A Year Of New Beginings

It has been awhile so get nice and cozy it is going to be a long one! This year has been quite an exciting one to say the least. We have had soooo MANY new things happening in our family. Alex stared kindergarten! I miss him so much. He is doing great and is reading like a PRO! Mason started Preschool. He is finally learning his colors and counting. I guess it took someone besides mom and dad to teach him because of course mom and dad have no idea what they are talking about according to Mason.
We have a new family member baby Jacob. Which I know all of you have been dying for some more pictures.

This is when he was blessed at 9 days old. We wanted to do it in our old Ward so we could have grandparents, Uncle, niece, and friends there. It was a beautiful blessing and he slept the whole time.


Mason with Jacob on blessing day. He has been the best big helper brother. He wants to feed him, talk to him, snuggle him, show him toys, and even take out his diapers. If Jacob starts crying he is the 1st one there trying to comfort him. He is so sweet with him.



Sporting his hat that one of my very missed best friends made him. Thank you! I wanted you to see it on him.


So we tried to get a picture of the boys to send out for our Christmas cards. This is why I sometimes wish for girls who love to POSE for pictures. It was like we were torturing them. In every picture one of them was either crying, not looking, making funny or angry faces. Maybe one day I will have a girl who likes getting their picture taken.

Jacob is getting so big so fast. He is a little over 7 weeks old and it has flown by so fast. I want him to stay little!! He is a very sweet baby. The best baby I have had. He actually sleeps at night instead of crying all night long. It is like a miracle for me. I know it is a blessing from God. He knows what we can handle and he blessed me with a easy baby during this crazy time in our life. Thank you!

The next new begining is moving to a new home and area. We promised Alex when we moved we could do it by train. Yes he is spoiled when it comes to his train obsession.

Alex with his train ticket on our way to our new house. We got to ride the Amtrak and the Acela. Mason mostly slept the whole way. It had been long couple of days and he was worn out!

OUR NEW HOUSE
So yes I had this crazy idea and told the boys they could help me unpack and this is what I got. They just started dumping boxes out everywhere. Our house was insane and looked like this for at lease the 1st week. Thank heavens we have finally recoverd! Since they had no toys they played with boxes. It is amazing how many things you can do with an empty box. Here are the very cozy chairs they made out of them.
A train of course!
This is when they made a slide out of a box going down our stairs. They also made a huge haunted house out of several boxes, tryed to use them as wings to fly, used them to play basket ball and target with, punched holes in them, dragged eachother around in them, jumped off their bed into them, fought over them, and many many more things. Boy was I happy when those boxes were GONE!


I know this is random but before we left Poughkeepsie where we have TONS of trees and leaves I had to get some pictures of the huge leaf piles we could make. Can you even find the boys???!!!
The leaf pile was over Masons head.

When we got to our house the neighbors told us that we probably wouldn't get enough snow to even go sledding on. I was disapointed since we have this great sledding hill as our yard. Well we have had TWO snow storms since. This last one we got two feet of snow. The sledding has been great, and Jeff thinks our hill is perfect to go snowboarding on. He actually starts at the top of the deck and snowboards down the stairs and down the hill. I am sure it is giving our kids great ideas!

Alex trying to make a snow angle but it is just too deep!
Mason couldn't even walk in it since it was up to his hips.


One great blessing about our new location is that we are now only 45 minutes from the temple. And you can PARK there!!! It was always an adventure trying to find parking by the Manhattan temple.
The temple had a festivel of lights and it was beautiful. The DC temple is one of the MOST beautiful temples I have ever seen and the lights just made it even more so. There is such a great spirit felt there even without going inside!



We got to cut our own tree this year. It is so big and beautiful and the boys were super excited to get an early Christmas present. THE POLAR EXPRESS. They have been playing with it non stop.
And the last new begining is me starting a new decade of my life! Yes I can't believe I am admiting it. I am 30 years old! AHHHHHH I feel like I just graduated Highschool. How could this happen?!?!? This year has been a great year and I feel like we have been blessed in so many ways. I am so thankful for my family. I am so thankful for a beautiful baby boy that I felt like I had been waiting for for so long. I am thankful for this season to celebrate the birth of the Savior. To feel the spirit and to think about his life. I am thankful for all that He did. I Know that he lives and loves us. Merry Christmas everone!