Morgan is Playing Basketball!

Morgan started playing basketball in a program that our church puts on for kids in the community called Upwards basketball. This is the first that she has ever played basketball since we don't actually have a basketball here at our house and has a lot to learn but, for now, she's just having fun!

These pictures are from her 1st game. She's had another game since and will play 6 more...plus have 6 more practices. I was asked to be an assistant coach, so I try to help out at practices and every other game since the main coach has classes every other weekend. It's been interesting! I don't know/remember much about basketball, let alone know how to teach it to kids, so thankfully I'm not the main coach! LOL!

The kids do a great job for their ages. They're Kindergarten and 1st graders. While they're playing they put on a color band that matches with a kid from the other team (that is at a similar skill level) for them to guard. Right here they're lined up with the kids from the other team so they can see who'll they'll be guarding for that period.

Each game starts with a prayer and then they play six 6 minute periods. They don't worry too much about things like traveling and double dribbling right now, so the games can run a bit smoother.

Being that this is a Christian-based program, I'm hoping it's something Morgan enjoys and will want to continue. They even have devotions at practice, so they can learn more about God's love...I think that's pretty cool! ;-) If basketball doesn't end up being her thing, they also have cheerleading, so we'll wait and see how the next 6 weeks go and how she feels about doing it next year....I think it'll be fun if she and Blake will want to play together! :-)

**Sorry for the blurry pictures. :-)

Filling Daddy's Shoes

I love to wear my Daddy's shoes

though my feet are small,

when they are in my Daddy's shoes,

I feel 10 feet tall.

Some day I'll grow to fill them,

I only hope to be,

as fine a man and great a Dad,

as my Dad is to me.

Author unknown

Super Bowl Party 2012

This is the first time in a while that we didn't go to a Super Bowl party. With the kids both being in school, we didn't think it would be worth going to a party and leaving a half hour after the game started to come home to put the kids in bed. Since we didn't go out to a party, we decided we'd have a little party at home!

With there only being 4 of us, I didn't want to go all out making snacky foods, so we had pizza, meatballs, chips with dips, popcorn and Peanut Butter (and chocolate) Blondies. It doesn't look like much, but it was more than enough! :-)

I was surprised at how well the kids sat and watched the game. They only had to look away from the commercials twice...the commercials weren'y really the best for the kiddos to see.

Blake really got into the laid-back feel of watching a football game...this typically wouldn't be allowed, but I thought it was kinda funny at the time :-)

They actually were able to watch for a whole hour before they went to bed...plus I think they had their fill of football and were getting bored....they were actually asking to go to bed ;-)

I really enjoyed the laid-back little Super Bowl Party we had. Morgan thought it was fun too and was excited to tell her friends about it in school the next day. I think we're all looking forward to making this a little Super Bowl tradition while the kids are young. :-)

Girls Weekend 2012

My mom, sister, Morgan and I had our annual Girls Weekend a few weekends ago, before Morgan's basketball games started. We were hesitant about going because Morgan had a slight fever and was lethargic the night before we left, but she woke up chipper and ready to go...unfortunately that didn't last. We ended up going, but Morgan would become feverish and sluggish on and off throughout the whole weekend. She never wanted to go home though-she's quite the trooper! ;-)

My mom, Morgan and I met up with my sister late Saturday morning at Cranbrook Institute of Science. It's a natural history museum, so we weren't sure if a 5 year old would enjoy it, but she found some pretty neat things. We got a picture of this T-Rex for Blake and found out that they most likely were not predators, but actually scavengers....I had never heard that about them before!

This was pretty cool too! There was an area where they taught about diversity and there were some pretty neat holograms...I'd never seen a hologram in person before! The display of the room was all physically there, but the women and the boy were just holograms-very cool!

One of Morgan's favorite displays was the butterfly case. All sorts of pretty butterflies to look at. As you can tell, she wasn't feeling her best at this point.
Another favorite was when Morgan found Nemo! You can't see him well in this picture, but I took another...

There he is! :-)

Again, you can tell Morgan isn't feeling the best, but she still crawled into the turtle shell for a picture.

We also saw a show geared towards Morgan's age in the Planetarium there. It gave Morgan a chance to sit down and relax a bit. It was fun to watch her in awe of the stars and participate in the interactive portions of the show. Very neat!

After the science institute, we went out for lunch at a Coney Island. I know that doesn't sound very exciting, but my sister ordered Flaming Cheese. I had never seen cheese lit on fire before...very cool (or hot) and tasty!

We then went to my sister's place to relax for the rest of the day. We made Morgan's Valentine's for her class, talked a bunch, watched a movie, ordered some Thai food, talked some more, drank wine (not Morgan of course), laughed, and just had a great night.

Sunday, we got up and had a slow start to our morning. My sister made us omelets and cut my hair for me as she does every Girls Weekend. We then went to see The Muppets. We actually got there a bit early, so we did a bit of shopping first. I took Morgan into Barnes and Noble (she loves looking at all the books) as my mom and sister went into Bed, Bath and Beyond...then we went and enjoyed the movie. :-)

Afterwards we did a little shopping at The Great Indoors. Between my mom redoing her kitchen and my sister having a new house, they both had a lot to look at there....I just dreamed ;-) I also thought the shopping cart escalator was pretty cool...you can't ride it the cart while it's going up the escalator...that was a bit of a bummer ;-)

That was pretty much the whole weekend. Mom, Morgan and I stopped for a bite to eat at McDonald's on the way home. We actually all got ice cream...a sweet end to a sweet weekend :-)

Christmas 2011

I'm finally getting around to blogging about Christmas!! It was a busy one! We kicked off the Christmas season the day after Christmas with the town's Christmas parade. We spent quite a bit of time on our Advents. We put up our Christmas tree and decorations. Morgan had her Christmas performances. And, as you'll see, we did quite a bit more!

The first weekend in December, we went to the Lighted Implement Parade in a neighboring town. Always a bunch of fun as you tell from the smiles on the kids' faces. Blake and I really had some laughs that night. I tried putting him on my shoulders, like Morgan was on Rich's, but each time I'd go to take a picture I'd have to let go of one of his legs, which made him feel like he was going to fall, so he'd grab my head right around my eyes....turns out that makes it pretty tough to take pictures! The whole situation had me laughing so hard I'm not sure I got the few blurry pictures I did :-)

The following weekend was the annual Firefighter's Christmas dinner. The kiddos did the best ever going up and seeing Santa....might have helped that Blake had just been Santa's elf in the local parade a couple weeks before. :-)

The kids thought their gifts were awesome! Morgan got a box of Crayola stuff and Blake got Transformers. Blake thought he got the bext gift out of everyone because he had helped Santa in the parade. ;-)

The following day was Morgan's Christmas sing at school. The next weekend I went to an annual Cookie Exchange as well as Morgan's dance performance. And the week before Christmas the kids had school from Monday through Wednesday and I was there each day with one or the other or both of them with their parties :-) Then Friday before Christmas, Rich's family, including us, got together with one of his uncle's families and spent the evening together. Morgan and Blake LOVE Rich's cousin's kids, so it's always nice to get together with them when they're home from Virginia :-)

Christmas Eve, Rich's brother got home from the Marines, so they cut down their Christmas tree that morning. It was a special tree from Rich's brother Doug's memorial garden. (If you can't tell it's also a Douglas Fir.) A young Douglas Fir will be planted in it's place in the garden and it will be cut down when it's the right size to use for Christmas as well.

The kids also got their Christmas pj's from Grandma and Papa :-)

We then headed to my parents' for Christmas dinner with them. We opened presents, put together Happy Birthday Jesus cupcakes, played a dice/gift game that we used to play at my grandparents' and made little reindeer candy canes.

Christmas morning was nice at home. We had plenty of time to open gifts together. We started off by opening up the gift of Jesus (it was the Jesus from the kids' nativity)...it was the last activity of our Advent. Then the kids found the Christmas pickle before they could open any more gifts :-)

Morgan discovered her new Christmas stocking! I had been working on it since she was 7 months old, but I finally got it done-ish....I need to sew on a different backing and put the liner in it still.

Blake being his usual goofy self :-) He was definitely having fun :-)
After we were dressed, we headed off to Rich's grandma's for more gift opening, brunch and the Christmas shot (of whiskey or whatever everyone wants...none for the kids of course!) Then on to Rich's parents' for more gifts and dinner. The kids had a blast with their uncles ;-)

The Monday after Christmas we tried not to put much away because my parents were coming over that night to see what everyone got. In the meantime, we also had Rich's best friend and his family stop by. And since I don't have a chance to make Christmas breakfast like my mom used to, I tried making some monkey bread from scratch that morning-YUM! :-)

Tuesday morning the kids had a dentist appointment. Then that night Rich and I took the kids to my parents then met up with his parents and brothers to go to a Red Wings game. As we were trying to squeeze past people to get into our seats, I was nudged and looked up to see people from our church! What a coincidence to drive 2 hours away from home and not just happen to see people we know, but be sitting right next to them! After the Red Wings won the game, we headed out to get dinner (at 11pm) at a place called Pizza Papalis, where I had my first Chicago style deep dish pizza! We made it home at 2 am...not used to be up so late anymore!

Wednesday we picked the kiddos up and worked at getting the house in order.

Thursday, the kids had a Tea Party at Rich's parents' with their 3rd cousins in the afternoon, then that night we had dinner and exchanged gifts with Rich's aunt's family.

Friday was spent trying to get more things in order (it really does take a lot to try to find places for things in a tiny house) and then we used up Morgan's Book-It coupons, before they expired, at Pizza Hut that night. I always loved Book-It when I was little and I enjoy doing it with the kiddos now too! :-)

Saturday, New Years Eve, we had Rich's brothers over. He wanted them to come hang out with him for a little bit while they were home for Christmas. The kids had a BLAST playing with them! We didn't end up going to his parents' for their New Years party and opted for a New Years evening at home.

Sunday, New Years day, we went back to Rich's parents to celebrate his youngest brother's birthday before he headed back to the Marines. The kids ended up staying the night there. Rich went back the next morning to get the kiddos and say good-bye to his brothers since they were both leaving that day. I ended up putting away several of the Christmas decorations.

This last weekend we finished up all our Christmas activity with an extended family Christmas with Rich's Dad's family. It was a really nice time. We had a soup and salad dinner, then a gift exchange, followed by a group picture and a special pudding that I can't remember the name of. It's really good and FULL of calories! LOL!

Okay, I think that covers it! I had hoped for a more relaxing break with lots of time just doing fun things with the kiddos that we don't have time to do anymore since they're in school, but it didn't quite work out that way. If we weren't away, we were working at keeping the house in order so we could move through it-LOL! It was nice to have the time with the family though. :-)

Morgan's Christmas Performances

I'm sorry it's been so long since I've blogged. I didn't plan on taking a break, but it ended up that way anyway. :-) I'm hoping to catch up blogging about all our Christmas activities we had real soon. For now, I have some of Morgan's performances that I wanted to share.

Morgan had a Kindergarten Christmas sing at the school, which was really nice. They sang 8 different songs and you can tell that they had a lot of fun learning them and singing them for all their parents and loved ones. This is their first song "Up on the Housetop".




Morgan's dance studio also did a few of their dances for a local nursing home. The performance happened to include both Morgan's ballet and tap routines, as well as the little routine that the studio had done for the town's Christmas parade. I tried for 2 DAYS to upload a video, but I couldn't get it to work, so here are a few pictures:

Morgan and one of her dance classmates in their tap costume.

Tapping to the song "Purple People Eater"

Morgan with her other dance classmate in their ballet costume.

Their ballet routine was to the song "Practical Magic".

**UPDATE: I was able to get the video uploaded to YouTube!! So, here the Practical Magic routine:

Our Christmas Tree 2011

We found a cute little tree behind Rich's grandma's house again this year.

The trunk was so small that Rich had it cut down before I could get a picture of him cutting it-lol!

Blake thought the chain saw was a bit noisy, but he still liked it ;-)

We got it up and decorated within the next several days. The kids posed for a picture once we finished and the picture became our Christmas card this year :-)

Picking out our Christmas tree has become one of my favorite family traditions. Each year is the experience is different, but always good. It's great making the memories with the kiddos ;-)

Halfway through Advent

The kids and I are enjoying advent this year, but it sure is going fast! I added a couple more 'calendars' to our original two this year. The new ones are a little more involved now that the kiddos are older :-)

I've seen this done a few times, but never took the time to do it myself before. I wrapped up all the kids' Christmas and winter-themed books (plus a few mailing envelopes with notes to go to We Give Books to read a book, since I didn't have enough Christmas books.) I did it a couple days before Advent, stuck the books all wrapped on the shelf. The anticipation to see what those 'gifts' were was almost too much for Morgan and Blake ;-)

The other advent calendar we started, Countdown to Christmas, came from Focus on the Family's magazine "Thriving Family". Each day has a scripture reading and an activity to do with the kids (which they've LOVED doing.) The book also provides a link to sites where you can do even more like watch a video, do a craft or listen to a carol.

As part of the Countdown to Christmas advent, we also made a little makeshift advent wreath with a glass star-shaped candle base, clay, some spruce tree clippings and birthday candles. (The blue candles should be purple, but we didn't have that color.) We light the candles each Sunday during our scripture reading to start the new week of advent. (The candles are a lot of fun for the kids...they LOVE blowing them out!)

I have enjoyed these new advent calendars as much as the kiddos have. It's been so fun that I already purchased a new advent book in anticipation for advent next season! :-)

I have a Pot Rack!

I know it may seem minor to have a pot rack put up in my kitchen, but it's exciting for me! I've been waiting for six years for it to happen! When Rich and I were married, we received this nice set of pots for either my shower or the wedding. (See, it's been so long I can't even remember-LOL!) Anyway, there isn't enough room in the drawer under my oven to store them and if I tried, they'd scratch easily. So I've been using some old Teflon pots and pans waiting until I could get my nice new set out.
For my birthday, almost a year ago, my sister bought me this pot rack from IKEA. Well, it finally got put up last night!! I cleaned all the pots and pans today and hung them and now I can't stop looking at it I'm so excited! Now for a new kitchen to go with my new pots and the new pot rack! ;-)

Please Help Almost Home Animal Rescue

This is a guest post by my sister, Katie. Please take a minute to help if you can. (It would literally only take a minute!)

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Hello All! My name is Katie and I have a favor to ask of everyone. I live in Metro Detroit and happen to volunteer at an animal rescue called Almost Home. Almost Home is a great shelter and is absolutely 100% no kill! They rescue dogs and cats in the area and if they hear of an animal at another shelter that is about to be destroyed, they go rescue it if they can find an extra square inch of space to put the fuzzy little soul. On to the favor part. This shelter rescues all sorts of animals and some of them have extensive health bills. The shelter would also LOVE to expand to save even more animals from being destroyed. In order to do this, money is required. I’m not asking for donations. I’m asking if you will vote for Almost Home in Pepsi’s Refresh Everything program! There are 2 ways that you can vote. You can either follow this link and click vote or text your vote in by texting 109736 to 73774 (standard text messaging rates apply). If you have the time and means, vote both ways and get counted twice!

I love this shelter as it's the place where I was lucky enough to find Spot, my 1 year old Jack Russell Terrier and adopt her. She has been such a joy in our home and we love her soooo much! We do not know her story, or why someone would abandon our sweet little girl, but we do know that the shelter heard that she was to be euthanized in Toledo and they drove down and rescued her prior to her scheduled appointment. I am so glad that they did. Please help Almost Home create more happy tails! ;-)

Katie's adorable adopted dog, Spot.

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To learn more about Almost Home and see some of their dogs that they have up for adoption, please visit their website. I was just checking out the site and there are some super cute puppies!! :-)