Holiday happenings

 NO Crying this year - we are ALL smiles with Santa.  Whew!

 Going over Jackson's list:  Pokemon cards & Lucious Malfoy's Dad's wand (from Harry Potter)

 Santa arrives by helicopter at ACC

 The kids go insane!!

Caroline and her Daddy

Christmas is approaching rather quickly and we are super busy with all of the festivities.  We will have Nana and Papa here with us this year from Oregon which will be so fun.  No major big items on either list & we are loving celebrating the little things this year. We all went shopping for Toys for Tots and that was fun (and required alot of explaining to little Caroline).  We will be helping to provide Christmas dinner to our local police precinct & fire station.  Kyle and I are trying our best to teach the kids about the importance of giving instead of just receiving.

Unofficial Christmas card pics

Before our official holiday photo shoot, I took some of my own pre-holiday pics & they turned out pretty great!!  I'm loving the red & turquoise combo for the holidays.  But these are not the photos I chose for our card this year...

First Day of 1st Grade & Pre-Kindergarten!

They grow up too too fast! These are the kids on their first days of school. Jackson leaves around 7 am so...it's dark outside. Caroline leaves around 9 so she was just bursting at the seams, ready to go to school. Next year I can't believe they will both be at the same elementary school! Here's to a great year of learning and fun for everyone!

Baseball

Baseball season is almost over. However, out of 16 teams in the shetland league at East Side, our team is one of 5 left in the tournament! The game tomorrow will be a nail biter but hopefully we can pull out a win! Jackson has made a bunch of new friends and had a great experience playing on the Yankees. Kyle has enjoyed being an assistant coach (despite having to wear an Yankees shirt) for this great group of kids. Caroline has had great fun bringing her own money to the ball field to load up on gum and ring pops at the concession stand. And I've just discovered that they carry Slush Puppies at the concession stand and will be loading up on the grape variety during these last few games!

Welcome home

Thankfully we are getting more settled as the weeks go by and it will probably come to a screeching halt (or slowdown for sure) as the kids get out of school in the next week. Just for my own entertainment value, I thought I'd slowly release some of my favorite things about our new house. Today, it's my front entry. I love my doors. My foyer light fixtures were one of the first things I knew that I wanted for the house. They are made by Currey & Company but I scored them almost half off from Redefined Home in the Westside Provisions district. I didn't know it at the time but they cast interesting light shadows on the ceiling and surrounding upper walls.

Most of all, this house is a happy house. A house that is not a model home- actually pretty far from it- a house that is truely lived in. With young children and two labs, this house had handprints on the walls and semi-scratched up floors from day one- seriously, the dogs wrecked havoc on the floors in the first hour!

Caroline turns 4!

Our baby is four now, I only wish I could slow down time. She had a fun birthday week with birthday celebrations at home, school and Farmhouse in the City. Jackson has managed to loose both front teeth just in time for school pictures! He is excited and looks so different! Kyle and I are still so busy getting settled in our new house. I promise to get photos of the house on here once things are a bit more settled! Happy Spring!