Friday, December 29

Christmas Cookie Decorating!

So sorry it's taken a while to post about Christmas. We truly had a great one! We hope all of you did!

A few days before Christmas, we all took some time after dinner to do a little family activity. It was so much fun! Here are the pictures!
Every body really got into this one!







Didn't they all turn out so pretty!



Jonathan sure did get into the frosting! What creativity!

And they tasted so good when we ate them!

A Christmas Visit to Union Station



Saturday, we all headed to downtown KC and spent some time at Union Station! It was so fun for all of us! We didn't get to see everything but we had a fantastic time. Science City is an awesome place and has loads of fun for everyone! This was our first visit, but we have many more planned in the future! You'll be sure to hear about it as we go! Here are some pictures to enjoy from our great day before Christmas Eve.









A Happy Christmas Eve!!


What a joy this wonderful time has been! We hope that you all have had a great time this holiday season! The kids have been so excited about Christmas this year. Jonathan really wanted to stay up and watch for Santa to come. We think the magic of the season was really here for him this year. Adelaide truly fed off of his excitement. They were both full of squeals!



We opened our gifts from family under the tree Christmas Eve. This has been such a rewarding year, watching the kids discover the joy of giving and then having fun finally revealing the secrets of what was under that tree! They both got some real fun things. Jonathan got a Chiefs pull-over jacket, books, a puzzle, karaoke radio, christmas coloring and sticker fun, a snow hat and gloves, and Disney Cars fun. Adelaide got a huge teddy bear, cars to share with brother, books, puzzles, doll house fun, christmas coloring and sticker fun, a pretend makeup set, and a snow hat and mittens! They were so excited about it all!

It's Christmas! Santa Came!!!!


Our Christmas holiday started and ended with so many smiles and happiness! It was all so terrific! After anticipating for so long, Jonathan and Adelaide finally got to see what Santa had in store for them. Jonathan ended up not being able to stay awake to see Santa (maybe another year buddy!), and they both slept until a fairly reasonable hour! It was their Momma who couldn't sleep
(even though Santa only came for the kids it was still so exciting)! When they both finally made it down stairs, they opened up their gifts and emptied out their stockings! Jonathan was excited to find exactly what he asked Santa for - a small remote control race car and a big Lightening McQueen. Adelaide was excited to find her very first doll house! She had the best time playing with just that all day long. Jonathan had a blast with his race car all day long! In the mean time, for breakfast Daddy and Mommy made a delicious Cinnamin Raisin French Toast bake. Everyone thought that was pretty good! Maybe a great start to a delicious tradition! Then a couple hours later we got dinner started. We didn't do the traditional turkey. Instead, we did a ham - per Jonathan's request a few weeks before Christmas. We also made the green bean casserole, stuffing, and the sweet potato pie! It was all so delicious. Everyone enjoyed. Also, towards the end of the day, Jonathan participated in another tradition that many people have on Christmas Day. He sat down for a while and watched the football game. Since he has been so interested in the sport lately, this was quite a good time for him! The entire day was just so pleasant. Everyone was happy, we were all at such peace. It was so nice to be settled in a nice place to call our "home" again.

Friday, December 22

What are the kids doing and saying these days?

Just thought I'd get on real quick and leave a post about the kids. They are really giving us a lot of laughs! This fall, Jonathan fell in love with football. He loves the game so much! So often we will catch him out back playing a game and doing the announcing all himself. It's fun to watch! His favorite teams are (of course) Texas Tech for college, the Kansas City Chiefs for pro, and he really got into all the high school games too. He loves mixing up all the teams and putting college or pro up against a high school team. I get lots of laughs out of that one. I've also caught him telling people that he plays for the Chiefs! It's been fun listening to him tell us all about the game. He knows more than either of us do! We'll definitely be learning more about it as time goes on. Last night before he went to sleep he told me that he really wants to "go to Tech and play on that field." What a dreamer. Maybe his dreams will come true!
Adelaide is such a sweetie! She has always had a sweet tooth, but it is really starting to come out in a strong way! My favorite phrase of hers is "I NEED CHOCOLATE!" It is so funny to see her say something like that! She is a huge fan of candy and has been enjoying all the sweet fun we've had during the holidays. She loves cookies and would eat cookies for every meal if we let her. She is such a mamma too, all of her baby dolls are so special to her. I think she has named one of them Baby Sister. It's funny, sometimes I wonder if she's wanting a baby sister. Wouldn't that be fun!
We all like it here in Kansas, and are waiting for that snow to show up. The other day, Jonathan said, "Mommy, where is the snow?" We had told him that we would see some up here. Now it's got to come! But I can sure wait! The cold is something to get used to! Luckily our house holds in the heat well so we don't run the heater all the time. I can't wait to play in the snow with them!

Today we are going to take a trip to the library! Jeff was told that they have a great kids section. We will see! Hopefully tomorrow we will take a trip to downtown KC and check out Union Station! That will be a fun adventure!

Have a wonderful day and a great Christmas!

Monday, December 18

Finally Back On-line!

Hello everyone!
Well, we have been in Kansas for just over two weeks. We are all enjoying our new home. The house we are in is a duplex. It has three bedrooms and two bathrooms, and a very good size kitchen and living room. The bedrooms and a bathroom are on the upper floor, and the other bathroom is on the main floor with the living room and kitchen. From the kitchen, we can go out to the back yard or down to the garage/basement. Yes, we have two sets of stairs. We are all getting lots of exercise going up and down! Sendy and the kids have been having great days at home and are getting to know the area little by little. Jeff is glad to be back at work and so excited to be with his new co-employees. It is nice and they get along pretty good. As soon as I find the bad with the cord to connect the camera to the computer, I'll upload pictures of the new place!
The day we moved in, we were able to meet our neighbors. They are a very sweet couple and they have an adorable little one-year-old girl. We have talked about getting together for play time for the kids. We are so excited to have such good neighbors!
Okay, so I said that our moving experience is quite a story. I'll get in what I can.

We were told that the movers would arive between 10 and 12 that Tuesday morning and to prepare for 4 hours of work time. We figured that it would probably be around 11:59. We were so right! They showed up right at 11:53! They were nice people and seemed to work pretty fast. It was wierd though, we all felt as though we were in the way in our very own home. They wrapped up all of our furniture and got everything into boxes that we hadn't gotten to yet. Although they seemed to work fast, they actually took quite a long time. It was a beautiful day! For lunch, we got McDonnalds and sat out front on the grass and had our last pic-nic in Texas. It was so fun! We really had a time. The packers took a break at that time as well. It seemed as though things were moving pretty smoothly, and finally at 5:30, they pulled away from the house. We were already on a pretty tight schedule. Jeffrey needed to be at work Thursday by 1:00 so we really had to get to Kansas as fast as possible. We did what cleaning we could and as fast as we could, and touched up the painting around the place. At 6:30, we decided to hire someone to come clean it (luckily we have a realator to go through!). We really had to get out of town! We were all so tired. The kids had missed their nap and were ready for dinner. We were all a little cranky, I guess you could say! So, we closed up the house, locked the keys inside for our agent and said good-bye to our first house, and our life in Texas.
We got to McDonnalds and had a nice, pleasant dinner. That is when we decided that we were too tired to travel all the way to Oklahoma that night. We were so blessed to have our friends offer a room in their home just south of Ft. Worth for the night! Thank you!

The next morning, we woke up and had a great breakfast! Then began our journey to Kansas! We made pretty good time and we got to see some remnance of the snow storm that had taken place the week before. That was so fun to see. We hadn't seen snow in two years! Our trip was nice and fun. Jeff was driving his car, packed to the seems with things we would need till we finally got our things from the movers. Sendy was driving the other car with the kids. We all had a really great time. When we got to Oklahoma City, it was time for lunch, so we decided to stop by an old favorite restaurant - The Delta Cafe. And then we headed over to the college to try and see some people we used to know. It was fun to just check out the campus after three years. They sure have made some changes! A brand new dorm, and some definite construction for something else. We even saw some new appartments. It all looked really nice. We only got to see two people we new back then, but it was still good. We have decided to make a trip down for homecoming - hopefully next year. We'll have to see how things look at that time! You know us, things are always changing!

The drive on up to Kansas was nice. We soon realized that we weren't going to make it in time to get our keys that night. So we called the owner and made arrangements for the next morning. It sure is a good thing that we stayed in the hotel that night! We were able to watch the news and find out that we were in for quite a temperature shock (well, actually we had already experienced it coming into KS) and we had the chance to prepare for it.
Alright, think back, we had a pic-nic the day before for lunch - figure high 60s to 70s that day. That night we were all wearing our winter coats and still cold! The next morning, we were going to have to deal with 14 degrees and a wind chill of 0! It was insane! But we were ready! Our life in Kansas had begun. What an adventure to look forward too!

Thursday, December 7

We Made It!!!!

Well, after a long two days (and not to mention year!) ~ we have finally made it to Kansas! We didn't make it in time yesterday to get our keys so we stayed in a nice hotel. It was great! The kids love hotel stays. We are about to go down and get breakfast and then we will be getting ready to head over to our new house to do a walk through to get the keys. We are very excited and can't wait to see the new place!

It was quite an adventure with the moving company. That is a fun story to tell, but it will have to wait a little while. I think we are all ready to go eat!
Have a wonderful day!