OOPS!!!!!!!!!!

Well I just have to share this.
This is the aftermath......................


Rob did not find it as funny as I did. I mean I didn't take pictures until it fell for the second time.
He says it was our Griswald Christmas...................

I mean what else was I to do but laugh (yes I did lose some very nice ornaments and had to buy more....of course not as nice) but in the end the tree looked just as nice and yes we finally got it to stay upright................................

I guess I can share a few pictures of the finished tree (sans some very nice ornaments but filled with twinkling lights and colorful baubles)
See..............

Away for Christmas...................

No we are not going anywhere but everyone is comming here (well almost everyone) all the grandparents will be comming to celebrate Christmas (1st one in the new house) and we have lots to decorate, clean and make before the celebration begins.....................I'll be back after the holidays with brand new pictures.................

Hope you have a wonderful Christmas and talk soon...............................

We give Thanks........

It's been a while since I posted and I am long overdue for a Thanksgiving post.


As with years past we spent Thanksgiving in Florida (St Augustine to be exact) with the Sutton side of our little clan............and with all the extended "family", family because really after so many years (for the Sutton family) and even for the 10 years I have been part of this celebration, those "friends" are really family.


Of course we drove down on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving,it's a long drive but in the end it's worth it.

This is the scenery from our road trip (so many views I wanted to photograph but my camera can only capture so much)

We drove all day from morning.......

'till night.....

Hurry daddy, we're almost there......

When we got there we were welcomed by the entire clan (well almost............ the rest will come tommorow for the TURKEY day!)

We were put right to work finishing up desserts for the big day (with pumpkin of course), see my boys and Aunt Stephanie and Aunt Tina..........

We spent the rest of the weekend celebrating , talking, running and goofing off. We had a awsome time .

The men enjoyed "manly" activities like FRYING the turkey..........

And after that well the rest of us had a great dinner (of course the best part was the company)



I leave you with a few pictures (because a picture is worth a thousand words, and I've got tons of pictures). I made a slide show using http://www.smilebox.com/. It has a few ads (I am just trying it out)

Well needless to say we had a great time, great company and yummy food. It's always great to see everyone.......... and WE GIVE THANKS.


We stayed an extra day (we had some profesional pictures taken) then we went to see Escape to Africa at the IMAX. Awsome (need I say more)

Then of course it was time to say goodbye and head home




Yeah it was a LONNNNNNNGGGGG! drive home.
Hope you had a wonderful Thankgiving (we really did!)
Thanks!

Making things.............

Sorry I couldn't think of a snappier title and since this is just a tiny post before we start packing and heading out the door to celebrate Thanksgiving.

We decided to make a theme for Thanksgiving "We're NUTS about Thanksgiving" (saw it on another blog) and for this we made "nut" inspired stuff I printed out mazes and coloring pages with squirrels,nuts and of course Thanksgiving related too! and the cover of the booklet was of course "We're nuts about you this Thanksgiving"and we also made cookies..................


Yep you guessed it"NUTS" in this case acorns (again another blog inspired endevour).Wemade sugar cookies (shaped like acorns) dipped in chocolate and covered in nuts and we also made some with vanilla wafers and chocolate kisses.


Look at them getting along so well ....................and being great helpers.

Look at Robert, so concentrated. He is counting how many kisses he has and how many Patrick has.....making sure they both make the same amount.

Look at my proud "baker"

The boys loved helping me "bake"and I think our end product ended up pretty cute. I only took pictures of our second choice (well because they were WAY cuter........................)

Well gotta go,packing need to be finished . Check back soon.

We've got something new.....

Today is veterans day and the boys had the day off (I would like to say we did something patriotic but .......well we didn't) but I do have to say I am extremely grateful for all of those who have served and serve now and for those who did not return, my heart goes out to their families. We support our troops and we want them home....................

First thing in the morning the boys and I put together this really cool set of (cardboard boxes) bricks and they had fun building all sorts of stuff ,I only got a chance to take pictures of one of their creations before it was destroyed by enemy fire, haha (yeah it's old fashioned but they love it, and it doesn't plug in :)) WOW!

After that we had a very,very busy day.Robert had a Dr appt (nothing serious, just a dermatologist), the boys got haircuts (desperately needed them) then we went to get a mattress (I tell you more on why later), we ate out at McDonalds, went to get fixings for dinner............OY we got lots done

When we got home daddy was here (we were having out satellite TV installed) and our washing machine fixed (long story, we are not satisfied with the charges, the tech did nothing............)

But the most important thing we did was......................

putting together the boys BUNKBEDS!!!!!! They arrived today and we wasted no time in setting them up and testing them out too!

They loved their camo (or GI joe) comforters...............

Even daddy tested them out................

Good Night!

Thank you abuelito and abuelita for this fabulous addition to our new home. We love you !

That's all I have today. I hope you had a great day ......................

Thinking Christmas thoughts......

I know , I know it's way to early to be thinking Christmas but I can't help it.....it's in the stores, on TV , online.............
I figured I would go ahead and jump on the Christmas wagon as well.............check out my countdown calendar and start preparing...................

Later

DID YOU VOTE?

Robert had a 2 hr delay this morning (meaning his school started @ 10:45am instead of 8:45am) so me and the boys headed out to our polling station (in Raleigh, we haven't registered for our new address so we went to Raleigh to vote)

The weather was cold and rainy but we just jumped out and ran in....

The boys stood by me and made sure I filled out all the spots............Robert has been studying elections and politics at school so he was pretty interested.

Robert took this picture, they were sitting under me, waiting while I filled out my ballot.

This is what I could see while I voted.....to cuties smiling at me. Not a worry in the world afterwards they both got their I voted stickers and we all left proud of what "WE" did.

Me? Well all I can say is I VOTED! because I can, should and because I think it's important for the boys to know it's our right as AMERICANS!

I hope you voted because todaay....... we make history (no matter who you voted for)

Talk soon

Want some pumpkin pie?

I almost forgot to post I decided (in the middle of the caos that is the house, FULL of boxes) to make Pumpkin pie (I know crazy eh?)
See that picture (what? you didn't think I was making it from scratch,did you?) well that's my lineup to make pumpkin pie......

I must say it was the first time making pie , buy it was easy because I had a "little help".

My little mixer , see the concentration on his face?


Almost done mommy, lets put in in the oven

First pie in my NEW oven

Ooops I forgot to take a picture of the pie before my monsters gobbled it up (can you tell they liked it............)

Maybe next time I will make it from scratch, maybe?

Talk to you later

BOO!

It's Halloween.............ALREADY? Oy man !! Seems that with all the excitement of moving Halloween just snuck up on me and well I was finishing up costumes at the last minute.

I guess it's a good thing I have boys and their demands are not complicated.

Robert wanted to be a storm trooper (and we bought his, shame on me!!!) but Patrick wanted to be Indiana Jones (I thought the ones they sold (nylon tops and all) were UGLY so we put together his outfit............

Here is what my kitchen looked like at 10:00pm. Sewing machine in the background, since I had to re size Patrick's clothes (bought the shirt, pants and belt at Goodwill , all too big ) Trusty glue gun for the belt and satchel bag).

See, after about 1 hr it was all cut down to size 5 (from a 10) and adult belt cut down to tiny waist. See the whip (it's a "real one", we bought it at Party city).


Robert's costume was easy (this was one of his choices) and he was excited to wear it (and that's all that counts)
Here's we are getting ready to go Trick or treating (in the "Old" neighborhood" ) not enough neighbors at the new house yet. Yeah, I am wearing CAT ears again................

We had Pirates for hosts. This is Paul, our neighbor from the "old"house. He grew the beard just for Halloween, haha! He spent the night talking like a pirate and the boys thought that was hilarious.

Jen went all out this year and decorated almost the whole house (the walls are reddish and the lights were orange,it looked really creepy (in a good way)

Here is Mini Indy. He absolutely loved his costume and I do too.

Here's my little storm trooper. He loved his costume too!

Our little Halloween gang, ready to go trick or treating!

The first house we went to was (do you recognize it?) Our "old" house. Kinda strange, but they were very nice and we talked to them for awhile too


Off to the rest of the neighborhood. The kids RAN almost the whole way . In the process I"lost" my keys and had to go hunt them down after we were done, thank goodness I found them

We had awesome time, got to see our friends and came home with lots of candy.

Here's our loot (I apologize but I cannot get Patrick's picture to post correctly,maybe I will fix tommorow,ifnot just turn your head to the side....................)

Rob only got 1 trick or treater while we were gone. Maybe next year.......................

Moving, Unpacking, Moving ,Unpacking

My last post was right after we signed our papers, well between then and now as my title says we have been moving, unpacking and moving and unpacking....

We have had quite a busy week or so.....

First we started unpacking the pods right away (we is really Rob), he managed to unpack one of the smaller PODS the night we signed the papers (then we went to dinner, THANKS dad!)

All this is from the smallest pod (we want to try andhavethe movers take these upstairs)

The movers were due to come on friday so we both took the day off (of "office" work) because we DID work unpacking the some of the boxes we brought from the apartment, some of the ones from the pod. The boys were in school so it was a little easier without them underfoot.

At some point during the day while waiting for the movers Rob managed to "escape" and when he retured he brought home a 52"fla screen tv (OH YEAH!!)

No there are no stripes on the wall (it's just the picture angle and no blinds)

Well eventually the movers came and the house started to fill up with boxes (everywhere) see for yourself...
The kitchen is behind this wall of boxes and chairs

The boxes from downstairs (they're up in the loft now)

My craft room (wall to wall boxes and bins)

The best part (our bed is ready !!!!!)
That is pretty much all I have for the moving part and we did this all weekend (moving boxes around), unpacking some,moving furniture too!
Don't have pictures of all but I will soon

Come back I'll have something SPOOKY for you !