My Exciting New Year's Eve...

Last night Meggan had her friend, Cami, stay the night. They had lots of fun, but I didn't even think to get a single picture! :( They spent a while trying to pass some of the worlds on Mario Bros. on the Wii, but since Meggan is literally playing for the first time ever, she's not all that great at it. She also gets VERY frustrated when she dies over and over and over...

Today we decided to try our hand at roller skating. It sounded like something fun, and it was something we don't do every day that Meggan could enjoy while on her break from school still. We had lots of fun!

Meggan and Cami skating! Sorry it's so dark, but it was during the "couples" skate. :)

Tonight for New Year's Eve, I have absolutely no plans. My mom said to come down to her house and we'd put the kids to bed there and watch a movie, but that just didn't sound enticing to me. It was also 7:00 or so by the time we were chatting, and it just didn't seem worth the trouble to pack all the stuff up to go and then drive down there just to put them to bed and watch a movie (if I even made it through the whole thing, that is). So we stayed put, and just enjoyed a laid-back night at home.

Meggan mentioned we still needed to try the Easy Bake. She got it from our friends across the street for Christmas, and she's been wanting to check it out for the past 2 weeks or so! It was pretty fun! It didn't even taste TERRIBLE. It wasn't good necessarily, but it wasn't awful. The kids both ate it like it was going out of style! :)

Before...

and after!

Hard at work frosting the cake! It's pink, so I'm not sure what happened to the color there.

She even let Jordan try a little bit!

I just realized that I took a picture of the final "masterpiece" with my phone but not with my camera. Bummer! It was complete with flower-shaped confetti sprinkles! Actually pretty cute!

The kids are both fast asleep, and I think I'm going to go try my hand at some Mario Bros. myself! I'm thinking I probably won't even be awake to see the ball drop on TV, but that's okay too.

Here's wishing everyone a Happy New Year! We're more than happy to see 2009 come to an end around here and be put behind us - ready for better things to come in 2010!!!

New Haircut!

So I decided it was time for some pampering today after a STRESSFUL holiday season (both through Thanksgiving and continuing through Christmas) and went for a 1-hour massage! It was absolutely wonderful! Then I decided it was time for a new haircut as well and had them cut, layer, and style it! Straightened is something different!

I need to do this more often, that's for sure! I think next time will be pedicure calling my name...

The new do (don't mind the no makeup - it wasn't worth it today)!

Christmas was a Whirlwind!

No play-by-play for this post, as it would take entirely too long to get through the excitement, busyness, and fun of the past 2 weeks or so around here. Just enough to say that we enjoyed the company of Jason's side of the family the weekend before Christmas and then my side of the family the week/weekend of Christmas! We even made the 10-hour trek down to southwest Missouri and visited my grandma for her 90th birthday the day after Christmas! It was surely a quick trip (leaving Saturday morning and coming home Monday), but we're glad that we went and it was nice to see everyone there!

We're back home and quite content with getting back into the swing of things here. I have to finish a job up tonight and get it turned in for cutoff tomorrow, and then the rest of the week is going to be for relaxing and some fun! I think we're going to try and hit the Children's Museum and also try to hit the skating rink (roller skating, that is) yet this week! I do want to enjoy a little bit of time with the kids before this Christmas break from school is over. :)

I will let the pictures tell the rest. Enjoy!


The kids both helping me clean the house up a little bit before Jason's family came to visit!

I guess it tuckered him out... They were settling down watching Scooby Doo, and I look over and he's completely passed out on Meggan's shoulder! They are so cute! :)

Meggan, Randie, Jordan, and Jess all ready to dig into their goodies!

Jordan, Meggan, Randie, and Jess in their jammies from Jason's mom and dad! (Don't ask what the poses/faces are for...)

Jason's mom and dad took off Monday morning, and then Crystal, Jesse, and Jackson got here late Monday night. They didn't stay at our house, but they were here to visit all! Then Matt, Julia, Lily & Olivia got here late Wednesday night and we were able to enjoy a couple days with them! It was a really nice time with the whole crew here!!!

The whole family after Christmas Eve service!

Meggan in her dress she picked out (complete with a dolly dress to match, which was her favorite part)!


Jordan not exactly as excited about his outfit...


Lucas, Olivia, Lily, Meggan, Jackson, and Jordan in front of the Christmas tree at Dawn & Jer's house. Crystal bought them all these matching outfits, and so we dressed them up and tried our luck at catching them all in a picture at the same time!

And one of just Meggan and Jordan for fun! It turned out SOOO cute! (Is it just me or do they both look REALLY grown up in this picture?)

Hoping that everyone had a Merry Christmas and wishing everyone a Happy New Year! It's hard to believe that 2010 is just around the corner. Here's to a wonderful, peaceful new year full of hope and love!

Winter is upon us...

It's 10:00 at night and the winds are slamming against the side of the house and the windows. I guess winter has officially made its way here. The snowflakes were falling outside when I was heading to and from a meeting tonight. I am just happy that we're not in Iowa - apparently it's the literal eye of the storm. Ugh!

It's cold and the heat seems to be running nonstop. But at least we have heat, and a house, and a garage so I don't have to warm my car up and defrost it in the morning, and each other!

Here are a few pictures of the kids, mostly just being silly! They are quite the pair, I tell you.

Cuddling up to watch some cartoon that was on that night!

Playing school (yes, he had to raise his hand so she could call on him)!

He loves these snowman pajamas that I got from a co-worker whose grandsons grew out of them!

ICE CREAM FACES! :)

Jordan and Lucas playing on Monday night (they are so hilarious together)! Don't worry - I wasn't too far away, just in case he started to topple backwards because of the bumpy ride. :)

Today, December 9, is a day I will always remember. Specifically December 9, 1995, 14 years ago. That was my first date with Jason. It was to a movie in Grundy Center (no, I don't remember what movie it was). I thought that I was the luckiest girl in the world! Oh, how the years have flown by...

Hoping this has been a good week so far for everyone! Try to stay warm and safe!

As promised, here are a few pictures of our last 3-4 weeks or so!

Meggan at her first Indiana Pacers game with Daddy!

The kids with Jason's grandma and grandpa at their 60th wedding anniversary open house!

Meggan and Crystal with their hair-dos (Crystal styled her hair on Sunday morning before we went to church)!


Meggan and Sara right after their Thanksgiving play last Wednesday morning! It was so cute, and they loved being a pilgrim woman and an Indian woman!


Jordan in front of the Christmas tree, trying to do the "rockstar" fingers that Meggan was showing him! Hey ... he's cute at least! :)

It's been a whirlwind month, and it probably won't get much better as the Christmas season is now upon us...

Hope all is well with everyone! Here's to a new month and some holiday cheer!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

I know it's been QUITE a while since the last time I got around to posting to the blog ... all I can say is that it's been a L . O . N . G . last few weeks around here. Not something that can be blogged about, at least not yet, but that's my story for being absent from the blog and I'm sticking to it!

I will post again very soon (I PROMISE) with some recent pictures of the kids and happenings in our lives here, but for today it's just a quick post to say Happy Thanksgiving to all! I pray everyone had much to be thankful for and held their loved ones extra tight this year! You just can't ever know when it will all be ripped away in the blink of an eye.

And happy Black Friday too...

Fun in Jammies!

Last night when it was time for the kids to put on their PJs, I remembered all these great pajamas that a co-worker had given me that were Jordan's size. It was still warm outside when she gave them to us, and so I had forgotten about them until now! There are so many CUTE, WARM jammies that it will be fun for Jordan to feel like he got a bunch of new ones!!! Last night we pulled out the ones with a train on it... He was on Cloud 9!!!

What a little stinker ... and a ham!!!

(Oh, but then the flip side of that is trying to get him into his clothes and OUT of his choo-choo jammies this morning ... that was fun, let me tell ya!)

Meggan put on her Tinkerbell nightgown, as she's been hooked on the movie Return to Neverland this week! We checked it out from the library, and she really just loves that movie! I just love that you can keep it for 3 WEEKS before you have to return it!

She's such a sweetie!

Why do we even have toys? They spent a good 10-15 minutes just chasing each other around from room to room with this little string of my old steno machine paper... The only thing that stopped them at that point was that I made them go to bed!

It's been a pretty good week here! Jason wrapped up his softball leagues this week, so that will free up a couple nights as far as that. He was playing on Friday and Sunday evenings, so it seemed to take up quite a bit of time! They had a lot of fun in both leagues, and I'm sure he will really miss it from now until the spring when they are all planning on playing in a spring league together. I may join in on that one, but we'll just wait and see for sure.

Just looking forward to the weekend now, even though Jason has to work tomorrow morning. Hope all is well for everyone!

Trick or Treating!

I think we are trick or treated out at our house! Friday evening we went to my mom's work (she works at an assisted living center) and made the rounds to the residents' apartments, and the kids collected a lot of treats! Then yesterday we had a trunk or treat in our church parking lot, which is always fun (and easy) as the kids just get to walk around the parking lot from car to car and collect even more treats! Last night we made it through the entire upper half of our neighborhood, but just didn't think the kids would make it the rest of the way. We stopped at the cul-de-sac behind our house, where they were hosting a fall festival, complete with tickets and games and prizes galore! Meggan got pretty much an entire grocery bag full of little happy meal types of toys from there, and was then pretty much frozen solid and we headed home. Jordan only played one or two games there and won a couple cars, but then he was done for the night and went home with Daddy!

Friday night at Grandma's work!

Saturday afternoon in the church parking lot, along with Maggie and Faith (a/k/a Super Girl and Butterfly)!

All in all, it was a fun Halloween this year! Meggan was enjoying herself with all her friends and dressed up in her cowgirl outfit. Jordan was RUNNING around the whole neighborhood just trying to keep up with all the big kids in his Woody outfit from Toy Story. Lucas only made it halfway through the 'hood with us and then was too chilly and they went home, but he was having fun while it lasted in his Buzz Lightyear costume. Too cute!!!

The whole crew (minus Ellie as a dragon, who didn't want to be in the picture, and also minus Ashlynn as a pumpkin, who didn't get into the picture either) before heading out in the neighborhood: Lucas as Buzz Lightyear, Brady as Darth Vader, Will as Luke Skywalker, Camryn as a vampire (I think), Michael as something to do with Choppers, Katie as a gymnast, Meggan as a cowgirl, and Jordan as Woody). What a group!

Hope it's a great week for everyone!

One of Those Days...

Ever had one of THOSE days?!?! Apparently, Jordan was having one of those nights at least this evening. He had a 10-minute meltdown just because he decided to drop my jacket off the back of the chair onto the kitchen floor and I told him he had to pick it up. He said no, I counted, he said no, I swatted his booty with the "paddle", and he cried and he cried and he cried. REALLY? It wasn't like I swatted him hard - he was just that emotional/tired/not feeling good.

Doesn't he just look pitiful?!?!


By the way, he did pick up the jacket after all that... ;)


At least his trains can still make him happy! That is, as long as he could sit in my lap and we could drive them together. I can't say this upsets me - I kind of like it when he actually wants to sit in my lap for a little while!


Sitting on my lap on the floor drinking his V8 juice!



And sitting on my lap on the floor playing trains!

Then he decided since Meggan wasn't here that he could actually have free reign on the piano, and he played that for a little while. Cute!

Looks like a little Mozart, huh? (I doubt it very much if Daddy would really let that happen even. Not that playing the piano is a bad thing ... I just don't think Jason would really want that to be Jordan's forte.)


Meggan is staying the night at Sara's house tonight - and she could NOT have been more excited about that! Sara's dad and big brother, Reed, are away for a guys' weekend while our township schools are on fall break (which means you got Thursday and Friday off of school) over here in Indy, so it's just the girls tonight! I'm sure they're having an absolute BALL!!! All I know is that Wendy had taken a sheet of VERY yummy-looking cookies out of the oven just before I left... :)

Jason has softball games tonight, the last of which begins at 10:30. Yikes!

Jordan is in bed now and I'm going to take to a nice hot bath, I think! Happy weekend to all!

Whew!

It was quite a whirlwind weekend we had last weekend! The Niehaus side of the family came to visit from Iowa to celebrate Jordan's and Lucas's birthday. Jordan's is in late September and Lucas's is in mid-November, so they split it down the middle and just made one trip in October to have a little birthday "party" for the boys since they couldn't all make both trips to celebrate both birthdays!

Crystal decorated them each a little cake - she's so creative!

We had a fun time, albeit VERY busy! My mom now has 6 grandchildren, and Meggan is the oldest one at 5 years and about 3 months old and Jackson is now about 4 1/2 months old!!! It's quite busy and very entertaining, but it can leave you pretty exhausted. By the time you get the dishes and kitchen cleaned up from one meal (with a few kid-related interruptions in the middle of it all, I'm sure), it seems as though it's time to start preparing for the next meal...

We just hung out all day on Saturday at Dawn & Jer's house, and then Sunday we headed out to Eagle Creek and enjoyed the beautiful fall afternoon weather! It was really nice out there, and the kids really seemed to enjoy it (after Jordan's pretty rough start, that is). We got there right at about 1:30 after Jordan fell asleep in the car for about a 30-minute nap, so it was just kind of bad timing for him. But he ended up coming out of it and enjoying the playground a lot and ready and raring to go! In fact, we're going to head down to Brown County to enjoy the outdoors there this coming Saturday because we enjoyed it so much! Meggan was truly thrilled and loved every minute of it with her hiking stick that my brother, Matt, gave her and Lily!

The fam on the trail!

Jump to Daddy, Jordan (one of his favorite things to do)!

WAY up high!!!

Family self-portrait (thank goodness Jason has nice long arms)!

It really was a lot of fun, and I'm glad they could all come out at the same time and enjoy all the cousins together (I'm just now thinking I don't think we even got a picture of them all together, and that's a big bummer)! Looking forward to the busyness of Christmastime already! :)

It's been a busy week so far as well. Meggan had gymnastics on Monday, as usual, but no choir practice this week because of fall break. She had her first parent-teacher conference on Tuesday, and she's doing GREAT in kindergarten! She has adjusted really well to school and the bus, etc. I'm so happy that she just seems so happy! She gets up in the mornings, puts her clothes on, eats a little for breakfast, and jumps on the bus... It warms my heart to see the grown-up little girl she's becoming! :)

Jordan was home with Jason on Monday and with me on Tuesday and Wednesday, as Nancy, our baby-sitter, was off on a little vacation with her family. I ended up taking him to the doctor on Tuesday afternoon, and we're back on the albuterol inhaler breathing treatments and 5 days of oral steroids and also an antibiotic. Poor little guy! He just can't catch a break when it comes to that darn tight cough. At least we had a nice break from all that junk in the spring/summer (since back in March or so right after he got his ear tubes). Unfortunately, I guess it wasn't meant to last ... 'tis the season; right?!?!

Hope it's been a great week for all!

Pumpkins, Pumpkins, and More Pumpkins!

This past Sunday after we got done at church, we headed out to the pumpkin patch with our friends, the Johnsons, and also some friends of theirs. It was a lot of fun! They have rides there (of course they do), so we had to buy tickets for a few rides. We headed out on the tractor ride to pick out a big pumpkin to carve, and then spent the rest of the time just having fun and using up our ride tickets! We had to get an elephant ear before we left too ... YUM!

The whole fam on the hayride! Yes, Jason and I really do exist (we just don't make it into many pictures on the blog)!!!

"Wait for me, Sissy!"

One of the little rides, the train (Meggan wanted to be the caboose). Of course, the whole path was gravel and it was pretty bumpy, so Jordan was pretty scared right after it started but then seemed to enjoy the rest of it!

So last night we finally got around to carving our big pumpkin. Jason let the kids help him use the huge carving knife (YIKES!) and then they had fun digging out the seeds and gunk on the inside. Then it was time to make a face for it, and Meggan chose triangle eyes and a square nose. After that was all carved out, Meggan colored on the finishing touches ... didn't she do a great job with the eyelashes and the vertical lines?!?! :)

Digging out he gunk! Jordan did not like it at first, but he finally dug in there and got all gooey! By the way, we had to tell Meggan that she couldn't go without a shirt like Jordan...

The finished product! Isn't she beautiful?!?! She wasn't a "girl" pumpkin until Meggan got done with her decorating and made her some girlish eyelashes, as she explained to us...

It's been a good week here, nothing much to report. We had the normal Monday night gymnastics and Wednesday night choir practice for Meggan, but that's about it. Looking forward to the weekend, as my family will be here from Iowa to hang out and celebrate Jordan and Lucas's birthdays together. Jordan's is in September and Lucas's is in November, so they're splitting in in the middle and coming in October to celebrate them both together!

Speaking of that, better get this job finished up...

Fun!

Last night Jason took Meggan to the church for choir practice, so it was Jordan and me home to hang out for a while! I finished up loading the dishes while he played with his trains for a while (what else?) and then I asked him if he wanted to go see the ducks (pronounced duh if you know Jordan) and feed them some bread. Of course, he nodded (just about the only way he answers in the affirmative, unless you really press him to say yes and he will finally mutter what sounds like yeah). Off we went to the pond in our neighborhood and proceeded to give the ducks a couple hotdog buns we had that were ready to be eaten. It was a lot of fun, and he loved it! He has been talking about the ducks every time we drive by the pond for a couple weeks now, so this was a big deal to him.

Tonight Jason went to dinner and for some bowling with the branch staff, and so it was just the kids and I hanging out at home. Since it has been raining here ALL DAY, we were stuck with indoor stuff. That's fine too, but I know Meggan was bummed that we couldn't go feed the ducks while she could go... We finished a couple homework activities that Meggan had left to do and then they were writing & "coloring" & building with blocks & playing on the computer (Starfall is a GREAT educational site if you're looking for one). It was nice and relaxing ... and fun!

Here are a few pictures from the last couple days of fun!!!

Jordan "coloring" on one of Meggan's starfall.com printouts!

If you're ever looking for Meggan, she is probably at the computer on starfall.com! She can't get enough of this site! They do it at school too during computer lab and such, so she's practically got it memorized, I think... :)

Jordan pointing as the ducks made their way over (they were all the way across the pond until they saw us over there)!

The ducks actually came pretty darn close to us! There was even a couple times when one of them was at the very edge (to the side of us, not directly in front of us) and standing on land walking!

Waving bye-bye to the ducks!

Hope everyone is having a great week!