Saturday, January 17, 2015

Eight Years Old Already?!?!

Drew turned 8 on Thursday.  How did that happen?!  It doesn't seem like it has been 8 years since these pictures were taken:




At age 8, Drew is a kind, sensitive, sometimes shy, and smart boy.  He is a great big brother to both Kayley and Ryan.  He plays with Kayley way better than I remember Matt playing with me!  And Ryan just adores Drew.

Drew is still a little shy when it comes to new things, but he is getting better at getting out there and trying new things.  I about fell out of my chair at dinner the other night when he told us he volunteered for a reading part at his upcoming school music program.  The gymnasium is packed at those events.  I'm nervous for how he will react when he sees all the people, but I am proud of him for volunteering to do it.  He would never have done that a year ago!

Drew is doing well in school and thoroughly enjoys it.  His best subject is Math, but he loves Reading too.  I just hope he continues to enjoy both!  He is so great about doing his homework.  He likes doing homework so when we tell him it is time, he doesn't mind at all.  (That leaves us free to focus our homework energy on his sister!)

He still loves sports.  His favorite seems to be whatever sport he is in at the moment.  It was all football in the fall and currently basketball.  He just started baseball practice though so we'll see how he does with basketball and baseball at the same time for a few weeks.

He told me just the other day that he plans to be a football player, maybe a baseball player, when he grows up.  ;-)

For his birthday dinner on Thursday, he had picked to go out for pizza.  Instead of having a birthday party with friends, he chose a quick trip to Fun City in Iowa today after his baseball practice.  Unfortunately, his birthday didn't go according to plan.  I picked the kids up early from after care on Thursday and Kayley was really sick.  We came home and she complained of a sore throat and had a high fever (pediatrician confirmed it was strep throat on Friday) so we gave her some Motrin and she just laid on the couch the rest of the night.  Poor girl was miserable.  Drew took it well and said Casey's pizza would be good enough!

My parents FaceTimed with Drew when he was getting ready to open his presents so they were able to watch.  We finished the night with cake.  We also broke the news that we weren't going to be able to go to Fun City with Kayley being sick.  He took it really well.  Much better than Kayley did when she found out this morning!

Below are a few pictures and videos (you will want to mute our singing) from Drew's birthday.  As you will notice in the pictures and the video, Ryan was doing whatever he could to get the attention on him.  He was not understanding why only Drew got presents and he wanted to open his "birthday presents from Santa."  It was his cake too.  Got love 2 1/2 year olds!










And here are two videos from last week highlighting Drew and Kayley's dribbling skills:



Sunday, January 4, 2015

Thiel Family Christmas

My parents and brother left on Saturday December 27th.  Andy's Dad and his brother Mitch arrived on Sunday for the start of Christmas on the Thiel side.  Chris, Jenny, Macie and Noah arrived Tuesday afternoon and Matt, Kim, Brandon, Madison and Jackson arrived Tuesday night.  We had a full house and a lot of fun!  

We had our traditional Christmas dinner of steak and crab Tuesday night.  Macie, Kayley and Noah loved the crab.  We aren't sure where we got Kayley.  She will try anything and usually likes whatever the new food is.  Not much like her dad and certainly nothing like me!

After dinner, the kids opened their presents.  Everyone was happy with their gifts so the evening was a success.  Ryan got 3 riding toys and all the kids seemed to enjoy them at different points during the week.  Macie got a snow cone machine.  I am not sure if she had more fun making snow cones for her cousins or if they had more fun trying all the different flavors!  Drew, Jackson and Noah had fun playing laser tag and Kayley got a lot of clothes for her American Girl doll and also matching PJs for her and her doll.  



















Andy's family left on Friday.  We watched the very depressing Iowa game and then started taking down Christmas decorations.  Our house was so quiet Friday night!  I thought I would enjoy the quiet after having people at our house since December 20th, but I was actually a little sad it was all over.  Now we have to go back to work!

Our fun wasn't quite over though.  Kayley and I drove to Chicago Saturday morning to meet my law school friends for lunch and then the musical, Cinderella.  Mel brought her nieces and Ang brought Amelia.  The girls had fun together and Mel, Ang and I enjoyed catching up.  The musical was excellent!  I might have enjoyed it more than The Sound of Music in May and I loved that one.  Andy isn't into theater or musicals so it is nice to have Kayley to go with me!