8 days and counting

We've been continuing on with our Christmas countdown. The kids are excited - especially Ryan. If you ask what he wants it is new tires - every time!! Evidently he knows how much his truck needs them! Emma is understanding what is coming, but doesn't seem so excited by it. And Nick has no idea.

We've had the first two of our snow days for the school year this week. Monday Ryan was really upset to not have library class. He has continued to talk about how there will be more Mondays after Christmas. We had another one yesterday. At least I was prepared this time. I scheduled it right to get Nick down for a nap and then take the other two outside. The loved it and didn't want to come in, even though we had to since Ryan was losing boots and Emma kept taking her gloves off (evidently you can't touch the snow good enough with them on). We tried sledding but we weren't able to. And the snow wasn't good enough for a snow man or snowballs. They both did finally learn how to make snow angels.

We visited the zoo for the Festival of Lights last weekend. It was Kris's yearly trip to the zoo. We don't even have a 'family' pass, just a single parent one because he only goes once a year. He loves to see the lights dance to the music and makes us sit there through all the songs. This year, my mom joined us since she stayed in town for the weekend. She had never been to our zoo either and was excited to see the elephants and giraffes. The kids were happy to see the polar bears. Well, except for Nick who just wanted to go home and go to bed (he eventually fell asleep in the stroller). It was a beautiful night and we all had a great time.

We've also been doing a lot of holiday baking. Sunday, the kids and I baked cookies - had to keep them busy since it was cold outside and everyone else was sick. We've made some banana bread since then also. But then we ran out of eggs, so we won't be baking until we make it to the store!

Ready for Christmas??

We Are!!

Last weekend, we went to the mall to get our holiday pictures taken. They came out great, as you can see. I would have never guessed we would ever get all three kids looking at the camera at the same time more than once. I even got in our picture for our Christmas card in only two takes! Then we let the kids play at the mall for a while.

In other ready for Christmas news. We saw Santa at Ryan's school last week. I had been looking for a time where it was free and this was the first one that came up. They all did great. Ryan, who has cried every previous year, was waving and so excited. He told Santa that he wanted a new bike and new tires for his truck. Emma was in awe and quiet, but no crying! And Nick just wanted to stare at him. Ryan also wrote his letter to Santa this past week, another check in the list of things to do!

We put up our tree on Saturday. While I can't say it was the joyous family moment that we hoped it would be, it was pretty funny when telling people about it. Emma couldn't get an ornament on the tree to save her life and kept coming back for more, even though she would just return the previous one. Ryan kept most of his to a circle where the stool he was standing on was and once again we figured out that Ryan has about 7 First Christmas ornaments, while Emma has none. It is up and the house is decorated, check.

And the last thing I did - I finished my shopping!! Yay!! Ok - well I still need a few stocking stuffers, but all the other things are done. I've even started wrapping. I am just waiting on a package to be able to ship off all the PA stuff! Today, Ryan had his Santa shop at school and got his gifts for me, Kris and Nick. He specifically told me what he wanted to get Emma, so we have to go to the store to get that - but he used his own money. I also took Emma today to the store and she used her money for gifts for Nick, Ryan and Kris.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Sorry, I actually thought I had updated this!

We had a great Thankgiving in MI. Nick and I drove up the Saturday before Thanksgiving very early. I wanted to make it there before kickoff of the UM/OSU game. I made it, but the game sucked anyway! On Sunday, we attended to Kathy Stone's baby shower. She looked great and received some wonderful (and monkey filled) gifts. We can't wait for another little Stone to arrive in January. Her due date is Kris's birthday!

After the shower, Nick and I drove over to my cousin, Alicia's house for the Zebrowski Thanksgiving. They really do a wonderful Thanksgiving. It was great to see everyone there. I really can't believe how big everyone is getting (I mean Sarah is taller than me!). Nick loved crawling around and playing with all the bigger kids (and meeting the family) and I enjoyed getting to talk to everyone. After that, we retreated to my parents house for a few days of quiet!

Kris, Ryan, Emma and my mom showed up on Wednesday. Kris stayed home from work on Monday and Tuesday to get Ryan to school and Emma to swim. He also got to attend Ryan's 1st Parent-Teacher Conference. We're happy with his progress, but not sure it's enough. I'm sure I'll mention more about this in the future. He also got to take Emma to the movies - her first time!

We had a great Thankgiving at the Stone's house. All the food was wonderful. And we played a fun game, that kept us all entertained. The kids were entertained by their Christmas gifts given early and an easel for them to color on!

Thursday night, my mom and attempted to go to Toys R Us, but we were only going for book for Emma, so when the line was around the store (outside) and down the lane to the mall, we headed for home. We were up early on Friday (me at 2:30 because of Nick) and out shopping. We did great and didn't think it was too bad out there.

Saturday, we visited my Grandmother for the Knoll Thanksgiving. We were excited to see Uncle Mike, Aunt Cindy, Greg, Carly, Jake and Ali in from Atlanta. We've seen them 3 times this year! I don't think we've ever seen them this much! We had a wondeful time and the kids resurrected the famous Knoll game of 'What You Want?'. In our day, it was actually waiter, but since we didn't trust the kids with food or drink yet, it was just imaginary.

On Sunday, we hot footed it out of there, with my mom following in our car. With a short stop at Ikea to replace some bowls I broke, we made it home and got everyone to bed!

Sorry that I have no more pictures. Nick learned to do stairs at Aunt Sally's and that is the only time I took out the camera the whole time!

Happy Halloween (and other things)

We've had a busy few weeks. Everything is going crazy over here. Too much going on. Maybe next year we'll slow down - but I'm not counting on it!!

First - Happy Halloween! We had a great Halloween. Nick was a giraffe, Emma was a duck (she'll say Little Quack!). I was a cat, Ryan was the veterenarian and Kris was his nurse. We had fun going house to house, until Emma poked herself in the eye with a stick and had to go home. Nick had already fallen asleep in the wagon (not sure how, but he did). Ryan and I continued on for a few more houses. We ended up with way more candy than we'll ever eat. And have gotten rid of (aka gave to Buppa) over half of it. They had a great time and are already excited for next year - Emma already has her costume - a ladybug.

We went to our friend Jackson's 3rd birthday party. They had it at pumpkin patch. We were grateful since we didn't have to go to a pumpkin patch also! The kids had a great time petting animals, going on a hayride, picking pumpkins, playing in a hay maze and other things. They didn't want to leave (well except Nick, he wanted to leave for a nap!).

We also got to have an 'extra' Halloween time this year. Last year the kids went to the library and this year it was at our gym, Silverlake. They had a bunch of things to do including getting little pumpkins. The kids liked the blowup castle to run through and would have stayed there all night. In fact, Nick was so tired he fell asleep before dinner and slept on the couch -waking later looking around like 'how in the world did I get here?'. Pictures are above.

The last thing is that my mom, Nick and I took a little trip to Atlanta. In addition to getting to see Robin, we were there for my cousin Greg's wedding to Carly. She is a beautiful and wonderful young woman and we were very excited to be able to be present at their wedding. It was a beautiful ceremony. Nick even lightened the load by giving a big sigh right when it was quiet after Carly walked down the aisle. He was the hit of the wedding (well not as much as the bride and groom, but you can imagine). He even made it until 11pm, although it was a struggle. The drive was not so good, but managable. Now we're just glad to be home until before Thanksgiving!

Goin' to Miami

Nick and I followed Kris to his annual LFM/MIT alumni conference. He had two days to learn and network while Nick and I had two days (plus the weekend) to enjoy the warm weather and relax together. While I would have preferred to do this alone (Nick still won't take a bottle), Nick wasn't too bad during the days. The nights are another story completely. He has teeth coming in and I'm not sure if it's an upset stomach or not.

Anyway, we spent Thursday flying to Miami separate from Kris who flew in the night before. Nick did great on the plane, flirting with everyone around us and napping for a little bit of it. We spend the rest of the day napping and shopping in Coconut Grove (where we were staying). Friday, we rested most of the day from the horrible night before and went swimming. Both nights we met Kris at the happy hour after the conference. Nick was the hit of the conference! Everyone thought he was adorable - who could blame them!

On Saturday, we went downtown and shopped around before our boat tour. We had a great time and came back to Coconut Grove in time to see Michigan lose. Our night did get better, when we made it home from dinner in time to see Ohio State lose though! On the flight back, Nick slept for almost the entire plane, only being woken up by the pilot saying we were starting our approach. My mom stayed at home with Ryan and Emma. She was exhausted, but we were thankful that she would watch them and let me leave. Thanks Nana!

Summer Days... in October

Kris got a new flat screen tv a week or two ago because our one in the basement had some lighting problems and it was replaced under warranty. Now, when that happens they don't take the old one away with them. Since we can still watch the tv (bright shows like football games are fine), Kris is moving it to the garage. Yes, all the neighbor men are jealous, even if it is broken.

So while Kris was rearranging the garage to accomdate the old tv, we had the pool out on an 80 degree day in October. Here are some pictures from the kids playing, fishing and eating popsicles.