Our Humble Abode "move in day"

Jacob was so happy to see his train table! He ran around screaming and dancing with excitement. It was the only "toy" unpacked at this point so it was a source of "contention" all day Abby looking in every box for her toys, it has now been almost a week and we still haven't found them. I even checked the storage unit. I'm missing a few other items as well.

Abby arranging the bookcase in her room. She is very particular as to how it is arranged.

Cookies and Creme cake to celebrate our first night in the apartment and NO, i didn't make it...the nice folks at Giant Eagle did and was pretty good.

Our Time at the Hotel

The highlight or our 4 day stay at the Hotel was the super fun and very warm swimming pool. The kids loved it. Abby is already a "fish" and Jacob seems to be following suit. I would take him under water and when he'd come up he immediatley said "again, again". He was blowing bubbles and kicking right away.I wasn't able to get a picture of it but Jacob wore, goggles, floaties, and his cute chubbies almost the entire time in the pool, it was really cute.
I was spoiled with prepared breakfast every morning, and going out to lunch and dinner on most of the days, except Sunday, of course. We had a prepared lasagna, salad, and french bread. The easiest dinner to prepare with limited kitchen supplies :)
While we had fun at the Hotel it was really hard to adjust to the time change. The Hotel breakfast closed at 10:00 and we barely made it. It was really hard getting the kids out of bed. And especially hard when Monday rolled around and we had to drive Andy to work. We had to leave at 8:00 am and that was a real struggle. Here is my favorite comment from Abby "Can't daddy get his own ride to work!" Thank goodness for the DVD player in the van! The kids watched "Tangled" to and from Andy's work for drop off and pick up. It's a 25 Min trip normally but with traffic it can take up to 1 hour. Andy's car is expected to arrive sometime this week...hopefully it is sooner than later.

Pennsylvania Here we Come!

After a crazy week of cleaning, packing, listing/selling/shipping Ebay and Bow stuff, we finally made our way to the airport. Abby was super excited and Jacob was just going with the flow. Here is a picture of us at the airport with all our stuff. Ther's me alone with 2 kids, 1 checked bag, 2 small carry on rollers, a big back pack, diaper bag, purse, and stroller. It was a long day with all our stuff, a 3 hour flight, a 1 hour layover / plane change, and then a 4 hour flight. I recieved NUMEROUS compliments on how well behaved my children were/are. I was thrilled because they aren't always such angels ... they did great!

Here the kids are sitting at the window looking at all the planes come and go. Jacob was "excitedly" announcing each planes arrival to the entire terminal. "Plane, Plane, I see it!" "Air Plane, Air Plane," ... repeated over and over until I said, "Yes Jacob that is an airplane, I see it." about 100 times.

Thanks to a portable dvd player, laptop, coloring stuff, snacks, and an always filled "milky Mickey sippy" things went very smoothly. We left Grammy's house at 8:30 am Pacific Time and arrived in Pittsburgh at 11:30 Eastern Time. More to come ...stay tuned

Valentine's Party

On Saturday I helped my sister Brooke throw a Valentine's Party for her step daughter Leah and her friends. It was a fun filled couple hours with crafts (don't these paper purses look real?), cookies, candy, homemade pizza, and lots and lots of screaming...(what is it with girls and screaming???) Below are a couple of pictures of the party. Click below for the purse tutorial.
http://missfancypants.typepad.com/little_miss_fancy_pants/2010/11/fancy-this-paper-purse-gift-tag-set.html

What a fun group of girls!

Our Christmas in a "Nut Shell" More to Come

Abby performed with her Kindergarten Class in their Holiday Concert. She actually sang! If you know her at all you will know that in all her Primary programs, Christmas Sing a Longs, you name it her mouth stays closed. Well, I was shocked to actualy see her singing. and yes the boy in the picture on the left in red cried during the entire thing.


Brook, Leah, Jaime, Mom, Abby, and I went to see Central Ballet West's "The Nutcracker". This was Abby's first time going and I thought she would be old enough to see it this year. And while she liked it she also fell asleep during the last act! I can't say I blame her, Ballet isn't really my favorite either. But to fall asleep during the Sugar Plum Fairies Solo is almost Criminal!

We went to the Oaklant Temple to see the lights and listen to some music (as best we could with a 2 year old!). It was cold and pretty but not as COLD as or at Lit Up as the Salt Lake Temple Square is. I definintely don't miss the cold just the lights.

Afterwards we went to see this very cool house in Manteca that has over 500,000 lights on it.

A Few Firsts!

This was our first Christmas at our home in 8 years, since we've been married we have always travelled to our parent's home for Christmas.

We got our first tree, "Thanks, Dad"! and put what ornaments we had on it along with a ton of homemade paper ones from Abby.



I bought a shelf and installed it over the fireplace since there was no mantel (thanks Todd). and hung the stockings on the wall because the shelf while cute was not that sturdy.



Decorated it with gifts of Christmas Past that were never until now able to be used, Thanks Lisa and Whitney.



I made Christmas goodies for the first time and actually gave them to people!



I had to buy wrapping paper and lights and stuff, Andy was thrilled...LOL!!!



I also used the Advend Calendar my mom made me for the first time. Thanks Mom.

Food for the Reindeer

Abby brought made some food for the Reindeer to eat while Santa is busy dropping off the presents so we had to (on her orders) put in on the roof Christmas Eve morning first think (notice Jacobs PJS). She was really excited about the whole thing.

Merry Christmas to All!

The presents are wrapped! Shopping and goodies are done! Bows have all been made!!!! Ahhh, now it's time to enjoy Christmas. I wish everyone a very Merry Christmas this year and as a super early New Years RES, I would like to keep my blog more updated...we'll see how that goes. Here's the kiddos all dress up on Christmas Sunday.

A Post about Jacob

Love those big blue eyes! Above Jacob is wearing my high heels. He's a bit obsessed with shoes right now. He gets my shoes everyday and wears them all over the house. If we go into a shoe store he is in 7th heaven as he runs all over grabbing all the shoes he can!

This is Abby and Jake before church. Yes, I got them ready, took picture, and we were still on time. Abby loves to "match" Jacob whenever possible so this is one of her favorites brother/sister looks. Not sure how long Jake will put up with it...LOL

Jacob is a fun loving sweet baby boy. He will be 2 in a couple of months and I can hardly believe it. He is just a fun fun littl boy. His current favorite words are by by a go go, bop bop, ball, choo, car, and ofcourse baba.

Picture Day

Today was "picture day" at school. Maybe I'm just weird but I think it's kind of weird to have pictures taken of you kid at school. I wonder if it's just something that has been done for years and know one really knows why. I mean, who orders these pictures anyway. No offense if you do, by any means.

Well, dispite my personal feelings on "picture day" I did get Abby all dressed up. She was going to be in the Class picture whether I ordered pictures or not so I thought I'd better have her looking great incase that picture shows up on
E News when she's rich and famous to haunt her or something. I mean you never know right?

Below Abby is doing her most recent "take a picture of me pose" I'm not sure where she came up with that but she does it all the time. And of course Jacob who wouldn't stay out of any of the pictures I tried to take.

on a side note* these pictures would have turned out a lot better with my better nicer camera if I could only find that elusive camera bag...see post below for info on that!

Has anyone seen my Camera Bag!!!

A few years ago a bought a really nice camera. The Cannon EOS 30D, it is my pride and joy and one of my most favorite belongings. AND I HAVEN'T BEEN ABLE TO USE IT FOR 6 MONTHS!!! Around Christmas time the camera bag that has (the charger, battery, various accessories, etc.) went missing. I have torn the house apart looking for it ...It has simply vanished. So I am pleading out to the open world for sympathy. I miss using my camera (the point and shoot is not the same), I miss my precious baby (LOL). The cost to replace what is missing is a couple $$$ and I just can't make myself do it. I'm determined to find it. It can't just have walked off, right? By the way, it's black...does that help!

The Journey Begins

Today was Abby's first day of Kindergarten. When she woke up this morning the first thing she said was "I want to go, I want to go." Both Andy and I dropped her off...it was kind of sad for us. She's been mine everyday and now I have to take her to school everyday!

I asked her what she did at school today and she said, "we played and danced." sounds like my kind of school.