Happy New Year!

Happy New Year 2012!  J and I had a chance to get out with some friends to ring in the new year.  To health and happiness in the new year!

Holidays

The holidays seemed to be a blur this year. I really didn't want that to happen, but with the move and all, I guess it just kind of came and went.  It doesn't help that I'm still shooting sessions and fall tends to be really busy.  Maybe next year :)

We had the family in town right after Christmas this year and it was nice to have the cousins together (not to mention have my siblings around).  We didn't do much but hang around and enjoy being together.  A little family picture to document the occasion :)

Twas the night before kindergarten

Twas the night before kindergarten and as they prepared,

kids were excited and a little bit scared.

They tossed and they turned about in their beds,

while visions of school supplies danced in their heads.

Erasers and crayons and pencils galore

were stuffed in their backpacks and set by the door.

Outfits were hung in closets with care,

knowing that kindergarten soon would be there.

In the morning it came – school starts today!

Would the teacher be nice? Would they still get to play?

Faces were washed, and teeth were brushed white;

Kids posed for pictures with eyes sparkling bright.

Parents packed snacks and kids hopped in cars

As if they were boarding a spaceship to Mars.

Some kids brought blankets or their favorite stuffed bear;

in hopes they could nap like they did in day care.

Their parents exclaimed: “You’re big kids – WOW!

Let us hold your bears and blankies for now.”

The parents were worried their children would cry

if they left them at school with just a good-bye.

So they told their darlings, “If you want, we can stay

and make sure that everything will be A-okay”

The teacher then greeted each one with a smile,

and invited the students to stay for a while.

The room was all filled with toys, books, and maps,

but where were the beds for midmorning naps?

They colored and painted and played Simon Says,

then tumbled and skipped and stood on their heads.

They sang silly songs from beginning to end.

Within just a minute, each kid had a friend.

The children were happy. They loved Miss Sunrise

It was she who was in for a giant surprise.

When what to her wondering eyes should appear

but sad moms and dads who were holding back tears!

Their noses – so sniffly! Their eyes – red and wet!

This was the saddest good-bye Miss Sunrise had seen yet!

She gathered the grown-ups on the magical rug,

then sent them away after one final hug.

The children all waved from the door of the school.

“Don’t cry, Mom and Dad; kindergarten is cool!”

*sniff, sniff*

I can't believe it's finally here. Tomorrow my little one goes off to kindergarten....

Camping

This past weekend, J took the kids camping. They had a blast! No moms were allowed so I don't know exactly what went on....after all, what happens at camp stays at camp! I would imagine there were a lot of shenanigans and staying up waaaay to late! Just look at those smiles!

Don't worry, they didn't exactly "rough" it on this trip. Between the two dads, you should have seen what they packed! You would have thought they were leaving for a week...or maybe even a month! The only thing I think they didn't pack was the kitchen sink....and actually that might have made it's way into the car at the last minute after all.

From what I hear, one of their favorite things to do was "cook" their own dinner (hot dogs) and roast marshmallows. I think the dads even whittled their own campfire sticks. Impressive :).

The next day, the kids took a hike around the campsite and found some pretty cool things.

The campsite also had story time!

In all it was a successful trip!

Rock, paper, scissors

So the competition for being first has been getting out of hand lately. They both want to be first going out the door, getting in the card, buckling their seat belts, going up the stairs, and on and on and on. It gets exhausting! I tried having days....one day Miss C is first for everything and the next day we switch. But after about 5 days, I can never seem to remember whose day it really is (heck, I can't even remember what I did 5 minutes ago). A smart person would probably have a chart handy to avoid this problem, but I haven't quite figured that out yet. So I've resorted to what any civilized person would do to settle an argument. Yep. Rock, paper, scissors.

Worked for the first day and then one little stinker got smart.....

Me (while exasperated and screaming): Well I don't know whose turn it is! That's it. We'll do rock, paper, scissors.

Miss C: Which one are you going to do?

Little J: I don't know.

Miss C: Little J, come on. Are you going to do paper?

Little J: Yeah, I'll be paper.

Rock, paper, scissors. Little J rolls the paper. Wanna guess what Little Miss Sneaky comes out with? We're going to have to keep our eye on her.

All I want for Christmas

is my two front teeth! Last night Miss C got another visit from the tooth fairy because her top right tooth came out. Check out the mug!

House again :)

We have something that looks like a house!  I can't believe it's under roof and we have windows!  A lot has been going on in the last couple of weeks.

 View from the kitchen (coming from the mud room).  That's our family room with the fireplace

 View from the garage

 View from the kitchen looking out on what will become our covered porch

 Office

3 down 17 to go

The tooth fairy visited the house last night to collect her 3rd tooth from Miss C. Miss C's top left tooth had been getting wigglier and wigglier over the past couple of weeks. Yesterday it was barely hanging on by a thread and we "attempted" several times throughout the day to pull it out (unsuccessfully). I was afraid she would swallow it like she swallowed tooth #2, so everytime she put something in her mouth, I would check to make sure it was still there. She was getting ready for bed last night and asked if I could help her brush her teeth. I think I accidentally knocked it with the tooth brush and it started to bleed a little bit. I was fairly confident it would come out the following day and I was hoping she wouldn't lose and swallow it during the night. After her teeth were brushed, she walked over to grab a book, turned around to hop into bed, and it just fell out of her mouth! I think I can rest easier that she didn't swallow it.

Happy 4th of July!

Happy 4th of July everyone!  We've enjoyed our holiday and culminated the night in letting the kids do sparklers for the first time and then headed over to a neighboring street for a fantastic fireworks show!  Here are the kids doing sparkers....

Up first is Miss C.  I think Little J was a little nervous to do it at first and was happy to let his sister go first while he checked things out...

I think she likes it!

After safely watching from a distance, Little J decided to give it a try.

Looks like he likes it :)

House again

Yes, there are probably going to be a lot of house updates these next few months.  Like I said before, we are here every day just about.  I'm sure the construction workers roll their eyes everytime we drive by.  I guess that is the benefit to living only 2.5 miles from your new house :).  Most of the time I just drive by and don't stop because I can tell not much has happened within the past 24 hours.  Today I got out and took a few pictures of how far they have come with the framing.  How exciting!

 Back view of the house.  That's Little J in front of the basement.

 Garage side view

House

Just a few phone pics of the house.  We usually visit everyday and for the last few weeks the progress has been, well, boring :).  I know the foundation is important and blah blah blah but it took forever and it seemed like there was a lot of time where little was going on.  Today was exciting though, we are starting to get walls!

Garage flouring has been poured!  I sure hope they level out a flat driveway though.  I'm sure the builder is tired of me talking about it :)

 I'm not really sure what this picture is supposed to show other than we have a port a potty in front of the house.  I guess that makes this an official construction site!

Trip to meet our new cousin

We headed "home" to meet our new cousin (my nephew) that made his appearance on June 11th.  He's so cute!!  It was great to meet him and see the family.  I'll post more pictures of that soon as soon as I edit them.  Meanwhile, here are a few snaps from my phone.  We always love being with the P family and enjoyed our visit with them too :)

House update

Here are a few updated pictures of the house.  We seem to be coming along!  They poured the foundation and have been working on the concrete in the basement (and water proofing happened).  

 Little snickerdoodle is way back there at the end of our imaginary driveway.  He LOVES playing in the dirt at the new house.  We are hoping our driveway is going to be nice and flat at this house.  A steep driveway is one of the many things about our current house that we don't love.  So far, so good!

 Basement view.  The backyard is going to be nice and shady with all the trees we have back there.  Hard to believe the basement is western facing with all that shade!