Happy 9th Birthday, Drew!!

NINE years old?!  How did that happen?  It feels like just yesterday I was carrying him around on my hip.  I am so proud of Drew.  He always tries his best in school and whatever sport he is playing at the time.  He is the best big brother Kayley and Ryan could ask for - always looking out for them.  His teacher told us that he is always kind to everyone else in the class.  That is every bit as important to us as getting good grades so Andy and I were happy to hear that.  

My brother, Matt, drove over from Omaha to help Drew celebrate his birthday.  He arrived Friday afternoon.  Andy and I left work early so we could get Drew's cake and get home so he could start opening presents.  Drew was pretty excited with all of his presents.  Ryan had a little trouble being patient while waiting for cake.  Drew was looking through his stack of football cards and Ryan really wanted cake.  I caught him on the island with his fingers in the frosting.

Drew wanted to go Fun City instead of having a party so that is what we did.  We left on Sunday morning and drove over to Iowa.  Matt came with and spent a few hours playing with the kids before he drove the rest of the way back to Omaha.  We played lots of arcade games, movie theater thrill rides, laser tag, go karts, bowling, swimming, ballocity, etc.  It was a fun-filled 24 hours!

Sox spent Sunday night with my friend while we were at Fun City.  This friend lets Sox sleep on the bed and get on their couch whenever she wants.  Sox came home and decided she should get right up on our couch too.  :-)

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

I can't believe the holidays are already over.  As always, they went by fast, but we had a lot of fun with both sides of the family.

My family was here for Christmas.  The kids were excited to have them here on Christmas morning!  Matt left the Sunday after Christmas and Mom and Dad left on Monday.  Monday was also the day of our ice storm.  We lost power at 10:15am and didn't get it back until the middle of the night.  The kids thought it was a lot of fun.  I had a ton of laundry to do so I didn't think it was nearly as fun.  And it got cold in the house!  To make the day even more exciting, we managed to lock ourselves out of the house during the power outage.  A few hours and $85 later, we were back in the house.

We took Kayley to see Star Wars when my family
was here.  During our power outage, we went to
Home Depot and she saw these three and thought
Matt would like to see a picture of her with them!

We left for Omaha Tuesday morning to spend New Year's with Andy's family.  The kids were so excited to see their cousins!  We had a great time and lots of late nights. Ryan was even up late every night.  It will be fun getting him back on a normal bedtime routine.

Grandpa and all the grandkids

Mitch and the kids singing Christmas
songs to us before opening presents

Bowling!

Starting our countdown

Still counting down

Happy New Year!

We drove home yesterday and today has been our only day of rest this break.  Back to work and school we go!