All Aboard for Christmas Fun!

Icemeggedon lasted for 5 days - from Friday, December 6 to Tuesday the 10th.  Keira's school Christmas program was originally scheduled for the 10th and postponed to the 12th.  After much coercing, she wore this cute red outfit over her planned jeans and Christmas t-shirt.  Many of her classmates weren't able to make the program due to schedule conflicts, but those that were there gave it their all including Keira.  It was the first time I'd seen her participate in every second up on stage.  So sweet!

  

 

 
(Singing Go Tell it on the Mountain)

On the morning of Wednesday, December 19th, Keira, Asher and I walked up to Ari's school to join everyone in awaiting Santa's arrival via helicopter.  I have to say, this is one of my favorite new traditions after 2 years!  The excitement coming from the kids is just contagious and it's pretty darn cool watching the helicopters come in and take off.  This year included not one, but two helicopters!  The first filled with Santa and Mrs. Claus and the second with Frosty, Rudolph and and elf.  The whole school lines up and Santa makes his way up and down the line.  So much fun!

 

 

 

 

Ari had a half-day on the 20th and that afternoon, Keenan's parents, sister and our nieces and nephew arrived for a weekend of fun!  We exchanged gifts that night which included all the kids receiving minion (from Despicable Me) hats from Auntie Kelsey.  The hats came in quite handy for our outing the next afternoon.  After a yummy pre-Christmas lunch we headed out to Grapevine to ride the North Pole Express train sponsored by the Vintage Railroad.  While it didn't live up to the hype, we still enjoyed spending the time together and I enjoyed playing with/distracting a wiggly Iris on the train.  The weekend was a lot of fun for all of us!

 

 

  

 

 

 

Now we're spending our Christmas Eve and Christmas days at home with just our family.  Tonight we'll meet up with friends for church and dinner.  It's the first time in a long time we'll be at our own house for Christmas and we have a lot of special surprises in store for the kids.  I'll be sure to share them with you after the new year (and no, a baby is NOT one of them!).  Until then, we wish you and yours a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Icemegeddon 2013

As I mentioned in my previous post, a massive ice storm hit our area Thursday night/Friday morning.  The official totals show about 2.5" of combined ice and sleet where we are.  Temperatures weren't above freezing until yesterday afternoon.  Anything that did manage to melt re-froze overnight, as will be the case the next couple of days.  Schools were closed Friday and again today for safety reasons.  I can't really say if this is "the worst ice storm ever" because each one has different factors.  The bitter cold temps lasting for days and the fact that this is awfully early in the season do make this storm pretty bad, though.

Amazingly enough, we've made the most of our time stuck at home.  The layer of sleet over the ice made for great sledding on Friday.  While we were out front that morning our neighbor and his kindergartner daughter came over and he asked if she could play for a while so he could do some work from home.  The kids all got along great and actually spent most of their time outside.  They would come in occasionally to warm up then they'd go right back at it.  The neighbor girl ended up staying for 4 or 5 hours and it was the best distraction we could have asked for!

 

 

 

 

 

I'm so glad we got the outside time in on Friday because Saturday was much colder and the sleet had iced over during the night.  That didn't really stop our kiddos, though.  They still played out there quite a bit, just not as much as Friday.  I took the opportunity to bake sugar and gingerbread cookies and get our neighbor gifts made.  We invited our neighbors from across the street to join us for some decorating fun.  I had purchased some gingerbread house kits at the after Christmas sales last year.  This weekend was the perfect time to break them out!  We all played some games, drank some hot tea and watched the kids run laps around the house from their sugar highs after sneaking candy off their houses.  It was a fun afternoon!

 

 

 

Yesterday we decided to venture out for lunch and to Target for a change of scenery.  We invited our neighbors to join us for lunch then back to the house to decorate all the cookies.  More fun was had with that adventure, but no pictures.  This morning we made the rounds delivering all our goodies after a session of Just Dance on the Wii to burn some energy.  Now it's movie/nap time and probably time to start getting the house back in order.

I really feel like this ice storm was a blessing for us.  We are safe, warm and dry, didn't lose power, spent lots of fun time as a family, had the opportunity to really get to know our neighbors and I've knocked so many things of my holiday to-do list!  There's been some sibling bickering here and there, but no more than usual.  Things could have been much worse in so many ways.  Truly thankful!

Catching Up

We are currently hunkered down at home thanks to an ice storm that came through last night.  Temperatures are below freezing and we have about 2.5 inches of ice/sleet.  It's not forecasted to warm up until Sunday so it looks like home is where we'll be the next couple of days.  What better time to finally catch up on the ol' blog!

I had intended to follow up my last post (in October!) with pictures from Halloween.  Well, better late than never!

November was another full month for us.  My parents came for a visit one weekend, Ari had his last baseball game of the season and Cub Scouts kept us busy with meetings and a field trip to Log Cabin Village.

Of course, the biggest event was Thanksgiving.  Our usual routine is to go to Wichita or Denver (alternating years), but this year Keenan's uncle invited everyone to his house in Huntsville, TX.  Ari had the whole week off from school so we enjoyed so quiet days catching up on sleep and playing with friends.  On Wendesday, Keenan's parents and our niece drove to our house for the night.  Thursday morning we all caravaned to Huntsville.  Everything about our time there was wonderful!  First of all only driving 3 hours was like a vacation in itself for us!  Then, we were able to see and spend lots of time with aunts and uncles, eat lots of yummy food and drink way too much wine.  Well, I did anyway!  We also celebrated Papa's (Keenan's dad's) birthday on Friday.  Keenan's uncle and aunt live in a very wooded neighborhood.  Every morning and evening deer come around and many of the neighbors put out feed for them.  The kids (and us) really enjoyed watching the deer come right into the backyard and snack for a while.  They also had an awesome rope swing that kept the kids entertained.  We stayed in a hotel for the 2 nights we were there.  We took full advantage of the indoor pool, breakfast bar and watching tv in bed as well.

Next up, a post on the ice storm.  Stay tuned and stay warm!