Almost a Year!

 I truly can't believe it's been almost a year since I've updated this.  But getting past that (because I'll make no excuses or say I'll do better)

Nick just celebrated his 5th birthday.  He wasn't a surprise football party.  But then wanted to know all about it - so not really a surprise.  It was football everything, from treats, to streamers to games.  He loved it.  I didn't really expect the sunflower seed spitting contest to be so popular!  He really enjoyed himself as did everyone else.

In other news, Kris took Nick and Emma out to PA for pig butchering last weekend.  They had a great time, but I think Ryan and I enjoyed our time home even more.  We went to the movies, did some Cub Scout stuff, went grocery shopping and out to dinner.  He played by himself and thoroughly enjoyed his time.

 This one is just too cute not to share.  He insisted I take his picture at school a few days ago.  

Waiting for spring?

We've been having an interesting and busy end of winter.  Below are some pics to show what we've been up to.  

Ryan won 1st place at the Cub Scout Pinewood Derby for his entire pack.  Kris was thrilled, Ryan just wanted to play with his car!  

My kids have really enjoyed the snow this year.  I think we are up to 13 snow days, which is amazing for Kentucky.  The day above, we had some nice far snow coming down.  It was great for taking some pictures of my beautiful girl!

Our new car arrived at the beginning of this month.  We would have gotten the same blue Camry, but the color wasn't available.  So we settled for a shiny red one.  We love it so far.

This was one wonderful day when Emma came downstairs to tell me that she hadn't gotten into anything.  You think?  She is so beautiful though!!

January and Nick's Birthday

 We have had a very interesting January.  Not only is Kris still doing his crazy travelling (now in Feb 20 weeks).  But the kids have had an outrageous number of snow days.  So here are a few things that have happened in our crazy January.

 We took the kids to see the lights on the last night of Festival of Lights at the Cincinnati Zoo.  As always entertaining (and as usual - cold).  But a good family time.

 We celebrated Nick's 4th birthday with a bowling party.  As usual for me, I forget to plan anything until after Christmas and then run around trying to figure it all out.  Thankfully, it worked out well and everyone was able to attend.  Nick had a great time bowling.  He dances while the ball is rolling down the lane - he's very entertaining.  All the kids also got tokens for video games and tickets to 'buy' trinkets.  He had an Avengers cake and had a wonderful time.

 The below right picture is one of our many snow day activities.  The kids were very enthralled with the spin art machine.  I really have to buy some more paper for it.  They made so many pictures.  But we are having trouble figuring out what to do with so many snow days (it is snowing again as I write and Ryan got let out of school early because of it).

 

 A few weeks ago, Ryan and I drove up to MI to help Robin move out of her apartment.  It was a very snowy weekend, but we managed to get there and back in one piece.  Ryan spent the day with Nanny and my dad and I drove the truck.  Got everything done and had some fun.  Ryan and I spent a few hours on Sunday waiting out the snow at the Detroit Auto Show.  Ryan enjoyed 'driving' all the cars for about an hour and a half.  Then he got overwhelmed and hungry and we had to try to get out of there.  But he did approve the new Tacoma as Daddy's next truck!

This is just a cute picture of Nick before we went to get his pictures taken at JCPenneys.  He was so excited to be Lightning McQueen from head to toe!  And looks so awesome!

Christmas and New Years, 2013 style

 Yes, it's been a while.  Here is a brief update from our holidays.  We spent Christmas in Michigan.  Kris went out to PA on the 21st to see his family and mostly work on the house his dad owns.  We met us in MI on the 23rd.  2 hours later he started throwing up.  Yay, Christmas!

I took the kids to my Aunt Dawn's house for our 1st celebrating.  It was wonderful seeing everyone there.  My kids - if you can believe this - were the calmest there when it was present time.  Could be because they didn't really know the other kids, but they were.

We went to Grandma's house that evening.  By then my kids were tired.  Kris tagged along, but slept at her house the whole night.  He was joined by Emma at some point.  We had a fun time and played some great games there.  My family from out of town was there (mostly) and it was so nice to be able to visit with everyone.

 Christmas Day brought a ton of gifts.  The kids got so much they didn't even know what to play with first.  They loved dressing up like the Avengers characters.  And they loved singing songs on their new karaoke machine.  Kris even sang a little, but wouldn't let up get a picture or video of that!   We stayed MI to celebrate my dad's birthday and go over the McCarthy's for a small get together.  Overall, a wonderful trip.

 When we returned home, we had more gifts to open.  New tablets for Emma and Nick and an electronic drum machine for Ryan.  All were thrilled!

For our anniversary, Kris took me to see The Nutcracker after I mentioned that I had never seen it.  We had a wonderful night.  He even arranged a babysitter!  We had dinner at a Brazilian steak house afterwards and were so full!!  It was so nice to spend some time together without the kids!

 We spent our 10th anniversary on New Years Eve going to the movies alone (kids were at a drop in day care center).  Then we did some last minute shopping for car seats and speakers.  Then had our own little party to celebrate.  This was the first year we let the kids stay up, or try to stay up until midnight.  Ryan made it with no problem.  He didn't even want to go to bed after the ball dropped - makes me wonder what he would do if we weren't here.  Emma didn't even celebrate with us, she was too busy on her tablet.  Nick made it until about 11:30, then curled up in a ball between Kris and I on the couch.  He looked like a little cat.  So cute!!  A great ending to another fabulous year!

The 2013 Christmas Season

 We've had a lot of Christmas fun going on around here.  Kris is still traveling - 11 weeks - ha!  We're on 14 right now with no end in sight.  Just a break for Christmas.  I'm a little sick of everything and everyone, but I'm a mom - oh well!  So here are a few things we do for the Christmas season.
 

 I made sugar cookies for the kids to decorate one night.  They haven't eaten them, but then that's not the point!  They loved it - and actually worked on it for an hour!

We've had quite a bit of snow for December in Kentucky.  3 snow days already.   It's caused a bit of a problem for me getting things done without the kids and moved our St. Nick Night to daytime with only a few here.  But we had fun!  And the kids are loving the snow!  It's nice to be able to send them outside.  Today, Emma and Nick put on their boots to do some snow stomping, since there isn't enough anymore to really play.

 Emma had her holiday performance for dance.  She was beautiful and did a great job.  I can see a lot of improvement since last year.  The second picture is her face paint from her dance party this past Monday.  Another visit with Santa meant new things she asked for!

Ryan and Emma both 'performed' in our Christmas play at our church.  Emma was a shepherd and insisted on having a line - which she said perfectly.  Ryan was Joseph for the 3rd year.  He had no lines, but in contrast to the past years - he sang the songs with everyone else (a first for Ryan in any choir performance) and didn't try to make a little show of something (no grabbing the mike!).

 We had the Christmas Walk in Independence a week ago.  It was bitterly cold and we missed the parade - due to Kris's mistake in timing of dinner.  No worries, we still had fun.  The kids loved the cut outs and getting candy from all the companies on the walk.

 Yesterday, we had the final Cub Scout meeting for the year.  They sang songs, played Frozen Turkey Bowling and made a really long construction paper link chain that they used to jump rope with!  Of course, Santa was there and all my kids enjoyed seeing him again!

 These last 2 pictures are from the Christmas celebration at our gym, Silverlake.  They had a great time petting a camel, destroying a blow up reindeer barn, eating candy and spilling hot chocolate on the floor.  They also got to see some magic tricks and do some spin art, in addition to seeing Santa (this was the 1st time for the year).  Both Ryan and Nick are asking for a big drum set and Emma asked for a hang glider.  Not sure where she will put it or use it!

Merry Christmas to all of our friends and family!

Busy, busy - week 9 of 11

If you haven't heard, we're having a rough week over here.  So be happy I am posting here!  Here are the quick details - car accident, dead computer router, purse left in other car, poop accident.  Oh - and Kris being gone for all of this.  We are now in Week 9 of 11 of the Highlander launch.  It technically launched yesterday, but I haven't heard yet how it was going.  Anyway, we are on our own.  Kris was home for 18 hours on Sunday.  Just enough for to get our Christmas pictures taken and make it through a bad thunderstorm.

The kids and I are managing as well as possible.  On Saturday, we made the gingerbread house and train that we received last Christmas (yes, last year).  They enjoyed playing with the frosting and no one has gotten sick, so that's good!  We're just getting to our events, usually a few minutes late, but getting there.  Having Ryan with a tutor after school is awesome.  No homework worries - except the project we are working on now.

We are coming up to some busy time, not just for us, we realize.  I need the time to plan some stuff out, just don't have that kind of time now!!

Halloween!

 Happy Halloween, everyone!  My little munchkins enjoyed their night.  Even with the rain and wind!  Nick, aka Lightning McQueen, was the first to give up, making it to 2 street of our subdivision.  Emma, aka Snow Fairy, made it 3 plus a small cul-de-sac.  Ryan, aka Iron Man, made it through the whole subdivision.  They raked in a ton of candy, which unfortunately, I have been consuming!  Thankfully, we had talked at least a week before Halloween about us sending half of our candy to my cousin, Aaron, who is serving the Marines and is somewhere in the Middle East at the moment.  The kids really liked the idea of sending it to someone who would give it out to kids who don't get candy very often.  I was very proud of them for that.

Other than that, we are now on week 7 of the 10 week Kris Is Gone Forever travel.  I'm hanging in, but breaking down very quickly.  This past weekend, I got some time alone including a massage and getting my hair done.  This next weekend, I get mommy time at the hotel alone for 1 night and with a friend the second - with some shopping on Sunday!  I'm very much looking forward to it!