Wreaths and candles.

It was fun to have a whole new space to decorate for Christmas. I've wanted to decorate with wreaths and candles in the windows for a long time and our new house seemed perfect for it. We didn't get around to any outdoor lights this year but the wreaths added a lot and the candles looked pretty at night.

I should have used my real camera for these shots (especially the night shot). Maybe next year. Notice the middle wreath didn't last long. The wreaths were really easy to hang by dropping out the windows from the inside. But the middle window doesn't open so Ben had to hang it from the outside on a ladder that was a bit too short and it was hard to get the wreath secured properly.

Crowder District Park

We checked out a park near our home after school one day (Crowder District Park). There was a fun playground and a few smaller playgrounds along a walk around a small lake. We have less than an hour of daylight after school right now which I really dislike. But we had some really mild temperatures in December (even some 70 degree days) which was great.

first day of school. north carolina edition.

The girls were pretty nervous for their first day at their new school (I think I was just as nervous as they were). I was so relieved to find them smiling when I picked them up and giving me positive reviews of their new classes. Both girls have made friends and seem to be doing well. And as a huge bonus, Amelia's homework load has greatly decreased. Wahoo! We eventually got them added to the bus route and their bus stop is our driveway. Super convenient. They are happy to not be wearing uniforms anymore but I miss them. The school system around here is crazy and the other kids on our street all go to different schools. It's complicated. We found out after we moved here that we have the option of switching to a year round school next year. Which is actually kind of tempting. The year round schedule, not the switching schools part.

Playing in the leaves after school. We had just finished raking at our old house before we moved and then had a whole new yard to rake when we arrived. Some leaves still hadn't fallen in the beginning of December. (And we still haven't finished raking.)

Sometimes the kids walk across the street after school to watch the horses.

boys.

It's one crazy mess or disaster after another with these two adventurous boys. They are so much fun and when they make each other laugh it just makes my day. They keep my day exciting and busy. But they're also exhausting.

I came around the corner one night to find Oliver covered in what looked like shaving cream. Except it was spray foam sealant. He was sliding around on the floor having a grand time. (Spray foam sealant is basically foamy caulking and it dries quickly.) His clothes were ruined and it took a fair amount of scrubbing to clean up the floors (and doors and cabinets). Luckily Amelia and Elsa stepped right in to help. A lot of it had already been cleaned up when I took these photos but his hair was covered in foam and starting to dry. He got to enjoy an extra long soak in the tub.

The next morning I heard a crash downstairs and came down to find a broken picture frame and Oliver running around the house giggling, carrying a large shard of broken glass.

Whenever I'm cleaning up one mess, someone is making another. 

Enjoying the tree in his sisters' room.

Marbles and Pullen Park

We are making good use of our annual pass to Marbles, a fantastic children's museum in Raleigh. We let the girls take a week off before getting started at their new school. It was so fun to have them home and give them time to just enjoy the new house and yard and help put up Christmas decorations. We all headed to Marbles one afternoon and had a great time with no crowds.

We stopped at Pullen Park and found out they have a fun Christmas celebration with a train ride but it was already sold out for the season. We did encounter a random man with a bird though.

Christmas tree search.

We bought a fresh tree from the North Carolina State Farmers Market which happens to be fairly close to our house which we love. It's a fantastic farmers market that is open every day of the year.

 

There was some contention over who should push Simon in the stroller. 

Everyone likes to watch the chainsaw action.

 

 The tree was a welcome addition to our pretty sparse family room.

Simon was cautiously curious with the tree at first, but progressively became more destructive as the month went on and his dexterity improved.

Instadecember

One of these days I'll get around to downloading photos from my camera but for now I'll post a few of my Instagram shots from the last month. I think the few people that read this blog also follow me on Instagram so this is all old news to most of you.

The kids have been loving our new backyard and spending lots of time setting up all kinds of houses, hospitals, and stores in the woods:

Simon pulls up to everything and especially loves to watch his siblings out the windows:

We quickly discovered that there are lots of lizards around. The kids love to catch them. They also love to go on lizard hunts in our unfinished third floor after they discovered that the lizards like to hang out there too:

Our neighbor's chickens like to hang out in our driveway sometimes:

 I got busy putting up Christmas decorations right away which made the house feel less empty. Our friends gave us this advent before we left. Each day contained a note from a friend and it was so fun to read them throughout the month:

For the first time ever, we didn't have to rearrange and displace half of our furniture to get a Christmas tree to fit:

The girls turned the closet under the stairs into their secret hideout. They would hide in there to make all of their Christmas gifts and do their wrapping:

Doing some Christmas baking with Elsa:

And a random photo Ben sent me when he was playing with the kids upstairs one day: