Santa Claus Came to Town

Mo' Christmas Pictures

Teddy Bear Tea

Alita and I went to the "Teddy Bear Christmas Tea" with my Aunt Pam, my cousin, Megan and her daughter Susanna. It was the first "girly" thing I've done with Alita and although she won't remember it, it was so fun to have a daughter to take to something like this! I'll show her the pictures someday.....................................

Alita Portraits

Christmas Concert

Jesse waiting for the concert to begin.
Hi Mom! Hi Dad!
Randolph the Rude-Nosed Red Deer....................
Yummy french fries!

Here are pictures from Joshua's school Christmas Concert. He sang "Jingle Bells" and "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" with his Kindergarten class. Afterward we went out to dinner at the Macaroni Grill. Alita enjoyed her first french fry with a bit of apple juice!

Just Can't Get Enough of the Girl? Neither Can We!

Joshua's Quote of the Day

I was quizzing Joshua on the sounds of the letters in the alphabet today as part of his homework. (Yes, they give him HOMEWORK in KINDERGARTEN!) Anyway, here's how it goes.......

Mom: What sound does short "a" make?
Joshua: ah
Mom: What sound does long "a" make?
Joshua: ahhhhhhhhhhh?

I think I should send this one into Reader's Digest!

Kids, kids and more kids!

BOOM, BOOM AIN'T IT GREAT TO BE CRAZY?

T-Day

Happy Thanksgiving! The boys came down with strep throat earlier this week so we weren't able to go to Abby's Aunt Pam's house as planned. Since we enjoy atypical holiday meals (last year it was Turkey Enchiladas) we decided to go with Cornish Game Hen with Cornbread Stuffing. They were dee-lish! The boys had a few rounds of antibiotics in them already so they were feeling well enough to eat plenty of "hen". In the pictures of them above they are enjoying a little dessert as well. Alita had a lovely meal of homeade applesauce =}. It was a bit tart as you can see in the picture.

Sacramento Car Show

Now that we have unpacked the essentials in our house we actually got OUT OF THE HOUSE and had a little family outing last Saturday. We went to the Sacramento Auto Expo. The boys LOVED seeing their "pocket cars" life size! Jesse said his favorite was the puple one with flames (see 3rd photo from the bottom). Josh's favorite was "every car" he said. Abby enjoyed the "Art Cars", one was shaped like a shoe! John enjoyed the classic muscle cars that give him ideas of what to do with his 72 Olds. Alita seemed to have a good time viewing everything from the baby backpack on Daddy's back.

Alita is 6 Months Old!

Here she is! Alita is 6 months old now and doing well. On her last doc appointment she was 17 lbs and 27 inches long. She has her bottom two teeth already (see middle photo) and her top two have broken through also! Alita LOVES to eat solid food, she especially loves sweet potatoes and bananas. She babbles quite a bit, especially in the car. The boys have been making her laugh which is loads of fun for them. I keep thinking they will get tired of her but they still love to spend lots of time with her each day. Jesse and Joshua are great big brothers!

California Here We Come!

Big, big news! John has been promoted with his company Huttig Building Products to General Manager of the plant in Sacramento, California!!!!!! Our family is soooooooo proud of him! This obviously means a move for us. We went and found a house to rent (see blog below) just this week and we move the first week of October! Yes, it's fast but John needs to be there as soon as possible. We are excited and sad at the same time. It's hard to leave the place that has been home to John for 34 years and home to Abby for 11 years. Abby is from Northern California so in many ways this is a homecoming for her. The boys are thrilled about the new adventure and glad that they will get to come back to Arizona to visit Grandpa and Grandma in Flagstaff. Alita will be a California Girl just like her mom. We look forward to connecting with old friends and being able to see Abby's Aunt Pam and Uncle Bill who live in Healdsburg more often. It will be fun getting to know our new home city, Elk Grove. Elk Grove is a suburb of Sacramento and it seems to be a wholesome place to raise kids. We appreciate your prayers as we make this HUGE change. It may be a while before we blog again.

The new digs

Here is our rental home on Generations Dr in Elk Grove. It's a nice little place but what really sold us on it was the backyard. There is an apple tree, orange tree and lovely roses. They boys will have a place to run and play and there is a great patio for mom and dad to sip lemonade and watch them play. We plan to rent for 1-2 years and then buy a house in this great town we will call home. Come visit us!

Joshua the reader!

Joshua read his first book with minimal assistance. Can you guess the title?

Notre Dame Football

The Fighting Irish opened their football season against Georgia Tech this past Saturday. We won't mention the score (ND was trampled on) BUT we still enjoyed watching the game as a family.