Our Newest Nephew

Alyson and Nate had their third child this past Tuesday, December 29th. They haven't named him yet and are still struggling to agree on a name, even though they check out of the hospital tomorrow. I like to call him He, although Heather prefers J 'Majesty.

Heather and I got to see He yesterday. He is a very beautiful baby. He has lots of golden brown hair and long fingers. None of us could stop staring at He. It's strange to think that Heather has one of those growing inside of her. Can't wait to meet him/her.

Here are some pics of He in the meantime.

Christmas Princesses and Dragons

Christmas was so much fun this year. This was Heather's and mine first time spending Christmas with Alyson and Nate and their kids, and it was so much fun experiencing the mystery and excitement of Christmas through their eyes. Of course, the not-so-much-fun aspect of this was experiencing their excitement all throughout the night, which we did since we slept in the same room as them.

For example, Alyson and Nate's rule for Christmas morning is that the kids have to stay in their room until the clock reads 6:30am. Well, Trey got up at 6am and tried to sneak out the door. We told him to go back to bed, which he did. But then he started singing softly "Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way" over and over. This was following by constantly chanting "clock, clock, clock, clock." Finally, 6:30am came and Trey bolted out of the room and Heather and I heaved a huge sigh of relief.

But, I suppose this is good training for being a parent. The one thing everyone tells us about parenthood is the lack of sleep. We're feeling that this week. So here are some pics below of all the Christmas fun.

Trey loves his light saber and Batman cave. Santa Claus nailed his gifts right on the head.

Jayci is infatuated with her princess things. She got a whole hoard of little Disney princess figurines. She tries to hold them all at once and then gets so frustrated when she can't. She also got all of the Disney princess slippers. It is an enormous act of will power for her to willing separate herself from those slippers; Heather and I know this clearly because she typically gets up at least once in the middle of the night to go grab a pair and bring them back to bed with her.

Dec 28 is Trey's birthday. Alyson found this great cake idea for Trey. So Nate's mom made the cakes and Heather (with a little aid from me) decorated it. It really turned out great. And Heather is no longer intimidated in making these kinds of cakes for our kids (and me, too).

Snowed In

Original weather forecast reports early in the week called for snow this weekend, but only 3-5 inches. Well, by Friday afternoon, they were saying that we should expect one of the worst snow storms in recorded history. These forecasters are really impressive, right? It started snowing late Friday night and by Sat night, we had over 2 feet of snow! It was awesome.

By Saturday morning, we already had almost a foot of snow everywhere. This worked out great for me because DCers for the most part tremble at the thought of driving in the snow. So I took advantage of this and ran some errands. I played some indoor soccer, went Christmas shopping, and fixed Heather's headlights. I had the roads and the mall practically to myself! It was awesome. I was gone for about 3.5 hours. Just to give you an idea of how much snow was falling, by the time I got home, I had to shovel out my parking space because the snow buildup was too high to let me simply drive back in and park.

The most difficult part about all this snow is that it reminds me of how much I love skiing and deeply miss the mountains out west. These rounded, gentle hills that they call mountains out here simply don't cut it. One day, Heather and I will either live closer to the mountains or be rich and just fly to our winter cabin near a ski resort every winter for a month.

It was a shame that Heather is in Texas for a cousin's wedding right now. I made a snow angel and tried to make a snowman (the snow was too light and fluffy), but it wasn't the same. My 1-on-0 snow fight was especially depressing.

Here are some pics of the snow. At places, the snow almost reached my mid thigh. Officially, we got somewhere between 24-26 inches of snow.

Yes, that is a car. Last night, I took a walk around the neighborhood. Most cars looked like gargantuan marshmallows sitting in a field of frosting. I felt like I was in the board game, Candy Land.

I had a great time shoveling snow today. It felt more like excavating. I was like John Henry, the steel-driving man of snow shoveling.

Thanksgiving

I realize that this post is way late, but I just wanted to quickly say that Heather and I had a blast at Thanksgiving this year. It was our first time being a host to my family during the holidays, and we had a great time. I admit that being someone who likes things organized, clean, and tidy, having 12 people stay in our home (half of which were kids) for a week required a bit of a mental adjustment (we had 18 people at one point). But I wouldn't have traded it for anything. And we would really like to do it again, maybe for Christmas one year?!

Sarena, Adam, and Co as well as Alyson, Nate, and little ones all came over for Thanksgiving. It made the holiday meal a breeze since everyone each made a few dishes. Sarena helped Heather and I do the turkey, which turned out to be not as difficult as we expected. Heather had a great time putting oil and rosemary under the skin, and it made the bird so moist and delicious! Heather set a high standard for herself for later holiday meals.

It was also great to have Brittany and her kids as well as Meagan and Chris in town for Thanksgiving. It was a large group with 18 of us total, but we had a very good time. We explored DC, hitting the Natural History Museum, the American History Museum, and the Publications and Engraving Bureau of the Dept of Treasury, which is were they make the paper money. The boys played Turkey Bowl mud football on Thursday morning. Trevor was a phenom during football with something like 2 interceptions, a touchdown, and several great takedowns on guys at least twice his age! We also played lots of games, went to the park, and had a great night playing hide-and-seek at the church. On Saturday, we spent the day at the National Zoo, a first time to a real zoo for a few of the CT Sharp kids.

It was a great Thanksgiving, and I can't wait for more fun family holidays at our house in the future.

Heather did an excellent job prepping the house for the meal. She was thrilled that we finally had an occasion to use almost all our of china. All those years of lugging it around and storing it finally paid off!

Here we all are in downtown DC.

Trev being swallowed by the giant shark jaw at the Natural History Museum.

Here we are at the National Zoo.

The green-tinted housing glass made this picture appear funny.

Not a fox on stilts, and not a red hyena, this is a South American maned wolf. Interesting, huh?