Let is Snot...no no no

As the snow is coming down today...

There is lots of snot going around this place today. The kids are all goopy and lovely (the poor girls this morning, they couldn't get their eyes open), and so are Scott and I although Scott got ahead of the game and started taking antibiotics Christmas night and he fended off most of it before it started. It was a triple take at the doctors office today for the kids as they all got a prescription for the pink stuff. Hopefully they'll be dried up by tomorrow.

Because of the colds we have really been laying low this vacation. I had grand plans to go to the movies, and go ice skating, to the DIA etc. but so far all we got was a trip to the pediatrician. Maybe next week, although next week we'll have to go it alone as Scott is back to work... Oh well. Here are some more pictures...

Got Frosting?

Avery and Sophie and Quinn and his Popcorn Maker from Santa... Oh what fun! GG and Quinn

Aunt Pat and Quinn in their Christmas Sweaters.

Christmas Craziness

Homemade Cookies- and Milk for Santa...

Don't forget to leave some food for Rudolf

Really Really nice gifts from Grammy and Grampy!

The German Boys

A Christmas Eve Dance with Uncle Andy Say Cheese Brittany, Avery and Clarice!

Well Christmas is over for yet another year, and the house is filled with lots and lots and lots of cardboard and plastic. The kids got a ton of stuff, and we had a lot of fun with family over the last few days. Unfortunately I have trouble at Christmas getting pictures that I am happy with, just too much going on usually, but I did get a few this year, despite the colds that are afflicting us. It's off to work for me in a few minutes, and a huge mess to clean up after I get home I'm sure. I am already ready for things to get back to routine! Hope you all had a very Merry Christmas!

Sunday School Program

Tonight was the annual Sunday School Christmas Program, always a source of stress or humor for parents I think depending on which way you want to look at things. Overall the kids did pretty well I guess, although they did much better at the practices. It has been a long day. Oh well it was a nice service anyway. Avery did fabulous, and Quinn did pretty well except for having "itchy pants" all night, and Kaleigh well... she showed some restraint, let's put it that way. She and one of the kids next to her got a little crazy, but after a bit she stepped away from it. Good for her, but a little too late I think.
Here is Quinn and his Charlie Brown rendition of Sleep Now Holy Baby: I really think he was channeling Charlie for this one...

Snow Day Fun! Happy Birthday Kaleigh!

Has everyone dug themselves out yet? Well except for you Amanda! I woke up this morning around 6am and looked outside to find about 7 inches on the ground and the snow still coming down. It was amazingly quiet and beautiful. The plows had not been by yet and the neighbors all still had their Christmas lights on and even though it was still dark, it was really bright outside. After about a half hour or so I could hear my neighbors outside trying to shovel their cars out of the driveway. The one finally got his out, and tried to make it up the hill that is still at that point unplowed, and ended up going in reverse down the hill in his Prius. After the sun came up Scott donned his Carharts and fired up the snowblower to dig out the van for church and Sunday school. The kids were so excited to see all the snow and really wanted to get out there first thing. I told them they'd have to wait until after church, but they had fun watching Dad out the window. After Sunday school and church, we braved the roads, which really weren't too bad (if you are used to driving in the snow) and headed to JoAnn Etc. and Target to get card supplies and new gloves for the kids. I told Kaleigh that since it was her birthday she could pick something special from Target. She stated without hesitation, "I want a candy cane." So we picked up a box of $1.66 Mickey Mouse candy canes and she was as happy as could be. That girl is easy that's for sure! When we got home it was time to head outside, so the kids got on their "Randy" suits and were in high heaven tromping through the snow and making snow angels. When that was done we got out the snowman kit and put together "Snowy" the snowman. Quinn couldn't get enough of that. Avery had about 10 minutes outside before she'd had enough, but Quinn and Kaleigh I had to drag in after about an hour and a half and frozen mittens. No matter what you think about Michigan winters, you've got to love a snow day like that.

It's a Small World After All

Once again it has been a busy week, full of work, Sunday school practices, school, more work, dentist appts. (that's a blog for another day) and more school... with a little time in there for Christmas shopping and blogging, and photography. Thanks to Bob as Mom stated in her blog, we had our family pictures done on Saturday in the sled that Aunt Mary generously bought for Emily and I. The pictures turned out great and I will wait to reveal the really good ones in the Christmas cards (hopefully they will be here soon so I can send them out). This is one of Scott and I which is also a good one, but didn't make the cut for the card, so I'll share it here.

In other news, it turns out once again that we live in a very small world. I was talking with one of my new coworkers last night and turns out she was married at St. Johns and her mother still goes there. She knows most of you Cooks, Bordts and Radamachers (sorry if I got the spelling wrong), as well as Kryzkes, Otters etc. etc. Her name is Gwen and her maiden name was McLaughlin her moms name is Hilda (I think). I told her to look us up on the blog and say hi, but she said she hasn't used her computer in some time, so we'll see. It was fun getting to talk to her last night while it was slow at work. Anyway, it's a small world after all. Have a nice Advent Evening!

Busy Bears

Today was another busy day, what else is new right? After Quinn did his homework and got on the bus and off to school the girls and I loaded up and headed to Chelsea for Averys field trip to the Teddy Bear Factory. We got a tour of the factory and afterwards the kids all got to stuff bears to take home. It was a pretty cool trip, it is nice to see that they manufacture everything right there, and ship them around the world. The kids enjoyed it too, and especially liked getting to name their bears and pick out outfits for them. I think the company liked it too, as you have a captured market of buyers. Avery picked a black bear to stuff and named it Belle and picked out a 50's poodle skirt and cardigan for it... I neglected to get a picture of the bear after it was all dressed up, I'll have to do that tomorrow... Kaleigh picked the brown bear and named him Handy... she was happy to let him go undressed which was fine by me and my bank account! Both girls decided that they ought to get Quinn something so they decided on a dog with an orange hoodie with Quinn printed on it, which they will give him for Christmas if they can keep a secret that long. Avery just about blew it when he got off the bus and said, "hey Quinn... you know what we got you?" before I stopped her. We'll see if they forget about it... hopefully they will.




The rest of the day was spent shoveling the neglected driveway from this morning, making dinner, and heading to church. I always liked Advent, and still do. Hope you all had a great evening!

Here Comes Santa Claus...

Since Scott was up north this evening and I was trying to entertain the troops, we decided to head uptown and visit the big guy. But orginally the plan was the kids and I were going to head to Target to get out of the house and potentially get some Christmas shopping done, we headed back when Kaleigh fell asleep in the car, and Emily had mentioned she was taking the girls up to see Santa tonight. So I asked the kids what they'd rather do, and big surprise, they chose a visit with Santa. Quinn was SO EXCITED! He made me go home and get his lists (they've been working on their writing at school and coming up with lists each day) a popcorn maker "a real one", was the new addition today...who knew?

The kids chatted all the way back to the house and wanted to know how Santa got to town, and if he would be stopping by our house to check it out before Christmas, along with, how does his sleigh fly, and various other questions. I told them they would have to ask Santa when they got there. To which Quinn replied, "Ok, but I might be a little bit shy." So anyway, when we arrived, we were the only ones there and the kids really got into it this year. Quinn went right up and gave him his lists, and they chatted for a bit, before Avery piped in about there being "ants in your beard" I have no idea where this came from, but she seemed to think it was a pretty funny joke. She was a little shy to sit on his lap, but Kaleigh had no problems, and we convinced Avery to sit with him if I would. So Quinn got a picture of us girls with Santa. After our visit Ella, Soph and Lucy showed up, and once again the middle child had some issue with getting too close, but the others no problem. After they were done, Quinn had a few more questions he needed answered and was mighty surprised to find out that Santa knew that his Grampy was a minister and that we all would be at church on Christmas. The look on his face was hilarious...man Santa does know alot! That Santa just happens to look alot like my old boss from the Medicine Shoppe. :)

Whirlwind

A whirlwind weekend it was, cleaning and getting ready for Kaleighs 3rd birthday and a houseful of people as well as a parade. I unfortunately didn't get too many pictures, one because it was just too crazy and two my camera batteries died just as the parade was getting under way. Our house was jam packed after with party goers and church members coming in to warm up after being out in the cold for at least an hour and a half. It was a little nuts, but I hope everyone had an ok time! It was interesting to say the least, and Kaleigh had quite the chorus of people to sing her happy birthday which was fun.

Quinn had his Pow Wow at school too and here are some pictures... he was really proud of his Kachina doll that he made, and also the corn that he planted amongst many other native american things he brought home. They really go all out with this, and the kids really do learn alot! Next week starts the holiday festivities in the classroom, look out! Hope you all had a great week!

Ready or Not, here Comes a New Week!

The Family Room aka Kids Room

Dining Room

Well as you can see, the house is now officially decorated! Always at least a two day task, especially with the kids wanting to help with every part of it. They did do a pretty good job of placing ornaments on the tree this year. And as much as I like to do it, I'm glad it's done.

As for Thanksgiving, it was great and we had two wonderful meals thanks to Mom and Dad and Jack and Betty. It was nice to see everyone and get a little bit of visiting in. The kids loved playing with all of their cousins, and had fun getting a couple games of hide in seek in with Matt!

Ready or Not here they come!!!

At Scotts Dad's the kids ate and ate and ate some more. I forgot to bring my camera in, thus the lack of pictures, but Aunt Pam brought a 12" high (literally) chocolate cake from Pipers in Flat Rock, which was really like a big brownie with 4 layers of frosting. It was VERY rich. Kaleigh ate an entire piece, which was enough for about 6 people. And as if that wasn't enough, Betty brought out the Halloween candy and was giving it out to all the kids every time they wanted, Scott was about to go nuts! And for good reason, because on the way home Kaleigh burped for about a half hour and then started crying and crying, after which she barfed up 4 helpings of that chocolate cake. So it was a late night trip to Meijers in Flint for us to buy some Lysol and gear to clean things up... all while the two older kids were in the back holding their noses and complaining about how bad it smelled in the van. After that, the trip went smoothly and Kaleigh was back to being her normal self. Next time we're going to have to get a little more serious with Grandma I think! :), Either that or make her drive them home.

Friday we spent getting the decorations out and I braved a trip to Toys R Us, JoAnns, and Target for a few of the things on our list this year. It wasn't too bad really I was surprised, but of course it was 10:30am and not 4am. Friday evening we headed out to get the real Christmas tree, normally I wouldn't put it up so early, but with everything going on it was the only chance I was going to get. Hope you all had a great thanksgiving! Have a great start to the week!

Happy Thanksgiving

Things I'm thankful for:

An opportunity to go to church this evening (and kids who were cooperative in an evening service).

Cranberries flying across the kitchen while the kids were helping make tomorrows relish... don't forget the lid!! Really wish I would have gotten the camera out for that.

Apple pie in the oven.

Trees Return (who knew he was up above the kitchen cupboards that whole time)!

Footed and velvety jammies and kids willing to model them for a picture.

Scotts thought that slushies would be a good dessert.

Faith, Family and Friends...

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!!

A Cover Girl she is Not

I knew there was a reason I left the makeup bag out tonight... I needed some blogging material. Mascara is for the eyes not the cheeks! Lesson learned... don't leave the makeup bag anywhere future covergirls can get in it. You can tell Avery was not involved, at least she knows that you only use lipstick on your cheeks and lips. Easy, Breezy... time to Clean Up... KaleighGirl.

Who you gonna call? Ghostbusters or Rudolph?

Is it the Staypuff Marshmallow Man or Santa Claus's little sister?

Fun in the tub this evening Kaleigh style.

Avery got in on some of the action too, but she would rather be in rinse mode.

Rambling and Silliness

Ok, so my computer hasn't wanted to cooperate with me all week, so that's my excuse. All of my programs have seemed to disappear, they are there but for some reason the file extensions have all turned into .lnk files, whatever that means, and whatever it is, the computer doesn't recognize them. So I give up, we're going to have to bring in the big guns to get it fixed. Meanwhile at least the internet works, and I can upload pictures today.

Once again it's been a busy week (I don't know when it isn't a busy week, and if it wasn't I'd probably get bored), and on top of that my back has been hurting since I did yard work last Thursday, so when I do have two seconds to sit down, I've been taking them. I started training at Hallmark and it is going well, very strange though to be at work and have it be relaxing. I had a business meeting where we hung pictures and placed accessories for clients on top of the usual schedule of helping out in Avery and Quinns classes etc.

Ok, I know I am rambling, I really should stop. If my computer will cooperate I will post pictures of the kids and their Jammie Fest from tonight. I have been trying to get a decent picture of the three of them together (close up) for potential Christmas cards, and that was how this group of pictures started out, but it ended up being just silliness. Rambling and Silliness, I think they go together. Ok really I'll stop!