Tour De North Carolina...

My sister was not able to fly east this year so we decided we would finally make the trip as a family of four to North Carolina for Christmas. We've never been able to spend Christmas with all of our parents/grandparents so this was a fun first. Because of this we celebrated "Christmas Morning" early with our kiddos. As official parents playing Santa, Kevin and I spent hours putting together a dream kitchen for Avery and Grayson the night before we had our Christmas. Oh my goodness...not even a knob was on a door. Every single piece, nut, bolt, screw, handle, you name it had to be put together. We were definitely initiated into the 'put your kids Christmas present together the night before' task.

Grayson checking out the Christmas lights

The weekend before Christmas we packed up and headed off on our tour of family all over North Carolina. We stopped in Raleigh on our way down and spent the evening with my parents visiting Santa and having dinner. Then we drove the rest of the way to Winston Salem and spent a couple of days visiting between Kevin's dad and step-mom and his mom. On Christmas Eve we headed back to Raleigh to spend the day with my parents to wake up and have Christmas morning with them. Christmas afternoon we packed up again and headed for Lake Ewharrie to celebrate Christmas at Kevin's Aunt Anita's beautiful home with his dad, step-mom, cousins, their kids, and aunt and uncle. That night we settled back into Winston before taking off the next morning for our final stop in Lumberton with his moms family. We stayed there until Saturday before making the trek back to our home sweet home.

I was beyond impressed with Avery and Grayson and their ability to handle bouncing from place to place, living out of a bag, sleeping in pack n plays, and spending LOTS of time in the car. We successfully celebrated 5 Christmas' in a week, saw almost all of our family and managed to make lots of fun memories. However, we are beyond exhausted and think we might have to stay put next year and hope everyone can come to us!

On our way to NC we stopped off at my mom's mall to visit Santa and let him know what Avery and Grayson wished to have for Christmas. It went exactly as I had expected. However, in the line they kept waving at Santa and saying Ho Ho Ho. The moment I put them on his lap they freaked. The second I got them off they looked at him waved and said, "Bye Bye Santa". It was quite hilarious!

Christmas morning with my parents (Granddady and Nana)

Christmas night at Kevin's Aunt Anita's house in Lake Ewharrie, NC.

Avery loved Aunt Anita's nut cracker so much she kept giving him kisses

Christmas dinner in Lumberton, NC.

NC Barbecue with my Aunt Pat in Lexington, NC

Playing the piano with Nana Hatcher

They had SO much fun with Uncle Austin

Avery's new hobby is taking pictures and asking everyone to say, "sheeze".

While in Raleigh we fit a quick visit in with mommy's friend Courtney.

There were lots of naps in the car.

Christmas night in Lake Ewharrie, NC with our second cousins Edward and Lily.

Avery is slightly obsessed with her baby dolls and got a very special cradle from Nana Hatcher.

Grayson is such a boy and loves his trucks!

Our Christmas dinner at Gigi's house. She made Avery and Grayson their very own little table to sit at and enjoy their salad and dinner.

They loved spending quality time in Lumberton, NC with their Great Grandady Sutton.

They had a blast running around the Sutton farm.

They even got to play on and ride the tractor around the property.

This girl was mighty happy with all the eating we did throughout the week.

Love her little pig tales. She now asks for two bows so this is how we do it.

I got a little shooting practice in...

Grayson enjoyed inspecting all of the rocks and dirt.

We had such a great time and couldn't believe how quickly our visit to NC was over. We truly miss our family more than words and cannot wait to see everyone again soon.  This was the best Christmas Kevin and I have ever had seeing how much fun it is to play Santa and watch Christmas through Avery and Grayson's little eyes. I have a feeling next year will be even more exciting!

December so far...

We've been having a lot of fun so far this month. The weather has been so up and down. One day it's almost warm enough we don't need coats to play outside and the next day it's so cold we need coats, gloves, hats and we're still freezing. We started this month off by celebrating Kevin's birthday. Avery and Grayson drew all over their daddy's card. They also made him a handprint picture that turned out super cute. I love that they are old enough to participate in homemade crafts. Avery and Grayson got to have a sleep over at Aunt RoRo's house so Kevin and I could join a group of our friends in Baltimore at a comedy show. We had such a great time but could not get to our babies fast enough Sunday morning. We got there just in time to see the snow coming down. Now we're ready for a good, fluffy snow, so we can really play in it.

 

Here are pictures of this month so far...

 

My cuties in the backyard on one of those warmer days.

 

We went to Kinder Farm Park and got to see sheep, ducks, and a calf. We also got to see Santa and Mrs. Claus and go on a tractor ride.

Yeah, surprisingly Avery was the one who wasn't a big fan!

My little family on the tractor ride.

Checking out the snow in her "A Christmas Story" snowsuit! Haha :)

 

They even got to play a little 'ball ball" (football) with their cousins.

This was our Happy Birthday Daddy picture! It melts my heart to see all of these sweet photos of my amazing husband being such a great daddy.

We also got to start the advent calendar that Aunt Devin and Aunt Suz made Avery and Grayson. They LOVE getting the presents down. So much so they have tried helping themselves a couple of times. We are working on asking mommy if it's present time. Avery opened a new little baby on her first day and as you can see she was in love! Grayson opened a lion puppet!

We went to Reston to visit the Fisher's and go to the Christmas Tree Lighting at the Reston Town Center. They loved seeing the horses pulling Mr. and Mrs. Claus more than they enjoyed seeing Mr. and Mrs Claus.

Love's his Suz!

We also went and cut down our very first Christmas tree as a family. Avery and Grayson loved running around the tree farm. This was not the tree we chose...but it would have been perfect for A & G.

 

On one of those warm days we had ice cream in front of this pretty Christmas tree!

That would be an empty cone with sprinkles. Poor Kevin is lactose intolerant and can't have ice cream which is one of the reasons I think this is only the second time A & G have ever had ice cream.

 

 

 

I volunteered at the Ronald McDonald house and this is the photo Kevin sends me of what I was missing. I can't get both of them to look at the camera together let alone look and stick their tongue out.

Practicing coloring

Poor Ellie is tortured on a daily basis.

Gotta love Facetime with Aunt Devin! Yes, my daughter is climbing in her kitchen cabinet. Never, ever a dull moment these days.