December_2011

December the joyful month of family, lights, cookies, candy and Christmas.

This month the Jewell's were very excited as it was C's first Christmas and a very exciting time for L. She was beginning to understand the concept of Santa and was getting more and more excited as the time to open gifts came closer.

So as L is still going to school she was over joyed that arts and craft was the majority of what she did this month. She has come home with candy cane pictures, ornaments for our tree and many items to add to her list for Santa each day. Taylor and Rachel took her to the mall to write a letter to Santa  an put it in his mail box at Barnes and Nobles, which she loved.

Christmas morning:

well it went as well as everyone else. Rachel woke up early to make breakfast as not soon after she got the muffins in the oven L came storming out of her room. Since Taylor wanted to catch everything on camera Rachel promptly made her turn around before she saw any gifts, luckily she to groggy to really understand what was going on. Rachel made her wait till Taylor was ready with the camera and she had C ready before entering the living room. L went straight for the castle that Santa brought her and immediately started playing. Then she proceeded to open every gift in sight even if they weren't hers. C obviously had no idea what was going on but was entertained with watching the festivities. After the presents and breakfast it was off to church then back home to make the Christmas dinner.

Christmas with family Part I:Taylor's mother and brother safely arrived late in the afternoon, where another horde of presents were brought in. So for the next few hours L and Taylor tore into not only their own but C's gifts as well. Once everyone was finished with their gifts Christmas dinner was underway. Everything turned out delicious, Rachel's ham and turkey were just as good as they were last year. And of course Taylor's potatoes were great. It was a very exciting day and by the end of the night L and Rachel were both exhausted. In all Christmas Part I went off without a hitch.

Christmas with the family Part II:

On December 28th Rachel's parents came down with the last load of Christmas. It was another completely overwhelming time. This time L ended up with the most gifts and was ripping away for a few hours. Since she was so excited with all those gifts coming she was going wild. Once she was finished everyone else was able to open their gifts. Since Rachel made enough food to feed a small army there were more than enough leftovers  for a second Christmas dinner. She planned this in advance since it went so well that way last year. It was a great holiday that went by smoothly. Needless to say this year everyone got what they wanted and more. It was a great visit with Rachel's parents and she was very sad to see them go.

New Years Eve:

On the eve of the new year Rachel's parents went back home. Meanwhile everyone decided to get out of the house and find some awesome bean bag chairs to rock in the new year. As the day went on Rachel and Taylor lounged around with the kiddos waiting for their friend Danielle and her son Sky to come over. Once they got there dinner,shrimp Alfredo (thanks Danielle!), was under way.  Sky and L had a blast playing Once Upon a Monster  while the adults got a huge kick of watching all of the dogs take bones from each other. Yes it sounds lame but it was pretty fun. Obviously the kids didn't make it till midnight, so while they were all sleeping the adults played Qulfs to pass the time. With Fox News on at eleven and a great game of Qulfs going before we knew it there were two minutes left in 2011. Of course there was a count down as the ball dropped. And It was a great new years eve!

Stay tuned to see what happened after the ball dropped!

November_2011

November a very busy month for the Jewell's indeed.

This splendid month started with Taylor's 23rd birthday. Which was celebrated with one of Taylor's favorite dinners as well as homemade red velvet cake. His big gift for this year was ticket to a Raven football game on the 20th of November. He was so excited about it, it was the best gift ever for him. He is doing well with the beginign of his new year. His reenlistment package finally went through, so now he is just waiting to be swarn in again. Rachel is thrilled about that. She is doing well and loving being a mommy of two. Although Thanksgiving was stressful she managed to make it through. Both Taylor and Rachel are looking forward to Christmas with the kids. It should be very exciting for them all.

L has developed a new love for Scooby Doo which, if Cars is not on, she watches constantly. She is also making remarkable progress in school. She has learned how to properly hold a writing utensil and scissors. She is also working on coloring in the lines. She is growing rapidly, almost to the point that Taylor and Rachel can't keep up. Rachel had said you can tell she is about to turn three because everything is 'mommy whats that?', 'mommy look at this!' or 'daddy a C.O.W!" With Christmas approaching she is growing more and more excited, especially when a trip to the mall or seeing Christmas lights/trees are involved. Taylor is loving that Christmas morning will finally be exciting. Like every two year old L loves getting into mischief and she has to push every button she sees. With that she bought her first lottery ticket, by herself! Wile Taylor was getting one for his Dad's birthday present L decided that she was going to push a button and get one for herself as well. She had a ton of fun scratching it off!

But the question on every one's mind is how's the baby. Well C is doing fantastic. He is growing at a rapid rate and is keeping everyone busy. He experienced his first Thanksgiving and loved it. He is not crawling yet, but he can hold up his head by himself for short periods of time. He hates being on his tummy like any newborn does but he seems to be making progress as far as crawling goes. C loves to laugh and the giggles, smile, laughs and all kinds of sounds are becoming more and more permanent. He just loves to laugh, L just cracks him up. Taylor gets a kick out of L playing with him. Taylor and Rachel are so excited to see him grow.

So the tale of Thanksgiving. Originally the plan was that Rachel was going to cook the dinner with the supervision of Maya. However things never go as planed. As most of you know Rachel's Nanna has been in and out of the hospital since C has been born. On the Wednesday before Thanksgiving she was put into ICU and transferred to Washington hospital to have stents put in. Therefore Rachel's mom and two Aunts were not present for the festivities. It was all up to Rachel, Taylor and Glenn. So Glenn stuck to the plan and made the dressing the night before as Rachel, Taylor and the kids were out for Taylor's father's birthday dinner at Famous Dave's. On Thanksgiving day Rachel stuffed the turkey and Glenn put it into the oven and cooked it. Then they started on everything else. Luckily the aid of Madison (Rachel's cousin) and Kara (Taylor and Rachel's soon to be sister in law) the kids were taken care of and Nanna's famous gravy was made ( I love you forever for that Maddie!) The dinner went off without a hitch and everyone had a blast. Rachel's other cousin Candace helped with the clean up and everything was cleaned up within an hour of dinner.

After mostly everyone had gone home the Ravens game came on. So with Rachel's brother Bryan and Taylor it was a very exciting time. Luckily they won! So things ended up being OK and Thanksgiving was a success even without Rachel's mom and Aunts. So the torch has been passed. But Rachel's last thought of the night was, "I wish my mom's were here."

So Christmas is up next. Stay tuned.