Hills of Fun

Gabe took Drake out this afternoon for some sledding on the fresh new powder we have been getting. They headed out after church and lunch (while Hadley was napping) to a local golf course that opens up the hills for sledding. They had a blast and spent several hours there!

Christmas, take 3

(pictures to come..)

After a short night of sleep, we got up early and headed down to visit the Sugars. We got there just after they had lost power and had to move the traditional Christmas brunch to a cousin's house that did have power. It was nice to arrive to a warm house, a hot breakfast, and lots of welcoming hugs. After eating, we headed over to Sugar's house to let the kids play. That evening we headed over to another cousin's house for Christmas dinner complete with appetizers, turkey, ham, green bean casserole, corn, etc..etc... makes my mouth water just thinking about it again. After dinner, Drake pulled a classic Drake. Kiersten (6), Drake(5), Blake (7) and Hadley (2) were all playing in Kiersten's room and getting along very well. Kiersten was showing my kids all of the things in her room that she uses to take care of her pet kitten, including the litter box. Drake proceeded to throw up all over her bed when she pulled out the scoop with some "product" from the litter box. Nice. So, Kiersten came in and told us that Drake had just puked. When I went in there, Drake started gagging again just while Kiersten was telling me what happened. Oh, my poor, weak-stomached boy. I feel sorry for his wife someday as I foresee diaper-changing being a hard task for him.

After dinner and puke clean-up, we headed to a hotel for the night. We got there in time for 15 minutes of swimming before the pool closed but also made it down for more swimming in the morning before heading back over to Sugar's to visit.

We interrupt this Christmas holiday for...

A WET BASEMENT! UGH!

After we got home from Christmas Eve service in the evening, we discovered that the days and days of rain had caught up to us and we had wet carpet in the basement again! This happened once back October, but we thought we had fixed the problem by adding some new fill dirt around the house. Well, after spending several hours shop-vac-ing the wet carpet and starting the fans and dehumidifiers we finally got to bed to sleep for a few hours before getting up early to head down to visit the Sugars. When we get back, we will try to figure out this mess- again!

Christmas, take 2

We decided to have our immediate family Christmas celebration on Christmas Eve morning since we are heading out early in the morning to go down south. The kids had a lot of fun taking turns opening their presents and then spending the next several hours engrossed with their new belongings. Drake was super excited about his new (used) DS that we found a good deal on and the games that some others bought him to go with it. Watching the kids open presents and seeing their sheer delight does my heart good. It IS better to give than receive.


(pictures to come...)


Gabe had to head to church about noon to get ready for services. The kids and I headed to the 4:00 service with the Holzers and Grammy. Grammy took the kids home after that service so I could stay and volunteer at the 6:00 service.

Christmas, take 1

We really spread out the Christmas celebration this year. We started off with an early celebration with the Farwell side. We spent the evening at Grammy's house on Monday, complete with pizza and lots of conversations by the fire place. We had brunch on Tuesday, Christmas dinner that evening followed by the chaos of opening presents. Drake loved his new skateboard from Grammy and Hadley's most common statement as soon as she would open a present was "I love this present!". She got decked out with a Snow White costume, movie, and doll and she was also super excited about the movie "Wizard of Oz" from Grammy. This is one of her favorite movies since she and Drake and the cousins got to dress up as the characters for Halloween. Now, everytime she sees a lion on anything, she says "There's Annabeth!"
(pictures to come..)

SNOW!

We welcomed several inches of snow this weekend. The Holzer crew decided to stop off at our house for a few hours to play in the snow and take a break from the treacherous roads on their way to Grammy's house. The kids loved getting bundled up and having fun in the snow. Then, they all warmed up in the bathtub afterward!

Hadley made a really funny comment after coming in from the freezing cold temperatures. I got her un-bundled and put her on the potty before getting in the bath. As she started going potty she said, "Woah, my privates are really, really hot!"

Joy

Drake participated in his second performance at WS this weekend. He has been practicing for several months on Sunday evenings. He really enjoys choir and gives it his all. Drake showed such an improvement from last year's performance to this one. He was extremely focused and intentional throughout the whole program. Someone made the comment to Gabe after the performance, "I could tell which one was your son, he looked like a human metronome." Thankfully, Drake has inherited Gabe's sense of rhythm. Nana and Papa made the trip over to watch him perform and then we all went out for Monical's Pizza afterwards.

Merry Christmas, consider yourself “Card-ed”

Well, I don't think many Christmas cards are actually going to happen this year, so consider this your Christmas Card...

Our year, for a change, did not include too many transitions, as the last several years have for our family. We continue to serve at West Side, where Gabe loves using his creative abilities in the worship and technical arts department. His main responsibilities include stage design, creating video elements for the services, worship planning, lighting elements and he even has gotten to speak a couple of times, including one Sunday morning sermon. (Which he did great at, as well!)
I guess I did have a little transition this year as far as work goes. In August I was at the dentist office getting some fillings and my dentist offered me job. Seriously. He was looking for someone to work one day every other week, assisting an endodontist that would be commuting to his office. After some serious consideration, we decided it would be a nice financial perk (seeing as I don't seem to have the best teeth in the world and they were starting to cost us a lot of money) since we would get a discount on dental services plus a little money each month to help with our expenses. It works out nicely with two of my friends each watching Hadley one day a month. I am really enjoying it and the days really go by quickly as they are packed with patients.
Drake's transition this year was starting full time school. As some of you may know, this was a grueling decision for Gabe and I. Drake has such a late birthday (July) that we really debated whether or not to send him to Kindergarten this year. Then, we also had the big decision of public or private school. There is a Christian school attached to the church where Gabe works. Finally, when it came down to the wire, we decided to try it. So, in August, we packed our little boy's bag and took him to his first day of Kindergarten in the public school. It was by far, harder on me than on him. He was so excited to go and had no reservations about us leaving him there. He has done amazingly well. He has far exceeded my thoughts and fears about the school year. He is doing great learning how to read, loves going to school every day and seems to be maturing by the minute. I just can't get over how far he has come this year.
Hadley is our little beauty with an attitude. She is quite the talker and she definitely knows what she wants and is not afraid to get it, or at least try to get it. She continues to amaze me every day with how much she is learning and growing up. She loves to play with dolls and is really getting into pretending. She just went through some transitions in the last couple of months. She now has a big girl bed and also gave up her beloved paci. Both have gone much better than anticipated. She has adjusted really well.
One great memory for our family this year was going on a family vacation with the whole Rutledge family. In May, Gabe's parents took us all to Florida where we stayed in their condo for a few days and then we all got on the glorious Disney Wonder cruise ship. It was a great trip with family and I would definitely recommend a Disney cruise for any family with kids. The kids had a blast, the shows were great and the atmosphere is so family friendly. What precious memories.
We are looking forward to another great year in 2010 and the blessings God has in store for our family. May God bless you and yours as well!

Great Friends

I have been continuing to do our little playgroup/preschool on Thursday mornings. It has been a lot of fun and Hadley LOVES having her friends come over each week to play and practice letters. Well, this Thursday the moms asked if they could bring lunch over to eat together afterwards. Of course, I wouldn't turn down food! Little did I know they had planned this to thank me and brought over pizza, fruit and dessert along with a special little goodie box for me including a Starbuck's card and Gordman's gift card. Man, do I have great friends, or what?! It also happened to be little A's birthday the next day, so we got to sing Happy Birthday and watch her blow out TWO big candles.

A big milestone

Drake had a big milestone this week- he lost his first tooth! It had been wiggly for weeks and was so close to falling out for days but today on the way home from Christmas at Sugar's- it fell out. No drama, no crying, just simply fell out in the van on our way home. He was really excited about it and put it under his pillow in anticipation of the tooth fairy!

Big Girl

So many things have happened this week to our ever-changing big girl! One big milestone we have passed is giving up the paci. Monday, I took it away at nap time, which resulted in about an hour of crying and/or pleading. I reminded her that she is a big girl now and doesn't need the paci anymore and we needed to give them to babies. She said, during one of the many times she called me back into her room, "NO give them to babies, give them to ME!" Finally, after almost an hour, she called me back in AGAIN and this time said, "You can go get my big girl present ready now." It was like she was telling me that she was giving in and ready to go to sleep now. Then, I didn't hear from her again for 2 1/2 hours. Bed time went amazingly well that night, only asked for the paci once and then conked right out.

Another big milestone Hadley has accomplished this week is drawing. She loves drawing faces and is getting really good at it ( I mean, for a 2 year old). She also attempted to write her name today. Here is a picture of her progress.

Many Thanks

We have SO many reasons to be thankful this year, not the least of these is our great family. We, once again, had a great time spending time in Indiana with lots of cousins, aunts, uncles and more cousins. It is so much fun to watch all the little ones develop their personalities and watch them growing up together. This year there were 31 people at Thanksgiving on the Indiana side, 7 of those were 5 and under. Amazingly though, there was very little arguing and all seemed to have a great time together.

After we got home from Indiana, we welcomed the Rutledge family at our house and did some more eating and lots of relaxing and talking. Did I mention we are so thankful for a wonderful family?

Making pumpkin pie with Nana.



Painting with Joel

All Decked Out

We decided we like to decorate before we leave for the Thanksgiving festivities so all we have to do is come home and plug in the lights and voila, we're ready for Christmas. So, we unpacked the totes this evening and decorated away. Thanksfully, we have even had some warm temperatures so Gabe was able to get the lights up outside too without freezing his hands off. The kids loved helping organize the branches in piles before putting them all on the tree. And the nativity has been a big hit with both kids as they love rearranging the people and telling their own versions of the Christmas story.

No chapped lips here

Hadley has been on a chapstick kick. She has had a bit of a cold so she keeps asking me to put chapstick on her lips and under her nose where it has gotten a little sore. So, I made the mistake of buying her a tub of carmex at Walgreens. On the way home, I thought she was awfully quiet. When I got her out of the car I realized why. About ½ the tub was empty and this is what her face looked like.

The GREAT cookie factory

Hadley got to have a playdate at the mall this morning with several of her friends. The early childhood director from our church hosted a play date at The Great Cookie Factory. The kids got to decorate their own cookie with lots of different colors of icing and got a drink as well. Hadley loved squeezing lots of icing onto her cookie. She has really been into drawing faces lately so that was the first thing she put on her cookie- eyes, nose, mouth. Then she had to add some hair, then a little more and another touch just for good measure. (I think she really just wanted to put LOTS of icing on her cookie.) After everyone was all sugared up, we headed to the mall play area where the kids got to run out some energy and the moms got to actually finish a few conversations.

Dentist

Today, Drake had his regular six month cleaning. He did great, as usual. He hopped right up in the chair and chose his favorite chocolate chip cookie dough toothpaste for the cleaning. The hygienist asked him if he had any loose teeth, to which he responded, "no". Then, as soon as she started cleaning his teeth, she told him he did have loose teeth- FOUR in fact. His top two front teeth are loose as well as his bottom two front teeth. He will look SO different when he loses those! He just might need to be asking for his two front teeth for Christmas this year- wow. Don't know if I'm ready for this.
While at the dentist and watching Drake get his teeth cleaned, Hadley kept asking when it was her turn. So, when Drake was done, she hopped right up in the chair and the hygienist asked her if she wanted her teeth cleaned. She said, "YES!". So, she sat perfectly still with her mouth open the whole time she got her teeth cleaned with, of course, cookie dough tooth paste too. Afterwards, the kids got their usual new toothbrushes, paste and a prize from the prize box. Then, the dentist came in to check out their teeth. They both got a good report on well taken care of teeth. However, the dentist did tell me it is time to give up the paci as it is starting to show it's wear on her little teeth...sigh. (And just for the record, for months now she has only had it at bedtime.) I knew the day was coming but now I'm really feeling the pressure. Just another sign that my little girl is not a baby anymore.

Underwater Adventure

Drake had his first school performance. The K, 1st and 2nd grades put on a musical performance this evening and wow was it packed. There was standing room only and many parents and family members who could not even get into the gym to see the performance. Drake was very animated and knew the songs very well. He had spent lots of time practicing some of his favorites at home as well. Here is a little clip of the evening:

Fall, flu, and fun

Well, in the midst of sickness, we managed to get outside and rake up a few leaves. The kids had fun trying to help rake, but mostly jumping in and throwing the leaves.
Drake started running a fever Thursday morning and it continued Friday and climbed to 103* so we made a quick trip to the doctor's office. They swabbed him for flu, but it was negative so it's just a virus and has to run its course. Well, Saturday morning he was still running about 100* but by the afternoon he was feeling much better and hasn't run a fever since. All day Saturday, Hadley kept telling me she was cold. Just before bed I checked her temp and she had 100*. So, it starts again. It's now Wednesday and Hadley (I think) is finally getting over it. She continued to run 100*-102* up until last night. This morning when she first woke up it was still 100* but now is only about 99.4*, so we're moving in the right direction. After her nap will be the test, since it seems to spike everyday in the afternoon. So, needless to say, our plans for the week have been contained to mostly sitting on the couch. Hadley really only complained the whole time about being cold and wanted me either holding her or holding her hand while she was wrapped up in blankets. I haven't seen her sit so quietly for a long time. This morning she was back to pretending in the bathtub, so that's a good sign. She had Drake's dinosaurs and we had a long role play with the daddy, mommy and baby dinosaur. It went something like this:

H (baby dinosaur): Hi mommy dinosaur.
me (mommy dinosaur): Hi baby dinosaur
H: do you want some chicken, it's here on my tail.
me: yes, thank you (gobbling up the chicken on her tail)
H: Mommy dinosaur, do you want to go to a restaurant?
me: that would be great
H: okay, let's go (pretend walking on the side of the tub)
H: here's some apples, broccoli, chicken, they're on my tail.
me: (pretending to eat the food)
H: NO, not there, here!

Apparently, I was not pretending to eat the pretend food on the correct place on her tail. I like playing pretend and all, but man, she's bossy. I'm hoping that at least means she's getting back to her old self, with some additional snot explosion sneezes. We're supposed to be heading south tomorrow to visit my sister and family, so hopefully we really are on the mend. Can't wait to post pics of the kids all dressed up for Halloween!

Great Date

Have I mentioned lately how proud I am of Drake with school? He is doing so much better than I had anticipated. I think a lot of that has to do with having a great teacher who is very structured, which is just what he thrives on. She is also great at transitioning, another VERY important thing for him. It has made life at home so great as well. He has handled almost everything better since starting school. My little boy is growing up so much.
Tonight, he and I went on a date to Starbucks (thanks to a gift card!). He decided he wanted his own decaf caramel latte, a boy after my own heart. He and I had a very civilized evening sipping our lattes, reading his library book, going over his poetry from the week and talking about some of his favorite things at school. I also shared with him how proud I am of him for doing such a great job at school. I saw his dimples shine through many times throughout the date. Dates with her son, does a mother's heart good.

We've come a l o n g way, baby.

our little animals

This is what we came home to last night...

Gabe and I went over to some friends' house for dinner last night. (Which was amazingly delicious, by the way.) We each took part in bringing part of the meal which consisted of strawberry spinach salad with a raspberry poppyseed dressing, homemade rolls, green beans with sliced almonds, garlic mashed potatoes and steak topped with a yummy shiitake mushroom garlic sauce followed by dessert of chocolate pie and cheesecake. All of this accompanied with laughter, fun and friendship made for one great night.

Okay, back to the kids, Uncle Eric and Aunt Sarah came to watch the kids for us and took them to the YMCA family FREE night. They got to swim and get their faces painted. Hadley was our little kitty and Drake was a saber-toothed tiger. I know the kids loved being able to spend some time in the water since the frigid temperatures here no longer allow for any sort of outside swimming time.

So, I think everyone had a great night. We're so blessed with great family.

the Great pumpkin patch

Finally, a day where we were all together. That has been a rarity around here for several weeks now. So, we decided to head to The Great Pumpkin Patch and take in the beautiful fall colors. It was so nice to get away, just the four of us. We decided to break up the trip by heading over on Sunday evening and stayed with some friends so we only had about a 20 minute drive this morning. The kids had fun picking out a few small pumpkins and gourds to bring home and we all enjoyed the beautiful things to see. We snapped lots of pictures on this chilly morning and out of the hundred that we took we actually got a few with the kids looking and smiling. They're pretty cute, if I do say so myself.

Happy Birthday Grammy

We hope you're having a great day in Tennessee Grammy!

Toy Story Marathon

We decided to do something fun and maybe a little adventurous (with a 2 year old that is!). We picked up Drake from school and headed to the 3D, double feature of Toy Story and Toy Story 2. The movie started at 3:45 and we didn't get out of there until about 7:15! The kids did awesome though! We had packed a few treats to take in with us, including Toy Story fruit snacks, and then splurged on some popcorn and drinks which we were able to get free refills on at the intermission. Drake loved watching it with the 3D glasses on and sat incredibly well for 3+ hours! Hadley did so great for being only 2, although she wasn't so fond of the glasses. She switched seats a couple of times between my lap, her own seat and Gabe's lap, but only talked a few times when she was asking questions about the movie. ( I took my camera to the theatre, only to realize that the memory card was not in it, so you'll have to settle with a pic from when we got home with the Toy Story fruit snacks.)

Life

It just seems to be zooming right along these days. I am happy to report that Kindergarten is going very well! Drake is loving it and even talked me into letting him ride the bus home from school. I'm sure there will be occasional days of picking him up but he loves riding it, it's only a 15 minute ride and it saves me from waking up Hadley from her nap everyday to get him. Drake is absolutely loving learning at school and tries to sound out words all the time. I think our days of spelling things without him figuring it out are soon coming to an end. Drake is also still really enjoying being outside. He loves riding his bike and scooter and jumping on the trampoline. He still has a very vivid imagination and can entertain himself for hours with a few simple props.

Hadley is doing well, has a bit of a cold this week or teeth coming in or something because she's had a runny nose and has been on the crabby side but she's talking ALL the time, usually in sentences and always refers to herself in third person. She also DOES NOT like to be called any nicknames such as sweetie, honey, babe, etc... She is quick to correct you if you call her one of these names, "NO Hadley honey, name's Hadley!" We had to have a talk the other evening about not talking so rudely when correcting people of her name. So, at bedtime that night, I accidently said, "Good night honey" and she responded with, "Oops, Mommy, not honey, Hadley." A much more polite correction than I have heard before so I guess she does listen to me. She is also very good at asserting her independence and stubbornness. Last weekend, she and I had about a 30 minute battle of the wills over turning off the TV, so after lots of time in her room and a couple of swats, she finally gave in and obeyed. I'm afraid she might have gotten this from me. But, watch out girl because your mom will not give in- she's met her match. Hadley is doing GREAT with her big girl bed too. She usually goes to bed around 8 or 8:30, and gets up around the same time the next morning. The first night she got up once, received her punishment, and has not done it again since. ( I think we learned with Drake to nip it in the bud early or it can become a chronic problem.) Now, she goes down without ever getting up and calls us to come get her in the morning and at naps. Potty training is going so-so. We'll have a great week of very few accidents and then have a day where every time I turn around she's peeing her pants. I'm getting quite tired of this stage. So far, the theory of "girls are easier" has not played out in our house. Drake potty trained much faster and earlier than she has. Here is a picture of Hadley doing one of her favorite things: watercolors!

Lazy Family Day

We headed up to Josh, Jacki and Joel's house on Sunday after church to spend the evening and Labor Day with them. Hadley did not sleep a wink on the way up and Drake had a great nap. Go figure. This resulted in Hadley having an early bed time and Drake got to stay up to play a few games on the Wii before bed. Then, the adults stayed up late sipping decaf coffee and solving the world's problems. Okay, Jacki and I did that and the guys watched a bunch music videos and talked computer stuff. Monday we stuck around the house all morning while the kiddos played. Around noon, we headed out to the park at the church and let the kids burn off some energy before we packed them back in the car for the trek home. They both promptly fell asleep for a couple of hours. Then, we made a detour at Bloomington Miller Park to stretch our legs, make a potty stop and get a little wet at the park.

Family Bowling Night

We decided to celebrate how well Drake is doing in Kindergarten and have a family night out to go bowling. So, after dinner at home, we made the quick trip to a bowling alley in town. Drake hadn't been bowling in over a year and had been asking to go again. Hadley hadn't been bowling before. She was interested for about two frames and then preferred to just watch but did a great job staying close and entertained. Drake beat me and Gabe clobbered us all. I'm sure it had nothing to do with the fact that the bumpers were up! :) It was a fun, family night out and it's so much fun to be able to do these things with our kids as they get older. I love my family.

A new venture

We started a new venture today. I'm hosting/teaching a little preschool at my house. It's mostly just for fun- for me. It's just one day and week and it's great for Hadley to have a morning to interact with other kids and learn to share her toys. The kids did great today, especially for their first time. I love the no-pressure teaching since it's free, it makes it just feel like fun and not work. Today we worked on a couple of colors and the shapes circles and squares. The kids were a lot of fun!