Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Sometimes you have to wonder...

Too strange to name


...where do kids get the idea to put underwear on their heads and socks on their hands. Let's just say Mommy was at work and Daddy was in charge!

Katie goes to Kindergarten!

First Day of Kindergarten


Last Wednesday was the 1st day of Kindergarten for Katelyn and although she was very tired at the end of the day, she LOVES it! She picked out her 1st day of school outfit and school supplies the week before and some new shoes and she was stylin' for the first day. The kids were instructed to decorate little people to look like themselves to hang in the hallway and Katelyn made hers a cheerleader with Mom's help on the pom-poms. She is meeting some new friends and has gotten reaquainted with some of her preschool friends that she missed greatly over the summer. She is still quite sad that her friend Caleb is not there with her but already has her eyes on little Derek who sits at her table!

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

My 31st BDay

My Birthday


I celebrated my birthday on August 17th and it was fantastic thanks to my friends and family. We celebrated with my family the weekend before because my parents and brother's family left for vacation on the 16th. That was the family game night previously posted! I got some great scrapbooking stuff from the fam which was much appreciated and we BBQ'd which was yummy! The Friday before my bday Ryan sent me these flowers at work b/c I always tease him about never sending me flowers. On Saturday I went to Omaha with my friend Lisa to eat at Cheesecake Factory, shopping at Westroads, and to the boats a couple of hours. Thanks again Lisa for accompanying me! Sunday morning the kids surprised me with several gifts (a book light for late night reading in bed, scrapbooking stickers, and a digital picture frame which I can't wait to set up). They also bought an ice cream cake which we weren't even home to eat until Monday night. We went to church and had to head to Beatrice for our friends' kids bday parties. I was surprised once again with a cake of my very own lit on fire practically with 31 candles and everyone there sang happy bday to me! After the party we grabbed a couple of pizzas and headed out to the in-laws where caramel brownies were awaiting!! As you can see (or read) my bday turned out to be an awesome day! Thanks everyone.

Family Game night

Family game night


This is what happens when my family gets together for our infamous game nights. My husband is such a great sport and for this game he was forced to wear my makeup the entire game. He's quite beautiful though, don't you think. He kind of gives my sister a run for her money in these shots!!

Kindergarten Kickoff

Kindergarten Kickoff


The Lincoln Childrens Museum hosts a kindergarten kickoff for all kids entering kindergarten in the city of Lincoln. The kids are able to go to the city library for a tshirt and when they come to the museum on the designated night for their school they get in for free along with their entire family. Their teachers are also there to meet and greet them. Katelyn ran into her friend Katie who was in her preschool the last two years. Unfortunately Katie is going to a different school but the girls had a blast and will be on the same soccer team this fall so they will definitely remain friends. This was also Coopers first time at the Childrens Museum (I know I am a horrible, mean mommy) but I am certain it will not be the last. He loved it!

Fun B4 bedtime

Fun B4 bedtime!


This is what it looks like before bedtime around here most nights. After tubby time we like to goof off and dance off some excess energy in Katelyn's case.

Fourth of July

4th of July


I know this was ages ago but here are the pics if you are interested. We spent the fourth with our friends Brad and Rhonda and all of their family in Fairbury. We BBQ'd and watched the city fireworks at the park across the street.

Final vacation day!

Vacation 2008 Day #8


First I want to say isn't this 1st picture awesome. Its like a frozen moment in time. I don't have any idea how I got the picture to turn out like that but its so cool! We weren't about to slow down the final day of our trip so we got up early, packed up and took off for Plymouth Rock. Someone might have told us that the Portico that encloses the actual rock was under construction but no such warning. Good thing it wasn't much out of the way. We did get to look at the Mayflower and a gift shop replica of the rock though. After a bit of dissapointment we were off to Boston to meet up with Jeff and Tiffany at the New England Aquarium which was fantastic. We had lunch there and were off to check out the fish. The best part was the large number of penguins that were on exhibit around the large center tank that had a huge number of impressive fish in it. We definitely recommend the aquarium and wish we would have had more time to stick around but it was time to say our emotional goodbye's to Aunt Tiffany and head to the airport. After a not so smooth run through security where my sister was pulled aside for an unknown object in the luggage xray which took forever to find, our flight was running way late and we were quite certain that we were going to miss the connection. (I probably should add that the luggage item was a bottle of water I had stashed in her luggage earlier in the day in an end pocket without letting her know, OOPS Sorry again sis!) Anyway we finally got on our first plane and the pilot said he added some extra gas and was going to kick up the flight speed a few notches to help certain passengers meet tight connections. Our flight took off like an hour and fifteen minutes late and still managed to get there on time. The connection was being held for us so we made it, however our seats were in the very back of the plane and we took out about 20 people making our way to our seats. Let me add that these passengers were not too happy that we had held up there flight and we got some pretty dirty looks. Thank goodness the kids slept the entire flight and it was very peaceful. We flew back into Omaha at 10pm the night that they got hit by a huge storm that knocked out tons of power and ripped off part of the Quest Center. My sister and I were in one car and Ryan in the other. We missed our turn to get back to the interstate and ended up going down Dodge Street with ZERO power. Dodge Street and no traffic lights is a bit scary at 10pm on a Friday night but we managed to get back to Lincoln and that was that-the end of a fantastic vacation.

Vacation Day #7

Vacation 2008 Day #7


Day #7 proved to be the most adventurous. We started off on the beach behind our resort hunting hermit crabs with the kids which they enjoyed immensely. After prying them away from their new clawed friends we made our way to the Cape Cod Railroad for a scenic train ride throughout Cape Cod. It was a dreary day that day which was a bit of a bummer. The train ride was ok initially but ended up not so great. You see, they take you down the tracks and narrate the entire ride about the cranberry bogs, small towns along the Cape, some history, and the fresh water ponds which was fine. But once they reach the opposite end of the Cape they put the train in reverse and go back the same way you came. Not too exciting. Especially when the train decides to overheat every couple of miles. We would be chugging along at a decent pace for 2 or 3 minutes and slowly the train would come to a stop. We would sit a while and start chugging away again. The 1.5 hour train ride turned into about a 3.5 hour train ride which got a bit boring. We thought we might have to get out and walk to get there faster. The craziest thing on the train was that there was this man sitting behind us that was a spitting image of Ryan's father and this was really creeping me out. If you know Walt you have to check out the pics. I have labelled them for you. I guess its true that all of us have a twin out there somewhere. After the train ride we decided to grab a bite to eat quickly at Wendy's and made our way to the Cape Cod Potato Chip Factory. I know it sounds pretty lame but it was free and the kids thought it was pretty cool. It was only like a 15 minute walk through tour but they had some yummy free chips at the end. Let me tell you by day #7 we were all about free stuff! We then made our way back to Falmouth to Old Silver Beach which was supposed to have the best sunset however, as always we got rained out yet again. We did hunt for shells and the water was beautiful. We got to see a pretty impressive storm blow in (VERY QUICKLY I might add) and made it back to our car just in time for the downpour to hit. The clouds were unbelievably cool but we were very sad that we didn't get to experience a sunset on the beach. Oh well, maybe next time.

Vacation Day #6

Vacation 2008 Day #6


Oh my I have been a bad blogger yet again. I must finish documenting our vacation which I know is old news but still worth documenting. Then I will get to the new stuff! Day #6 was yet another site-seeing day in Boston. We had tickets for the trolley tour and were glad that we invested in that because it really did allow us to see a lot of Boston without sore feet and crabby kids. We started with lunch in the Prudential Center where we met up with Misty and her kids who started touring early in the am with Tiffany. (We took the morning to catch up on some much needed rest). We ate in the food court at a fantastic grill called "Flamers." Yummy! Then it was off for the trolley. You can tell pretty much by all of the captions what all we were able to see and learn about the city that day. After the trolley tour it was back to Prudential where we checked out the garden area. We made it back to our cars because we still needed to make a pit stop in Taunton to drop off a bag to Tiffany at her workplace. We ate dinner there thinking we were going into a fast food chain however let me tell you that "Ninety-Nine" is not at all fast food. The food was delicious but dinner was like a 2 hour ordeal and twice as expensive as we had planned on. Then it was back to the resort to get ready for our last full day of vacation :(

Saturday, August 9, 2008

Happy Anniversary Chad and Lisa!



We just wanted to give a shout out to Chad and Lisa and say Happy 5th Anniversary! We love you guys. Have fun celebrating!!