Alexandria Christmas Tree Lighting

The day after Thanksgiving the town of Alexandria has their Christmas tree lighting in old downtown. I had never been there before and I loved it. We will definitely go back.

We had to park far away and it was very busy. Paige hates to have her hand held, being as independent as it gets, but since it was unsafe in that environment, she had to. That resulted in this meltdown and subsequent timeout on a store step. 

Once we got there the mayor was making announcements and then Santa came out. However, it was so packed with people in the town square that we couldn't see or hear much. Brendan was having a hard time with the crowd and Paige kept trying to explore (not a good idea in a mass of people). We turned around and saw that, of all the places we could have stood, we were about ten feet from our friends, the Thompsons. We moved next to them and that helped the kids while we waited for the tree to be lit.

When it was we all clapped and then hurried back to the car. I was hoping for more from this but I guess I was comparing it to Fayetteville's Dickens Holiday. I guess we will find another celebration next year. 

Thanksgiving

We had Thanksgiving with just our family this year. Jason was excited to make the turkey and even wanted to try his hand at pies. He searched for recipes and I bought the ingredients. We coordinated our dishes and both worked in the kitchen together from 10:30 am until dinner time around 4pm. It was actually kind of fun. Some kids helped with certain recipes (Eva was the apple pie helper and was so pleased with herself).

Everything but the ice cream and cranberry sauce were homemade. It was a big success (except the gravy - sigh). I enjoyed the day. 

This is Daddy's turkey all seasoned, roasted and carved.

Here is the spread. Yummy! We need a bigger table. :)

Fall at Belvoir

It's so pretty here! We love to go on walks and just look at leaves. The colors are amazing.

The trails behind our house are particularly beautiful in fall.  And I love that we can learn the history of the area on these trails.

Oral Boards

Jason here.

After residency I told Christine that while technically residency was over, it was REALLY over when I passed my oral board examination.

That meant that after we settled in here at Fort Belvoir, that I would maintain my study schedule from residency including nights and weekends. While not really as bad as residency, it was pretty much the same. I was slated to take the boards in St. Louis in October. I got a hotel the week before the test so that I could study uninterrupted.

When I flew out I went to Dulles airport instead of Regan and had to hustle there and I nearly missed my flight. When I got there I planned on going to a nearby grocery store to buy food for the stay instead of eating out. Then I realized that my hotel was in Ferguson, Missouri (yeah THAT Ferguson). I decided that I would be eating at the hotel after all. Then I learned that a slow burning landfill fire was encroaching on a nuclear waste dump on the international news that was about 5 miles from the hotel. Bad omens.

Anyway, the day of the test came around and I felt pretty well prepared. My first two board examiners were two consultants who had come to Fort Bragg. We had to pretend like we didn't know each other. There were some hard questions, but by and large I felt like I did well enough.

A few weeks ago I got word that I passed. It was a huge relief.

Now I need to turn in my cases, which is not that hard as long as it they are typed up correctly and doesn't require any real homework.

Now I have my nights and weekends back and we are all happy.

Fundraiser

The Young Women in our ward were trying to raise money for camp this summer. They asked ward members to donate items or services to be auctioned off. I decided to make some bread to bring. Jason insisted that he write the description. He's so funny.

(If you can't read it it says : "Bread. Awesome, amazing fresh bread. Face-melting, crazy-good, years in development recipe, should be illegal, so good bread. Pony up some cold hard cash for this incredible treat.")

We ate dinner at the fundraiser with Viktor as his mom is in YW and was supervising. Cute little guy wouldn't eat penne noodles with spaghetti sauce because "it is not real spaghetti". We got him different noodles and he was fine.

Ward members showed off talents too. One brave sister actually sang and rapped, inviting the kids to come up and be "back up dancers". Our girls loved that!!

We won the auction on a few baked goods and a cute bag I plan on using for Scouts. It was a fun night. 

Veterans Day

Jason here.

I like Veterans Day. It makes me proud to have served in Afghanistan. I want my kids to know that I am proud.

So I was happy to participate in our schools Veteran Day program. I got to visit each of the kids at school which was nice.

There's Darby. Her kindergarten class went to the gym for their program. It was cute, loud, and off key. I loved it.

I nearly missed Eva's presentation because I thought it was a bit later. Luckily I made it. 

Brendan class worked on these colorful program things. Brendan doesn't like coloring. He did his in pencil. He added a speech bubble to the eagle that read, "I forgot to print this in full color." Silly boy.

So that was Veterans Day. 

Paige's Pics

I know I have three other kids but Paige seems to be the one who has the most memorable stories lately. Here are a few.

Guitar Heroes! Note Paige's metal-face.

Diaper fail

She found another costume to try (18 month size)

Elsa invades my bed

Calamity Paige

Superhero goes to the bus stop

 

Picture of contentment. That mug has hot chocolate in it. 

 

She was supposed to be sleeping.

Another Escapade of Paige

Every school morning, Paige comes out to the bus stop with us, meets with her friend Sohvi and they make their way back to either house, where they play until the moms come get them after the bus leaves. One day, Erica (Sohvi's mom) tells me that the girls locked her out of the house. Naughty! Luckily the garage was open so she could get in.

A few days later they locked us out of our house. We tried knocking and ringing the doorbell but the girls were upstairs. I had to get in through the back gate to the side door, which was unlocked (not normally but this day it was, thank goodness). We found the girls hiding in the closet giggling at us. We had long talks about how it's "not safe to look Mommy out."

So I started taking my key with me out to the bus. Two days later Paige went in by herself and locked me out. I felt sure I had outsmarted her. Now, you have to understand something before the story goes further - the locks on these doors are electric. Due to the move in, move out nature of military housing it's easier to reprogram a key than to constantly make new sets. So, in this instance, I put my key in the lock, sure I would thwart Her Naughtiness' evil plan. And it wouldn't turn. The light didn't light up either. Batteries in the lock were dead. Ugh. I got in through another door after jimmying the gate and promptly called maintenance. It just goes to show that, even when I think I can thwart her, fate steps in and proves me wrong. That girl!!

(Leotard and rain boots - great summer outfit)

Our New House

I have put off posting pictures of our house as it was still in need of decorating. This is the first house that I have been very picky as to what goes up and how I want things to look. In the past we lived in a "make do" kind of decor since we had either too little space, too little money or too little kids. We are at a point in our life where we are beginning to replace all the cheapo furniture with things that will last (and match each other). It's not totally done yet but close enough. If I waited until I was completed no one would ever see it on the blog as it is a work in progress. Knowing that we will be moving every few years to different houses with different floor plans has kind of forced me to neutrals but I think I like it.

So here's a short tour.

Master bedroom. I bought new bedding, lamps and a customized sign with words from our song  from an Etsy store.

Master bathroom. We had to buy shower curtains for every bathroom in this house and settled for this color for our bathroom. I also decided to go with all white towels in this house. That painting we got for a steal from Target. :)

Darby and Eva share a room in this house. We had all the decor except curtains. Here's my favorite part of the room.

Paige has her own room as she destroys things and I wanted the big kids to be able to keep their rooms closed and safe.  She got the purple bedding. I wanted to hang the art lower but again, she destroys. :)

Kids bathroom

Brendan's room. He got updates as a well as he is now a "big kid".  He wanted a periodic table, magnetic white board and some Lego patent art. His room was so messy that I only got one picture. He was still unpacking and assembling each Lego set.

 Entryway view from upstairs. I love the planter as an umbrella holder.

Entryway from downstairs. I made that cotton wreath and am quite proud of it. :)

Downstairs hallway. This is perhaps my favorite wall in the house.

Family room. I had the most fun with this room. The mantle makes me smile.

Close ups of the mantle and bookshelves on each side.

Downstairs bathroom 

Jason's study

Living room. New pillows for this room and another Etsy sign. And a little girl who refuses to wear clothes lately.

Book room. The most popular room in the house.

And the kitchen/dining area. Such bad lighting but you get the idea.

And the laundry area. One day I'll have a laundry room.

 Not bad for military housing. :)