Date with Daddy!!

Last night Ray and Trevor decided to head to Ft. Wayne for some bonding time. The Farm Show was there and thought they would check it out.

Mr. T checking out the tractors.

This little boy was like a kid in a candy store. He had so much fun!! This is all he has been talking about today.

To School We Go!!

Today Trevor and I made a visit to Gretchen's kindergarten class to celebrate her birthday.

Being Miss Shy as everyone sang Happy Birthday to her. She was excited to wear the Birthday crown for the day.

We took in some cupcakes and juice pouches. Mr. T was so excited to be able to sit beside his big sister while they ate together.

For some reason he thought he was Big Stuff and was going to spend the rest of the day with the class. Watching them sit together, it made me realize that time has flown by. Before I know it he'll be wanting to march out the door off to school too.

Happy Birthday Gretchen!

This afternoon we celebrated Miss G's 6th Birthday with friends and family. Whoa 6 years already! She is turning into quite the young lady.

As you can tell by the last picture, she doesn't like all the attention drawn on her. She still has her shy tendencies. Happy Birthday Big Stuff!

Christmas Cookies!!

Every year we made lots and lots of Christmas cookies. Or as Ray says you make 'em and we eat 'em. There is one cookie that I prefer not to make alone, press cookies. The kids always look forward to watching daddy press them out on the cookie sheet and choosing with cookie should be what color.


All of this loading the cookie press and watching mommy make the cookie dough, makes for one tired little Gretchen.

Here come the cookies!!

By request of Gretchen, there are pink flowers. The green Christmas trees in the previous picture are courtesy of Mr. T. :)

Indianapolis and Band finals

Friday afternoon we headed down to Indy for Aunt Lynnette's state marching band finals. The kids did great in the car considering neither one of them felt the greatest. I think they were just excited with the idea of sleeping over in a hotel.
Once we got to the hotel they both headed straight towards the pool. It was quite chilly so we settled for a little time in the hot tub. Then it was off to bed. If only it was that easy. Not much sleep happened at all.
Saturday morning we up early and off to Lucas Oil Stadium. I think this was probably the highlight of the weekend for Ray and I. It was so huge and we had heard so many wonderful things about it. Ray's mom had warned us about parking and coming early. We lucked out and found this awesome spot just across the street and it was FREE!!

The view from the parking spot. (Not zoomed in at all.)

The kids and Ray all decked out in their Concord Marching Band shirts trying to find Aunt Lynnette. We found some seats at the end of the stadium which worked out well. There weren't many people around so the kids could talk and move around as they pleased.

This little monkey got very antsy near the end. He was also concerned about making it home in time for trick-or-treating. He asks nearly every day if we can go to another hotel to sleep over. I think there might be another short little get away in our future. Maybe Spring Break little man, maybe. :)

Halloween

This year Halloween was a very busy weekend for us. Friday afternoon we left for Indy to cheer on Aunt Lynnette in her band finals. This was the first experience for the kids in a hotel and lets just say everyone didn't get much sleep. Saturday morning we were up early for her competition and then headed home. We made it home and had to be out the doors for trick-or-treating in a half hour. The kids were real troopers.

Handy Manny and Ariel were the choices for their pumpkins this year.

Handy Manny and Snow White ready to head out to trick-or-treat.

It took them awhile to get the hang of it but once they didn't they loved it. Gretchen enjoyed seeming some of her classmates while we were out and about.

Unfortunately this is only picture of the Gator dressed up as Handy Manny's red car that I got with the camera. I will have to check with Ray later to see if he got any on his phone. The kids loved driving it around the neighborhood instead of walking. You can also notice in the back their is a stash of batteries just in case. Ray set it up for headlights in the front and there's a light bar in the back too for when it got dark cars could see them coming.

Still Young

Ever since Gretchen started talking, she has referred to her grandparents by their pets. I'm not sure where she got this from but she still does it today as well as Trevor. There's Grandma & Grandpa Nala and Grandma & Grandpa Lucky. I'm not sure what she's going to do when the pets pass away. They are very old and I believe that time is coming upon us. Oh well, this blog post isn't about that.

Instead it's about Grandpa Nala. It's his birthday. We won't tell how old
young Grandpa Nala is but Trevor says he's not old yet. (Trevor is starting to notice the difference in peoples' age and looks.)

We should have known from the start that you to would be 2 peas in a pod.

We couldn't have asked for a better involved Grandpa than you. The kids love going on Gator rides with you.

And then there's the trip to the zoo. Trevor gets very excited when he sees this picture and it reminds him of all the fun he had that day.

Happy Birthday Grandpa Nala!!