merry merry

we had a very merry christmas

zaven was in the christmas pageant.
her and grace were mary and joseph. i did not have my camera, but hopefully someone will pass along some photos
he did a great job and sat quitly for the whole service.
nell, who usually wants to be held all the time. was cruising around the church and during the peace walked up and gave chris a hug.

here are the kids all dressed for church on christmas eve.

christmas morning nell and zaven were delighted to see the great doll house from milla and poppy that i put together on christmas eve, my fist assembly on christmas eve! zaven insisted that he and nell have matching pjs.

later we got dressed up again and headed to church christmas day.

we are all loving having grammy, papa and ella here.

it's beginning to look a lot like christmas

nell on the way to church today

zaven, his new hair cut. he went to the barber yesterday and got a "regular" haircut. then at church he fell down and got kicked in the face. we don't think the two were related!

nell smiled for me while i was trying to get zaven to cooperate for a picture.

we are baking cookies, wrapping presents and getting ready for christmas!

ho ho ho
le

tree trimming

last night we finally headed out to get a christmas tree.
home depot was sold out.
sweet berry farm wanted $48.50 for a "field cut" tree, and were closing in 2 minutes.
so we headed up the road to a lot i pass on the way to work.
they were about to close but the guy stuck around and let us pick a tree and chris had him load up some firewood.
we go a great tree, picked up some bbq, came home ate and decorated the tree. we had a great time.
nell walked the ornaments from the box to chris and zaven and chris hung the ornaments.

it was fun.

not sure what today holds. i have a lot of cleaning, grocery shopping and gift wrapping to do, we'll see.

chris has a wedding and we were invited to a party tonight.

ho ho ho!

top of the heap

nell has officially taken her place at the top of the heap!
we got off to a snowy start today. chris came and picked us up for church. by then the roads were cleared. several people made it for church, more than i thought would. i was in sunday school again. we chose costumes for the christmas pageant.
at this point nell is going to be an angel and zaven is going to be joseph with grace being mary. too cute

here is some photographic evidence of what a daddy's girl nell is. she is always so happy to see him. they love playing together and chris is great at getting her to sleep. they are a cute pair for sure

we have had a lot of snow over the last couple of days. zaven loves to suit up and go out side. he does a lot of rolling around. i have seen him make an x and then dig.
nell likes to sit at the sliding door and watch him and then he will throw snowballs at her.
it is fun to watch him enjoy the snow.

hard to believe that christmas is right around the corner.

le

bye bye milla

well we had a great time with milla visiting.
i think we sent her home pretty tired.

milla brought a cute new hat for nell, handmade / knit by bea! so cute.
nell loves it and wears it inside and out


on sunday we went to the marble house and saw santa. zaven had a good time, but got a little nervous.
nell was not having anything to do with the big guy.



nell is a very talented tower builder. here she is building a great inverted tower with cans from the pantry cabinet.


we are gearing up for christmas. online shopping is definitely a good thing!

check up

nell had her 1st year check up. she is doing great. she is in the 99% for height and 76% for weight.


we spent the weekend getting ready for advent. this year i think zaven actually gets the advent calendar, although the anticipation may kill him.


poppy bags! every morning i load up all three with lunch and off we go.

happy birthday to nell...ONE!

we got an early start today. and then had a nice time at church.
on to the grocery from there. made nell's cake while she napped. then made a turkey pot pie with some of the copious amount of turkey leftovers we have.
had cake opened presents and played.

all in all i think nell had a good day. zaven probably sang happy birthday to her 52 times. she loved each one. she had lots of nice phone calls, (thank you everyone!)
and even had a milestone, she walked outside for the first time.
she and zaven walked hand in hand from church to the car.


this was once we got home, but you get the idea.

yesterday we did some lounging around. i had an eye exam, we went to barnes and noble and then chris and i went out to dinner at some friends house. it was fun.


some other photos from the weekend.

gobble gobble

happy thanksgiving!
yesterday i was off work and enjoyed a day by myself. i ran around and did a lot of in and out of stores. even got some christmas shopping done. a nice day.
today, we got up and i made cornbread and cranberry relish. then we had a nice church service. the weather was nice, we all walked down.

when we got home i got the bird in the oven. then i proceeded to make the dressing (stuffing that is not stuffed), chopped the root vegetables (beets, carrots, parsnips, turnips, sweet potatoes) it all came together around 2:15, after making some gravy (my first time, turned out pretty well). we had a nice time sitting in the dining room. zaven had helped me set the table. he put some clementines in the big glass pear and gathered some leaves to go in there too.
after finishing our meal we took a break, got nell down for her afternoon nap and then we had some buttermilk pie.

zaven, while waiting for the food, decided to dress like superman and do some running around. you will note his superman underwear on over his pants "the way superman wears his"


nell wore her new bubble jumper from auntie carrie. it is so adorable.



here too is a picture of nell trying some broccoli the other night. she liked it!


i hope you all have a great thanksgiving. we are certainly grateful for the time to relax and reflect on the many blessings in our life!

time for football!

le

this week

was it really just last monday that was veterans day! chris stayed home with the kids and they had a good day.
the rest of the week was bit of a blur, chris worked every night doing one thing or another.

work continues to go well. i have been working at a really small desk in a shared office and it looks like the week after thanksgiving i will be moving to my real office with a real desk. I am so excited. it is not easy to manage 100+ job folders on a desk that can barely fit your phone computer and a cup of coffee. i am not exagerating the desk is crazy small. and those of you who have never worked with me, may not realize that i like to spread out a thin (and sometime thick) layer of stuff all over my desk is how i work best! anyway that will help.

the kids are doing great. i know we told you that nell was walking, but she does not crawl anymore. she walks everywhere and even ventures in to a bit of a run from time to time.
she is everywhere. she made her way to the dog food bowl...i don't think she swallowed any, but she samples Fredos kibbles. and even went back to try to get some more after she was found out!

zaven has been enjoying school and singing lots of new songs. they had a harvest feast on friday. i was able to go and it was fun. his class had made their own mashed potatoes and snapped the green beans.
friday night we stayed in. saturday the kids and i went to starbucks and the grocery store. that was not as successful as i had hoped. we ran out of time before i got everything, so i will go back today or maybe wednesday. which i am sure will be a mistake.

then we all ran around on some errands before i realized that zaven had a birthday party that he was supposed to go to and was supposed to wear "prince attire" so i whipped up a crown, a sword and a shield and we were off.
ariel from the little mermaid came to the party it was a big time.

then last night we had a dinner at the church, pot luck. i took the fennel, mushroom and parmesan salad, it went over well and i thought it was delicious. there was a lot of good food and was a good time.

we are off to church shortly.
here are a couple of pics from the week.




le

good but cold

friday i worked from home, had a good day, got the house cleaned up. friday night we had a new sitter come, the kids really liked her. chris and i went to a nice dinner party. saturday morning it was cold and zaven had his last soccer game. we were responsible for the snack. so zaven and i went out to bjs and picked up some things. then we went and watched the game. it was very cold and windy. zaven played a great game. after the game everyone got trophies. he was thrilled.
then we went for a celebratory lunch at ruby tuesday.
not sure how we spent the rest of the day...
today we got up and went to church.
there was a fellow who was visiting and he stood throughout chris' whole sermon. he was not disrupting anything so chris just ignored him.

then after i got nell down for her nap, zaven and i went over to a rocky beach at wetstone and found some really cool rocks.

zaven climbed a cool tree.


now we are home and hanging out, cooking dinner, watching football, that kind of thing.
tomorrow i have to work, but both kids' schools are closed so chris is staying home with them.

Zaven goes to church

Here is a quick picture I snapped of Zaven before church.
After a rainy and windy day yesterday with trees down and leaves flying we had a beautiful sunny day today. A bit cooler and the sun going down too early.
Church was good. A big crowd, a nice baptism. Did some running around this afternoon.

Doing laundry and getting ready for another week.
We have a bonfire party tomorrow night, something about Guy Fawkes....

Hope everyone had a good weekend.

A Pumpkin One Day, Frankenstein the Next.

Nell is growing up so much. She is really starting to show her personality.
She is pretty silly.
Here she is laying her head down on a pillow and making herself laugh.


She saw me get the camera out and came over and made a big mouth at me.


And, in bigger news...she is starting to walk. She takes several zombie steps before grabing someone or something or falling down. She looks a little like a Frankenstein.
But she is quite pleased with herself.

le

trick or treat

a visual recap

silly at soccer.
zaven had a good game last week.
he missed today because of prep for the party and chris having convention. it was rainy too so maybe the game was even cancelled.

dinner on wednesday night, eggs and bacon.

nell with her walking toy. she is still motoring all over the house.

we had plenty of sweets and treats at the party today. the kids filled their own goody bags with the candy corn and pumpkins. they also had halloween stickers and tatoos that aunt ella sent.

here is a sampling of some of the guests.
i did not get too many pictures of the party, with that many kids in the house it is a lot to deal with.

all in all i think the party was a success. the rain did not dampen our fun. the kids found hidden plastic bugs, spiders etc. ate lunch, carved two pumpkins, decorated cookies, played pin the face on the pumpkin and then ran around like mad men outside, during a non-raining period. the kids were cute. there were a lot of pirates! some super heroes, a skeleton, a vampire. even with 6 or more pirates, no two costumes were the same.

quick update

we are doing great.
everyone is happy.
nell is doing so great at daycare.
she even gets excited when i drop her off. she is alos happy to see me when i pick her up, so it seems like a good fit. yesterday they were telling me about how she pushes a little walker around and makes a car noise. this morning at drop off she showed me. she was very proud of herself and was great an manuevering around the other kids and toys. too cute! she will be walking before we know it.
she is still saying uh-oh a lot and she says "uh-oh...ooh-ooh"

zaven has had a fun week. we had grace and her mom and sister over for dinner tuesday night and then yesterday he had a playdate with bennett, so elizabeth picked him up from school at lunch time. when i was picking him up elizabeth commented on his great manners. i was very proud of him. he is such a sweet boy. he is learning so much at school and really absorbing it.

chris has been working non-stop. with nary a day off. this weekend is diocesean council!

i am trying to fathom how i am going to get ready for the halloween party that is happening at our house on saturday!
they are calling for rain. which is not good news for me. i do not want/need 16 4 year olds IN my house.

gotta work!
le

our trip to charleston

we had such a great trip.
here are some of the highlights.
we left on the 10th, my birthday!
travel went well, zaven was a good traveler and kept telling everyone it was my birthday. pretty funny.
we made it down without consequence, rented our car and headed to the webbs.
when we got there lexie had made a yummy dinner and a CAKE! i was so happy, i think everyone should have a birthday cake so i was happy that lexie made it happen for me! so thoughtful, especially considering she had a sinus infection.

so around 11 we got zaven to go to sleep. just a little after his regular bedtime!
the next morning we woke up and made waffles.
then we headed out to Folly and went to Pirate Cove, a new playground. It was great.



then we got lunch at taco boy and walked around to some shops.
that evening the plan was to get the kids to sleep and todd was going to baby sit. but that is not exactly how it went.
meg came over for a visit and kendall and kevin came and the boys got wound up and todd decided he wanted to play with the boys. so we got nell to sleep and left the boys awake. once we were downtown zaven called to say he and todd were going to stay up all night. the girls had a great time out to dinner. we came home to find that zaven and todd had fallen asleep head to head on the couch. so cute. (picture to follow)

friday morning the kids and i got up and went to get coffee and let lexie and todd sleep in a little bit. not surprisingly they are not used to getting up at 6:45. then we went downtown for charlie's 1st birthday party. we went to the market pavilion roof top restaurant, it was a beautiful day and an amazing view. charlie is adorable as usual and had two kinds of cake and then we all had some lunch.
meg was nice enough to lend me a dress for the rehearsal dinner, as i was not crazy about what i had packed.
after the party, the kids and i went over and met up with poppy and milla.
where we were all greeted with gifts.
brice and christie sent zaven some great pirate swords, that he and poppy quickly put to use.


nell loved her pizza set

and playing with poppy


then i took the kids to kendall's, and went to lexie's and showered and got dressed and went to the rehearsal dinner.
it was beatiful. it was un to hear all of the toasts and meet mike. carrie was so happy.

the kids did great with kendall, who was so nice to take care of them.

saturday morning we got up and hung out at kendall's until about 11 and then we met milla and poppy at woody's where zaven got to be a waiter (or waitress as he says) and help in the kitchen. he had a great time. so cute. the food was delicious! and the weather was amazing again! after that we went back to lexie's and carved a pumpkin with milla and poppy and roasted some pumpkin seeds. then is was time to get ready for the wedding.
again the kids went to kendall's, what a lifesaver she was! the wedding was beautiful. carrie looked gorgeous. after the wedding we were greeted by a band that led us to the reception. where we were wowed at every turn. the setting was incredible. the food unbelievable, and enchanted. carrie's vision for an "enchanted Parisian flea market" was realized with tons of beautiful flowers, chandeliers, candles and settees. words can not describe.

sunday morning the kids and i went downtown for a farewell brunch for carrie and mike. we got to see milla and poppy one more time. zaven loved getting to see carrie, and running all over the rooftop party. when looking at pictures of the party later zaven said "i love carrie", too cute!

sunday afternoon we met up with lexie and headed to the james island park with kendall kevine, stacey, jasper and julie.
stacey took all the boys on adventures and the girls stayed back and chatted, it was very fun.

monday, we did some shopping, had lunch and then went to the "ready set jump" indoor jumpy castle. and 30 foot inflatable slide place. it was so fun. the kids had a blast, as did the parents. we had the place to ourselves which was great.

i think it was sunday afternoon that we all fell asleep for a little nap.



monday night lexie made a delicious meatloaf for me and todd and she went to book club. i watched a little tv and fell asleep on the couch.

tuesday we had another fun filled day. we got a picnic and went back to pirate cove. it was hot so we headed over to the beach where zaven and nell were covered in sand and wet and we decided, hey we should go downtown to the market. so we did. we went to the pirate store and the candy store. so fun. then we got home just in time to get the kids dressed up as a pirate and princess and go to dinner at Chik-fil-a. Kendall, kevin and patricia met us there. It was a zoo! but the boys had a blast and nell looked so cute in her crown holding her scepter.

Wednesday, it was just packing and getting ready for the trip home. All went smoothly. It was an easy trip considering we got on the plane at 2:40 and got to Providence by 6pm. not bad!

We had a great time.
Wish I had more pics to show you all the fun things we did, but they are on lexie's camera.

le

catch up

okay, i know what you are thinking. now that laura has a job she won't be posting as often...well
i don't know what to tell you, you are probably right. but i will try to not go too long without updates.


last weekend zaven and i went up to the harvest fair at the bird sanctuary. we went on hayride, zaven got a cherry frozen lemonade and some kettle corn, it was fun.

sadly i had the camera set on something, well wrong, and these are really dark, but hopefully you can tell how much fun nell was having being tossd around by her daddy


nell really likes dogs, not just ours, but all dogs we see. here is a rare occasion when dante was wihin reach of nell while she was playing.


well after my first week back at work, there was a mountain of laundry to contend with on satruday morning, so zaven and nell turned one of the laundry baskets into a boat and had an anchor and paddle.

the first week went well. the schedule seems to be working out. i am sure that we will continue to work it all out.
zaven studied the letter F last week at school, had his first homework assignment and went on a field trip.

nell did great at her new daycare. she did not cry. but did not nap very well either.
tomorrow is a holiday and i am grateful for the extra weekend day.
then i am only working one day and then the kids and i head for charleston to visit and go to carrie's wedding.
we are so excited for our trip!
le

oh i almost forgot. nell is learning to say "uh -oh" it comes out as "uh-uh" but she likes to drop things and say it, or knock things out of your hands and say it. it is very cute.