Spring 2024

Well, I seem to have gotten a smidge behind again, oops!  So we had a great Feb/March.  We had a joint band concert with Sam and Isaac, it was awesome to hear them both play!

We also got to celebrate Lauren's 2nd birthday!  It was exactly what a 2nd birthday should be!

We prepped for a March birthday celebration for Isaac, Bamma, and Noah.  Isaac helped make a lasagna!

On Isaac's actual birthday, we went to the Melting Pot for some fondue, just the 5 of us.  It was great!

I had a weekend getaway with the gals in Iowa, we had a great time! Wine, spa time, Eras watching, and just generally laughing a lot!  Love these ladies!

Just before our spring break trip, Sam got his braces.  He is not looking forward to 30 months of hardware, but he is looking forward to a new smile!

We headed out on for our spring break roadtrip!  We went to St. Louis first and found the amazing Pharaoh's Donuts!

Our hotel was right by the arch, we could see it from our window.  We spent the first morning walking around the downtown area.

We took the little tram up to the top of the arch.  Isaac and I didn't not really enjoy the ride, but we did it!

The view from the top was incredible!

It was super cool to walk around and see the Arch from different angles and talk about how it was built.

We tried some St. Louis BBQ too!

Then we headed to Memphis and spent the first night at a dive spot have some good family conversations.

We went off to visit Graceland!

The rooms were all so crazy, it was definitely interesting to see!

We tried out a great fried chicken spot!

And we explored the giant Bass Pro Shop pyramid!

We did see the Peabody ducks (not the parade, but we went to see them) and followed the tracks back to our hotel!

During our trip Noah turned 16, and I celebrated with a big ole beverage!

It was an awesome trip, but it was also nice to come home to our kitties and to have a few days left of Spring Break to relax!

Skillet cookie to celebrate being home and Noah being 16!

Easter Egg dyeing is actually way more fun when you have patient older kids that can do it themselves!

But Easter Egg hunting is way more fun with a 2 year old cousin who excitedly declares "ITSA EGG" every single time she finds one.  It was a fun Easter and a great way to end our little spring vacation!

Here we are, 2024!

So it's already February, which is a good thing because January was it's typical cold and gray.  We did have a lovely Christmas, we did some baking...

Isaac rocked his holiday sweater!

We had some dry ice with a delivery and there was some sciencing!

Christmas Day came and it was painfully obvious that there are 2 sleepy teenagers in the house now.  But it was still fun!

We were able to spend Christmas with Josh, Kjersten, and Lauren!

And I was able to gather with some LONGtime (we don't say old) friends too!

Lots of kitty snuggles!

And giant sandwiches!

A little golfing on a slightly milder day!

And our annual movie marathon!  This year we decided on Pirate's of the Caribbean (movies 1-3)

There was some new big kid furniture!

And good times beating up our table with quarters and awesome friends!

Sam picked out a new bed and helped me jam it into the van!

Lots more cat snuggles!

The temps dropped and we hit the snowy slopes before anything melted.  Some enjoyed it!

Some survived it!

We have been puzzling more too, recently Isaac tried out my cheaters and ended up looking like Clark Kent!

New leather jacket from Christmas!

And lastly, all the boys suckered into playing asleep/awake with Lauren.  Amazing the power this little one contains, we love it!

Happy Holidays 2023!

 Here we are at Christmas 2023!  As usual, please enjoy our annual list of quotes!

March 2023 - We took a spring break trip to Arizona and had the usual travel stress, finding our rental car and navigating out of the airport.  I was driving and Mike was navigating.  He told me "ok you will turn left up here in a little bit."  We approached and then he said "right here" which I took to mean right turn.  He actually meant, "turn left right here." And I repeated "right here?" and he said "right here!" so I turned right.  The kids in the back had a good laugh as we turned around.  Now whenever we are driving we all repeat " right, right here!"

March 2023 - While on the same vacation, Isaac was singing along to "You Sexy Thing" by Hot Chocolate with the lyrics "I believe in miracles."  Isaac put a spin on it, "I believe in meatballs."

May 2023 - We had on the live coverage of the coronation of King Charles, Sam walks through the room not really paying attention but stops and looks at the screen and asks, "Ok so now who are they sacrificing?"

August 2023 - Isaac recently began seeing a new therapist named Keeva that we really liked.  During his first session she asked him his favorite hobby and his response was, "Great question Keeva, I guess I'd say climbing trees."

September 2023 - Labor Day up at the lake and Sam had opted to bring only his crocs as footwear.  They also serve has his lake shoes to protect his feet from zebra mussels and rocks.  We were swimming on a particularly windy day and he kept taking off his crocs and leaving them on the pier.  I warned him to keep an eye on them since it was so windy.  We looked up and they were gone.  I started scanning the shoreline angrily and he was frantically looking under the pier, etc.  Suddenly he stopped, "oh here they are... on my feet."

September 2023 - Another interesting session for Keeva, as Isaac (who reads entirely too many medical books) shares that he has experienced auditory hallucinations.  He is very specific that it is a french man.  She was fairly concerned after that session and asked Mike if he was concerned (which he was not).  Keeva calls me in to chat after getting to know him more and understanding his penchant for finding fun diagnoses and says to me, "I don't want to make fun of your son, but that's hilarious."  Yep, yep.

November 2023 - As we prepare to host Thanksgiving, Isaac joins me on a trip to Costco to get the turkey.  We find a 20 lb bird and Isaac informs me "this turkey weighs more than a Napoleonic era cannon, those only weighed 12 pounds mom."

Happy Holiday to you and yours!