A day with Adella

Now that I figured out how to remove the pictures from my phone, I am able to blog about some of the pictures that have been on the phone since before Christmas. Before Christmas Mike, the kids and I went over to Paul and Allison's place in Charlottesville to watch Adella while Paul and Allison went house shopping. We took the kids to the "madhouse" pre-christmas shopping at Toys R Us where we ran into Jeffery the Giraffe. As he was coming up the aisle, the kids were all quite excited about seeing him, but as soon as they were faced with actually having to talk to him, they all began to freak out. Lydia was brave enough to actually walk over to talk to him, but at the last minute began to cry so we quickly removed her. (in the picture she and Mike are off to the left--the next picture we took she was starting to cry).



After our closterphobic shopping experience, we had lunch at the Wood Grill. The Wood Grill is a good place for us to go for the money. Ryan costs only $2.00 and Lydia, Emily and Adella were free. Get everyone some water and we can all eat pretty cheap. Because Paul and Allison are a little more conscious about their child eating healthy foods--and not too much of it--this was Adella's first visit to the Wood Grill. She REALLY enjoyed herself and ate a pile of food!! We had such a good time with her!

Growing up

Ryan is learning so much in Kindergarten! He loves going to school and could not wait to go back after winter break. Last semester Ms. Clark, Ryan's teacher, did a unit on nursery rhymes and what lessons they teach. On Thursday Ms. Clark invited all the parents to a nursery rhyme recital and lunch with our kids. Mike and I were able to eat lunch with Ryan and then head to his class for the recital. All of the children were assigned a nursery rhyme and a nursery rhyme fact. They stood up in front of all the parents and recited their fact and nursery rhyme. Ryan's assigned nursery rhyme was Humpty Dumpty. His fact was "Nursery Rhymes are silly." All the kids did such a great job! Out of the 18 children in Ms. Clarks class, only two of them had an issue when they came up to recite their part--and Ryan was NOT one of them!!! In addition, as a class, they sang some songs and did a couple little skits.

The pictures I have attached are not that good . . . we failed to bring our camera and the pictures were taken with our phones. Ryan really wanted us to take a movie of him to put on the blog page. The movie I have posted was also taken on our phone and the volume is pretty much non-existant. When you play it, make sure the volume is turned all the way up on your computer. Getting up in front of people he does not know is not his idea of fun:). We are very proud of him!

Good Luck Cory!

Originally scheduled to leave on Sunday, January 25; his leave date was bumped up to tomorrow--Sunday, January 11--he is leaving for boot camp. After catching my sister-in-law and brother-in-law off guard, they had a little going away party for Cory tonight at their house. Friends and family came to wish Cory farewell and the best of luck becoming a Marine. Cory is our nephew--the oldest son of Mike's older sister, Debbie. Cory just turned 20 in December. Mike spent much of the evening answering questions and sharing stories from his experience as a Marine. The five of us took pictures with Cory before we left. It was a fun time.

I have known Cory since he was 9 years old. He is a very special person in our lives. He is always very thoughtful, especially when it comes to his much younger cousins--Ryan, Lydia and Emily. We love you lots, Cory, and know you will make a very honorable Marine!

Dinner with Ryan

Tonight was such a neat night. I came home from work not knowing what we were doing for dinner (not that unusual for me). Mike was not feeling the greatest and did not want to eat anything major and Ryan wanted to go out to eat at Hams. Mike ended up taking Lydia and Emily to McDonalds and Ryan and I went to Hams for dinner--just us. For those of you who don't live in Harrisonburg, Hams is a sports bar and restaurant. The restaurant portion of Hams is a Ruby Tuesdays type restaurant, but with LOTS of televisions around to watch the game. On Monday nights they have kids night. On kids night they have their kids meals for 99 cents. Their kids meals consist of the meal, a drink and an ice cream sunday and their TV's don't have sporting events (well a couple of them have a game on) they have cartoons! In addition, they have a magician there who makes balloon animals for the kids. We go there on Monday nights because it is so inexpensive for us to eat there:). Lydia and Emily love it too, but they are happy going to McDonalds with Daddy too.
This was such a nice dinner. Ryan and I hardly ever spend any time just us. It is usually Mommy with Ryan, Lydia and Emily and sometimes Mommy and Daddy with Ryan, Lydia and Emily. I take Lydia and Emily to work with me too so I spend right much time with just the two of them. Ryan told me all about his first day back at school from winter break and the exciting things they did--including sharing one item they received for Christmas. Of course there was the constant barrage of questions that come with Ryan not having to compete with his sisters, but it was worth it. We walked away not only having spent some great quality time together, but a balloon dog on a leash and a balloon cat to boot:).

Merry Ho Ho from Santa

This "Christmas Morning: was the most exciting one yet! Ryan was very much into the magic of Santa this year and was quite involved in deciding how Santa was going to get into our house since we don't have a chimney:). Lydia and Emily were excited, but not quite as into the magic since they are younger.

As most of you know, Mike is a Deputy Sheriff with the Rockingham County Sheriff's Department. As a result, he has to work holidays on occasion. Every other year he hits the year in which he works the big holidays. This was the year for the big holidays. He had to work both Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day this year so we debated on how to handle the Santa thing. One of his co-workers "split" the day with him and came in at 10:00 after Mike had worked since 5:30am. Luckily Mike was able to spend the day with us, but that did not help our Santa situation. We decided to tell the kids that Santa came on Thursday night instead of Wednesday night. After spending a great Christmas Day with family and praying no one would accidently ask "What did Santa bring you this morning?" we had our Santa morning on Friday morning. I took a little movie that morning and have attached it--it's about four minutes long. We are not certain what the deal was with Lydia, but she ended up enjoying her presents later--after the video was over:).

Happy Holidays!

Our time leading up to Christmas Day is always chocked full of fun family events! If you have not already picked up on this, my family--immediate and extended--is quite important to me! We visited with Nanny and Pap; Jeremy, Destiny, Nathan and Savannah; Aunt Mary Ann; Connie and Earl; Paul, Allison and Adella; My parents; Grandma; Uncle Bill, Vida; Sandra, Tammy, Shane and Brittany. It is always such a special time when we get to see all of them!

On Christmas Eve we went to Nanny and Pap's house. Nanny and Pap are Mike's grandparents. When Mike was younger, he lived with Nanny and Pap for a short time. They are very special to him and over the years have become very special to me as well. Ryan, Lydia and Emily LOVE going to Nanny and Pap's!! All rules are omitted from their lives just by walking in the house:). Nanny and Pap had two children, Connie (Mike's birth mother) and Mary Ann. Mike's brother, Jeremy and his family, came to Nanny and Pap's on Christmas Eve with us. In addition, Connie and her husband Earl and Mary Ann were there for a yummy lunch of Nanny's famous Veggie Soup and some wonderful ham and turkey rolls! Unfortunately, Mike was not able to make it to Nanny and Pap's Christmas Eve while we were there. He had to work during the day that day, but visited with Nanny and Pap Friday (today) afternoon.

On Christmas Eve night we met up with Mike at my parents house. We celebrated Christmas with my parents and my brother and his family. Our big gift to my parents was a picture of all four grandchildren. We had a picture of Ryan, Lydia, Emily and Adella taken professionally. Mom and Dad were very surprised and happy! Ryan, Lydia and Emily walked out of the house with more stuff than they know what to do with:). They are in seventh heaven!

Christmas Day was spent at my parents house with my Mom's family. It was a terrific day of family together time! Ryan, Lydia and Emily were so excited about opening presents and attempting to figure out what they could open next:). It was such a great holiday! Hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas!