Dear Santa

I should let you know that the letter writing to Santa took a lot of coaxing this year.  Not to sit down to write it, but to put it in a semi-letter, polite form.  The 4 year old was more interested in listing the 100s of toys he wanted.  The first draft was "Dear elves, please tell Santa to bring me lots and lots and lots of toys."  So, lots of coaching was involved.  That being said... enjoy!

"Dear Santa and elves,

 I hope you're not working too hard.  We moved to Pennsylvania, and it's really cold so I hafta wear a jacket.   Dear Santa, I hope you give me M&Ms like St. Nick did.  Ho Ho Ho!  Dear Santa, I am a nice kid.  Please give me a game system and a lot of games, like Brave.  And please give me an iPod and a shooter gun and ninja turtles.  And a motorcycle that I can ride on.  And the big hockey game and a baking system for girls, because I love baking.  And other games, like Monopoly.

We are building a Christmas Tree, and stockings.  I am going to make presents and give them to my family, like Daddy.  I am going to share my presents, with my friends.   Goodbye Santa, I hope to see you soon!  That's it, the end of the story and the show.   Love, Kaden.

PS - directions to my new house:  go that way, then that way, and that way, then turn that way, go right and then go left, and then go straight and stop in the middle."

ps- we are in PA, finally, but I have some great shots from our Florida visit last week :)

Artsy Fartsy Fall

There's no getting around the season anymore- it's really Fall.  

Even when the sky is a pretty blue...

But a certain round of birthdays comes up

And if I can go outside with just one jacket on, 

it's time for a walk.

We took these shots wandering around my in-laws property.

 I was amazed at how different the trees were from our area (45 minutes away).

Inside the forest/woods, it seemed a lot less vibrant.

More damp and misty, though.

I was happy to get out before it got too dark...

There's a lot of stories about being in the woods at night.

None are encouraging.  I remembered why.

I know a lot of people love fall.  This year, we're still transitioning to life in PA.  

But I'm pretty sure I love visiting Fall.

Because living in Fall?

This Floridian is already cold!  

Welcoming a Brand New Niece!

Kaden's been having fun with his cousins- especially the ones within a year of his age.  

He's not quite sure why they wouldn't let him play soccer, though.

The really big news is our newest niece!  Here she is, with a proud dad and a fascinated cousin!

At one point, the nurse had baby E in the bassinet to warm her up... and all her siblings, plus Kaden and her dad, crowded around just to stare at her.

Really, wouldn't you?

Exploring

Well... we're here.  Though I'm not always sure where 'here' is.  This weekend, our popular saying is  "What kind of country did you move us to, Dad?"  Kaden modified one of my comments, and since JimDad is a good sport, it stuck :)

The new casa deserves its own post, with photos.  That'll come later.  As you can tell, we've got internet hooked up now.  And I bought a new coffeepot today, so life is gradually becoming civilized.  Well, as much as it can while living out of boxes.

Church shopping officially started today.  Halfway through Mass, Kaden looked around and then whispered in my ear:  Mama, we don't know ANYONE in here.  It's true, we went from being in charge of a lot of things to being strangers...afterward, we were talking about what we liked about the church, and Kaden piped up:  "I liked it.  I like almost everything."   Which is true.

Kaden's also been over the moon about having his Dad around again.  The first night, in less than 10 minutes, he said:  Daddy, can you give me a bath? Daddy, can you put on my pjs?  Daddy, can you read me a story? Daddy, well, can you just do everything with me from now on?