Letters to Santa

Yesterday, we had Riley, Cassidy and Tyson sit down and "write" letters to Santa. They each picked one thing to ask for and I wrote a small sentence for them, then they filled in the rest.

Cassidy asked for the Twilight Bella Barbie

Riley asked for a baby My Little Pony with a bottle.

Tyson asked for a scary dinosaur and monster... nice.

Since Cooper didn't take part in the letter writing (although I'm sure he would have asked for more Duplo Legos), I thought I would include a photo of him...
Last night he fell asleep right in the middle of his dinner. Rick and I even tried to wake him up, but he was OUT. So, he got a little 20 minute power nap! :)

We are slowly getting settled into the house, I'll post more on the house later!

It's finally here...

It's moving day!!!

(Wish us luck- it's cooold out today!)

Two amazing women

I am incredibly lucky to have two amazing women in my life that I get to call family- my mom and sister!

First off, I want to wish my sister, Robyn, a Happy Birthday- the big 3-0! :)

(Sorry Malena, this was a great picture of Robyn!)

I am so proud of my sister and all she has accomplished over the past few years. She is a wonderful mother and Cassidy is a lucky little girl! She and I share a love for all things Twilight, which I love! Her birthday gift was an awesome Team Edward water bottle and I hope she finally gets to see New Moon for her birthday. And she is so creative- I think she got a majority of the creative genes in our family, because I certainly didn't! :)

This year Robyn bought her very first house and we got a chance to see it at the end of October- I can't believe all the great things she did to make the house her home.

It looks incredible and here is proof!

The decorating gene runs in our family- it ran straight from my mom to my sister, skipping right over me! My mom is just remarkable when it comes to decorating, she has such a gift! Her own houses have all been done so beautifully and she's also had the opportunity to help others transform their spaces into something more functional and aesthetically pleasing- including Rick and I. I've posted previously about some of the decorating she's done around our current house, you can see those pictures here. Those pictures show our bedroom and family room, but she has done much more than those rooms over the years. She also helped us stage the house for selling (which you can see here), driving up for less than 24 hours to help and the house looked fabulous!

Well, earlier this year, my mom and stepdad's house was picked to be a part of the Tri-Cities annual Christmas Home Tour. It's a one-day charity event that benefits the Children's Hospital of Seattle. She's been gathering things all year and creating new decor' to prepare and apparently she made quite an impression! The women in charge of the event, which is being held today (Saturday, December 5th), came by a couple of weeks ago to preview the house for the big day. They were so impressed with what she had done, she was recommended to be showcased for a story in the Tri-City Herald to promote the Christmas Home Tour. You can read the article here if you are interested. Although they got a few facts wrong and didn't use any of the pictures they took of the house for the article, I still think it's great they picked her to highlight! I can't wait to see photos of the house and all the detail she put into each room, she truly is talented! If I get some photos from her of the house, I'll be sure to post them! I really think she should start her own blog with decorating tips and ideas.

All of this bragging about my mom and sister brings me to today and our preparations to move into the new house next Wednesday. I would truly feel lost with all of those beautiful walls to fill and was really hoping they would be able to come and help out with getting our home looking beautiful- OK, maybe more like DO the decorating, not really "help out". We have figured out they'll be able to come into town next Saturday morning, bringing with them a couch we're buying from my mom and Jim and an SUV filled with tons of things they have already purchased for the house. Yep, they were given a budget to work with and armed with photos of the new house and I think they were in decorators heaven today! I can imagine it's way more fun to shop with other people's money, especially when it's on things you enjoy looking at anyways! I'm so anxious to see what they will do to help get our house feeling more cozy and home-like in record time. If anyone can do it, they can! I look forward to being able to post some blank-wall before pictures and stunning after pictures in the weeks following our move.

So, December 5th will be a big day for two amazing women in my life: my little sister will be celebrating her birthday and joining me in the land of the 30's and my mom's hard work will pay off with many oohs and aahs from the Christmas Home Tour. It is sometimes hard not living closer to them. I would give anything to see my mom's hard work in person, but with the move and so much to get done, a trip to the Tri-Cities will not be possible this holiday season. And I would LOVE to see New Moon with Robyn and be there to celebrate such a milestone birthday with her. I think they both know how much I love them and that I'll be thinking of them a ton today!

Happy 30th Birthday Robyn!!

Mr. Get-out-of-bed: Part 2

This is how Tyson fell asleep last night...

On the floor, in the hallway, blanket over his head, with a clear shot of Rick and I on the couch downstairs watching the Civil War game.
For Mr. Get-out-of-bed, Part 1, click here.

Bedtime with Tyson is not our favorite thing, so we are looking forward to him having his own room very, very soon. If you look closely in the picture, Tyson had a run-in with a Duplo Lego earlier in the evening and didn't come away too well. He was excited daddy was home from work, lost his footing and fell, face first into the Lego. We were going to have family pictures taken tomorrow morning, but I think we have a great reason to postpone until after the holidays! I also hope it doesn't leave a big scar, it didn't look deep enough for stitches, but you never know. Poor guy!

Letter of Apology

Dear Blog,

I'm sorry I have been neglecting you lately, things have been very busy. You see, we're moving to a new house next week and our current house is in a state of chaos as we prepare for the big day. I promise to update more often when things settle down. Just think of all the exciting updates you'll get as we decorate the new house- you'll be a busy blog!

Thank you for understanding!
Brooke

The garage no longer holds cars... so sad considering how cold it's been. I miss getting into a semi-warm car.

All the fragile items (dishes, mirrors, etc.) that I will be transporting in the van rather than a moving truck.

And rooms are beginning to look like this. Weird.

We sign paperwork on Friday at the title company and the expected day we'll get the keys is on Wednesday, the 9th. So exciting!

Our baby is growing up!

If you look closely, you can see Cooper's new teeth!

Current stats:
Weight- 23lbs 7oz
Length- 31 1/2 inches
Cuteness- Off the charts! :)

Busy, busy

Seriously... who decides to sell their house when they are this busy??? Oh yeah, we do! And I am trying to truly enjoy every step of the journey! I know the word *enjoy* probably doesn't seem to fit the situation, but I really do want to make sure I enjoy this season of our lives. Our life outside of moving is still speeding along like a freight train and I'm loving every minute of it- even though some days I'm not sure which way is up or down! I actually keep forgetting that tomorrow is Thanksgiving! I am thankful to my sister-in-law, Debbie, and brother-in-law, Randy, who are taking on 90% of Thanksgiving dinner this year and opening their house to host.

I'm in the home stretch with school and begin my student teaching experience on January 4th. I met one of my cooperating teachers on Monday afternoon and it has me even more excited (and nervous) than I was before, she seems like a great fit for me! I am thankful we will be all settled into the new house by January so I can truly focus on what I need to do in order to grow as a teacher. I am also thankful to have Rick as a resource in addition to my cooperating teachers- he has been a great help to me so far! I think what I'm least looking forward to with the whole student teaching thing is the "dress code"... jeans are only allowed on casual Friday. Eek. I have a lot of clothes shopping to do and very little sense of style or current fashion. Anyone care to help? And by help, I mean take me shopping and tell me what to buy- or at least send me some links to outfits I should be looking for. :)

We had a couple of doctor appointments yesterday: Cooper's had his one year well-baby check and I'm thankful he is healthy (more on his stats in my next post) and I had a long overdue eye appointment, too. I am thankful to be able to see everything a little sharper today! I also get to go back in a couple of weeks to pick out new glasses- my first new pair in like 9 years! I usually only wear my glasses at night, but maybe I'll change that with the new specs and maybe I'll even post a picture on here. Maybe.

We will be contributing to the retail world quite a bit over the next few weeks. Between birthdays (my sister's 30th!), a wedding (our nephew, Michael and his beautiful bride, Sarah), Christmas, school clothes shopping for me, and getting furniture, etc. for the house, we'll be out enjoying the hustle and bustle of the holiday shopping season. For the ability to do this, I am thankful.

We are living in limbo right now- bare walls, boxes lining the garage, and on the verge of emptying all the closets and drawers. We'll be living on the bare minimum of clothes and toys, preparing to move our stuff into all the new closets and storage we will have. I really can't wait to organize everything! I am thankful for a husband who likes organization as much as I do... although we have been known to get into *discussions* on how a particular space should be organized. I am also thankful for all free and cheap boxes and packing supplies we have been receiving from friends and family, it has helped tremendously to have boxes all ready to put together and fill. On Monday morning, I removed everything from the walls and tables, basically all of our decor'. I left the house for a meeting and class with piles and stacks of pictures, fake greenery, candles, and the like covering the family room floor, then joked on facebook about wishing the boxes could pack themselves. Guess what? The boxes didn't pack themselves- my amazing husband packed them! I came home from class at 10:30pm and the family room was clean and bare and I was thankful! Thankful for my husband and all the hard work he has been doing to prepare for the move and thankful I didn't have to pack all the stuff myself. He really is an amazing man. I would guess that by the end of this Thanksgiving weekend, almost the entire house will be ready to move. So exciting!

Finally, I am thankful for how patient our kids have been throughout this whole process. Riley is still thriving at preschool and loves going to learn and play with her friends. She has really been into dress-up lately and I love to watch her twirl around in her dresses and have tea parties. Tyson has the most incredible imagination and he's so creative, it just makes me laugh! He was determined to play dress-up with Riley the other day and wanted to wear a pretty dress, too. We put one on him for about 2 minutes to get a great blackmail photo, then let him dress-up as Bob the Builder and Buzz Lightyear instead. I think we'll have to search for some great gender neutral dress-up clothes soon! He asks about going to the new house several times a day, so I'm thankful that day is fast approaching. He's going to love having his own room and not having to worry about waking up his little brother during naps and bedtime. Cooper has been battling a nasty cold and 4 teeth working their way down, but he's been a real trooper! We had two semi-sleepless nights from the tooth pain and stuffy nose, but he was back to normal last night. I think his two front teeth on the top will be breaking through any second, with the next two coming in soon after. I look forward to him having his own room as well, a place to keep all of his age-appropriate toys so maybe his older brother and sister don't try and steal them all the time!

This post is full of many things I am thankful for, because I missed a thankful post on Monday and Tuesday. In case I don't get a chance to write anything tomorrow: Happy Thanksgiving!