Christmas 2013 Festivities

Yeah...I am WAY behind with the blog.  This post has been written for several months now but I was looking for a particular photo and have given up.  I must be dreaming that it ever existed...

As always, we had a very busy Christmas season this year.

We started by letting the kids help with the decorating the tree which is always fun for everyone!  Brayden understands how to put the ornaments on the tree (i.e. not all in one spot), but of course, Lilly has no idea.  Brayden was really good about helping Lilly get her ornaments on the tree without making her mad.

The following weekend was Matt's office party.  We always go to his office party because we don't ever have a chance otherwise to dress up and go out.  In the past, the parties have been at fancy places in downtown or fancy country clubs but this year it was at the office.  I have to say, the ladies who did the decorating did an AMAZING job!  We had a great time and look forward to next year's party!

One of Brayden's friends, Zach, his little sister Meredith, and mom came over and decorated gingerbread houses with us.  Meredith is a few months younger than Lilly so I made small gingerbread houses out of graham crackers for the girls.  The boys made full size houses out of the kids.  Everyone had a great time and ate way too much candy!!  Unfortunately, I was too busy helping the kids to take many pictures during the decorating, but the finished products turned out quite good!

Brayden was very detail oriented

Lilly was very focus on the task at hand.  She did eat about as much candy as she put on the gingerbread house!

Lilly's Gingerbread house

Another view of Lilly's

Then we had our traditional small group cookie decorating party for the kids on the 15th and then that night we all go sitters for the kids and the adults got together for a fun night. 

The weekend before Christmas, one of the other moms from daycare and I threw a party for 8 or 9 of the boys in their class.  This group of boys has been together for 4 years now and have gotten to be pretty good friends.  The theme of the party was "The Polar Express".  We planned on letting the boys watch the Polar Express movie, do a craft, have hot chocolate, do a "Who am I?" game, and do a gift exchange.  Of course, it was 70+ degrees on December 22, so all the boys wanted to do was play outside!!   We were able to get them inside long enough for an ornament craft, hot chocolate, and the gift exchange.  For the gift exchange, we did a Frosty the Snowman Pass the Gift Left/Right story.  Amazingly, our 5ish year old boys, get very confused with this and we ended up cutting the story very short!  Otherwise, the boys were running around outside having a blast!

 The same friend that took our family photos back in September came over one night and took pictures of the kids in the Christmas PJs in front of the tree.  Despite very uncooperative kids, I think the pictures came out really well!

When they were still cooperating :)

Note sure what Lilly was doing, but it looks like she is trying to dance!

I love this one of Brayden :)

Thanksgiving 2013

We got together with all of Matt's extended family this year for Thanksgiving which we don't normally get to do.  We had a lot of fun hanging out with Sid, Ron, Mamie, Will, Charity, Oma, Opa, Uncle John, Aunt Dana, Nana and BB. 

After the rest of the family left, Uncle John and Aunt Dana told us that they were expecting!!!!  We are so excited for them and can't wait to meet the newest Enzor!!

House updates - Master bed/bath updates

Disclaimer - apparently, I need to go back and check the blog more often!  My last 2 posts were duplicates (I was actually posting about stuff on time back in October!)


Over the course of a few months, Matt and I (mostly Matt) painted our bathroom and bedroom.  When we bought this house, the bedroom was a horrible Carolina blue and we both said "this is going to be the 1st room we paint!"  The bathroom was a standard contractor beige/cream color with lots of nicks and marks which looked horrible!

More than 3 years later, we finally got the room painted!  Part of the problem was me figuring out what color(s) I wanted the room and part of it was finding time to actually doing the painting.  At one point, we have 3 different paint options on the wall, the original blue color, plus primer on several other sections.  It was just lovely!!

Anyway, I finally picked colors and we finally finished the project!!  Before we painted the bathroom, I also wanted to new light fixtures in the bathroom.  The contractor grade 6 light fixture was not cutting it anymore.  Thankfully, Uncle John came to the rescue and got the new fixtures installed in time for us to paint the weekend that Nana and BB had the kids.  One wall in the bedroom is the same color as the bathroom to tie the rooms together. 

I was so happy with the final results!!  Now to get the mirror framed and pictures up on the wall!

Halloween 2013

As always, we spent Halloween with our small group from church.  The Westfalls have the perfect street for our kids age and we all had a blast hanging out together.    We tried to get some group photos, but I don't think any of us got a single photo with all of the kids looking!

Brayden chose to be Captain America this year (after saying consistently for several months he wanted to be Spiderman).  Lilly was a zebra (she is wearing the 12mo outfit my mom bought for her to wear LAST year when she was 1)!  It fit perfectly this year!

Brayden's 5th Birthday Party

I am trying to get caught up with the blog, but make no promises.  Life is just busy and I don't want to sit at the computer at night after sitting in front of it all day at work. 

Brayden said since just after he turned 4 that he wanted his 5th birthday party at Young's Gym in Wake Forest.  Young's Gym is a gymnastics place but they also have several bounce castles, etc that the kids love to play on.  Many of his friends have had their parties there in the past and the kids always have a blast.  Brayden also told me he wanted a Super Hero themed party, so the planning started.  The good thing about having a party at a place like Young's Gym, is that you don't have much decorating to do!!

They have this really cool swing that the kids get strapped into and then using a pulley system, they can swing the kids super high!  Brayden has always been to scared to try it, but with the encouragement of his friends, it finally did it at his party!  It was so cute seeing all his friend cheering him on :)

I took boxes from work, spray painted them, taped them together, and added windows to make them look like a city at night since most of the Super Heros work in the city.  I thought it turned out pretty cute myself. 

I also made Batman and Superman cupcakes, but for some reason, my royal icing didn't work this time and the little logos fell apart which made me a bit frustrated.  Brayden didn't care though! 

Lilly got right into the mix with the big kids too!  She was not scared to sit with them at the table and enjoyed running around after them in the gym area!  So cute!

All of the kids had a blast at the party which is the most important thing.  Also, instead of getting gifts, we asked all of Brayden's friends to bring an unwrapped toy for Toys for Tots.  This is the 3rd year we have done that and it is so nice to teach Brayden (and eventually Lilly) about giving to others instead of always getting, getting, getting. 

Lest you think that Brayden got no gifts, several of his friends did bring him gifts and of course the family had gifts for him as well!

On Brayden's actual birthday, we had the family over for a cookout, cake, and presents.   The favorite gifts this year...Legos (which he rapidly put together with little to no help from the adults!), a real t-ball bat (we previously only had soft ones), a Panthers helmet, and an art easel.

Brayden - 5 years old

Brayden is all about "I am bigger than Lilly" and "I can stay up earlier than Lilly because I am older now".  That is the reasoning we now get with a 5 year old in the house.  I doesn't necessarily get him anywhere but that is how is brain is thinking.

In the 1 short month that we have had Legos in the house, Brayden has become a master Lego builder.  The only problem he has is when he is taking them back apart and can't pull two of the skinny pieces apart (which is quite hard to do if you recall).  Rarely does he come to us for help in putting a set together...he is quite detail oriented and likes to follow the instructions exactly (just like me!)

He continues to love learning and is really trying to learn to read...I think I need to work with him some more on site words and phonics, but if he is in the mood, he can sound out most words.  He can also do some basic math, occasionally in his head without using fingers to count.

At his 5 yr check up last week, we had to fill out the "Ages and Stages" questionnaire form.  A good bit of the form, required Brayden's input vs me just marking yes/no as to whether he could do a task.  There was only 1 thing that I couldn't mark yes by and it was "Can your child repeat both of these sentences back without making any mistakes?"  There were 2 8ish word sentences (both were sort of tongue twisters at that) that I had to read him and then have him repeat them back to me.  He did one with out problem, but the other he left out a word or two.  Not a big deal in my book!

1st warm day of spring... happy to be outside with no coat!

1st time bowling - he loved it!

Sprinklers Memorial Day weekend - before the tree came down in a storm!

Drawing with his shin guards on because who knows when you might need to play a little soccer!

Napping with Daddy at the beach

Early NCSU football game...when we were actually winning games this year!

Child labor at its best! He asked to help...why not let him try!

Building at Wesley's birthday party

His handwriting is amazing and he makes most of the letters correctly (facing the right way, etc) and uses upper and lower case letters appropriately 70ish% of the time.  I have been making him write Thank You notes for his birthday presents (we do a few a night) and he has been doing a great job. Brayden continues to love drawing as well.  Several moms from daycare have commented on his detailed drawings and good handwriting skills.  I guess this just comes naturally, because neither Matt nor I have great drawing or handwriting abilities. 

"at" words - He does this all on his own, every. single. day!

Airplane in hanger with tree and squirrels

Fire truck

Truck with trailer and jeep

As for growth, he has actually jumped up a bit on the growth curve!  For the 1st time ever (I think) Brayden is above 10% for height or weight!  The official stats were:

             height: 42" (29%)
             weight: 37.8lbs (27%)

I have no idea when he got so big and heavy!!   Some nights, he barely eats any dinner and then runs around like crazy all day long.  I guess he really is growing while he is sleeping though!  Speaking of sleeping, Brayden has been taking naps at school again the past month or month and a half.  He was down to 2-3 per week, but recently, he has been napping every day, although sometimes for only 30-40 minutes. 

Brayden continues to love all things sports...baseball and soccer are the only 2 that we have actually tried, but he loves both.  We took a break this winter, but Brayden does still get to do soccer weekly at school which is nice.  We will pick back up with soccer in the spring....he was asked to "move up" a level in the YMCA soccer program.  The coaches from the spring and fall (both daycare dads) picked some of the "more advanced" kids and asked if they would like to move up a level in the spring.  The next level up is for kids that are already in kindergarten, but they got special permission from the YMCA to bring this 1 team up.  I think Brayden will enjoy the challenge and will hopefully have FUN and learn a few more things along the way!

Baseball at Nana and BBs house

First t-ball game/practice ever!

On 2nd base

A normal around our house...football jersey and helmet are daily attire around here these days

Brayden and his best buddy Zach playing soccer

Award winner for t-ball!

Practicing his punts back this spring