Thursday, January 31, 2013

McKenna's writing

McKenna asked if I would buy her a notebook at the store just for her special writing. I said sure thinking she would write down names of her friends, or draw pictures or something. We had a day off of school together, so went to the store, got our nails done, just had a great day! We didn't care that it was snowing like crazy :)

Imagine my surprise when she shared her poem with me that she wrote...totally unprompted..totally on her own!

"I Love Winter"
frozen lakes
hot pancakes
lots of snow
hot coco
skates and skees
evrgreen trees
funny hats
thirmistats
sunsets blaze
holidays
snow ball fites
fire place nights
chimnees steeming
winter dreaming

I know I am biased...but to me this is amazing! I left the spelling the same because it is cute...what 6 year old thinks like this! Proud momma :)

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Pictures

These are a few fun pictures that I have been saving from Gona...Nice to have some with me in them :) Thanks Gona for sending them! Still missing some Christmas posts...man almost February...jeeze!






Friday, January 25, 2013

Purple Belt Ceremony

Kenna recently had a purple belt ceremony (we are so proud!) It was so large they had to have it at the middle school, because the dojo wouldn't hold that many spectators.

They had loud music, they showed off their kata, and while she was a little nervous, she did so great! So happy she loves the sport as much as we love it for her!












 The boys were great spectators with enough snacks and drinks!


Some videos:






Blog Hiades

I am facilitating the Iowa Assessments and actually have 40 whole minutes to kill. This counseling job has been amazing. So fulfilling and fun! I have jumped right in and dealt with abuse, DHS reports, lazy teenagers (a lot of them!) failing grades, test facilitation and organization (600 of them...whew!), curriculum review, parent meetings and endless schedule changes as we entered 2nd semester. All in all it has been sooo fun, but hard to get used to a set schedule.

Most nights are insane....Tuesdays I get up at 4:30 to work out, get home, make lunches, help get kids ready (don't help much..thank goodness for Josh!), get myself ready and to school by 7:30. Leave school pick up Grayson, take him to kindermusik, drive home, drop off Grayson and pick up Zachey to take him to kindermusik. Bring him home, and in the meantime Josh has taken Grayson and Kenna to karate.

That is our worst night, but T-Th is pretty nuts at our place! Luckily my mom officially lives here now (YAY) and has been helping. Gona and Baca also have really been helpful - it takes a village! Thank goodness for awesome grandparents!

We have also been exploring a third rental property. Josh has a friend that wants a nice place and we know she will be a great renter..so that is going on as well!

I will try and keep better about keeping up! I still have posts from Christmas! Sheesh!!

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Musical Prodigy?

Zachey is so good at singing by ear...he has listened to the song below a few times, and really for a 3 year old can almost sing it perfectly! I think we have a musical prodigy in the house!!



First listen to the real video if you haven't heard it. Then listen to my little musical Z and how good he is :)



Saturday, January 12, 2013

Christmas Morning

The kids actually slept in a little...I think until around 6:30 ;) Kenna came down the stairs first and was SOOO excited to get an ipod and a clock radio that would charge it and play the music on it. It had most of her favorite songs (most from Justin Beiber, Maddy B, and some top 40 hits like "call me maybe.") It seems that santa wanted her to have a few classic 80s songs on there as well!

The kids got lots of fun things from santa including bubbles, toothbrushes, toothpaste, M&Ms, games, decorations to hang on their doorknobs next year, and some other fun trinkets.

Zachey came down about 30 minutes after Kenna. He kept saying "oh my gosh" over and over. He got a new bike that makes motorcycle noises, and a new helmet. He tried riding it in the house because we had a foot of snow on the ground....sure he will get on it this spring and go and go!

Grayson got Magnetos, magnetic building blocks. He seemed more excited about the extra thick oven baked french toast I made for breakfast....it was delish :)

Chels and Spencer came over and we ate breakfast and opened gifts. The kids got spoiled with tons of toys from everyone. Chels made the boys capes which was a big hit!Zachey also got a batman car and helicopter which seemed to be his favorites. Kenna is that stage between loving toys and really just wanting clothes. But she got some neat games and coloring sets that she really liked.

Grayson REALLY got into it this year. He loved everything, including the paper. Kenna got him a ball and the kids got him some cars which he loved.

Daddy got a lego sorter and a treadmill this year (sort of for the family.) He has done an AWESOME job of getting into a pretty good routine around walking/running. We put a TV down in the guestroom and he has been down there about 5 nights a week!

The delivery guys snuck in on Christmas Eve morning and set it up down there while Josh was asleep..he didn't even know!

I, too, got spoiled. I got a really amazing diploma frame, that I can hopefully hang in my office some day! Josh also arranged for a designer to come out and give us advice on what to do in our bedroom...very cool and creative gift! I also got my cheese making kit! Excited to try that out this summer when we have tomatoes to eat with our fresh mozzarella!





Rylee warmed up to Uncle Brandon :)




This really is what Christmas is all about...kids getting excited, spending time with your family, and just enjoying eachothers company!

Grayson LOVES to feed Rylee!

Grayson just came with innate ability to want to help us do everything. From laundry, to putting toys away, and especially when it comes to feeding Rylee. He usually ends up spilling quite a bit, but he loves helping!


Merry Christmas Eve!

 I was so happy to host Christmas this year! Mom and Brandon came out from Washington, and Chelsey and Spencer drove over, well, from down the street :) We had food for days! Turkey, stuffing, gravy, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, deviled eggs, rolls, green salad, and fruit salad. No one went hungry that week! We ate on Christmas Eve because and each opened one present that night.
 



Kenna got some cookies ready for Santa and some carrots and oats for the reindeer ;)

Gramma Great Christmas

This year's Christmas at Gramma Greats was especially fun. I had no little baby to worry about, and Kenna got SOOO into the white elephant exchange. Our contributions included a singing Justin Bieber toothbrush, and a banana that had $10 taped to it. She wrapped them all and giggled the whole time. 

Then, we got to Perry and ate, then did the regular gifts that we had drawn at Thanksgiving. When the white elephant part was about to start and we drew numbers Kenna could hardly contain herself! She was 5th or 6th and was SOOO happy that no one had chosen the banana. She jumped up and grabbed it and sat down giggling and turning red from laughter.






I was having a hard time not laughing hysterically just watching her. She also thought it was so funny that someone would get a giant bag of sour patch kids, so fun to watch her this year! I hope she continues to have such a wonderful sense of humor :)

Was so good that so much of our family could get together! We had such a great time! The photo below was taken by me setting a timer and running through an obstacle course of chairs...Mark conveniently hid behind me....silly uncle mark!


Christmas at Eski's

Every year Eski has a Christmas party filled with friends, daycare kids past and present and tons of food! With the blizzard this year the city shut down for almost two days, so the party was delayed, but Santa made it to hand out the presents!






These cookies were seriously amazing...Kenna seems to share my love for sugar cookies...totally getting the recipe!

So fun to hang out with everyone! I didn't worry this year like I did last as Grayson is old enough to sit and enjoy. He did find his way around to all the uneaten food and eat the remnants of sugar cookies and chocolate....we'll have to watch that one!

LOVE our Jammies Around Here!

Best part about Christmas break was all the Jammie time!!