Let me Introduce our Newest Member.....

ANNIE!!!!!! Our new 2-year old yellow lab!


My friend and coworker adopted Annie a month or so ago. About a week after getting Annie, my friend came down with pneumonia and was in and out of the hospital. She knew that Annie needed a better family environment as it is just her and her older son at home. After weeks of trying to arrange a "meeting" we finally had her son bring Annie over so we could meet her. Well, we decided to let her "spend the night" and after that we ALL decided that she wasn't going ANYWHERE!


She is so gentle and so loving with the kids. They absolutely LOVE her. I LOVE her, Steve LOVES her, she really seems to be happy! I love the fact that she is 2 years old and house trained. She goes potty everytime we let her outside and she sleeps ALL night. We totally missed the puppy stage! YEAH!!!

So far her only fault is that whenever she sees an open door or gate, she darts out! We've had to chase her a few times. BUT hopefully she will learn where "home" is and learn her boundaries soon.

Annie was an early Christmas present for our family and one that we'll have for a long time.

Speaking of Christmas. Good lord, I can't believe it's right around the corner. My shopping is almost complete, the Christmas tree has been up for a while, we've made cookies but it just doesn't FEEL like Christmas. It will, of course, on Christmas day but it just doesn't feel like the Christmas season with the warm weather we've been having. It just can't make up it's mind.


Today our new neighbors are having a Christmas party with an appearance being made by none other than Santa Claus himself. I'm sure I'll have some hilarous screaming pictures of the boys with Santa. We haven't attempted to take pictures with him yet because of the crazy lines at the mall.

More to follow soon...

We're IN!

We've officially made the move to the new house. Actually, the move took place the day after Thanksgiving. It seems like an eternity ago! In that time I have packed and unpacked so much crap that I've decided to become a minimalist. It's been really hard deciding what to get the kids because I've seen all the crap first hand that they haven't been playing with.

But back to the house...it's SO wonderful and it's SO roomy. I actually have empty drawers, cabinets and closets. Can you imagine? I've NEVER had that before. My laundry room can actually hold the washer, dryer, spare refrigerator plus a storage cabinet and we STILL have room to move freely. It may be my favorite room in the whole house.

All of the kids have adjusted very well. Brittney didn't have to change schools at all, since it is a block from our old house. So, she's in heaven. The boys just took right to it. Their room still has all of their familiar stuff so there was no adjustment there. They are further away from me now, so I have to keep the monitor turned on just in case. The first week or so they would wake up and wouldn't come out of the room. They would cry until I came to get them. But now, they're fine.

All of the rooms were bigger than I had imagined after we moved the furniture in. I went back to the old house to grab a few remaining items and was amazed at how small it looked. Of course everything was out and it always looks different without any furniture, but still...I was amazed. We sold our old house for a second time (we're keeping our fingers crossed) and should close on Monday the 17th. I truly can NOT believe we found another buyer in less than 10 days. Especially with the current market conditions.

This was our second moving day to get all of the "little" stuff that the movers didn't get on their 7 hour run. I caught Cade taking a donut break...he's all about the food.

Jace looks so upset about the move, doesn't he? They have been obsessed with the movies Shrek and Daddy Day Care for the past month. I'm sure that's what he's engrossed in in this picture. They can quote the movie line for line almost. (So can I.)

Jace was "helping" me wash dishes.

Cade was enjoying his tractor in the new backyard. That's about the only thing at the new house that isn't as big. It's about the same size as our previous house, but there's less cement because our old house had a detached garage. They were used to having a long driveway attached to the back patio and garage. Now, we have a small slab right outside the door and no covering over the porch. We'll eventually do something back there, but they sure don't seem to mind yet.

And here's the kiddos in front of our little Christmas tree (with non-breakable ornaments).

Jace loves the shower in the new house. He insists on taking a shower every night. Cade prefers to stick to the bathtub. UNLESS the jacuzzi jet button gets pushed. I've never seen 2 little boys go from happy to screaming at the top of their lungs in 1.2 seconds!!! It was hilarious!

We're really into the potty training mode these days. The boys LOVE to pee-pee in the backyard. I know it sounds hillbilly-ish, but they are obsessed with it. They will go on the potty too. But tomorrow my mom has decided to take them to preschool in big boy underpants. It's a big day in the Kearley household for this. We'll see how that goes.

Let's see, what else. Oh... Brittney is getting phase I done of her $4800 orthodontic treatment (ouch!). She is getting 4 braces on the top teeth and is OH so excited about it. I had braces on for 4 years and have been trying to warn her of the pain involved. BUT she's oblivious to my advice. She loves our new office set-up where she has her own desk space!

Then the boys have their first dental appointment on Thursday. I've told them if they don't "wa-wa" they can pick out a truck at the store. SO, we'll see how the bribery works. I'm sure it will not go well and there will be lots of screaming involved.

We're all looking forward to the upcoming holidays. All of the major essential stuff has been unpacked and put away, now I'm down to the nitty gritty stuff that needs to be ORGANIZED. Yuck, that's not the fun stuff to do.

Box by Box, we're getting closer to settling in. Happy Holidays everyone!