Our first Christmas celebration

Kay and mike came this afternoon to celebrate Christmas today! It was a nice relaxing visit. Played a game, visited, opened gifts and enjoyed a wonderful dinner. I bought some ribeye steaks from Aldi and found some great recipe ideas on Pinterest for marinating the steaks and twice baked potatoes. I was awfully proud of myself for how it all came together! 

Kids enjoyed their gifts. Owen was busy putting new Legos together and grace was trying to master the rainbow loom! It was a great visit and enjoyed having them here at our home!

Ice Day

School Closed!! However, I find this bittersweet. Being my first year working at school I was looking forward to seeing all the holiday joy from the kids on the last day of school. All week there has been treats in the office, presents being exchanged and parties in the classrooms! It sure gets u in the spirit seeing everyone with a sense of holiday spirit.

Even though I am missing pj day at school we will have it here at home today! It is 840am and the kiddos are still nestled in their beds. I am enjoying GMA in bed with a cup of coffee and a bit of Baileys thrown in. Seeing as how I am not getting anywhere unless we ice skate there! The plan is to bake some Christmas cookies today and just enjoy our laid back day together. It certainly is the most wonderful time of the year 😊

The most wonderful time of the year...

Gearing up for the holidays!! Starting to feel the spirit wrapping up my shopping, finish decorating and starting some Christmas baking!

Kids went to see Santa yesterday at the mall or should I say Owen went to see Santa! Of course what he asked for is not what he will be getting! We should know by now that this always happens! He asked for a Furby Boom and NFL Gameday.  Lucky for him one of the items was on sale in the ads this week and were able to squeeze it into the budget!

Besides the gifts and the shopping we set our final plans on where and when we will visit family which I am most excited about! This Sunday Kay and mike will be coming here. Christmas Eve will be spent having dinner with some good friends followed by church service. Christmas morning we will be home to welcome Santa and open our gifts.  That afternoon we will travel to my dad and Holly's and Thursday we will continue north to my Mom and Tom's for Ghiloni Christmas.  I am especially looking forward to seeing my mom as I have missed her SO much lately and I just love being up there this time of the year with all the snow! Ghiloni Christmas is always very important to me being an only child.  Having my step brother and sister inlaw there and my nephews is really comforting and a connection of extended family I really cherish. 

The kids also get so excited to travel and visit this time of year and we r lucky they r seasoned travelers. Of course I always love seeing their faces light up opening their gifts. We don't buy them a whole lot throughout the year besides birthday and Christmas so it's always a nice treat to spoil them a little :). 

It is always a great time of reflection. We are so lucky to be blessed with the people in our lives both family and friends.  We are fortunate to have a comfortable life and be able to provide the way we do for our family. We are blessed to have such wonderful children and to all be happy and healthy! Here's to wishing u all happy and healthy holiday season and a wonderful new year!!

Buddy

Owen was so worried about Buddy the Elf today. We had forgot to move him last night. When Owen noticed he was in the same spot he said he thought it was his fault. I asked him why and he said very guiltily and almost in tears that yesterday he shot a Nerf bullet and he thinks it may have hit him! For those of u that don't know the "magic" of the elf will end if the elf is touched. I reassured him thAt because he didn't a actually touch him that it should b just fine. I did remember to move him tonight 😉

Another Year!

Aaron and I celebrated our 13th wedding anniversary this Monday! Its amazing thinking back over the years and seeing how we have grown as a couple and all the things we have been through together. I truly believe I have found my best friend for life with Aaron. Probably one of the biggest attributes that I love about our relationship is that we always respect one another. Even through the roughest of roads we have always been repectful of one another. I think that is a true key to our great relationship. Another is that we don't take each other for granted. We both play an important role in our relationship as husband and wife as well as parents. I sure did hit the jackpot with this guy :) We had a busy but enjoyable anniversary "weekend". Saturday we were able to get out for dinner. It is so wonderful to have two responsible kids that can get along enough to stay home together so we can get away once in a while! We celebrated in Beloit of all places! There is a steak house there called Merril and Houston's. Honestly, it was really very nice and I didn't feel like I was in Beloit ;) Later that evening we stopped at a bar closer to home and ran into some neighbors that were just acquaintances and spent some time getting to know them and enjoying some dueling pianos. Turned out to be a really nice evening. Aaron and I even had great conversation that I don't think was so much centered around home, or kids which is always an amazing feat! One nice surprise was Grace's gifts for us. She had spent the night over at a friends Friday night and I guess they took a trip to the mall with Gabby's Mom. This girl spent her hard earned money on us! This is always the time I feel so guilty about getting on her case so much lately about the small things in life. Bitter sweet part of being a parent I guess. She got Aaron a $10 gift card to Lids, the hat store. She got me some lotion and body spray from Bath and Body works and both of us some truffles from Fannie May! What a sweet girl she is and so thoughtful. She did however make her brother pretty jealous seeing as he couldn't get out to shop ;) Here's looking forward to many more years together!

Laughter..

Here we go, Grace is on the phone with her friend Gabby. For a while she had the door open and just a minute ago she shut it. After that she broke out in a bout of giggly laughter! It makes me smile hearing her but even more so makes me wish we still had the kind of phones u could pick up on in the other room cause I am dying to know what its all about ;) purely innocent I'm sure!

Battling breakouts

Yes, that means acne for Grace. Trying to catch it early and get Grace to adopt good face cleansing habits! Poor Girl, all I can hope is that she doesn't get it as bad as my tween years :(

Big Sis Lil Bro

Not sure how many more years I will catch images such as this :)

Conversations with Owen

Owen and I somehow got on the topic of Mother's Day today before school. During the conversation he told me he was gonna ge me one of those vacuums that goes by itself so I didn't have to push the vacuum anymore. I told him that would be cool and that is a great idea! However, I said I would be happy with a massage and that would be much cheaper. He then came up with the idea of "The chair that goes up and down the stairs". At first I couldn't figure out what he was talking about then remembered that the stair lift chairs had been on TV commercials lately. I just about died with laughter and asked him if he thought I needed that yet and that I thought I wasn't old enough to need it. His remark was, "I am just thinking of things that will help you out around the house!" Ohh buddy, always thinking of your dear old Mom :)

Soccer Sunday

What a great day! Owen had a make up game on Sunday. The opposing team was my good friend Kim's team. We had requested that Owen be on her team but we didn't make the cut, too many requests for such a popular coach :) Owen had a few friends on her team, her daughter Ella, our neighbor friends the Kersten's son and daughter and his friend Noah that he played soccer with last spring. The game was quite a comical one to say the least. The kids played hard and were really interacting with one another on the field. At one point Owen was trying to block Ella from the throw in. Note: Ella is about a good head taller than Owen. However, maybe in soccer that isn't an advantage? Owen also got nailed in the head with the ball and which caused some tears and comforting from Mom. Probably one of the best parts of the game for me was the camaraderie between us parents on the sidelines. It was so much fun to see our kids playing so well with one another. Everyone was cheering each other on no matter the team and the kids had us all laughing the entire time! This to me is the way all sports functions should be and can only hope they will stay this cordial and joyful throughout the years!

Sock hop

Grace has her school sock hop today!  They have the dance right after school  so she gets to wear her outfit all day at school. She was pretty excited,  always is if she gets to dress up!

Daddy and Daughter

Daddy/Daughter dance

Grace and Aaron finally got a chance to attend the Habitat for Humanity! In years past we have always been gone either on our annual ski trip or somewhere else.  One year she did get the chance to attend with Grandpa Bill! 
Since it may be the last year Grace is excited to hang with dad we decided to make it a little bigger event.  We didnt really have a choice on a new dress. I am emabarassed to say that my only daughter had 1 dress in her closet and it was a size 10, way too small!!  Dress shopping was exhausting. I went during the day to scout out what was out there knowing at her age and a small town it wouldnt b easy.  Everything was either to young and easter flowery or prom-ish.  I had a few contenders one of which I actually found at Jc Penny for $45 but thought was a little too much for the occasion and was also a junior size 1!  Don't wanna think my girl is moving into the junior section, boo!  After trying on my first couple choices grace discovered the plastic covered covered hanger in my bedroom and begged me to show her what was inside. As I opened it her jaw dropped!  Obviously she fell in love with it.  We even had to go back and exchange it for a size 3 to have room to grow. 
I also went ahead and ordered a coursage and boutineere and we surprised here with that as well. 
The night of the dance Grace and Dad paired up with our friends the Griffiths.  Grace is good friends with their daughter's Jacie and Nina from school and dance.  They enjoyed the dance. The Dj was really good and even video tapped a harlem shuffle with all the daughters there featuring Grace and friends.  Afterwards the dads treated them to a game of bowling and some pizza. Not a bad end to a fun and special night!

Ski Weekend 2013

Well, our ski annual ski weekend turned out a little differently than in years past. We ended up with only one other couple joining us this year and that was Nate and Nicole. Joe and Heather, Ryan and Jen just couldn't make it this year. First time we weren't all together in years! It was still a great weekend! Nate and Nicole brought Annabelle along this year to ski. We all skied on Friday at Blackjack including Owen! Both Owen and Annabelle had private lessons for the 1st hour and a half. What a huge difference that makes! Aaron and I had picked up a ski harness for Owen before we left thinking that would have came in handy when we had first taught Grace. Well, needless to say Aaron returned the harness this week since we didn't even need to use it! Owen was a pro! Not to say that he didn't fall, a lot, but he was incredibly fearless! By the end of the day he was navigating his way over the jumps and graduated to a blue hill! The bigger hill did bring quite the tumble for the last run of the day. I was inside and had just looked out the window to see him screaming down the hill and coming to a huge crash! I thought for sure he would cry after that but no! Guess it was a blessing there was lots of fresh powder that day! Saturday just us adults went skiing at Indianhead. As we were leaving Owen was in tears cause he wanted to come with us. We all enjoyed another wonderful snowy day on the slopes. Afterwards we hit the bar at Indianhead to hear some music and have some beer. We then moved onto the Alpen Inn over by Powderhorn Mtn to see a guy play that we had seen another year by the name of Brad Emmanuel. He was SO great that we ended up following him over to a local bar called the Pub and Grub. We ended up meeting up with a group we had seen at the last bar and had a lot of laughs with them that evening! Always a good time had by all!

It has been a while since I have posted so I thought a short update was much overdue! Things have been low key here for the most part. Aaron got back a week ago from a business trip to Austin. We have been getting snow just about everyday. I don't mind the snow I prefer to have snow if it is going to be cold. I have been concentrating really hard of eating right and getting back to a regular exercise routine. I have to say now that I am in the groove I crave exercise! I joined back up at the Athletic Club with their new year deal and its nice to be back. The kids have been doing well. We had a bit of a bump in the road with Grace recently but it has been dealt with and are trying to move forward. She had been sucked into the cyber bully world and got into a bit of trouble over it. However, I think both Grace and us as parents learned our lesson. Otherwise she has been doing well in school a great report card with all A's and a B. So happy that she is still enjoying school and working hard! Owen has been doing really well and still very excited about school even though he says each morning he doesn't want to go. I think it is partly because he just doesn't want to get out of bed! He has started the book in a bag program where he brings home a book each night to read. In just one or two weeks he has moved up to level 3! It is so exciting to hear him read words on his own. Next week Aaron and I are traveling to Scottsdale AZ to visit Jeremy and Maria. Our friends Rich and Christina from Chicago are flying down with us and were kind enough to use their frequent flier miles to get our tickets! My wonderful nephew Phillip will be coming to watch the kids Thursday night for us and get them off to school on friday. He is going to school in Whitewater which is about 20 minute drive from us. The kids are SO excited to have him come and stay. The weekend duty will be Kay who is coming here to stay with the kids! The following weekend we will be going on our annual Team Hof Ver Kof (Team Yard Sale) ski trip with our friends. Looking forward to some exciting times in the coming weeks and blowing off some steam!!

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Two different kids

There is two parts to this story.
Part 1 →The first and last pics are of the kids rooms and how they look on a day to day basis. Owen's room for the most part is pretty neat and tidy. He always puts things away in a very detailed way. Noticed the lined up toys under the window!
Then there is miss Grace. Well, my Mom would laugh and say I got what was coming to me!  I can hear my Moms voice taking over me when I argue with her over the cleanliness of her room.  Almost always after I ask her to clean it she comes out, tells me she is done and I check in on what is supposed to be clean.  However, all she has done was bulldozed the items from the middle of the flor the the walls. When I ask her if she thinks its clean she says "Ya!?"

Part 2→ Grace has planned to have a few girlfriends over this coming saturday. In preparation I told her she needed to clean her room.  It is Thursday night and she had been in her room for about the last hour and a half when she came out and asked me to look at her room.  Expecting the usual I go to give the Mom dis-approval only to find the picture below. It was beautiful, see middle pic.  Notice the nice arrangement of stuffed animals on her chair!  She is now busy making flower pens for her friends gift bags she is putting together!  Such a sweet girl, she makes her momma proud!

Christmas in a blink

Kids with Grandma Helen

Holly and Grandmas Helen

Lexi and Vicki, Holly's Neice

Kuhn Clan

Aaron and his toy

Helicopter accident

Christmas morning

Thank you PA King's!

Thank You PA King's!

Kay and Calendar

Sledding Up North down the driveway

Owen's snowmobile sled!

Grace with Samuel and Lindsey

Owen the Honorary Duck Driver and his certificate! This was a gift from my Mom and Tom's neighbors from this summer when her got to drive the duck!  Way Cool!

My beautiful Mommy!

Rockem Sockem Robots!

Fire Station from G. Bill, Cindy and Nathan

Christmas with Marilee

Owen and his tablet on Christmas Eve