Merry Christmas in 2011

Merry Christmas!

It has officially been one year since I posted on this blog. At that time I was sitting in our apartment in Seattle. I am now sitting back in Wichita reflecting on the path we traveled this year.

I couldn't decide if I should detail our life chronologically or create a paragraph on each family member. Since I'm indecisive, I'll do both!
In January Matt surprised me with a trip to Hawaii! The trip was in honor of our 10th anniversary, we just celebrated a few months early.

It was quite the trip, glad we did it, but will probably not go back!

Ava was the one with the most eventful year. It started with the first of many visits from the tooth fairy.
Also known as Toot= h Fairy!

To date she has lost 5 teeth. We are starting to save for braces!

She also took the big step into Kindergarten. Her teacher happens to be the parent of a girl I went to high school with. Knowing her teacher really helped ME get through the first day of school. I took comfort in that fact that she was in loving hands.


She absolutely loves school. She has learned a tremendous amount, especially in her ability to read. Matt and I have to be careful about spelling things we don't want to share with the kids because Ava can decode that information!

Ellie has grown and matured a lot this year. She has fully capitalized on the freedom that she has when Ava is at school!
She loves her baby dolls and mothers them constantly. In fact, she was like a proud mother when she found a baby that could crawl. I am pretty sure she teared up when she watched her doll move!


Little Miss Flexibility started gymnastics this year. She loved practicing the "forward roll" (AKA somersault) along with showing off her other skills.


I too have had an adventurous year. When we returned to Wichita, God blessed me with the ability to return to my job at Wichita State University. I am in the same role as a speech-language pathologist working 2 days a week. In addition to WSU, I started my own business providing speech therapy to school-aged kids.

Feel free to check it out at www.ExpressionsTherapy.com or like it on Facebook!!! (what's a little shameless promoting among friends?!)
I am trying to think of what else I do in my spare time, but I am not sure that I have any spare time!


Since Matt does not like me to talk about him, I save his part for last. I am sure that he is hoping that everyone has stopped reading at this point! To his dismay we are not currently living in his favorite city, Seattle. He visited Seattle this fall, which I am sure was the best weekend of his year. He continues to enjoy playing XBOX; I am told there have been some exciting games come out this fall...



As a family, our biggest change has probably been that fact that we started attending a new church. It was difficult to leave all our good friends at our other church, but we knew God was leading us down a different path. The church we currently attend, City Life Church, has been open about 3 months. We have met many new people and grown closer to others we already knew. Together we have participated in a couple of outreach projects, something my kids have not done before.
As we look at what 2012 may hold, we are discussing the possibility of attending a mission trip with our church in Haiti. While we are still praying about the possibility of this trip, we strive to teach our children that God has blessed us all with the things we have.

As I wrap this letter up, I pray that you and your family enjoy the holidays, have a relaxing Christmas and are blessed in the upcoming year.

With much love,
Matt, Megan, Ava and Ellie

Merry Christmas

I am sitting here trying to think of all the things I want to remember about this year...wish I wrote these things down throughout the year!

We are packing up our little apartment in Seattle, starting a new chapter of our lives in 2011. I vividly remember the day in July that the kids and I moved from Wichita to Seattle. There are not many times in our lives that we have such obvious life transitions. The day the kids and I boarded the plane we transitioned from the city and house we were comfortable with, to a new home, school, job, friends...you name it. Obviously we were excited to be back together as a family and thrilled to see "Daddy" daily. I am confident that if God had not taken me through the journey of being a semi-single mom, I would have been very bitter about moving to Seattle. I know that God had to get me to the place that allowed me to be thankful for seeing Matt for 3 hours a night instead of angry that I only saw him a short amount of time. I truly enjoyed our time in Seattle. I am a better, more thankful person for that journey.

Ava has matured into a respectful and loving preschooler. She LOVED her preschool that taught her many things including sign language and Spanish. She thinks it is pretty cool to communicate with me from the other side of the room, or to talk to Dora in Spanish! Her imagination has blossomed, which allows for some pretty good laughs at the things she says. This morning she asked Matt if he was allergic to soy (she has no idea what soy is...) and later asked if it would be a problem if we bought a cat from a gas station. Whaaaatttt???

Ellie has changed the most this year. Her sweet little personality has started to show; she is much more of an introvert and is easily overwhelmed with chaos and busy places. She looks like me, but has Matt's personality! (Ava looks like Matt but definitely has my personality.) This has taught me a lot about how my husband's brain works :) She use to require her "blankie" EVERY. WHERE. WE. WENT. but now leaves the blanket at home and only needs it when she sleeps! In the last month every time she saw lights or a tree she would yell, at top of her lungs, "Chwit-mas!" Made me smile every time! Love that girl.

I am excited to see what 2011 holds in store for us. We already know that Matt will start a new job, we will move home and Ava will start kindergarten in the fall. It will be another memorable year!

Spiders

In an effort to stay busy each day, we are exploring the city. I found a botanical garden that has children friendly activities every Wednesday. A few weeks ago was a spider theme. Each girl received a magnafiying glass & shared a spray bottle. They were told to spritz the web with water to increase the visability. The goal was to find 8 spiders.
The girls LOVED it, but I had the heebie jeebies the whole time. I am SURE I walked through 10 spider webs- nice!


Once they finished the spinder hunt, they made spider hats.


(This is the pose Ava chose, I did not direct her to stand like a hussy!)

Happy 2nd Birthday Ellie

Ellie, I am amazed that it has been two years since you came into our lives. Your birth weight (10 lbs 5 oz) lives in infamy, but fortunately you have thinned out. In fact, you are a petite little girl who can out eat most grown men. If we put it in terms of pizza, you eat 3 whole pieces plus some veggies. You can EAT!

Last year we thought it was novel that you were celebrating your 1st birthday in Seattle; however, we were wrong. Here we are celebrating #2 in Seattle. We had a family party for you in July to allow you to have a real party. I made Ava's 2nd birthday cake and I wanted to do the same thing for you. The problem is, it was a disaster! The icing fell off, the colors didn't turn out... So, in an effort to keep things the SAME, I made you a very ugly cake!

Fortunately for you, our friend Erin made you a whimsical cupcake-cake.
You were pretty excited!
You were also excited to open gifts this year. You like to color and play with Play-doh, so those items were a big hit.

This has been a momentous year; you learned to walk, run, talk, hug, love...
We have really seen your personality blossom too. You are a mild-mannered & calm kid, as far a toddlers go! You prefer to sit & take in all the things in your environment. You are also developing your independence as your favorite phrase is "I DO IT!" You like to pick out your clothes, your bows, your shoes and the food you eat. You want to buckle your booster seat and your car seat, but I fight you every time in order to help you be successful (and safe in the car!)

Your "claim to fame" is your flexibility. You must have double jointed hips because your legs look like they are on backwards at times! You ALWAYS sleep in splits, it is just a crack up.


I could go on & on about who you are, what you say and what you do. I love to see how your little brain works.
My prayer for you is that you will continue to develop a gentle spirit and that you continue to touch the lives of those who meet you. We love you Ellie Alexis.

Dining room

My craigslist table = $80 for table & 4 chairs. BTW- don't ever buy a black table! It shows every smudge of food, such a pain :)


I had to buy a rug ($50) to protect the carpet- I sure don't like carpet under a table!!

The girls' room

Here are several pictures of the girls room. Their beds arrived yesterday, so I can now say their room is fully furnished. In an effort to decorate/furnish the apartment on the cheap, the entire room cost less than $250 including curtains, bedding & wall art.

"The Garden" as Ava calls it. I purchased the removable stickers at Target using a gift card I received from my co-workers at WSU.


Ellie's bed


Curtains tied back.


Blackout drapes covered with a green sheer drape. As you can see, there is no curtain rod. To keep it cheap I used pushed pins to keep them up!!!


From the doorway


Looking at the pictures reminded me that I have a photo collage with their name to hang above their bed. I guess I will have to hang that tonight!

Welcom to Seattle, bienvenido a Seattle

Okay, okay, we didn't move to Miami, but the OLD SCHOOL Will Smith song came to mind when I was typing the title!

We have been in Seattle, specifically Mill Creek, for over a week. We had a little drama leaving Wichita because our original flight was canceled. When I rescheduled, the lady neglected to tell me she put us on a flight for the NEXT DAY! Only by the grace of God did I find this out before I arrived at the airport. When I attempted to re-reschedule, I was told all flights were book. Ugh! After several phone calls we were booked on a flight from home to Denver to Las Vegas to Seattle. I was nervous I would get stuck in a random airport, but we arrived in Seattle late Saturday.

The kids have adjusted fairly well. Initially the time change made for grumpy kids, but I think they are getting back on schedule. Ellie struggled with the time change the most- lots of crying, screaming and tears the first week. Last night she was crabby while we were eating dinner. I took her out of the restaurant to walk around the mall while Matt, Ava & our friend Bob finished dinner. As we were walking she through a fit in front of the Croc kiosk- "I want to look at SHOES! No, I want shoes!!" Ahhh, mommy's little girl!!

Ava had more issues missing her friends. She cried on several occasions when she realized she would not see certain people for awhile. Of course, it breaks my heart to see her cry :(
The other area of struggle is that she has become very worried about death. We have taken this opportunity to further educate her on the love of Jesus, but we are not quite sure how to set her mind at ease. Some of the humorous things she has asked about include: will I have hands in heaven? What will I drink when I get thirsty? Will there be babies there?
If anyone has suggestions on how to talk to a 4 year old about death, I would welcome the information.

As for me, I have really missed the people. My friends & family became such a support system to me over the last year; I really feel a sense of loss. I know this is a time of growth for me, but I am not pleased about having to change!!! The other transitional area is the weather. I went from this

to this!


Mentally I keep dressing like it is 100 degrees out, and then we all end up being cold during morning outings. In order to assist my adjustment, I HAD to go shopping for new clothes! It's a tough life...!

Life for Matt continues to consist of work, work and more work. He works 12 hours a day, 6 days a week. He also is adjusting to life with two crazy kids, but I know that he is thrilled to have us all together again (as am I).

Let's see, what else... We started the "church search" today. Everyone I talked to recommended Mars Hill - they even have an app!! We enjoyed the sermon & plan to return next week.

Stay tuned for pictures of the apartment and Ellie's 2nd birthday pics.

What? I have a Blog??

I am not sure I even have blog followers due to my lack of posting. I will have to do better about updating, especially from Seattle. It took us a year to figure out that the kids & I just need to bite the bullet and move to Seattle. If you have had to hear my weekly drama with changing plans, let me give you a little insight into what this has been like... We are moving to Seattle, Mukilteo to be specific, no Mill Creek, no wait Matt says he found a nice apartment in North Everett, no no it's back to Mukilteo, or maybe Mill Creek. Yep, I think Mill Creek, but I have not gotten the official word that the lease has been signed for the apartment in Mill Creek, so it could be any town in a 30 mile radius! Every.single.decision. has been like that. 400 choices, changing our minds several times; it makes my head spin! Life in Wichita is obviously just as crazy. As you can tell from the video, even Ellie is at a loss. I will TRY to be a better blogger, but no guarantees until August!