Christmas 2009 Countdown...

A trip to the mall in December isn't complete without a visit to Santa. This is the first year that Sarah actually got close enough to Santa to get in the picture. She didn't want to sit on his lap though. We also saw Sarah's first movie - "The Princess and the Frog". She loved it and wanted to see it again as soon as it was over.

I also sang in the Christmas musical - "A Baby Changes Everything" at First Baptist. Months of preparation are finally over and it was a lot of fun. I was even able to get a picture of the kids by our tree before leaving for church. Quite a accomplishment!

Annual School Pictures

Here are Jacob and Katie's annual school pictures. I think Jacob has looked the same for the past 4 years - same blue polo shirt. People must think we never buy him clothes but that is just what he likes to wear on picture day. Katie at least has a different hairstyle from year to year. And since I didn't buy the rights to Sarah's pre-school picture, I've loaded her 3 year picture that was just taken a couple of months ago.

Sarah's 1st Day at Gymnastics

Here is our little gymnast. She really took to the balance beam during Katie's Cheerleading class so we enrolled her in gymnastics this Fall and she is a natural. But I bet all the other 3 year old moms are saying the same thing.

Celebrating turning 40

How do you celebrate turning 40? Go to Cancun and enjoy an all-inclusive resort complete with a wonderful couples massage and hydrotherapy session. Dave and I met up with my best friend from Texas and her husband. We spent 5 sun-filled (and very hot) days relaxing with no cooking, no cleaning, no driving, and no children. It was like a 2nd honeymoon. I am going to count on Roxanne sending me some pictures from our nights out since I just have a few of the resort and our excursion to Xcaret where Dave and I snorkeled through an underground river which was really neat.

Back to School

Jacob is in 3rd grade this year and still not in any mood for me to take back to school pictures at the bus stop. Katie is starting 1st grade and Sarah is back to pre-school this year. Below are their first day pictures.

Summer 2009

I discovered Facebook this summer and I am finding that I rarely have time for it and I totally put our blog on the back burner. So I'm going to try to get back to posting on here as well. I'm going to attach a few pictures of our summer.

End of the School Year

It seems with the end of the school year, always comes those important milestones. Jacob is now a bear in Scouts and finishing up the baseball season. Katie had her Kindergarten program and has her Cheerleading program next week. Grandma was able to attend both of her programs much to Katie's delight, so we should get some good pictures from her camera.

Katie can also now ride her bike without training wheels.

Mother's Day

Mother's Day is always a good time for a family photo op. This year we also had a visit from Gram and Pops and Dan, Kim, and Caedmon.

Day at the Museum

We have been discovering the local museums since our move and found lots of neat places for the kids and are looking forward to more days at the local museums and attractions this summer.

Katie and I explored the UVA Art Museum one day for their Kid's Art Jam and had a great time. They had the children pick out their favorite painting and had them try to duplicate the painting with flowers by matching the colors and the placement of the colors. It was very neat and we got this gorgeous flower centerpiece to take home. We also drew a picture of a single flower without lifting our crayon off the paper and I found out that I have a little artist inside of me as well.

Another neat thing that Katie did with her school was go to the local Children's hospital and they had a Bear workshop where they fixed up their teddy bears and learned about medicine. Here is Katie with her doctor outfit on. Art and wanting to be a doctor are her two passions so it will be interesting to see which direction she goes.

Over Memorial Day weekend, we went to the old Mitchie Tavern (1784) and had a wonderful lunch at The Ordinary, used the Neccesary Room, and went shopping at the Clothier and General Store. Quite fun.

And today we went to the Richmond Children's Museum. It was very well done and even had an outdoor sand and waterplay area - we closed the place down.

Our little Princess

Sarah finally found a use for our huge foyer. The girls use it so much that it has almost taken up permanent residence by the front door.

Happy Easter!

We returned early from Williamsburg so we could go to church for Easter Sunday. We hope everyone had a blessed Easter. Here are some pictures of the kids at church and in our backyard. The one of the family didn't turn out that well, I'm still trying to figure out the timer on our camera and everyone was tired of me taking pictures by then.

Spring Break

It was good to get a break from work and having to meet the school bus every day. We went out to Williamsburg with my mom, Linda, my brother, John and his two boys, Jack and Ryan for a mini-vacation and we spent much of it at Busch Gardens. On the second day, Jacob and Katie were ready for roller coasters and Katie even talked me into riding one with her on the third day. I can't believe my 5 year old baby girl likes roller coasters, but while I was screaming my head off, she was just smiling and telling me it's no big deal. Sarah loved the new Sesame Street park they had there this year as well as the Land of the Dragons. I'll have to post pictures later. Right now, the only one I have is of Jacob with his Uncle Johnny and his cousins Jack and Ryan.

Birthday Parties

Jacob turned 8 in February and our nephew Caedmon turned 1 in March. Jacob had a great time with family and old friends from Front Royal at Chuck E. Cheese. Sarah was scared to death of the big mouse so she cried most of the time, but everyone else enjoyed the get together.

We have been so excited that Dan and Kim and their growing family have moved back to Virginia. With all of the relocating, we haven't had too many opportunities to see them. However, we were able to make it to Caedmon's first birthday party. They are usually 3 or so hours away but since Daniel is at the Police Academy for training, they were only two hours away so we could make the visit in a day.

It was a little chilly that day so the girls are all bundled up with Gram and Pops. However, boys being boys, Jacob was climbing trees in a short-sleeved shirt. Crazy child, I can't keep a coat on him.

Settling In

We are finally settling into our new home and community. After a very odd couple of weeks where we were all home every afternoon and evening and having dinner together, we are now back to our usual busyness - baseball, cheerleading, Bible study, scouts, and dance classes. I have to say that after working from home all day, I enjoy getting out and about now more than I used to even if it is to sit in a dance studio lobby. And the weather is starting to warm up so we are starting to get out and play and walk more outside. Jacob has found a couple of friends in the neighborhood that he starts to play with as soon as he is off the bus and I actually have to call him in for dinner in the evening.

So while we thought this was only going to be a temporary home, it's going to be a little more permanent now that we have signed a one year lease with tenants in our old house. Hopefully, the housing market will be in a little better shape a year from now, but until then, we will enjoy being all together again and are grateful for the beautiful townhouse that God has provided for us.

Once we were able to find a place to live near Dave's new job location, we were able to relax and enjoy the holidays even if he was filled with lots of packing. And now that we've unpacked, I am finally able to develop our pictures from Christmas. So below are my favorites of the kids.

Here are the kid's opening their traditional pajamas after the Christmas Eve service. This year both Jacob and I sang at the service. It made for a memorable last service at our old church.

This was our Christmas card this year. I thought it showed the kid's true character. Katie always posing like she is in some magazine, Sarah with her big grin, and Jacob with the bunny ears. He's starting to get to that age where he doesn't want to be around girls and if he is then he is messing with them.

This is the perfectionist side of Jacob coming out. I did not ask him to pose like this! He lined up his loot from Santa and wanted me to take a picture of him with it.

Here is Katie posing with her new Kit Kitridge American Girl doll that she got from Grandma. You gotta love the matching nightgowns. She actually looks like me when I was a little girl, I used to have nightgowns like that. They don't seem to make those anymore - it's all about Disney princesses and Hannah Montana.Here is Sarah posing in front of the tree at Gram and Pops house. I think it's funny that she is starting to do the movie star pose just like Katie. It's not like I have Project Runway on 24 hours a day. I don't know where they get it from.