Give a girl $50...

Little Lexy Jo got a $50 gift card from Christmas from her Grandparents. It didn't take her long to find some things that she wanted to buy. In one trip she spent the whole thing. She got (2) shirts, (2) pairs of pants, and pink gumball machine, and new tea party set, and a Ringpop. Good job, Lexy.The story goes that she and Amy were in the store when Lexy saw a shirt that she wanted, the pink one with a rainbow and hearts. Amy asked her if she wanted to spend her money on that shirt, and it was game on. She got to pick out the cloths that she wanted and then got some toys too.

She always tells people that "...the gumball machine doesn't even have to have a quarter to get a gumball." If we give in and tell her, "yes, I'll have a gumball." It is delivered in an upside down tea cup on a matching saucer.

It's been fun to see what she buys with her own money.

What the kids got for Christmas

Here is what the kids got for Christmas... from their perspective...

Christmas

Christmas happen anyway at our house this year. We did prep for it. Amy and the kids put up a tree the day after Isaac's birthday party. We made the cookies and candies that we wanted to. In fact we had the missionaries come over and help us. We had two of them frost cookies with Lexy, while the other two make carmel popcorn, cinnamon fudge, and lemon hard candy. We were even able to slip in a little visit with Santa Clause.

Then Christmas Day came. There were presents every where... for everybody. Isaac and Lexy got WAY more than kids ever should.

Each of the kids will post a list of their gifts later... Enjoy.

Nutcracker Photos... Finally

I figured out my trouble uploading photos to the blog from my laptop. I have been using my work computer or other computers at home the last few weeks. It was the AdAware that was running in the background. It's funny how the software that is supposed to make things better gives you trouble with what you want to get done.


Anyway, here are the pictures from the Ice Nutcracker that both of the kids were in. Isaac was a mouse and Lexy was a soldier. Lexy had a blast in the show, Isaac didn't like it. Isaac was fine with the skating part of it, but the girls that where soldiers were mean when they were all off the ice.

Here is a picture of them both right after the show. Isaac had given back the mouse ears already.This is Lexy and two of her friends enjoying the ice after the show. Soldiers during the show. Lexy is the one in the middle.

The mouse crew watching the show in between their parts. Isaac is the dark grey, tall one in the middle of the picture.

The ice skating has sure been nice for the kids. It is something that is fun and will be a skill that they will always have. We sure are glad that we have the opportunity to have them skate so much.

Sleding over the weekend

With such a great snow storm this last weekend the kids have been spending a lot of time playing in the snow. I have wanted to up load some pics. But a video is a little better. Here is a quick video of them .

The sledding hill is only two houses away. Plenty close enough to let the kids walk on their own or we can just pop over the check on them. I spent some time helping them get the runs built for their little $5 disk sleds. Then I when back to the house and change is to sweats and slippers... after that I drove the truck over to check on them. The hill where they are sledding belongs to a neighbor that we had not met. His name is Aaron, he is a trauma orthopedic surgeon. We haven't met his wife yet, she is an ER doctor. He was fun to visit with and even invited one of his PA's to bring his kids to the hill. There were about 6 kids tearin' it up. They all had fun.

Isaac's Birthday

We always put together a party for the kids birthdays. This year Isaac had his at The Ridges clubhouse. We hooked up the Wii and a sound system to the big plasma TV so that the boys could play Mario Kart and Guitar Hero. They also played some non-video games, they played Apples to Apples and a balloon game.

This was a four way race.

We decided to make it harder for them. We tied balloons on to their wrist to make it harder for them to see and distract them. It made for some great fun. Lots and lots of balloons...

There is a shot of the boy with his cake.This is the party shot. All but one of the boys that came are in this shot. Make a wish and blow out the candles, dude...

Power was out...

Well, our power was out from about 9 am on Saturday to 9 pm on Sunday. It made for an interesting weekend. It was pretty relaxing actually. It makes us think of a simpler time. It kept our weekend quiet. The snow was nice, Isaac spent every bit of day light possible out there in the snow playing. He made several sled tracks (jumps and all), an igloo, a fort, etc. We couldm't convince him to come in the house. He even skipped lunch on Saturday. Needless to say he LOVES the snow.

Here are some pics of why we were out of power. This is right down near the gate to The Ridges. A tree fell into the power lines and pulled some of them down. There is a burnt spot on the tree where the power lines came together.

It is a bit hard to see in the picture but there is a power cable hanging down from the pole into the ditch. It starts in the top middle of this picture and goes down to the left.

We all slept in the living room on Saturday night. We moved Lexy's mattress in on the floor. On Sunday after dinner the kids decided to be nice to each other long enough to lay on the bed and watch a movie on Lexy's computer. With out power.They can't keep me from cooking for my family dinner. We fired up the grill and made our dinner with out the microwave or the stove. We made BBq pork chops, fried potatoes (in a pie tin), breaded chicken, and we heated up some corn. We had a nice dinner...

We woke up this morning and what did we see...

Snow... Snow... Snow...!!

We got a good snow over night. It was starting to snow when we went to bed last night. By the time we got up this morning, there was 10" on the driveway. And that was on top of the rain that had fallen for 3 hours yesterday afternoon. It's still snowing at 10am...

Here is a nice pic of the front yard at just before 8am. We got a little on the truck...

Lexy was all bundled up first and got some early morning play time in the snow.

The kids and I bailed and when to Panera from some quick breakfast. When we leave here we are going to go find a sled and the kids are going to tear up the snow...

We'll post again later with more snow pictures...

Our First Nutcracker

I have been trying to upload photos of the kids skating in The Nutcracker from Sunday afternoon. I have been haveing trouble.

Anyway, the kids skated in The Nutcracker. Isaac was a mouse and Lexy was a soldier. Lexy's and the other soldiers were the beginning synchro team. They did their routine from the competition that was in Novermber. Isaac skated with a few of the hockey boys. They mostly did circles around the cernter circle and then fast loops around the ice. We had some fighting about the fact that the soldier push the mice off the ice...

Breaking Ground

Look at that clown on the right end...

Yesterday we had the official ground breaking of the waterline connection between Cumberland and Byesville, OH. It is about 9 miles of 8" waterline. The project is about 125 miles from the house, it makes for a long day to head up there to check on things. Triad hired an inspector to go up there and be the full time onsite guy. In the photo are the Mayors from both towns, the Village Administrators, one Council member and the Ohio EPA Rep. I even got to paint up the shovels for this photo opp. It was a pretty good day.