Sunday Walk--Hemlock Bluffs

One of the many beautiful things about North Carolina is that the weather stays bearably cold even in the winter. So it does get cold definitely, but not bitter cold and windy for long periods of time. In fact, the kids are so used to warm weather here that we have battles with Alex every morning when the temperature dips below 45 F and he still wants to wear shorts. They wear sweatshirts A LOT.

One weekend in January we decided to drive to Hemlock Bluffs, about 15-20 minutes away from us, pretty much in the middle of Cary. It's just another pretty wooded area..um...green and luscious in the summer:) We just needed to get out of the house, so this was perfect. 

Some kids had better attitude about a "non-fancy family activity" than others. 

"Let's go, Mark. We can be best friends for an hour".

"Maybe I'll just find a snake and throw it at Katya".

"Oh, I can take a picture of you guys, it just can't be angled the usual way".

"I wonder if trees of North Carolina taste differently than the ones in England".

"What do you mean we lost Alex?"

The best part (and slowest one) of our adjustment is reminding ourselves we don't have to go to awesome foreign countries and places to feel connected as a family and be excited to be together. We are getting there... :)

Lyana.

Katya and Sophie

This post is dedicated to friendships that we make every time we move:) Well, actually, it's dedicated more to Katya's special friend, Sophie. We met Sophie the first Sunday we came to church to our ward. She has been by Katya's side from that moment, always supporting her and inviting her to do things. Katya has been so blessed because she found Sophie! They get along so well and truly love hanging out with each other. They are both incredibly busy, of course, but we try to find time for them to see each other on other days besides Thursdays (youth activities) and Sundays. They go to different middle schools and will be going to different high schools and will soon be in different wards. But we hope to keep this friendship going for as long as we can. We are all so grateful for Sophie!

And here is Katya, one of these winter days. 

She is beautiful, kind and talented! Watch out High School boys;)!

Lyana.

Snow DayS and The Grovers.

It Snowed!!!

We will need to get used to this new normal of our lives. Winters with no snow, mild weather and short cold spells. I mean it does get cold here, into 20s at night sometime, but in general it's not bad at all. At the same time, if the weather forecast says it is going to snow, be prepared for wide spread PANIC! Everything stops if it snows. This time, it snowed at night between January 6th and 7th. We woke up to maybe an inch or two of snow. It was Saturday which worked out nicely! And even better, our friends were visiting us, so they opted to stay at our house instead of the hotel not wanting to risk being stuck at the hotel and not being able to come over to play because of the snowy roads.

So we went outside to look for any sort of hill. 

We found one decent street that had a slope and no cars. 

And then we moved to another street and then another one (after the snow plow went through that one to clear out the snow...I mean..I know it was doing the good thing, but the kids were not happy:))

One snowy picture a year might be the best we can do now!

Alex was obsessed with making those rock hard snowballs;)

And here is a fresh selfie of Mallory and me:) 

So because of the snow and because our school district is so large (some areas had a lot more snow and ice than others), the kids had three snow days! They didn't go back to school till Thursday of the week after it snowed. The Grovers left on Sunday after a good doze of Watsons non-stop. Our kids went on to hang out with the Dean kids twice on those snow days. And that's how we'll remember our first Snow DayS in North Carolina!



Lyana.

Ukrainian Christmas 2017

This year Ukrainian Christmas Eve fell on Friday, which usually works out perfectly with Robert's work schedule and us staying up late eating and chatting. But so happened that Mark's baptism was rescheduled for 7 pm on Christmas Eve because of expected snow storm coming on January 7th. That made for a very busy Friday and a bit of a quick dinner but it was still a great success:)

Can't have a Ukrainian dress up night without taking a family picture! 

We invited our great friends, the Martins, to come celebrate this special night with us. This is their beautiful girls. 

The Grovers drove up from Virginia for Mark's baptisms and made it to the dinner as well! 

So my way of doing the Ukrainian dinner is to cook for three days so I am not swamped crazily on the last day. 

For two evenings I had been making layered cakes. I made Medivnik, honey cake, for the first time in my life. But I forgot one ingredient in the cake dough which made it flat and so I decided to make another cake with an impromptu chocolate butter frosting. 

These are the ten layers that I carefully baked but that lacked baking powder.

And this is the second attempt, with layers than actually had some volume. 

This is my "saved" cake layers, that tasted a lot like chocolate butter:)

I also made Shuba for the first time in my life! although traditionally it's made with herring, beets, potatoes, eggs, carrots and mayo, I used smoked salmon instead of herring and I, personally, liked it. But I was probably the only one-hehehe.

And I spent a couple of hours cooking Holubtsi, the cabbage rolls. They are always popular as they come out so well. This time, the cabbage leaves cooperated beautifully! 

I managed to make twelve dishes (that's including dessert) as always. 

And Vareniki did not disappoint! Kutia, kompot and Oliv'ye turned out really well too. 

Next year, I'll be brave and will try a couple more new dishes too. 

Happy Ukrainian Christmas! 

Mark's Baptism!

On a cold-cold evening in January (January 6th), our sweet Mark got baptized! Originally, he was supposed to get baptized on January 7th, Ukrainian Christmas, and the anniversary of my own baptism. But as the day approached, the weather forecast looked gloomier and gloomier in terms of a snow storm, so last minute, the event had to be organized on the day before, January 6th in the evening. 

Here is Robert and Mark before the baptism.

Mark was so excited for the baptism and took it very seriously. He was so excited to receive his own scriptures with his name on them.

In our ward, we had four little boys getting baptized on the same day! I guess most of the kids in Mark's church class had December birthdays:)

Besides our church family, only the Grover family was able to come for a visit. As a tradition, Mallory made this beautiful cake! 

It is Great to be Eight! Mark tells me all the time about how responsible he is now that he is eight:) 

I know he is always trying to choose the right and is the kid who expects a lot from himself. We love him to pieces!!!

A Few Random Bits

Wow! I am almost completely caught up with all my blog drafts and pictures that I had until the New Year's! Nothing major has been happening lately, so it's good for me to remind myself of these little every day things as well. Our life has been so different since we moved here but there are a few constants for sure--family, games, church, sports and quarrels (yeah...let's be real here).

First up--Monopoly! Mark got Monopoly for his birthday or Christmas and has been obsessing with it ever since. Mind you, this is our fourth kind of Monopoly so it's not like he is just learning how to play it. He tortures everyone daily to play a Monopoly tournament with him and somehow he beats everyone most of the time. During Christmas break, the kids played Monopoly A LOT.

For some reason, our kids don't play with many toys any more. We are not sure what's going on, but somehow Mark just either plays sports, board games or reads. I kind of forced him to make me a couple of Snap Circuits projects and he seemed to enjoy it but this is not his first choice of activity ever.

Robert and Alex went to the Great Dismal Swamp to go camping with the Boy Scouts right before New Year's Day. So I took Katya and Mark to Bond Park so we could go on a 2 mile walk/run. The day was cold but sunny and we loved it.

The boys were taking Krav Maga classes for a few weeks. I bought a coupon on Groupon for super cheap so they could try some self-defense classes. It was pretty awesome! They taught them all sorts of scenarios and what to do to protect yourself. Mark seemed to enjoy classes very much but didn't want to continue. Alex, on the other hand, was always whining how I didn't ask him whether or not he wanted to sign up and went unwillingly to the classes until the very last class when he said he actually has been really enjoying them and would like to continue with an older group! Typical!😜 Too bad it was a bit pricey to continue and not convenient for our schedule.

Finally, Mark is still Mark with his new tennis gear. He got his awesome Nike headband (that he still can't get use to) and his awesome tennis bag that makes him feel like a pro. That is something that he and I do as a special outing--play tennis. He still enjoys it, although basketball is a tight competitor with tennis in Mark's mind. 

 

And that is a short update of random happenings of our lives. I'll keep digging through our pictures as now it seems to be kind of difficult to keep track of all the ones I take on my phone, Robert takes on his phone plus our fancy camera that is definitely underused nowadays...

Lyana.

Happy New Year 2017!

Our little family is very much looking forward to the new year! We've had a crazy 2016 with lots of transitions and adjustments. But we are doing all right! Life is definitely not the same as it was for the past seven-eight years, but we are embracing it SLOWLY.

We have a lot of excitement waiting on us in 2017! Buying a house! Starting High School! My mom moving in with us! And who knows what Robert's career endeavors will bring;)?!!!

So here is to a peaceful and successful 2017! 

And that's the best picture I've got at 11:30 pm on December 31, 2016.

If someone wasn't opening their mouth or dabbing then someone else were doing crazy eyes or sticking out their tongue. So we just have to roll with it.

Lyana.