Merry Christmas!!

I haven't had time to do any blogging lately but I did want to post this adorable picture of Ellie I took the day after Christmas. We were getting ready to go for a walk and she was just being so cute!! I took the picture with my new camera I got - I love it!! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and are looking forward to the New Year!

Ian's test

Okay so we were all sitting around the campfire last night (Ian was in bed) when Brian mentions that as he was putting Ian to bed that night he accidentally discovered that Ian had placed a deer tooth (do you really want to know?!) under his pillow. Brian asked him about it and he said "I know it's you, dad!" Brian very coyly asked, whatever do you mean? Well, Ian was trying to trick the tooth fairy! So, what did Ian end up with under his pillow this morning? Acorns! Why on earth would a deer need money? Acorns are their chocolate - didn't you know?!
(The picture is from Sunday - he and Brian created it and took pictures - I just thought it showed off his new smile pretty well!)

Josh's Play

The Crucible. Not really something I would've thought of for teenagers to do but it's what his class was doing. I'm sure I read it in high school and I knew it had something to do with hanging witches but that's about all I knew. It turns out there's a kiss in the final act - I was so thankful Josh didn't get the role that was for! A lot more "dramatic" than when he did High School Musical back in the spring!! This class has been good for him - he's made some good friends here that was important for having just moved here. Jeri's mom, JJ, was able to take some pictures of them during their practice run-through on Saturday and she made cd's for everyone with all the pictures. There were 78 total that were on the cd but don't worry I'm not going to share them all!

Josh played Governon Danforth - kinda the "bad guy" in the play. It was funny because I was sitting with my friend Ashley and her daughter Kelsey and they both said Josh kinda scared them a little because they hadn't ever heard him yell before! Josh did a great job - all the kids did. With it being in an older English it was a little harder for them to learn their lines and a little harder to follow so you really had to pay attention!

As a side note - Jeri had quite a few of her friends come to the Saturday performance and when Josh finally walked on stage the whole row literally all smiled and looked at one another. Turns out Josh might have some groupies!! :)

Having their final performance was a little bittersweet for all of them but they are all hoping to see each other for the next class that starts in January.

The three musketeers.

An intense moment.

Ellie in her cute hat!

I had to take some pictures of Ellie in this cute little hat our friend, Eileen, made for her. I was having to bundle her up last week to

go on our walks in the morning - not like this morning where I was out walking in a tshirt and shorts!! Anyway, the pictures turned out pretty cute and I couldn't decide which one to share so I decided to post a few of them.

What a weekend!

Well, it was another busy (but good weekend). I'm going to give an overview in this post then post a couple of separate emails about the particulars. Friday night was Brian's class Christmas "Ball." They had kinda downed it to more of just a "Christmas dress" party but it's easier to just call it a ball. Anyway, I went and had my hair trimmed and put up to get ready for that evening. I was a little stressed because I had to take Ellie with me and I wasn't sure how she'd do but she did a great job - all things considered. We had a good time Friday night and Ellie was a good girl for Josh so we were very thankful that all went well on both ends. My neighbor, Ashley, had even been kind enough to come down and tell Josh that if he needed her not to hesitate to call her. I didn't take any pictures with my camera but some other people took pictures. As soon as I get one, I'll be sure to post it.
Saturday Brian, Ian, Ellie and I had a nice relaxing morning while Josh left to go have a full run-through of his play because they were having performances at 2pm on both Saturday and Sunday and hadn't actually done a full run-through, yet. Due to the content of the play, they asked that no one bring children under the age of 12 so we weren't able to take Ian and, as a result, ended up splitting up for us to both be able to go. I went Saturday and Brian went Sunday. I'm going to do a separate blog about the play!
Saturday evening we ended up having Josh's friend Jeri (who's in the play with him and also happens to be our neighbor at the end of our street) and her mom, JJ, over for dinner. After dinner we played Apples to Apples with them then Jeri stayed to watch Xmen 3 with us.
Sunday we ended up only going to church and not Sunday school because I really needed to go to the commissary and Josh needed to be at his thing at 1 and with the performance at 2 I didn't know when else I'd get a chance to go. So, I went to the commissary right after church and got home in time to have Brian help unload (thank goodness - I hate that part!) then he had to get ready to go. After he got home, we had just a little bit of time before I left to go to a ladies' dinner at my friend Ashley's church. It was very nice. Then, I got home just as the cast from the play was getting here to have a "bonfire" in our backyard. So, we spent the evening hanging out with them and getting to know them a little. It was nice but didn't really allow us time to do anything we needed to do so Brian's busy writing a paper right now for a final that's due tomorrow! Thankfully, he works well under pressure (and I'm so glad it's not me having to write a paper!)

The 4th day of Christmas

Ian lost a top tooth today. He looks so cute with his toothless grin. I meant to take a picture but time just got away from me this evening. Brian got home earlier today than he has in a while - around 4pm and we went walking. Ellie and I had already gone this morning but we aren't going to be able to tomorrow because our Kindermusik class got moved to Wednesday so I figured we'd make up for it by going again. The sun was already beginning to set so it definitely made it a little chillier! Ellie looks so cute all bundled up! After our walk, I started dinner and Brian graciously agreed to put the lights up outside for me. He did a great job and although it's not a lot of lights, at least it looks spirited!
Tonight I tried a new recipe for steak sandwhiches. Brian wasn't a big fan of them, but I thought they were pretty good. I'd made sweet potato french fries (baked) and salad. Ian took forever (again) tonight to eat. Brian and I both recall that we had this same issue with Josh at exactly this age so I guess it should come as no surprise but we had to set the timer for him which we don't typically have to do. He did finally eat what we told him he must eat but we didn't allow him to have any dessert.
After getting the kitchen clean and making lunches, I finally got more of the indoor stuff put up. I need to get a couple of finishing "touches" and then I think it'll be safe to say I'm done! Now still need to work on those cards! I did actually sit and stamp a couple of samples but haven't created "the one" yet.
Before Ian went to bed we did do our reading (I have a book of daily readings for the 25 days of Christmas), sung "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" and had our advent prayer so it was a good way to end the evening with him. I was up a little later than usual last night so I'm definitely ready to head that way now. Good night!

Ellie finally has her crib!

Well, I briefly mentioned it in the last post, but Ellie finally has her crib! What a nightmare it's been but we finally have it. The manufacturer has had not one but TWO fires in their facilities so it was taking longer than usual to get the product out. We ordered her crib in September!! We would have canceled it and ordered something else but we really liked the look of this crib and it's the same company that we got Ian's crib from so we knew we really liked the product and quality.


Brian picked the crib up on Saturday and he put it together (with my supervision :)) that evening. It's so nice to finally have her room come together so, of course, I had to get some pictures of it to share with all of you. She hasn't slept there during the night yet - we don't have a monitor yet and since her room is in another part of the house we're afraid we wouldn't hear her but I did put her in there today to nap. At first she seemed unsure about it but then settled in. When I went to check on her later she was looking like a true Lewis - she had rolled to her back and was sprawled out. She hasn't been able to do THAT in her bassinet! :) It was pretty cute. Without further ado - here are some pictures of her room!

The sign that says "Eliana" was made by my friend, Tina, and Ellie absolutely loves it! Any time she sees it she'll just smile really big - it's just TOO cute!!

Lots to Blog About

Yay - I finally have a chance to sit and blog for a little bit! The young kids are in bed, the lunches are made, the kitchen's clean, the laundry is folded that was dry with more in the machines so I have a few minutes. (The living room is a mess with Christmas decorations scattered around that need to have something done with them, but let's not talk about that! :))

We had a pretty good weekend. Friday night Josh went out with a friend to go to a school basketball game (his school was playing her school AT her school - apparently he had fun sitting on her side and cheering for His school!). So, while he was out we ordered pizza and watched our copy of the Jim Carey Grinch movie. I don't remember the last time I sat and did nothing else while I watched that movie but watch it - caught some things I hadn't before. It was a nice way to spend the evening.

Saturday Josh had his acting class and the rest of us were going to a church Christmas Festival. We went and had a free breakfast of pancakes and sausage and then Ian had fun playing on the outside toys with his friend Reed while Brian, Ellie and I went to check out what I thought was supposed to be a craft bazaar. Turns out it was an indoor yard sale so we were quickly finished and back to pick up Ian. The church did a great job with the festival and I had truly intended to go to everything with Ian but he didn't really seem interested so Brian didn't think we should "force him" to do things with us. Ah, well.

After the festival we went to an indoor "flea market" (permanent type) because I'd heard lots about it and had been wanting to go but hadn't made it. We had fun looking around and Ian didn't really complain too much. The hardest part was we carried Ellie through the whole thing - should have brought the backpack but didn't think of it. After that Brian dropped Ian, Ellie and I off at home so he could go pick up the CRIB!! Yep, after 3 months of waiting, the crib is finally here!! So, he went to get that and try to find a mattress for it.

That evening we had a tasty dinner of a new recipe I tried - I'm trying some lower calorie recipes in the hopes that we'll lose some weight we would like to lose. Anyway, it's made with ground turkey which I typically don't buy but the dish was essentially a mexican lasagna made with spiral macaroni instead of lasagna noodles. Brian and I really liked it but the boys weren't big fans - especially after Josh had a mouthful that had a little bit of jalapeno in it. We watched Unaccompanied Minors and it was an unexpected delight. I wasn't sure how it would be but it was a cute movie and the boys enjoyed it - lots of slapstick comedy that boys seem to enjoy.

Sunday we went to church then out for lunch then went to get our Christmas tree. Looking at the calendar of events coming up we decided it was the best time to do it. We were a little taken aback at the prices (we'd gotten spoiled in Virginia at the VFW because they hadn't raised their prices in 15 years!) but finally settled on a 10 foot douglas fir - we decided to take advantage of the fact that we had a place to put a tall tree! So, we did our traditional eggnog, Christmas music and working together to get it decorated. The only problem is, it took Brian a while to get the lights on (although I kept the boys doing other things while we waited) and Josh wanted to go with his friend to see another friend sing in his Christmas program at his church. So, we lost Josh before we put ornaments on and Ian lost interest at some point but Ellie helped! :) Part of the problem was I got the boys their own prelit trees for their rooms and they already had them decorated with their ornaments and all so they figured they were done. I'm glad I'm blogging about this because it just occured to me that I should get a picture of their trees this year, too.

Here's Brian starting to put the lights on.

Cool perspective from the balcony looking down at the tree. (Ian took this picture).

Brian and I with our traditional picture of putting on the first ornament together.

Brian and Ellie putting the angel on the top of the tree.

Ian amused himself for a while by taking pictures - this is a self portrait with the stockings! :)

I don't always like pictures of myself but I've really wanted a good one of me and Ellie and I thought this one turned out pretty cute.