The Brown Brick Road

Capturing our adventures one photo at a time...

Candy House

On Friday of last week we finally decorated the candy house! I love doing it – even if it makes a huge mess and the boys eat more candy than they put on the house!  🙂   In both 2012 and 2013, it was really just me and Maxwell doing the decorating…and really more of just me!  This year, Spencer got to get in on the fun and Maxwell definitely took charge!

candy house

candy house

candy house

candy house

candy house

Just like in previous years, there was a LOT of candy eaten and it wasn’t long until the sugar high kicked in!

candy house

candy house

In the end, we had a very festive creation and two happy boys!

candy house

Maxwell’s side…

candy house

Spencer’s side…

candy house

The back that I did a lot of…

candy house

and the front!

candy house

Best one yet I think!  🙂 Christmas fun!

Right down Santa Claus Lane

Happy Monday and Christmas Eve Eve Eve!  🙂  We’re getting ready for Santa around here – one box at a time!  We did make a trip to see the jolly man last week and Maxwell got to tell him what he wanted.  We were supposed to go the week before but then Maxwell got sick. He was trying to so hard to convince me we could still go that night but then finally, through sad tears, said he didn’t feel good and wanted to stay home. He was trying so hard to go because he was worried that he wouldn’t get to tell Santa what he wanted in enough time for his elves to make it!  Precious boy.  I assured him that we could go see Santa the following week and that would still give the elves plenty of time to make his presents!

Like last year, we saw Santa at The Club and Maxwell marched right on up and sat on his lap!

santa

He said he wanted emergency vehicles – a fire truck, police car and ambulance.  Hmmm….seems like I’ve heard that list before!

santa

Let’s hope he’s been good enough!  🙂

santa

Spencer didn’t want to get near Santa. Even the promise of a candy cane couldn’t lure him onto his lap.

santa

So, we all hopped in and got a family picture with the man himself.

santa

Santa told us that he likes chocolate chip cookies.  Duly noted, Santa, duly noted.

santa

santa

Ho Ho Ho!

Oh Christmas Tree!

So, the outside of our house looked ready for Christmas…

decorations

and our mailbox looked super holiday-ish (Thank You Susan!!)…

mailbox

so we had to get the inside of the house to match! Getting it done this year looked a little different than previous years but that’s ok. I went and picked out the tree by myself and, since we’ve taken a picture every other year when we got our tree (2013 and 2012 and 2011 and 2010), I had to take one of myself at the tree lot with our tree of choice!  ha!

tree

We actually had it delivered and then it was raining when it came so it got to sit outside for another day to dry. We finally got it inside and then I got sick. Then Robert went out of town. Then the boys and I were determined to decorate the tree on Wednesday only to get all the lights out and discover that half of them didn’t work. Well, after an emergency trip to Little Hardware at 5pm that night to get more lights we were finally in business!  We fought through all the obstacles and ended up with the best tree yet!  🙂

tree

Little Hardware had these neat, big, colored lights and Maxwell thought they were FANTASTIC because they had some orange lights on them. While I usually prefer all white lights on my tree, I have to admit that these colored lights are really fun and add just the right touch to our tree this year!

tree

My “helpers” were a really big “help” and super proud of the tree when it was finished!  They even wanted to go put on their Christmas tree pjs and take another picture!

christmas tree

Ok, Santa…we’re ready!

tree

Have a great weekend!

The Move

Good news – I’m back up and running! I must have just had a little 24 hour bug because after a day of rest and a good night’s sleep, I’m back to 100%.  So, let’s get on with it because we’ve got lots to do!  First up – the move!  Whoa…moving is no joke!  On Thursday of last week, we had our GREAT movers from New Latitudes come and pack up the house. In all my previous moves, I’ve packed myself…but I’ve also never moved 8 months pregnant with 2 toddlers!  Let me say, letting the movers pack us was worth every. single. penny.  They were there from 8:30am to about 7:30pm with basically no breaks.  A full day!  The boys loved checking out all the boxes that night!

move

move

On Friday morning, the boys got ready to head out with Mrs. Susan while Robert and I got ready to move.  I had to take a little family picture on the last morning at our old house though…

old house

Who’s excited about the new house!  woohoo!

old house

GJ and I manned the old house most of the day while Robert dealt with the remaining workers at the new house.  Oh yes, we had all kinds of workers still in there up until the very last minute!  But, they got all of the important stuff done just in time so that was great.  A few glimpses of some empty rooms before all of our boxes came in…

new rooms

and a sneak peek of the bathrooms we re-did…

bathrooms

bathroom

bathroom

They were loading up the trucks at the old house from about 8:30 to 3:00 and then finally made it to the new house to unload it all!

new house

The boys quickly found their place amongst all the boxes…

boxes

Spencer learned to master the stairs (though he still prefers a hand to hold when coming down!)…

new house

and everyone enjoyed a first meal in the new house!

new house

By the end of the day, we were all so exhausted that we all slept great – boys included!  Everyone liked their new rooms!  Hooray!  The next morning, Susan nicely took the boys to see a Christmas play and, while they were gone, I got the boys rooms all fixed up. Maxwell’s room…

mbb room

and Spencer’s…

spencer room

I’d say he likes it!  🙂

spencer room

We also managed to get the kitchen somewhat organized…

kitchen

We still have LOTS to do – like get an actual working dishwasher and dryer – but we’re in and we’re happy to be here!  Now if we could just get that Christmas tree decorated….

Overdone

Yep, that’s me. Overdone. After moving and unpacking while 8 months pregnant, I totally overdid it and am now sick as a dog. Luckily it’s not flu so maybe just a little virus or even just extreme exhaustion. And don’t get me started on the heartburn! I’ve seen the doc and am trying to rest and am sure I’ll be back up and running in no time. No fun post for today but enjoy this cool pic of the boys by an awesome Christmas tree the other night…

IMG_6345-0.JPG
Is it really only 8 days until Christmas?! I gotta get well!