A Typical Nicholas Moment

After I posted the last entry I realized that there was not anything about Nicholas. He is so quiet and just goes with whatever everyone else is doing and sometimes gets left in the background. He never complains though. So, that said, here is an example of him just being his usual, silly self. He keeps the family laughing and reminds us of the lighter side of life.

My Christmas Present to You...

My Christmas Present to all of you is an updated blog! Enjoy!

We love Halloween at our house. We start on the first of October by decorating our house. The gigantic spider and web have become a tradition (with people driving through the neighborhood just to see it). The entire month is filled with preparations and goodies.

Halloween night this year was an entertaining and interesting night. Steve brought the 70's outfit back out while Nicholas became Spiderman and Jeremy was an owl trainer. Naomi was supposed to be Cinderella, but changed her mind at the last minute and opted for Hannah Montana. I got to be the one to stay at home and greet all of the trick-or-treaters, which is my job of choice anyway.

November is a great month here in North Carolina. The leaves are just beginning to change and we get a good two weeks of the most magnificent colors I have seen in my life. The kids really enjoy helping with all the leaves as well.

Jeremy needed to build something for one of his Bear scout goals. The handbook suggested making a remedial tool box, but Jeremy didn't really like that idea. Instead he built the most wonderful coat rack right by the front door. We don't have coats all over the place anymore. He is my hero!!!

November was the month of Naomi. In her honor, we will do this section in pink (since there is no other color in her world). She turned 3 and had the most wonderful birthday. Everything was pink down to the cake, ice cream, balloons, streamers, her clothing and wrapping paper. She celebrated the entire month.

We don't get much snow here in North Carolina so the kids have to get creative. They had a blast!!! Packing peanut angels are almost as good as the real thing without the cold and the wet, but there is the static cling to worry about. I am still finding bits of peanuts around the house. We just laugh and relive the fun time we had.

Jeremy had a speaking part in the winter play at Highland Creek Elementary. He was Professor Snow-it-all. He did a great job from putting together his own costume (notice the shirt) all the way down to the delivery of his lines. He even came up with a ridiculous (that is a good thing) European-of-sorts accent to make the whole package complete. He was a hit with everyone. I love his hair like this, but he won't do it again. What is your vote

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We had a party for the Joy School kids. They acted out the nativity and sang some songs for the parents. It is amazing what you can get kids to do with the promise of sugar cookies and Sprite when they are all done. These kids are the best and I love it when it is my turn to teach.

Jeremy earned his Bear badge a full two months early. The scoutmaster, Shane Stewart, praised Jeremy for his willingness to get the job done and go the extra mile while getting the job done. He said that Jeremy will make a great leader some day. I have to agree. We are proud of him. He is working hard on getting some more arrowheads before he advances on to Webelos in February.

WE WISH YOU A MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Halloween Flashback

Steve's group at work had been given the 70's as their theme. Steve took the challenge completely to heart and had a blast coming up with...I think this picture speaks for itself!!! He won first place and was presented with a Mr. Potatoe Head. We are all so proud!!!

Speaking Different Languages

It is amazing to me how many different forms of communication there are in the English language alone. For example, at my house we have Jeremeze, Nicholasian and Naomish.

Just the other day Noami was asking me if she could wear her shirt with the sidewalks on it. She became very distraught that I did not know what she meant. When I asked her to show me the shirt with the sidewalks she would just look at me like and pout. With a little coaxing we finally, through a team effort, discovered that she meant the red shirt with the spaghetti straps. She never ceases to amaze me with the words she comes up with to describe everything around her. I must admit that I am getting better. This one only took 10 minutes to discover. That is some kind of a new record.

That same day, Nicholas found Naomi's Cowardly Lion doll she got in her Happy Meal. He was so excited that Naomi got the Kareoke Tiger!!!!

As if this was not enough for one day, after dinner Nicholas was looking through his scrapbooks and found a picture of him next to a picture of Jeremy at the same age and they looked like twins. He exclaimed, "Wow! Mom, Jeremy and me look a lot the same!" Jeremy calmly explained, "That is because we have the same genes." Nicholas did miss a beat and replied, "And the same shirts, too!!"

You gotta love the many different languages at our house. Life would be so boring without them.

The following is a picture of Naomi in her "sidewalk" shirt, Nicholas with the Kareoke Tiger and Jeremy just being his usual, silly self.

First Day of School ...and then some

The first day of school is always an event around our house. The kids were up really early and ready with time to spare. Nicholas was especially excited because they had really gotten the kids excited about first grade at the end of kindergarten and he had been waiting all summer. The wait was finally over. We had already met Mrs. Whitmire and Nicholas really liked her. There were also several of the kids in his kindergarten class that would be with him in first grade. He has already had his first spelling test and was thrilled to get 100% plus 2. (He got the bonus words correct as well.)

Jeremy LOVES fourth grade. His teacher, Ms. Hansel, has more energy than the kids and that has been so much fun. Jeremy comes home each day with stories about what Ms. Hansel did during the day to make learning that much more fun. The biggest difference this year is that Jeremy is in an all TD class which means that all the other kids in his class tested high. He is surrounded by kids who think the same way he does. It is a challenge and he is rising to it!!!

Naomi started Joy School twice a week and although it started off a little rocky, she loves it now. She asks every morning if it is a Joy School day. The other school highlight of her day is picking up the brothers. They have decided not to take the bus again this year so Naomi and I go to the school each day to walk home with the boys. There are plenty of other parents who are there to meet and walk with their students and some of them even bring their dogs. Naomi absolutely loves petting all the dogs. She knows most of them by name. One day she asked the owner if she could take the dog home with her. This is part of the normal routine. Usually the person says "No" and Naomi leaves it alone. On Friday, however, the lady said, "My kids would miss Scooter. It would make them very sad." Naomi thought about this for a minute and then responded, with a huge smile on her face, "But it would make me VERY HAPPY!" Everyone got a good laugh out of that one.

Lincoln's real assassin finally identified

For years the world has been fooled into thinking that John Wilkes Booth was the person who killed Abraham Lincoln, but I have the evidence and witnesses to prove otherwise. It all happened during an ordinary presidency meeting at my house one quiet afternoon in late August. We were discussing the usual agenda items when there was a loud crash and then a scream. The crash was my family heirloom Lincoln head mug (that used to be in the kitchen of Grandma Hansen) hitting my tile floor and shattering into a thousand pieces. The scream was my own when I realized what had happened. It wasn't until after the whole thing was cleaned up and I had calmed Naomi down that I realized why I screamed. Sure I was going to miss the Lincoln head mug that I called my "kitchen god" (Grandma was the best cook in the world and the mug had been in her kitchen for so long that I sort of used it as my cooking good luck charm!) The bigger issue was that Naomi was carrying the mug (full of pens and pencils) in one hand and a pair of scissors in the other hand. Thank goodness she let go of the scissors when she tripped and fell otherwise this story would most likely have a completely different ending.

Lincoln head mug, you will be missed and fondly remembered.

Life's a Beach!... and then you decide to move there!!!

We just got back from the beach (mentally, just now; physically about a week and a half ago) and wanted to let you all know that we just had the best vacation ever!!! We were all supremely grumpy on the way home because none of us wanted to leave.

We started out on Steve's birthday and made the long trek to the Outer Banks of North Carolina... Wait - let me show you instead.

Steve wanted an extra large beach towel. I think this one fits the bill.

Here is the inside of our little piece of heaven by the ocean with four bedrooms, two bathrooms, a stocked kitchen, washer/dryer and more decks than we knew what to do with. It even had a shower under the house so that we didn't have to bring the beach into the house.

The outside of the house. Naomi still wants to go back to her house with the "blue trim". In fact, the whole way home she kept saying she wanted to go home and when we finally pulled up in front of the house in Charlotte she wailed, "No, the other house. The one with the blue trim." She asks to go here at least once a day.














Happy Birthday to Daddy!!!!

This was Naomi's first trip to the beach (that she remembers). She was fascinated by all the rocks and shells on the beach, but terrified of the waves. I did get her out in the water by helping her jump over the waves. She liked that for a bit until she realized just how far out we were.



















Walking on the beach to get burn all the calories from the cake and ice cream.














The kids loved to play in the sand. Nicholas would dig, Jeremy would build and Naomi would destroy!!














Steve's brothers, Sean and Derran, and Derran's wife, Sarah, joined us at the first of the week. It was great to have them with us. This is Sean riding the wave with the boogie board. Nicholas and Jeremy could do this for hours and got really good at it.

"The Boys" are playing football. They kept several of our beach neighbors very entertained for quite some time.














Burying the boys was a favorite thing as well. At least we knew EXACTLY where they were.














Naomi wanted in on the burying action. She loved playing with Uncle Sean. Her favorite was playing Transformers with him. Sean does a great impression of Optimus Prime and Megatron. Naomi was always Bumblebee. You can tell she has brothers!!!

Goofing with Uncle Derran. Naomi would hang out with anyone who was NOT in the water and would build something for her to destroy. Did I mention that she has brothers!!!????!














Two Sarah Cannons on the beach!!














The Currituck Beach Lighthouse. This is the only lighthouse on the Outer Banks that is still in it's original location. All the others have had to be moved due to coastline erosion. Jeremy thought that was a really cool fact!

The Whalehead Club is also a huge attraction. It was gorgeous and very relaxing to be on the grounds. If it hadn't been so blasted hot and humid this day we would have wandered longer. The people sitting on the edge of the river are fishing for crabs. They have a string with raw chicken on the end. When a crab grabs the chicken they pull him up and get him in a net. The tricky part is getting the crab to let go of the chicken!!!

Naomi's version of "The Little Mermaid" (which just happens to be her favorite show).

Did we mention that the boys LOVED to be buried. One day, Sean and Derran buried them and made it a contest to see who could get out the fastest. It was a great way to burn energy!

Energy Burnt!!!! (Hey Laura, "I no need nap!")

The Tie Dye Family (Derran is in this one)

Steve is in this one. Aren't the shirts cool. We had several people stop us on the way home and ask where we got our shirts. The kids were more than happy to tell them we made them.

"THE HILL". This is the infamous hill that caused the casualty of Jeremy's shoulder. The boys, Daddy and Uncle Derran were playing King of the Hill and the saying "It's all fun and games until someone gets hurt" definitely applies here. Jeremy was such a good sport. He didn't complain about it one bit. In fact, he was quite stoked that he now had broken the same amount of bones as Nicholas. The only time he complained was when the Tylenol with CODEINE made him really sick.

One last walk on the beach, SIGH!

We stopped at the Aquarium on Roanoke Island. Thanks Ginger for our zoo pass! It worked here too!

As you can see, we had an amazing time and want to find a solution so that we can move to the beach. FOREVER!!! Don't worry, we are planning a house that is large enough so that all of you could come and visit us from time to time. This was a true vacation and we will be doing it again and again and again......!!!!!

And for those of you who have been hesitant to join us here on the glorious Eastern portion of the United States here are some teaser/temptation pictures for you. Call us when you want to schedule your time in heaven!!

A Whole New World..and then some

After several failed attempts at updating our webpage, I have decided to try blogging. All I can say so far is "THIS ROCKS!!"

Enjoy!

We have been really busy here since the end of school. Nicholas is so excited to go to first grade that he has decided to spend the summer doing worksheets and reading so he will be ready. So far has has done a great job. I have no doubt that he will be well ready for first grade when the time comes. Jeremy is just grateful to get to sleep in. He is definitely his father's child! Naomi is just exstatic that her brothers are home all the time and she can play with them all day long.

Steve spent a week in Nashville for Premier's yearly national convention. He had a blast. While he was gone we were busy preparing for Father's Day. This kids each created a one-of-a-kind masterpiece for Daddy's office and we gave them to him in Father' Day. They were so excited they almost gave up the surprise several times. We did make it....BARELY!!

Jeremy spent the third week of June at Scout Camp and he had an absolute blast. They fished and hiked and swam and learned new songs, and did crafts, and hiked some more... On Thursday it was family night and Jeremy got to show us what he had been doing all week long. Nicholas and Naomi really liked the BB guns and fishing. I have to laugh because Nicholas (the supreme poser) looks like Ralphie from "A Christmas Story" in this next shot.

You'll shoot your eye out!

They were having so much fun that they forgot to fight and I caught glimpses of what happy families are like. I wanted this to continue forever and ever....but, alas, the night ended way too soon and we had to come back home. To their credit, they did not fight in the car or while taking baths and they were so exhausted from the day they went straight to bed.

I think we can call this first entry a success!!! I will talk to you all soon, but now it is time for me get some shut eye so I can keep up with the antics of the kids tomorrow!!!