We are on the countdown to Christmas and trying to pack in lots of fun things. Last night we all jumped in the car, went and got some treats at Sonic and then went to watch the light show at Senske. I had never been to see it but had heard from lots of people that it was a fun thing to do. At first when we pulled up, we were like this is it? But then after tuning into the Christmas radio station it was synchronized with and parking across the street to watch it, we all agreed it was pretty amazing. Our kids loved watching the lights pulse and change with the music. Cooper and Kale were almost absolutely silent the whole time, except for a few excited exchanges about the pretty lights. As usual our fun time was cut short because someone had to go the bathroom........sigh..........but, it was still a very fun way to spend a Tuesday night and we got home right at bedtime.
We also had a little surprise yesterday. While driving home after picking up Kendle from piano lessons, my mom called me. She asked where we were and said she was at our house. She had brought us a Christmas surprise. A whole box of presents - one to be opened each day until Christmas. To say my kids were jazzed up would be an understatement. They were so excited to wake up this morning and open the present for the 1st day of Christmas! My mom labeled them all so we know which one to open each day. She is doing it for our WHOLE family. So all of my siblings are opening their gifts on the same days. It is so fun! I think it is an awesome idea. Our gift today was a box of delicious homemade fudge and candy and a Manheim Steamroller Christmas CD. The kids were stoked! They begged me to give them each a little bit of grandma's fudge before school and I even let Kendle take some in her lunch. She said all the kids in her class would be so jealous. Our family loves Manheim Steamroller as well and I know we will all enjoy listening to the music. (Riley calls it his type of Christmas music)
We are also looking forward to opening our service advent each day and doing good and thoughtful things for others this time of year. Kendle has a project at school to try and do as many random acts of kindness that they can and then they give a little speech about it in class before Christmas break. I think that is one of the most excellent things to do with grade school age children. She had lots of good ideas of things she wanted to do. We are feeling the Christmas spirit!
December 14, 2011
December 10, 2011
Cozy Saturday
It's been a white frosty couple of days making everything winter white outside with a tiny skiff of snow dusting the ground this afternoon. Today I managed to do an overhaul on my craft closet and get it all cleaned out and organized before the holiday madness hits. I can safely say now I can find all the ribbons, bows, wrapping paper and bags that I will need in the next few weeks. I made Riley take the kids and get out of the house for a few hours so I could get a little peace and quiet. This is what I did while they were gone:
1. Treated myself to some amazingly delicious hot pumpkin spice cocoa and cookies.
2. Put our family advent calendar together and hung it by our tree.
3. Turned on some Christmas tunes and the fireplace.
4. Put my feet up in front of the fire and got comfy with a good book.
This was exactly what I needed today and the perfect way to relax.
December 9, 2011
Running
Well, it has been over a year (14 months to be exact) that I have more or less stuck with my running routine. Minus the few months I was sans treadmill and I only ran outside a little bit during the summer, I have been pretty good about running at least three days a week unless I was sick. After getting our new treadmill back in October I felt like I would have to start back at square one, but it is amazing what our bodies can remember how to do and adapt back to what they are capable of and then some. I'm able to run continuously farther than I ever have in my entire life, but I do notice the constant running is hard on my feet and I realize why runners have so many leg, hip, and foot injuries. The bones on the top of my left foot are currently very sore, but not too discouraging. I never thought I would be in better shape at age 31 than when I was 21, but I still have a long way to go. I hope I can continue to say that as I age another year I am also improving my health. As women we tend to make ourselves believe that just because we weigh more than we did when we were younger, that we aren't in as good of shape. But I know that when I was 21 and weighed 20 pounds less than I do now, I couldn't go out and run 5 miles straight without keeling over and dying. Ha!
I saw a good quote the other day that made me laugh. It said "I love dessert, therefore I run." I think that about sums it up for me.
I saw a good quote the other day that made me laugh. It said "I love dessert, therefore I run." I think that about sums it up for me.
December 7, 2011
Not Much
We are chugging along into December and not much new to report. We got our Christmas lights hung after a huge debacle and Riley having to take a trip to Home Depot to give them a little piece of his mind, but they're up now. It's so cold, the kids don't want to spend much time outside unless it is traipsing along after Riley or watching him clean his birds from hunting. Morgan got to help him clean some last night and he thought he was pretty big stuff. He was stoked to show me some blood he got on his gloves. Gross! Riley's planning on making a big batch of goose jerky soon. Mmm, mmm doesn't that sound good? (sarcasm)
We've had a bit of a bug going around and Kendle stayed home from school yesterday. She rarely misses school, she is such a good student and hates to miss so I knew she must be feeling pretty bad. She lounged around all day and hogged the TV and rested. My dad came up and helped me do all sorts of little repairs around the house that have been making my life miserable. I think he can fix just about anything. The kids loved having him here and following him around and watching him work. I always look at things that need to be fixed and they seem like such a big project, and he just comes up and in a few short hours makes it look easy.
Things have been relatively slow with no sports going on right now, but Riley has been working long hours so I'm still not seeing him that much. I told him the other day, he might as well be coaching right now and I might actually see him more. The winter months drive me crazy with my kids cooped up inside and the days seem really long. The twins can get pretty destructive and are always finding new ways to get in trouble. They can climb just about anything and wreak havoc wherever they go. Today I had to box up all the books in the boys room because they just pull them out every day from the book shelf and make a huge mess and I finally got fed up with picking them up multiple times a day. I hope this is a stage they will be growing out of soon.
On a good note though, they have both started to go potty. We are very excited. They just turned 2 a few weeks ago and are very interested and happy about trying to go most of the time. They still aren't talking very much which can make it much harder for them to let me know when they need to go, but I've been sitting them on there a few times a day and having good luck. I'll cross my fingers that it continues and probably try and hit it hardcore after Christmas. I am seeing the light at the end of the tunnel of not having to buy diapers anymore!
Kendle was excited to sign up for a performing choir they have at her school. I was kind of surprised since she has backed off of her enthusiasm of singing in front of people a bit, but I think it will be fun and she'll enjoy it. They are doing a Christmas concert in a few weeks and might be visiting some retirement homes as well. She's also been learning new Christmas songs on the piano the last few weeks which she gets a kick out of playing for anyone that will listen.
Morgan loves preschool days. Whenever he asks if he has school that day and the answer is yes, he always gives some sort of excited exclamation. He is really improving in learning his letters and numbers and asks me all of the time to let him read letters off of books. He wants to learn addition and always asks me random addition problems. He's really improved on writing his first and last name and loves to draw (or have me draw) all sorts of interesting things that prove what a horrible and limited artist I really am. I think I go down a notch on the "my mom's awesome" scale every time I can't draw a corn combine, tractor, robot, or Star Wars character. He loves doing flips on the trampoline (and in the house -- yikes!) and does head stands and hand stands and all sorts of crazy things. He has so much energy and I'm eager for him to be able to channel that into soccer or t-ball soon.
I love this time of year and look forward to the continuing holiday festivities and spirit of the season.
We've had a bit of a bug going around and Kendle stayed home from school yesterday. She rarely misses school, she is such a good student and hates to miss so I knew she must be feeling pretty bad. She lounged around all day and hogged the TV and rested. My dad came up and helped me do all sorts of little repairs around the house that have been making my life miserable. I think he can fix just about anything. The kids loved having him here and following him around and watching him work. I always look at things that need to be fixed and they seem like such a big project, and he just comes up and in a few short hours makes it look easy.
Things have been relatively slow with no sports going on right now, but Riley has been working long hours so I'm still not seeing him that much. I told him the other day, he might as well be coaching right now and I might actually see him more. The winter months drive me crazy with my kids cooped up inside and the days seem really long. The twins can get pretty destructive and are always finding new ways to get in trouble. They can climb just about anything and wreak havoc wherever they go. Today I had to box up all the books in the boys room because they just pull them out every day from the book shelf and make a huge mess and I finally got fed up with picking them up multiple times a day. I hope this is a stage they will be growing out of soon.
On a good note though, they have both started to go potty. We are very excited. They just turned 2 a few weeks ago and are very interested and happy about trying to go most of the time. They still aren't talking very much which can make it much harder for them to let me know when they need to go, but I've been sitting them on there a few times a day and having good luck. I'll cross my fingers that it continues and probably try and hit it hardcore after Christmas. I am seeing the light at the end of the tunnel of not having to buy diapers anymore!
Kendle was excited to sign up for a performing choir they have at her school. I was kind of surprised since she has backed off of her enthusiasm of singing in front of people a bit, but I think it will be fun and she'll enjoy it. They are doing a Christmas concert in a few weeks and might be visiting some retirement homes as well. She's also been learning new Christmas songs on the piano the last few weeks which she gets a kick out of playing for anyone that will listen.
Morgan loves preschool days. Whenever he asks if he has school that day and the answer is yes, he always gives some sort of excited exclamation. He is really improving in learning his letters and numbers and asks me all of the time to let him read letters off of books. He wants to learn addition and always asks me random addition problems. He's really improved on writing his first and last name and loves to draw (or have me draw) all sorts of interesting things that prove what a horrible and limited artist I really am. I think I go down a notch on the "my mom's awesome" scale every time I can't draw a corn combine, tractor, robot, or Star Wars character. He loves doing flips on the trampoline (and in the house -- yikes!) and does head stands and hand stands and all sorts of crazy things. He has so much energy and I'm eager for him to be able to channel that into soccer or t-ball soon.
I love this time of year and look forward to the continuing holiday festivities and spirit of the season.
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