Christmas Tree Farm Day

We have a family tradition every year to go out and cut our Christmas tree down the Saturday after Thanksgiving. We had a big breakfast of eggs, bacon, etc. to start us off on our 1 1/2 hour trek into the mountains. This year we went out with Mom up to Jefferson, North Carolina to Top of the Mountain tree farm and it is definitely on top of the mountain and has a great view of Blue Ridge Mountains. We found the perfect tree…it was the first one that Dustin spotted. When we got home we started decorating the house. We didn’t know how Abby and the puppies would do with the tree. Abby thought it was fun to turn the tree lights off and on with the floor clicker we have. That was nipped pretty quickly and overall they all did very well and learned quickly not to bother it. Abby also got to open her Christmas present (a kitchen) from Grandma early so she would be able to enjoy it longer. She loves it and loves to pull everything out of the cubbies and off it…she’s in a little bit of a destructive phase. Her favorite fake food were the hot dogs but unfortunately they were Gracie and Zoe’s favorite too and didn’t last very long :(.

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Jackson Lewis & Davis Michael at 22 weeks…

Yesterday I went for another 4 week check-up.  Everything looked good with both boys.  We got to see their noses and lips and all is forming nicely.  They both weigh 1lb. 1oz. each and are approximately 8” long.  They are definitely getting more active and Baby B feels like a pinball machine inside – he is the most active (thus why we don’t have a profile picture of him because he wouldn’t stay still).

We have also decided on names for the boys; Jackson Lewis and Davis Michael.  Lewis is Dustin’s middle name as well as his Dad’s middle name and Michael is my Dad’s name.  Jackson and Davis aren’t family names but Dustin and I really like them both.

Around the house

This weekend since the weather was nice we decided (well I decided and had to convince Dustin) to put the Christmas lights up on the house. The weather has been so back and forth and Dustin’s days off are few and far between so I thought it best to take advantage of the nice weather. Abby has been getting over a cold but we decided it would be good to have her play outside in the fresh air and get some Vitamin D from the sun. She LOVES to be outside but it’s still difficult since she isn’t walking yet. She thinks bark is the greatest thing yet and picked up a piece when she first got out and had the same piece in her hand when I went to put her down for a nap.

She also got to sit in Daddy’s go-cart and knew exactly how to put her hands on the wheel and turn it back and forth…I have a feeling it won’t be long before I see her zooming around in it in the front yard…oh joy!

Can you hear me now?

If you ever want to know if there is something in your life you’re too attached to just look at the 1 thing your kids want to play with the most. At a VERY young age Abby has always wanted to play with my blackberry so we tried to give her an older flip phone I had used…didn’t work. Then I gave her my old PDA…didn’t work. She only wanted my phone. Well now that she’s older she knows exactly what phones do and how they do it. She gets very excited when Daddy calls because he has a special ring and she knows it. She doesn't discriminate anymore and will play with any phone she can get her hands on. If anyone thinks that 1 year olds don’t listen or don’t understand…you are wrong!!! This video is classic and I’m fortunate we actually caught it.

Snoozing Puppies are the Best

Abby was down for her nap and I thought it was awfully quiet in the house which is a sign something is being chewed. So I made my rounds and saw that Gracie was asleep on the dog bed in the living room but I didn’t see Zoe. As soon as I got to our bedroom I found a warm little puppy had jumped on our bed and made herself comfortable…it was so sweet! Not minutes after Gracie wandered back and decided to join her. Usually the puppies have no interest in being on our bed unless we’re in it. We love them so much and can’t believe they’ll be celebrating their 1st birthday this Friday. (The last two pictures were of the 3 of them watching Baby Einstein…we’re thinking we need to get Abby a little cushy toddler chair instead of her having to sit on the hardwood floor).

Fall Festival

Every year our church has a fall festival in October and this year was the first year we went. We really had a great time despite the bit of rain we got in the morning. Mom made a cake for the cake walk and our TLC Group put together a “Game Night” basket for the raffle. All of the proceeds from both went to the Riffes who are missionaries in Germany.

They had bounce houses, bingo, horse rides, hay rides and a great lunch of burgers and chili was provided. Dustin was even able to go too which was nice. Abby went in her first bounce house and rode on a horse for the first time. She cried every time we took her off the horse when her turn was over. She kept petting the horses and jumping up and down in the saddle…too cute.

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RCR Halloween Carnival

The Childress Angels (female employees of RCR & RCR spouses group) had their 2nd Annual Halloween Carnival at Richard’s Farm in the Barn. It was a really great event and we were very happy with the turnout even though it rained.

Tina and I were in charge of the Cookie & Cupcake Decorating booth and it was a hit. What kid do you know though that doesn’t like being able to do anything to their cookie/cupcake – who doesn’t like sugar! Tina had made all the ghost and pumpkin cookies and Mom and I baked all the cupcakes. We had orange, green, white and chocolate frosting, Reese’s pieces, all color sugars, marshmallows, candy corn, twizzlers, and every fall/halloween sprinkle you could imagine. It was really interesting to see some of the creations kids came up with.

Abby was originally going to be a chicken but the suit was too short – as you can see from the picture she wasn’t too happy. So she ended up being the giraffe. It was so nice to be able to borrow the costumes from my friend Shelly so we didn’t have to spend money on a costume for her to wear only a few hours. We had shirts to wear which were bright orange and I do not look good in bright orange – who does though, I mean honestly! Being pregnant I felt like a huge pumpkin myself especially since I was wearing it over the shirt and tank top I already had on. What a lovely combination! We had a few family pictures taken but my camera died earlier in the night so they were taken on another camera – they will be posted soon though!

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