Fun in the Snow!

Love to play!

Winter Wonderland

Blizzard 2010

It's a fact! We love snow! It's fun to shovel it (in the beginning) and it's fun to play in it and it's fun to have school canceled. Here are a few pictures of what we've been up too.

Our back porch on Friday night! There's more there now after another day of snow.

Our snowman after a night of heavy snow.

The front walk during the 1st shoveling of the day.

Teenager At Last!

Maegan's birthday is always the 1st big celebration every year! This year is a big one...she's a TEENAGER!!! In lieu of a party, the girls went to New York for the weekend. We had a blast! Her birthday cake this year came from Carlo's Bake Shop (Cake Boss' bakery from TLC.) We shopped, saw the show Wicked, and climb up into the crown of the Statue of Liberty. Of course we carried on the family tradition of balloons on the bed and cookies!

More Fall Events

Other things happening this fall...

In September...School started - Kendall and Grant are in 5th grade and Maegan is in 7th.


In October, we visited Belvedere Plantation in Fredericksburg, VA. It is a huge pumpkin patch with barn swings, tractor rides, pig races, pumpkin chunkin, zip lines and corn mazes.

Halloween was wet and rainy but all the neighbors still met on the pipestem to hand out candy.

In November, we had a relaxing, quite Thanksgiving with just the 5M's. We watch the parade on TV, some football too (thought those Aggies were going to win!), ate way too much food and the kids made turkeys out of oreo cookies and candy pieces.

It's about time!

My dad has asked me several times if I'm ever going to update this blog. Truth is that I've let life happen and not been too disciplined at sharing.

We have been our busy selves and seem to always be on the go, which makes us happy! During the fall, Grant played fall little league baseball, Kendall continued to play travel soccer, and Maegan played club soccer, school volleyball and basketball. Well, basketball to a certain extent. She is currently recovering from a fractured jaw that has benched her for all sports since November 15th. The same day she was diagnosed was the same day she made the JV basketball middle school team. She has one week left until we expect to receive the all clear for contact sports!

Eric and I have been taxi drivers and spectators. Oh yeah, Eric is now a certified assistant referee (AR) or STAR as the soccer league calls them. He took a certification class and is a volunteer for Maegan's team.

Look what the cat drug in

Our old neighbors!!!

The 4V's have been reassigned to the Pentagon too! They arrived in town July 14th and have settled down about 20-25 minutes from our house. We took them a Welcome Dinner of imported HEB brisket and all the sides. Yummy! It's was like we were back in Texas! The 4V's have been on many more adventures than we have before arriving in Virginia. When we last saw them, they were headed to Japan for 2 years and followed on to Tinker in Oklahoma for 2 years. Now home is here. As MB reminded me...home is where the Air Force puts you!

Shootin' Hoops

The summer camp highlight seemed to be the Tommy Adams Basketball Camp that all 3 kids attended called "Ball 4 All" Kendall was skeptical since she's never played before and Grant and Maegan were ready. The camp was a week long for 2 1/2 hours/day. By the end of the camp, Kendall was known for her aggression and speed, Maegan for her strategic manuevers, and Grant for his passing and shooting skills. It was so much fun to see the kids play either together or against each other. It was quite entertaining when the twins were up against each other too. Neither wanted to be beat by the other!

In case you're wondering who Tommy Adams is...he was once rostered with the Milwaukee Bucks and now plays in Europe. Very nice man who really connected with the kids! I'm sure will be going again next year.

Random Summer Moment

Our great friends, the 4V's, gave us a book called Mondo DC when we first moved here. It's an insider's guide to DC's most unusual tourist attractions. It definitely informs of unique sites to see! We had a day without any planned events so we flipped through the book and ended up here...

The Big Chair!

The story...in the 1950's, Bassett Furniture Industries, of Bassett, Virginia appreciated Curtis Brothers' furniture company so much that they made then something really special to set outside their showroom. Because Bassett made chairs and Curtis Brothers sold them, it seemed natural that the monument would take the form of a chair. A Duncan Phyfe model chair standing 19 feet, 2 1/2 inches tall was originally made of solid African mahogany wood from the Belgian Congo. It stands even taller on a four foot high concrete base. Not only did the "World's Biggest Chair" honor Curtis Brothers', it was also designed to crush Thomasville, North Carolina's claim to having the biggest chair, that stood at only 18 feet tall. Due to aging and rotting of the wood, the chair was redone in April 2006 and is now metal with a vinyl seat but it's still there and we've seen it and the kid's have climbed on it!

As crazy as it is, we had to convince Eric to take us but once we got there it was so unique that all we could do is laugh and take pictures. I guess it was worth it because something like this isn't on every street corner. It ends up that it's historical too! Did you hear recently in the news that Marion Berry was arrested again? This chair is located in Anacostia, just a few blocks from the park he was in. Maybe that's why we had to convince Eric to take us.

July 4th

What's more American than Baseball?

We went to the Potomac Nationals game to include the pregame picnic and then watched fireworks from the stands right after the game. Right after the fireworks, Kendall and Grant ran the bases. Apparently, lots of families in our area did the same thing as we saw many friends at the game.

Happy Birthday America!!!