Christmas 2009

We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas shared with the ones you love and filled with only the fondest of moments.

Our three girls patiently waited for their sleepy head parents to get up before coming down the stairs on Christmas morning...But before they were allowed to make their entrance, we had to stick with tradition and sing "We Wish You a Merry Christmas".





Besides getting pajamas and stocking stuffers from Santa, the girls each got something that I made for their beds. Alyson and Kourtney saw some bunk bed tents in a magazine a while back, and with a few days of effort, I came up with these alternatives. The girls had no idea what the layers and layers of fabric were as they pulled the bunk bed panels from their gift boxes. The girls were happily surprised once they discovered what they were holding. I also made a quilt for Ellary's bed that coordinates with all the blue and brown that is in the room she will be sharing with Keegan.

Don't you think this is a great looking guy? Ellary also loved her new hat and gloves and wore them off and on throughout the day.

Our little Christmas Santa just kicking it!

Oma (Kris' mom) had a tradition of making prime rib for us every Christmas. This year Kris kept the tradition alive by cooking it along with the majority of Christmas dinner.

Making a gingerbread house has become a family tradition as well(second year running). This year we made things easy though. We bought a gingerbread house kit instead of making our own gingerbread. Oh...it saved us about a day of baking. Well worth it, although we had a great time making our own with Nana and Oma last year. Thanks for the happy memories!

We hope you all had an enjoyable Christmas and a happy New Year, and will stay in touch with us. Thank you for keeping up with what's going on in our lives!

Say Cheese

We attempted to be photographers and take family pictures on our own just before Christmas. Here are the two we like best.
We also had professional family pictures taken. We didn't want them to be too formal, and we wanted to be able to hang them on the wall all year round, so we decided to go with GREEN and WHITE. Go SPARTANS!

(Family and friends, please let us know if you would like us to send you any off these pics.)

The Real Deal

Our friends, the Gott Family (who have children in Alyson and Kourtney's class), invited us to their annual Christmas party. Wow-it was great. Good company, delicious food and a surprise visitor came too!

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Now we all know Santa can't be everywhere at once, but I tell you what, he was at this party! Just take a look and you will believe! See his rosy red cheeks, a nose like a cherry, and his large, jiggly, and very round belly. Take a look at his real, scruffy beard white like snow, and a belt buckle that says "Santa" and you just know!

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Santa sang songs, he read stories (one was about the real Christmas story), and then lastly, he took his book of good girls and boys, and began to read from his list. They were all the names of the children present at the party. So, each child had a turn sitting on his lap, telling him a little bit about themselves and then asking him for the things on their wish lists. Lastly, Santa put his fingers to their noses and said, "Do you have Christmas magic?" And to the astonishment of all, his thumb would light up in the affirmative every time. This Santa not only had the children enchanted, but the adults enthralled as well.

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Thank you, Gott family, for inviting us to your party. It was a magical evening not soon to be forgotten!



Just for your info, Ellary was too afraid to sit on Santa's lap!

Big Boy

Keegan is already 6 weeks old and growing so fast...



I took Keegan to his 1 month check at the beginning of the week and he weighed in at 10 pounds 12 ounces and measured 22 1/4 inches long. I'm trying to take in every growing moment seeing that he may be our last baby. Keegan can now keep eye contact and turn his head when we talk to him. He's also our smiliest baby yet, and really enjoys being held. We are so glad to have Keegan in our family.

Breaking the Habit

Ellary is fed up with nap time...This is what she thinks about it!


So today I snuggled Ellary up in her bed for her late morning nap. She smiled. She waved goodbye. She blew kisses as I waved to her from her doorway. I thought maybe, just maybe, she'd take a nap today. Then about twenty minutes later I heard the pitter patter of little feet upon the floor above my head as I cleaned the kitchen. I let Ella play for about an hour before her infamous "moooooore?" echoed from her room. "More" is her word for everything. This time it meant "out". Boy, did she have a surprise waiting for me when I got to the top of the stairs. Look what I found-a plethora of blankets, toys, books, diapers and yes...that is a sticker stuck to her forehead and that blue, long bag that you see on the left side of the picture draping over the baby gate is a Diaper Genie bag. She managed to dismantle even that!

Okay, Ellary. I get your point. Your little smile melts my heart but it doesn't mean you'll be forgoing nap time and be getting your way any time soon!

Kris' Post: Tour de Ashland

On December 5th I ran in the Tour de Ashland, which is a half-marathon hosted by a small city (Ashland, OH) about 220 miles from East Lansing. The whole family drove down Friday night after the Ward Christmas Party (where we sang Silent Night). I trained pretty hard for this half-marathon and I met my goal pace...so I thought. It was interesting that I was using my very old GPS watch (Forerunner 201 for those of you who are wondering) and either the watch was a bit off or I took some wide turns around most of the turns in the race. According to my watch I was under the 8:25 pace that I had set out to achieve (the watch said I ran at 8:21 pace - even though I forgot to stop it until 15 seconds after the race and I was reaching for a banana - see the watch log below). However, it turns out that my watch said I ran 13.3 miles, which it factored in with my time.


When you put my official time of 1:50:45 under scrutiny (for a 13.1 mile race) it is actually 8:28 pace. Bummer. I am pretty sure that because I wasn't careful to run the shortest distance around every corner I probably did run about 13.3 miles and thus I did meet my goal in terms of pace. But that is not what the race results will show. See them here if you are interested.

Anyway, I am pretty happy about my pace because the course was SO hilly. Man I was worried when I drove into the town of Ashland and saw that this place was not flat like most of Ohio (at least the parts I had been to before this). Training in flat East Lansing, MI was not much preparation for what I saw here. Yet, I still met my goal (in my eyes). I guess I will have to try again next year with concerted effort to take the turns tight (and maybe even a new watch). Here are some pics from the race.

Here is the start of the race.


Mile 8 - Girls cheering me on.


Finish line with the family. It was freezing!!!


Here is the Google map of Ashland, OH with my GPS data overlayed on it. Click on it for a closer look.

If anyone is interested here are the individual laps for the race for me (note I forgot to hit the lap button on mile 6 so there are only 12 laps for a 13 mile race).

Pre-Thanksgiving Celebration...And...a Moment of Despiration

Kourtney and Alyson both had feasts at their school to celebrate Thanksgiving. They had a fun time making hats and turkeys then chowing down on tasty snacks. Here are a couple pictures of Koco at her celebration. She's the lone pilgrim in the pic below!

Alyson's teacher asked her if she would play the violin for her class before feast. She played "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" and "Mary Had a Little Lamb," and did a great job especially considering she's only been taking lessons for a few months.

So, here is my MOMENT OF DESPERATION. Alyson and Kourtney were suppose to bring a snack to share with their classes. I copped out on Koco's celebration because I bought strawberry shortcake rolls and cut them up into slices. I decided that I'd actually make something for Alyson's celebration the next day, but my plans were nearly foiled when Ellary and Keegan both woke up from their naps at the same time, just when I was in the middle of stirring up blueberry cupcake ingredients. How I have forgotten how complicated schedules can get with a toddler and a newborn! Ellary was hungry. Keegan was hungry. And I only had so much time before the cupcakes needed to be made and delivered.

Ellary found a bag of Cheetos in the pantry and began to squeal "Mooore! Mooore!" while Keegan cried in his bouncy seat and I stirred, stirred, stirred. Out of pure desperation I gave in and set Ellary in her high chair, pulled off her dress and let her plow into the bag of Cheetos. Notice, I gave her a cup of yogurt, just to balance it off! In a couple of minutes I had the cupcake batter poured and in the oven, and Keegan was eating lunch too. Wow-what a time! I took these pics after Keegan ate a little and settled down, just to let you know!