Snow Day

Gotta love snow days!! We got 5 inches of snow throughout the night so school was closed today!!Brad still had to work, but the kids and I played outside for a couple hours this morning and now are watching the movie, Robots.

Tonight, I'm going to the movies with my sis to see Leap Year, and Brad is taking the kids to see Alvin and the Chipmunks 2!

Snow Days are the best way to start the weekend! Happy Weekend!

Back into the swing of things

Well, reality set in this week as school and work started back up for most of us. I am very thankful to be working most days of the week, but boy when that alarm clock goes off in the morning, I DO NOT want to get up!!

I got started back into Zumba class on Monday nights. I love it a lot and am thankful our rec center doesn't charge an arm and a leg for classes! My arms have been feeling the pain all week though! Ha!

Halle started back into school and piano lessons. She's got a big weekend coming up with her 8th birthday on Sunday. We have lots of fun stuff planned for Saturday (and possibly Friday night too)! As fun as her birthday will be, I must admit a January birthday is difficult to plan and buy presents for. There isn't much you can do outside, unless you want to go sledding, and everything she wanted was bought for her for Christmas (and everything is picked over in the stores-all that's left is what people didn't want to buy for Christmas). I have just resorted to being REALLY creative, and I'm not sure how good I am at doing that! More to come on all our fun activities and celebrations later this weekend.

Parker is doing his normal routine-getting up, eating, playing, eating, watching movies, playing, playing some more, eating, and sleeping. HA!! He's growing so fast and talking more and more every day. We are slowing but surely starting the "potty training" routine, but I'm thinking it's going to be a while before it really works.

Brad is back to working, well, wait...He never stopped working! Ha!! He's loving his job, even with some of the issues that test his patience and sanity! We are extremely thankful he has a job as we continue to hear of other families really struggling right now.

We are still in the midst of buying a house!! The financial part of it is in the works now (not sure why it takes so long to sign a few papers!) We are hoping to close the end of Jan/beginning of Feb. Keep your fingers crossed for us!!

My sister found out this week that she recieved 2 $1,000 scholarships to finish off her dental hygiene program. So, she will now be able to use that money to cover her state board test at the end of this semester! Praise the Lord!!

Happy New Year!

We've made it to 2010!! It seems like just last year everyone was freaking out about Y2K, and now it's 10 years later!

I have realized I haven't done a very good job with my blog this past year. I think I was trying to blog about WAY too much on each post and throw in a bunch of pictures, which would end up taking me an hour to post one blog. I really don't have an hour every day to dedicate to blogging, so I found myself not blogging at all. I like the idea of blogging, not so much that millions of people (or even one person) will read/comment on it, but so that I have a memory book to look back on of my family's memories.
I have a bunch of posts from this past year that I wrote, but never posted because I was waiting to add pictures to it. I feel like I should finish those and post them, but I think I will just keep those in my archives and start fresh and anew for the new year!
So, here's my first post of 2010!! It's a recap of our Christmas vacation!!

Merry Christmas!! We spent Christmas Eve with my family! We all got spoiled!!Buzz Lightyear came to live with us Christmas morning!

We now have a singing sensation living with us! We spent New Year's Eve all singing karaoke!

Christmas Day with my hubby!

We went and saw Trans Siberian Orchestra at the Palace! They rocked out!!

We played in the snow!

Overall, it was a WONDERFUL break and we don't want it to end. Tomorrow is back to reality for most of us, and we aren't looking forward to it! Happy New Year!! May 2010 be the best year yet!!

Week in Review

Well, this week flew by and I didn't get a whole lot accomplished. That could have been because I was sick with Strep Throat (again) for the majority of the week! I thankfully didn't have to work Tuesday, had to cancel work for Wednesday, and already had scheduled Thursday off due to Parker's ear doctor appointment.
Needless to say, there were some HUGE things that happened this week!!
1. 2 weeks ago Brad and I went house-hunting (for the 100th time) with our realtor and came across a house we absolutely LOVED!! We figured there was no way on earth we could ever get it, but we put an offer on it anyways. The bank called this week and said they accepted our offer!! WOOHOO!!! So, Brad and I are still standing in shock with our jaws dropped and are waiting for all the adendums to come so we can sign our life away!! Hopefully, we can move in in January!!
2. I got a little Christmas shopping done. After visiting the doctor's office on Tuesday and testing positive for Strep, I headed to the mall and got a few gifts bought. I know, I should have gone back home and crawled into bed, but I wasn't going to let my throat that was on fire stop me!! I spent all day Wed on the couch to make up for it!:0(
3. I finished a puzzle in 2 days! (That's whay happens when you can't work)It was only a 500 piece one and quite easy! I'm going to glue it together with puzzle glue and put it in a frame. It's a picture of two snowmen! I thought it would look nice hanging up for the holidays! My parents did this last year and it looks awesome!
4. Parker went to the ear doctor. Our insurance for him doesn't start until Jan 1, 2010, so I was planning on paying the bill to see the doctor this visit. Well, the doctor didn't end up charging me anything!! I think it helped that he knows my father-in-law and my father-in-law refers alot of his patients to him. Parker has fluid in his ears again, so it's looking like he might have to have set # 2 of ear tubes put in. We are doing a nasal spray for the next month to see if it helps. Just imagine-nasal spray and a 2 year old! Yeah, it's not going to be fun doing that every night!
5. I got some more done on Halle's homemade Christmas gift. I'm not saying anymore than that, as she tends to read my blog occasionally. Will post pics after Christmas!

That's about it! We have LOTS of shopping to do this weekend and I would really like to take the kids to see "The Princess and a Frog". Halle is spending the night at Bailey's to celebrate her 9th birthday, so we might not have enough time to cram it all in.
Hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Congrats Nate and Lisa!

This weekend was Nate and Lisa's wedding!! Dec 5, to be exact! Nate and Lisa have been dating for quite a few years and finally got hitched! Their wedding was at West Cannon Baptist Church in Belmont, MI (it's a suburb of Grand Rapids).

It was an absolutely beautiful wedding and it was nice celebrating with all of Brad's family that was there. Lisa was so pretty!!

They had a nice reception after the ceremony and the bridal party did fun entrances while being introduced in. It was cute! They also played a game during the reception. Every table had a paper on it and the table was to come up with a question to ask the bride and groom that the answer would either be "Nate" or "Lisa". Then they asked Nate and Lisa (with their backs turned away from each other) the questions, and they had to raise either a high heel (for Lisa) or a black shoe (for Nate) and see how many they could get right. It was quite funny!!

We had a good time and the whole extended family stayed the night at a hotel afterwards. The hotel had a pool, so some of the kids went swimming, and they also had a big room with tons of leather sofas and a projector screen, so our family took over that room and ate pizza and watched football on the big screen. It was a nice way to end the day!

We headed home today. It has snowed a TON in Grand Rapids, but once we were outside of the city, there wasn't hardly anything on the ground. We had two detours on the way home. One was in East Lansing to go eat at Brad's favorite- P.F. Chang's, and the other was to Best Buy to buy a new camera. We REALLY REALLY REALLY disliked our other camera!

Zumba

I've been going to Zumba class at our local recreational center once a week. It's a lot of fun and you don't even realize you are working out. You do a lot of Latin rhythms and dance moves throughout the workout. I look like a complete idiot trying to get my hips to sway the way our instructor does, but I really don't care. The music is very lively and set to quick beats and usually really fun songs! If you are looking for a workout, I would highly recommend it.

New Moon

I believe I've officially become a Twilight fanatic! Ha!! I read the books, loved them, but never felt like a fanatic like a lot of people I know. I mean, I haven't bought myself a "Team Jacob" t-shirt-which I am by the way-Team Jacob, that is. I told myself I wouldn't go to the movies this weekend because I didn't want to fight the crowds of screaming tweens that were there swooning over Robert Pattinson. Well, I withstood it for about 12 hours! On the way home from picking up Hal from school, I called my sister-in-law, Jessica, and asked if she wanted to go see it with me. I stopped by the theater and bought our tickets for the 9:45 showing. We got to the theater at 8:30 and ended up having to stand outside for an hour!! The line for the movie was SO long!! and it continued to grow!! We got decent seats, which was really the only thing I was worried about. I did not want to have to sit in the front row while I held my jaw closed after seeing my beloved Jacob without his shirt on. Yes, I know he's like 15 years younger than me! Haha!!
The movie was WAY better than the first one!! I can't wait for the 3rd movie to come out!!