First Snow in the New House!

We had our first snow in our new house!

We thought we were going to wake up to snow and were super bummed when we looked outside the window and saw nothing.

But eventually huge beautiful white snow flakes fell from the sky!

The babies were loving it and finally agreed to wear their winter hats and gloves for the occasion.

It probably took me 30 minutes to get them ready to go outside and play in the snow. The first batch of snow came and went quickly...

but later in the day we got even more!

And we convinced David to knock off of work to enjoy it with us!

I love our new house in the snow!

The next morning before all the snow melted we were able to make a few snow balls and taste the snow!

Hunter had also been begging for cinnamon rolls so David decided to make some from scratch!

They turned out amazing and were the perfect treat for a snowy day!

I ordered the boys some snow boots so we are hoping for more snow soon! I feel like we need at least one snow that traps us in the house and allows for some good sledding! 

 

Winter Wonderlights

 

For a post Christmas/New Year's activity we went to our local science center to their new Winter Wonder Lights exhibition. It was almost entirely outside and limited numbers so we felt it was a very COVID friendly activity for our family. I had hoped the babies would just stay in the stroller the whole time we looked at lights, but that didn't last long. Luckily we were able to keep our distance from other groups there.

Some of the highlights included a gingerbread house.

Candy cane/peppermint lane. 

Ornamental lights!

A huge tunnel of lights you could walk through.

These fun circles the boys enjoyed running and jumping on.

And our favorite a fountain light show.

The boys did great and had so much fun seeing all the lights! I am hoping we can make this a new annual tradition. We are hoping for a bright, safe, and healthy new year for our friends and family. We have much to be grateful for and try to focus on the good things around us and the many blessings in our lives. 

Two little walkers!

 So this video is overdue by over a year now! When Finley first started walking David made a cute little video to document his success and he finally got around to making one for the twins! We are trying our best to make sure their life and childhood is equally documented to that of their older brother. Of course life is way more hectic with two and me being in school, but hopefully we will eventually keep up with all their milestones.

So without further ado...here come the Generals!

A Very Covid Christmas

It has been a very busy month of December, but also festive and fun despite the COVID limitations! 

Here are some of the highlights from this past month!

Decorating our new home!

We really enjoyed putting up our Christmas decorations in our new home. It was fun figuring out where to put the tree and how best to arrange things. I think it turned out pretty well!

Having to put up outdoor lights took a little longer than normal as we needed to put up lots of new command hooks. But eventually it came together! The babies loved driving up to our house and seeing the lights as well as taking in all the festive decorations around the neighborhood and surrounding area.

 

They weren't exactly helpful when it came to decorating the tree...but they sure did enjoy themselves!

And we were setting all kinds of records for the number of ornaments broken and destroyed this year! We were averaging one every other day for the first week I think!

Running/Walking of the Balls with Carries!

Our annual running of the balls event went virtual this year due to COVID. That didn't stop us from visiting the neighborhood and enjoying a nice walk with Carrie!

It was sad not to be able to participate in the race and enjoy the festive music, but the decorations were on point as always!

The babies loved the lights as we enjoyed peppermint milkshakes while we walked around. 

Christmas Eve with Family!

 

Our big fancy dinner with family is always held on Christmas Eve. In order to make sure we could see family safely, we quarantined for the week leading up to Christmas.

It had been such a long time since we had seen my parents and even longer since seeing David's!

I am happy to report that it was a safe, healthy, low stress evening filled with great company and amazing food!

We even got to have Ashie doggie come and visit us!

This year we made three different sauces to go with our beef tenderloin. Of course mine, the basil curry mayo, is always the favorite!

Here's the whole gang! We wore masks the whole time except when eating when we separated into households to be extra safe!

This picture of Hunter knocking back his eggnog cracks me up! That boy is addicted to sweets!

For dessert we had homemade cheesecake and trifle that Debbie made!

Both were a huge hit!

After dinner we had our annual piano concert given by Finley and even a song (Skidermerink) performed by the babies. Unfortunately those videos are too long to post!

This is the tree and gifts the night before the big day! Again I was very grateful for how on top of things we were! No staying up late wrapping presents or putting together gifts for this crew!

Christmas Day!

Of course this crew gets up super early ever day of the week so Christmas was no exception!

We had a nice Christmas morning to ourselves while we opened stockings, family gifts, and Santa's gifts.

The Bean family got the twins these great indoor plasma cars.  

 

And Finley got a new bike for Christmas!

Stockings were way more fun for the twins this year.

Though it is hard to keep them moving onto the next thing when they want to play with what's right in front of them!

By mid morning Grammie and Abuelo came over to open up their presents.

Finley really enjoys all his new video games and gaming tools!

We then all enjoyed a yummy brunch of breakfast burritos once my family came in from Chapel Hill. 

After brunch we opened up gifts with my parents and siblings. The boys loved their new T Rex toys from Uncle Donovan!

And we broke in a new dart set Auntie Michelle gave us by putting lots of dents in our freshly painted walls. LOL. 

Michelle and Aliza got us this great new card game called Dutch Blitz which we have really enjoyed playing. 

And this is how taking pictures with Donovan goes...LOL

He behaves for one out of every twenty photos it seems. 

The boys got a lot of educational toys from Mimi and Pop Pop!

Here's the Dorrance gang! 

A Day in Chapel Hill!

We took the day after Christmas "off" to recover and then went to visit my parents and siblings in Chapel Hill on the 27th before Michelle left town.

It was a nice low key day that we were able to enjoy hanging out and playing with Ash!

These boys love dogs!

And so do I! As soon as the boys are bigger and more self sufficient I really want to get a dog!

Finley enjoyed learning how to shoot BB guns with Auntie Michelle and Pop Pop. 

Michelle said I wasn't allowed to post this video of her dancing to Justin Bieber on the internet...but surely she didn't mean my blog that only my mom and Andrea reads right?! LOL!

We had a great time visiting with family and eating lots of yummy food this Christmas! I am so grateful we were able to see everyone even if it was for shorter periods of time and slightly modified. Hoping our parents get the vaccine soon so that we can see them safely more often very soon! 

Merry Merry!