Our Crazy Christmas...

So, we have many families to visit for the holidays. We picked up Eric's girls from their mother and on Christmas Eve we visited Eric's father and step-mother first. After there, we headed to Eric's mother's house. The girls received so many presents we could not fit them into the car. We had to go back and get more, and we still have another trip to make before we get the rest of them. (A little spoiled, you think?) We came home and opened our presents to each other. Christmas day we headed to Astoria to my parents' house. We had so much traveling, but it was nice to see everyone.

I am a bit melancholy after how this Christmas went. I am the type of person who enjoys watching others open their gifts. I think it just didn't go as I had hoped. Upon much reflection, I know it is because the focus was too much on presents and not enough on why we celebrate Christmas. So, next year I am going to focus more on the celebration of Christ and less on the giving of presents.

Here are some of our fun family pictures...

Happy Birthday...

...to my wonderful husband! Today is Eric's 35th birthday! Happy Birthday daddy, we love you! So glad you have today off so we can celebrate together. Eric is the best husband and father and we are so lucky to have him! To celebrate, we did the traditional Red Robin Birthday Burger. So yummy!

Oregon Coast Aquarium

Yesterday we woke up and decided to venture out to the Oregon Coast Aquarium. Eric's Dad gave us one year memberships, so we plan to go more often. It was a stormy day, but when we arrived the storm passed long enough for us to see everything we wanted to at the Aquarium. There were not many people there, so it made for a very nice trip! We saw some fish that we had never seen before. Jarekah had a blast and so did Eric and me.

We Moved...

...AGAIN! Can you believe it? We just got finished unpacking from the last move when we learned that we were being transferred to a little town called Independence. Eric got his promotion that he has been working so hard for. I am so proud of him! We were given 3 days to pack up and move about an hour and a half away to a whole new state. We made the move and here we are! We actually love it here. We are so much closer to Eric's daughters and mom too. Here are a few pics of the new house...more to come when we are finished unpacking.

The Girls' Bathroom

Girls' Bathroom/Laundry Room

Kitchen

Kitchen

Living Room

Living Room

Backyard

Halloween - Late

I am so behind on my blogging...we have had a lot on our plates! But I wanted to post some Halloween pictures. I took Jarekah trick-or-treating with my sister, brother in-law, and niece. Eric actually had to go to Utah for a store grand opening, so he missed it.

Jarekah was so adorable in her Dorothy costume!

Camping...

...in the living room is so much fun!

Eric and I found this really cute indoor tent at IKEA and as you can see it is a big hit! Jarekah has been having a tough time with the crib to toddler bed transition, so we searched for something that would help and came accross this tent. She loves it and will actually go to sleep! The last picture is one I just threw in from the next day when we went to my parents' house in Astoria.

A Day At The Park

Last week on one of the last nice days, we decided to take the kids to the park. So we met up with a very good friend of ours and her two boys as well as my sister and niece Paisley. As you can see, the kids loved it!