Lake House

Scott and I are now proud owners of a Lake house!  We closed about a month ago and spent our first night there on New Year's Eve with some friends.  The house is on Lake Kiowa, a small private lake about one hour north of our home in Keller.  We are so excited to be able to spend time there, not only is there a lake which is stocked with fish, but there is a golf course too.  We are excited to be able to enjoy this home with our families for years to come.  Hopefully Callie likes it too, since it will probably be the site for most of her birthday parties!  

Here are a couple of pictures:

Our present from Santa on the mantel

Front of the house.  The house was built in 1970 and is in great condition, just needs some exterior and interior paint.  Oh, and all the carpet upstairs is different shades of blue.  That will need to be replaced eventually . . .

Back of the house.  It has a screened in porch that runs the length of the house.  It stays shady in the afternoon and is a great place to sit and look at the lake.

View of the 13th green from the boat dock.

Living area.  Not a great shot of the house, just showing off the Ikea furniture we got.  The coffee table came with the house.

Dining room looking out onto the lake.  The table and chairs also came with the house.  The previous owners wanted to leave everything that was in the house, but we decided to just keep a couple pieces of furniture and all the kitchen stuff.  Which means the kitchen came stocked with plates, cups, silverware, pots and pans . . .  The freezer even had ice cream in it, which we decided not to eat :)

Congrats Grandpa Kohn!!

We would just like to give a big huge shout out to Grandpa Kohn who is retiring today after 25+ years of loyal service to United Parcel Service (UPS).  He worked as a delivery driver and a supervisor and was a model employee.  

The Portland weather during the last week made it very easy for him to leave.  It was one of the hardest holiday delivery seasons, since the Portland area had over 12" of snow, the most since the 1960's.  We are very proud of Grandpa Kohn and hope he can keep himself busy with all his newfound free time :)  Now I guess I don't have to be a loyal UPS shipper anymore . . .  Congrats Dad!!!

Merry Christmas!

We have had a very busy, fun, and exciting Christmas in 2008.  It was our first Christmas spent in Texas in two years and it was nice to be home.  The last two years we have been in Vancouver, WA with my parents.  We missed spending the holiday with them, but were very glad that we didn't have to deal with the record amount of snow they received.  Christmas weather of 60+ degrees and sunny was just great!  

We stayed busy with lots of family activities and get togethers.  On Monday we met with Scott's sister and cousin so we could get the yearly great grand kids picture.  We headed to the local Kiddie Kandids and managed, with some creative cropping, to get a good picture of all four kids together.  We have two three year olds, Callie who is 14 months, and the youngest who is eight months old.  After a couple of meltdowns at the picture place we headed to the food court for dinner and all the kids were much happier :)  Then we all took a ride on the carousel.  We also took Callie to see Santa.  We hadn't planned on doing Santa this year since Callie is still very cautious of strangers, but her cousin wanted to go so we tried it out.  She did great standing in line, but once we got to Santa the tears started!  I'll have to scan the picture and upload it in the next couple of days.

Callie excited for the ride to start

Callie and her cousin Haley

Tuesday we made a trip to Dallas to have Callie's Doc Band readjusted.  We go every two weeks and the appointment is really easy and fast, they just make the band a little bigger each time to allow for growth.  The Doc Band has been working really well and we are able to see a big difference so far!  

After the appointment we headed over to the mall in Dallas to waste some time before a family dinner that was also in Dallas.  Callie had a great time playing at the play area and spending some extra time with her Match & Patch (Scott's parents).

Checking out a Christmas tree with Patch

Wednesday was Christmas Eve and we headed over to Scott's Grandma's house for her annual Christmas Eve lunch.  Callie had a great time playing with her cousins and opening presents.  She can't quite tear into presents yet, but she definitely knows what they are and is excited to see what is inside :)

playing with Daddy

Posing with Mommy

Callie's toy was the hit of the party.  All the kids wanted to play with it!

Christmas morning we spent at home and then headed over to Scott's parents house for lunch.  Callie had a great time opening all her presents and playing with her new toys.  Ozzie was a little confused about everything that was going on.  He thought a couple of Callie's toys should be his toys :)

These little stuffed animals were the first thing that Callie opened.  It was tough to get her to put them down to open the other presents.  She played with them all day long!

Callie showing Ozzie one of the many Elmos she got for Christmas.

Ozzie checking out yet another Elmo.  He's not too sure what to think about this one . . .

After all the Christmas activities Callie just want to sit and play with her Little People farm set.  She loved it!

Is the food strike over???

Callie has been on a food strike for over a month now.  About a week before she got sick she stopped eating baby food, which she had been really enjoying.  Then she got sick and since then she was on strike!  We have been offering her baby food at least once a day, but she would just shake her head, turn away and start to fuss.  She still doesn't like to put any sort of table food in her mouth, but that's another hurdle to get over . . .

So tonight at dinner we had some carrots ready for Callie to eat and when I offered her the spoon she turned her head like before and I thought it would be hopeless.  Well, she started to sort of cry and had her mouth open and eyes closed, so I got sneaky and put the spoon in.  She wasn't too sure about it at first, but then it was like she remembered the taste and started opening her mouth for more!  We did some singing and cheering to keep her excited about the food and she ate almost the entire container!!!  Hopefully she will be ready for breakfast tomorrow :)

  

Only in Texas, part two

So the weather in Texas can be kinda crazy . . .  Yesterday it was a beautiful day with a high of 77 degrees and a little bit of wind.  We took a nice walk around the neighborhood and enjoyed the great weather.  We even had to turn on the AC because the house got so warm.  

At about 9pm last night we could hear the wind start to pick up and could tell it was getting colder outside.  When we got up this morning the temperature was around 27 degrees with a wind chill somewhere in the teens!  So, in the short time of about 12 hours the temperature dropped 50 degrees!!!  I guess that means Scott will have to wait another couple of days to put up the rest of the Christmas lights on the house, he's so dissapointed :)

Only in Texas . . .

This morning we did some shopping at Super Target.  We were picking up some Christmas gifts and a couple of other things, plus a few groceries.  Last night I had a craving for beer so we put a six-pack of Corona in the cart.  We went to check out and when the checker got to the beer he informed me that he can not sell alcohol before Noon on Sunday, it was 11:45am!  Only in Texas would there be a rule for when you could buy alcohol on Sunday!  I guess I'll just have to go back to the grocery store later today . . .

The rest of our Thanksgiving week . . .

We also spent some time in Tacoma the weekend after Thanksgiving.  It had been almost a year since I had seen my girlfriends from college and so we made the drive up from Vancouver to visit.  We stayed at a hotel on the Tacoma waterfront and Callie loved it.  We were on the first floor and could see right onto the water and Callie had a great time watching the water and the birds from our window.  

posing with Mommy & Daddy at Commencement Bay in Tacoma, WA

We went to Megan's house on Saturday night and Callie enjoyed meeting her "aunties" again, and her "cousins", Becca's twins Ben & Abby.  It took her a little while to get used to all the people but she calmed down and was right at home gossiping with all of us :)  

On Sunday we were able to have dinner at Scott's cousin Grant's house.  If you remember he is the pastor that married us and his daughter Mckinzie was the flower girl in our wedding.  We had a great time visiting and catching up, as well as a delicious meal.

You would think that after our busy trip things would calm down a little bit, but we will still be busy with holiday events.  We still need to decorate the house for Christmas and even got lights to put on the house this year!  It should be an exciting holiday season and we are excited to share it with Callie.