Christmas Letter 2011

Dear Family and Friends,
Where does the time go, I can't believe Christmas is only 3 days away. We have had many blessings and many challenges through out the year.
We started the year by having our basement flood 3 different times, which started our basement remodel a little early. We were so blessed for family and friends who helped clean, store our belongings and helped with the demo. We have doubled the living space and have an almost finished basement. The basement was completely redone except for the bathroom. Maybe next year we will get some furniture for the family room and the office. The girls love their new playroom.
In August Julie was able to travel to Canada for her Granny's Funeral. It was a sad moment but a blessing to see family and remember wonderful memories from her life.
Emilee and Carly continue to grow too quickly, but bring so much drama into our lives. Emilee started kindergarten at Sam Morgan Elementary. She loves her teacher and new friends plus is excited to learn new things.
Carly is always on the go and just wants to do what her big sister is doing. She loves going to daycare and nursery to play with friends. We are working with a speech therapist to help Carly who at 2 can only say a few words. The one word she knows very well and uses in thousands of times a day is NO.
As we look back through the year we have been truly blessed by many friends and family. As we look forward to the new year were excited for the adventures we will have.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year
Love Doug, Julie, Emilee, and Carly

Halloween 2011

Here are Emilee and Carly in their costumes

Both costumes fit their personalities

Emilee is a Diva Fairy

Carly is a Denver Broncos cheerleader

Video of Carly blowing out the Candles

Here is video of Carly's excitement of cake and blowing out the candles, well you could say it is a type of blowing them out.

Carly turns 2

We celebrated Carly turning 2 with Cake and family

The birthday Cake. Already loves the princesses

Carly loved being the center of attention

Carly loved the unwrapping. We could have re-wrapped the gifts and carly would have gone at it all night. We cannot wait for Christmas. This girl knows what unwrapping gifts is all about.

Emilee Birthday Party

Here is video inside the storm

Emilee has a Friend Party

Emilee was turning 6 so we decided to let her have her first friend party. We rented a bounce house and bought pizzas and soda. Do I hear a vote for parents of the year.

The bouncehouse in all its glory

I am not sure if am more proud Emilee survived are parenting to reach 6 or the phineas and ferb birthday cake she picked out

The gang stopped the bouncing for two seconds to pose for a picture

Emilee's cousin carter had so much fun he took a nap in the middle of having fun

Emilee Starts School

On Aug 22, 2011 Emilee started school at Sam Morgan Elementary

Emilee was signed up to attend fremont Elementary. After notice of failing test scores over two years Julie and I decided to apply for a variance and get Emilee in a better performing school.

Emilee's teacher is Mrs. Moore. Emilee comes hoem everyday eager to show her projects and letter she has learned that day.

The only complaint is that recess is not long enough. There is never enough play time

Misguiding Parents

Over the last couple of weeks has been an adjustment as Emilee has started kindergarten. My fail came as last Monday I was to pick Emilee up from Kindergarten. For some unknown reason I thought class ended at 11:50. This must have been because school starts at 8:50, so class should be four hours. Wrong class ends at 11:30. There I was hanging out in the parking lot at 11:50 with no other parents around. As i sat in the car waiting Emilee was in the office waiting for her daddy to pick her up. I took some phone calls, made some texts with no clue. I did think it was odd that there were no other cars or parents waiting. I finally got out of my car and was walking around as I was on the phone and here comes Emilee with one of the schools office people. What a dork I am.
I was only to be outdone by mom the next day. Emilee has been playing fall soccer. All but one of her games has been at 6pm. Not on this night, the game was at 5pm. Julie was home cleaning and cooking unaware that the game was going on. When Julie arrives she thinks she sees the coaches wife leaving. As she pulls up there is no blue jersey to be seen. Emilee is on the blue team. The tears immediately start flowing as she realizes she missed her game. To add gas to the fire it was Emilee's turn to bring the treats. She was very excited to hand them out at the end.
I guess it is true that a parents job is to ruin the life of their children, So in that case this pass week we have been successful.

Burrito

Just when you think you have things figured out in life a curve ball comes your way. Yesterday we spent new years eve with Friends. Carly was being a pill, it did not help that she was up two hours past her bed time.
I took Carly to calm her down and hopefully get her to sleep. She was a wiggle worm and still wanted to play. When she was first born the only way we could get her to sleep was wrapping her up in a blanket. She was always wrapped up like a little burrito.
This did the trick. Within seconds she was quite and calming down and within minutes she was fast asleep.
times like this are why i love being a daddy to two beautiful princesses. These quite times when it is just me and i can see the love in their eyes.
It almost gets to the point that you start thinking of adding another. Well that is going a little extreme.
I do miss the naps with Emilee on my chest as a baby. I miss the time with Carly wrapped like a burrito at two in the morning. Life was so exciting sleep to her is not a requirement but almost a punishment.
Lets hope as a new year comes around we can look at the past and be reminded of all the blessing we have been given. Lets also hope we can look in to the future and be prepared for what ever is in store