Moving right along!

Part 210 of our home improvements.......

New paint in the kitchen:


Before:






After:






New table in the eating area:






And new rug!













And our tapestries are up!

Sugar Cookies

In Renner family tradition, I made Christmas sugar cookies with the kids. I was proud of myself for watching them pick bat and puppy cookie cutters and not having a minor "those aren't christmas themes" breakdown. Boys just seem to have a different mental schema.

The favorite part of the activity is painting the cookies with icing!








The boy on the left is Q. He Iives across the street and has become a good friend of both V and L!















L has saved a bowl of painted cookies for Santa. His own idea! I never told him that Melissa and I always made special cookies for Santa. He asked me if they would be stale. I answered, maybe. L's reply... Santa flies around the world - he will be hungry and will eat them no matter what. Haha! I think he is right!

Blizzard 2010

In the spirit of snow.... I found these pictures on my camera from the big blizzard last winter in DC.








I have no idea why he doesn't have a hat on. Let's just pretend that he does.









L carved a tunnel through the snow drifts.

I know that V was around somewhere. Maybe she got lost in the snow!!

Our first VA snow!

So - love the new house. Am adjusting to burbia, kinda. I will admit the garage is a good thing.

It snowed! 3 inches. 2 days of no school. (really??)








Beautiful, white and fluffy.








Our Xmas decorations looked more festive.








Fun for the kids!







There are no pix of L because he was sledding on the golf course. Rural VA is a tough terrain!

And then reality hit.....

I have to shovel the driveway!

Never seemed like that big of a driveway until I had to shovel the blasted thing! I definitely see a snow blower in my future!

Halloween flashback

Yeesh - how did I miss sharing Halloween photos!

A little farm down the street from our house had a pumpkin patch.





















That is all the pictures i have. I must get better at this!

ICE

Last year we went to an exhibit in DC called ICE. It was a giant walk thru ice sculpture extravaganza. They gave you parkas to wear over your winter coat. That's how cold it was. We could not even stay a full hour.

















The details in ice were amazing.

















A sleigh!















This was a huge ice slide in the shape of a castle. L and his friend had so much fun!!!

There was also a gigantic nativity scene that was amazing. Don't know where the pix of that disappeared to.

Outside at the end was a visit with Santa...














Sponsored by coca-cola in case you missed it.

Ahhh.... The memories.....

I'm back!!

Got slightly derailed by the details of life and let my updates slide. But I am back now and have photos to share. Past and present.... Will post daily!!!

Jose got a new camera lens in preparation for his photo assignment with the president.

This is what he can produce......





Wow!!!! Gorgeous.