Santa comes early in NC

Since we are leaving to visit both of our families, we had to squeeze in all of the Christmas we could before we fly out. Here's a little bit of what we've done...

-My mom surprised us with a Little People nativity set. Paige loves it and has even learned to say "baby 'esus" as she tried to place him in the Christmas tree

-Ben was an amazing husband and truly supported my calling of primary chorister. He came in for singing time and after the kids sang they got to decorate the "tree" by putting things on Ben, and we even plugged in the lights at the end. They have never sang that well for me, nor have I ever had that many adults come by to take pictures of my singing time.The kids thought it was hilarious and referred to him as "the tree" the rest of the day.

-Ben was anti-tree this year since we are leaving so early, and really there isn't a ton of space in our house for one. I tried to go along with it, but was too sad so I "picked" us out a lovely $20 Walmart special and decorated it with my trustee little helper (who has continued to "re-decorate" and break a few ornaments). It's so tiny, and Ben is taller than it, but I'm so glad we got it. We tried to get the classic picture of Paige by the tree before church but she wasn't exactly into that idea, so we settled for these, goldfish in hand.

-We counted down with our advent calendar (she apparently hasn't grasped the "calendar aspect" of this yet

-Ben has been so busy with company visits/applications/finals/etc., but agreed to go with me for FHE to take Paige to see Santa. Of course we happened to choose "take your dog to Santa" night, with an hour long wait, and if you know us, you know we don't exactly love dogs. The best part is this happened to us last year in IL. So of course we immediately left (seriously, we're not dog people). Luckily the next day we heard good news back on interviews so we headed back to the mall to celebrate at Cheesecake Factory and try Santa again. Paige was so excited in line, waving to him, and basically ran up to him. And then she freaked....

-With Ben's finals and our flights out to WA, we decided December 12 sounded like a perfect day for Christmas. Good thing Paige is still young. I had so much fun getting to play Santa and setting everything up. I even barely slept, just so excited to Christmas morning! We were especially excited because my dad had built a kitchen for Paige, mailed out the parts, and then Ben put it together. One of the pieces had broke, so it was a little rougher than we thought getting everything ready, and hiding it in the bathroom so she wouldn't see, but we were so excited about it! My gramps made a kitchen for me when I was little, and on this one he carved an "H" for Holm on the fridge, and the knobs are from my great grandmas dresser, so it's such a fun little treasure to us.

Her reaction was priceless. Gave a little squeal and said "hi" as she opened the oven door. She knew exactly what to do and immediately grabbed food from the fridge, put it in the pot, and closed the oven door.

Her shopping cart was also a big hit. A girl has to shop for her groceries if she's going to cook!

Only problem Christmas morning was that Paige wanted to eat my Cadbury Eggs instead of opening presents...I understand her dilemma :)

 Our cars needed some Duke love

I think new toys are just as much for me as they are for her. We needed some fresh entertainment over here so we are both very happy. So far it has been a very merry Christmas over here and it's just barely begun!

Family Pictures

Beginning of December we headed to Duke Gardens to take some family pictures. Not having my personal photographer/sister-in-law close by anymore, we were in serious need of updating. Two of my girlfriends needed family pictures too, so we made a two-day event of it. Considering none of us are photographers, we were dealing with a toddler, and posing Ben and I can be a little rough with our height difference, I think we did pretty well!

After these, Paige was about done, and apparently thought sticking her tongue out was cuter than smiling...

So we waited until the next day to do my friends' pictures and try to get some of Paige. After trying the first pose, Paige had the biggest melt down of her life. Full on screaming rolling in the dirt, kicking, out of control for a good 10 minutes. I wanted to just cry and leave, but luckily daddy arrived to calm the beast and we got one picture of her smiling and standing still. Oh pictures with toddlers....good thing she's cute.

Thanksgiving in Williamsburg

Since this was our first big holiday away from family, we decided to take a little vacation with some of our close friends out here. This was our first real trip without any of our family, it made us feel so grown up :) We headed 3 1/2 hours north to Williamsburg, VA.
After getting set up in the hotel, we headed to the downtown, with a quick stop at a picturesque little farm on the way.

Next we stumbled upon/pretended we were supposed to be at a colonial presentation. "George Washington" came riding in, made a little speech (where our friend Ian shouted, "No taxation without representation) and then paraded down to a musket show.

We finished off the night with dinner and games back at the hotel.
The next day was Thanksgiving, and what better place to celebrate the pilgrims than at Jamestown! Honestly, there wasn't that much to do there (one part was closed, another part we didn't want to pay for), so we found a random free ferry to ride. It literally took us across a little river, we drove off, then drove right back on. But it was called the Pocahontas, so totally worth it.

We were hoping to eat at a somewhat Thanksgiving-type place for dinner (aka Cracker Barrel) but there was a 2 hour wait, so TGI Fridays it was.

Friday we did a little black Friday shopping and then went to Busch Gardens. We rode one of the best roller coasters! I love rides and felt like a little kid running around the park.

 Paige and her little best friends

Ben & Chase, screaming like girls :)

Paige went on her first "ride"! Very slow baby swings.

But the babies favorite ride was the ramp at the hotel by our rooms. They could have gone up and down this thing for hours.

Saturday we took in the sites of colonial Williamsburg.
We went to a chapel that James Madison and Thomas Jefferson had been in....amazing!

 Governor's Mansion

Down in the cellar

We finished the afternoon with more Busch Gardens. We were able to beat the rush and get Jen to face her fears and ride the roller coaster 3 times in a row and rode Davinci's Cradle so many times I lost my voice from screaming! Pure bliss! It was such a fun trip, a great way to celebrate Thanksgiving. Thanks Busbys and Millers!

November Catch Up

November felt pretty busy around here, so now it's time to catch up!

We went to Marbles Children's Museum with Fuqua Families. It's has so many cute things to do, Paige loved every minute.

 With the help of my sister and dad, I threw my mom a surprise birthday scavenger hunt from across the country. It was fun eagerly awaiting her checking in from the different spots.

Paige and I did some shopping at Buy Buy Baby. She was in love with the shopping cart she got to push around, and totally thought she was a real shopper, loading her cart full of sippy cups. Super cute until she had a full blown melt down when we had to put the cart away to leave.

We've been loving the weather out here in NC and went for a (slow) stroll around the neighborhood.

 Little miss thing likes to hang out in strange places. She especially loves the bathroom and has recently discovered that she fits in the cupboard. I think she has couponing in her blood because she loves reorganizing the stock pile :) But her favorite "organizing" has to go to feminine products...you just can't beat those. She is also quite the climber. Yesterday I looked over to find her on top of the kitchen table...she keeps me busy.

 We had a mini Thanksgiving feast at the Giles house with some of the LDS MBA families. It was all adorable and got us in the Thanksgiving spirit.

 Ben and I celebrated our 3rd wedding anniversary! We went out a few days early to (where else) Cheesecake Factory and then went home and watched our wedding video. It was so fun to have a real date, and really just time with Ben since he's been so busy lately. He's still my prince charming, love him!

I got to go to the Duke vs Ohio State game! So a little background on just how crazy Duke basketball is:

-Ben had to camp out for 2 nights to be in a lottery to get to go to a few games

-Under-grads have to camp out for each game. As in, for this game, people camped out (yes, tents) for days

-Duke is ranked #2, OSU #4

-I had to get there an hour early just so they wouldn't give away my seat

So poor Ben was so excited to go to this game, but he had an important company event that night. If you know my husband at all, you know how heart breaking this was for him. I was proud of him for making the responsible decision and at the last minute realized I could use his ticket. I quickly hopped in the car with my friend Lis, we dropped our babies off with Jen (still owe you big time!), and turned into Cameron Crazies. The game was AMAZING! Such an incredible atmosphere, and we even made ESPN! After a very close game, Duke pulled out the win. I was exhausted at the end from all the cheering (and because it didn't end until midnight!) So glad I got to play while Ben worked ;)