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Wednesday, December 31, 2008

We are moving!

Yes, we are moving, AGAIN. Hopefully this will be the last one for a LONG TIME! We are only moving two houses down so it should not be near as bad as moving from Charleston!! The house fit our family perfectly and we are so excited about it. Rafe will continue to be spoiled by both grandparents. My parents one mile to the left, Cory's parents two miles to the right! How great is that??!! We are hoping to move by the end of January. So, please forgive me if my blogging is delayed for a while. We are still here, just knee deep in boxes!!


Funny Quote


Rafe - "Gram, can you put a new video in my DVD player?"

Gram - "Sure, but you will have to tell me how to do it."

Rafe - "Why don't you just be a Mommy and then you will know how to do everything."


I love it!


Ch-Ch-Ch-Chia!

Rafe got a Chia pet for Christmas. This is something he REALLY wanted! (only Rafe!!) Christmas day Cory and Rafe started the growing process. As you can see they carefully spread the seeds and placed them on Scooby Doo's head. Rafe is SUPER excited about cutting his hair and waiting on the hair to grow out is hard for him. I am just excited we actually have some hair growing. We must be doing something right!
One week later (courtesy of Rafe photography)



Sunday, December 28, 2008

A Night Out With The Singleton's

Tonight we went to one of our favorite restaurants, Side Street Pizza, with some of our favorite people, The Singleton's. Rafe absolutely loves Bill, Margaret and Maggie and by the looks of the gifts they always bring him, the feelings are pretty mutual. Tonight we exchanged Christmas gifts with them and their present completed Rafe's list. Christmas night as we were sitting in a PILE of presents in the den Rafe said, "Hey!! I didn't get my alarm clock from Santa!" (don't even ask me why he wanted an alarm clock to begin with!) Leave it to the Singleton's to get it for him. He was so excited. It even made getting in the bed a little easier tonight. Now he may sit in his bed and stare at it all night, but needless to say he is in there! Cory and I told Rafe what time he can get out of bed now. Who knows, maybe this alarm clock will work to our advantage!!

In addition to his wonderful alarm clock, Rafe also got a bag FULL of grow and grows. Yes, we are still doing this daily. We get out of the tub, clean it, and fill it back up with grow and grows every day. The snake Maggie got him a few months ago ended up being longer than the tub. This really excites Rafe and he was very eager to put his new collection in the tub tonight. Once these animals grow to a certain size Rafe insists on getting them out of the tub and carrying them around with him. This is really gross to me because they are wet and slimy. Just when I thought we were through growing for a while Santa and the Singleton's loaded him up again!!

I don't know what we would do without our friends, the Singleton's. They are always there when we need them. The good times and the bad. Thank you Bill, Margaret, and Maggie for being such a special part of our family. You are definitely my "other parents" and the sister I never had. I love you guys!



Thursday, December 25, 2008

Merry Christmas!



Words cannot begin to describe how magical Christmas was with Rafe this year. I cannot imagine it getting any better than this. Some of the special moments I want to always remember about this Christmas are:

  • waking up each morning "bright and early" to find our elf, Fle. Boy does he work wonders!
  • making our gingerbread house, gingerbread cookies for Santa, cinnamon ornaments, reindeer antlers and other fun Christmas crafts
  • finally getting up the nerve to talk to Santa and then not wanting to leave him because you were afraid you were going to forget to tell him something
  • writing list after list for Santa because you added to it every day
  • getting a handwritten letter from Santa and a special e-mail from him. You were so excited to see your picture in his book
  • going to look at lights each night. Your favorite place to visit was Tiffany Drive! I would hate to pay their power bill
  • taking a piece of your advent calendar off each morning and being so excited at how close we were getting to Christmas
  • your face on Christmas morning when you saw your long-awaited Incredible Hulk, leaf blower and Spike the dinosaur. We had to charge your leaf blower at least 10 times that day! Our house has never been so clean
  • fixing the reindeer food and leaving cookies for Santa. You were so careful to count out the exact number of carrots and filled Santa's cup up with "chocolate" milk as a special treat
  • the look in your face when you answered the phone on Christmas Eve and heard that it was Santa. What a wonderful phone call!
  • the fact that you did not forget the true meaning of Christmas. You talked a lot about it being the birthday of baby Jesus and we sang "Happy Birthday" to him
  • how fast you got ready for bed on Christmas Eve. You brushed your teeth SUPER fast and turned each page of our story before I could even finish reading it. You were ready for the night to end.
  • Buck woke you up on Christmas morning at 5:45. You came running out of your room screaming, "Has Santa come yet?", but Mommy and Daddy convinced you to go back to bed for a little while. Sorry!!

Thank you, Rafe, for a wonderful Christmas. I am already looking forward to next year!

Friday, December 19, 2008

Snowfest!





This morning Rafe and I went to the Pavilion to play at their Snowfest. It was wonderful! The kids can jump in their bounce house and play in the snow on their ice skating rink. This is really the first time Rafe has ever played in the snow. He had a ball. We had snowball fights and slid on our knees until our pants were soaking wet. The only problem with that was I had a change of clothes for Rafe, not me!! Since Rafe does not have much experience walking on ice he forgot how slippery it can be. He was trying to run after a snowball and landed right on his back. I think it scared him a little bit. That's one way to slow him down. After jumping and playing in the snow they gave the kids a cookie and juice. This was the icing on the cake for Rafe. Next time we go it will be with Daddy for a BIG snowball fight!

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Christmas Party

Today was Rafe's Christmas party at school. We had a great time. The children enjoyed their goodies, played a fun relay race game and then got the parents to dance with them. Rafe is definitely the class clown and the messiest eater. He had that green icing all over his face and wanted EVERYBODY to see it. He is just a little bit wild these days! The boys competed against the girls in the peppermint relay race and were extremely excited when they won. Before the party was over all of the parents and children danced around the room. It is so cute to see how the kids dance and interact with each other. As if the cupcake was not enough, Rafe came home with 3 treat bags FULL of candy. It was like he had been trick-or-treating again. That is just what we needed at our house.

What a fun day!






Is it really the week before Christmas?

Monday, December 15, 2008

Scented Ornaments

This morning Rafe and I made cinnamon ornaments. They were super easy to make and a lot of fun. Rafe loves to do anything he can put in hands into and get messy. He wanted his ornaments to be dinosaurs, but I did throw in a gingerbread man to keep with Christmas. Now we just have to wait for the ornaments to dry for a WEEK. This is torture for a 4 year old. Rafe and I were pleased when we returned home this afternoon from running errands. Our kitchen smelled like cinnamon. I will enjoy smelling that wonderful smell all week!




Fun Weekend!

Saturday evening we headed to downtown Greenville for some dinner and shopping. Downtown really gets you in the holiday spirit. We visited the Holiday Village where they had snow falling down and Rafe and Cory rode the carousel. We even bumped into Santa Claus! Rafe was most excited about the huge nutcracker outside of the gigantic toy store!





Sunday night we went with Gram and Pop to Roper Mountain for the holiday lights. They had changed it a lot since we had been two years ago. You are now able to get out of your car and visit the Winter Wonderland. We had our picture made in Santa's sleigh, roasted marshmallows, and ate smores. Everyone was frustrated with me because I agreed to stand in line for Rafe to get a balloon from the elf. The line was REALLY long, but Rafe was determined to get one (after multiple bribes to leave). Anyway, after 45 minutes of waiting he finally got his reindeer antlers. The elf told us the balloons would last for 3 weeks, but he doesn't know my child! Rafe had the nose popped in the car on the way home! UGGHHH! After waiting half the day for the balloon Rafe forgot all about the real reason we were there - to see the lights. We even let him sit in the front seat with Daddy and Pop, but he was not interested in the least. He played will all of the gadgets in the car, tried to wrestle Pop and played in the glove compartment. Needless to say, if we go back this year I will be taking him by myself!!










Sunday, December 14, 2008

Future Teacher???

After his basketball game yesterday, Rafe wanted to bring the puppies into his room at Pop and Gram's house. I had no idea what he had in mind to do with them. When I walked in he had both of the puppies under the covers in his old bed. He said, "I loved this bed and I know the puppies will, too." Well they did! It was so cold outside and they were both cozy on his pillow. Next Rafe got out some books and started reading to them. The funniest thing was they really seemed to be listening to Rafe read. He even took the little girls paw and made her count objects on each page of the story. He would say, "Good job, girl. I knew you could do it!" By about the fifth or sixth story the boy was getting a little bored with this. This made me think of my former days as a teacher!!

Watching Rafe reminded me of when I was his age and used to play "school" with my baby dolls. I guess I never thought puppies would make such good students. Who knows, we might just have another teacher in the making!



Saturday, December 13, 2008

Rafe's First Basketball Game

Today was Rafe's first church basketball game and it was quite comical. Rafe's team consists of mostly first time players and today they played what seemed like the Chicago Bulls. However, Rafe played the ENTIRE game and had a great time. This is such a change from where he was at the beginning of the soccer season. I was a little worried about two things going in to the game. I did not know what to expect when we walked into a gym full of screaming fans. And, I did not know how he would react to Daddy not being there (unfortunately Cory had to work today) He did not even seem to notice. He walked right in, grabbed his jersey and did exactly what his coaches told him to do. Rafe was quite funny during the game. He dribbled the ball to the wrong goal, ran while dribbling and then tripped and slid, and even got into a wrestling match with his own teammate, Riley. Rafe's only disappointment was that there was no tunnel to run through like his soccer games! He did get his snack, though.

Rafe, I am so proud of you for going out there and playing. I can't wait until next week!


Pregame warm-ups

Double trouble!

Where is the tunnel?

Friday, December 12, 2008

Fun Night of Bowling

Last night Cory, Rafe and I went bowling. This is one of Rafe's all time favorite things to do. We were so surprised at how crowded it was on a Thursday night. Luckily we were placed on the last bowling alley. Rafe had a ball and at one point was even beating me. How sad is that? I don't know what excited him more, the actual bowling or the cool music they play. Unfortunately I was not able to get a picture of Rafe "breaking it down". I was scolded by the manager for using flash photography while people were league bowling. OOPS!



Rafe insisted on taking our picture!


Homemade Antlers


Rafe and I made reindeer antlers while I was cooking supper the other night. Rafe was so proud of them and wanted to take our picture. We took our own picture and it actually turned out! However, Rafe was not satisfied with just us having the antlers. We had to make some for Buck, Daddy, Pop and Gram. I know they were thrilled! It was a fun project, though!