Merry Christmas!!!

We had an awesome Christmas highlighted by an STC santa brunch, a gift exchange with the Felton cousins, a surprise photo shoot by our awesome nanny Jennifer, Suncadia with grandparents (water slides and snow tubing!), cookies, presents, and more!  Julia has spent hours working on her Legos/Playmobile while Alex is a Madden NFL Xbox whiz.  Thanks to our generous family!

Amidst all the fun Alex lost his first tooth (Dec 22) and the tooth fairy brought him $2.  He also got 7th place at the Bryant Classic Chess Tournament, qualifying for the state tournament next spring.

Santa Called!

And we got it on video . . .

Thanksgiving

We had a great time in Minnesota over Thanksgiving.  We played in the snow, visited Coleen, Maggie, Claire, Warren, Emily, Aaron, Diane, and Grandmas and Grandpas.   We also went swimming, visited Nickelodeon Universe, went to a Vikings game, and played outside.  Here are some pictures!

Exciting times

Julia has had lots of exciting milestones of late.  She ran her first 5k.  It was a Halloween theme so she wore a cape and ran really fast with Mommy.  We finished in under 45min - pretty good!  She also has gotten really into building Lego sets.  She is very meticulous about following every direction and will spend an hour getting them right.  Finally, she just finished her "learn to read" book.  It was a long hard slog.  In celebration we made a delicious black and white pudding pie.

Alex has had a great couple of weeks as well.  He did the kids dash at the Halloween event.  His soccer team finished a very successful season with 5 wins, 2 losses, and 3 ties.  Alex had two goals, a few assists, and some good stops in goal.  At chess camp yesterday he won the K-3 beginner group and got a nice medal.  Alex also got a special day with grandma on one of his many many days off from school.

For Halloween, Alex was a Minecraft guy and Julia was Belle.  Julia walked miles in the freezing cold in her little plastic high heels - it was worth it for all the candy.

Everyone is very excited for our upcoming Minnesota trip!

 Crazy hair day at school

 Julia doesn't like sleeping by herself so she sometimes sneaks into Alex's room.

 Xbox Party game.  Fun!

Action Photos

Here are some recent pictures from:

• Julia participating in the local "Run with the Fishes" in Issaquah.  She was first place in the (non-competitive) 5-year-old's division
• Julia's soccer class at Arena Sportws
• Alex's soccer team the Ender Dragons winning another game
• Julia's birthday party at Pump It Up
• Going to a local pumpkin patch with some friends to purchase some enormous pumpkins

More Pictures

It had been a while since our last post.  Here are some recent pictures from:

• The Museum of Glass
• The Space Needle
• St. Louis
• Alex's Soccer Team
• Alex taking the bus on the first day of school
• Julia and Daddy at the State Fair
• Alex and Daddy kayaking in Lake Union
• TJ's Minecraft birthday party