Happy 3rd Birthday Aidan

On the evening of Sunday, January 18th, our families gathered here at our home to celebrate Aidan's 3rd birthday.

The event was heavily Cars themed, starting with a wealth of Cars toys and apparel and culminating with a home-made Lightning McQueen cake. (I wish I had had a camera ready when he walked into the kitchen earlier and spied the cake on the counter. It was too cute.)

Of special interest was the present that Aidan surprised many of our family members in return with: A stomach bug. Yeah! This particular little pest took out Aidan later that evening, myself on Tuesday, and Uncle Jason, Cousins Nick and Brianna, Uncle Jeff, and Cousin Joey throughout the remainer of the week. Sorry y'all...

Happy Birthday, Boo Boo.

How to Abuse a Ford Ranger

In one very labor intensive step...

How We Spent Our Christmas Break

'Twas the night before Christmas, then the next thing I knew,
Christmas had passed, and New Years too.
The stockings still hung by the chimney with care,
with the presents now gone, their insides laid bare.

The children were nestled in their desks back at school,
All their new clothes making them just a bit more cool.
And Mamma on Facebook, and I back at my trade,
Were wishing, on vacation, we could have stayed.

When what to my wondering eyes did appear?

The fact that I haven’t blogged in almost a month!

Our break kicked off Friday the 19th by heading off to Longwood Gardens with some friends from church. Summer, Winter, Spring, or Fall, Longwood never fails to amaze. The lights. The fountains. The Venus Fly Traps(?). This time was no exception. One neat thing to note: Longwood had switched a great percentage of their lights to LED’s. Tell me they aren’t gonna be loving life when the electric bill comes in this year.

Christmas eve we had dinner at Nana and Pop-pop's. We spent a good portion of dinner discussing our family tree with Mom-mom T: Who immigrated from where and when. Very cool discussion. We really need to start jotting this stuff down for our future generations.

Christmas day we awoke and were able to have breakfast before unwrapping gifts. Soon after, the house was like Grand Central with family coming and going throughout the remainder of the morning and afternoon. That evening, we hosted Christmas dinner for Mommy’s side of the family. Mommy, as always, produced a stellar feast. And for having 13 people crammed in our kitchen, things went surprisingly well. Even Sadie was well behaved. If you can believe that.

The days following Christmas, Mommy and the girls built their first gingerbread house and Poppop and I spent a good deal of time working to finish the basement (more on that later).

New Years eve, with one of Alex's friends from school over to spend the night, we had planned on attending First Night in Wilmington. This despite the sub-freezing temps. Unfortunately, this unraveled as I was stricken with some mystery abdominal pain that had me doubled over for the better part of the evening.

Anyway, its back to school and work now. Now, if we could just get some snow to go along with this cold…brr...

Happy New Year...