{Merry Christmas} and Happy Holidays!

We had such a wonderful Christmas this year!  I know...they are all great, but this year was especially fun!  Camden really understood what Christmas is all about (both Jesus being born and the Santa part).  We also did some charity work where Camden had a hand in it ~ which he loved!  Bexley, of course doesn't understand Christmas yet, but loved opening presents...and was pretty good at it!  Scott and I agreed that next year we are going to give Bexley all of Camden's gifts and vice versa!  They seemed to play with each others toys more than what was given to them!  Santa was even good to me!  Being from Iowa, I love a white Christmas and Santa made sure we got one!  Camden thought he was so cool driving his new 4-Wheeler in the snow and Bexley loved playing in it.  After the snow had accumulated more, Camden and I made a snowman and snow angels!  We had dinner and presents over at Kimberly and Nathan's house on Christmas Eve ~ awesome, but ate WAY TOO MUCH!  And we are sure to hear the story about the chicken's butt exploding every year for the next 5 years!  ;) 

{Happy Holidays} Week 2

Not exactly a Holiday Cheer weekend.  We found out this weekend Scott's Grandmother's Husband, Kelly had passed away.  I think everyone is doing well.  We all tried to give Ruby a little Christmas Cheer on Saturday by celebrating her Christmas with her!  It's makes her happiest when her children, grand kids, and great grand kids are around!  Even though we were all together for Kelly's passing, we had great conversation, lots of hugs and shared wonderful memories!  We will miss you TONS Kelly!

{Happy Holidays} Week 1

Whew!  What a busy weekend!  3 more weekends to go like that until Christmas!  We went downtown on Friday for the tree lighting, carolers, ice stating, and to see Santa!  It really got us into holiday mode when we heard the live Christmas music and all of the holiday cheer!  On Saturday we had Camden's 1st basketball game and then went downtown again to the Christmas Parade.  It was great!  We really enjoy the parade because Greensboro has the big balloons like the Macy's Day one.  This year it snowed while we were watching it!  What a fun surprise and bonus!!!  I can't believe we got snow before my parents did in IOWA!  How crazy!  We then went to the Beck Christmas for dinner and of course ate WAY too much!  On Sunday, we went to pick up Scott & I's Christmas present in Charlotte, then shopped til we dropped!  I'm sure the kids are ready to be back on their schedules...well until next weekend!!!

{Our Little} Thanksgiving!

We took our annual trip to the mountains to celebrate this Thanksgiving.  Again, it never disappoints!  We stayed in the same condo as last year ~ the views are amazing!  This year we invited Scott's parents, Kimberly and Nathan for Thanksgiving.  It was really fun!  We also got our Christmas tree picked out while we were there (all 14' of it!)!  Camden really loved helping pick out a tree and bringing it home.  The day after Thanksgiving we celebrated my birthday and then went to all the Christmas festivities in downtown Blowing Rock!  We made a stop at Chetola Resort and were 1st in line to see Santa!  We also were able to drive thru the Festival of Lights and do some cookie decorating!  We had a awesome time in the mountains, but were anxious to get home to start decorating for Christmas!

We finished our weekend off with a church service dedicated to one of our friends becoming a minister and a great brunch with Patti!  We have so much to be thankful for this year!  We are truly so fortunate to have such a wonderful group of friends and family!!!

{Happy Halloween}

We can't decide which Camden liked better at Halloween this year...getting candy or giving it!  We started out our night trick or treating around the neighborhood.  Camden would run up to the door, ring the bell and then OPEN their door!  Instead of saying "TRICK OR TREAT!" he would check out the candy and say, "I like this one! THANKS!"  Then run back to us.  Even though we had practiced it a lot, he still said what he wanted to say, but hey, at least he had some manners about it!  Our neighbors get together every year in 1 driveway and hand out candy, so after we did our thing we went to the party.  We left Camden in charge of handing out ours.  After the 1st rush of 5 kids, our candy was 1/2 gone!  Camden was handing them 10+ pieces of candy at once!  We overheard him scripting the children on how they ask for candy.  He was telling them, "Say trick or treat!  Now say thank you!"  It was hysterical!  Bexley liked riding around the neighborhood in her ladybug costume and seeing everyone!  We had a great Halloween and have some funny memories to go with it!

{NC Zoo} and Carving Our Pumpkins !

Besides Trick or Treating, I think we are finally done with all of our Halloween/Fall activities!  We had a great time carving our pumpkins this year.  Camden's is of course a tractor and Bexley's is a butterfly.  We also found time to go to the NC Zoo - always a treat!  And we had a blast at the Rudd Halloween Party on Saturday!  5 days and counting 'til trick or treating!!!

{Pumpkin Picking} and a state fair !

It's been a long time since I was at a state fair and let me tell you the NC State Fair was a good one to start back up with!  We had so much fun looking at the animals, eating fair food and watching the tractor pull.  Although it was a little loud, Bexley never cried once and you know Camden ~ he was in heaven!  We also had time that weekend to pick out our pumpkins.  Although we couldn't find a pumpkin patch the farmer's market never lets us down!  We are getting so excited for trick or treating we can't stand it!  Camden tries on his costume almost once a day!  Happy Halloween!

{Fall Leaves} and Train Rides!

We had our Annual Fall Trip to the Mountains today.  The weather was GORGEOUS!!!  We couldn't have asked for a better day!  We normally drive on the Blue Ridge Parkway and look at all the beautiful trees, but this year we decided to go to Tweetsie Railroad (A wild west theme park).  The kids loved every minute of it, with the exception of 2 of the rides.  We then went on a picnic and then drove on the Parkway to see all of the foliage!  This was the 2nd outing this fall ~ our 1st was to Rudd Farm and Farmers Market to get Gourds for decorating!  We had a blast seeing all of the pumpkins too!  Next weekend I think we might hit the NC State Fair and maybe a Pumpkin Patch along the way!!!  Keep checking back for more pics!

Look WHOOO just turned 1!

Bexley had a fantastic birthday week!  We celebrated on Thursday with a just us and then had family over on Saturday for her Owl-Very Pink themed party!  She is really starting to like dolls and girly stuff ~ YAY!!!

{Labor Day} Weekend!

Hope everyone had a fantastic Labor Day Weekend!  We weren't going to do anything, but relax around the house.  Scott suggested last minute that we instead spend the day in Roanoke, VA!  We love Roanoke!  Scott and I celebrated a wedding anniversary there and had a great time!  We started out having lunch at 202 - sat outside so we could listen to the music from the Farmer's Market! Then ventured over there for awhile.  Next, we visited Valhalla Winery ~ wow, they have amazing views!  Camden pretty much just loved running around the whole time.  Then we ended our day at the little zoo they have there.  It was our kind of zoo ~ not big and NOT crowded!  It was such a great weekend for us considering we weren't able to make our annual Labor Day Beach Trip!

{Hurst Vacation} Florida

We just got back from our annual Hurst Vacation!  This year we went to Orlando!  We went to an airplane museum, spent an evening at Clearwater Beach, went to Seaworld and Magic Kingdom, raced in Daytona, walked along the ocean at Coco Beach, saw Cape Canaveral, looked at a lighthouse in Ponce Inlet, and watched fireworks from Magic Kingdom - just to name a few of the things we did and yes, there are more!  We had a great time visiting and making new memories together!

{Happy 4th Of} July!

Happy 4th of July everyone!  We had a very American holiday ~ doing the great pastimes of the USA ~ grilling out burgers and hot dogs, going to a baseball game, setting off fireworks...the usual July 4th festivities!  This year we actually we able to catch the parade downtown!  It was fun ~ the kids had a blast!  Camden loved the candy and fire trucks ~ Bexley was just amazed at the music and traffic!  We had a really good holiday and hope next year we'll be able to catch the "BIG" fireworks in town!

{1st Beach Trip of the Year} OIB

Well another great trip to the beach - what a way to start the summer off.  This year we went back to Ocean Isle Beach, a favorite of ours, and brought The Hansen's with us!  We had a wonderful time relaxing on the beach with them!   The kids had such a good time building sand castles, digging holes with their loaders and playing in the water!  It was Bexley's 1st time to the beach and she of course loved it!  We always love going to OIB, but it was especially fun this time with Jim, Andrea and Drew there!  Good food, good fun and GREAT company!  We can't wait to return next year to OIB!

{Georgia Aquarium}

We were down in Atlanta a few weekends ago and went to the Georgia Aquarium!  This was Camden's 2nd time going, he was there last when he was about 10 months old!  He enjoyed it much better this time!  The Georgia Aquarium is so amazing!  Camden really enjoyed the largest aquarium the most with huge sharks and other sea life!  Bexley loved it all ~ everything is amazing to her!  If we ever make it back down to Atlanta will have to be sure to re-visit there again!

{Easter} 2010

We had a great Easter week this year!  We started it out by visiting the Farm Supply store where every year they have chicks and ducks for sale.  Camden LOVED it and also found some toys he wants (see pic of him on the 4 wheeler)  Then we made our way to the Washington DC/Baltimore area.  In DC we saw the Cherry Blossoms (very pretty) and the National Aquarium.  We had a fun time, but the weather was a little cold for the kids.  We walked around some, but decided to head up to Baltimore to visit Biggs...and Scott had some work to do while we were there!  We were home by Thursday and Scott had his long Catholic weekend.  He's such a trooper - these masses are the longest ones of the year (Thursday, Friday AND Saturday all around 2 hours each!)  By Easter Sunday we were ready for some family time!  We went to church at Center Cross, had lunch at Grandma Ruby's and had a blast finding Easter eggs!  This was one of the best Easter's we've had!

{Our Little} 2nd Wedding!

So if you don't know by now I have the sweetest husband in the world!  He has decided to go through the extremely long process of becoming a Catholic.  He has been so patient through the journey (1 1/2hour classes every week for 9 months).  Becoming Catholic is not easy - they have many steps you have to complete before entering into the church.  Having your marriage blessed is one of them!  We renewed our vows on March 5th (now our 2nd wedding date - so many dates to remember - right, Scott!)  The deacon said we could make it as big or small as we wanted - of course I wanted to make it big (a dress, photographer, videographer, cake, and an additional wedding ring - hahaha!)  Scott said NO!  It was a nice, small ceremony.  The Ravel Family was there to help celebrate and be our witnesses!  Camden wanted to be a part of it too, so he made bulldozer noises throughout the 15 minute ceremony and Bexley, well...she slept!  Scott is still going through his Catholic journey and should be complete at Easter!  We wish you could have all been there like you were at our 1st wedding, but it would've been hard for us to get Save-The-Date cards, invites, hotel reservations, and special maps to you on such short notice!

{Snow Days} in February!

If you haven't heard by now NC got some snow last weekend.  We got about 8" and Camden is LOVING it!  My mom is coming to visit from IA next week (for those of you that don't know...IA gets a lot of snow this time of year) so I am hoping for the snow to be gone and for it to be at least 50 degrees!  We'll see.  I can almost promise the snow will be gone, but I don't know about the 50!  Brenda came to visit a few weekends ago (she lives in Omaha - also very cold and snowy) and all she wanted was to see some sunshine!  Luckily we had some to share!  Anyway, here are some pics from Camden and Bexley playing out in the snow this weekend!

{Camden Turns 3!}

Birthdays are a HUGE deal in our home - it's not unusual for us to celebrate all week long!  I think Camden had a great birthday week - he talks about different events we had every day!  He had a birthday party at home (with family), a party at school and then a party with his very cool parents and sister on Monday!

This year we did a construction theme for his party!  Camden loved it!  I think though he had the most fun with the balloons!  Then on Monday (his actual birthday) we took him to his favorite Mexican restaurant and celebrated there.  Scott and I think he's probably traumatized from the Mexican birthday singing and sombero that we might find it a bit difficult to go back!  (I won't post those pics!

He had a great birthday - thanks to everyone who sent cards and gifts!  It's hard to believe our little boy is getting bigger and is now 3!