Vivian and I played with some face paints the other night before her bath. Next time I'll try to find some qtips so that it turns out a little better...I never said I was an artist :) She thought it was really cool. A little confusing for her, but something different and interesting.

The most interesting thing happened yesterday...when I got some Christmas decorations out of the basement over the weekend, I noticed a box of toys that had been misplaced in the move. I brought them up to Vivian when she woke from her nap and she was excited to see her long-lost toys. One of them was this elephant shape sorter that Granddaddy and Grandma Carolyn had given her. She immediately started putting the shapes into the correct holes! She was not able to do this 2 months ago. She can get the yellow square, for example, and turn the elephant's body until she finds the hole for the yellow square, and drop it in!
It's amazing to me the difference 2 months has made in her development! Praise God for His perfect design of our little babies.

Last Saturday night we went out with Dennis, Shannon, Bethany, Chris, and Crystal to dinner and to see the 11th annual Scrooge production at the Roanoke Civic Center. It was an impressive show! Fun to do something festive. We had a great time with our friends :)

Vivian teaches Kate how to look for Tillie at Papa and Gramme's house.

On Friday, Vivian and I had a mommy/daughter date to see Sesame Street Live! We were invited by her preschool and sat with them. I had been looking forward to taking her for a while now...she loves Elmo! She sat still for the most part and it was a great experience for her.

This is a post that probably only family might want to see...lots of pictures of family from Thanksgiving, strange faces to most of you. Uncle Rick took these pictures for us. I didn't really sort through them so a lot of them are the same shot at different angles. Just wanted to keep these on the blog to remember our time with Aaron's family! I'm still trying to get the pictures that Maria took with her camera...she got lots of Vivian that day.



I just realized that some are too small...I'll go back and fix it later!

Today for the first time in Vivian's life, she did not sleep for her nap. At. all.

She was in her crib for 3 hours and did not sleep. At. all.

She played, jabbered, had a BM (which I had a hunch about, so I went in and changed her and put her back down), and I guess just laid there.

Ha!! Crazy.

Dad played some songs for Kate when he got home from work tonight.If you can remember, around this time last year he was doing the same for our little Vivian:

We love our families

Have to include a picture of Vivian with the decorations she's not allowed to play with...

Maybe we'll put up the tree by this weekend! Stay tuned for more.

love that bald spot

Can this be comfortable?

We had a very eventful Thanksgiving!
We left Wednesday night at bedtime so that hopefully the girls would sleep the whole way (Kate did, but it took a while for Vivian to relax and fall asleep). We headed straight for Spring Hope to be at the Fernandezs.
Thursday was a big day...the big party for Aaron's side of the family. There were lots of uncles and cousins for Kate to meet. Vivian napped during lunch but was able to play a little when she got up. The younger cousins kept her very entertained! The lunch was the best we've had at a Fernandez Thanksgiving :)
We left early to skip over to Lucama for my dad's side of the family get-together at Granny's house. More great food of course! We were really late so we missed some people, and we didn't get to stay very long because both babies were getting tired, but it was fun to see everyone and for Vivian to play with her cousin Hannah. I think she was very confused to see Papa and Gramme there. Actually, I think she stayed confused pretty much the entire trip!
We went back to Mike and Peggy's so that we could hang out with them on Friday morning. It was good for the girls to have some one-on-one time with their Papi, Grandma, Uncle Ben, and Aunt Brooke.
Raleigh was our next stop...just in time for Vivian's nap. We relaxed a little that afternoon and then went out to the movies at North Hills. I love Raleigh!
Saturday Aaron and I went to the State/UNC game at Carter-Finley and left the babies behind. State has had a terrible team this year so we weren't expecting much, but they pulled it off and beat Carolina! It was a great game to watch.
Grandma hosted a big Thanksgiving dinner at her house that afternoon. We were late, but just in time to eat, eat, eat! And we saw dear family.
We were in the car at 7 pm on Saturday night to head back home! What a whirlwind. Vivian became a little overwhelmed during the trip, and none of us slept very well away from home, but she is recovering and we are catching up on our Zzzzs. All in all a fun, family-filled Thanksgiving in NC!



I am disappointed in my lack of photos. I will try to get some from other people that had cameras.

Aaron had a computer problem at work last week and didn't get home until 9:30 at night. He brought flowers :) Beautiful!

Aaron had some one-on-one time with Kate while Vivian napped after church yesterday.

Vivian went trick-or-treating with Uncle Joey and Aunt Sierra in their neighborhood on Halloween night. She was really late for bed but it didn't phase her because she had a blast! They got her a pumpkin costume and it turned out to be very cute on her. Lindsay's (Sierra's sister) boys Carter and Chase usually go with Joey and Sierra and this year they let Vivian join them.

Chase is Batman. Maybe he and Carter will let Vivian come again next year.

They had some toys at their house for her to play with (or could they be the dogs' toys?!)

The funny thing about this picture...who is the guy pushing Vivian in the stroller? :) We have no idea!

Papa and Gramme went along for the fun, too.

They said she was a little confused at first about someone putting candy in her bucket, but that she mostly got the concept of it by the time they were finished. She wouldn't let go of her bucket.

I already posted about this, but here's a video of Vivian reading to Kate. Notice how she pushes Kate's hand away in the beginning.

Lots of people have been asking about how we are adjusting to the new house. Jill asked me what the pros and cons are and I thought it was a good question with bullet-point answers, so here it is for anyone who's interested!:

Cons:
-It is difficult to get used to 4-story living. I feel like I go up and down the stairs all day. We have a basement where the laundry is; the main level with kitchen, dining room, living room; a level with the bedrooms and bathroom; and an attic that we use as a closet, playroom, and movie room. I try not to carry both girls up/down the stairs at the same time, so sometimes I take Kate first and have to leave Vivian at the gate, watching me. Thankfully I think she realizes that I am coming back to get her and she doesn't freak out.
-We have TWO trains that run around our property...one in the back and one out front. We can see both of them and can definitely hear them both. They run all night long. All of our neighbors say that we will get used to it and not hear it after a while...we are looking forward to that day.
-Not everything has a perfect place. Yet.
-There are bugs everywhere. Stink bugs and ladybugs.
-We know there are mice and snakes on the property. This is real country living out here! We are going to get some outside cats asap.
-I miss my brand-new kitchen in our old house.
-The radiators take up so much space and make for awkward furniture placement.

Pros:
-Wayne did an awesome job on all the bedrooms...they look new!
-I love the fireplaces. Aaron has built a couple of fires since we've been here and it's awesome. We have a fireplace in our bedroom.
-There is much more closet space. No more bins under our bed with all of Aaron's t-shirts and jeans in them.
-The land is gorgeous and the view is beautiful.
-Our neighbors are wonderful.
-We live very close to my parents, which is great when I need help with the girls or when Vivian is dying to see her Papa and Gramme.

It might not be as comfortable yet as our old house, but my husband and babies are here and that's all it takes to make it home.