It is Time

It has been almost nine months since Tim first started working in Phoenix. We never thought that he would be working there and we would be here for so long, but this week we will finally finish this move.

Tim is flying home Wednesday night and we are all setting out for Phoenix on Thursday. Two kids and a dog on a three day drive. Sounds like a sane idea, right? It's not, but somehow it made the most logistical sense. Mostly because of the dog...

So we are all ready to find a normal, family routine again and get to see Tim every day, but we are sad to leave Mimi and Pop's house too because they have taken good care of us over these last few months.
Pop and Auntie Jenn took C&T to a Thomas the train show a few weekends ago. They loved riding the train together.

Mimi has read countless books, held many tea parties (the one above was for Cate's imaginary friend, Bufana,) and worked on every alphabet, Winnie-the-Pooh and princess puzzle known to man.

They let us play basketball in the foyer and Pop often volunteers to stand in for the role of the hoop since Timmy's hoop is in Phoenix.

Mimi often brings home surprises for us to borrow from work. Sometimes it's a new puzzle or game. Sometimes a Toy Story tent to play in.

They let us turn the dining room table into "Pizza Planet" so that Buzz Lightyear can eat.

This past weekend we worked in a few more games of Chutes and Ladders and Auntie Jenn came home to hang out and take Cate and Timmy to see, "Beauty and the Beast" with me.

We will really miss seeing them every day but we are already looking forward to their first visit to our new house.

Winter

We have had a really mild winter in Chicago. So much so that I began to wonder if it was some kind of joke being played at my expense. I figured that once the temperatures dropped into the single digits and the roads were icy and slushy and dirty and we had to do the daily wind chill conversion, I would be ready to head to the desert.

So of course this one year that I want it to be cold and nasty to motivate me to move, it hasn't been. We even went to the playground this week and walked the dogs in the sunshine wearing just vests.

I'm not really complaining, of course, because any day that I can take Cate and Timmy to a playground is a good day around here.

Last night, Winter finally arrived in Chicago. It is cold and there is a lot of messy, wet snow and I don't even have boots for C&T because I didn't think that we would need them this year and I'm not going to buy them now.

So we will experience Winter in Chicago for a few more days and then when we move, it will magically be over. The shortest Winter ever.
Then we will have new pictures of Cate and Timmy at the playground that is two doors down from our new house. Right after I convince Cate to set foot on its sandy floor. The girl doesn't care for sand...I guess she hasn't heard that sand is what the desert is made out of.

New Year, New Everything

I was prepared for a long New Year's weekend. Long in the sense of dragging on forever with not much to do, two toddlers and a husband in Phoenix. We had a fun surprise waiting for us, though, when we got back from playing at the Y on Sat. morning. Tim had gotten up at 4am to fly home and surprise us and he stayed for five days! Of course, he was hiding in the basement and scared us all to death when he came out, but it was a great surprise.

So after celebrating miss Maggie's second birthday, we all hung out with one of my oldest friends, Mandi, and her family on New Year's eve. Look at those big kids sitting at the table eating their pizza on their own. Maggie's birthday party was our first Chuck E. Cheese experience. I expected to be sweating while I tried to chase two kids in a noisy, crowded playroom. It wasn't like that at all, though. It wasn't crowded and both kids did great taking turns and exploring. Of course Timmy did get lost in the massive tunnels on the ceiling, but I sent Cate in after him. I was glad that she was able to go in and find her teary, blotchy faced baby brother so that I didn't have to climb up there. Really glad.

For the rest of the weekend we just hung out. Tim and I got to go to the movies. Cate and Timmy played and climbed on Pop.

We did a little bit of cooking.

And Tim gave a lot of double piggy back rides.

Finally, we got down to the business of finishing this move. Figuring out how to get the rest of our junk, our two kids, our dog and ourselves to Phoenix in one piece. It is a total logistical nightmare. We are almost done, though. As I type, tile is being jackhammered out of the family room to make room for carpet to be laid next week. Then the year of all things new can begin. New house, new climate, new schools, new church, new doctors and dentists. New everything.

This Christmas

I'm not sure that there is anything better than having a two and three year old at Christmastime. I will probably feel the same way next year and the year after that too, but they were a lot of fun this year.

Timmy was excited and Cate was REALLY excited. All the way to church on Christmas Eve, she made everyone in the car hold their hands to their ears to listen for Santa's sleigh. At 4:30. She definitely thought that she heard the bells on his sleigh jingling.

Cate's three year old class had a singing and dancing birthday party for Jesus. She loved it.

Timmy's two year old class was singing and dancing too, but when Tim went in to pick him up, he found Timmy lying on the floor in front of the stage. Timmy reported, "I lay on the floor. I tired." When Cate found out about this, she quizzed Timmy all the way home. "T, were you really tired? Were other kids stepping on you while you were on the floor? Did you cry?" His reply to all of the above was simply, "Nope".

After church we came home for a late Christmas Eve dinner with Mimi, Pop, Auntie Jenn and Nana and Uncle Rusty.

Right before bed, we picked out cookies to leave on the mantle for Santa.

I was so excited to see Cate and Timmy come into the family room and see the tree on Christmas morning. We left Timmy's new Toy Story figures and Cate's long awaited microphone unwrapped because Santa doesn't have time to wrap everything. I expected Cate to see the microphone and go crazy because she has been asking for it for so long. Instead, she saw Timmy's big Toy Story box and started yelling, "Look, T! Look at what Santa brought for you! Do you want to open this?! Look at all of the new stuff you got!"

After we stopped laughing, we directed her to her microphone and she was thrilled.

For the next hour or so they opened so many thoughtful and generous gifts from Mimi, Pop, Nana, Auntie Jenn and Uncle Rusty.

When we were about finished, Cate and Pop checked to see if Santa ate his cookies. Only a few crumbs were left (courtesy of Pop, who did not think I did a good job with the cookie plate or fireplace...he went back and added crumbs to the plate and cracked the door open on the fireplace).

Merry Christmas!

We are Ready!

Cate and Timmy are so excited for Christmas this year. Especially Cate. The number one item on her list for Santa is still a microphone and Timmy just wants more cars. Cars and cars and cars. Last weekend, while I was in Phoenix to see our new house for the first time, Cate got to work with Mimi and Auntie Jenn.

They made Christmas cut out cookies while Timmy was napping. Cate was in charge of all of the sprinkles and had a great time.

Yesterday she pulled up her chair to help me with chocolate chip cookies and peanut butter balls.

She also helped me wrap all of the presents earlier this week. It's kind of nice to have a three year old help you when you're not a great gift wrapper. That way, when the paper isn't even or doesn't lay flat, you just remind everyone that Cate was helping!

So today we'll finish the cooking and hang out a bit. We'll try to squeeze in a trip to Home Depot while Tim and I are in the same state and then we'll all go to church tonight and have a late dinner. I can't wait to see their little faces tomorrow morning when they come around the corner and see the tree! Merry Christmas!

Cate's First Show

If you ask Cate what she would like for Christmas, the answer is always the same. A microphone. Currently she uses paper towel rolls, part of Timmy's t-ball set or the remote as her microphone when she and Timmy have their evening dance party.

When she is supposed to be up in her room having rest time, I have to flicker the lights at the bottom of the stairs to remind her not to sing so loudly.

Lately, she has been singing all of the Christmas songs that she has learned at preschool as they have been preparing for their annual Holiday program. She knows the songs and finger plays word for word. Every hand motion, every extra shout for emphasis, but I knew long before I took my seat at the show that she would not sing one single syllable on stage.

She never uttered a word during practice and told me at home that she doesn't like to sing at school. My Dad asked Cate if she would like it if he came to her show. Her face lit up and she said she would. I asked her if she would sing if Pop took the morning off from work. "Oh...no. Probably not."

I can hardly blame her. I was the exact same way. I can remember standing at the entrance to my preschool classroom and just watching all of the kids play...for a long time...before I would join in. I know that she wants to sing, but she is just not comfortable enough yet.

So we still made a big deal of her first show (and the fact that she stayed on the stage and didn't bolt for me in the audience). Cate found a new, red purse hanging on the Christmas tree the morning of her show and was so excited to stuff it with tissues and bring it to school. She loved twirling around in her fancy dress and eating cupcakes with Timmy after the auditorium had cleared out.

The morning wore her out and when we got home, she wanted to change into her pajamas and she even let me tuck her into bed for a real rest in the afternoon. Of course that only lasted about fifteen minutes. Then I was back to flickering the lights to remind her not to sing quite so loudly.

So Much Fun

This holiday season is kind of crazy for us. We are at the tail end of an incredibly drawn out cross country move. It would be easy to focus on the fact that we only see Tim every other weekend, or that all of our Christmas stuff is in a storage bin or that we can't buy Cate and Timmy some of the larger items that we would like to because we don't want to have to get them to Arizona.

Luckily for us, we have a two and a three year old who are so excited about the Holidays.

They don't care that their stockings will stay in a box this year or that their special ornaments won't make it to the tree. They are just so excited about everything Christmas related.

We went to a tree lighting ceremony the day after Thanksgiving. Santa arrived on a fire truck to light the tree. For Timmy, it was the best thing ever. A noisy fire truck and this Santa character? Awesome.

On Saturday, we put up the tree. We waited for Timmy to get up from his nap. I thought that he would be a little bit lethargic and just watch at first.

He dove right in. That tree has never been decorated faster. Cate and Timmy were running back and forth from the tree to the ornament box. They were so excited and so much fun to watch.
My tall Timmy even got to put the angel on top of the tree.

Once all of the ornaments had a place and the lights were lit, we got out the matching Christmas pajamas and read the newest, "Llama llama" book. It was a much needed relaxing Thanksgiving weekend.

Meet me in Des Moines

In our continuing saga of negotiating life while living in two cities, last weekend we hit the road and met in Des Moines. Nana Diane was graduating from her Master's program, so Uncle Rusty made the 5 hour drive with me, Cate and Timmy. He earned his uncle stripes on that ride, let me tell you. The nose wiping alone was a daunting task as Timmy has had a cold for two weeks now. Tim flew in from Phoenix just after we arrived and we got to spend the weekend together.

On Saturday we went to the mall to ride the train and see the Christmas decorations. Cate and Timmy loved the train ride.
We talked about Santa all the way to the mall. Cate was very excited to get a look at him and to tell him what she wants for Christmas (a new FANCY kitchen and a new bucket of Halloween candy because hers is gone). Never for one second did I think that she would get near Santa...and she didn't. I had to hold her as we got close to the line, but she watched intently while other kids rattled off their wish lists.

We did admire the decorations and lights that led to Santa and then of course, we made a visit to the play area.

We are so excited to get ready for Thanksgiving and to have Tim home for 5 days!