Outer Banks Sunset

We headed down to the beach house in the Outer Banks to check in and get everything ready for Thanksgiving. It was a gorgeous drive passing dunes on one side and barns with pine trees on the other. When we arrived the boys immediatly ran not to the sand but to the gravel that lined the drive way :) Armed with shovels and buckets they attempted to make gravel castles. Sams was in heaven as he buried his trains shouting OH NO!!! Every few mins. Liam found the outside shower room and thought that was pretty cool :) After unloading (you would htink we were moving here!) We took a walk down the pier. It was sunset and was gorgeous!!

This last one is the first real picture I have taken with a tripod. The folks on the end were so sweet and let the boys (well Liam pet their adorable dog Bentley).
I am so excited to come down again and spend a nice long weekend with fabulous friends, food and scenery!

Painful

Our friend Adam Harrison (Nora's Hubby) was kind enough to crash at our house while the boys slept so Christopher and I could go see the midnight showing of Twilight together. We met up with the Grady's (thank goodness for Chris's sake so he wasn't the only hubby being dragged there). It was in a word Painful. Loved the characters, loved the story, loved the costumes, loved the casting but the directing was seriously laughable. I lost count of the number of times I laughed out loud at a part that was supposed to be serious. ANWAYS it was fun and came around and started being a good movie about 3/4 of the way through (once they decided silence in the background is awkward and added some background music. Movies ALWAYS have music. I know real life doesn't but that's why we go to the movies). It was ironic thought because we got in line at 10 PM all ran into the theater sat through some pretty scary trailers and when the movie started there was no sound and the picture was completely askew. After ten mins they fixed it but I feel like I have to go see it again to hear Edwards monologue at the beginning.... well see if I am willing to shell out the bucks :) I hope it does well enough that they do the others and just get a better director, the Harry Potters did it so can Twilight!
PS the women in the williamburg ward are awesome we were out in force tonight!!!

Oh my gosh this is freaky

So my friend Alicia picture tagged me. What your supposed to do is go into your picture folder select the fourth folder and then fourth picture. I kid you not this is the picture that holds that spot:

This is at a Rock the vote event in 2004. I was covering it for my job in DC. I got pictures with both Barrack and McCain (who was EXTREMELY kind and spoke to me for a while about Chris being in Iraq).

My lady friends who were there with me: Jen, Aoiffe, Our intern whos name I can't remember, and Nora!

Little did I know what the future held. Seriously that is crazy. Thanks Alicia for giving me chills. If you want do see if you have a freaky expreience like me then I tag YOU!

I fall down-- A LOT

Hey, Liam here. Just thought I'd let you know I've been giving my mom a heart attack lately with the number of falls I've had. Two days ago I fell down the stairs while she was distracted by the sister missionaries. I got this awesome bump on my head, I told her it was to impress Sophie, chics dig bruises I hear. Today I feel head first into the bath tub. It keeps her on her toes. I try to be like my favorite stuffed guy the Hulk and not get hurt but I need more practice-- to bad for mom.

Look at that face!

Nicole handed me a dvd today at art with our family pictures on it and I couldn't wait to get it home! I tried to talk myself into not putting them up here so when they are on our Christmas card they are more of a surprise but I couldn't help myself!

Liam basically stole the show and I just about died when I saw this pic. It is so perfect that he is scowling-- that's Lemers to a T.

Sam gave this great smile Nicole called it sam the ladies man ;)

Trouble one and trouble two:

Nicole was also kind enough to snap one of just me. I told her I wanted one for Christopher to put on his desk at work so all his coworkers say "Wow you have got one good lookin' wife!" I know vanity flare up but she was kind enough to oblige and hopefully didn't judge me to harshly :)

A cute one of me and the man of my dreams:

High flying adored:

Tagged By Jord

My wonderful friend Jordan tagged me. I don't get tagged often on account of my being so fast haaa (insert pity laugh here). But since Jordan is running a marathon this weekend she was up for the challenge. I also took this very seriously because Jord is not obsessed with blogging like I am so when she does it I sit up and pay attention. So here are the rules:

1. Link the person who tagged you.

2. Mention rules on your blog.

3. Tell about 6 quirks of yours.

4. Tag 6 fellow bloggers to do the same.

5. Leave a comment to let them know

Quirks:

1. I love to cook but HATE grocery shopping! I don't like the time it consumes, the money it takes, the crowds, the constant distracting of Sam and Liam and the look the women give me at the check out as they repeatedly scan already opened items fed to said boys.

2. I really really really hate feet. I do not know how my brother in law is a podiatrist. But thankfully there are people like him who love feet because you would not believe the array of injuries people come into his office with. Oddly enough though I LOVE foot rubs. Chris is very obliging on this front though it has never been reciprocated ;)

3. I care a lot more if things are organized then if they are clean. This is hard to explain, but lets just say I can ignore the dish's in the sink A LOT longer if they are stacked nicely. Yeah... weird. I get grumpy if my house is not organized but it is rarely spotless.

4. I listen to Christmas music an insane amount starting the day after Halloween, yup that's right almost two months before the holiday!

5. I cannot repeat cannot read people. AT ALL. Which makes life difficult because half the time I think people are either mad at me or don't like me when they may just be a more introverted person and not as rambunctious as me.

6. I love my pillow. When I was little I remember my mom getting fed up with my disgusting pillow and throwing it out in the trash. I went out got it and slept with it that night... NASTY! I still have a thing for pillows though. Especially pillows from a Marriott Hotel, lets just call them my grown up blanky.

Okay so I am weird, but we all knew that. I here by hunt down and tag Heidi, Hailey, Nora, Jackie, Kristen and Leslie. Sorry guys rules are rules.

Bubbles and Big Piles of Leaves

I took the boys up to play in the leaves up at CW yesterday. We had just received a fun package from Chris' mom that contained bubbles so I brought those along as well. The workers had cleaned up all the leaves on the streets and made hug piles along side the road.

This made for a fantastic time. Of course after a while Sam wanted to blow the bubbles and Liam just wanted to eat the wand.

They met a really cute little girl who thought they were hysterical so Sam tromped around in the leaves trying to evoke laughter from Sam and Lea-- he was very successful.

I was sooooo glad we went and did this when we did because the next morning when we headed out for a run all the piles were magically gone! It's those elves you talked about Nora ;)

I heart tweed

I have always loved the scratch itchy fabric and this week I have gone fill tilt into tweed sewing. Today I finished another pair of baby booties this time for my friend Amanda who had a baby girl! They just look like they belonged in the leaves. (I haven't put the Velcro on hence the weird angle of the faux buckle)

I also am making my little sister a hat similar to Liam's! I just feel like this fabric goes so well with this gorgeous season! It seems like girls are being born everywhere lately! My friend Nina had her little girl Olivia today. She got-- what no surprise here some booties. I made her these argyle boots with suede on the bottom because Nina has a flare for shoes. At least I think she does. She is always wearing the coolest shoes.

Then I went for an old classic with the simple blue and yellow in case she needs a break from pink!

Its hard to find good help

While Sam was good and went down for a LONG nap the other day Liam talked to himself in his crib for a little over 45 mins. Finally he got pretty insistent and I didn't want him to wake up Sam and Daddy so I went and got him. I was in the midst of cutting out a pattern so I put him on the floor next to me in the playroom. This is when the "you can buy all the toys you want but kids are going to play with whatever they are not supposed to" kicks in. First he helped me by getting up and moving two feet in order to sit right on my fabric.

He then picked up scraps and attempted to tie them around his neck

(I think he was seeing if it would make a good tie). He is also great at Tech support. When I went to the computer to work on the primary program he helped me by making sure the printer was in good order.

This morning while Liam and Chris napped I made a little tweed hat with material from a tweed coat I bought at a thrift store. (you get a ton of fabric and buttons and lining for 1.99!!) I was able to complete it and get Sam tot wear it for a little while but as soon as Liam was awake he claimed it for his own. It was a little big but it works :)

smell my feet :)

Halloween was pretty fun this year. It was very laid back because we don't have a candy hording child yet who realizes that the more house you go to the more candy you get, but Sam did actually "get it" this year. To start off with we went to a few people in our neighborhood. Liam looked like he was choking on something before we even got started, giving me visions of Heimlich maneuvers from hard candy.

Ironically enough the first house we went to (the Thornock's :)) no one was home.

Sam liked taking his hat off and throwing it, I was just happy we was wearing it at all. After a few Midland homes we loaded the boys up and went to people we knew. This time I called ahead and luckily the Grady's postponed their dinner in order to give the boys some candy. Liam totally biffed it walked down a little slope in their parking lot and got some pretty nice road rash on his forehead. Now he looked like super tough king foo panda! Sam of course walked right in and acted like we were going to stay a while (he proceeded to do this at most houses we went to).

Liam picked up Leslie's blackberry and head out the door. I thought this was a pretty good treat :) We then wanted a safe fun neighborhood so we headed over to Sam's good buddy Thomas' neighborhood where we hit up the Lacy's and the Crookstons. Plus we got some of their awesome neighbors. Directly across the street from Thomas' house, the lady was giving out full sized candy bars! (I know as an adult this shouldn't be all the cool but I was still excited).

She had shop all set up on her drive way. Liam was much more brave then sam. She had a skull that lit up and talked and Sam would not go near her so Chris had to get the candy. She asked Chris which the boys would like and he picked his and my favorites haa! Way to go hubby! Then we headed over to our old neighborhood to tick or treat there. It was really fun seeing our old friends and showing off how much the boys had grown. It made me really miss living there, the vaulted ceilings, the fireplace, the ample storage, the pool, oh and then I remember the ample rent we paid and I felt much better ;) Because the boys had not had enough sugar we grabbed an ice cream on the way home. I turned to give Sam his and found he was already occupied with a finger up each nose.

Seriously charming. I remembered what my brother in law Glen told my niece Bailey when he caught her doing the same thing "you just keep doing that until you are 18, it will keep the boys away" Haaa! I can only hope it works to ward off girls also.