Upward

My little all-stars.

Tyler, Bryce, and Dylan.

Maddie, Sydney, Katie and Daphne.

For the second year the kids played Upward in Auburn. I was Maddie's assistant coach, and we had a great season. The kids learned a ton and made some new friends. I cannot say enough good things about this program. I definetly think they improved their skills and gained understanding of the overall game. The girls seemed to get it a little faster than the boys, but it was a positive expereince for both of them.

Happy Birthday Dylan

Nana makes the best cakes. She did Dylan's cake for his family party. Needless to say, he LOVED it. We had a family dinner with the Reas', Great Grandpa and Grandma Oberlin, Papa and Nana and Aunt Tina, Uncle Jason, Dawson and Kenzie. It was really nice to spend the evening with everyone. Dylan was so happy. He even got a couple of new DS games and that make him really happy. When he opened his savings bonds, he said "college," hope fully we will get him trained.

Family Friends

We went headed to Pokagon on the last day of the tobbogan sled being open to enjoy the warm afternoon. This is what Dylan wanted to do for his birthday. It was SO crowded. The kids were really good and patient considering. We had cake and puppy chow, as well as hot chocolate. It was so nice out. We love the state park.

Dylan and company

Issac, Logan, Blake, Dylan, Xavier, Josh, Kyle and Camden, AJ had already left for the evening.

Dylan had some of his friends from school over to celebrate his birthday with him. He was so excited and they were all really hyper after school. It went really well, about half spent the night and the rest left around 8:30. He has a great group of little boys that he really likes at school and I am so glad. Kindergarten has been a great expereince and has made him grow up and mature a little bit.

Happy Valentines Day

The table all decorated for Valentines Day. Notice the rose petals all over the ground.

Maddie is speechless, we better make note of that.

This is want it looked like before the kids attacked it.

This is the second year I have done a special Valentine Party for the kids. They are so easy, it really does not take much to make them happy. I just serve them lots of red stuff and spread candy all over the table. We even ate by candle light. Not super romantic for Mike and I, but he says the it was just created by Halmark to make money anyway, so I guess its okay.

Science Fair

Maggie and Maddie

Maddie won Science Fair at Ryan Park and got to go on the an all Angola Science Fair. She won honorable mention. Her friend Maggie also won in the first grade. Maddie is now an expert on seed germination.

Snow X 2

Here are some better pictures of my sweet little snow bunnies. They were taking advantage of one of our many snow days were had this winter. Thanks gosh that is over, bring on the sun.

Nana's Tea Party

Every winter Nana has a very special themed tea party. This year we did a sock hop. It was really fun for the kids to get dressed up and do karoke. All of the decorations were awesome. The food was terrific and we all had such a great time. I think I have the greatest in-laws ever.

Snow Angels

First I should start by saying I HATE SNOW. I do not like getting the kids bundled up and outside. It takes so long and they do not last very long, then they track in all the snow and want hot chocolate. Now, I try to be fun and I make myself work through it and let the kids have fun. Here is one day I caved and got everyone bundled up and outside. They did have fun, and so did Michael.

Maddie and Maggie

Maddie wanted to have her friend over during the holidays and everyone was too busy to make it work. So the first week back to school she had Maggie over after school. They are so easy. We

did manicures and pedicures.

Sleep Over

The Stoy girls both stayed with Maddie. Evelyn was so mad when we invited Olivia over, so she came too. The are not many 2 year olds that would stay somewhere. We all loved having her, they were really cute, as you can see.

Dylan had his cousin Dawson stay, he is Dylan's hero and best friend. They are both such good boys.

Macy and her friend Macy stay. Her daddy works with Michael. The girls are double trouble, but look how cute they are.

The kids each had a friend spend the night as their last fun evening before we headed back to school. There was seven kids all together. It was really fun to watch them. The house looked like a tornado hit, but they all had fun. We did not even have any fights.

Happy New Years

We stayed at home on New Years Eve and just hung out with our kiddos. They had fun eating junk and playing games. We have a new favorite game, Pictureka. It was actually more fun than I thought that it would be. Mom brought her kitten over for the kids to play with. His name is Paco, and I bet he was exhausted when he got home. The kids chased him the entire night.

Tobogganing

The dads are taking the sleds up the steps. They were troopers. We ended up driving Mike's truck after the first run.

The whole crew. Dylan, Hayden, Joel, Gavin, Macy, Whittney, Cadenence, Avery, Reece Weber, and Maddie.

Cadence, Whittney and Avery, they were watching while we were getting our sled.

The sled way off in the distance is my family. My camera stinks.

The Pfefferkorn's, minus Miss Aleigha, she stayed with her grandpa and grandma.

The day after Christmas we all headed to my favorite place ever, Pokagan State Park to do some tobogganing. We met the Gardeners, Pffefferkorns and the Knoxs. The kids had a blast, so did I actually. We are lucky to have such great friends and it was so pretty out. It was snowing really hard, which felt pretty terrible on our faces as we were going down on the slide but was so beautiful.

Christmas Morning

Mom and dad, they had to get here really early so the kids would not beat them and have everything opened.

Dylan got a bow and arrow. He wants to be like his daddy.

Maddie got her guitar. She wants to take lessons. I love this picture. She is so excited.

Having breakfast.

I forgot to get a good picture of the kids upstairs when they first woke up. So this was an after thought.

Dylan did a good job pretending to like his clothes.

Macy is opening her first gift from Santa. She was very matter of fact and did not get really excited.

Maddie was pretty pumped.

The tree before the kids attacked it.

The kids woke up Christmas morning and were very excited. The tree looked terrific and they could not wait to rip open all of their gifts. Grandpa and Grandma always come over Christmas morning and they put all of their gifts in the basement for our family. First the kids opened their gifts from Santa and then we had a huge breakfast. Around lunch time we moved on the the basement and did their gifts that were under the tree down there. For the first time we did not have to leave the house on Christmas at all. It was different, the kids and Mike loved it, but I was a little sad. I love tradition, and it was weird doing things differently.

Here comes Santa Clause

Yummy, they looked so good the kids had to try them out.

Feeding the reindeer. Mike when out and made foot prints for Santa and the reindeer, but it rained that night and washed away all of his hard work.

When we got home Christmas Eve we had lots of preperation to do so we would be ready when Santa got here. We had to feed the reindeer and make a quick batch of cookies. The kids had to try out a couple of cookies before bed of course.