Tuesday, March 19, 2013

February

February started with Maddie's 6th birthday party - it was a week late because of snow and a tummy bug but we finally made it.  It was so nice to see the Scholles again as well as Amy and Stella Dot.  We spent so much time with them when the kids were little and it's been a while!  Janet and Frank also did a great job planning the party.  They did a science theme and Frank (a professor at NC State) did several experiments with the kids.  The kids LOVED it!!



Happy Birthday, Maddie!


After cake, we went outside and did the last experiment which was exploding mentos and diet coke.  :-)  The kids thought it was hilarious!


After the last experiment, all the kids started playing and next thing we knew, Kylie was on the ground screaming.  Turns out, she cut her head on something (we think maybe the playset) and she really did a number on it.  Luckily, one of the parents at the party was an EMT so he really helped us out!  She was a trooper and was smiling by the time we got ready to go.

Here's what it looked like when we got it all cleaned up at home.
The next day, we went to get the mattress for Kylie's new bed!  It was delivered later in the month and she was so excited.  We managed to cram it into the van but the kids had to duck a bit.  :-)  They thought it was hilarious...


Happy girl!
These were the brownies I made for the superbowl party we went to that night!  I had to take a picture.  :-)


Silliness at work - these are my coworkers Deirdre and Sara doing some exercise in our office.  :-)

That week, I had a hair appointment and I decided, a little last minute, to go pretty dark!!  I'd been thinking about doing it for a while and figured, why not!?  It's faded a bit since then but it's still a lot darker than it's ever been!

Silliness with Kylie


Our crazy girl!
That weekend, we took a trip downtown to go to the NC Museum of Natural Sciences.  They opened a new wing and Noah had been there a few times with Grammy but the rest of us had never been so it was fun to go!  A nice family day...

Sweet kids!
A Sunday dinner with Nana, Grandad, Andrea, Sean and Savannah...


Check out all the kids having fun doing puzzles and playing iPads.  :-)
 Noah had a school project where he had an 'antique show'.  The instructions told us to send in something 'antique' -- from before they were born.  One example was a VHS tape (!!).  We found this walkman and he was thrilled to take it in.  Check out the paper he had to fill out -- the walkman teaches us that we didn't have phones back then (cell phones with music on them).  :-)

He was so proud
... and showed all his friends at the bus stop that morning
That Saturday was a big day.  I went skiing with two of my coworkers - Sara and Jenn.  We planned this trip several weeks in advance but the closer it got, the more nervous I became.  I hadn't been skiing in 12 years I think AND it was also a day bus trip - the bus left at 5am and was supposed to get back by 8:30 (although we hit snow and traffic on our way home and didn't make it back until close to 10!).  I had to set my alarm for 3:45 that morning!!  We had a blast but on our last run, Jenn fell.  She got up and managed to make it to the lift but felt like something wasn't right with her knee.  She went to the doctor a few days later and turns out she tore her ACL!!  :-(  We did a have so much fun though!



The kids and Waylon did really well while I was gone.  They hung out with Nana and Grandad and went to see a movie.  So much fun with Daddy!

That week, we had an impromtpu dinner with the Gebhardts.  They brought cupcakes with candles already in them so the kids wanted to light them and sing Happy Birthday to themselves!  :-)


Kylie picked her own outfit!!
We got the actual bed delivered that day - Kylie was trhilled! I think it's adorable!!  Once we get our bedroom finished (which will be soon and then I'll post before and after pictures), we are going to try to redo her room - new bedding, paint, etc.



That Thursday, daycare called and told us that Kylie had pink eye and couldn't return to school Friday.  She and I both were fighting a cold, so we took a 'sick' day together.  Neither of us felt horrible so it was a nice day together.  It did us both some good to rest though.

Picnic lunch in the house - she looks so sick, right??

She did take a long nap and wasn't happy about waking up to get Noah off the bus - how pitiful is that face?!

Smiling later though!
That Saturday morning, we went to watch our neighbor's daughter play volleyball.  She babysat for us on Valentine's Day - just for a few hours in the evening and her parents were right around the corner (she's only 11!!!) - but the kids LOVE her and she's such a mature young lady.  They were so excited to watch her play and she was really good!  We'll have to go watch again soon.



That afternoon, Savannah came to stay with us for the night.  The kids were so excited about that, also!  Last minute, our neighbors invited us to come over so we decided to go for a bit.  It turned out to be a huge gathering of kids and the kids loved it.  We had dinner there and ice cream sundaes for dessert.



We came home around 7, made popcorn and the kids watched a movie.


We weren't quite sure how bedtime would go with Savannah since it was her first time staying over at our house but she did great - went straight to bed and slept great.  Up only once in the night but went right back to bed!  We were so happy that it went well - this opens all sorts of new opportunities!  :-)

Happy kids at breakfast!

We had butterflies that had grown from caterpilliars that the Weavers had given us for Christmas so we decided to let them go that day with Savannah there.  It was a beautiful day so we played outside until Sean came to pick her up.



Noah has been doing so great with reading and writing - he's really come so far since he started Kindergarten - in fact, we just had a parent teacher conference today and he's either right on track or past where he should be at this point!  We are so proud of him.

"I love you Kylie and you Daddy and Mommy"
That next week, Grammy came to visit for a grandkid fix.  We enjoyed having her here and Kylie got to have a few 'Grammy-Kylie days' so she was really excited about that.

Grammy-Kylie day at Marbles
Noah was supposed to dress up as his favorite book character one day that week, so we borrowed a Harry Potter outfit for him to wear.  He was so excited and had so much fun wearing it.  Kylie had to dress up also - you might notice she has handcuffs on so I guess Noah was a 'bad' Harry Potter.  :-)


That weekend, Grammy took the kids to the lake to spend the weekend there with Papa also and we had a weekend alone and painted our bedroom!  It was fun to do a project like that together again - it's been a while since we've done something like that together -- but that was technically March so that comes up next!!  :-)

Sunday, February 17, 2013

January!

If you are reading this,  I'm assuming you will be happy to know that I've decided to continue with this blog.  I will probably be scaling back on the journal side of it though and will most likely only be posting once a month - or at least, that will be my goal (I know we are over halfway through February at this point but I'll do better for the rest of the year!).  :-)

So, here is my January post on our happenings...

Noah was tracked out for the first several weeks of January so his vacation from school continued for a while.  He went to Netsports for a few weeks with a few of the neighbor kids and then spent a whole week in MD with Grammy and Papa.  Kylie enjoyed some alone time with Mommy and Daddy that week but missed her brother a lot!  Otherwise, we were just enjoying some down time after all the holidays and working on our bedroom makeover (we've been having a designer helping us out with redoing our master bedroom so that's been fun).  Here are some pics...


Our little scientist - using the science kit that Nana and Grandad got him for Christmas
Kylie helped, too!

Silliness before school one morning

Noah's friend, Preston had a birthday party at Frankie's and Kylie got to enjoy the fun, too!


Noah with two of his school buddies, Preston and Drew
A fun night at Abby's house! They are really starting to play together a lot more these days
We did some carpooling with Jake, Ben, Addy and Jack - Noah loved it!

Kylie and Noah had a sleepover in the playroom one night.

Grammy flew down to take Noah back to MD with her and we met her at the airport.  The kids brought her flowers and we surprised her by going in to pick her up!

Waiting for Grammy

So happy!
The weather was beautiful that weekend so we spent a lot of time outdoors with Grammy that weekend.
We went to visit the Sharpes and the kids were excited to see how big Flynn had gotten.
Fun playtime down at the pool parking lot!

The next day, Grammy and Noah flew back to MD together.  Here are some pictures I got from Grammy from his trip - so much fun!!

I can't believe they let him get up here!


After dinner snuggles with Papa
A trip to the nature conservatory
Yoga with Aunt Leah at her school!


Pizza with Aunt Leah and Uncle Bill
He played lots of checkers and got pretty good at it!

Love Aunt Leah!

Air and Space Museum with Grammy - this is the Wright Brothers plane!

While Noah was gone, we had a good week with Kylie alone.  We also had a night out on Friday and Kylie got to spend some alone time with Nana and Grandad which she loved!  Waylon and I went to see Willie Nelson (his Christmas present).  It was a great show!  His son opened for him and they were both great.  We also had a nice dinner out before!  A fun date night.

At the show


Willie - he's looking a little old! :-)
Silly Waylon - Noah wanted me to include this picture on the blog  :-)

Our caterpillars changed into butterflies that week also!
Grammy and Papa drove Noah back on Saturday and the kids were so excited to see each other!!!


That night, we had our annual get together with the Peelers.  We have taken to getting together with them after the holidays cause it ends up being easier to get everyone together after the busy holiday season.  We missed having Reeves, Leah and Bill there but everyone else was able to come!

The 'kids'  :-)
We had oysters and I discovered that I actually liked them!
We found this inside one of the oysters!  Too funny.

The group shot

And of course a silly shot!
Karen gave the kids NC Stat piggy banks
Grammy and Papa got Noah a big boy bike while they were here!  No training wheels!  Now he just has to practice to learn.  :-)  He hasn't shown a whole lot of interest in bikes before now so we are excited.  He's only had a few opportunities to try since we got it - the weather has been pretty unpredictable - but he's excited!


Saying goodbye to Grammy and Papa after a week together!!  Thank you so much!!



That Monday, I took the day off for Noah's last day of track out.  I kept Kylie home also and we met Megan, Ryan, Peyton, Megan and Tucker at the park!  So fun.

So sweet!!
Silly girl trying on my boots  :-)
After such beautiful weather, it was a surprise to get 'snow' (ice) that Friday.  Noah got off school early because of it so we had another afternoon together - and this is what happened....

Kylie dripped glue all over the floor!!  I did learn that glue is water soluble though so you can clean it up pretty easily.  :-)


They played on the porch for a long time - it was so cold!
A few other playtimes and parties with neighbors...

Hanging with Ms. Carolyn and Will (Abby was there too!)
Playtime with Addy during a neighborhood party
That wraps up Januray's update.  I'll do another one for February's events after this month is over.