Christmas 2010 Photos

Christmas Morning

Christmas Eve

Polar Express 2010

This year we went on the Polar Express with some friends, the Olsons. We had a great time as always. The boys always love the hot cocoa and cookies on the train as well as receiving the bell from Santa. This is definitely our last year riding the train for awhile -- we will likely do it one more time when Karlynn is a bit older.

Advent Sing

It was sweet and special to watch the boys sing together in the Peace Lutheran Preschool Advent Sing this year. Jake and I loved watching our boys. It really is an oddly humbling experience watching your young children sing on stage. Very precious. Micah was all fired-up and practiced the songs all morning before school. Caden, who I am sure knew the songs, froze up a bit in front of the crowd of parents packed into the chapel for the performance. Instead of singing he just starred back at everyone in the audience. He was, however, very excited to see Mommy, Daddy and Karlynn in the front pew!

Weekend with Matilda

Micah's Pre-K class takes turns taking care of Matilda the stuffed gorilla during the course of the year. Early December marked our weekend with Matilda, something that Micah took very seriously and was very excited about. Matilda helped us put up our Christmas tree this year, which was a special situation in and of itself. Thankfully the owners of our rental home store a Christmas tree in the garage and they were kind enough to let us use it this season. The boys picked out blue lights at the store (it actually turned out to be pretty cool looking) and we purchased a couple small sets of while, silver, blue and red ball ornaments since we do not yet have access to our own Christmas decorations (...we don't even know if they survived the tornado as all was stored in our attic :-/...). I think we will have to setup a small tree with blue light and said balls next year in honor of our Christmas spent in the rental. When all was said and done the boys enjoyed some candy canes (and Matilda did too, of course!).

Collection of Smiles

Karlynn has been full of smiles and sweetness lately. Here are some cute shots...

December 2010

November 2010

Thanksgiving in Payson

This year we had a sibling style Thanksgiving in Payson with Jake's sisters and families. Funnily enough I did not manage to get any pictures of the meal, but did get a few of all playing and having fun.

Boys in front of their "dump"

Karlynn avoiding the chaos of the boys

Adults playing Wii after the kiddos went to bed

Jake laughing himself silly

The Big Birthday Party

This year Micah's birthday party was held at the Summit Gymnastics Academy in Flagstaff. Considering our housing circumstances right now we decided it would be best to host the party "on location". The party was an absolute blast and Micah LOVED the chance to be with so many of his friends!

Micah turns 5!!!

Happy Birthday to our first born! We cannot believe that he is 5 already. Time goes incredibly fast!

Here are some pictures from the morning of his birthday, opening presents before heading to school...

A flutophone!

And one more after returning home from school in his birthday crown!

The Nursery

I have been meaning to post pictures of Karlynn's nursery on the blog for quite some time (I put them on FB months ago). Karlynn only got to enjoy the nursery for diaper changes and rocking for her first two weeks - prior to the tornado - and never even slept in the crib. :-(

Anyway, here are pics that we took of the "nursery in progress" in July of this summer. No worries, we will recreate it and this time professionals get to paint it!

Halloween 2010: Cute and Funny!

The boys had a blast dressing up and trick-or-treating this Halloween. After going around our neighborhood with Jake the boys had their pumpkins filled to the brim!

Jake's office building put on a small Halloween party for the kiddos on Saturday. The boys entered into the costume contest and won prizes for "cutest" and "funniest" costumes. I think it went to their heads a little bit as they were sure to tell neighbors "I'm cute!" and "I'm funny!" while trick-or-treating the next day. They crack me up!

Photos from Tornado Aftermath

Here are some photos from our neighborhood and the damage that can been seen on our block. Even weeks later, it is still astonishing.

Notice the path of trees wiped out on the mountain (from the first funnel that touched down).

Busy & Behind

I am so behind on our blog! With having a new baby and then the chaos and aftermath of the Bellemont tornadoes we have had a lot on our plates. Not to mention just being plain tired! But, nonetheless, there are some things I want to tackle and get posted. So, coming soon...

9-17-2010 Birth Story
10-4-2010 Time with Nana & Granddaddy
10-5-2010 Peppers & Tomatoes
10-6-2010 Tornado
10-16-2010 Naptime: Caden Style
10-17-2010 Karlynn is one month old!
10-22-2010 Demolition Begins

Demolition Begins

Demolition has begun on our house. We knew it was coming when the port-o-potty was delivered to our front yard early in the week. The first step was to remove all of the siding from the house. Next, I assume, they will move inside (where all of the furniture, belongings, and carpet have already been removed) to take down the drywall. Once all of that is down the contractor and engineers will decide if the house needs to come down the ground for a complete rebuild. A large part of that decision will be dependent on how much water damage occurred in the walls that were still in tact. Our contractor has stated that he believes our house is a "complete disaster" and would not be surprised if they do end up taking the whole thing down. Sigh. Here are some pictures we took that day after the workers began demolition.