Carson Toddler Bed

Carson is almost three years old and has recently graduated from a crib to a toddler bed. He is proud of his new bed and loves the idea of getting into his own bed at night. So far he has been very good about staying in his bed at night. We are just waiting for the day when he realizes how much freedom he really has. But so far so good. Carson also was a big help assembling the new toddler bed. In fact, he used the allen wrench to remove old screws and put the rail on with new screws all by himself! He could hardly wait to work on a project with Daddy which involved tools.





Here is our big boy getting his own snack, something he loves to do.



Rachel's imagination continues to expand and she always amazes me with the things she can pretend. One day she decided she was going hiking so she packed her back pack full of toy food, grabbed Mommy's hiking hat, put on her vest, and even brought along her toy camera.



Here are the kids making a mini-snowman in one of our many snowstorms. Carson loves to use a toy shovel to shovel the driveway with Daddy.




We recently attended a 'Princess and Pirates Brunch' at the Navy Base nearby and it was lots of fun for the kids. Rachel was amazed to meet some live Disney princesses and even got to have her picture taken with Cinderella! Carson was a little leery of the pirate he was posed with but still had fun eating at the brunch.





Here is Rachel wearing her princess crown from the brunch and holding her Valentine's Day stuffed dog whom she named Snifflebuns. Snifflebuns gets along very well with her other favorite dog, Princess. They are now part of the team that accompanies her to bed every night.



We have discovered the Newport Library and have enjoyed going to their toddler story time. Below the kids are in the child-sized couch in the children's section of the library, and below that they are in the playground right outside the library.

Christmas 2009

What a wonderful Christmas we had! The week before Christmas a big box arrived from the California Santa, filled with lots of presents and yummy candy canes for the kids.






We know Santa was here Christmas Eve since the cookies and milk were all gone and in their place was a bunch of chocolates! Rachel was very excited to see what Santa had brought. Carson was very excited to eat the chocolates!


















Grammy and Grampy were here for a visit on Christmas day and they sure made Carson's day when they brought this toy in the house. Carson is now a John Deere man just like his Grampy!






Rachel's gift was a beautiful dollhouse. Here are Carson and Grampy during the dollhouse assembly. This is Carson's toy drill, one of his favorite tools.



The kids had fun trying out their new clay on Grampy and Grammy.





The day after Christmas the kids got dressed up to go visit some relatives. Here they are in front of Rachel's new dollhouse.



At our relative's house, Rachel was thrilled to open a princess dress and princess shoes - she loves to dress up.

Rachel Turns Four

Our little princess celebrated her fourth birthday recently. The festivities were a welcome change for all of us since Rachel was in the hospital with a bad case of pneumonia for the first part of October. She gave us all quite a scare but after 12 days in the hospital and lots of antibiotics she is doing much better.

Since Rachel loves every kind of princess we had a princess party for her birthday, with everything princess, even the blowers!

Rachel and Carson enjoyed frosting the birthday cake. Daddy's homemade frosting is a real treat and what fun to smear it all over a cake (and their faces).

Grandma was here for a visit during Rachel's birthday - the kids had lots of fun playing with their Grandma. Below are pictures of the kids burying Grandma in stuffed animals. Then Rachel had a turn getting buried with stuffed animals. This is our play area in the basement which came complete with lots of toys and stuffed animals, and even a little trampoline which the kids love to jump on.

East Coast Adventure

We are now east-coasters for a year or so due to a great job transfer opportunity that John could not pass up. We moved into our rental home in early September so this blog entry is long overdue, but better late than never. Our rental home is furnished not only with couches, beds and chairs, but more importantly, with TOYS. The first few weeks here were more exciting than Christmas - new toys were discovered in every nook and cranny of the house. Below is the doll house that came with Rachel's room, the life-sized Bob Builder stuffed doll that Carson found and loves to play with, and the tool belt that Carson found in the basement.







Rachel started preschool about a week after our arrival. The first few days of preschool were an adjustment for her, but now she looks forward to going to school and seems to enjoy it. Here she is heading out for her first day of school!



We caught the tail end of summer here and discovered the beach very close to us has fun rides for kids. Below are pictures of Rachel and Carson riding the bumper boats. We've also enjoyed the merry-go-round and the playground at the beach, as well as splashing in the water and making sand castles.

We heard about the Audubon society's Educational Center nearby and spent a day exploring there. On the way back we discovered an outdoor festival which had pony rides which Rachel and Carson enjoyed. We also found a petting zoo nearby where the kids enjoyed feeding some goats.

One of the nicest things about our new situation is less travel for Daddy. Which means more opportunity for family time, even family naps.