Still here

Where have I Been!! Yes we are still alive. I know I have been slacking in the blog area. I just have been putting it off. We are just taking a day at a time. We are just doing the day to day routine during this cold winter. Ryan gets up and I take her to school Monday thru Wednesday. I put Luke down for nap when we get back from dropping her off and then Kacie and I have "Mommy School." Once I am done with that I try to clean the house spotless, which never seems to happen. I feel like I turn around and the mess is back. Matt is great at pointing that out. So life is going. I have started soccer out here. It is one on my great excitements every friday night. I LOVE IT!!! I will keep everyone up dated on my soccer.

It is so cold here and I can't wait till spring/summer. I am ready to get out of the house. The kids are to. I feel like I am a hermit. Matt started out great with the new year. He had a goal to get more physically involved with exercise and playing sports. I was really excited for him, Well, his first day at playing Basketball he spraned his ankle. It was really bad. It was a three degree spran. He was in a lot of pain for along time. I had to laugh when I found out. Its always to new guy.

Anyway, we have done afew things fun this winter. Besides sitting on Santa's lap about ten times we have gone sledding, Ice Skating, and making lots of snowmans. Ryan was so fun to watch ice skate. She felt she was so good that she picked out a little boy and was determined to teach him how to skate. Lets just say they were on the ground a lot. Kacie I think was done early into the activity. She did good, but she loves being warm more.

Chicago Trip

I thought I would report on our trip to Chicago. Those of you who know, Chicago and Me do not get a long very well. Lets just say, taking a trip to Chicago equals naughty children and anxiety driving in the city. This trip was a way to put all that behind me and try over. We decided to go and check out Chicago for the weekend. We stayed two nights in a hotel. On Saturday we went to the Navy Pier which held the Winter Wonderland Feast and then to the (free) Zoo and saw all the lights plus animals. It was very fun. The kids were great and I took lead in navigating and Matt had the "balls" to drive in the big city. So it all worked out great. Luke was sick over the trip but he was a great trooper and we still had fun. We were blessed to have gotten home safetly. There was a huge storm the night before. It snowed nine inches that night. The trouble wasn't in Chicago it was coming home in Indiana. We hit a bad windy, snowing, foggy, storm. We literaly almost slid off the road three times. I was very glad we decided to take Matt's SUV because his four wheel drive helped. Anyway we made it home safetly.

I don't know what Kacie is doing.

This picture is deceiving. It looks cold but it really is an ice skating rink in doors. When thought this Winter Wonderland Feast would be out doors. Instead of freezing we were sweating.

There was lots to do at the Wonderland Feast. There was great rides, Ice Skating, trains, big big rides, all kinds of rides. We did cookie decorating because that was the only fun thing to do. Thats what we kept telling the girls. It might have been more torture for the kids to "Look but not Touch" the rides. Oh well.

Ryan wanted her picture with the beautiful princess.

He was great for not feeling very well. He is still smiling.

The rest are pictures at the Zoo. It was very very cold. Luke was very tired so I wrapped him in his mobywrap and he slept. We kept each other warm. It worked out great.

WHERE'S LUKE?

Birthday Girl

It was Kacie's birthday today!! She turned Three. She is such a big girl. She got to pick her cake and she wanted it all pick. She picked princess plates and pink decorations for around the house. We sure do love and enjoy her. Here are afew pictures. HAPPY BIRTHDAY

BoSox Win in 4!

Since college I've been a die hard fan of the best Irish punk rock band in the world. I've been trying to make the music come on when the website is opened but unfortunately my doctorate is in medicine, not blogging. In honor of Boston's recent World Series championship I figured I would leave a taste of Ireland via Boston. Blogging nation meet the Dropkick Murphys, Dropkick Murphys meet the blogging nation. Enjoy. Heeeeeeeeeeeere's Tessie!

A Star Is Born

Well, as promised here is Ryan's highlight film from her first soccer season. She played on a team called the "firecrackers". They were really cute little girls and fun to watch learn to play. At the beginning of the season Tracy couldn't have been prouder. She has been prepping Ryan since she was born to run, dribble and shoot the ball. Needless to say, we were all shocked at her first game when she wouldn't go within 20 yards of the soccer ball or other girls. Sure, we thought she was cute as heck running around the action but we were kind of impatient to see her first bicycle kick.

As parents we've learned the power of positive feedback, so we figured there was no better time than now to try it. We told Ryan if she would kick the ball 5 times we'd treat her to an ice cream. Positive feedback works! At her next game she kicked it 7 times. We decided to sweeten the pot. We then told her if she scored a goal she could have a pack of gum. One game later she scored 5 goals. Whoa! What kids will do for Hubba Bubba. After she realized it wasn't as intimidating as she thought she was a goal scoring machine. We kept waiting for her to rip her shirt off in celebration revealing her mini-sports bra ala Brandy Chastain, but luckily she opted for the double fist pump.

The firecrackers won some and lost some but all-in-all it was an awesome season. Ryan had a blast playing and we had just as much fun watching. More than anything we were just happy that she overcame her intimidation of the "scrum". Now she absolutely loves the game. Who knows what the future will bring. Maybe a pack of gum for an Olympic gold medal. Time will tell.

Happy Halloween

It was a successful Halloween. We definitely got tooooo much candy. Two little girls plus lots of candy equals two naughty girls. They are cute but look out. Emotions are high. We were able to go with Matt. This was a first for a long time. Ryan was able to run her heart out, house after house with Matt (and Luke) while I took Kacie in the wagon and tried to meat up with Ryan every once in a while. It was fun. The weather was great and it didn't get dark while we were out. I think we couldn't planned it better. Ryan was the bride of Frankenstein. She looked great. Kacie......Well.....she wanted to be "drapes." It was very cute in how determined she was. For weeks she told us that is was what she wanted to be. We got a great outfit for her (purple sheet with purple balloons.) Matt had a work party where they had the kids dress up in their costumes and parade around the clinic. Well, Kacie was such a hit that it scarred the pants off her. She did not like the attention at all. Every nurse/Doctor/anybody wanted a picture of her. She didn't know what to do. So the ward trunk or treat she was snow white and the costume got really dirty that the only thing left was being grapes again or Annie and she was not going to be grapes (we really tried to get her to be grapes again.) So she was Annie for Halloween. That is why you will see her in three different costumes. Halloween came and went and now we have too much candy. HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Family in Town

My sister Teresa and her husband Mike came and visited us here in Indiana. We had so much fun. Ryan and Kacie got to play with their cousins Alli and Zachary. We partied till we dropped. We showed them the town of South Bend. Matt and Mike went fishing almost every morning. They only came away with one fish. This is the curse of mine and Teresa's family. Our curse is rubbing off on to them. The best part of the vacation was putting the kids to bed and staying up late to play "Settlers of Catan", watch movies and eat treats. It was great. We miss our family in Utah and were so happy to have them visit us.

Zachary was Kacie's. She was a good mommy to him

Here are the Three Drama Queens. They played princesses till they dropped and changed clothes contantly throughout the day. It was hard to seperate them.

This is Mike.......he loves to show off.

Does my twin look anything like me? Ryan wondering why Teresa looks so much like her mommy.