Farwell South Carolina

Our time in South Carolina is coming to a close and it's time to look back at the good times and opportunities that we've had since we moved here. We found out we were moving here in October 2010 and were very excited about the climate. When we made our house scouting trip in December, we were in for a shock. It was COLD!! We hadn't even bothered to bring our winter jackets with us. The trip was a success, because we found a great 3 bedroom rental house that would be perfect for a year-long rotation. Our move was set for mid-January and we were shocked on Christmas Day, when Andy's cousin who lives here, sent us pictures of the area covered in snow.

Andy came down to start work, and Brady and I followed a week later on January 28, 2011. The weather was GORGEOUS from that moment on. Of course there were days that we wore long pants or sweatshirts, but they were few and far between. I never had to wear my sneakers and loved wearing my flip flops year round.

Living in this part of the country has allowed us many opportunities that we would never had living up north. We got to explore the southeastern United States and did it all on weekend trips. We traveled to Atlanta, Charleston, Savannah, and Columbia for the very first time. We got to visit the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, NC, which is something we will never forget. We were able to take Brady to Disney twice before he turned 2. We never imagined that we'd be able to do that with a child so young and it was an experience I'll never forget. The only drawback is that it's a 10 hour drive to visit our family.

Brady has done a lot of growing up in the last year that we've lived here. When we first moved, he'd just taken his first solo steps and was still crawling to get around. He's gone through an incredible transformation in this house and it will be sad to leave. This has been his third home in his first two years and he's about to add a fourth. I envy those who get to stay in the same house and have all of the memories of their child around them every day.

Our first day in South Carolina
(January 2011, Brady at 11 months old)

Our last weekend in South Carolina
(January 2012, Brady at 22 months old)

The hardest thing to leave behind will be Andy's cousin, Nicole Trap. She also lives here and we've had a great time having family nearby. We tried to get together with her and her boyfriend, Dusty, as often as we could. When we did get together, we'd all hang out, play games, and stay up late. I'll miss that we were all so comfortable around each other that we could talk about anything. Nicole and I have so much in common (aside from having the same full legal name), and it was great being able to share anything with a friend who also happened to be a member of our family. Brady loves them as much as we do. I'll really hate only getting to see them when we're both in Pittsburgh at the same time visiting our families.

Brady and Nicole

Andy and Dusty hanging out by the computer. They were forever battling each other on the XBox in NCAA Football.

It's still really surreal that we've been here a whole year. When we got the news that we could stay a whole year instead of just six months, we were relieved to get to stay in one place longer. Compared to our six months in Michigan, a year in South Carolina seemed like it would be an eternity (not necessarily in a bad way). This year has flown by and now that we've been here a year and will only be in Germany for six months, it'll be over in the blink of an eye. It's scary how when you're a kid all you want is for time to move faster, and when you get older, you just want it to slow down so you can enjoy it more.
Thanks South Carolina, you gave us a great year and we hope to visit you again soon!

Decorating Cookies

We've been making Christmas cookies all week, but last night it was time to make the gingerbread and sugar cookies. We usually set these aside because we make royal icing and it takes a long time to decorate them all. Since royal icing contains raw egg whites, my mom suggested that we have Brady decorate his own cookies with something else. I bought a tube of green icing and let him have some fun with the sprinkles. The icing tube was a little hard for him to squeeze, so we had to help out a little. The sprinkles were funny because at first when I handed the container to him and told him to shake it, he shook it straight up and down and got a shower of sprinkles. He got the hang of it and managed to decorate quite a few cookies that are just for him.

All of Brady's decorated cookies.

Earlier in the week we made our gingerbread house. Every year since Andy and I have been together, we've made a gingerbread structure at Christmas. It varies from year to year and we've made some better than others. I think the worst was a gingerbread train that broke apart and fell down. Andy was so displeased that he threw it out immediately. A week later, a little boy we babysat in New Jersey had pictures on Facebook of him and his cousins putting together the same train kit and it looked amazing. He was only 3 and had no parental help. Made us feel really good about ourselves.

This is as close as Brady made it to the cookie action last year. He was in his high chair in the kitchen while we baked. He has flour on his nose, so we named this picture "Baker Brady."

Santa Comes Early

Since there are lots of kids who aren't in their own homes on Christmas morning, Santa brings their presents the weekend before Christmas. It is nice because the kids don't have to worry if Santa will find them at a relative's house, etc., and it lightens Santa's load on Christmas Eve, since he's already delivered some presents. That meant, since we head to Pittsburgh for the holidays, Santa came last night and we had to prepare for him to visit our house.

Brady hung his own stocking. I was pretty impressed that he actually got the loop onto the hook.

Hanging the magic key on the door for Santa. He gave it to us last year on Brady's first Christmas. It's magic, so you can leave it on the inside of the door and he can still get in. Even though we have a fireplace, letting Santa come in through the door allows him to carry more presents. I think that's a win/win situation.

Brady helped put out the milk and cookies for Santa, but being the cookie monster that he is, he couldn't resist having one himself. He was acting as quality control.

Climbing into bed so Santa can come.

All tucked in and ready for bed.

Merry Christmas!!! Ready to get out of bed and head for the presents.

First present. Brady chose it from the many under the tree. What could it be?

It's books!!!

Dance Star Mickey. Can you tell he's really excited? It was a big hit.

Testing out his new step stool.

Scribble Me a Song from Aunt Dunny.

A to Z alphabet zoo.

Another book

Foam alphabet for the bath.

Probably his favorite gift. A $3 plastic drum. Go figure.

A bead maze.

Pictured above, as Andy would say, is Brady's "loot." I had wrapped a few gifts each night, so when Andy went into the spare bedroom to get them all to put under the tree, he kept saying, "OMG there's more?!?" I start buying a few things in September and spread out my purchases, and usually I get a great deal. By December, things start to add up and I don't realize how much I've bought. I told Andy, he'll get half as much when he gets a sibling, so he should be able to enjoy being an only child.

Andy and I decided our present to each other was the Mickey Christmas Party in Disney, so we decided only to get each other a small "stocking stuffer." Neither of the things we got for each other fit in our stockings, but the sentiment was the same. I got Andy boxers like I do every year (he never buys clothes for himself), and he got me a Pitt snuggie. It was a good gift because I'm always cold and wrapped up in a blanket on the couch. All three stockings were "stuffed" with candy. YAY!!

Ugly Sweater Christmas Party

This past Sunday, my MOMS Club had a Christmas party. This year, to add in a little extra fun, the theme was to wear an ugly sweater. A lot of the moms had saved some of their ugly ones they had received over the years, but we don't have anything that would fit into the ugly category. We headed to Goodwill to find some cheap, ugly sweaters. Andy was really into it and started commenting on the ugliness of certain sweaters on the rack. There were a couple of guys there too and they were laughing, having a good time, since they were also looking for ugly sweaters for a party. Andy picked one out, but he kept looking. I picked out one for me and Brady and then we checked the clearance rack before we headed out. I found a cheaper one for me and Andy found one that he couldn't resist. Unfortunately, when we got to the checkout, the tag marking it as clearance was ripped off, so the guy said he was going to charge us full price for it ($5.25). Andy argued for a while, even go so far as holding up the sweater and asking, "Does this really look like a full-price sweater?" The guy couldn't do anything for us, and Andy really wanted that one, so we got it anyway.

One of the moms hosted the party at her house, and we all brought a gift for the white elephant and a dish to share. She had even thought ahead and secured a couple of babysitters to watch the kids for a couple of hours so we could have some adult time. Dinner was great and we had a fun time with the white elephant. I walked away with a chocolate fountain and Andy came away with a starfish ornament, which everyone thought was very appropriate for his sweater.

We all voted on who had the ugliest sweater and Andy won. He won some batteries, which was great because we were planning on stocking up before we headed overseas. Andy's sweater was the talk of the party and he was very proud to have picked out the winning sweater. It was funny because as we were heading to the party, he asked if I was pranking him and no one else would be wearing ugly sweater. Pictured at the top of the post is a picture of Andy modeling his award-winning sweater. Below are some more detailed picture. Yes, it was a women's sweater.

It actually had pineapples on the buttons.

If you couldn't tell already, it was a tropical themed sweater, so of course there had to be an ice cream cone and a beach chair.

A seashell and a pineapple drink.

The view from the back. Whoever made this sweater never heard that "less is more."

O Christmas Tree

This week we put up our Christmas tree. We have a 6 ft pre-lit tree that's going on it's 5th Christmas, so we are having a little trouble with some of the lights. Next year, when we are in a house that is ours, we plan to buy a 7 1/2 ft pre-lit tree. Last year, we piled up some moving boxes around the bottom of the tree to keep Brady away since he was only crawling at that point. This year, Andy was setting it up and Brady was dancing around, yelling, "Wow!" He instantly wanted to touch it, which we anticipated. We initially thought we'd place the baby gate around it to keep the ornaments safe, but decided to try it out first to see if we could condition him not to touch. So far, we've only had to remind him a few times to look, and not touch.




Above is our wreath. Like the tree, it's also fake, but that's just fine with me because it will remain the same, year after year. My mom made it for me and I picked out all the small pieces to go into it. Something that's like this already put together in stores like Micheal's go for about $50 and it certainly didn't cost that much to make!




Our angel is the most important part of our tree. Growing up, we always topped our trees with a star, but when I met Andy I decided to do a something a little different. We call her our Betsy angel because that was Andy's mom's name and she was a redhead just like our angel (not a coincidence). Andy's mom passed away shortly before Christmas 17 years ago and having her be our angel reminds us that she's always watching over us.

This is the only ornament that Brady is really tempted to touch. Can't imagine why ;)

Our acquisition from our most recent trip to Disney. We go back this weekend and I can't wait to hit up the Christmas store in the Magic Kingdom.

These next few are some of my favorites. They are all hand-painted and imported from the Czech Republic. The store I bought these from no longer exists, so I would be devastated if anything ever happened to them.

We got this last year at Bronner's, the world's largest Christmas store, located in Frankenmuth, MI. We had them hand-paint the personalization. This is one of seven 1st Christmas ornaments we have for Brady.

We always get an ornament when we go on vacation, so below are a few of my favorites. I love the one above because it was from our honeymoon in Hawaii and says Merry Christmas in Hawaiian.

This one and the next one are also vacation ornaments, although not quite as obviously. They are from a small shop on Anna Maria Island, FL. These ornaments are actually made out of gar fish scales. Pretty cool.

No tree is complete without a pickle! First one to find it gets to be Santa.

This was a purchase at Walmart today. Brady loves anything Mickey and was more than excited to shake the bells all through the store.