Dayton's Christmas Concert at St. Luke's!

I don't even know where to start with this one... we are so proud of Dayton! He started St. Luke's in September and he just loves it and loves his friends he's made there. They had a Christmas concert this past Friday and it was the first time we got to see Dayton on stage and singing for Christmas, it was absolutely awesome and we are so proud of him!

Here is our handsome guy all dressed up next to baby Jesus!

Here's the gang that came to see him!
Back row, left to right: Grandma, Grandpa Buddy (Jerome's parents), Julie,
and his teacher Ms Linda
Front row, left to right: Jerome, Amara, Buddy, Money (my parents), and Aunt Kim

Thank you all for coming to see Dayton!


I realize this picture's blurry, but I had to post it... If you can see Dayton was walking down the isle to the stage and he's walking down thumbs up... what a ham!

This is a little blurry too, but this is them on the risers getting ready to sing.

Here's Dayton signing... That's Katelyn next to him and his friend Brian behind him. (I just asked and it's Brianna that's also behind him).

Here they are signing...

Here's where they are singing away in a manger and the cows were lowing and the baby "awakes".

Here's Amara clapping and cheering on her big brother! (Buddy is holding her).

Natalia Nicole Puumela is here!

She was born on Friday night, December 18th, 2009
Carey went in on Thursday at 7:30 AM to be induced and Natalia was born via C-Section sometime between 6:30 and 7:30 PM Friday night. (LONG labor).
You did GREAT Carey! Good Job!!!

Formal Santa Pictures

Dayton and Amara with Santa!

Another family surprise

I love the family surprises!!! Here's another one...
A Open Horse Sleigh Ride!!!!

We told Dayton that he had a surprise and we went down the day after Thanksgiving to give the kids a Carriage Ride!!

Dayton all bundled up!

And Amara!

I love how much Dayton loves his sister!!!

Here it is!!! The horse and carriage!!

Here's Mommy and the kids in the carriage!

And Daddy and the kids right after the ride! Thanks for the great idea Daddy!!!!

Counter-top Project

Well, there's a couple of things... this is to blog our counter-top project. Katrina was always saying, you need to make your pictures bigger, and I always said.. I DID... but I'm sorry Katrina, I just looked, they were on medium, not large, so I'm trying something new and making the pictures large, I hope this helps!!!

Ever since we moved in, we wanted our kitchen "island" to be a "peninsula". We didn't do anything in 2007, but in 2008, we had the cabinets made and purchased the wine/soda fridge. Then in 2009 we got the new counter-tops. Here are some pictures of our newest project.

This is a before picture, this is how the slate back-splash and Formica counter-tops looked.

Another before picture of the island.

Here's a messy picture of the peninsula with the new counter-tops (this was taken while the installation of the counter-tops was happening).

The next day after the counter-tops, we had a tile guy come in and put more slate on the wall that we connected the peninsula to. Notice the bottom row?

Here's a picture close-up of the bottom row of slate... with the new counter-tops, we had to figure out what to do with the first row of slate. We actually found this at Home depot... it's an awesome match! We were so excited and to tell you the truth, it looked better than I imagined!!

The new sink... ah.. a sunken sink, I just love that!!!

Thanksgiving at the Malo's

The second part of the day we spent at my Mom's house with my side of the family.
After eating, we hang out and play games. This year we played a couple of mean games of Taboo, man that was fun! Dayton kept the timer and buzzed us when our time was up.
Here are some pictures from the day.

Here's the lady's of my family... left to right, my niece Erika (she was born on my birthday), my mom, my niece Nicole (Dayton was born on her birthday), my sister Kim, and my sister Dana

Here's my Aunt Darlene and Amara. I just love my Aunt Darlene, she would always sit and talk to me during family gatherings. I just love her!

Here's Amara all giggles!

So here we are playing Taboo... we had so much fun!

Dayton keeping track of time!

The guys were in the garage for the first game, but they came out for a 2nd round!

Thanksgiving at the Williams'

Thanksgiving was a blast at the Williams! We usually get there @ 10 AM, but we were pretty late this year, but it's Jerome's favorite tradition to watch the Macy's Parade before we eat. We watched and the kids played. There are some traditions that we MUST have and there are pictures of those too! We need to measure the kids and Grandma always gives them pajama's. The kids LOVE these traditions, and it really means a lot to us, thank you Grandma for keeping the height boards and giving us the traditional pajamas!
Here are some pictures of the fun time there!

Dayton dancing in front of the TV "getting his sillies out". Yo Gabba Gabba is a kid's show that Dayton likes and they sing silly songs like "There's a party in my Tummy" and "Getting the Sillies out" Dayton likes to be silly sometimes!

Yeah! Aunt Katrina and Cousins Samuel and Micah are here! Dayton is greeting them!

I love this picture, Amara and Micah hanging out (actually Micah was helping Amara stay out of the dirt... Thank you Micah!)

Here's the family ready to eat... Michael was able to join us too!! There's Katrina, Dayton, Samuel in the back there, Grandpa Buddy, Jerome, Shai, Amara, Michael, and Micah... Grandma was taking the picture (thank you Grandma)!

NEXT THE TRADITIONAL MEASURING OF THE KIDS!

Samuel

Micah

Dayton

Amara

The traditional pajama picture!!!

Christmas Tree Train

So 2 years ago, we went on a Christmas train to get our Christmas tree. Now you can get 4 train tickets AND a tree for the price of a tree here in the Seattle area, so we weren't sure how the tree would look. But much to our surprise, the trees there were AMAZING. It was one of the fun experiences. The train goes through the forest (much like most trains), but then goes through a tunnel and you get to see Santa! They have free hot cocoa and cookies and all the kids get to see Santa and get a little gift. You get to pick out your tree and then load it onto a box car and you ride back. They sell tickets for the covered car and then you can also ride in an open car. It's really fun and has become a tradition. It is an all day event since it takes about 3 1/2 hours to drive down. The train ride is about 2 hours long and then there is the 3 1/2 hour ride back. We went last year when Amara was only 4 months old and we've got to go this year too! The first year, it poured on us, but we had so much fun! The next year Jerome's parents (Grandma and Grandpa Buddy) got to go and it was drizzly, but still very fun. This year it was just the four of us and it was COLD, but dry! It was so fun!
Here are some pics...

Amara, Daddy, and Dayton

Amara on the train

Dayton all smiles on the train ride.

And Daddy's all smiles too!!

Mommy, Amara, and Dayton in the open car during the train ride

SANTA with Dayton and Amara!

Here is the family getting ready to leave the train station!

Surprise for the family...

Well, this actually happened a while back, but I haven't had a chance to blog in a while (seems like it happens that way, I don't get to blog for a while, then I post a few at a time.
Anyway, we were able to surprise the kids with tickets to Disney on Ice... We originally got tickets to surprise Dayton, but we were able to bring Amara too and both kids just absolutely LOVED it!!!
Here are some pics...

Lighting McQueen from the movie Cars

Ramon and Flow

Here's Amara and Dayton at the show

Here's Rafiki, Pumbaa and Timon from the Lion King

Dayton smiling during intermission

Amara watching the show

Dayton pointing out something he liked

This was the last show, Tinkerbell with the Mother fairy flying

Here's another family photo of us before the show!

The family at the show with their hats, aren't they just cute!

The kids after the show, it was a great family time, I just loved it! (what a sucker, huh?!?)