Christmasy type things

I know, I know. This break has gotten a little ridiculous.
And I have good reasons, but I'll get to those later. Right now, I desperately need to do a Christmas recap! What better time to do that than on the weekend when nobody's reading blogs. ;)

So, Thanksgiving. Yeah, it's been that long...

We kept things simple this year and only went to my grandparents for lunch. Noah has been doing such a fantastic job at big gatherings. If it gets to be too much for him, he goes upstairs to the little game room to play where it's quiet.

Also, you'll notice in some of these pictures, Brad shaved. It was a temporary thing. A friend of ours posted some old pictures of him from high school, and I was all, "Aww, I miss his face!" So when he came home one day from work, I told him I missed his face. He went straight to the bathroom and shaved. That was our deal in the beginning. He would only keep it until I was tired of it (his rule, not mine). Anyway, the beard is back now, but it was nice to change it up for a week or so. I hadn't seen his face since the beginning of summer.

Brad's work schedule... as you can imagine in retail... has been pretty crazy. Lots of 7 day, 14 hr shift stretches. But we keep reminding ourselves of all the time off he gets during the rest of year. We still manage to make Christmas memories, and Noah is so laid back that he's happy to go along with whatever. Another plus side to Noah... no whining and begging to do certain activities. He's happy wherever we are.

Noah also isn't very crafty. He likes to paint, but that's about it. So I spent a couple hours baking and decorating sugar cookies... for him to spend a total of 10 minutes on them. Oh well. His favorite part was eating the cookie dough and sprinkles. lol

Our little town had their Christmas parade a couple weeks ago. It's so cute to see who and what makes it into the line-up. Random tv newscasters, a group of kids from the elementary school, high school bands (that aren't even from our county, lol), the beauty pageant winners, and of course the Shriners in their mini cars. Noah's favorites were the police and firetrucks, the Shriner cars, and the bands. He spent a lot of the parade with his ears covered, but I expected that. It's a lot to take in for a sensory kid, and he did so well. And when it got to be too much... instead of melting down... he grabbed our hands and let us know he was ready to leave.

We also went to the Billy Graham Library, which has turned into a new tradition for us. Last year, we didn't do the horse and carriage ride because it was so busy. So this year, we picked a week night that Brad was going to be home, and it couldn't have turned out more perfectly. They have shuttle buses to pick guests up at one of the parking lots and take them to the library. Noah LOVED it. I knew he would, since he loved the one at Biltmore so much. He also loved the horse and carriage ride. He kept watching the other carriages go by and saying, "Horse!" It was so cute. The lights were beautiful, and they give everyone big blankets to use for cold nights (which it was!). The only thing missing was some hot chocolate, but I didn't want to risk spilling any on Noah. :)

My dad's birthday is the week before Christmas, so we always do something for him. This year we just went over there for dinner... and some music. ;) We have a very musical family. My dad plays the drums and guitar, my brother plays the drums, my stepsister plays the piano, my mom sings and plays the piano... so we have lots of instruments for Noah to explore. He's taken a really huge interest in music lately, which came in handy for Christmas ideas.

CHRISTMAS EVE...
Christmas Eve is always spent with my side of the family. It just keeps Christmas Day from getting too hectic. It's so nice having my whole family in one place, but it makes it tough to run from house to house. This just lengthens the celebration a bit and prevents Noah (and us) from getting overwhelmed.

First up is my dad and stepmom. They were awesome and got him therapy type toys... a mini trampoline, a bean bag, puzzles, etc. He's LOVED them all. That trampoline has definitely helped us out on these freezing cold days!

 
After my dad's, we head on over to my mom's house... which is like five minutes down the road. My grandma (aka "Mamaw") spends the night with them on Christmas Eve, and my brother's girlfriend (who we love) was there too. At first, it was all a little too much for Noah. Lots of food prepping, noise/talking, my stepdad making a fire... and the iPad wasn't picking up their Wifi. So we had a good 30 minutes of on and off meltdowns. We put him in their home office, figured out the internet situation, and he eventually was able to chill out. Those moments don't happen all that often, thank goodness. I'm just thankful my family, including my 83 yr old grandmother, understands.

It turned out to be a really fun night. Lots of laughing, good food, and a surprise for my mom.

 (Me, my brother, mom, and little sister)

 Why is my mom so surprised? Because this is what she opened...

Yep! We're adding another little Kemper to the family this summer! I had already told my dad at Thanksgiving, only because I knew he'd notice something was off about me. I didn't touch any of the food, and you do NOT pass on my family's Thanksgiving food. haha

But more on the pregnancy later. ;)

CHRISTMAS DAY...

Our morning was pretty low key. We got Noah up at a reasonable time (he likes to sleep like a college kid), and I even had time to make us breakfast.

For lunch, we headed to my grandparents' (on my dad's side). I didn't get too many pictures of Noah opening gifts there, because frankly, it got too hectic. It's too hard helping him in the chaos and also take pictures. Eh, it is what it is.
He had a blast though. This was the first year that Noah really got into opening presents with everyone without running off. So that part was nice. We also celebrated my dad and uncle Bob's birthdays.

Oh, and I finally got out of 2003 and now have an iPhone!
Seriously, you have no idea how badly I've been wanting one, mostly so I can document on instagram more. It's also extremely hard to take selfies with Noah (since I'm never in pictures) with a big ol' rock of a camera.

Brad also got me a kitten. He really was the cutest thing I think I've ever seen. Unfortunately, he was also the most badly behaved one. He was a rescue kitten who never had a mom/litter to teach him how to play appropriately. He wasn't mean... but he was constantly biting us. It was awful.

So after talking to the vet, she offered to exchange him for two extremely awesome lap cats. They are the most perfect, loving, well-behaved cats. Meet Bruce (the black one) and Louie. :)

I know a lot of people hate cats, and I get it. They're not for everybody. But I love them. I love the sarcastic looks they give, the goofy personalities, and the "I don't need you 24/7 to be happy" part. haha.

And THAT was our Christmas. *breathes*
Now I feel like I can move on...

Have a happy weekend!!

***

ps. I haven't read blogs much either, so if I haven't been commenting, that's why. I don't know what was wrong with me. Just needed a break I guess.

Friday Randoms

I'm really glad my husband doesn't get all weird and macho about things. Like he didn't care one bit when I told him I wanted to get Noah a play kitchen. He doesn't care that Noah has been watching Angelina Ballerina clips on his iPad. Or that Noah found a red crayon and pretends to put lipstick on himself and me. lol. Frankly, I think if his favorite color happened to be pink, Brad really wouldn't care. I love that about him.

***

Speaking of ballet... you guys have to watch this.

In the beginning of the video, a guy named Silas Farley is talking. And while it seems silly to be all, "I know him!! I know him!!"... that's totally what I'm doing. I was/am good friends with his oldest brother (who played pro basketball in Europe) and have known his family since I was little. I give his momma hugs regularly in the hallway at church. His other brother? He started as a freshman for Notre Dame's defense (football) last year. Clearly, this family has zero talent. haha.
Anyway, I just think it's super cool to see him being so successful, especially knowing his family had very humble beginnings. And I remember him being the only little boy in our church's dance ministry. See what happens when dads don't get hung up on stereotypes and instead encourage their kids' talents? They end up being amazing. 

Also, families like theirs sometimes make me feel like this...

via

 ***

I've decided that I have zero problem being thankful and also celebrating Jesus' birthday simultaneously. I also don't have a problem if people like to be thankful and celebrate Jesus separately. So stop peeing on my flowers.

Somewhat related: If you move down South, please don't make fun of the rest of us for getting excited about a few snow flurries. Also, don't whine and complain about it. That's like me moving up North and making fun of everyone for wearing flip flips in 50 degree weather. You know, "because y'all don't know what real heat is!"
You could be stuck in your house for a week if you were back up North or West or wherever you're from. I think you can handle maybe 24 hours of Southerners losing their ever loving minds over the pretty white stuff. Let us build our snowmen from snow dust (hey, we're resourceful), stock up on milk and bread, and pull people out of ditches with our big trucks. We'll calm down eventually. :)

***

I took a brain test last night. Apparently, I use both sides of my brain equally. Which really, that kind of makes sense. Sometimes I have a hard time tapping into the creative side of my brain, and other times I can't seem to be logical if my life depended on it. So basically, I'm constantly on the verge of an identity crises. ;)



That's all I've got.
Happy Friday!!

Halloween

Most of you know how I grew up not trick-or-treating or celebrating Halloween in any way. However, as the years have gone by, I'm fine with letting Noah go. My only rule is that he can't be anything scary or evil... but we haven't had to worry about that. Brad, who grew up celebrating all things Halloween, even refuses to let Noah go to the scary looking houses and avoids the scary aisle at Target with him. It's really cute actually. And of course, Noah doesn't quite "get" the concept of Halloween. So it's a non-issue.

So anyway.
The night before Halloween, we carved pumpkins. Noah, being a total sensory seeker, actually doesn't like the feeling of pumpkin guts. So I let him paint his instead.

Afterwards, he decided to do some pumpkin bowling. He set up his paints on the floor, and tried to knock them over with his pumpkin. Obviously, that proved to be a tad difficult, so I got him some TP to knock down. He plays pumpkin bowling every day since. I'm worried he's going to be really disappointed when his pumpkin starts rotting.

That night, after Noah went to bed, Chase insisted we watch a scary movie. I hate scary movies, so we compromised. We watched the 1931 version of Dracula, which turned out to be more funny than scary. Seriously, if you want a good laugh, go watch it. It was great.

For Halloween, Noah was Bob the Builder... he makes a good one, don't you think?

The other neighborhood kids loved it and would walk around singing the theme song when they saw him.
Noah did okay trick-or-treating. He's not a big candy eater, and he couldn't figure out why we were ringing doorbells and NOT going inside. Made NO sense to him. lol.

But he was awfully cute...

 Happy Wednesday! ;)

Brad's birthday/neighborhood cookout/family party... basically, people came over, gave Brad a hug, and ate.

(This was supposed to publish on Wednesday... not sure what happened?)

***

Brad isn't really one for parties. He enjoys them, sure. But to throw himself a party? Eh. He'd rather order a pizza and just hang out with Noah and me. However, since this was one of those milestone birthdays, I decided we ought to do something. Being that it was the week of July 4th, we decided to have a little family/neighborhood cookout. Brad was in charge of who he wanted to invite, so it was mostly my family (since his had been there the night before), some of the neighbors, a couple of his coworkers, and a few friends. Our neighbor owns a BBQ catering business and offered to cook the meat for us. It was amazing (if you're local and in need of somebody, check out madaboutque.com). Brad and my dad went in together and did a seafood boil. It was ridiculously good.

Thankfully the rain held off (finally), and we were able to just relax, eat, play, and have a good time.

 

In case you weren't aware, the proper way to do a seafood boil is to just throw it out on a paper covered table and let people fill up their plates there. Traditionally, I think you're supposed to use newspaper, but the thought of eating ink grossed me out. So I went with paper bags instead.

My mom is a super OCD-clean-freak. I was waiting for her to have a panic attack, but she did really well. :)

The whole thing ended up being a huge hit. Brad went back to work with his coworkers begging him to throw another one soon.

After it was over, he thanked me for forcing him to do something fun for his birthday. He's such a special guy and totally deserved to have a night to just relax and have a good time with family and friends.

4th Fun (recap)

(I know some people hate recap posts, so sorry to those peeps.  But I gotta get this down before I forget...)

Those of you who aren't located in NC may not know this, but we've been dealing with some really weird weather for the past couple of weeks. Like, I may or may not be typing this from some sort of watercraft. Really though, it's been ridiculous.

(this is with no filter, in the middle of the afternoon...)

Random little pop-up thunderstorms aren't weird for NC in the summer... however, two weeks straight of storms, downpours, gloomy Seattle-like rain, and monsoons? Not normal. Our back yard, which is usually in full sun... is now like a swamp. It's gross. I'm over it.

The plus side is that it's kept the temps down. Normally, we'd be rockin' 100+ temps right now. So far the highest we've gotten has been around 95 I think? So I probably shouldn't whine too much.

Anyway, the point of all this is that all of these torrential downpours kind of put a damper on our typical firework extravaganza. Last year, I think we saw like 4 or 5 firework shows. This year, only one real one.

But we still managed to have a great week.

Brad turned 30 on Monday. We just grilled out some steaks, since the rest of the week was going to be so busy. Our buddy Chase came down the next day, and he's actually still here.

(Noah helping uncle Chase work...)

 

Every July 3rd, mine and Brad's old neighborhood throws a big block party. Everyone brings canopies, chairs, and a dish to share. We all camp out at the end of the street (in front of my old house) and catch up. A couple of the moms that knew me as a kid were so funny. They asked my mom if she'd had some work done, because she still looks so young (she hasn't). Then they proceeded to go on and on about how "gorgeous" I am. I told them I was going to come back home more often. One of them explained how she hasn't had any work done either yet, but she does do "the yoga" (said in a strong country accent). I'm still laughing about it. Noah wasn't feeling well, and all that chaos and people was too much for him to handle. He had a total meltdown about 10 minutes into our visit, so we cut it short. He calmed down once we headed to the car, so we decided to head towards the SC border and get some fireworks (the fun kind are technically illegal in NC, but the cops tend to ignore them on the 4th). Brad picked out his arsenal, and we figured if all of our firework shows got rained out, we'd make our own.

The actual 4th of July, Brad's parents, sister, and niece (with her boyfriend) came over for burgers and to celebrate Brad's birthday. Our original plan was to go downtown for fireworks, but right around the time we needed to head down there, we got hit by another storm. My SIL brought some home movies with her, so we all cuddled around the tv and watched movies from around the time Brad and I started dating. It was so surreal to see my nieces and nephews so tiny again.

After the rain quit, we met up with one of our neighbors and combined arsenals for our own firework shows. Remember how I said most cops look the other way around here during the week? One even drove by us and didn't even pause. lol. Taxpayer money at its finest.

Saturday night, we decided to take our chances and head down to a neighborhood that sets off some amazing fireworks after the 4th. We picked up my little sister and went around the corner with hopes that the little clouds over us wouldn't get angry and turn into something bigger. They shoot them off from the golf course, and obviously, the kids LOVE being free to run around like crazy people before they start.

Thankfully, it held off just long enough for us to watch a pro show. We watched about 5-10 minutes of it before Noah sweetly asked, "Inside?" That was our cue that he'd had enough. At least we beat the traffic. My sister was awesome and watched Noah afterwards, so the three of us went to see a movie.

Despite having to change my shoes 53453984753 times and constantly stepping in mud puddles, the week was pretty awesome. More to come. :)