Christmas with Grandpa Smith

We got together today with Grandpa Smith at Kristi and John's house.  Lisa and her boys also came up from West Virginia for an early Christmas with Grandpa Smith.(Grandpa Smith lives in Hawaii and was in DC for a  work seminar)

Friday night we went to the DC temple to see the Christmas lights, live nativity, and a performance of a DC area bell choir.  (Picture at left) The lights were beautiful, the concert was great and in the vistor center we enjoyed seeing the nativity (creches) from around the world. Click here for link to information about the festival. 

Today we all got together to eat lots of food and open presents.  Grandpa Smith's big gift was an iPod touch.  Morgan got an iTunes gift card for her MP3 player.  She was really excited.  Ethan got a remote control airplane.  We took it outside and flew it around the yard.  It only got caught in 2 trees and one neighbor's backyard with a fence.  But it was always rescued.  He loves it!  Drew got a really fun Geotrax Airport.  The plane actually flys around the track that loops up in the air.

Here is a picture of the Christmas pagent the kids put on this evening.  Notice the great costumes.  All the cousins had their parts.

Ethan's Birthday Party

Here are some pictures from Ethan's birthday party on Wednesday.    Grandpa Smith was here and lots of cousins for the party.  Ethan was so excited to get this dinosaur webkin along with all the other fun presents he got.  

  

Here's a short video clip of Ethan blowing out the candles on his birthday brownie cake.

Georgetown basketball game

Here's a picture from the Georgetown basketball game where Ethan, Morgan, and I watched the game from the VW suite. We had a great time and Georgetown crushed Savannah State. Jenna stayed home with Drew since it would be too late for him.  Final score was Georgetown 100 and Savannah State 38.

Morgan's 5K Race

Yesterday Morgan, Grandpa Little, and I ran the Reindeer Romp 5K.   Grandma Little, Jenna, Drew and Ethan came out to cheer Morgan on.  It was so cold, like 20 degrees without the windchill.  Even with that weather they were out to support her.  

Morgan ran really well and finished in 

33 minutes 17 seconds.  Here's a link to the results. She was number 141 out of 1,150 girls who ran in her age group.    http://results.active.com/pages/displayNonGru.jsp?rsID=73882&orgID=234639&pubID=2

Thanksgiving Weekend

We had Jenna's family in town for Thanksgiving weekend.  Joe and Edith were the only ones not here.  (We missed you both!)  We had a big Thanksgiving dinner, took the kids to the Bounce House with all the blow-up slides and moon walks.  Then Saturday we went to the Imax at the Smithsonian Natural History Museum to watch the Deep Sea 3-D movie.  The kids loved it.  Here are some pictures from the event.

Ethan's Parent Day

Here's a picture of Ethan during his Parent Day at school.  I was able to go in and attend.  We did 4 different activities at tables around the room.    We made this Native American head-dress at one table.  Graphed letters at another and counted blocks at the next.  Then his class sang us songs about the Indians and Thanksgiving.  I had a great time and got to meet some of the parents of the kids in Ethan's class.

Messy Hair & DC Trip

Jenna had an Odyssey of the Mind training meeting today, so I took the kids to DC.  We checked out the Jefferson Memorial and then headed to Smithsonian 's Native American Museum.  Here's a picture of the kids grinding corn with stones like the Indians did and another picture of the of the kids looking toward the Washington Monument from the Jefferson Memorial.  Then Friday was Messy Hair day at Ethan's class.  There's a picture of his hair for the day.

Trick or Treating & Parties @ School

Here's a picture from Halloween night with the kids out in front of our neighbor's house with a few kids from the neighborhood.  We walked around until the kids didn't have any more room in their trick or treat baskets.  They got lots of CANDY!

The other pictures are of Ethan and Morgan's class parties.  Jenna helped plan both of them.  Ethan's class was allowed to wear their costumes, but Morgan's couldn't.  They still had a blast.  It was a nice warm Halloween, no freezing to death like last  year!

Neighborhood Pumpkin Carving Party

Yesterday we had a pumpkin carving and BBQ with our neighbors on Firedrake.  The weather was really rainy and windy so we had the event at our house.  Everyone had a great time!  

Here are some pictures from the event.  One of us carving away.  Morgan and her pumpkin and the two pumpkins we carved.

1K Fun Run & Trunk or Treat

We had a busy Saturday.  We started this morning with Morgan & Ethan running a 1K Fun Run.  They both ran really well and had fun.

Then we headed to our Ward Trunk or Treat.  The kids dressed in their costumes, the 3 Chipmunks.  Morgan is Simon, Ethan is Alvin, and Drew was Theodore.  We had chili and games at the church with trick or treating from the trunks of everyone's cars.  Drew was in heaven with all the candy he got.  He just kept smiling and saying Candy....

Jenna's New Haircut

We  had a busy week, especially Jenna.  I was out of town most of the week in Michigan and came back Friday.  I sure missed everyone!  

The big excitement was Jenna's new haircut this weekend.  She came home from the salon and Drew was napping.  When she walked in when he woke up Drew said "Mom Hair."  She got it cut shorter and lightened up a bit.  The color looks great and even though I'm not a fan of shorter hair on Jenna, I'm already loving it.

Tonight Morgan and Ethan are stating overnight at their cousins' (Abraham, Noah, Martha, Enoch, and Peter) house.  They are excited to all be together.  I hope Aunt Kristi & Uncle John get some sleep.

Going For A Run

Morgan, Ethan, Drew and I went for a run last night. Here are some pictures of us stretching in front of the garage and heading down our street.

Morgan is in a program after school called Girls On The Run.  They run twice a week and will run a 5K (3.1 mile) race in December.  Ethan will be running a 1K(over half a mile)on Oct 18th.  Drew loves to run, but mostly has to ride in the jogger stroller while I push him.  We had a good run and the kids enjoy the training we've done.

Penn State Football Game

Dad(AKA Ray, Grandpa Little) and I went to the Penn State football game yesterday in State College.  We watched Penn State dismantle Temple 45 to 3.  It was a great fall day with sunny skys a warm weather.  Above is a picture from the game I took with my cell phone.

We came up to Grandma & Grandpa Little's house Friday night. For a weekend visit to Pennsylvania.  Things went bad that night when Ethan got sick with the stomach flu.  Jenna was next and I haven't been feeling well, but haven't got it as bad as Ethan.  Morgan seems to have avoided it so far.  Sorry Grandma & Grandpa for infecting your home with our germs...  I hope they don't get it after we leave.

DC United Soccer Game

Last night we all went to a DC United soccer game at RFK stadium in DC.  It was a VW employee night(VW is the major sponsor of the team).  They played FC Dallas to a 2 to 2 tie.

We had a really good time.  Here are some pictures of the game.  

VW has an area down on the field where they've setup games and activities for the kids.  Drew drove the mini Beetles on a race course, Morgan and Ethan enjoyed the moon bounce and slide.  They also won some VW water bottles by shooting a ball into the sun roof of a VW Tiguan(a small SUV).  We got lots of VW shirts, and they also loved the blow-up sticks used to hit together to make noise during the game.

First Day of School!

Today was Morgan and Ethan's first day of school. Morgan started 3rd grade and Ethan started Kindergarten. He got to ride a bus even though the school is so close to our house. Morgan was excited to walk!

They both came home excited about their day and enjoyed school. We had been worried Ethan would be concerned about going to school without us, but he loved the bus and enjoyed his day. One big worry resolved.

Virginia Beach

We had a great time this week at Virginia beach! The water was so much warmer than in Oregon that the kids barely wanted to get out of the ocean.

We headed to Virginia Beach on Tuesday morning and we stayed there for 3 days. This was our first trip to the beach in Virginia, so we weren't sure what to expect. It turned out great.

We bought the kids Boogie Boards and they rode the waves in and had a blast in the ocean. Drew loved digging in the sand and standing in the water with Jenna and I, jumping over of the waves as they came in.

The hotel we stayed at had free bikes and we all road in the nearby state park on a paved trail that turned into a dirt trail. It was fun, but the kids got tired after a few miles. We also discovered the forest had a lot of mosquitos when we stopped for a drink. They swarmed us and we hopped on our bikes to get out of there. Drew road on the back of my bike in a kid's seat. He was happy for the first half and was ready to get out of the seat all the way back.

We also had dinner at Bubba's a seafood restaurant on the bay that boats pull up to and unload their fish. It was right out on the bay and we ate outside on the deck watching the boats, seagulls, etc... The kids loved being literaly right on the water.

We also headed to the boardwalk on evening and enjoyed all the sites, stores, and carnival rides that you find there. Here are two pictures of Morgan and I on the ferris wheel(her first time) and Ethan on the Helicopter ride. They had lots of fun!

Connected in Virginia

We're back connected to the internet in Virginia! It took Verizon over a month to finally come out and set us up. Jenna was hating it, with no home phone, internet or cable tv. The good news is that Monday Verizon came out and connected us up. So there will be more posts on this blog.

Everyone is settling in here at the new house. The kids like their rooms and they love the fact that we have a community pool. I think they go about every other day to the pool to swim and enjoy the 90 degree weather. We've done a couple of trips to DC, visiting the Smithsonian Air & Space museum, Washington Monument, and the Natural History museum. It is nice to be so close to the city.

We've also had some visitors. Grandma and Grandpa Little came down to help when the moving truck arrived. They were a great help with unpacking and keeping the kids entertained. Marissa and her family came down and visited for a Saturday. We had a great time with them, went to the pool and celebrated Drew's birthday. Jenna's sister Kristi's family lives down here about 30 minutes away and we've gotten together with them and Jenna's sister Lisa and her family came up to visit earlier this week. The kids have really enjoyed playing with their cousins. Sorry no picture for this post, but wanted to get posting again.

Cedar Point Trip

Here's a picture of Jenna and I at Cedar Point (http://www.cedarpoint.com/) when we went with Joe and Edith. We had a great time!

This was Edith's first trip to a real Roller Coaster park and we didn't give her any breaks. We started on the Millenial Force, headed straight to the Dragster, then on to the Tower of Power. She handled it like a seasoned Cedar Point pro.

Thanks to Grandma Hofer for watching the kids while we were gone and to Joe and Edith for giving us an excuse to go 400 feet up and from ZERO to 120 miles an hour in less than 3 seconds!

Drew in our Front Tree

Jenna and Morgan headed to a Brownies event today, so it was boys day at the house. Here's a picture of Drew up in our front tree. He wouldn't even let me hold on to him. He's been really independent lately. Gets upset whenever we don't let him do things himself. Whether it is dishing out his own food or going to get things from his room. This little boy has an independent streak. He's been lots of fun and we sure can't believe he'll be 2 in July!

House Update

I had a last second trip to Virginia a couple weeks ago and was able to see how the house building was going. Here are a few pictures from my visit. The last one is a look down our street. Since, these are townhouses. Our entire strip will be moving in at the same time, so that will be kind of fun. We are getting excited (about the house anyway).