Delinquent Writer

Wow December has just flown by; there has been so much going on this month and I have been delinquent in updating our blog. So you will see a flurry of posts attempting to capture everything else that happened this month, and in no particular order. In addition to the holidays I have busy with the camera tying to capture and preserve the moments and I have just now downloaded all of the wonderful shots. Please enjoy ;-)
Ariane

Guinness visits

We had a wonderful visitor for Christmas. My friend Marakot was out of town and we had the pleasure of watching Guinness her bull-mastiff for a couple of days over Christmas. He was a wonderful and very obedient doggie. He was a bit nervous Christmas morning when Kaleb got a remote controlled car; it freaked him out a bit but Christmas day ended up being beautiful so Kaleb took is new toy for a test drive outside.

Gingerbread

The kids enjoyed spending the afternoon with their grandparents as Shawn and I got some Christmas shopping done. They made two beautiful gingerbread houses...such amazing artists.

Skyler School Picture

It seems as though this blog lately has been a lot about Skyler, but oh well. Here is Skyler's beautiful school picture...

And yes those are HER rosy cheeks...

Skyler's best friend

Skyler has made a new best friend in our neighborhood...it is the neighbor's new kitty. Skyler hugs the kitty, and carries the kitty around, and really treats the thing like a baby. And the kitty just lets her throw her around and grab her and hug her and squeeze her. Many evenings Skyler will sit out on the back porch and just sit with the kitty in her lap; and the cat will just suck on her neck or lick her hands. I think the thing lives on/or around our back porch, each morning when I go to work she is there to greet me and say goodbye. One morning she actually followed me to my car then sat in the driveway behind the car as if to say "...you can't leave..." As many of you know we will never be able to own a cat because I am extremely allergic but this is a neat compromise. I have no idea the kitty's name...around our house it is just the "kitty." Unfortuantely, I then have to watch myself around Skyler, be wary of hugging and squeezing on her until after she has washed her hands and changed her clothes.

LEAVES ... LEAVES ... LEAVES!

Welcome to Virginia ... LEAVES!


I think we have over a dozen trees in our yard and they have been shedding their leaves for the past 2 monthes. We held out as long as we could but this past weekend we did some leaf patrol. Of course we had to put everyone in the family to work including Skyler's little kitty.







This is just one of the many piles of leaves that we created and Skyler had some fun with the leaves in true kid form. Here she is in action...

KALEB TURNS 6!

Today was Kaleb's birthday and it is hard to believe that he is already 6 years old!! Kaleb got to wear a special crown at school all day that designated him as a birthday boy. Shawn made a special trip to school at lunch time to deliver some special birthday cupcakes for his class. With our move to Virginia the kids are still getting over some of the differences in climate. Kaleb was concerned that it had not snowed yet ... this was always an indication that his birthday was drawing near, however, in the great state of Virginia there is very little if any snow. Kaleb was always complaining in Colorado that it snowed TOO much; well now he is upset that we may not get snow. You know the saying the grass is always greener... I will say no more. Well GOD works in wonderful ways and today in Virginia we had our first snow flurry, no accumulation but it did snow! YEAH!!!







Then after school we went to eat at Kaleb's favorite restaurant IHOP. The only reason he loves to eat at this place, I think, is because of the smiley pancakes. Then our next stop was Toys R Us where Kaleb picked out the oh sooo cuveted 'Metroid Prime' wii game, along with a star wars transformer and a pokemon stuffed flip out thingy...don't ask. We are not totally lame parents his actually birthday party, with friends, will be on Sat, Dec 15th at a local play area, similar to 'pump it up' for you colorado folks. Hopefully this time mom will go un-injured...we can only hope.

Turkey Day

We had the pleasure of spending turkey day with my favorite friend from college Marakot. She and her talllll Irish boyfiend live in Balitmore so it was a nice weekend trip.

We broke bread with a bunch of teachers from Teach for America, then we ended the night with a dynamic game of crainium which was filled with laughter; Mari and James, for the first time, won a game together as a team...I think the communication is improving between the two of them, hee hee. Kaleb also brought the wii and schooled everyone.



We also got to meet Guinness and Ted. Guinness is an adorable mastif and Ted is a cautious kitty. Hey Marakot any time you want us to dog sit let us know!!! Unfortunately because of Ted I had to spend the weekend in a Benadryl coma but it was totally worth it :-)





Mari and James showed us around Baltimore, there is not much to see -- it is not a very touristy city, but our hosts were wonderful.



The highlight of our sightseeing was an old school sail boat which fired it's canon ... HAHA Mari was right (inside joke) and the kids chased birds on the docks.



We are extremely thankful to have such wonderful friends; we thank and praise God for the opportunity to have our lives touched in such a magical way. Till next time...

Tired Artist

Skyler my wonderful artist must be going through a growth spurt because she has been eating like a horse and sleeping excessively. Just yesterday she was coloring on the floor and she fell asleep!

Another game

We had another coed soccer game last night. We won 6 to 3 YEAH! However in the 2nd half a guy "stepped" on my ankle! I have been nursing this injury since the beginning of the season and it seems like there is a bulls-eye on the darn thing! So, I am starting another weekend limping around.

Sick at home

Well, I am sick AGAIN! Virginia climite has not been very nice to me and my family. It feels like as soon as I start to feel better again someone else in the family gets sick and then the cycle repeats itself. I have missed 3 days of work this week, which is unheard of for me. I think I have missed more work in sick days at my current job in my 6months of employement than I did in a year at my last job. Well, no pictures to post with this message...believe me you wouldn't want to see me if you could :-( .

Kaleb School Picture

I went ahead and opened up the permissions for reading this blog…I think I was just a little bit paranoid about people reading about my beautiful children. With all the crazy stuff that happens on the internet you never know, besides I think I watch too many of those cop shows.

Anyhoo, Kaleb finally came home with school pictures.

Doesn’t he look sooo grown up; I can’t believe he is only 5 years old!! And it may be a mothers bias but I think he is really cute!!! I think we are going to be in trouble when he gets older.

Skyler’s school has not taken pictures yet, I think they are scheduled for next week, so stay tuned for pictures of a beautiful princess.

Soccer last night

Shawn and I joined a coed indoor soccer team. After 3weeks we finally had our first win!!! The game was at 10pm ... it is a painful having games that late at night. I had 2 goals YEAHHHHHH! I LOVE SOCCER!

Halloween

I am a little behind in posting, but I am getting to understand the setting and preferences of my new toy


So, Kaleb was "Robin" from the Teen Titans...not to mistaken for the uncool version of robin from batman and robin...he is much cooler as the leader of the Teen Titans.



Skyler was a princess...no surprise there, look how beautiful she is!


They both made out with boo-koo candy and had a blast walking around the neighborhood with their friends. That's all for now.
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We are live...

I was inspired by my friends (the Hallams) to create a blog of our own. I figure since we are so far away from family and friends it would be neat to stay in touch with everyone this way.