Can we decorate? Can we do it now?

Wednesday night Shane and I put on some Christmas music and decorated the house.  I found the nativity scene and a Christmas tree Gramma Betty had painted for me a long time ago.  It was really fun to find those again after having packed them away for so many years. The house really feels festive.

We did almost everything except decorate the tree trees.  We saved that for Thursday night with the girls.  Isabella was sooooo excited when she came in the house and saw all the decorations. She kept saying "Can we decorate?  Can we do it now?"  Last year Kennedy got a pink Christmas tree for her room so Shane made sure Isabella had one for her room; hers is purple.  We picked them up new stars for the top but they haven't put them on yet.

There were a few ornaments Belle wanted on her own tree instead of on the tree in the living room.  I love how she put them all on the bottom branches.

We got the girls two little angels when we were at the Biltmore over Thanksgiving and an ornament with each of their initials.  They put those on the tree the night we decorated.

Growing up, the star was always the last thing on the tree.  Putting the star on the tree was equal opportunity, both Kennedy and Belle took their turn at it.  It reminded me of blowing out birthday candles at our birthday parties where everyone got a chance (Mom and Dad would light the candles 6 times so we could each blow them out).  The pictures below don't show it but Shane was standing on a stool.  How he didn't fall off and break a leg or get a hernia while dead-lifting them from the ground while standing on the stool is a Christmas miracle!  The tree sure looks good!

I know, I know!  The dogs have those creepy eyes again.  I haven't figured out the camera flash with them.  But they are such good dogs and the girls love them.  Belle seems a little done posing for pictures.

A long time ago Mom had bought me a Christmas decoration with two dancing snowmen on it.  I love snowmen and last year I brought this over to Shane's house as a decoration.  Isabella fell in love with it last year and wanted it in her room. I unpacked it again this year and she clearly still loves it.

I can't even tell you how many times we have listened to Winter Wonderland from these dancing snowmen...but seeing her dance to it never gets old!

The Stockings Were Hung By the Chimney with Care...

In hopes that St Nicholas soon would be there!

This is our first Christmas together officially as a family and I'm so excited!  I can't believe how having kids has made every holiday so much more exciting.  Christmas has seemed especially more magical this year.  Shane thought our new family needed new stockings and he surprised us with these.  I love them!  And I love him for being so sweet.

Jungleland, Cargo Limos, and Santa

This weekend we went to Portland and stayed with Uncle Bob and Aunt Vicky.  The guys got up early Saturday morning and went to the Kershaw Knife Show.  While they were busy doing some manly shopping, Heidi, Debbie, and I took the kids to the Kids Club for Fun & Fitness in Vancouver.  The 4 kids played in Jungleland Ballocity for hours.  What is Jungleland Ballocity?  It is the NW's largest indoor 3-story jungleland with 6 slides, giant ball room, suspension bridge, rollertube, ball swings and roller squeezes! Check this place out:

This is the Ballocity area where kids on the 2nd and 3rd story can fire ball cannons at kids above and below.  How about this genius idea?  When kids run out of balls in their cannon, they have to run down to the 1st story, fill a bag of balls, and run back up to the 2nd or 3rd story to fire them.

I'm taking this picture through the netting.  Kennedy and Brady are firing the cannon.

Belle had fun in the big blocks.  She liked stacking them and trying to balance on them.

Jungleland Ballocity = tired kids!

That evening Uncle Bob and Aunt Vicky had arranged for a Cargo Van Limo to pick us up and drive us around Portland to look at Christmas lights. 

 First destination was Portland Raceway Winter Wonderland. 

We then drove up the river and saw a few boats in the water decorated festively, drove to downtown Portland and saw the Pioneer Square Christmas tree and great Macy's Christmas window decorations.

We stopped at Baskin Robbins for a late night treat and the limo driver took us home. It was a fun way to see the lights and have everyone ride together.

Sunday we drove home and quickly changed our clothes.  Shane's Uncle Ron and Aunt Mary had a Christmas party at their house where Santa made a visit.

Santa looks like he's lecturing Brady.  Maybe because he wore a green t-shirt with the Grinch on it! Ha-ha! Kennedy asked him for a million bucks.  Santa told her everyone asks for that but can't blame a girl for asking.

Can you hear the bells?  Only those who believe in the spirit of Christmas can.

And on a random side note...Don't you think this is one of the best looking Santa's helper you've ever seen?! The beard is real folks...he was a great Santa's helper if I do say so.

December Boathouse

Shane has been helping his friend, Ryan, build a boathouse on the weekends.  This past week they got it put into the water.  I don't know really anything about construction but I asked Shane to take pictures because it sounded amazing.  Building a house on land, lifting it up to put floaties on it, and then hoping it floats once its in the water...crazy.  Here are some the cool pictures:

Thanksgiving

We had a terrific time in NC with Kelsey, Kevin, and Reid!  We also got to spend Thanksgiving afternoon with Susan, Kevin's mom, which was really great since we hadn't seen her since the their wedding in May.  The food was amazin' and they were awesome hosts!  We had a weekend full of laughter, music, visiting, and great site seeing.  

The place settings were so fancy!  It was fun to eat in their new dining room that they just finished painting.  We so often eat on paper plates because it's easier and quicker clean-up.  As pathetic as this sounds, it was fun to eat on real plates!

Shane made his famous stinky potatoes.  Shane even packed the smoked paprika all the way from Washington to NC just to make these perfect! They were a delicious replica of the wedding day recipe. Kelsey has the only written recipe for them because she closely counted tbls and cups in EXACT measurements of everything.  She is my kind of cook.  Y-U-M!

Kevin hooked us up with new toothbrushes.  Here's Shane with his SpongeBob hookup:

The Biltmore was amazing!!!!!!!  38 Christmas trees in this place!  Shane and I had to take a self-portrait because that's the majority of all our pictures together and it's now tradition.  His arm is always outstretched because mine isn't long enough to get both of our faces in the picture.  You cannot see the Biltmore in this picture so we switched photographers and caught a few more with the Biltmore in the background.

Can you imagine waking up to this view out your back bedroom window?  It was beautiful with all the fall colors.

 Every last detail was just so much to absorb.  I personally was amazed by all the copper gutters, flags, rooflines.  Especially because the letter 'V' (for Vanderbilt) was stamped discreetly into the copper.

 This was the grand staircase from the outside.  Wow!

Just a little perspective: I was standing on the library porch taking a picture of Reid (who was taking a picture of the back of the mansion).  He looks so far away!!!!!!

We finished the night with good 'ol Southern BBQ and bluegrass.

Ziiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiipppppppppppppppppp!!!!!!!!!!!
Our last day there, we went to Navitat Canopy Adventures and zipped our way through the Appalachians. 

I was surprisingly shocked to not be that frightened of zipping through the woods at crazy heights.  In the picture below you can't even see the zipline except for a teeny speck of black between the clearing in the trees...yep, that's a "zipper." Can you believe it?




This picture below, however, was a different story. I was PETRIFIED about halfway across this bridge.  Maybe because the 3 boys in front of me found it funny to 'rock' the bridge and get it swaying back and forth.  Hmmm...inside I knew I was completely harnessed to the line above but somehow looking through those wood slats to the ravine below seemed to overrule my thoughts.

And what Thanksgiving would be complete without some Black Friday shopping?  Kelsey and I were disappointed to find that the Wig Center was closed that day.

Our last meal there (boo-hoo) was at the Top of the Hill.  It was fun to see a few landmark sites of the UNC campus while we were there, including the Old Well. 

Thanks to Kevin and Kelsey for a great trip!  And to Reid:  see you at Christmas in a few weeks!  Love you guys!