Ashton's 8th Birthday party

We finally got back in the house "enough" to have Ashton's birthday party.  She wanted an "almost sleepover" where she had the girls come in their pajamas and watch a movie.  We were thrilled to realize the benefit of a bigger house when we packed in a large number (I've blocked it out) of kids into the family room for pizza, crafts and movie watching.

 The movie was Nanny McPhee and we only had one girl defect calling the movie "scary". 

Thanks to Judy for the beautiful cake, all the prep and managing the whole party -- wow!

Park city without mom

Uncle Vic was kind enough to join the girls and Bob in Park City.

 The girls love skiing with Uncle Vic and the adult-to-kid ratio is much more favorable.

 Bob managed to get the girls stretching in the morning.

 They went to the town lift for sledding at night (as if a full day of skiing was not tiring enough?!).

 and fueled them well on Gatorade and hot chocolate.

Yup, the girls love skiing with dad.

Bob and Girls go ski

Bob and the girls went to Park City so mom could manage the move back into the house. 

Bob has turned the girls into expert travelers.  He has a few specific rules (ok probably quite a few) and one big one is that each person has their own backpack.  It wasn't until I saw this photo that I realized that the American Girl dolls had traveled (breaking one of my rules about young girls and $100 dolls).

 The luggage collection process is helped with snacks.

Girls get new rooms

Auntie Suzie and I worked to get the girls rooms together when they were out of town.

 Jacqueline's room was all about fairies.  We had a muralist do the gorgeous mural on her walls so putting her room together was mostly about unpacking and organization.

 My favorite part is the cherry blossoms which were outside her window when we moved in and now on her wall year round.

 Ashton's room was all about color and *not* being princess-themed.  We had her name painted on the wall when Jacqueline's room was done and then Auntie Suzie did all the rest of the bubbles.

 As you might have guessed the girls were very excited to get home and see what their new rooms were all about.  This was especially good as there was a lot of weeks ahead getting the rest of the house organized and livable.

Moving back

While moving is never easy the return move was the mother of all moves for me.  We had movers come a couple times.

The first time was a week before to get Jacqueline's bed moved to paint the mural and to move the boxes left in the house to the proper floor (mostly to the basement) to make room for the front room floors to be redone.

Then the "big moving weekend" came and it was all a blitz to move out of the rental and back into the house before Bob and the girls got back from a long ski weekend.

 On the huge plus side the construction dumpster was still there as we had not only a move but 15 years of junk to be dispositioned -- I had committed to myself that I wouldn't move back stuff that I didn't think I wanted to actually keep (a tall order!)

 At one point I had two different houses overrun with boxes and plastic wrap.

 God bless Judy for providing food to fuel the process.

 and about this point (after two full days of working non-stop) that I had the panic that it would never end.

 but at some point I did have a path through some of the house.

 and the basement was the salvation taking more and more boxes of unknown origin and destination and keeping them out of sight awaiting Bob's return and help.

Judy also helped out with the kitchen so that before I knew it I had a functioning kitchen.

On day three, Suzie came and joined me for two days -- helping to make it workable for the return of Bob and the girls.  A few months later we considered ourselves mostly unpacked.  I can not stress how thankful I am to not be doing this again.

Ashton turns 8

And another trip around the sun gives us an 8 year old daughter?!

 Both girls are enjoying the balloons Bob got for the girls.

 Yet another awesome Judy cake -- made with strict guidelines from Ashton.

 All the local family came and helped with the singing and wish making.

The Wii was the big gift.  What a lucky girl!

2010 Holiday Letter

Julianne with the girls

 As we take a moment to reflect on 2010 we can't help but feel extraordinarily blessed.

After 14 years of talking about adding on to our home, we are weeks (ok months) away from being complete.  We are fully aware that as the girls look back upon their lives, they will think of this time as a big adventure, one that helped put some color in their charmed lives.

Two letters for Santa this year

As you might have guessed, the fact that space is tight in the rental really doesn't register with the girls.  The biggest thing they are looking forward to with the move back is not getting their own rooms or having closets that are not bursting, but rather being back on the block with all their friends kids and Dan and Jani next door.

Of course, when we move back they also get the bonus of Joe and Shannon on the other side as well, (as I'm sure Joe and Shannon are looking forward to something other than a construction war-zone next door too).

Holiday lights at the rental

On the school and work front, things are mostly as expected.

Bob has been working with Zoomsystems for over a year now, sometimes as a contractor and sometimes as an employee (confusing for me too).   Lately, he has been helping to setup the European operations with somewhat regular trips to Germany and Italy (hmm... too bad vacation budget has been eaten up by house stuff).

Meg is still plugging away at ORCL and both the girls are now in grade school with Jacqueline starting Kindergarten and Ashton in second grade.

Everything else about our lives is still extremely fortunate, with a year of good health and reasonably care-free living.   Our rental house is a close 6 blocks from our construction project so there are weekly progress visits that are a delight for Bob and Meg and a bore for Ashton and Jacqueline. 

I guess the rest is pretty well detailed in the blog, so do take a look for more year in review.  We wish you all the best this holiday season (which I do realize is past...) and that 2011 is as exciting a year for you as we know it will be for us.

All the best,

Bob, Meg, Ashton and Jacqueline Bear

+ Julianne