If all goes according to plan, work on our lot for our house should be underway this week!

Sunday, Scott and I headed over to the lot to stake out how we'd like our house to be situated (thanks to Dianne for watching Addison and Fischer while we did that!).  We also marked some of the trees we know we want taken out. We are trying to keep as many trees as possible so that our house will keep the woodsy feel that our lot already has. By the time we left, we were happy with how the layout looked, and we had fun trying to imagine what the house will look like once it's finished!

Yesterday, Scott met with our builder at the lot to go over our layout and some other details. The builder said that he hoped to get started yesterday or today on removing trees. Being impatient like we are, we went to check it out yesterday evening to see if any trees were gone yet. They weren't, so we are hoping things get going today... but of course, it's been raining all day. We will head out to the lot later in the week to check out the progress that's been made!

I still can't believe this is actually, and finally, happening!

Here is Scott marking a tree to be taken out...

Scott in our bedroom....

Where our house will go....

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.  We had a wonderful one, and we are thankful for so many things this year!

Since we had a pretty busy holiday weekend, I will share some highlights!

1. We got to spend time with my family, which was very nice... we were with my parents, my grandma, my brother, and his wife and kids. It was a full house (we went to stay with my parents) but it was a lot of fun.

2.  Addison and Fischer got to try everything we ate for Thanksgiving! Last year, they were limited to mashed potatoes and puffs.

3.  Addison has really started saying thank you a lot... it sounds like "day doo."  On Thanksgiving night, as we were eating, Scott gave her some more food. She said "Day doo, Daddy, Day doo."  It was so cute and actually made me tear up a little!

4.  Fischer loved my nephew, Carter, and kept asking for him. He would walk around saying "Ca Ca?" They had fun playing together!

5.  I loved watching Addison and Fischer interact with their cousins, Carly and Carter. They are both so good with Addison and Fischer, and it was fun to sit back and watch them play.

6.  Addison and Fischer got to play in their first big pile of leaves... and I couldn't help but join in too!

7.  I love that Addison and Fischer got to spend some time with their Great Grandma.

8.  Addison and Fischer really seemed to enjoy coloring with crayons... up until now, they would just try to eat the crayons.

9.  Fischer has recently started "singing" "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star." It's so cute to hear him singing over the monitor when he wakes up, or while he's playing.

10. Last but not least, Scott attempted the Thai Torture Wing Challenge at a restaurant near my parents house. He's been wanting to try it for awhile, so he figured there was no better time than the Friday after Thanksgiving.  We all went along for support, and to have a yummy Thai lunch of our own. The challenge was that he had to eat 12 of these HOT wings in 15 minutes. If he completed the challenge, he got his money back and a t-shirt. Sadly, he was only able to eat 2 of the wings. They were THAT hot. But, at least he tried. :)

Just a quick update tonight....

After months of waiting (thanks to the bank, paperwork, etc), we have finally closed on our construction loan. This means, we can FINALLY start building our house! We have a meeting set up with our builder on Monday to discuss the layout of the house on our lot. After that's decided, he can start as soon as he has all of the permits pulled!

I will be sure to keep you posted on this adventure. We are extremely excited and can't wait to get things going!

Addison and Fischer are another month older! Today marks their 21 month birthday... only 3 short months until they are TWO!

It's getting nearly impossible to get a decent picture of the two of them together. So, I have to settle for pictures of them playing, and in a lot of them, one is coming towards me to try and get to the camera. They like to grab it and say "babies" because they want to see their pictures.

Today, they played outside and drew on the driveway with chalk...

They also got to sit on "daddy's" lawn mower...

And, they even played in the tent set up in our living room...

This past week was a busy one, with something planned everyday. It's made for tired children though, which means they've been taking longer naps than they usually do.

Thursday, I decided to take them to our local library for the (free!!) story time they offer for 0-2 year olds. I wasn't sure what to expect, and was a little nervous about taking them by myself. I figured if it got too hectic, we could just leave. The first 30 minutes consisted of reading and singing while sitting in a circle, and then they got to play for the last 30 minutes. Addison and Fischer did pretty well, but they were definitely intrigued by all the new things around them, including a very old stove that was in the room. I'm assuming the room was an old break room or something like that, and Fischer somehow managed to turn on this stove. It smelled so bad (like heat that hasn't been turned on in years), and even caused the Librarian to stop reading and ask if something was burning. I guess he just wanted everyone to notice the new family at story time! They meet every Thursday morning, so I think we'll try it again and see how it goes.

Friday morning, we had a make up gym class for Addison and Fischer since we missed last week's class. They had a great time, as usual. And to make it even better, Scott got to go with us this time! He hadn't been since their very first class, so he got to see how good they've gotten at the structured portion of class, and how much they now enjoy it! 

Saturday morning was another busy one! We had to get going a little earlier than normal because we were running in our local 5k. We got there at 7:50 to sign in, then we had to wait around in the cold until it was time to start. Scott pushed the stroller the whole way, and still finished in just 31 minutes! I wasn't too far behind them at around 35 minutes. It turns out that Scott even placed 2nd in his age bracket, which is awesome! Unfortunately, Addison and Fischer didn't enjoy themselves as much... they cried throughout the entire race. They were fine as soon as they got out of their stroller though, and had fun running around and eating some yummy snacks.

Here we are at the finish line...

Today we are just relaxing, and having fun celebrating Scott's birthday!!

Today, November 17, is National Prematurity Awareness Day. If you'd like to learn more about premature birth, please visit www.marchofdimes.com/fightforpreemies. I am thankful everyday for the work and research done by the March of Dimes, because without that, I'm sure Addison and Fischer would have been born much earlier than they were. Although they were still considered "preemies," we were so fortunate that they were healthy and had a short stay in the hospital.  Looking at them today, you'd never know they were born early, and for that we are extremely thankful!

Today was a big day for another reason - Addison got her first haircut! Fischer got one too, bringing his count to 3. Fischer's hair grows so fast!

Fischer did pretty well, but was a little more squirmy than the last couple of times. He did enjoy playing with the Mickey Mouse toy and eating cookies though.  We (thankfully, Scott was able to go with me!) were going to let Addison go first, but quickly realized she was going to freak out. So, we let her watch Fischer get his cut first, and she also saw that he got to play with a toy and eat cookies. So, when it was her turn, she peacefully went into the chair. BUT... she didn't like the sound the scissors made when Yolanda was cutting. She was sort of crying, but also eating her cookies throughout the entire cut. There were no actual tears, but I think she was close to it by the end.  We made it through, and her hair looks really good. I was worried she'd look like a boy, but instead she has an adorable little bob cut with a bow in her hair! :)

Here is Addison, eating a cookie, but also a little scared...

She's not happy about this whole haircut thing...

All done! And it looks adorable! Goodbye mullet :)

Daddy and his girly-girl....

Close up of the bow!

Here is Fischer - he's an old pro by now!

Looking so cute, and he can actually see now since the hair is out of his eyes!

I am always looking for some hands-on activities to do with Addison and Fischer.  So, on Saturday, we made homemade play-doh! It was so easy to make... all we needed was flour, water, salt and food coloring (we made green). Addison and Fischer enjoyed dumping in and stirring the ingredients. Addison even decided to get in the bowl at one point. Fischer especially loved the flour and it only took seconds before he was covered in it.

They played with it for about 30 minutes before losing interest, when they started wandering around the house with messy hands.

We will definitely be making it again. I want to get some cookie cutters first so we can make some fun shapes while we're playing!

I am going to try my best to do a "real" post soon. But for now, here are a few more pictures from our session with Nixie. We had fun playing on the playground there. I can't remember the last time I was on a merry-go-round or a see-saw (or a teeter-totter.. not sure what they are really called). Addison loved both... Fischer wasn't quite sure of either one, but loved the "fort" type play areas.

I think these pictures give you a glimpse of how Addison and Fischer are always on the go. I love the one of them running through the Christmas trees!

I mentioned that we stayed with my parents when I did the half marathon last weekend. While we were there, I noticed Addison and Fischer were saying a lot more than usual. They "talk" all the time, but they were saying many more actual words than they had been. I honestly think they were excited to have new people to talk to, and new things to play with and talk about! Since we've gotten home, they've still been using their new words, and have added even more. I'm also noticing that Addison is starting to finish some of her words. For instance, this morning she said "moose" and "house" instead of "moo" and "how." She has also been saying "high five" and "empty." Fischer has been trying to count more and now knows that Santa says "ho! ho! ho!"  It's so hard to keep up with everything they say, but I do get excited when I can actually remember some of it!

Last night, though, Addison said the most exciting thing of all... They have a lava lamp in their room (more on that later) which they call "bubbles."  She was in Fischer's crib waiting on her bath and she said "Bubbles On Please." She said a real sentence!!! I was so excited, and so proud!

In other news, Addison and Fischer STILL have runny noses. They are staying way past their welcome. Fischer's is much worse than Addison's, and he's having a hard time breathing which makes eating and drinking hard as well. I finally called the doctor yesterday and told her what we've been trying, and she decided to call him in a prescription for Allegra. So, we'll be starting that today. Hopefully it helps!

Speaking of medicine, Addison is completely off of Zantac and has been for several weeks now! She seems to be handling that just fine. Fischer is down to just his dose with dinner, and has done fine with that also. Yay for that!

That's about all that's going on around here. We don't have much planned for the weekend, which will be nice. I will be watching the South Carolina game against Florida tomorrow night - let's hope for a WIN! GO COCKS!

I got some more pictures from Nixie. I will share more later, but this is my favorite picture of Scott and Fischer:

If you told me a year ago that I would participate in a half marathon, I would've said you were crazy. But, this past weekend, I did one and I actually had fun! Don't get me wrong - it was very hard and sometimes painful, but I felt very proud and accomplished as soon as I crossed the finish line! And, within a few hours, Kathy (who flew down from Ohio to do it with me!) and I were already looking for another half marathon to do.

When we decided several months ago to sign up for this half marathon, I printed off a 14 week training schedule. For the first 4-5 weeks, I really stuck to it and did great with my training. After that, life sort of got in the way and my training slacked off... we went on vacation, I came close to breaking my toe, Scott was traveling a lot, and Addison and Fischer weren't big on the idea of being in their stroller for 2 hours at a time in the heat, among other things. I still managed to walk and/or run some each week, but nowhere near what the schedule suggested.

Because of that, I was very nervous about how the half marathon would go. Kathy and I wanted to keep up a good pace, and try to run a good bit, but our main goal was to finish.  I was also nervous once I realized that the race weather was going to be very cold - it the low 30s.

Anyway, Kathy and I met in Raleigh (my parents live near there, so that worked out nicely) and there was no turning back! We picked up our packets Saturday evening, then headed to a hotel for some relaxation and sleep. Then, it was up at 5 am to get ready for the race!

We got there a little after 6 and it was SO cold! We were ready to get started, but unfortunately had to wait around for about 45 minutes in the cold before the race actually started.  As soon as the race started, we realized that the course description of "moderately hilly" was probably an understatement. We were hit with a giant hill right at the beginning, which made our pace quite a bit slower than we'd planned. Oh well...we had to keep going! We ended up walking more than running, but that's ok. Neither of us ever had the goal to run the whole thing... I don't think I'll ever want to run the entire thing.

So, 13.1 miles and 3.5 hours later, we crossed the finish line (we made sure to run the last tenth of a mile so we could jog across the finish line).

Scott, Addison, Fischer, and my parents were there waiting on us, which was really exciting!

We're already looking at options for another half marathon to do. We will most likely meet up somewhere and make a vacation out of it! Our goal this time will be to better our time...hopefully we'll find a flatter race, so beating our time should be easy! :) We also learned a lot about the whole process, so we'll be more prepared next time!

My soreness is almost gone, so hopefully I'll feel like walking/running again soon!

Yesterday was another rainy day. To get out of the house, we headed over to Leapin' Lizards - an inflatable play place. I thought Addison and Fischer would love the inflatable things, but I was wrong! They didn't care so much for that, but loved all of the other play areas! We had a great time, and it was a wonderful way to get rid of some of their energy!

Leapin' Lizards is on a side of town that we don't go to much, except to get Fischer's hair cut at Hair Doodles. He's only been there twice, and the last was over a month ago. As we were driving to Leapin' Lizards, Fischer said "haircut" when we passed Hair Doodles! I couldn't believe that he remembered!

Here I am, trying to get them into the inflatable part!

It's been a rainy couple of days here! Fischer really wanted go outside yesterday....

And this is what happened when I wouldn't let him, because of the rain.

Luckily, Fischer got over it and we moved on to other things! To stay busy, we read magazines...

Hung out under the table...

And played with dry pasta! Addison and Fischer loved this, and happily played for about 45 minutes! They used spoons, ladles and funnels while they played!

Hopefully it'll be a nice day tomorrow so we can get back outside!