Carmona's 4th Annual Christmas Party

Christmas girls snuggled up to watch the movie Elf

Last Saturday we hosted the 4th Annual Carmona Christmas Sweater Party. There was not a terrible blizzard like last year, thank heavens, and we had a great turn-out. Everyone that walked in the door was greeted with cheers and a shout of Merry Christmas. The drinks were a-flowing, the food was delicious, the dancing was lively, and the children were joyous. The best part for me was looking around the house and feeling so much love for all of these friends, neighbors, and family.

Now we are packing our bags to head out to Utah tomorrow morning. We are so excited to see our family there!

mingling guests under the party lights

Nimmy with one of our adorable little neighbors

family photo

girls and yes, that is a little dog wearing a christmas sweater. 

some of the ladies gathering for a female-only photo

paddles and pedals on Kiawah

Thanksgiving.

We are home, safe and sound, from our wonderful Thanksgiving vacation to Kiawah Island, SC. This was the first time I have cooked Thanksgiving dinner away from home. When I was searching for houses online I was especially concerned about the kitchens. If we were going to pull off a feast, we needed a real kitchen with a full size oven and all the cooking basics. After renting what we hoped to be the perfect house, I gathered all my recipes, a bunch of ingredients, my potato masher, and hoped for the best. It was a good thing  I brought the potato masher. My pie plates would have been nice but the cake pans at the house ended up working out just fine. Minor kitchen equipment blips aside, the whole day was totally perfect. The kids popped in and out of the kitchen, lending a hand  or just grabbing a snack, while I bustled away cooking up a storm. We enjoyed some bike riding and beach walking during the not-so-busy moments. And in the end, we enjoyed a fantastic feast ~ served on the same china that my dad has (strangely enough). I missed being with more family, but I also relished the simplicity of it just being the five carmonas. Some gratitude highlights from the kids:
Gita: Being a Carmona
Nimuae: awesome family
Noah: good grades

I really cannot believe it is almost the end of November already. It seriously feels like someone flipped on the fast forward button. We are getting ready to take a little Thanksgiving vacation on Tuesday. We rented a little house on Kiawah Island, SC, for 5 days. It will not be much warmer there, certainly not warm enough to do much ocean swimming, but we are really looking forward to hanging out on the beach, biking all over the island, and paying a visit to Charleston. This will be the first trip this year that my work computer will not be invited along ~ no email, no work, hooray! 

here's what has been going on around here.....

Noah's Grandma and Grandpa Urbanik drove their RV down from Connecticut for a quick visit. It was wonderful to catch up with them at the campground and over dinner, and also to show them around our homestead. This picture is fantastic because Noah is smiling (it is very very difficult to get him to smile for photos these days. teenagers.)

I got to get away for a slumber party with girlfriends to celebrate some of our fall/winter birthdays. My camera did not make it out of it's bag for our trip to Hot Springs (complete with a quick drive through a Civil War re-enactment ~ ) or our dinner at a fun new restaurant, or even our impromptu costume dance party. I did manage to pull off one quick self-timer shot as we were packing up to leave. I sure love these ladies!

David and I soaked up as much autumn awesomeness as possible over the last few weeks. We love our daily evening walk with the dog which serves the dual purpose of exercise, for us and Atticus, and a little kid-free connection time for us. I brought the camera along the other day to capture some of the beautiful fall colors. But our walk was cut short when Atty hurt his paw, poor guy. David was able to carry him home ~ a somewhat funny and very touching sight.

The girls are making lots of friends at school. Katie is a friend of Nimuae's who happens to live right down the road from us. This is a huge deal for Nim because she has never had many girl friends who live up on the mountain. We are so grateful for wonderful friends !

Nimuae recently discovered his great-grandfathers wood working tools that were passed down to us a few years back. She got to work right away ~

Gita of the leaves

Gita called me outside the other day to see "something really cool..."

"watch this!"

she was right, it was really cool.

Halloween (a little late)

our Nene came to visit from Arizona for Halloween again. It is wonderful to have her here and even more wonderful to share such a fun holiday together. Nim and Gita, after much deliberating,  decided to be Pajama Girls, and I was in full support (gotta love easy, practical, and warm!). Nene was happy to take on the important job of putting their hair up in curlers. When we were all dressed and ready, we headed down to town for some fun trick-or-treating in Black Mountain. We met up with friends, some expected, others as a welcome surprise, and had a blast.

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Cowgirl Carmona + super spooky ghost of a cowboy + two pajama girls = fun

the lovely Loomers, including a leaping lemur Lilikoi and a little elmo Seo

Pajama Girl Gita and Lemur Lilikoi walking with their Rastafarian Nene

meeting friends along the way

morning message courtesy of Nimuae...

Please don't be scared of me. I am not what I seem.

You just have to open your heart. I am awesome !!

Gita Pi turns 7!

Popping in after a long absence from the blog (so so busy) to share some photos from Gita's 7th Birthday. David and I got to visit her school in the morning for a lovely 1st grade production of the "Grouchy Ladybug." It was wonderful to see Gita at school, with all her friends, on her birthday. After the little play, they all sang happy birthday (cha cha cha) to her. Later that afternoon, we picked her up from school to go pick out balloons for her party. Then the neighbors came over for a light supper and cupcakes. On the top of Gita's wishlist was an American Girl doll, which all her loving grandparents chipped in for. We had a wonderful celebration and we very happy to maintain our school night bedtime even with a birthday party thrown into the mix.

Happy Birthday, Gita Pi ~

Edisto Island 2011

Boy oh boy. What a month it has been. 

The school transition is going pretty well. There have certainly been some bumps in the road, but for the most part, it is been smooth. The girls really like their teachers and are making friends. Noah has a pretty easy semester for his freshman year ~ gym, cooking, drafting, and history ~ loves not having much homework and is really enjoying his classes. Thank goodness! Waking up at 5:40am is slowly getting easier ~ and walking Nim through  2 hours of homework is not yet getting easier, but I have my fingers crossed that it will.

To honor the end of summer, we headed down to Edisto Island, SC for our 3rd annual labor day beach week with two of our favorite families. We've been renting the same house for 3 years and every year we love it a little more. Noah came home after a few days with one of the families who were only able to stay for the first half of the week. We sure missed him being with us, but he was really excited about having the house to himself for a few days. The weather at the beach was amazing, the dolphins gave us a daily show, we ate tons of seafood, and really had a blast~ heaven!

Of course, I took a gazillion pictures....here are a few for starters, more to come later.

big day

Big big day for the five carmonas... we all made it through the first day of school!

Noah: first day as a freshman, check ~
Nimuae: first day as a fifth grader, check ~
Gita Pi: first day as a first grader, check ~
Parents: first day with all three kids at school, check ~

Phew. What a day it was. Noah wanted to ride the bus to school, so the fellas woke up at 5:45 to catch the bus at the end of the road at 6:30. The girls wanted to get a ride in on the first day so we dropped Nim off first and then popped over to Gita's school for her drop-off. They were so brave, said their good byes, and walked into their schools while D and I shed tears and waved. Gita thought it was pretty darn cool that the Black Mountain fire-fighters were at her school helping the kids out the cars (lovin' the small town livin').

After pulling away from the school, we headed over to the Morning Glory Cafe for a celebratory anniversary breakfast. We reminisced over our 11 years of marriage while sipping coffee and eating. It was super sweet. Then a day at work for me, and a day at home for David (the stove got scrubbed, the floor got vacuumed, and the laundry got folded ~ hooray!)

We met the kids back at the bus stop (they all took the bus home) at the end of day. They had to run from the bus to the car in one of the craziest hail/rain/electric storms ever (thank goodness they got home safely) and then had tons of stories to share.

This morning, we all woke up early to get everyone ready for the bus. We waited for a few minutes at the end of the road, in the dark, until the bus came, the kids kissed us good-bye, hopped on the bus, and drove away. D and I came home at 6:45 to a totally empty and quiet house. Totally strange but totally cool.