Somehow another month has passed since my last post and I have fallen behind in the blogging world. It has been a very busy month with Christmas and New Years. This was our first Christmas ever spent in our own home and it was so nice! It was very stress free and fun for us to start to create our own Holiday traditions. Jay's parents came to visit the week of Christmas and the day they left my parents came to visit for the week of New Years. So we were busy with company and we had a fun filled two weeks. I will let the pictures tell the story - sorry there are so many of them in one post. I will try to do better at keeping up next time!
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| Both girls loved their visit with Santa this year! |
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| Anna with her awesome speech therapist Carol. She happily sits and plays with Anna wherever Anna chooses. This entire hour was spent on our hard wood floor on the landing! |
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| Emma loved making cut out cookies with mom |
We also hosted a fun "Rudolph Run and Blitzen Bash" with some of our good friends. A long time ago (this all started back with the summer Olympics) Jay kept saying that he could run 1 mile in 6 minutes and 30 seconds. I bet him that he couldn't and before we knew it he had a couple friends and "Coach Mike" that wanted in on the action. The day that they ran the race was freezing cold here and super windy and Jay decided all bets were off before the race because of the weather. He ended up doing it in 6 minutes and 27 seconds despite the horrible weather!!! I was very impressed. Everyone then came over for a Christmas ugly sweater party - good times:)
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| Boys getting ready for run |
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| Jay sprinting to the finish line with Coach Mike cheering him on |
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| Victory dance for Jay |
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| Victory drink with Coach Mike |
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| Guys with their ugly sweaters |
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Emma trying to catch a snowflake on her tongue
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On Christmas Eve we went for our second annual trip into DC to see the Capitol Christmas tree and the National Christmas tree in front of the White House. Jay and I both love doing this.
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| Tree in front of Capitol |
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| Nana and Papa with the girls |
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| White House tree |
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| Nana and Papa with the girls in front of the National Christmas tree |
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| Emma dumping her reindeer food in the front yard getting ready for Santa |
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| Writing her letter to Santa |
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| Anna scribbled on a paper for Santa too:) |
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| Santa sure left a lot of presents! Feeling very blessed! |
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| Anna surrounded by all of her gifts |
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| Emma surrounded by all of her gifts |
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| The Grinch Floor Puzzle she desperately wanted |
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| Daddy even got to put lipstick on:) Life with two girls! |
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| Emma with her new bike from Santa. The girls stayed in jammies all day and happily played with their toys ALL DAY LONG! |
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| Nana helping Anna ride the scooter |
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| Red rover, red rover, send Emma on over! |
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| Playing in the small amount of snow we have gotten |
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| Making a snow angel |
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| Anna kept trying to make snowballs |
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| Grandma and Grandpa at the White House |
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| Posing with the girls in front of the reflecting pond |
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| The girls never smile when they take a picture with mom and dad |
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| We went with Grandma and Grandpa to a local walking light tour through a botanical gardens that was gorgeous! |
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| The girls lovin on each other |
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| We went into DC last weekend to the Air and Space Museum and this picture is proof that we finally let the girls ride the carousel on the National Mall that they beg us to ride every time we go. They loved it of course. |
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| A fun picture of the Washington Monument covered in fog so that we couldn't see the top |
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Our last piece of big news is that we are moving again. We have known that it would be coming, but it is sad that it is official and going to happen. I always have a hard time moving because it is so hard to make new friends and find new doctors and figure out new schools, and the list goes on. This move is especially hard because we really do just love Virginia. We love the four seasons, which take us back to our Michigan roots, and there is just so much to see and do here. The scenery is beautiful and we have made great friends that will be hard to leave. With the purchase of our new house it will be the fourth house that Emma has lived in and she is only four and a half years old. That simply means too much moving in my mind.
On the positive side of things we are ever so grateful to have had the opportunity to explore this part of the country. We have learned the ropes a little and will definitely bring the girls back when they are older to appreciate it a little bit more. Jay is looking forward to his new job as Area HR Manager over 4 plants in Beaumont, TX. That's right - we are headed back to Beaumont which is where Emma was born. We have our house hunting trip in a couple weeks and will officially move sometime in the first week or two of March - all depending on how our closing date works out.
I will blame some of my delay in blogging on this move. I have been busy taking down Christmas decorations, cleaning, purging and getting the house ready for the market. We had 5 showings yesterday and were pretty much kicked out of the house all day. Having a house on the market with a two and four year old = NO FUN! It is so hard to keep it clean.
Jay and I also recently celebrated 9 years of wedded bliss:) Nana and Papa were here on our anniversary and we saw our first movie in ages - Argo. It was awesome and we both highly recommend it. I am so lucky to have my best friend as my hubby. Hope everyone is enjoying the New Year!
