Thanksgiving 2014

I was so excited to host my parents for our first Thanksgiving in the new house.  We actually have a spare bedroom now!  And we also have a dining table with more than 4 chairs!  I was a bit nervous about the turkey and the apple pie, but both turned out amazing, and we all enjoyed way too much food all weekend long.  My mom has been amazing helping with decorating the house since we moved in and she did not disappoint in the Christmas decorating arena.  She brought a ton of evergreen and pine cones and miscellaneous berries and candles and we decked out the mantle, entry table and created a swag and dining table centerpiece.

On Saturday, before my parents left, Fabio made the traditional pettole, a Pugliese fried dough made and eaten on Santa Cecilia in his home region.  It signifies the beginning of the Christmas season.  Even though the Pugliese celebrate Santa Cecilia on November 22, we've decided to always celebrate the weekend after Thanksgiving.  We eat the petolle and set up our tree and Christmas decorations.  It even snowed during the petolle making and eating!  It was a memorable weekend!

National Board Certified Teacher!

That's me!  (Emalei)  Last year I was talking with some co-workers about how to renew my teaching license and I mentioned that I would have to complete the Washington State professional certification process, which is a big pain.  We're talking classes, portfolios, papers, etc.  My principal mentioned that I should do the National Board Certification process.  It's harder, but way more prestigious, and will get me a teaching license in almost any state.  One of my co-workers and I decided to go for it.  Lots of support meetings in a local school and at UW, hours and hours of planning, teaching, re-teaching, re-planning, writing, rewriting and rewriting and rewriting some more, testing, and waiting for 5 months for the results, I am now a now a National Board Certified Teacher!

I am not teaching this year, so it's been a bummer not to be able to share this with other teachers, some of whom know what a grueling process it is, but there are so many possibilities for leadership and professional growth with this certification.  I'm excited to get back into the teaching work-force within the next few years!

Children's Museum

The Children's Museum here has been the biggest blessing for me and Matteo!  It's hard to keep a three-year-old boy busy and entertained all day, and I'd heard great things about the Hands on Children's Museum.  I took him there as soon as I could when we first moved here and we've been back several times.  It's the best children's museum I've ever seen! We already bought a membership and plan on going a lot, especially during the winter when it's rainy and cold!  There is nothing this museum doesn't have, as evidenced in the pictures below.  Matteo is a HUGE fan!

Not only do they have all the pretend areas, but they have free science classes and ongoing art projects all day.  Seriously-it's the best.  We have some free passes!  Who is coming to visit?!

Halloween 2014

Halloween is becoming more and more fun with each passing year.  Matteo understood a bit more about Halloween this year than he did last year.  He chose to be a pilot from a list of choices I gave him and he loved every minute of wearing that costume.  

Preschool Halloween party debut:

 Fabio took Matteo trick-or-treating while I stayed at home and gave out candy to neighborhood kids.

I'm such a mean mom.  I let Matteo eat one piece of candy and then it was straight to bed!  Since then, he's really forgotten about his candy, and I'll bring it out every once in a while as a bribe.  Probably the last year that's going to happen!

Cousin Time with Will

Aunt Leisa, Uncle Dale and Cousin Will came to Washington to visit, and we were so glad to join them at Nanna and Grandpa's house.  Will and Matteo were (mostly) inseparable.  They play so well together and are both pretty easy going.  

My mom and I didn't hear the boys playing for a few minutes and my mom found them in her room, on her bed, under the pillows, sharing a peanut butter cup they had found on her nightstand.  They weren't ashamed at all!  In fact, Will ran and got the wrapper of another peanut butter cup they had eaten earlier out of the garbage and proudly showed it to her.  We thought that was pretty cute and funny!

Uncle Dane flew a plane into Pasco and we got to see him for a few minutes during change-over.  The boys loved watching planes take off!

They were mostly good at sharing toys.  :)  They didn't ever really fight.  They just cried if the other was playing with a toy they wanted.  They joys of teaching three-year-olds to share!

We visited a pumpkin patch/farm by my parents' house and the boys had fun riding the "train," horsies and going on a hay ride.  The highlight for the boys was climbing the hay bales.  They could have done that for hours!  We had fun watching them.

Nanna made her famous sugar cookies and she made them into big jack-o-laterns for the boys to decorate.

Fall Tradition

We did our annual visit to a "pumpkin patch" this fall.  I put it in quotes because these places are no longer just pumpkin patches.  They are theme parks and mini state fairs with rides, gift shops, playgrounds, petting zoos, and delicious seasonal and traditional food.  This farm was very close to our new house and we braved a Sunday morning to experience the fun. 

Our First Home

In April of this year, Fabio received a job offer at a university in Tacoma to teach accounting.  He had been an adjunct professor there the previous fall and had loved the experience.  We decided that this was a good, long-term career move and decided it was time to invest in a house.  

We were lucky that we found a community about 25 minutes from his work that was building new, affordable homes, and we could build a house our way-meaning we could choose the facade and finishings inside the house.  Initially, I wasn't a fan of the community because the houses were so close together, but there was one corner lot left and we would only be neighboring one house.  It has turned out great!  We are surrounded by trees and paths and our house gets so much light.  We have a small, manageable yard, and we are so happy!  It's been fun to decorate it, but it's still a work in progress!  It takes time to have enough stuff to fill such a big space!