A visit with Friends!

Last Sunday we drove to Dayton, OH to see our former next door neighbors from Fort Polk, LA. They were in Indiana visiting family for the holidays and drove to meet us too! We hadn't seen them in 3 years!!! Will was just 6 or 7 weeks old when we moved from Louisiana. He has changed a bit! They now have a GORGEOUS little girl, Taylor, as you can see below, that we had the chance to meet for the first time! The picture above is Caroline with Christy and I have a picture of the 2 of them on our fridge that is over 3 years old, so I had to update it.
We met and had lunch then went to a childrens museum to play for the afternoon. The kids had a great time and the adults got to catchup. Christy and I joked that Corey and Justin could talk for days without stopping. Justin was busy helping Caroline and Will build who knows what!
Still building!
This museum also had a small zoo and some sea things you could touch. In the picture below the kids are watching what Christy is touching.
As the museum was closing we got to see a snake being feed a mouse! So neat to see it swallow the whole thing. Then we were the last to leave when the museum closed at 5. While we were in the museum it had begun to snow a lot! There was no snow anywhere when we got to town but everything was covered when we left. It was beautiful but not so fun to drive in! It was slow going and snowed the entire trip back to MI. The crazy thing was that the conditions got better the farther north we drove! Our 3.5 hour trip turned into a little 6 hours to get home! I had packed the kids jammies and lovies so we were all set for the kids to sleep. The only problem was me! After dinner we went to a gas station to fill up before getting back on the highway. But I had to run in and sit on the toliet for about 10 minutes. No good! I was feeling ok so we started on our way but then another bowel cramp hit and then passed then another and I had to get justin to pull over fast. Except there isn't any moving fast when you can't see the lines on the road and there is a semi on your right! So as soon as he could he moved over and I did my business. You don't want to have diarrhea when it is 26 and snowing heavily! But as bad as that was the next thing I know there is a cop pulling up behind us! I quickly pull up my pants and try to make it until he leaves! He finally came to Justin's side and let us know that we were parked in a dangerous spot and asked if we would be moving along soon. Justin told him I was sick and we would be moving as soon as we could. The cop left after that. THANK GOODNESS! Then we went on our merry way. The good news is that I didn't have any more problems after that.

We sure did have a great time with Christy, Corey, and Taylor!! Caroline was especially fond of the baby and really wants me to have one for her to take care of! Thanks for meeting with us and we can't wait to see you guys again!

Christmas part 2

Christmas day the kids actually slept the latest they have slept in months! They didn't wake up until about 8am! Justin was already up and had his coffee made before the kids got up. Above is the kids in their new jammies they got from their cousins. Below is shock on Caroline's sleepy face as she sees Santa left her her own gum and chap stick!!
Will also loved the gum Santa left and the Woody toy. You can see how dark it is outside even though it is a little after 8. If it was light you would see our tree sitting right outside that door!
Will getting his first look at his stocking!
Caroline's first look at what she got.
We had a great day just the 4 of us. We took turns opening presents and the kids had a blast playing with thier toys as they opened them. Miles loved all the wrapping paper and tore some of it into shreds. He also tried to sit in everyone's lap. Caroline making a funny face with her new hat on.

Will as bubble wrap boy! He loves bubble wrap and we have seen a lot of it the last few weeks as people mailed their gifts to us.
So this is what Justin and I got the kids. Their very own bounce house/moon bounce! We thought they might need some way to get their energy out during the cold months here. They LOVE it! They have learned how to turn it on and off and will jump until they break out into a sweat!
As you can see miles would love to get in there and terrorize the kids but he hasn't figured that out yet and we don't want to let him in there and bite things.What a great Christmas morning! Then after naps we were invited to a friend's mom's house to have dinner. It was more like the Crissman side of things as there were about 40-45 people there! Caroline and the friends daughter (Madelyn) were the only girl kids. The other 8 or so kids were all boys. Will had a blast! He thought it was great to have so many boys to run around with. What a great way to end Christmas day! Thanks Krosts for having us!

We travel tomorrow to Dayton, OH for the day to visit with neighbors from LA. Can't wait to see them since we haven't seen them in 3 years! Then Monday we get to pick Dad and Mimi up at the airport and have them visit for a few days. Can't wait to see you Dad and Mimi!!

Ice skating!

So on Friday after naps we thought it would be fun to take the kids ice skating. They have never been on skates and you all saw the video of Caroline roller skating! I haven't been on ice skates in about 8 years and my mom hasn't since we were little girls. Papa had never been skating and didn't think this was the right time so he was the camera man!
Caroline could keep her balance and shuffle along by herself. Will couldn't stand by himself at all! I was tired after holding him up. He kept telling me, "I want to go faster mommy!" Below are some videos that I took while I was skating. I think was stayed about 30-45 minutes and I didn't feel bad about leaving because it was all free! Even the skate rentals! Usually you pay $3 to get in and $3 for skates but since I work at the community center and we are members the guy didn't charge me.






Merry Christmas eve everyone!

Christmas part 1

Ok, so this isn't Christmas but this is what it looks like for story time at night. Miles is the new addition to our night time story time. He makes it up stairs a couple nights a week now.
My mom and Pete came last Wednesday and we had a blast having them visit. The above picture is Will helping measure flour for sugar cookies.
Below is Nana helping the kids do an art project while Will cut open the banana choc. chip muffins to help himself!
The craft was fabric puff paint used to draw snowflakes (or what ever) on wax paper. Once it dries you peel it off and it sticks on windows! We ate lots of wonderful food, made 2 kinds of cookies, and went ice skating (pictures to come!). Then we had Christmas early and opened gifts form Nana and Papa on Saturday. What fun! Thanks for coming!

OHHHHH Christmas tree

Oh Christmas tree, oh Christmas tree, how lovely are your branches. Oh Christmas tree, oh Christmas tree why do you have sharp needles, the many lights and glitter sparkles, are so so pretty. Oh Christmas tree, oh Christmas tree you ended up on my deck!

Our tree is now on our back porch! My mom is allergic to Christmas trees (pines) and he face was swelling, red and itchy after 12 hours here! I have a sinus infection and Will's cold turned into an ear infection. We are both on antibiotics now. So to keep my mom from getting pneumonia we undressed most of the ornaments and put the tree outside. It is now sitting outside the den sliding glass door under the covered part of our deck. Not sure yet if we will pull it back inside. But for now my sinus headache is gone, Will is feeling better, and my mom's face is not red and she has a nose again after the swelling went down! I said in an earlier post that I wouldn't get this kinda tree again and this just reaffirms that!

So now we have a pile of presents adn a tree outside! Merry Christmas! It is a good thing that the kids understand that that isn't what makes Christmas. Neither one was upset that the tree was outside! Caroline is more excited that she gets to be Mary in the church's Christmas pageant!

Getting ready!

Here are some more pictures of us getting ready for Christmas. We went 2 weekends ago up to Birch Run/Frankenmuth to the outlets there to do our Christmas shopping and also went to Bronner's, the world's largest Christmas store. It was about an hour and a half drive and the further we went north the colder and snowier it got. It snowed on and off all day while we were at the outlets! Then we spent the night at a hotel. The pool pictures were at the hotel pool.
You can tell by the way Justin was standing that the water was FREEZING! Will did his cannon ball and was scrambling up Justin to get out of the water!
My 2 Santa helpers!
The kids love to rearrange the Nativity scene. It is their favorite thing to play with!
Here they are helping daddy string popcorn and cranberries!

Our tree with pictures

Will helping Justin adjust the tree.
Since this picture was taken we have added more ornaments but you can see how the balls are grouped by color. Particularly the blue ones!
Below is the tree in all it's glory! A little blurry but you can tell it is gorgeous!


We are in full Holiday mode! The tree is up! It is mostly decorated and the house is as decorated as it is going to get! ALL our Christmas shopping is done and now that just leaves wrapping and mailing out all the gifts. My mom and Pete are coming in 4 days and we will get to start the gift opening early! Then after Christmas Dad and Marie are coming so more presents and the fun of extending Christmas even more!
Our tree is a beautiful very full and fat blue spruce. I do have pictures just not uploaded yet. Justin and I strung popcorn and cranberries and that went on the top half of the tree, so the dog wouldn't eat it. The homemade ornaments also went on the top half, same reason as before. And the glass balls are on the bottom half grouped by color! The dog also takes these off the tree so the tree looks different every day! I should also mention that I only put the lights deep inside the tree. Why, so when the dog and the kids decide to re-decorate the lights don't get pulled off too!
I didn't start at the begining so let me go back to when we went to get the tree. It was dark and cold so we went to the Catholic church down the street( not way out of town to a tree farm) to get out tree. I of course want a big fat full tall tree. Justin thinks more practical and doesn't want to pay big bucks for a huge tree just to have to cut half of the bottom off to get it to fit in the house! It didn't take long to find the perfect tree, but when I called Justin over to look at it it was about 10 feet tall so won't fit. I have to have Justin with me so I can measure the tree against him to see how tall it is. We finally pick the perfect 7 foot full, fat tree! The guys at the lot tie it to the top and we head home. Justin is taking the tree off the van and bringing it inside and he asks me for gloves. What? You need gloves for a Christmas tree? He said it was hurting his hands! So I give him my garden gloves! We didn't put any lights or ornaments on it that night. I had to buy more lights for this full fat tree! So when I started to put the lights on I realized just why Justin was wanting gloves. The tree, my prefect, full, fat tree has needles that are just as sharp as real needles! I had to wear gloves just to put the lights on the tree! I did tell Justin I was sorry for giving him a hard time about needing gloves. But learned my lesson and won't buy this type of tree again!

Duck pin bowling

For those of you wondering what Duck Pin Bowling is I have some pictures! There were duck pin bowling lanes in our "Y" before they changed it into the pilates studio. It is almost the same as regular bowling. The balls and pins are smaller and you get 3 tries instead of 2. I needed much more than that!! You can see the size of the balls in the picture above. It made it much easier for the kids.
Caroline and Grace had a blast! Caroline looks so small compared to Grace.
Will thought he would help Susan. Actually Susan was beating the pants off all the adults and I secretly dispatched my little helper! It didn't work as she beat me by more than 50 if I am remembering correctly. In other words, I was horrible!
Lots of fun and Laura we will have to find a place and take all the kids!!