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