Merry Christmas

This time of year is so great, yet very hectic. It has been a blessing staying at home for the past week and a half - its been a FULL HOUSE - with Jamin home, too. We enjoyed the snow as a family and of course, Christmas. It was so great to see Jamin's brother Taylor and his adorable family Stephanie (my sister-in-law), Kaitlyn (20 months) and Alexis (2 1/2 months). They were visiting from Idaho - sure wish they lived closer:-) The kids had a blast on Christmas Eve, Christmas morning, Christmas Day, Christmas Evening, the day after Christmas...it hasn't stopped. Just too much "stuff" to play with. All in all, I can honestly say we feel so blessed to have a healthy and happy family. We hope everyone is enjoying their holiday time and looking forward to a wonderful New Year in a few days. Here are a few pics from the past week:
This was the night of Dec. 21 - Jamin had to scrape the sidewalk and driveway at around 11p that night:-)

"Help I can't walk and definitely can't crawl in this huge snow suit-thing you have on me" (thank you Sarah Cypher for the snow gear hand-me down)Kara and Bryce hangin' out

Here is Bryce with his cousin Brittney on Christmas Eve (that would be my brother's daughter - I know I think this is the first time my brother's family has had a picture on this blog!) Merry Christmas:-) I can never get all 3 of them to smile at the same time. Two out of three is always good. (this was Christmas Morning) Thank you Grammie for the Christmas pj's. Yes, she makes ALL her grandchildren Christmas pj's every year! And the number of grandchildren continues to grow. I think it might slow down after the next two arrive (total 13 by next Christmas).

Jace Turns 3!

Jace's birthday once again has been trumped by weather! On his first birthday we had those major wind storms and most of the area had no electricity, but luckily we never lost power. The problem was that we had planned his party at the YMCA and they had lost power. I was on the phone by 10a that morning inviting everyone over to our house:-) It was crazy, but still a great first birthday. Well, behold birthday #3 rolls around and we decide to try the YMCA again and this time everything seems to be alright until we arrive at 4:45p for the 5p party. We were welcomed with the building supervisor's news that the Y was closing at 6p! I almost started crying on the spot. I held it together and we improvised. Needless to say, Jace had a blast with all his friends and cousins. Jace was none the wiser and loved his birthday party. Thank you to everyone who joined us - we completely understand those who could not due to weather. We are going to have to celebrate his birthday early in the month:-) Ok, enough of that. He just went to bed saying "I can't believe...this and that." He loved all his gifts and just had so much fun. THANK YOU EVERYONE!
Ok, back it up a little: My baby boy - excuse me - my big boy (as he would say) just turned 3 years old this weekend. We have had such a great birthday weekend. It all started last Wed. with the arrival of SNOW! Jamin and I have been home since then and having a ton of fun with the kids. Saturday morning we woke up and Jace picked donuts for his birthday breakfast and then he opened all the gifts from us. He was so cute saying things like "Awesome" and "I can't believe it." He is such a sweet boy. We then went to Red Robin for his b-day dinner followed by the trip to Toys R Us where he gets to pick out one toy. It was dumping snow off and on all day, so it was fun driving around to dinner. The snow is very beautiful (especially when your destination is close). What an amazing gift - celebrating your child's birthday. I still cry...even though its his 3rd birthday. Will it ever stop? I am not sure - I cried at Kara's 5th birthday. Now its on to Christmas! I love this time of year. Merry Christmas EVERYONE:-)

Here comes December...

It's December already...what the heck. Luckily, we got out the Advent calendar tree (that's all I could accomplish over Thanksgiving weekend unlike most of you over-acheivers who already have ALL the decorations up and tree up)that has become the BIG tradition for the kids this year. Kara has been talking about it since early November (thank you Grammie for the great tradition). So the countdown to Christmas begins - and lucky for the Marecle family - Jace's birthday, too.

So this past weekend we headed over to Selah, Wa to visit some of our college friends that all seem to reside on the east side. When we arrived on Saturday, we headed out to an old train depot and saw all sorts of train sets and then took a very short train ride to visit Santa and Mrs. Claus. The kids had a blast. This was something I didn't know about, so it was a very nice surprise.

Jace, Kara, Adley Franklin, Sam Neeley and Aidan Franklin (not pictured Molly Neeley)

Here is Jace & Kara riding on the train up in some weird seats!

Then it was pictures with Santa! Yeah, I know Santa twice in one weekend - we didn't plan it that way, it just happened. This time we were back in P-town and we did this really great event where the kids got free Reindeer Webkinz! It was quite the hit - a little crowded and all, but 'tis the season:-) Jace didn't want to sit on Santa's lap, but had no problem giving him high-5's and finally standing in front of him. Of course, by the time we had convinced Jace to stand in front of Santa, Bryce was done so the pictures is truly a memory piece.

Bryce wasn't terrified in this picture. He actually liked Santa's beard.
Kara, Carly and Kiersten eating their cookies and sipping on hot cocoa.

Thanksgiving Good Times

Thanksgiving is such a fun time - eat and be lazy:-) The newest tradition in the Marecle family is to go to Grammies house in the morning for breakfast, which honestly is what we look forward to even more than the turkey dinner. Homemade cinnamon rolls, christmas casserole, egg nog and if you want orange julius. Its delicious. The cousins all ran around having a blast while all the men took naps and the women started getting ready for dinner. The sister-in-laws actually all looked through the ads for the next day of shopping:-) So a HUGE thank you to Grammie, Papa and Marissa for all the food. Jessica, Natalie and I all contributed a little something in the food department. It was a great day.

We love our family:-)

It's All Over...

So in one of my last posts I mentioned that Bryce is close to crawling - well he is officially getting around quite efficiently. I want to call it a "commando crawl" but Aunt Marissa said it perfectly - he is doing the "caterpillar crawl." It is absolutely cute, but now I can't take my eyes off of him for a second. Let the good times begin:-)

Stone Soup

We had our official first Kindergarten program at school this past Tuesday. The performance was called Stone Soup and all four kindergarten classes participated. It was so incredibly adorable. Kara was so fun to watch. Kara's class were the "travelers" and they each had a part to say on their own and then she sang in a group with her cousin Carly and another classmate Xzavion. I didn't know about the little side-trio she was doing. I was so impressed with how well the Kindergarten teachers and the music teacher coordinated everything. All the Kindergarteners were so well behaved and performed really well. Of course, as parents, we were so proud of Kara. Its only going to continue to get better:-) Good Job Midland Kindergarteners!
Sorry, no pictures as I video taped the entire show. I am waiting to see if I can get some pictures from Aunt Jessica.

Good Times

Let's see - right after our last post we celebrated Grammie's birthday at the Olive Garden. It was a lot of fun - good work Papa getting all of us together:-) The kids had a blast as did Grammie:-)

Then it was Kiersten and Aiden's birthday. Aiden is our neighbor and he turned 5 and Kiersten turned 11. We still have a few more November birthdays, so its been a little birthday fest this month.

We also visited a LONG LOST friend - Tyce Nasinec. Tyce and Jamin have been playing basketball together in the mornings and we have been trying to get our families together. Finally, we made it work and we had the pleasure to meet Gina, his awesome wife and his two adorable boys - Drew and Will. The kids had so much fun. We had our nephew Cobe with us and he fell in LOVE with GINA:-) Thank you Nasinecs for a wonderful evening.

We also got a wonderful visit from our new friend - Miles Benjamin Hill. He is 12 weeks old and played footsies with Bryce. Thanks for the play date, Jocelyn. We need to do it again:-)

Of course, we have had a few soccer games - and last week (Nov. 15) Kara scored her first goal! She was so cute about it - nothing like her mother. She was all quiet and smiley. Just like her father very modest. I love it:-) Jace is keeping me busy asking WHY to everything. He wants to run around and jump and play which is great so I can't wait till his birthday and I can sign him up for some fun activities. We also started Kara's first basketball practice with SPYA (Summit-Parkland Youth Association). She has a boy from her preschool on her team - Maverick....small world. Bryce is almost CRAWLING! He is getting very frustrated as he wants to MOVE everywhere! My world is about to become completely CHAOTIC - three mobile children:-) I love it, but I can imagine my "attitude" will be less than stellar the next month or so. Oh, well at least its the holidays! We can't wait to eat pumpkin pie and share turkey with Bryce. It will be fun to see his reaction to meat. He loves to eat EVERYTHING right now, so I am sure he will love it.

Good-bye October, Hello November

Another wonderful Halloween night. We hit up our favorite little neighborhood again this year - and the kids literally ran from house to house. This was truly our first year "Trick or Treating." Kara and Jace were champs and really got into the whole experience. The neighborhood we go to is so great - every house is decorated and a lot of the homes are having Halloween parties. Its so festive! Bryce was a champ too, as he didn't fuss once.


It was so hilarious when we got home and Bryce wanted to play with all the candy. He didn't go to bed till after 8p that night (that is really late for him).

This past Monday I worked from home as Grammie visited Taylor, Stephanie, Kaitlyn and new baby Alexis in Idaho. What a great day Jace and I had, with Kara at school it was a lot of one-on-one time for Jace and I. We had our first messy finger painting time.

We also had Bryce's 6 month check up (although he is now officially 7 months old, he technically was 6 1/2 months at the time of the appointment). He is doing great and I was reminded that we can start feeding him Cheerios so here is his first munch-session. His face says it all. He absolutely loves eating them now:-)

Same day as the above finger painting, Jace found Jamin's new hunting hat and sunglasses. He wants to be just like his daddy:-)

And here he is wanting to "exercise" with Jamin. How ironic or fitting that he was wearing his Superman costume again (let me tell you - if I would let him - he would live in that costume). Thanks Spencer for the Bowflex:-)

Life with children is so great. I can't believe two weeks has went by since my last post. Things continue to get more and more fun and challenging. Bryce is really trying to crawl (trust me - I push him down all day) and I am sure by Thanksgiving will be semi-mobile. Although he can roll himself around the room fairly quickly already. I just keep thinking Jace will be 3 in 7 weeks, Bryce will be celebrating his first Christmas and Kara is already months into Kindergarten. AHHH! It's going by so fast.

It's Fall Time

Ok - so for a quick week in review:
1) Tuesday - We measured the kids for the first time in 5 months and they both had grown at least 2 inches. No wonder neither of them fit in anything (at least I have great hand-me-downs for Kara from our wonderful Aunt Nannie and her our cousins Kiersten & Aubrey). Jace on the other hand barely fits in his new jeans I just bought this summer! Time to do some more shopping.
2) Thursday - Kara earned a MOJO award at her school this week, so as very proud parents we attended the assembly where they honor all the MOJO winners for the school.
3) Friday - Pumpkin Patch - this year we just drove down the road to Picha's Pumpkin Patch. It was great - small, cute, no crowds! We loved it.
4) Saturday - Kara's 2nd soccer game - this time she played goalie one half and ran like a cheetah the second half. That girl LOVES to run. Nothing like me:-)
5) Saturday Halloween Parties - first stop was Aunt Nannies on Saturday followed by the annual LDS chili feed and hallway trick or treat with lots of fun games for the kids. To say the least Saturday was busy and the kids were tired by the days end.
5) Sunday carving pumpkins - unfortunately my battery went dead on the camera and the back-up was dead, too! Not good planning on my part!
A few other neat little tid-bits - we welcomed another cousin to the still-ever growing Marecle family. Taylor and Stephanie had their second child on Oct. 15 - Alexis Ann. She is gorgegous. Bryce is growing like a weed and I finally got his 6 month pictures taken. I have no idea his weight or anything as his 6 month appt. was rescheduled - my doctor got called in to jury duty (who knew?).
This is such a fun time of year. We are very excited to go trick or treating on Friday. I can't believe its going to be November!

Weekly Update

The Three Muskateers - I just love these munchkins:-) Adorable brothers - the tops say "Im so cute - It's scary"

Finally, I am home again (at least that is how I feel). Back to my normal schedule at work which meant I was home all day Friday with the kids and I absolutely LOVED it. I didn't even get out of my pajamas! We had the neighbor kids over to play and Kiersten and Aubrey in the evening. I can't begin to tell you how much "relief" I feel not working so much. I can't believe I worked so much before when I worked at the Rainiers. Things change...life changes - especially your priorities. Anyway, I made Bryce's 6m doctors appt and his picture appt. Can you believe he is 6 months old TODAY!! WOW!

I have us all ready for Halloween - every year I get the kids Halloween pjs, but this year I could only find some for the boys - Kara is too grown up I guess. Of course, that was only shopping on line at Old Navy (thats almost all I ever do anymore), so I guess I need to venture into a store to get more options for Kara. I have everyone's costumes and starting to plot out the weekends with Halloween parties, soccer games, hunting schedule, etc. Ahh...life:-) Hope everyone else is enjoying their October. I just love this time of year.

Trying to take a picture of me with the kids - we all have on our "Fall" attire

Didn't quite work, so I had Grammie take a picture of us when we got to her house. I figured Jamin is always in all the pictures, I needed a few of just me and the kids.I need to still crop this one, but it turned out:-)

I can't get caught up...

Ok - so now its been two weeks since my last update, but I am not feeling so bad as I can tell from visiting other blogs that everyone seems to be very busy and not updating blogs on a regular basis. Not to mention I don't think I have picked up the camera in a week or so. I hope things settle down in the next few weeks...I know they will - its just getting there.

Right now the Marecle family is just finally starting to get adjusted to Kara being in school, Jace missing his sister when she is gone and Bryce coming into his own. Jamin has been home all weekend while I have been at work (I am the event coordinator for the Tacoma Film Festival currently going on). I was so proud of him as he took the kids to Shari's for dinner last night - I know I shouldn't be making a big deal - as he put it "why am I so surprised, did I think he couldn't handle it?" Honestly, it wasn't that I didn't think he couldn't handle it - I was more surprised that he even wanted to do it. I don't exactly look forward to my trips with all three kids to go grocery shopping, etc. Its not that I don't enjoy my children and taking them out, it is just a lot of work is all.

So, Bryce has been fussy the past week or so and I swear he is teething or something - probably nothing, just wanting to be held all the time:-) Here are some cute pictures of him. He loves to suck his toes:-) Let's hope he stays this flexible throughout life!

Playing Catch Up Again...

Alright - so I still haven't really caught up on everything, so here goes another catch up log. I can't believe today is the first day of FALL! I must admit I am looking forward to this time of year. I love Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas. Not looking forward to all the "gloom", but right now I can't complain - cool crisp mornings, sunny afternoons...ahh, good cuddle time with the family. So basically, since we have started the month of September I have been working full time (no fun) so life seems to be very hectic. I can't wait till October and I can go back to my normal 3-day a week schedule. Anyway, lots of fun things have been happening this month. So I will tell the story in pictures and captions:-)
In this picture Jace was complaining that he kept hitting his head on the head board of his bed, so I told him he should wear his bicycle helmet to protect his head. The funny thing is he actually wanted to wear it and fell asleep with it on. Don't worry, we took the pictures and promptly took the helmet off. Too cute:-)
Bryce is already starting to sit up! I can't believe it...growing up so fast!


Here is little Miss Kara practicing doing headstands! She and Carly love to do these all the time - thanks Uncle Griffin for showing the girls this one:-)
Ok - just a cute picture of Bryce in the saucer wearing some cute Winnie the Pooh antenea-thing.

This one is adorable, but I must admit that I am super jealous. All of our kids will totally relax and hang out with their dad, but not with me. I guess its the true test of ones personality...anyone who knows Jamin - he is one layed back, relaxed dude. As for me, you can't really say that:-)

Bryce is eating cereal - that's right cereal already. We promptly started feeding him right after we started Kara in Kindergarten. I had to give myself a few days so I could handle all the emotional changes.
Yes, you are adorable - does his hair look a little red in this picture? He is my first bald baby, so its always tough to tell the color of his hair. His eyes are still blue - although my pictures always capture the red eye (I need to work on that).