Winter Fun

We finally had some snow and I took the kids out to enjoy it. Lizzy was disappointed that her snow balls fell apart, but they both had fun.

Looking Back

Since this is a new year I wanted to take a look back at the past year. I have so many fond memories of 2011. I met wonderful people and had many grand adventures. We moved back home to Washington and I met many wonderful people here as well. Some thing that I will miss about living in Missouri are:
Seeing the Mississippi river, it is such a celebrated river and truly lives up to it's fame.
Going to the St. Louis Zoo with all my friends.
The Magic House and the City Museum.
Being closer to the Bartholomews.
My fabulous Ward family.
Climbing on the tank in the park.
Going to Nauvoo.
Adventuring around Eastern USA
Play dates and LINK
Frozen Custard!

So many fun things and wonderful people to share them with. Now we are looking forward to the new year and all of it's possibilities. Daniel accepted a job working at the Clark County Power plant in Vancouver, Wa. He will start work on the 30th. We went down to look at houses and made an offer on one we like. The home owner accepted our offer and we hope to move in by March! I am so excited! There is so much to do in Vancouver and Portland that I'm sure I will be busy for some time. Check out their web page Here.

Making Wands

To get away from the winter doldrums I suggested that we make wands. I kept seeing this post in Pintrest about making wands out of glue and paper. See here. I was intrigued to say the least. Daniel was game and so we set out to make wands with the girls. Since we were limited with glue I suggested that we try filling them with melted crayons. They worked great and were much cheaper.  Here's Daniel filling the wands:

From 2011-12-28 Wand Making

It was a fun all day process. Here are some finished wands:

From 2011-12-30 Wands

Christmas

As Christmas was on Sunday we decided to celebrate a day early. So on Friday night we celebrated Christmas eve. Traditonally we read the Christmas story out of Luke in the Bible, but since the kids are so young we opted for the nativity movie the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints put out a few years ago. I like the simplicity of it. Then we opened a present and listened to the Tabernacle Choir sing. It was a nice night. Saturday morning was fun, we had to convince Lizzy that Santa had really come and she was sad she missed him. She woke up the Grandparents and we all went downstairs to see the tree.

From 2011-12-24 Christmas

It was so classic. Charles was not ready to get up!

From 2011-12-24 Christmas

Lizzy and Charles had a great time opening gifts. It was great. Later on Jessica and the gang came over to help us celebrate:

From 2011-12-26 Christmas

Good times, good times.

Christmas Traditions

From 2011-12-08 Tree trimming

Here is Charles helping us get into the Christmas spirit! We trimmed the tree together. Then we took a candle light tour of the historic Fort Steilcoom. It was so fun, like we were guests of the Ghost of Christmas Past. The girls really enjoyed the dancing:

From 2011-12-11 Ft. Stilicum candle light tour

I really enjoyed hearing the musicians outside. They let us play the Jaw bone.

From 2011-12-11 Ft. Stilicum candle light tour

It was really quite magical. Next Charly helped us get into the Christmas Mood by Singing at the Seattle Center Winterfest. We had fun riding the ferry and listing to the schools perform. Charly did a wonderful job!

From 2011-12-14 Charly's concert

Every year the Seattle Center sets up a miniature train. Lizzy even got to be a guest conductor!

From 2011-12-14 Charly's concert

Lizzy go to be an Angel in the primary "Picture a Christmas" program. She was so excited!

From 2011-12-16 tward party

Unfortunately she was in the very back so we couldn't see her. Here we all are!

From 2011-12-16 tward party

Then we went to the Clear Creek Nursery to see some real reindeer and a camel! Not only that, but inside they make it snow! Lizzy loved it!

From 2011-12-18 Saturday Fun

And finally our last Christmas stop was Poulsbo! A quaint little Norwegian town. They had Father Christmas and  horse drawn carriage rides.

From 2011-12-18 Saturday Fun

We finished by taking in the lights at the Harborside park.

The Birth of Sean Jackson

It was a dark and stormy night.... OK, it was an overcast afternoon when Jessica got the call to come into the hospital. Her baby was already 9 days late and she was ready to hold him. She asked me to go as her coach and I was happy to oblige. Luckily Daniel was able to stay home with the kids. Here is the before shot:

From 2011-12-02 Sean Jackson's birth

Not bad huh? I never look that pregnant. I never really look pregnant, but enough about me... Anyway we were finally admitted to the Bremerton Naval Hospital around 2. I had dutifully packed my snacks and things since this hospital really doesn't have a cafeteria. They put us in a room and we waited for a while. Then a corp man came and hooked Jessica up to an IV and we waited. And waited. The Dr. came in and asked how she was doing and told her she had already had her trauma 10 lbs. baby today so Jessica could not have one as well. Then she said that she was going home for dinner and that she'd be back later. Here she is with Jessica:

From Sean's Birth

 Well all was well, going slowly actually, it was nearing 4 pm when the petosin was finally administered and then another few hours before Jessica was feeling any real contractions. We sent Rex to go get dinner and snacks for us and put in Harry Potter Deathly Hallows part 2 and settled in to wait for some more contractions. They were slow coming. Daniel came by with Charles so I could nurse him and I went down to the Subway to get a sandwich for later on.  Then around 7PM the contractions had picked up and Jessica was starting to really feel them so they started the epidural. The anesthesiologist was crazy. Making weired remarks about his wife and getting girls paralyzed. Very different.  Well, long story short, Sean Jackson came at 1:06 AM. on Dec. 2nd.  He Weighed in at 9 lbs 4.5 oz and 21 in. long. We were so glad to see him!

From Sean's Birth

From Sean's Birth

From Sean's Birth

Holiday Events

I have been a little lax in my blogging lately so I have a lot to make up for. First let me tell you about Thanksgiving! Traditionally thanksgiving is a nice slow day with dinner around 1PM and lots of family. We don't usually watch football unless my Uncle Harris is visiting, but Dad felt like watching the game and Lizzy sat with him. They were so animated! Lizzy dutifully repeating Papa's words. I took a video because it was so funny:

From 2011-11-24 Thanksgiving

The dinner was wonderful and the company most welcome. Quite an enjoyable day. The festivities continued with our early celebration of Caitlin's birthday. She of course wanted pumpkin pie instead of cake.

From 2011-11-26 Caitlin's Birthday

This was our fourth pumpkin pie event in November. Once is never enough! Sal dressed up for the occasion:

From 2011-11-26 Caitlin's Birthday

Isn't that something? This was his work attire. Pretty spiffy Sal! And finally we went to the Bremerton Stake's Creches and carols display. It was so nice. The kids loved the activity room where you could dress up as characters of the Nativity.