NYC adventure, from December 2018. I had to go to New York for work, and was able to take my sister with me! We arrived in the afternoon, got checked in and changed, and then walked through Rockefeller Center before dinner. I love the chance to see the holiday decorations!

We then found a really yummy sushi restaurant nearby (and quite inexpensive, particularly for the area!), and headed over to the show we'd bought tickets for.

I finally got to see the Rockefeller Center Rockette's Christmas Spectacular! And wow, was it amazing.

Love the building, love the art deco decor. There was something beautiful to look at everywhere!

 Our seats were over here very close to stage right. Our tickets were inexpensive because we did have a partially obstructed view (we couldn't see the full side of stage right, but that was ok), and I liked being so close to the stage.

Don't we look pretty all dolled up!

The next day I had some client visits, and then we went back out to walk around more. We got to see Rockefeller Center during the day!

 

I love this view so much!

 

And of course no trip to NYC is complete without walking through Times Square at night, even when it's crazy cold out!

What an awesome couple of days we had - so nice to get to do this together with Carrie!

Proud to be their mom

I had a lovely Mother's Day this year, but that's not really what this post is about. It was wonderful to have the breakfast I wanted, enjoy a relaxing massage and facial, go see a movie as a family, and gorge on Thai food for dinner.

But during the down time I had last night, I had some time to reflect on being a mom to these two kiddos, and I realized there were a few things that I wanted to write down before I forgot. Things that make me really proud to be their mom. They have really grown a lot in the past year, with big life changes thrown at them with moving, and I'm really impressed at their maturity lately.

1. Traveling to Australia. We asked a lot of them on that trip: over 24 hours of travel each way, pretty constantly go-go-go doing things for two weeks, exploring new places, trying new foods...and they were with us the whole way. They barely complained at all on the crazy long flights, they understood when we had delays, and even when we got soaking wet in rain, shivering outside and then on an air conditioned boat, they went along with it. They understood that it was all a part of this incredible trip, and we all got through it.

2. School. The kids are really rocking it at their new school. For the first time ever, Natalie earned straight As for two marking periods in a row (both of them at her new school), and Henry earned all top marks too (all 3s out of a scale of 1-3). We're all really enjoying their new school, and it particularly makes me happy to see how much confidence they both have, especially Natalie who has definitely struggled in the past.


3. Dance. Leaving dance was the hardest thing for Natalie with our move, but she's found a good home at Charlottesville Ballet Academy. We really like the atmosphere there, and she's made friends over the past few months. She earned a spot in Cinderella over about 30 other dancers, and was given responsibility to lead her group, after only dancing there for a couple of months! The teachers could see her dedication and great personality, and have put that to use. Then, just this week, we learned that she made it into the CBA Pre-professional program, which is an elite program in the school designed to train those who want some sort of a career in dance. I'm so proud of the work she has put in, and so happy for the additional self-confidence boost it has given her.

And I don't want to leave Henry out of dance, either! We put him into a tap/jazz class where frankly the tap was more advanced than the level he's at. He struggled a bit towards the beginning, but stuck with it, even practicing his harder moves at home, and he went from wanting to quit after the recital to wanting to dance again next school year! Really proud of him for sticking it out.

4. Maturity. I know this whole post is about their maturity, but in general they've gotten to the point where we feel comfortable leaving them home alone for short periods of time. It's not good to put too much of this out on the internet for anyone to see, but I'll say that they've done quite well and have proven themselves to be very responsible. 

So this year, in particular, I find myself incredibly proud to be their mom. I can't wait to see what the next year brings.

Holidays 2018

A quick overview of our 2018 holiday season... which frankly was a bit of blur, after having just moved! We moved into our house the week before Thanksgiving, so we were definitely in no shape to host. Luckily, Carrie and Chip wanted to host (since it was their first holiday since getting married!), and now it's an easy drive for us to get to their house - not even two hours away! This made for a really easy day trip there on Thanksgiving.

We had a lovely holiday with my parents, aunt, and Carrie & Chip. Henry was particularly delighted to spend some time in Chip's music room. Chip really enjoyed that too, and the kids and he had a great time jamming out. Henry and Natalie made up a song, and once Chip heard Henry playing "Feel it Still", they all played and sang together!

For Christmas, we wanted to host since it would be our first Christmas in our new house. Luckily, everyone agreed, so we had a full house - my parents, Evan's parents, my aunt, and on Christmas Eve Carrie and Chip. So nice to celebrate with so many!

We had to figure out how to put up the Christmas lights at the new house - turns out we don't have nearly enough, and will have to get more next year! But I think Evan and Natalie did a nice job.

We had the house all decorated inside as well - and while we've needed a new tree for a couple of years, our vaulted ceiling living room really reinforced that. Time to get a taller tree! Also, next year this will all look a bit cozier now that we have things on the walls.

The kids woke up Christmas morning to their new body pillows and stockings ready to be opened on the couch! I loved that for one more year, their matching pjs from Scott & Amanda still fit.

I think everyone really liked their presents - I loved my "big" gift from Evan. Friends Funko Pop set #2! Specialty characters. I think I'm going to need the original set now as well. But I do love these hanging out on the shelf behind me as I work!

Oh, and just after Christmas I finished my latest cross stitch project - Angels of Rockefeller Center. I have an idea for seasonal cross stitches in our foyer, so this one will be framed and ready to go for Christmas next year.

Halloween 2018

We finally broke away from princesses and Star Wars for Halloween last year! Natalie got it in her head a couple of months earlier that she wanted to dress as a "dark fairy" - I had no idea how to do that, but a quick search on Amazon showed me that indeed there are "dark fairy" costumes for kids! I stress that "for kids" part as some of the costumes were definitely not age appropriate.

After reading the first 4 books, Henry was excited to go as Harry Potter - that's quite the easy costume to find!

The fun part about these costumes was that I got to do some makeup on them both. Henry's was simple obviously - we used his existing scar but turned it into a lightening bolt. I had fun playing around with face makeup for Natalie; ultimately we settled on a spiderweb-inspired design that we were both really happy with.

Natalie still likes for her and I to do costumes together, so last minute I pulled together a costume for myself using all items I already had - she was a dark fairy, so I was a light fairy!

 

We were out trick or treating for quite a while, venturing further through the neighborhood than we'd done previously. As we walked around, we ran into a group of 5th grade girls trick or treating together and joined up with them for a bit. It was great that Natalie got to do this with some friends for the last time in Leesburg!

July 4th parade 2018

For the first time in YEARS, we were in Leesburg on July 4th this year. Having just returned from London on July 1, there was no way we were traveling again so soon! Also, with my parents having moved from the Outer Banks 3 years ago (can't believe it's been that long!), we don't have a place to stay there unless we rent a beach house, and that wasn't in the cards this year. We do have our house reserved for July 4 next year, though!

Since we were in town, we thought we'd join the Loudoun School of Ballet in the July 4th parade. We hadn't seen the parade at all in years (seriously, of the 15 years we've been married, we've spent at least 12 of those at the beach), and what's more fun than watching a parade? Being in it, of course!

The kids could wear whatever they wanted; most were in some shades of red, white, and blue. Natalie opted to wear this great skirt she had from a jazz costume from a couple of years ago, while Henry wore his costume from the June recitals. Evan and I rocked our red, white, and blue.

In case you couldn't tell from the photos above (taken in the staging area), it was HOT. Like, ridiculously hot. We kept the kids in the shade as much as possible in the staging area, and made sure to have lots of water with us. When it was finally our turn to join in the parade, the kids were SO excited!

I took a couple of photos while walking (my favorite was this one above), and then grabbed this one of our entire group when we stopped at the end.

Otherwise, we were too busy hurrying along for me to really take photos. A friend who was there watching the parade got this one of us walking that I really liked, so I wanted to share it here too!

Mother's Day 2018

I had a very nice Mother's Day this year, starting with a lovely surprise on the Friday before. I was working at home, and had a delivery man stop by with an Edible Arrangement sent to me by my company! What a wonderful surprise; completely unexpected.

I had to unwrap it quickly and get it in the fridge so the fruit didn't get all gross...and, well, I had to see if Lucy might enjoy some with me. Turns out, she likes strawberries!

Then, on Mother's Day, I got to open my gifts from the kids. A book trilogy I wanted, and my favorite jelly beans from Wegmans! There was something in that bag too...but damned if I can remember at this point what it was. I know I liked it though!

But one of the greatest things I received was this form that Henry filled out at school. I teared up.
I do make good toast :)

Christmas 2017

This was, by far, the craziest Christmas we've ever had! We hosted Evan's whole family, as well as some of our extended Australian family. That's right - the 4 of us, plus both of Evan's brothers, their families, Evan's parents, and my sister-in-law Claire's parents, brother, and girlfriend from Australia! Quite the crew...and man did we have fun.

Evan's brothers, my sisters-in-law, and their kids all stayed in the house with us. Evan's parents were at a hotel, and Claire's family were actually in DC, as they spent a few days there doing the tourist thing. Everyone got to us by Christmas Eve, where we had a lovely dinner cooked by Claire's family as a thank you for hosting us all. We then prepped for Christmas Eve like always, getting ready for Santa!

Santa brought a pretty good haul this year, especially with 5 kids here!

My sister in law Amanda got matching jammies for all of the kids, so we took some Christmas Eve photos in front of the tree. 

 

And of course it isn't Christmas Eve without Evan reading "Twas the Night Before Christmas"

The kids had a blast opening all of their gifts on Christmas Eve, from so many people (including Santa). Henry was very excited to finish out his Harry Potter series (he's on book 4!), and Natalie and her cousin Charlotte both got American Girl dolls.

 

Here are the kids showing off their new fuzzy sleep socks that were in their stockings.

And Santa brought them each a nerf gun too.

Evan made me get in front of the camera for a couple of photos. Even with the giant bag of wrapping paper next to us, we're pretty cute I think.

Santa brought Natalie a combo case and bluetooth keyboard for her iPad, so of course that had to be tested out. You can also see the kids wearing their new watches that count their steps, and Henry with his new Tsum Tsum Storm Trooper.

Evan and I cooked Christmas night dinner - ham and shrimp (only shrimp for me!), with potatoes, vegetables, and bread. Very tasty!

Now a few family photos...

 

And we had fun with Facebook's Christmas photo filters.

Finally, with that many people there, we had to get a family photo. I set up my tripod and put the camera on a timer, then dashed in at the last second. Honestly, this was our first photo, and I think we did pretty darn well!

It was a crazy few days, and definitely more people than I am used to having around, but it was a ton of fun, and I'm so glad we were all able to be together.