Recent Happenings!

I noticed that it's been a couple weeks (or maybe even more, but who's counting?) since I last managed to post on the blog, so this will be a little recap of what we've been doing! It's not like we've been super-busy or anything ... just haven't gotten around to it.

Actually, whenever I think about posting, I never think I have any pictures to post. I went to download the ones I snapped this morning of the kids in their Valentine's shirts to e-mail to Jason's mom and dad, and I had forgotten about the ones from the Children's Museum a couple weekends ago... Man, it stinks getting old! :)

A couple weekends ago we decided to go ahead on Saturday morning and have some fun at the Children's Museum. Our membership was running out at the end of January, so we wanted to squeeze in one last time! We had been meaning to get there so Meggan could see the big Barbie exhibit that opened in mid-December, and we finally got there. She loved it! I think we're going to go ahead and renew our membership - the kids had a BLAST that morning!!!

Meggan in the Barbie fashion show runway (they have a whole bunch of stuff in the back that you can dress up in)!

Jordan enjoying playing in the sand at the PlayScape at the Museum!

Last weekend was, of course, the big SuperBowl game. We were SOOO sad to see our Colts get beat by the Saints, but it isn't always the best team that wins; right?!?! They had a great season, and we still love our Colts! Of course, the kids looked so cute with their Colts gear that day, but my camera battery was dead and I forgot to ask Dawn or Jer to snap a couple with their camera and just e-mail them to me. Oh, well. I'll snap one of them someday soon and post it. From school Meggan got (well, we bought) a jersey-shaped necklace and picked to put #44 on it and then got some jersey-shaped earrings that are dangly and picked to put #18 on them - they're so cute! And they were only $5, so that was a fun little something for her!

Valentine's Day is upon us this weekend, and this afternoon is Meggan's party in her classroom at school and should be lots of fun! Meggan's teacher told them to wear red or something with hearts on it, so I thought she looked pretty cute. We also had to put red on Jordan. I took a picture of each of the kids this morning before heading off to school/sitter/work, and then Jordan decided I needed my picture taken as well. He did a pretty good job (of course, I had to squat down or he would have gotten nothing but my legs and feet in the picture...)!

Meggan looking extra cute!

And Jordan looking extra cute too!

"Say cheese, Mommy!"

Wishing everyone a Happy Valentine's Day! Hug the ones you love extra tight!

Fun with Friends!

This weekend was so much fun! Our friends that moved to Ohio about a year and a half ago made the trip to Indy to hang out with us! Their mom and dad went to a dinner downtown on Friday night, so it was just me and the 5 kids here to get some good playing time in. We ate some pizza and then played the night away.

Meggan and Rachel hard at work doing a little painting!

And their finished products! Meggan's is the bear on the plate and Rachel's is the cat!

Then they had to do a little dancing!


Everyone getting in on the action!

By 9:30 Jordan was ready for bed, so he dismissed himself from the party and went to bed. Meggan, on the other hand, stayed up until midnight and thought that was so cool! The girls and their parents left around 11:30 but I let her stay up a little longer and then told her it was already midnight - the look on her face was priceless! :)

On Saturday morning we met them and some other great friends of ours at the skating rink! What a blast! Jordan even went out there for a while, with the help of all those girls! ;) There was Jordan and then 5 girls, ages 3 to 12 or so (I'm not exactly sure how old Greta is, but she's in middle school) - he was having a ball. He would fall down on purpose, just because the girls would laugh at him and then have to help him up. What a little ham!!!

We ate with them at Texas Roadhouse and then they were headed back to Ohio. Yum! It was so fun to see them, and we hope to see them again soon! We may even go visit them at their farm up in Ohio - I think the kids would have a blast! We'll miss them until then...

Meggan had a great time at her friend from school, Valerie's, birthday party on Saturday afternoon, and then we had a great time watching the Colts play their way to the SuperBowl yesterday after church! What a fun weekend!!!

This pic is just for fun! Meggan gave Dawn, Mom, and me all a tattoo on Saturday evening while they were here eating dinner with us. When Dawn asked her what she wants to be when she grows up, she informed us she wants to be a "tattoo person" because she wants to use those needles, you know. WHAT? SERIOUSLY? This is a pic of mine that she put on top of my foot. Do you think she's got a career? (Hahaha! She's just so funny!)

100!

Tomorrow is the 100th day of school for this school year, and they make a big deal out of this (at least in kindergarten they do)! Meggan has all laid out for tomorrow her Colts jersey along with her Dallas Clark jersey necklace (have to wear the Colts gear since they play this weekend - she even picked the number that she wanted put on the necklace, 44) and her necklace with 100 beads they made this week at school as well!


So tonight we had to get her homework all finished up, which included a posterboard with 100 items on it. You could put whatever you wanted - and try to be creative. However, I think we kind of took the "easy way out" and went ahead and just did 100 stickers. I just couldn't imagine trying to glue 100 things on there (such as cottonballs or paperclips or whatnot) and have them fall off constantly, etc.


Here they are doing the 100 chart. Jordan was "helping" in his own special way, but he was having lots of fun! They were supposed to put them in groups of 10, to make it easier to count them while they're showing them in front of the class. Okay, so the lines aren't straight or perfectly spaced either (let's just say I am NOT the artist of the family). It was really hard for me to just let her do it by herself and not "fix" it so that the stickers were straight across and spaced out right. She also has 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, and 100 written to the right of each row that you can't see in the picture. She did a great job!


These stickers are very serious work!




Being silly (they wanted to put their posters in front of their faces)!


C-H-E-E-E-E-E-E-S-E!

We did manage to fit in a few minutes of Mario Bros. Wii tonight after getting all the homework done and before it was time for a bath. I think we're all glad that tomorrow is Friday! Hope everyone is looking forward to a great weekend! GO COLTS!!!

Fun in the Snow!

Saturday morning we got up and headed to get a few groceries, and when we got back, the kids wanted to play outside in the snow. There's not a ton of snow, but there are a few inches on the ground here (at least for now - I think it's supposed to be a high of 38 degrees on Wednesday and then it will all melt quickly and just be ugly).

The kids riding their bikes!

We ran inside, put on some snowpants and gloves, and hit the driveway/sidewalk. I scooped the driveway and then a path as well as I could down the sidewalk, and so we had to get out the bikes. What kid DOESN'T ride their bike in the middle of winter; right?!?! They also had fun making a couple snow angels and then we put together a quick snowman. The snow is pretty powder-y and didn't work all that well, but we got one to work well enough to satisfy Meggan! :)

Meggan's attempt at a snowman (don't ask me). She was trying to roll a little snow clump all the way across the yard and it never got any bigger. Poor thing!

Our finished product! She was pretty proud!

Jordan's snowman that he wanted me to make so he could hit it, which he was using this blade (I gave it to him as a "shovel") in order to knock it down!

Sunday was church and then we had some lunch (well, some of us had breakfast) at Bob Evans. Mom volunteered to take Meggan to her house to help/play with the kitties so that I could nap while Jordan did, so I took her up on that one! A 2-hour nap was wonderful, and then we headed down to Mom's to let Jordan play with the kitties for a while and have some supper quick before getting back home to get to bed for another school/work week.

All in all, a nice weekend! Hope everyone else had a good weekend too!

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!