Holiday Open House

Tonight we went to a Holiday Open House at a little shopping center nearby called Sycamore Square. They had horse carriage rides, visit with Santa, a snow queen, smores by a fire pit, face painting etc... The only thing was, it was FREEZING! We waited in line about 20 minutes for the carriage ride and we were numb, but there was a blanket on the buggy so we could bundle up and enjoy the ride. Ellie visited Santa and she LOVED the snow queen. She fell asleep on the way home, back to our cozy house.

Ellie learns to write!

Last evening, Ellie was busy coloring at the table, one of her very favorite things to do, when she asked me to look at what she "wrote". She had actually made the letter "M". (the only thing Ellie has written up to this point has been her name). I said "Oh, Ellie, let me write Mommy for you and see if you can copy the letters" and sure enough, she could copy it just like I had written it! She got very excited and asked to do everyone's name in the family, one at a time. she worked hard at all her writing, then proceeded to cut out each name and we placed all of her little papers into an envelope, which she took upstairs to her room with her when she went to bed.

Fall Leaves

The foliage this fall was beautiful and probably at it's prime about two weeks ago. Now the leaves are falling fast and the yard is covered. When Grandma and Poppy were coming to visit, Ellie said she wanted to rake leaves with them. So, armed with rakes and their muscles, the kids tackled the leaves and made a huge pile, as tall as Felicia. They were excited to jump in them but i think they had almost as much fun raking them! Later in the afternoon, Ellie and Sam designed a leaf sofa which all 4 kids enjoyed relaxing on.

What do you do all day?

For those of you who don't see me on a daily/weekly basis, probably all that you know about me is that I am a stay at home Mom. To fill in the gaps of what ELSE I do, here it is....

I am up every morning at 5:45 to get a head start on my family's day. I am most energetic and ambitious in the morning hours and therefore, much more productive. I do all the regular Mom things during the day like getting kids ready for school, laundry, grocery shopping, cleaning,running kids to things etc. In addition, I attend a Mom's bible study a few Mondays a month, I am the Room Mom for Ellie's preschool class and sometimes help out in her class, I volunteer time at the elementary and middle schools the kids attend and I have my own business called Memories by Design. Since I enjoy scrapbooking so much, I turned my hobby into a business about a year ago and I now create scrapbook photo albums for other people who don't want to do it themselves or don'e have time. Currently I am working on an adoption album.
I belong to a book club which meets once a month. I train once or twice a year for local 5, 8 or 10 k runs to keep in shape. Steve and I belong to a small group from church where we meet every Sunday night for an hour and a half. I love to be involved in all kinds of things and sometimes there isn't enough time to do everything I want to do!!! Anyway, those are the things you will find me most often doing around Chesterfield County in Virginia!

Not Moving!!!

As it turns out, The Lukitsch family will be staying in Richmond after all!
After Steve accepted a position with IKON in Alabama in June, he moved there, leaving us to sell the house and join him afterwards. Unfortunately, the housing market being what it is right now, we have yet to receive one single offer. Two weeks ago, we found out that IKON was looking for a sales rep in Richmond!!! Steve talked to his boss about it and they put him in to be transferred here. The whole thing seems to have come full circle. Amazing, right? You never know what's in store for you....

Ice Skating

The kids had off from school for Election Day and it was raining all day, so we decided to go ice skating for someting fun to do. Sam had only skated once before and Felicia had been about 4 times. Ellie had never done this and she was nervous but willing to try. Her skates were so tiny!!!! I had so much fun because it has been years since I've skated. I used to go as a teenager back in PA. I even used to have my own skates which I brought with me to Virginia when we moved, but they stayed in the closet for so many years that I finally got rid of them. We do have a couple of ice rinks in Richmond, the closest one being about 20 minutes from our house.

Again, Bethany is not in the pictures because she spent the afternoon at a friend's house.

Cheer Competition

Today we spent the afternoon at Virginia State University watching Felicia at her cheer competition. Her squad performed first, which can be nerve racking and a blessing at the same time. There are only 9 girls on her squad this year, so each girl obviously plays a very important role in the routine. They did an awesome job and ended up with a third place trophy.

Since I've spent countless hours with this squad as one of the coaches , I was certainly very proud as well.

Halloween

The kids were so excited this year to be able to go out with their friends on their own to trick or treat, except for Ellie, of course. She went around the neighborhood with Daddy. Bethany was a marathon runner, but I didn't get a picture of her because she was with a friend. Sam was a nerd, Felicia was a doctor adn Ellie was a chicken. Our neighborhood is a great place to let the kids trick or treat on their own, because it is pretty small and self contained. Everyone was back by 8pm and counted up all their loot. Mom and Dad got the stuff they didn't like, like Reese's peanut butter cups!!! (Are they crazy?!!!)