The Kasparek Family Christmas Tree

Emma has the honor of putting on the first ornament












Camden is not sure what to think of the tree...












Which one should I put up next?











Decorating the tree was too exciting for Camden :)













Emma tried standing on the couch to hang ornaments up high, but she just couldn't reach the tree. A lift from Mom and Dad always works!










Santa is really going to come down this?

Our weekend in Seattle...

Emma and I went to see the Pacific Northwest Ballet perform the Nutcracker on Friday afternoon. Emma has become a big fan of the Nutcracker thanks to a Barbie Nutcracker movie Nana gave her. She was a little frightened of the larger than life Mouse King, but loved the "Sugarplum Princesses" and the Nutcracker Prince. Maurice Sendak (author of Where The Wild Things Are) designed the sets so they were amazing! We hope to make this a holiday tradition!

Emma had a great time playing at Green Lake Park on Saturday afternoon. She was determined to walk across these like the big kids.

Maggie and Andy had us over for a pre-race pasta dinner on Saturday night. Emma had to help out with dessert and Camden kept entertained smiling and rolling all over the dining room. :)

Seattle Half Marathon

We couldn't be more proud of Chris today! After a week of pain from his soccer injury, he was a rockstar and ran 13.1 miles in Seattle this morning. Camden, Emma, and I tried our best to navigate the unfamiliar roads of Seattle to cheer him on. We got to see him truckin' along Lake Washington at about mile 5 and then cheered him into the stadium as he finished. He is very excited and the sore legs this evening were definitely earned! Now he's looking ahead to a full marathon in May. :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving! We have so much to be thankful for this year including our first Thanksgiving with Camden and celebrating in our new house. It's hard to believe we moved in a month ago today.

I cooked my first turkey and made my first pumpkin pie. I now appreciate my mom and Granny even more for all the Thanksgiving dinners they made over the years-it's a lot of work! We were thrilled to share it with friends. Chelsea, Phil, Andy, and Sara were Camp Adventure counselors in Yokosuka last summer. They are having a little reunion in Seattle this week and happily joined our first Thanksgiving in Washington.

We finally found a dining room table and were looking forward to having Thanksgiving dinner on it. Luck would have it that it won't be delivered until this upcoming week. A card table, TV trays, and folding chairs work well in a pinch! :)

Emma tried her best to keep us with us playing Apples to Apples.

Camden said he will be ready to dig into the turkey and stuffing next year. :)

.

I.R.

All of you know that know what this means, you can see what's coming next...Injured Reserve...After months of training, I will be unable to run this weekend's Half-Marathon in Seattle...Unless there is a Turkey Miracle. So I broke the rules when training for a race by playing in a soccer game the week before the big race. One chest contusion later and I am extremely disappointed and looking forward to getting back to training. Never thought I would say that an injury could possibly feel feel worse then a dislocated shoulder....However that's where I stand..

"I was brave...."

Those were the words from Emma as she left Santa's Village. After building up her confidence for the last two months, Emma and Camden went and visited Santa. Camden was his usual mello self...

Playtime

Camden and Emma were just too cute playing together with their Little People Noah's Ark this morning. As you can imagine, Camden loves to chew on all the animals and Emma is good about sharing with him (most of the time).

Mr. Hot Stuff is starting to sit up on his own! :)

Curious Camden

Camden is quickly approaching 6 months and is discovering new ways to get where he wants to go. He has perfected the roll-across-the-floor and the 360 degree turn around on his belly. Just this week he has begun to belly crawl if something really interesting is out of reach.


Baby proofing the house is taking on new meaning with our little guy! I found him under the TV cabinet playing with the cords the other night so they have now been pushed way back against the wall...

He also thinks it is great fun to rearrange Chris sports books and then try to chew on the shelf. :)

Seattle Aquarium

We took a wonderful trip to Seattle yesterday with our new friends the Warthen family. Claire and Emma have become quite the pair together! We took the ferry from Bremerton to Seattle and were thrilled to see seals playing in the sound. Emma's highlight at the aquarium was seeing Nemo and the river otters.

Emma is all smiles as the ferry arrives.

Claire and Emma are sooooooo excited for the aquarium!

Chris tries to convince Emma the starfish feels really neat when you touch it.

Camden is in awe of all the fish.

Which one do you prefer?

Dirty face?








OR...

Clean face?

I-O-W-A!

It might be the understatement of the century to say that Chris is an Iowa Hawkeye fan :) His sports area (or as I've affectionately named it, the Sports Mecca) in our house is an Ode to the Hawkeyes.

We cheered Iowa to victory yesterday with the help of some of our favorite fans.

A yard to play in!

As many of you might know, parking a Geo Metro in our yard in Japan would have been tough since it was so small. In fact, our "lawn mower" was a weed whacker :) A nice size yard was at the top of our "must haves" when house hunting here in Washington. Chris and Emma have been enjoying playing basketball, or as Emma calls it, "bouncing ball" on our court.

Emma also wanted to show off her athletic skills playing a little football in her high heeled shoes :)

Emma was very excited to when she discovered an apple tree in our backyard. They're a little past their prime, so it took a little convincing on my part that soggy brown apples taste yucky

Chris's grandpa Kasparek was quite the rose gardener for his sweetheart, Rose. We had a rose bush at our house in Japan and now have roses at our new home!

Trick or Treat!

It was a Happy Halloween at the Kasparek house yesterday! I told Emma she could put on her princess dress after she got up from her nap. I had to chuckle when she came to me yesterday afternoon and said, "Mommy, I take a nap now." She never volunteers to nap. :) She thought as soon as she had her costume on, it was time to trick or treat. We kept busy until it was time to head out in the neighborhood. Just when she was getting brave enough to go up to a door all by herself, knock, and say "Trick or Treat!" someone was handing out candy in a vampire costume so she was scared after that!

Camden, our chick magnent, was content strolling around the neighborhood looking cute.