Nick's fabulous new bed...

Yes...the bed project is done! Well, mostly anyway - a few finishing touches are required but then we'll call it complete. We didn't tell Nick that Shane was bringing it home so when we walked in and there it was - all assembled w/ his bed made, animals/pillows in place, you'd have thought Nick won the lottery w/ all of the whoopin' & hollering he was doing! Its like his own jungle gym - he's been up & down, up & down, tied ropes to it, sat underneath it & played Leapster, went up & down, then up & down again...you get the picture! I even got huge props for hanging his shirts up - as Nick put it, "That's just really cool how you're hanging my shirts Mom" - crack up! I think I could have spanked his butt and he would have thought it was cool as long as he could sit on his bed!!! Shane won some MAJOR points for building the bed too - not only did Nick get to help build & paint it, but just the fact that he gets to sleep in it makes Shane the coolest dad EVER.

Here's some pics of The Best Bed in the Universe:



Here's to a great first night sleep Nick!

Alright already...

I know, I know...its been awhile since I posted...as many of you have been "reminding" me :) So, Mom, Peg, Jen, etc - this one's for you!

Shane & I had a blast last weekend in Indy w/ Steph & Stacy! Our first stop was delivering toys to Riley Hospital - Shane's work (MasterBrand Cabinets) had several gifts left over following their children's Christmas party and they decided to donate them. Riley holds a special place in Shane's heart since Katie was treated for an umbilical hemmorage when she was less than 2 mos. old. The staff person we delivered them to was so appreciative which just added to the experience.

After a little drama checking into the Westin (apparently Hotels.com didn't feel like passing our reservations on to the actual hotel - novel idea huh?!), we settled in to our upgraded-at-no-charge rooms then headed out to Circle Centre Mall for a little shopping. BTW - for anyone staying in downtown Indy in the winter, I highly recommend the Westin not only b/c its a fab hotel but b/c its connected by skywalks to Circle Centre! After a little shopping, we dropped off our goods then headed out to dinner at Harry & Izzy's - good food but a little pricey. After going across the street to Ram Brewery to watch a little football, we all agreed we'd eat there next time b/c the food looked awesome and was definitely more reasonable...the huge flatscreen TVs sure didn't hurt either :) After watching another football upset (so sorry about your luck Titans), we headed over to Howl At The Moon - we absolutely LOVE that place!! Those musicians are soooo talented - most played more than one instrument - and they're all such showmen...involving the crowd and singing absolutely any song request that was turned into them. Here's some great pics from our night out...

Shane singing along w/ the crowd

After breakfast the next morning, we headed home and gathered up our kiddos then spent the afternoon doing laundry, straightening up, etc.

This week hasn't been that exciting...Shane has been leading a kaizen event at work so he didn't get home until after 9 most evenings. I joined him & some of his co-workers at the Schnitz in Jasper for dinner last night - yum! Due to the bitter cold, we've had 2 hour school delays yesterday & today so at least I could be with the kids a little more than usual. Tonight, we're all sitting here in the dark watching a movie...ok, so I'm half watching it as I blog...multi-tasking at its finest! Not a lot going on this weekend - the twins each have a bowling party to go to for a classmate - Hannah tomorrow & Emily on Sunday. Other than that, should be nice, quiet weekend - my favorite kind!

Killin' time on a Tuesday morning...

Another school delay has me home (again) for 2 extra hours today...not that I mind the time at home, it just puts me behind at work so the rest of the day will be crazier than usual...I guess I should be used to craziness by now huh? We all survived our return to the real world yesterday...the kids all had good days - all stayed on "green" all day in their classrooms so that's a pretty major feat right there :) Nick told us last night that his teacher said she'd "forgotten" some of the classroom rules since they had been off school for so long so the kids had to "remind" her of the hallway & bathroom rules...pretty sneaky way for her to get the kids to remember the rules!! I asked him if maybe that's what she was doing but he said "I'm serious Mom - she didn't remember!"...Nick & his "I'm serious" comments crack me up....here's a pic of our little man playing Leapster last night.

Shane & I are looking forward to our weekend trip to Indy on Saturday w/ Steph & Stacy McClure for Steph & I's birthdays....her's was 12/23 & mine is 1/23 so we picked a weekend in the middle! We're staying at the Westin (love love love their feather beds & dual head showers!) so we'll be downtown close to everything. We plan on a little shopping once we get there since we're right next to Circle Center Mall then going out to eat and heading to Howl At The Moon - its a dueling piano bar which, if you've never been to one, we highly recommend it! The musicians are so talented and they can play absolutely any song you can think of from the piano classics of Billy Joel & Elton John to rock songs from 80's "hair bands". We'll head home on Sunday so it will be a short trip but since we all have kiddos, we'll want to get home to them. Nick will be in Evansville visiting the Coy's and the girls are going to my dad & step-mom's so they'll all have a fun weekend too.

I need to go - I have 3 heads of hair to get styled, 4 sets of teeth to brush check, 8 coats/backpacks to find....and a partridge in a pear tree! Hope everyone makes this blah Tuesday a good one!

Last day of vacation :(

Yep...I've been spoiled by being off work since Dec. 23rd...the kids & I are not looking forward to getting back to the "real world" tomorrow but I guess it had to come sometime! We had a busy start to our week but were realllly lazy the last half!

On Monday, I took the girls to Evansville to spend the Christmas money that was burning a major hole in their pockets...first stop - Build-A-Bear (of course!) Em "built" a cute little dog she named "Pookie", Hannah "blinged" out a monkey that she named "Pinky" and Kate "prettied" up a dog named "Angel" w/ pink sequins....that place was total chaos but the girls were all very patient while we waited...and waited and waited. We also went to Bath & Body, Victoria's Secret, Old Navy and the candy shop plus ate at T.G.I.Fridays...yum! After a stop at Shoe Carnival, we picked up Nick from the Coy's and headed home.

The girls prior to "stuffing" their animals

My baby brother Jonah came to spend the afternoon w/ the kids on Tuesday so I could meet Shane in Jasper for a "date" at the new buffalo wings restaurant (similiar to Buffalo Wild Wings). All it cost me was homemade tacos for Jonah for his lunch plus I made him my apparently "famous" cheeseball that all his friends are now raving about...just the same 'ol cheeseball I grew up eating but quite the crowd pleaser!

Wednesday & Thursday were spent at home - I don't think I got out of my pj's either day until well into the afternoon - what a slug! We did absolutely nothing New Year's Eve besides chill at home watching TV...we let the kids stay up 'til 8:30 - WOW, a whole 1/2 hour later than usual :) I promise - we are not "Hitler" parents...we just have more rules than most people - and for good reasons! We have 4 kids that are practically the same age so just imagine the chaos that we would endure w/out a fair amount of rules! And as far as the bedtime goes - we have kids that wake up at the same time each morning (7am) regardless of what time they went to bed...not usually worth the extra hour of "awake" time the night before if its going to result in cranky kids!

Shane's been working on a special project this week for Nick - a loft bed w/ a desk & closet underneath...Nick is so excited that he can barely stand it! He desperately needs a closet b/c his clothes are finally outgrowing his chest of drawers and the desk is b/c he also says he's "outgrowing" his Little Tykes tool bench...such a little man! Can I say how impressed I am by my husband's woodworking skills?! He's also built the twins' beds plus various bookshelves, end tables, etc. The bed is now done & just waiting for its paint - Shane & Nick took it out to my in-laws this morning b/c Shane's shop is too little to paint in but we need to wait for a non-rainy day to actually do the painting.

Bed-building at its finest

On Friday, I took our 4 kids plus 3 friends of the girls' to meet Abbie & Max at the movies - what a crew!! The girls were so cute w/ their purses & girly attitudes...we let them sit together away from us so they all thought they were pretty grown-up! We saw "Bedtime Stories" w/ Adam Sandler - pretty cute movie and only rated PG so its a movie that parents & kids can both enjoy. While we were at the movies, Shane lined up a babysitter so he & I could go out to dinner - 2 dates in one week!

Yesterday & today have been spent at home...nothing too exciting outside of laundry & a little house cleaning - just saving up energy for next week I guess. You may notice my new "vacation ticker" in the sidebar - its hard to believe that we've been planning this Hawaii vacation for exactly a year!! Absolutely CAN'T WAIT!!!

The best of '08

So, I'm going to totally copy my cousin Cass's blog & try to creatively list my "best's" of '08...here goes (in no particular order...)

1. Getting to celebrate the 1st anniversary of marrying my best friend
2. Watching my "baby" Nick march into school to start kindergarten w/ his big sisters by his side
3. Finally getting my living room project done (by my handy hubby!) - new wall finished, crown molding & baseboards installed, new paint & new front door!
4. Discovering the awesome world of blogging & how it connects friends, both old & new
5. Coaching all of my daughters in both outdoor & indoor soccer...now I can say "NO!" the next time I'm asked :)
6. Cheering for Nick the T-ball player & Shane the T-ball coach
7. Finally getting some answers to Emily's behavior issues
8. Enjoying Shane & I's "date nights" - highly recommended for all married couples but especially those with children!
9. Road-tripping to Bumpus Mills, Tennessee for weekends w/ Mom & Scott
10. Watching 4 generations play softball at Shane's family reunion
11. Seeing the complete wonder on Shane's face as we first heard the roar of the dragsters in Indy
12. Experiencing Colts football in the glory of Lucas Oil Stadium
13. Eating a hot dog & drinking a cold beer while watching the Indianapolis Indians baseball team on a perfect September night
14. Hearing the collective intake of breath as our children opened their trampoline on Christmas morning...then covering my ears to the screams of joy!
15. Finally getting the perfect vehicle for our family - seats 8 w/ a DVD player & heated seats and its NOT A MINIVAN!
16. Half-heartedly supporting my husband's obsession w/ becoming a drag racer
17. Watching as my "everybody's party-buddy" brother-in-law Dave became one of the US Army's finest - so proud of you!!
18. Taking Hannah to the emergency room as she was awarded the "First Broken Bone" award - all healed now :)
19. Not only seeing Nick lose his first tooth but also trying to keep up w/ all of the teeth Emily, Hannah & Kate decided to lose this year...this all went along w/ reminding the Tooth Fairy (aka Shane) to put the golden dollars under their pillows before he left for work
20. Accepting the fact that its ok for a new washer & dryer to excite me as much as they did

That's about all I can come up with outside of the fact that I'm obviously very blessed to have a happy & healthy family...I know that 2009 will be just as crazy as 2008 - and I don't want to miss a thing!

P.S. I know I haven't posted about Christmas but we did sooo much that it would totally exhaust me to re-cap it all....safe to say we were all very spoiled, ate way too much and loved seeing all of our families!

Only 1 more day 'til vacation!

That's right...one more day then I'm off work thru Jan. 5th...woo hoo!! Work has been soooo hectic with the staffing changes that we had to make so I'm definitely ready for the break...

Last weekend, the kids & I made the one & only Christmas candy that I can make on short notice...M&M chocolate pretzels. So simple - line a cookie sheet w/ little pretzels, have plenty of kids around to unwrap a bag of Hershey kisses (milk or dark chocolate), put a kiss on each pretzel then put in a pre-heated 250 degree oven for 5 minutes...no longer! Pull them out of the oven then press an M&M (any flavor but try to get red & green ones - the peppermint ones are awesome w/ the dark chocolate!) down into the kiss. Let cool in the pan for 10 minutes then put on cookie racks to finish setting up...simple & delicious!!

We had a busy weekend like most people this time of the year...the "sickies" hit Katie Friday night (that makes 4 out of the 6 of us!) and she was pretty puny all weekend long. We still managed to fit quite a bit in though!

We went to Huntingburg Saturday morning for Shane's company "kid" Christmas party - soooo many things for the kids to do like "elf" bowling, balloon animals (my hubby is the master balloon animal tie'er upper), letters to Santa, face painting, etc etc plus they all got a gift from Santa. The doughnuts & chocolate milk were good too...at least for everyone but Katie who "lost" her breakfast 5 minutes later - yuck! All she had consumed was the milk but we still had to make a run for the bathroom...and we almost made it....that's right, ALMOST. I had to do a little clean up...but she was a trooper and put her game face on for a little while longer until we could leave.

After the party, the kids & I headed back to Washington to take Kate to Shane's mom & dad's and Nick to Anna's so the rest of us could head to Evansville to finish up our shopping - we didn't think that a sick Kate nor a 5-yr-old Nick could hold up very well in the mall on the Saturday before Christmas!! The twins did great though and we finallllly finished our shopping - after the mall, we hit Target (one of the few things I miss about living in E-ville!) then went to dinner at Nagasaki. Its a Japanese hibatchi restaurant so the kids absolutely love having their dinner cooked right in front of them on the grill...its one of our family faves! Once we picked up Katie (Nick spent the night at Anna's) and got home, I wrapped gifts for 2 hours (ugg!) then crashed.

On Sunday, the twins & I went to church at Providence b/c it was Beth & Dad's 24th wedding anniversary and my brother Dan sang w/ the Praise Team and also solo...he did a great job! I was so looking forward to finally getting to hear Shawn deliver a sermon but no-go...his youth pastor preaches once a month and it was his turn....great message though! After church, we all went to Mi Pueblo and Shane & Katie met us there. Then all of the girls went w/ me to Anna's so they could open presents w/ Nick...such cute stuff! We headed home after a quick visit then I went to Wal-mart to stock up for all of the Christmas dinners this week. Once I got home, I made some more M&M pretzels then dinner then DROPPED on the couch....I was worn out!

The next week will be a busy as the weekend but I'm so looking forward to all of our family traditions...if I don't have time to post before Thursday - Merry Christmas to all of you!

Blog Award...

Big thanks to Jenelle for the blog award nomination! Our boys were in pre-school together and now go to the same school for Kindergarten...I absolutely love checking her blog out for new pics of her gorgeous kids and love reading her stories about raising 3 kids under the age of 6 :) And I also went to my junior prom w/ her big bro Phil!

So, here are the rules to receiving this award:
1. You have to pass it on to 5 other fabulous bloggers in a post.
2. You have to list 5 of your fabulous addictions in the post.
3. You must copy and paste the rules and the instructions below in the post.

Instructions: On your post of receiving this award, make sure you include the person that gave you the award and link it back to them.

I'm going to nominate...

1. My cousin Abbie - love her blog for lots of reasons but mostly b/c she always seems to have something profound to say that touches me and all of the cute pics of Max make me smile...

2. Another cousin Cassie - we've lost touch over the years w/ her moving to Seattle but I feel we've re-connected thru blogging. Her posts from her month in Africa were awesome and I feel I get to live vicariously through her exciting "urban" life w/ PJ!

3. And another cousin Shawn - Shawn has a way of posting about his faith that makes you think and want to keep reading more. He sometimes asks tough questions but they make you look inward and analyze yourself. I just finished reading his latest post about cookie blessings - brought tears to my eyes.

4. My friend Jen (finally, not a family member!) - I'd like to think I had something to do w/ Jen entering the world of blogging...well, me & a requirement for her MBA CIS class :) Jen's blog is so heartfelt and I always look forward to reading about the Fab Miss Alex and Brady Bear.

5. And last but definitely not least, Tera - the first blog I ever read was Tera's when I was searching for news about Andre, Mandi & Gabe's accident. I absolutely fell in love w/ her blog and wasted no time starting one of my own....Tera - my husband said "Thanks!" LOL!

So - on to my five addictions...my kids & husband go without saying so I'll find 5 other "things" to confess to...

1. Diet Coke - nothing beats a big fountain Diet Coke w/ extra ice...preferably as soon after I get up as possible...this is one reason visiting Mom & Scott's Bumpus Mills house is tough on me b/c its in the middle of absolute no-where and there's not a fountain Diet Coke to be found within 30 minutes.

2. Mi Pueblo's Quesadilla Jalisco - order it everytime I go - no variations.

3. Dark Chocolate - hated it as a kid but require it as an adult. My hubby shares in this addiction which can be a problem b/c it doesn't seem to last very long in our house!

4. Sudoku - crazy little Japanese game! Sometimes I play it online but other times I prefer good 'ol pencil & paper.

5. Trips to Walmart - ALONE...that's right - no kids, no husband - just my "me" time. Sad, but true...

good night!!