Merry Christmas!

Just wanted to wish our friends and family a very Merry Christmas! I am signing off for a few days. We will leave tomorrow afternoon and head down to St. Louis. We will be there until New Year's Day. We have many Christmas celebrations to attend and are looking forward to seeing everyone!

Christmas Parties!

I had the chance to go to both Kate and Jackson's Christmas Parties at school this year. It was a busy day because they were both on Thursday. Thankfully Kate's was in the morning and Jackson's was in the afternoon. Kate's was a low key party with some snacks and then their regular end of the day routine. Jackson's was much more high energy!!! I was in charge of the craft and I was exhausted by the time I left. Here are a few pics from the day:





As silly as I thought it was that Jackson's party was on Thursday (they still had school on Friday) we were glad it was since school was canceled on Friday!

Winter Wonderland!

We had an ice storm last night. Not as bad as expected - but school was called off! Roads were mostly just slushy but the ice made our street look like a winter wonderland.
Her are some pictures we took this evening.

Wordless Wednesday

Santa!

We went last night to see Santa (or HoHo as Kate calls him). Kate is scared to death of Santa or any life size character for that matter. Ask her about the Billiken some time:) Our local Parks Dept. held a big Christmas Event last night at one of the parks. They had face painting, balloon animals, games, crafts and of course - Santa! Jackson went prepared with his wish list he made earlier in the day(he didn't want to forget). Kate claimed she was going to sit on Santa's lap with Jackson and was very excited.
Then we walked in the door and she started shaking and held on for dear life!!!! We watched from afar as Jackson had a chat with Santa and then after he handed Kate a piece of candy, she decided she would at least talk to him! Here are a few pics.

Kate's First Day of Preschool

Here are some pics of Kate's first day of preschool today. She looks so happy and carefree in these pictures - however, she was not that way when I left her this morning!





She had to wear her "glasses"! She is so funny!
I'll let you know how her day went and post some more pics of Jackson's first day.

Melissa

First Day on The Bus!

My neighbor just sent this picture to me. WOW! I'll post more pics and a story later. He did great - I did OK.

Melissa

Jackson's First Day of School!!!!!!

Well actually it was only an hour of school!
Today was the first day of school for our school district and it was a half day. The kindergartners only go for 1 hour with their mom and dad. There were two different time slots you could go and we chose the later one at 10AM. I'm glad we did because it was a lot less crowded. Only 7 kids were there. There are a total of 24 kids in his class.
It was kind of like an open house. We went and put his supplies away and were able to look and play with everything in the room. The teacher took time to talk to each of the kids and at the end she gathered them together for some songs and poems. Jackson had a great time. His favorite thing in the room was the gecko! He was totally amazed by it. They also have 2 gerbils. His teacher's name is Mrs. DeBord. She is very nice and I think she will be perfect for Jackson.
Here are some pics:







Tomorrow Jackson will ride the bus and stay all day!!!!
I will post more pictures again tomorrow.

Happy Birthday Kate!!!

Kate turned 2 on August 9th. We had a small party for her that evening with a few neighbors and Grandma and Papa Dooley.
The next morning we left for Florida!!!
Here are a few pics my awesome neighbor took:

Birthday Girl


Cute as a Cupcake


THe neighbor boys and Jackson singing Happy Birthday to Kate

Pictures

Here are the latest pics of the kids. My neighbor is a photographer and she took these pictures for us. She took about 150 pics. These are a few of my faves.

We are still here!

Wow - it has been a long time since I posted last. I really am going to try to be better about posting.
A lot has happened since I posted last.
Memorial Day we had some of my family come visit. Mom, Dad, Susan, Sydney, Brett, Sara, Matt and Matthew all came up for the weekend. We had a great time. The house was full of people, good food, and fun times. I hope we can do it again soon!
We celebrated our 1 year anniversary of living in our new town. Both Kevin and I had our doubts that we would last a year, but we did! We love our new house and our new neighborhood. We love all of the family oriented stuff there is to do around town. We are happy we made the move. However, we still miss St. Louis. More so when we are actually there. It will always be HOME for us - and one day we will be back.
We also celebrated Jackson's 5th birthday. Where has the time gone? I can't believe he is five! We had a little birthday celebration in our backyard with all of our neighbors. We had cake and ice cream and a pinata. It was a great time. The kids ran around and played while the adults enjoyed a few adult beverages and good conversation.
On June 16th Kevin and I celebrated our 7th Wedding Anniversary. We actually celebrated the weekend before. We headed to St. Louis on Saturday afternoon and dropped the kids off - Jackson with Aunt Sue and Uncle B and Kate with Grandma and Grandpa. Then Kevin and I went the Dave Matthew's Band Concert at Busch Stadium. After the concert we stayed at the Ballpark Hilton. We had a great time and felt like kids again!
The last week in June the kids and I stayed in St. Louis for a week. We attended the most awesome VBS ever!!! It was great visiting with our friends and family. At the end of the week on Sunday we had a shower for my sister Sara. It was a nice ending to a fun filled week.
That brings us to this past weekend - 4th of July! We had a very nice relaxing weekend. We spent most of the weekend with our neighbors. The kids played and swam while the adults enjoyed good food and drink. On the 4th we went to the fireworks display here in town. It was fun! Many of our neighbors go to the same spot so it was fun to hang out with each other. It was a nice display and the kids enjoyed it. I did feel a little homesick because I would have rather of seen the Downtown fireworks my brothers were shooting. I'm sure it was awesome!
Yesterday - Sunday - we had a big neighborhood BBQ. There were about 8 families that attended. We had a great time. The kids love playing with each other and the adults could actually enjoy sitting down and talking with each other since the kids were occupied. We have the best neighbors in the world!
Well - now you are pretty much caught up.
Come back soon to visit. I promise I will post some pics in the next few days.

Melissa

????????

Something is wrong with the video of Jackson's graduation. I promise I will get it fixed as soon as I can. I hope some of you got to see it before it messed up.

OK - I can't get it to work right now. If you want to see it, email me and I will send it to you. It is only about 2 minutes long.

Melissa

Jackson's Preschool Graduation!

Here are a few pics from the night:
Jackson and his friend Ryne - they are two peas in a pod!


Jackson and Kate


Jackson and Mommy


Jackson and his teacher Mrs. Tully


Wow - has it already been a whole school year?!

Mother's Day

I'm working on getting everyone caught up - so here is how Mother's Day weekend went.
It was a very busy, very fun weekend!!! On Friday night we stayed with my best friend Sarah and her family. Jackson and Joe had a great time playing and Kate tried as hard as she could to keep up. It's funny because Jackson (almost 5) and Joe (just turned 4) are the same size and have the same color hair. They look a lot alike just like Sarah and I did at their age - yes we have known each other for that long!
On Saturday we took Joe to the Zoo and met Sara, Matt, Matthew and Keith. It was a beautiful day and the Zoo was a little crowded. The kids had a blast. Kate had not been to the Zoo since she was under a year old. She loved seeing all of the animals. Of course we had to ride the train also - Joe and Jackson are very fond of trains.
We had a lot of fun!
On Saturday night Sara and I took my mom out to dinner for Mother's Day. We went to The Cheesecake Factory at the Galleria and then did a little shopping.
Sunday was my niece Brittany's confirmation. It was an eventful day. The storm from the night before had cause the electricity to be out at church. Most of the service was by candlelight and flashlight. In the middle of Communion the lights came back on! Brittany looked beautiful and I was very proud of her. After the service Brian and Susan had a luncheon/party to celebrate. It was nice to visit with family and friends. Kevin left a little early and took the kids to visit his mom. He brought home Pirrone's Pizza - yummy!!!
Like I said - it was a great weekend!!
Here are a few pics from the weekend.

Weekend with Friends

I know it has been a while. Things have been very busy these days. We have a lot to share with you - so look for a few posts this week.
First let's go back a little to the middle of April when we had our friends Mike and Tracie and their girls Lily(4) and Elly(1) stay with us overnight. They arrived on Saturday afternoon and the kids enjoyed playing outside. Mike and Kevin took Lily and Jackson to the park and they played on the playground and even attempted flying a kite. Saturday night after the kids went to bed, the adults enjoyed the Wii. Mike and Kevin stayed up late playing Guitar Hero! On Sunday morning, Tracie made us chocolate chip pancakes - they were delicious! Then we headed over to the Ropp Cheese Farm. We got to see the cows and how cheese is made. After naps we BBQ'd then said goodbye to our friends.
We had a great time.
Here are some pics of the weekend.
Thank you Tracie for sending them!

My baby is going to Kindergarten!

Tonight Kevin, Jackson and I went to register Jackson for Kg.
I just can't believe he is going to be in Kg. in August.
We went to the school and the teachers took the kids to show them the Kg. rooms and do some activities with them while the parents stayed in the cafeteria and listened to the principal talk and then filled out paperwork.
Jackson had a great time and he is really excited about starting Kg. Ask him about it the next time you talk to him. He loves to talk about it.
Wow! I think I am still in shock! I can't even imagine what I will be like on the first day!!!

Melissa

Funny!

So - it is very cold and rainy here today.(actually it sleeted and snowed a little earlier in the afternoon!) I had to take Kate to the dr. because she woke up yesterday with a fever. I thought for sure it was another ear infection - turns out it is a throat infection! Yuck! Poor thing. She is being a trooper though.
Anways - we were playing in Kate's room this afternoon and Kate decided to change her clothes which then prompted Jackson to join in.





They are so funny!

Melissa

Spring Break

OK - I promised another post this weekend. I am trying to catch up - so here is a post about our Easter and Spring Break.
Easter weekend was cold but fun. We spent the weekend visiting with friends and family. The Easter Bunny left baskets full of goodies for the kids and even managed to leave some eggs for hunting at various places we visited. I'd have to say the best egg hunt was at my cousin Susie's house. It actually started snowing while the kids were hunting eggs! All in all it was a busy but fun weekend.
Kevin left Monday evening to head back home while the kids and I stayed and visited for the week since Jackson was on Spring Break. We spent the week visiting everyone we could fit in. On Wednesday we spent the day with Aunt Sue, Brittany, Brett and Sydney. We went to the Transportation Museum and then had lunch at McDonald's. Jackson also visited with his friends, Elijah, Nick, Alex and Joe. It was an exhausting but fun week. I had so many pictures it was hard to choose which ones to post so I chose pictures of the kids with their cousins. Enjoy!

Melissa
PS - the picture of Jackson with the Easter Bunny is a picture of him with his cousin because Steve was the Easter Bunny at Church! Notice there isn't a pic of Kate with the Easter Bunny. She was terrified of him. She held on for dear life and cried if she was in the same room with him!