Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

From our family to yours, Merry Christmas. I hope you had a wonderful holiday. This year has been so good to us and we are so thankful for all that we have.

Christmas this year was spent at home. We didn't travel and, I must say, it was wonderful to wake up in our own house on Christmas morning.

Here are some pictures from Christmas morning.

Braden is 5 years old!

Braden has turned 5 and he had his first big birthday party. He invited his friends from his class along with some of the other friends he has grown up with. There were 17 children and NO I did not have this at my house! :) It was at a Jump Zone where there are inflatable bounce toys. They jumped and jumped until their little hearts were content. It was topped off with pizza and a VERY cool superman cake! He was so happy and that is why we did it. Everyone was there for just him and it warmed my heart.

Happy Birthday Reese!

We love you so much, our sweet little girl!

Happy 3rd Birthday!

My little soccer player

I signed Braden up for soccer!! I am so excited, not because it is soccer, but because he is so excited. Brian and I are going to let him try different sports and let us know which one he really enjoys. Soccer is the first stop so on Tuesday's at 5:30 he gets to run around with other 4 year olds and 'Coach Vinnie' and have some fun. The last two Tuesday's it has been raining so they have held the practice at a local dome.

Braden next to the goal post closest to the camera.

Here is Braden taking a water break.

The video is a little blurry, but you can see Braden in the gray shirt and the black pants. Also, he has a red ball.

In the second video he is kicking a white ball and goes off the screen for a few seconds. I hope you can find him!

Mother's Day

For 5 years I have been celebrated on Mother's Day. It is hard to believe. The first time is very special, but now it is different, more meaningful in some ways because Braden and Reese are the ones making the card or picking out the flowers. Braden made me a necklace at school and Reese make me a bracelet out of beads. I wore them both to church this morning. They also went with Brian to pick out some flowers, petunias. :)

Braden's card and gift. he painted the flower pot at school.

Back to Updates

Well, this is the first post from our new house. It feels good to be here. We had lots of help, which was AMAZING and we are mostly moved in. I am not sure how long it will take. We love the house, but it needs updating. We can't wait to paint and make the improvements! Brian's drive is much shorter and he is much happier. It also feels good to have a bigger backyard and to have trees surrounding us. We can't wait to share it with all of you!

I have finally downloaded our pictures. Here are some recent pictures from before and after the move.

Having fun packing...

Playing in the big moving truck

Having fun

Easter

Easter Egg Hunt

Wearing Braden's old PJ's for a 90 degree day in April. I just wasn't ready for that and Reese didn't have anything to wear to bed!

Under Contract

I was noticing that my last post was during the 1st snow storm before Christmas. Now I will post after 2 more storms! We have a lot of snow! The public schools have been closed since last Monday and I am not sure when they are going to re-open. Now that we are shoveled out, we are house searching as often as we can. We are going to look at a few homes on Thursday evening, hopefully we will find, 'the one'. I am not nervous yet, but our house is under-contract so we need to move out by March 31st! It is exciting to move and yet a little more complicated with two little ones. We have been talking to them about it in hopes of making a smooth transition for them. They will have to switch preschools.


Anyway, I will get some pics up soon. We have SO many from the storms! The only other time I can remember having this much snow all at once was in Kalamazoo. :) Fond memories....