Wednesday, December 31, 2008

A Wales Christmas

We celebrated the beginning of the Christmas season the day after Thanksgiving, with everyone there. We set up the tree, put on some beloved decorations that us girls made as kids, and then sat around as dad read "Stubby Pringle's Christmas". It's a story about an old cowhand who was on his way to the dance to win a girl when he gets sidetracked by a woman chopping wood for her family because her husband is terribly sick. He stops to help her and throughout that night ends up giving up all he had brought to give this little family a Christmas. Yeah, I know, doesn't sound like a story you would read to 3 little girls. We thought the same when dad read it the first time years ago, but each year it got better and is now a treasured story in all our hearts. Thanks dad, for making these wonderful memories for us.

Amy, Jackson, and Becky. We all had a "On the naughty list" shirt.
Matt, my dad, and my Grandma Handy, and in the far back is Kyle, my brother-in-law.
What's Christmas without cookies. So my mom, queen of cookies, leads the way, only this time with her grandchildren helping instead of her girls, who just happened to be there watching and taking care of any extra dough.
Ooops, I forgot to turn the picture. But no pan of Wales cookies would be complete without at least 1 casaulty. Apparently, mutilating gingerbread and snowmen are all part of the fun. Christopher had named them his clone troopers, all lined up. Who can help themselves, to see if he would notice... so bad.
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Thanksgiving with the Wales


Ok, so not the best picture ever, but it is just a glimpse of Thanksgiving dinner with my side of the family. It was such a fun week. For the first time in probably 3 years, my whole family was together, both sisters, a husband and a nephew, and as a bonus was my grandma down from Massachusetts. We had a wonderful time together.
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November 1st:Peanut Butter Balls

The holiday season is officially begun at the Lucas house. Grandma Doris' peanut butter balls begin it all. I have made these for years from a secret recipe given out by Grandma Doris and sworn to secrecy. It is just one of the many things that make the holidays so much fun.

The boys have been a huge help over the last couple years. It used to take me 2-3 days to make 4-500 peanut butter balls and sometimes I had to do it over 2 weekends, but now we can pretty much get it done in a day. Go BOYS!!!!

They alternate as to who scoops and who rolls, then we all work on the chocolate. We listen to Christmas music, snitch a few tastes, and just enjoy being a part of the Lucas family tradition.
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Classical Conversations

The boys have been in a co-op this year called Classical Conversations. It has been great. They have so enjoyed it, and it has pushed them a little acadmically. For Halloween, they were allowed to dress up in a "not scary" costume and do their presentation for the day on their costume/theme.

This is Sammy's class. He dressed up as a WWII soldier and did his presentation on that war. I wish I could get the video up, but I haven't gotten that far. The presentations they do have to be a minimum of 2 minutes on a topic of their choice to present to their class. It is to encourage forming good speaking habits in front of groups. At first they were both opposed to being in front of others to speak, and Sammy was in tears, but now they both get up with no problem, and do just great.
This is Christopher's class. He was a man headed out west back in the day. He actually had a missing arm (tied in his shirt, very big hit with the kids), and did his presentation on medicine during that time period and expounding on how he had lost his arm and lived to tell about it. (He shot himself when he went to grab his gun, and his buddy had to saw it off to save him from gangrene. Nice, I know. But we live in boy world. :) )
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Halloween, Yes I Know....

The boys wanted to be clones for Halloween, so we got them each a costume. One was Commander Rex and the other was Commander Cody, I think...
The only problem was that since my boys are so tall, the size 10 costumes that should have fit fine, were just a little too short. (No, there were no bigger sizes, that was the biggest.) Oh, by about 3-4 inches, but did they care? Not a bit! They were just having too much fun.


















Ready for duty, sir.






















As you can see, there is one posted at the mailbox, and one at the door by the candy. Ready and waiting for ANY trick or treater to come. They were so excited, they just couldn't stand it. They were posted about an hour before things really got going and couldn't understand why no one was coming yet. When someone came down the other side to our neighbors' house, they yelled to them "they're not home, but we have candy!" Finally, after much duress, the kids finally started coming. The boys were thrilled. See, we usually take them to a festival to play and get candy, but since they are getting so big, we decided to do a more traditional halloween, pass out candy and then take them to a couple houses. I was amazed at how much they came home with only going to about 10 houses on our street. Yikes! Now I can see why kids get so overloaded on sugar.... However, it was a lot of fun.
The boys were so generous, and commented on each kids outfit, and were very sweet with the little ones. One little girl said " Thank you sir." to Christopher. He just thought that was great. To be a "sir" at 9.
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A Few More Pictures

It was later in the day, so we got some fun ones using the light and shading.
Boys, boys, boys.... I expect a little trouble later. Hmmm.... I'm thinking very tall fences. :)
No, the apple does not fall far from the tree. It really is NOT my fault.
What more can you say.... I love these boys.
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Family Picture Time

It only took us 4 years, I think, but here they are...FAMILY PICTURES!!!!
No applause necessary, except for the photographer. Who had to deal with a great amount of silliness to get the great pictures she did.
(Thanks, Lindsay...you did great!)

Once a tiger, always a tiger....our blood runneth orange. GO TIGERS!!!!
See??? We actually can behave ourselves for a nice picture. Aren't those boys handsome?
What would TRUE LOVE be without the TROUBLE? (Certainly not our family...)
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Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Pirates Ahoy!

One thing I love about my boys is their amazing imagination. I love how ordinary things become the extraordinary. It takes them to places they would otherwise never see or experience. So welcome to the West Indies where pirates sail the open sea.
So you see, when you only have 2 children, sometimes they need someone else to play the bad guy so they can be on the same team. This was their solution, "mean guy with a sword". There was another one on Sammy's side of the pole as well.

As the imagination grows, so does the ship. Their were eventually blankets and pillows and a mass of other stuff by the end of the day.















Clean-up you say??? Yes it is always a little challenging to get them to clean up everything they got out, but that is a battle I am willing to fight so my boys have wonderful memories of being a pirate or whatever they come up with when they grow up. Happy Imaginings!
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Friday, December 12, 2008

To the House Hounds....

WE HAVE CABINETS!!!!!!
I hope you all know the sacrifice I made to get these pictures. I left my sick kids to drive out in the rain, to tromp through the mud with my lantern to get these pictures. (yes, I really used a lantern) Aren't they awesome?!!!
This view is from where the table will be looking into the kitchen area. This wall goes to the cieling. They are actually distressed, but that is a little hard to see in the pictures.
The window will be over the sink.
The island is also distressed, but again, hard to capture. We will have black granite on the surround cabinets, and a more exotic piece on the island. The hardware will be a mix of 1/2 moon oiled bronze on the drawers and probably something like glass knobs on the doors. Still deciding on that. I am open to any creative handles. We are looking for character.
This is to the left of the kitchen. This is where the fridge will go and the pantry cabinet is right next to that. I'll continue to post as I get the pictures. Things are moving now.Posted by Picasa

Friday, December 5, 2008

The Beach in October

What a way to spend a beautiful October day, just lounging on the beach. We were blessed by an invitation from the Gibson girls to go with them to their parents new house. It was great. The weather was good and so was the company.


















Christopher couldn't be happier. Though the water was chilly to say the least, this was where he spent the day.
Then there is Sammy, who is a builder by nature, and the beach, a huge sandbox waiting to be constructed into something. Yes, a large bird sniper nest. How can you go wrong. Don't be fooled though, he spent his fair share in the icy water as well.
The beach is the perfect place for an army base. They were re-enacting the WWII beach invasions. Not one in particular, but that was their inspiration.
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Thursday, December 4, 2008

Something to be thankful for

Anyone remember this? This was on our way home from the beach this October. I liked their sense of humor. These guys were lucky they only lost their arm and leg. I think we were up to our 2nd and 3rd born as well here in Charlotte. So hug those babies, we get to keep them a little while longer.
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Tuesday, December 2, 2008

House Update

Siding, Siding, and more Siding
And for those who didn't realize until now just how many windows will be in my new house, yes, I will be living in a glass house, and loving it!




Things are really starting to change now, so I will be putting more pictures up soon. So keep an eye out.
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The Apple Orchard

Sometimes you never know just what you will find in the trees, but today, it was apples. This past October (yes, I know I am behind..), we went on a field trip with our co-op. They taught you all about the apple process of planting, harvesting, and juicing for cider. It was very educational. The boys each got a bag of apples to take home, but picking off the tree was extra. So of course, when in Rome..., so we paid extra and picked some right off the tree. The boys loved it.


















The apples on the bottom didn't quite meet with Sammy's standards, so he searched high and higher for the best ones he could find.
The Gibsons are also in our co-op, so they picked with us. I think this picture sums it all up. Push harder boys, those girls want to go faster. The way things ought to be.
You could not have asked for a prettier day. And what better way to spend it than in God's great creation with my boys. (By the way, the apple muffins we got at the little store were the best I have ever had. Definitely worth the mention. :) )
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