University of Tennessee Graduation

{BEWARE: this post is filled with lots of pictures, from various cell phones and cameras - some clear and some not...}

We set out on our journey to Tennessee on Thursday, December 8th to see my cousin Jordan graduate from UT on Friday morning. We were so excited to go as most of the family would be together for the first time in awhile. Whenever my dad's family gets together, an amazing time is guaranteed. The ride to Knoxville was smooth and easy.

The kids went to bed not too long after we arrived. Graduation was scheduled to begin at 9am on Friday morning and there were at least 15 people staying at my Aunt Rita's house so everyone had to be up in plenty of time to shower and get ready. Thank goodness for 4 showers & a huge water heater in the house! The graduation was held at Thompson-Boling Arena and was really nice. It was a little long and with every graduate walking the stage, Deuce got a little restless. So after Jordan finally made it across the stage, I took him up to the concourse level to roam. We must have walked the arena 4 or 5 times. Then we stopped to take a break {and lay down on the stairs for a bit}.

After the ceremony we all headed to the Country Club for a brunch for the family. The Club was decorated for Christmas and sits on the side of a mountain looking over the valley with large homes. It was really beautiful. The food was great and we had a good time. We even had a few emotional family moments when Jordan was thanking all of us for driving the distance to watch him graduate and telling us how much he loves us all. My cousins and I are very close.

some of the Edgerton family, everyone joked that me and Ed had to stand on the right side to spread out the color.

cousins: Ricky, Laura, Jordan, Ryan, Jami, me

my cousin TJ with Aunt Rita (we had to call him Big TJ all weekend to not get the two confused).

G and Laura

Jordan and Big Chris

Deuce and Jordan

The chocolate cupcake that could not be put down

Seriously, how Dennis the Menace is this??

Aunt Rita, Jordan, Uncle Jeff

The Roth boys doing the Baylor Bear Claw for Spencer. He is the punter for the Baylor football team and couldn't make it home for graduation.

Deuce and G

After the brunch we went back to the house to hang out for awhile until the party started. A local bar had been reserved for a graduation party and we turned that biker joint into a club. That's how my family rolls. Chanler was on board to babysit for us {love having built in babysitters in Knoxville!} so we had a late night out. We wobbled and shuffled and booty popped all night. That night was one of the best nights we've had in a VERY long time!

I don't think I really left the house on Saturday. The boys watched football in the media room all day and the girls watched Lifetime movies in the living room all day. Aunt Rita and Aunt Rhonda cooked dinner and we had a wonderful time laying around. Sunday we headed back home after a lunch with Ed's brother and the kids. It was such a nice weekend and has us all looking forward to Ricky's graduation in a few years!

So... I'm 30.

It actually happened. I turned 30. Almost a month ago.

And while I struggled with actually saying the word "thirty" my birthday was a memorable one. Laura and Annie teamed up with my honey to throw me a surprise birthday party with some of my best friends. It was amazing. We had dinner at Graffiti's Bistro & Martini Bar and the room was all decorated with balloons, a huge banner, table decorations and a pair of "30" glasses for me to wear. I was so excited to see some of my closest friends there.

After dinner we went out to The Mix, a bar/club in Greensboro. Let me tell you the last time I went to the club... actually, I can't tell you because I don't remember! I was so excited to go dancing. If you know me then you know my life has always revolved around me dancing in some sort of fashion so to me there is nothing more fun than a night at the club. With that being said, I am 30 now so I can't do that but once in a while or you may find me asleep on the bar by 10:30. But this night we stayed out until 2am!!! We didn't take too many pictures inside but I did manage to get a video of Daniel, Laura and G doing the wobble. I know it's pretty hard to see but you can at least hear how much fun we had!

First Visit with Santa!

I decided to take Deuce to see Santa for the first time while we were in Virginia visiting my dad. I knew my dad would really enjoy taking him and I am so glad we did it. My mom had told me that the lines to see Santa at Southpoint had 2 hours plus waiting time but the mall in Chesapeake was pretty bare so we only had to wait behind one small baby and a group of navy sailors. And I must say, this was seriously the best Santa I've ever seen. Not only did he look SUPER real {take a look for yourself}, but they were soooo accommodating. I was determined that no matter what, Deuce was going to have his picture taken with Santa. Even if he was screaming his head off. Is that mean? Maybe, but we have a picture of my sister crying her eyes out when she was little and we love looking at it now. So I thought in the long run, he'll appreciate it. Hmmm.

When we got to the mall, Deuce was all about Santa. He was wearing his own Santa hat, waving to him and shouting "hi" from the line. I was totally surprised but thinking this was going to go great! Then when it was our turn, I got him out of the stroller and walked him over to Santa and he seriously gave him a fist bump first thing and then started talking to him like they were old pals. But when it came time for me to sit him down with Santa...no way, Jose! He immediately initiated the death claw grip into my arms and started climbing up my stomach with his feet. He didn't bust out the tears but he was pretty darn close. The staff and Santa immediately told me that if I wanted, Santa would hide behind the big chair and we could put Deuce in the chair to read some books. Then Santa would pop out and pose for some pictures and Deuce would never even know that he was there. So we moved Deuce to where he couldn't see Santa get up and hide and when he saw that chair open, it was like a mad dash to crawl in the chair. The Santa was amazing!

After the pictures, Deuce was back to being all about talking to Santa and calling him  "Caw Caus." And of course, we couldn't leave without another fist bump. After going to just about every mall in the Triangle and the Triad, I am so glad that we went to see Santa in Chesapeake. He was the best Santa by far!

Christmas Day 2011

Christmas was madness. As usual. Because we stayed up so late on Christmas Eve with Daniel and Rebecca, we pretty much had to wake the boys up on Christmas morning to get things going. We got them up about 9, I think. Santa paid us a visit and nibbled on some cookies, drank some milk and even left behind some of his magic snow from the North Pole. Cuh-razy!!!

Deuce opened his first present from Santa and it was a small, blue basketball. Ya know what? He was totally satisfied with that being his only gift. He didn't care to open another thing. I literally had to hide the blue ball and force him to open some more presents. I'm pretty sure Santa got it as a last second, impulse purchase too. Go figure. I ended up opening quite a few of them. He was excited about his slippers that matched TJ's, his Cars lunch box, his new skateboard and his new Jordan's {of course}. He was trying to put them on immediately.

After gifts were opened, I cooked a quick breakfast and we headed down the road to Nana's. There we met up with Laura & G and James. We had a great lunch and then opened more presents. Deuce and TJ got matching UNC hats that have "Geer" on the back from Nana and Grandpa and lots of other Elmo/Big Bird/Toodles {Mickey Mouse} themed gifts. Again, he opened his hat and didn't care too much about any other presents. Ed and I got some great stuff from the family and we each got the 1 main thing that we had been wanting. Ed got his new yard edger, the Works GT and I got the new Silhouette Cameo! FOR REAL!! If you are not a crafter then I'm sure you have no idea what it is but if you are then you know what a big deal it is to get one of these things. It's like a bigger, better Cricut machine that cuts paper, vinyl, fabric and all sorts of other stuff. The Cameo version was just released and sold out immediately so I am beyond excited that my mom was able to find me one. I also made Nana and Grandpa a handmade sign for their driveway that I burned by hand. Here's a sneak peak of it in progress and I'll share the final picture as soon as they get it hung up. They were really excited and I was very happy that I was able to get it done in time. I didn't take any pictures so these are a few that my sister took with her phone. Yeah, that's the over dramatic "ELMO" face I was giving right there.

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After we left Nana and Grandpa's we went to Grandma & Grandpa's for a little while to see Ed's family. And open MORE presents! Deuce got his very first tricycle and he is obsessed. He's been riding it all over the house. Hopefully we can get him outside on it soon. He hasn't quite figured out how to push the pedals down to make it go but he's close.

After we left Grandma and Grandpa's we dropped TJ off in Raleigh with his mom and grandparents and then trucked it on a little farther to Clayton to my Aunt's house where my dad was waiting with my Grandma and cousins. Pop got the boys TVs for the car which have been just as much of a gift for me and Ed as they have been for the boys. I brought them back from VA so the boys could open them Christmas morning and we could have them for all the car riding Christmas day. Every time we get in the car Deuce says "Toodles? Toodles?" Which is code for Mickey Mouse please. They are going to make future road trips so much more pleasant! We spent the night in Clayton with my family and then went back to Chapel Hill on Monday to Ed's family Christmas gathering with his entire extended family. We got back home at about 10pm on the Monday after Christmas and we were all exhausted!!!

I hope you all had as wonderful a Christmas as we did! Here is our 2011 Christmas card. Photo courtesy of Regan and layout courtesy of Etsy. I'll post about our photo shoot soon!

Christmas Eve 2011

Time to catch you up on our holidays. I have some stuff to post that happened prior to the holidays but I'm just going to do it out of order. Whatever. I feel like it's already been a week since Christmas and I need to get this out there before it's too far gone. So anyway.

We started a new tradition for Christmas Eve this year. We had Daniel and Rebecca, Chase and Austin over for dinner. They didn't have any plans so we decided that we would spend the evening together and let the kids play and celebrate with each other. It was a truly special time. Thank goodness I had a week and a half off BEFORE Christmas because I was able to get the shopping done in a reasonable time and not wait until the last minute for everything, like I normally do. I even took Deuce down to my mom's the Wednesday before, along with all of the gifts that would be opened at her house (mom, Bob, Laura, G, James...) and I wrapped them down there so I could just leave them there. It was so nice to not have to worry about loading up the car with gifts on Christmas day. So Christmas Eve, I only had a few things left to wrap {mainly Ed's presents} and luckily he had shopping to do so he left the house. I got those last few things done and then I started preparing for the evening.

I cooked Chicken Supreme {mom's recipe - it's bangin'}, homemade loaded mashed potatoes and green bean casserole. Rebecca and Daniel had given me a bottle of Moscato and some of those frozen drink pouches that are premixed for my birthday so I saved it all to share with them for Christmas Eve. We ate dinner, tossed a couple of drinks back and laughed. A LOT. It was a blast.

The kids wrote letters to Santa. I baked cookies and then Austin and TJ decorated them and loaded up the Santa plates.

I made reindeer food for the kids and we sprinkled it on the lawn to light the path for Santa and the sleigh. Austin and Chase took theirs home to sprinkle on their yard.

Here is the picture of the boys saying bye to Alfie that I mentioned in the last post.

We had so much fun with the Smith family and I hope that it's a Christmas Eve tradition that we can continue for years to come.