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!!

Thanksgiving Day

The wednesday before Thanksgiving Justin loaded up the car and we headed to Baltimore to Susan and Graham's apartment. We left our house at 1130 am and got to Susan's at 945 pm!! All went well with the dog and kids traveling. Caroline learned a new phrase and loves to use it anywhere we go. It is a phrase from my childhood..... fanny fatigue!! We sure did have it after all that driving. Then Saturday we did it all over again as Justin had to head out on a work trip Sunday morning. Thursday the boys went out on an errand and ended up at the driving range. Will had a blast and loved being with the boys! The girls finished up some food prep and then around 1 we went to Susan and Graham's friends, the Jensens. They have 2 kids, Grace, 6, and Jack, almost 3. so it was perfect playmates for Caroline and Will.

Caroline loved jumping on this trampoline. Below are all 4 kids, Will, Grace, Jack, and Caroline. Quite a site with all that blonde hair!
Justin, Will, Grace, and Julie Jensen getting ready for dessert!
The chocolate pumpkin cake I made. All from scratch even the icing! It was delicious!!

We didn't end up leaving the Jensens house until 8pm and the kids were exhausted from playing ALL day. Friday Justina dn Graham went to play golf and Susan and I took the kids to her gym and went swimming. Home for lunch and naps then it was off to meet the Jensens again for some duck pin bowling. It was so much fun and I can't wait to do it again! The kids lasted 2 hours!! What a great Thanksgiving! Thanks for having us Susan and Graham! We love you!

Church choir

This is the first time the kids have been allowed to sing in a church choir. The church we currently attend is full of very old people. All the old folks LOVE Will! He isn't afraid to speak out during the children's message and makes the congregation laugh on a regualar basis. Nothing like entertaining them with talk of daddy making pancakes and telling the truth to keep the old folks' hearing aids turned up! Nothing wrong with that but the kids up there singing are the only young ones at the church (besides a few babies). Notice Will is the only boy and the youngest! If you can see his mouth he is singing all the words though. That's what listening to the CD about a million times will do for you! We can't make it to practice since I teach a class that night so the lady in charge made a CD for us.
You will recognize the song even though it has been jazzed up!


This is the 3rd song they sang. This one was harder for Will because he doesn't know his days of the week. Catch-y tune

Hump day

Wednesday. My week is half over already! Last night was another rough one but not with Will this time. Caroline was up coughing for what seemed like most of the night. When she has drainage due to a cold or allergies she gets asthma. so basically she just coughs and coughs and coughs some more. Nothing really stops the cough. She does have an inhaler and she takes one puff in the morning and another at night. so far it is working tonight! I also put a humidifier in her room and gave her some allergy medicine. Anything for a good night sleep for both of us. So with her being up coughing I didn't send her to school today even though she didn't have a fever. So the 3 of us stayed home all day and didn't go anywhere but on a walk around the block! There aren't many days where that happens. It was nice. While out on our morning walk I noticed that our neighbor down the street had big washer and dryer boxes by the curb. So after our walk we got in the car and went down the street to get the boxes! The guy came out of the house so I got to ask if it was alright if I took 2 of the boxes. He gave me a strange look!

So what did we do with the boxes? Colored, painted, played, cut, taped, colored some more, put cars, legos, blankets, towels, and a baby doll bed in them! IT was finally complete when they had me cut a mouse hole!

Overall the boxes provided hours of entertainment for the kids today!! That was the only thing they played with all day!! it truly is the simple things!

So far this week

This picture was taken back in the beginning of October. I think we had just gotten home from church. The kids both just had their yearly check-ups. They are doing well and growing like crazy! Caroline has gone up 3 shoe sizes since May!! Will is in the 50% for height and 75% for weight. I have a hard time believing that since you can see all his ribs! He is solid muscle. Caroline is in the 75% for both height and weight.
I guess that is one reason for such an expensive grocery bill! Saturday Justin noticed that Will was constantly eating and at snack time Will noticed that Caroline wasn't eating and told Justin, "Caroline's not eating!" Like how could she not be eating! If he is always eating now I know when he is 13 it will be worse!!

So I was hoping to have a nice relaxing morning, just hanging out with Will before the week gets too crazy. That was all thrown out the window when he threw-up 3 times by 11pm. So I have washed the bathmats, my duvet, his sheets, mopped the floor and cleaned carpet this morning. He didn't have a fever and after he got up, lunch, dinner, and then dessert he slpet fine. He has been his usual self this morning and all is back to normal. I am not sure what he ate that upset his stomach so but I should have the results of his allergy testing back by the end of the week. I really am hoping that will have some answers and not more questions. Is that too much to ask for? We have been able to keep him from throwing-up for about 3 months, which is good, but I hate that he gets sick. Well, wee will just have to see.

Might be busy!

The last couple of weeks have been pretty busy but, whats new! Almost two Mondays ago Justin left for work but didn't come home. That afternoon he flew to California for work, came home around midnight Wednesday night. Then he left for work before 7 am Thursday morning. Friday he left from work and drove to Chicago to go to a funeral. He got home late Saturday night. Sunday he was supposed to go to the Pistons game with his boss but he asked to stay home and was allowed to do so. Monday was work as usual (meaning 12 hours or so) then Tuesday he left from work to drive 6.5 hours to Indiana for another funeral. He got home at 3 Thursday and was given the day off.
The kids and I have not been as busy since swim lessons ended a week and a half ago. But this week they start again. So my schedule is looking something like this; gymnastics one day, swim lessons 2 day, teaching water aerobics 2 days, cleaning, walking the dog, going to the grocery store, doing laundry, and cooking. I will also exercise just to keep my sanity everyday. Justin is headed out to do another funeral in Chicago Tuesday and then traveling to Virginia at the end of the week.
Next week Caroline has 2 half days of school and is off the rest of the week. We will be leaving around lunch time on Wednesday to drive to Maryland to have Thanksgiving with Susan and Graham! I also have to take the dog to get his stitches out before we leave.

Please for give me if I don't get around to blogging much before Thanksgiving. I don't not blog on purpose I am just tired at the end of the day! I have some pictures that I will try and share this week too.

Why, Why, WHY!!!

Will has been stuck in the "why" stage for quite a while now. I am getting tired of it!! Caroline's why stage didn't last too long if I am remembering correctly. Justin would just answer her why questions with answers full of long drawn out explanations and big words. Then end with you understand right? Most of the time Caroline would nod and say yep! But that stopped the why, why, whys. It isn't so easy with Will. For exmple he tole me he was so tired and I responed with well ok lets go on upstairs for a nap. What did he say...WHY? Are you kidding me! It is that kind of thing that drives me crazy. The why just for why sake.
I have a solution. Now when he asks why I tell him no, ask a better question. Another example; I pointed out a flock of birds flying while we were going to pick up Caroline yesterday. What did Will say, WHY, of course. So I said no, ask a better question. His response, why do birds fly? What a great question!! Much better than why and that is a question I will answer all day!! My answer was that is the way God made them. Which then led to a series of totally unrelated questions but none of them ending with WHY! I do reinforce the good questions and let him know that that is what I like. I'm making progress and I have only been doing this since Saturday. There is hope for me yet!!



I also want to say THANK YOU to all the veterans and to Andrew and Justin!! We love you and appreciate all that you do and sacrifice for your country!

Swim lessons

Every Wednesday for the past eight weeks we have been going to swim lessons. Caroline loves her class and all the previous swim classes she has had. Will on the other hand is just the opposite. Doesn't want to go, doesn't want to get in the water, or for me to leave his sight! He does fine once he gets in the water. It's the getting him in that's the hard part. I have practically thrown him to his teacher!
Caroline started lessons this summer and this video is from her 22nd lesson (we missed 2 over summer vacation). 3 eight class sessions, 3 different teachers, and never more than 4 in her class. This time it was just 2 kids. She obviously is pretty good!


She will be advancing to the next level. I really like the swim program at the community center and plan on taking full advantage of it while we live here. The classes have low numbers and a low cost! Maybe she remembers the movement from when I swam all those laps while I was pregnant with her!!

Trick-or-treat day!

Saturday was a cold one! After dropping almost 20 degrees from the day before I wasn't looking forward to going out in the dark, cold, windy night. But the kids sure were! We ran errands in the morning and generally had a great day. Below is our perfect pumpkin before Justin carved it.After the night was over I got one last shot. Caroline was Jasmine and Will was a baseball player. They were still so happy even if it was late. And no they weren't on a sugar high. They only had 2 pieces.

One of our neighbors invited us to her church's fall festival. There were games, candy, horse rides, and a petting zoo. There was also several moon bounce things, the kids favorite! Some stuff was outside and some inside so that was nice. They got tons more candy than they would have gotten if we had just gone trick or treating. Not sure if that is a good or bad thing!

making peace with a deer (pretty sure it was a deer, it not that is what we told him anyway!)!! The deer started nibbling on his jacket and he thought it was hilarious.
What a great day!!

Presents

Caroline chose to open presents first instead of eat her cake. She absolutely loved everything she got. Thanks everyone!

Pink cake with pink icing!

Lovin it all!!

Here is a video of her trying to skate. I have a longer on of her first attempt but I didn't think it would load so I did this one that is still funny!