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| Train Ride @ the Mall |
Thursday, January 17, 2013
Rock Stars
So, the kids have been getting a hold of my phone and taking tons of pictures and videos. This post is all mostly things I've discovered while browsing through my pictures (a few I've taken). These kids are little rock stars in the making. Enjoy!
Yearly Interviews
Allison Katherine ~ 6.5 years
1. What
is your name? You know my name. Allison
2. How old are you? 6
3. What is your mom’s name? Brooke
4. What does your mom do during the day? Watch kids
5. What is your dad’s name? Derek
6. What does your dad do during the day? work
7. What is your favorite color? Blue and pink
8. What is your favorite thing to eat? Ice cream
2. How old are you? 6
3. What is your mom’s name? Brooke
4. What does your mom do during the day? Watch kids
5. What is your dad’s name? Derek
6. What does your dad do during the day? work
7. What is your favorite color? Blue and pink
8. What is your favorite thing to eat? Ice cream
9. What is your least favorite food? Broccoli
10.
Who are your friends? Lilly, Mason, Morgan, Kaiya, Abby, Kiya (she was naming people she had seen most recently...even a girl she just met at her new school!)
11. What is your sister’s name? Avery
12. What is your favorite place to go? Pump it up or chuck e cheese
13. What is your favorite thing to do? Go to school
14. What do you like about your Mommy? Uh, don’t write that. She does silly stuff.
13. What is your favorite thing to do? Go to school
14. What do you like about your Mommy? Uh, don’t write that. She does silly stuff.
15. What do you like about your Daddy? um, he skypes a lot
16. What do you like about your sister? she hits me. You like that? No.
She helps me.
17. What do you like about your brother? he plays around with me
18. What do you want to be when you grow up? teacher
19. What does Avery like to do? Hang around with her blanket.
18. What do you want to be when you grow up? teacher
19. What does Avery like to do? Hang around with her blanket.
20. What does Blake like to do? he likes to play with cars
21. What is your favorite toy? I don't know
22. What is your favorite fruit? Strawberry
23. Favorite vegetable? Green beans
24. What is your favorite tv show? Max & Ruby
25. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? jello
26. What is your favorite outfit? My dress. The pink sparkly star and pink ruffles.
27. What is your favorite game? Clue
28. What is your favorite snack? Pretzels
29. What is your favorite animal? Monkeys and pandas
30. What is your favorite song? I can't remember. Taylor Swift.....cuz we are never, ever, ever getting back together....we - eeee
31. What is your favorite Book? Junie B. Jones
32. Who is your best friend? Lily
33. What is your favorite cereal? Frosted Flakes
34. What is your favorite thing to play outside? Freeze tag
35. What is your favorite drink? water
36. What is your favorite holiday? Christmas
37. What do you like to sleep with at night? my pillow
38. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? toast
39. What is your favorite movie? Charlie & the Chocolate Factory (WillyWonka)
40. What is your favorite vacation? camping
41. If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go? Indiana
Avery Elizabeth ~ 4 years
(you can probably tell that Avery was not happy with me. She did not want to do the interview).
(you can probably tell that Avery was not happy with me. She did not want to do the interview).
1. What is your name? Avery
2. How old are you? 4
3. What is your mom’s name? I don't know
4. What does your mom do during the day? Don't know
5. What is your dad’s name? Derek
6. What does your dad do during the day? don't know
7. What is your favorite color? pink
8. What is your favorite thing to eat? Chicken nuggets and french fries
9. What is your least favorite food? Don't hate anything
10. Who are your friends? Blake and, ummmm, Allie. That's all. Only 2 friends.
11. What is your sister’s name? Allie
12. What is your favorite place to go? Museum
13. What is your favorite thing to do? Color
14. What do you like about your Mommy? Nothing
15. What do you like about your Daddy? I don't know
16. What do you like about your sister? Don't know
17. What do you like about your brother? Don't know
18. What do you want to be when you grow up? Princess
19. What does Avery like to do? I don't know
20. What does Blake like to do? play with cars
21. What is your favorite toy? Minnie Mouse
22. What is your favorite fruit? Strawberries
23. Favorite vegetable? Don't know
24. What is your favorite tv show? Minnie Mouse Clubhouse
25. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? don't know
26. What is your favorite outfit? This one. New pink/silver striped shirt w/ stretchy jeans
27. What is your favorite game? I don't know. Duck duck goose.
28. What is your favorite snack? Goldfish
29. What is your favorite animal? Elephant
30. What is your favorite song? Here we go Being who I want (and she sings on and on. From Barbie: Princess & Popstar)
31. What is your favorite Book? Minnie Mouse
32. Who is your best friend?
33. What is your favorite cereal? Don't know. Honey Bunches of Oats
34. What is your favorite thing to play outside? Play and go on the swing
35. What is your favorite drink? water
36. What is your favorite holiday? Christmas
37. What do you like to sleep with at night? my blanket
38. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? cereal
39. What is your favorite movie? Don't really know
40. What is your favorite vacation?
41. If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go?
Thursday, January 10, 2013
TAKKK Visits
We were so excited to get a call from Kevin & Tami's family last week! They had spent the holidays with Tami's family in Illinois and wanted to stop by and visit with us on their way back to Maryland. The girls had SO much fun reconnecting. They are all such good friends/cousins. They did so much in the little time they had together. Blake and Kinley got along great too. It was nice to see Kevin & Tami too!! :)
The sweetest thing happend with Blake and his Uncle Kevin. Blake totally thought he was Derek! He ran up to him and just squeezed his legs......then came and ran to me and checked him out from afar. Not too much later he was running in for another hug. This time Kevin picked him up and Blake just laid on his shoulder for the longest time. He wanted to get his cuddles in! Every once in awhile when Kevin would talk Blake would take these peeks at him. I think he was getting pretty confused and at some point realized it wasn't his Daddy. Sweet, but sad too!
The sweetest thing happend with Blake and his Uncle Kevin. Blake totally thought he was Derek! He ran up to him and just squeezed his legs......then came and ran to me and checked him out from afar. Not too much later he was running in for another hug. This time Kevin picked him up and Blake just laid on his shoulder for the longest time. He wanted to get his cuddles in! Every once in awhile when Kevin would talk Blake would take these peeks at him. I think he was getting pretty confused and at some point realized it wasn't his Daddy. Sweet, but sad too!
Tuesday, January 1, 2013
Happy New Year, 2013!!
I'm looking forward to a fresh start in this new year. Half of the year will be spent here in Indiana and the other half......well, who knows where we'll be. Just got to keep a positive attitude and, although I'm not always good at it, "go with the flow." I actually woke up this morning feeling pretty good. I don't know how to explain it but it really makes me hopeful for a great year. :)
Sometime today I'm going to do my yearly interviews with the girls. I tried looking on the blog for last years and didn't find it. Then I looked further into and it was still written up as a "draft" and never got published. The reason being, I never completely finished their interviews. :( I will make sure I get them done this time. It's so fun to go back and see what's changed, what's stayed the same, you can tell how much they've grown by their answers......and just really see their personailties come through. Next year Blake should be able to start being interviewed!
So, last night to celebrate the last day of 2012 we took the kids to Chuck E Cheese. All three of them had a blast, even us three grown ups had a lot of fun. Allie won the "Super Bonus" on one of the games she played and got a lot of tickets. The look on her face was priceless! Blake loved the rides. His favorite seemed the be the Noah's Ark boat. Avery was constantly going back and forth between the rides and the games but her favorite actually was probably the play place.
After Chuck E Cheese we went to a place where everyone would eat........Golden Corral.
By the time we got home from our night out it was already 9pm. We got Blake in bed.......he fell asleep on the way home. Then we figured since the girls were wide awake we'd see if they could make it to see the ball drop. We got out the board games and let them choose which ones to play. First was Yahtzee........that lasted a while. Then we played Clue and by the time that was over we had just a few minutes to go until the new year!
Sometime today I'm going to do my yearly interviews with the girls. I tried looking on the blog for last years and didn't find it. Then I looked further into and it was still written up as a "draft" and never got published. The reason being, I never completely finished their interviews. :( I will make sure I get them done this time. It's so fun to go back and see what's changed, what's stayed the same, you can tell how much they've grown by their answers......and just really see their personailties come through. Next year Blake should be able to start being interviewed!
So, last night to celebrate the last day of 2012 we took the kids to Chuck E Cheese. All three of them had a blast, even us three grown ups had a lot of fun. Allie won the "Super Bonus" on one of the games she played and got a lot of tickets. The look on her face was priceless! Blake loved the rides. His favorite seemed the be the Noah's Ark boat. Avery was constantly going back and forth between the rides and the games but her favorite actually was probably the play place.
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| Chuck E Cheese was giving away free tickets as soon as we got there. The other little girl in the picture (and her brother) were constantly begging us for tickets. Their parents were not paying any attention to them. They were off playing games themselves. |
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| This rollercoaster ride was intense! |
After Chuck E Cheese we went to a place where everyone would eat........Golden Corral.
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| yep, she ate that entire thing....... |
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| well, Blake got one bite. |
By the time we got home from our night out it was already 9pm. We got Blake in bed.......he fell asleep on the way home. Then we figured since the girls were wide awake we'd see if they could make it to see the ball drop. We got out the board games and let them choose which ones to play. First was Yahtzee........that lasted a while. Then we played Clue and by the time that was over we had just a few minutes to go until the new year!
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| 10 seconds! |
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| Happy New Year! |
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| 2013 |
Monday, December 31, 2012
Sweetest.Girl.Ever
Dear Mrs. Ratliff's class,
I am doing great. How are you? I miss you guys. I would like to know what you are learning. What did you get for Christmas? I got for Christmas is the Princess and the Popstar Castle. I love you guys.
Love, Allison
P.S. Please write back
For the record, she wrote this all by herself on her own accord!
Wednesday, December 26, 2012
Merry Christmas
I went a little overboard on gifts for the kids this year......thinking that they might need more toys to keep them entertained since we're away from home for the next 6 months. Well, on top of gifts from us and gifts from other family members I don't know where to put them all!!! Still trying to figure out where to put all of their clothes too!
We slept in until about 8:30ish. We were up late the night before though. Avery was sick (puked all over in the car and Mom and I had to get all of that cleaned up.) Derek was able to skype us before we even made it downstairs to see if Santa came! The girls were antsy though so our skype session wasn't that long. He did skype later, but again, we were then opening up gifts from Mony & Papa and Bryan, Kim & Hannah so the conversation wasn't that long. Like I said, I don't think they fully understand how long he's going to be gone and the excitement of being here is still so fresh.
Christmas Eve PJ's
We slept in until about 8:30ish. We were up late the night before though. Avery was sick (puked all over in the car and Mom and I had to get all of that cleaned up.) Derek was able to skype us before we even made it downstairs to see if Santa came! The girls were antsy though so our skype session wasn't that long. He did skype later, but again, we were then opening up gifts from Mony & Papa and Bryan, Kim & Hannah so the conversation wasn't that long. Like I said, I don't think they fully understand how long he's going to be gone and the excitement of being here is still so fresh.
Christmas Eve PJ's
Christmas Morning
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| still not feeling well |
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| not a good idea |
Saying Goodbye
Derek left Sunday morning. As of last night he finally arrived at his final destination.......although the airlines lost his luggage so he is still in his civilian clothes and pretty cold. Sunday was rough on all of us. We had been so busy with everything and the travel that we never mentally prepared ourselves for the long goodbye. I'm not sure the kids totally understand how long he's going to be gone. They were so caught up in being at Grandma & Grandpa's that it didn't really phase them much. I, however, was a wreck most of the day and even though we were at a family get together I pretty much kept to myself. I was so exhausted and just drained.
When we dropped Derek off at the airport Blake fell from his carseat, out of the Expedition, down to the ground. We're not exactly sure how he fell but he was on the ground on his back and the side of his head was banged up (like a road rash). I feel terrible that that was the last image that Derek saw and I'm sure had a hard time shaking. Blake is completely fine though and we've been able to Skype and Derek can see that and know that he is still our happy little boy.
These are the only pictures I got at our Brooks get together
When we dropped Derek off at the airport Blake fell from his carseat, out of the Expedition, down to the ground. We're not exactly sure how he fell but he was on the ground on his back and the side of his head was banged up (like a road rash). I feel terrible that that was the last image that Derek saw and I'm sure had a hard time shaking. Blake is completely fine though and we've been able to Skype and Derek can see that and know that he is still our happy little boy.
These are the only pictures I got at our Brooks get together
Goodbye Texas
Our last days leading up to the big transition from Texas to Indiana were very long, tiresome and stressful. I think we got everything done but probably not exactly how we wanted to. We moved most of our stuff from the house to the storage unit on December 18th and it was 85* outside! We were in shorts and t-shirts and sweating! It cooled off to 75* the rest of the week. Definitely going to miss that weather!
With Thursday, December 20th being our last night in San Antonio we decided to hit up the RiverWalk one last time to see the Christmas Lights and have dinner. We ate at Rita's (we had a Groupon that still needed to be used).
After we left the RiverWalk we headed to our hotel. While we were on the Interstate we heard a loud pop.....it was our tire. We were able to make it off the Interstate into a shopping area where we found our tire completely sliced open and flat. It was starting to get chilly that night and Derek and i didn't have coats with us......Derek was even in short sleeves. Luckily we had a tool set with us and a spare tire. Two security guards also stopped to help so it went by quicker than it could have. We finally made it to the hotel around 10:30pm or so. We got the kids in their pj's, in their beds and a load of laundry in the washing machine. Derek took off to finish up with the last of what was to do at the house (mopping floors and paint touch ups.) I stayed with the kids and finally got a shower in! When I got out of the shower at 11:30pm all of the kids were still awake! I had to turn all the lights off to make it pitch black and threaten to take Avery's blanket away for everyone to quiet down and actually go to sleep. Derek didn't show up back at the hotel until 4:30 am Friday morning. I got the kids up and ready at a little after 6 and took them down to breakfast @ 6:45 where we had the place to ourselves. Derek made it down there just as we were finishing up so I ran up to get all of our stuff and our laundry that was still in the dryer in the laundry room (actually some man was up there folding it all). We got Avery to school on time and Allie was a little late but they weren't counting tardies that day. It was just hard to find her class because they were having an assembly in the gym.
Once the kids were in school we had tons of errands to run. The first thing was meeting our property manager at the house so she could get pictures, then I took the truck to a tire place to get tires replaced while Derek took our last load to the storage unit. We made it to Avery's Christmas party, a little late and in work clothes, but we were there that's what counts!
Once we left Avery's school and said all of our goodbye's we had to go back to the tire place b/c a light was already coming on again talking about tire sensors which we just replaced. Ugh! In the end, it wasn't a safety issue and we didn't have time to mess with them screwing more up. Derek was already on his way to base to drop a laptop off and his truck off and I had to go pick him up. From there we had to drop off our at&t internet box thingy and get our vehicle weighed so we could get reimbursed for some of our storage fees. After doing all of that we basically missed all of Allie's Christmas party. Luckily whe wasn't really expecting us and she was all smiles when I walked in. We are really going to miss Kuentz. The school was great and Allie has progressed so much, especially this year with her teacher, Mrs. Ratliff. She was awesome. She started crying thinking about it being Allie's last day. We'll miss her.
After school we went back to the house one last time and loaded the last of our things to take to Indiana and picked up the UHaul trailer. Like I said, we got on the road about 4pm. Not good timing for San Antonio traffic and Christmas vacation traffic to boot. We got stuck in some nasty traffic. We also had to stop by the Distribution Center to pick up a few things........traffic that was is even worse! We were just outside of NorthEastern San Antonio at 6pm! We decided to stop and eat dinner in hopes that traffic will have died down some. We left @ 6:30 and it wasn't quite as bad but it got worse again as soon as we hit Austin. Once we got to Dallas we were diverted off the interstate b/c there was a huge wreck where a semi w/ combustible material crashed and caught fire. A trip that usually takes us 17-20 hours w/ stops took us 24 hours. At least we made it safe!
And for a few random pictures:
With Thursday, December 20th being our last night in San Antonio we decided to hit up the RiverWalk one last time to see the Christmas Lights and have dinner. We ate at Rita's (we had a Groupon that still needed to be used).
After we left the RiverWalk we headed to our hotel. While we were on the Interstate we heard a loud pop.....it was our tire. We were able to make it off the Interstate into a shopping area where we found our tire completely sliced open and flat. It was starting to get chilly that night and Derek and i didn't have coats with us......Derek was even in short sleeves. Luckily we had a tool set with us and a spare tire. Two security guards also stopped to help so it went by quicker than it could have. We finally made it to the hotel around 10:30pm or so. We got the kids in their pj's, in their beds and a load of laundry in the washing machine. Derek took off to finish up with the last of what was to do at the house (mopping floors and paint touch ups.) I stayed with the kids and finally got a shower in! When I got out of the shower at 11:30pm all of the kids were still awake! I had to turn all the lights off to make it pitch black and threaten to take Avery's blanket away for everyone to quiet down and actually go to sleep. Derek didn't show up back at the hotel until 4:30 am Friday morning. I got the kids up and ready at a little after 6 and took them down to breakfast @ 6:45 where we had the place to ourselves. Derek made it down there just as we were finishing up so I ran up to get all of our stuff and our laundry that was still in the dryer in the laundry room (actually some man was up there folding it all). We got Avery to school on time and Allie was a little late but they weren't counting tardies that day. It was just hard to find her class because they were having an assembly in the gym.
Once the kids were in school we had tons of errands to run. The first thing was meeting our property manager at the house so she could get pictures, then I took the truck to a tire place to get tires replaced while Derek took our last load to the storage unit. We made it to Avery's Christmas party, a little late and in work clothes, but we were there that's what counts!
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| Avery and her best friend, Mia Jaye |
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| Avery and Ms. Bellah |
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| Avery and Ms. Carnavale |
Once we left Avery's school and said all of our goodbye's we had to go back to the tire place b/c a light was already coming on again talking about tire sensors which we just replaced. Ugh! In the end, it wasn't a safety issue and we didn't have time to mess with them screwing more up. Derek was already on his way to base to drop a laptop off and his truck off and I had to go pick him up. From there we had to drop off our at&t internet box thingy and get our vehicle weighed so we could get reimbursed for some of our storage fees. After doing all of that we basically missed all of Allie's Christmas party. Luckily whe wasn't really expecting us and she was all smiles when I walked in. We are really going to miss Kuentz. The school was great and Allie has progressed so much, especially this year with her teacher, Mrs. Ratliff. She was awesome. She started crying thinking about it being Allie's last day. We'll miss her.
After school we went back to the house one last time and loaded the last of our things to take to Indiana and picked up the UHaul trailer. Like I said, we got on the road about 4pm. Not good timing for San Antonio traffic and Christmas vacation traffic to boot. We got stuck in some nasty traffic. We also had to stop by the Distribution Center to pick up a few things........traffic that was is even worse! We were just outside of NorthEastern San Antonio at 6pm! We decided to stop and eat dinner in hopes that traffic will have died down some. We left @ 6:30 and it wasn't quite as bad but it got worse again as soon as we hit Austin. Once we got to Dallas we were diverted off the interstate b/c there was a huge wreck where a semi w/ combustible material crashed and caught fire. A trip that usually takes us 17-20 hours w/ stops took us 24 hours. At least we made it safe!
And for a few random pictures:
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| we did somehow manage to still make Christmas Cookies (4 trays of them!) |
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| took some time out from packing to watch Rudolph |
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| this picture cracks me up.....at story time! |
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