Undertheseas’s Weblog

It’s been over a year since I last blogged!  I’m too lazy to go back 14 months so let’s start with May.

May had prom….

Then we skipped out of the last day of school to go back to California for a great vacation doing my favorite things, the beach and Disneyland!

    

Then in August they started back to school.  K is a senior!

B is a freshman!  In the same school as his big sister for the first time ever.

And this little one is a first grader!

I don’t know how it’s possible that they have gotten so big.

With fall came activities like soccer:

Color guard

And band competitions…

And of course football.

With football comes a concussion….

His first high school touchdown!  (Ignore the terrible photography)

Unfortunately he caused the penalty that called it back.  He also had a birthday, #15.

Which meant going to get his permit

Then there was homecoming.  Their first dance together!

Kels had her senior photos which we don’t have back yet but we also took some at home:

Someone else had to join in…

So if you do 2/3 of the kids, you need the third kid too.

So we decided to take our Christmas card photos while we were at it.

So if you read this post, it doesn’t look like we did that much in the last 6 months but it seems like we’re always on the go!

We’ve had a busy summer around here! Summer school and baseball led into summer camps and vacation and now school.

Dave has been so busy at work and couldn’t be gone long so we decided on a trip to Chicago and Saint Louis. The first day we went to the Arch:

  Even I went up to the top!

 Then we went to the City Museum which was fun too.

Some of the caves were almost too small for even Kels!

The slides were a hit.  Then there was the little train…

And the art area had a lady that tells stories while you make snowflakes and jointed animals

After that we went to the Science Center. Dave was so nice, he offered to take A to Build-a-Bear while the big kids and I saw an Omnimax movie. It was neat but Brat Boy and I may have nodded off a bit!

Then we went to see Karen at George’s house where the kids swam before she made us an incredible dinner. We spent the night with her before getting up really early to catch the train to Chicago.

Our hotel was about 7 blocks from Union Station and in the theatre district. We looked around a bit

Then headed to Millennium Park to see Crown Fountain

And the Bean! (Cloud Gate)

Then we walked to Navy Pier (we did a LOT of walking in Chicago!)  and took the water taxi to Sears (now Willis) Tower so Dave and the kids could walk out on the Ledge!

Look how Brat Boy was more scared than his baby sister!

I stayed firmly on the ground!

The next day we walked to Shedd Aquarium

A’s favorite thing was petting the sting rays even if she was scared to do it at first!

We recreated the photos of the last time Dave and I went to Chicago, just a few months short of 21 years ago!

  

A lot has changed since then!

Then the Field Museum

And Soldier Field.

The next morning we took a bus to the Museum of Science and Industry. We got there an hour before it opened so we walked across the street to Lake Michigan.

We found lots of “sea” glass (mostly broken beer bottles) and some shells.

That night Dave heard on the news that the beach was closed because of ecoli!

Then we walked back. We saw eggs about to hatch

The U-boat exhibit with a real German u-boat that was captured in World War II

We couldn’t have a vacation without SOME Disney (well Dave could but the rest of us couldn’t) so we saw the Disney Archives

We also did a lot of other neat stuff there like the coal mine, drove a tractor and finally saw a newly hatched chick:

It was a full day!

The next day we took the train back to Saint Louis. Look at this cool photo Dave took:

We did some shopping and ate at the Cheesecake Factory before going to Karen’s to spend the night. I’m glad we got to see Hannah! I wish we could have seen Gretchen but she was getting ready to head to Europe for several weeks. Thanks for being a great hostess Karen!

The next morning we got up early to go to the Saint Louis Zoo.  We saw more sting rays and some little sharks

Who needs a stroller when you have a big brother?

We always enjoy this zoo, especially the hippos!

It’s hard to believe it’s free!

We saw a baby camel that was born on “hump day!”

After that we left to head to Munchkin and Papa’s for the 4th of July.

We rented a boat with Shelly’s family and our kids went tubing. 

(Moms, you may want to look away for some of these!)

It was A’s first time!

You can tell she hated it, HA!

They had a blast.

 

I was glad to see Cailey before she heads to Germany for a year but we were sorry to miss Nathaniel.

After we got home, we had a belated July 4th fireworks show, courtesy of Dave.  And of course you need sparklers:

 

And lots of snacks before the show!

Then school started!

We have a Junior…. (5% for her height)

An 8th grader…. (95% in height and weight for his age)

And a Kindergartener!  (75% for height and weight for her age)

She loves school.  The first week she told us that she “apologized to the America flag” and “Jesus was invisible”.  It took us a minute to realize she was saying she said the Pledge of Allegiance and “under God, indivisible…”  HAHAHAHA!

So this year we’re running around three different schools, ugh!

Kels has started Color Guard and had her first game on Friday

So now we’re all caught up! More school and football and color guard stuff to come!

Spring was a busy time for us around here!  It started with this guy:

Dave got promoted to manager!  Well deserved recognition for all his hard work.  Way to go, honey!

Then this girl turned 16.  So hard to believe!

Brat Boy has been participating in 3 sports this spring:  basketball, baseball and track.  He really loved it and shot put was his thing. He did really well (until he pulled a muscle in his back).

His old baseball coach took this photo, I just love it

When he wasn’t in sports, his latest thing is paintball with his friends.

He isn’t just a jock though, he also got to go to the state math meet after getting third place at regionals!

Mom had her birthday and we all went out to celebrate her and an early Mother’s Day.

This year we celebrated May the Fourth as Star Wars day.  We watched the older movies and had themed snacks like Ham Solo sandwiches, 7 Leila dip, Wookie cookies (they are chewy!), Yoda soda, and light sabers.

Then our baby went to summer school for kids going into Kindergarten.  That’s hard to believe too!

She LOVES school!  Then she had the nerve to turn 5!

Grandma is taking AN and S to dance lessons so we all went to watch them after birthday ice cream at Central Dairy.

Everyone came to her party except her brother who was at scout camp.

Hopefully the summer will slow things down a bit but I doubt it!

The girls have had a lot going on as of late, especially my K-girl.  After 3 years and countless orthodontist appointments that Grandma taken her to, the braces came off!

Here’s the before:

The new retainer:

The after!

Besides her new look, she has this new piece of paper:

After swearing she didn’t want to drive, she has decided she is ready to learn.  The problem is when you’re right at 5 foot, it can be hard to find a car that you can drive safely.  Dad put in a lot of time to find just the right car:

She loves it!

She’s only had a couple of quick drives and one yesterday for just over an hour.  I took her and while it was quite tense at times (although there was about half a mile that I didn’t say a word).  She did pretty well considering she has really no experience.  We drove through the river bottoms and two tiny towns.

(Taken before she put the car in gear!)  In other teenage news, we ordered her class ring last month.  So much expense all at once!

These two, despite being so far apart in ages can fight like cats and dogs at times….

But they can also get along like best friends.

Then little Miss here had her kindergarten screening today.  Daddy took the day off to take her in and she came home so excited!  She’s four going on sixteen.  Here she is in the van a few weeks ago, upset that she couldn’t go on a test drive so she insisted on sitting in the passenger seat while we waited for Dad and big sister.

 

What can I say, AN has a knack for saying the cutest and funniest things.  I’ve had a list sitting on the kitchen counter for a few months now and I had better post them before I lose my notes and forget.

She has a few pronunciations that really crack us up, such as:

“Ga-la-ahbes” – you know, those things you wear on your hands in the winter.

“Max and Roo-vie” – the TV show with a brother and sister bunnies that seem to live without any parents and the little brother Max is a trouble maker and his sister Ruby is forced to parent him.

“Bam-mer” – the tool you use to “bam” a nail into a piece of wood.

And finally, my favorite, “cop-corn” or the snack you eat while watching a movie.   Last week she said it properly in the car twice in a row so I fear this little AN-ism is going away soon.

In addition to her funny pronunciations, she also has a great talent for saying “pears” or what other people might call Grace or the blessing.  While we were in New Orleans and the kids spent a few days with Munchkin and Papa and they said grace before eating.  Well AN has taken this good habit home and now she says it every night at dinner.  Often these blessings cause some peeking eyes and a few giggles.  They always end with a variation of “we love you Jesus God, thank you Jesus God, we love you Jesus God, amen.”  Sometimes there is thanks for the “good food”, sometimes the “good stuff” and once in while “our family”.  Other times there are some gems like “thank you God for all the good stuff but please don’t let Gracie come cuz she is bad!”   Or a favorite of everyone’s is “please God let me grow so I can ride Screamin’ roller-coaster!”  But the all time best prayer yet was Thanksgiving dinner with Dave’s parents and my parents all seated around the table, after I slaved over the stove for hours, and she prayed “thank you God but we apologize for this food.”

I know, I know but things have been busy around here.

In September this kid became a teenager:

And not even a week later he broke his foot at practice:

He missed almost all of the football season which was heartbreaking.  It is his favorite sport.  It also caused him to miss the school basketball season.

In October Dave had a conference in New Orleans so I jumped at the chance to go with him.  Our first “vacation” without kids!  Thanks to our moms who watched the kids while we were gone!  We got to see a lot of the things you think of when you think of NOLA:

And some weird things you probably wouldn’t see anywhere else:

While Dave was tied up with the conference, I got to meet up with my cousin Joyce and her husband Don.  They live in Baton Rouge so they traveled down just to show me around which was so sweet of them.  I just loved visiting with them!

I had been in New Orleans on my senior trip 20+ years ago so I had seen some things before but some things were new.

No surprise but my favorite thing (other than chargrilled oysters which was a surprise) was the amazing architecture:

We saw several movie and TV show sets which was really cool.  They were shooting the series American Horror Story (which we’ve never seen) and a movie with Ben Kingsley and the girl who plays Lady Mary Crawley from Downton Abbey, “Selfless”.

Of course there are just a few bars in New Orleans.  We only went to the one to hear jazz but there were some funny and photographic signs:

(The outside looks a bit scary but the music was great).

There was music everywhere, even the street corners.

All over you would find leftover Mardi Gras beads in the trees and lampposts but even this was unusual:

We had a great time, it was nice to go out without worrying if the girls would eat something on the menu and seeing what we wanted.

Thanks Moms for giving us the chance to go and to Joyce and Don for showing me around town!

We got home the day before Halloween.  I couldn’t miss Snow White…

Thanksgiving was at our house this year, that was different and a good opportunity for me to cook a turkey but we really enjoyed seeing Dave’s parents.

Before you knew it, it was Christmas.  

We spent an hour in the cold to ring the bell for the Salvation Army as a family (Dave took the photo).

Then we went to church and saw the “magic tree”.

We had a great Christmas, the kids were spoiled rotten.

After Christmas, Quiz Bowl started.

And then we had another ER visit!

The scouts were camping out and he fell on the ice.

Groundhog’s Day is a traditional party day for my grandfather and it just so happened to be Super Bowl Sunday too so we tried to have a party but unfortunately the weather didn’t cooperate so it was just us having a “picnic” in the living room in front of the TV.

Geepop used to let me order Shirley Temples at the country club so we had those and the usual football tailgate food.

Dole Whips aren’t traditional Groundhog’s Day or Super Bowl food but it was tasty!

And since we hadn’t had a doctor’s visit/ER trip in a couple of weeks, baby girl came down with a sinus infection.  The antibiotics unfortunately didn’t agree with her:

On Valentine’s Day the big kids had a dance and it was also the basketball team’s courtwarming game.  I didn’t get a picture of B’s dance since it was after school but I did get K’s:

With her new glasses:

And because she had to have her photo taken too:

We’re in the end of a rec league basketball season and about to start another (along with starting track and baseball practices too)

And with that, I think I’m caught up!  Hopefully it won’t be so long again between posts but it probably will!

We have a sophmore…

A 7th grader…

And someone who wanted to be included in the photos.  Next year we’ll have a kindergartener!

 

OK WordPress, this not rotating picture thing is SOOOO ANNOYING!  Apparently it is going to do it now with my camera too!

When we started talking about our vacation for this year, Dave’s requirement was that it had to be something new (meaning not Disney World).  AN wanted to see a beach and of course the kids and I really wanted wanted to include Disney.  Since Dave is the only one of us who has ever been to California, that seemed like a great compromise!

I apologize for the photos that are sideways, apparently stupid WordPress cannot rotate photos from phones even though I had saved it rotated before I uploaded them.  These are my favorite pictures of over 5,000 pics and I’m too frustrated to not include them after taking the time to resize them and try to rotate it three times (ugh…..)

Sunny California was not so sunny or warm!  Especially at the beach, the temps were in the upper 60s or lower 70s which is pretty chilly when you’re in the water!

We really enjoyed the beaches, despite the cold and “June gloom”.

    

                       

California was terrific, we had a great time!  Everyone asks if we liked Disneyland better than Disney World and the truth is, they both have good points.  If we planned another trip, it would probably come down to the money and whichever one was cheaper.

Immediately after we got back, this kid turned 4.  FOUR!  I can’t believe it!

She’s so rotten.

  

She also started swimming lessons.  We got home from CA at 4:30 in the morning and she was up and at swim lessons by 10:20!  She took to it like a …..well, a fish to water!

I’ll try to post pics of the first day of school soon.

Yes, I’m finally posting! I’m a failure as a blogger.

The winter started off mild but then we had a couple of bad snow storms.

AN had it sooooooo easy.  She would ride down on the sled and the big kids would pull her up the hill.  Spoiled kid!

The snow was not fun for Dave and I though.  One day it took us four hours to get home.  Talk about stressful!

The winter was also full of basketball.  The boys did pretty well and won a couple of tournaments.

Of course lots of snow means snow ice cream!  And what makes it better, pink snow ice cream!

There was also a lot of running K girl around to and from play practice.  Luckily Grandma did a bunch of the running too which was a big help.  It was a musical called “Return to the Forbidden Planet” which was a cross of Star Trek and Shakespeare and old rock music. Kels was an extra but she did a great job!

It was different but fun to watch.  She was definitely the best dancer!

Then she turned 15.  Fifteen!  How is that possible?  She really wanted her cake to be one of Munchkin’s famous red velvet cakes and it was delicious as always!

First she said she didn’t want to get her driver’s license, then she decided the day before her birthday that she does.  So now she has to start studying to try to get her permit.

I can’t believe she’s old enough to get her permit!

Her grandparents came over to help us celebrate.

We also received a special package from Mickey Mouse.  We are going to see him this summer (big surprise, eh?) but this time we’re going to California!  We can’t wait to see the beaches and Disneyland.

Kels has been braiding AN’s hair lately, it makes her look like a big kid!

Also this spring we celebrated Grandma’s birthday.  She wanted a photo with all her grandkids.  Easier said than done!

It’s pretty much next to impossible to get everyone looking in the same general direction, hands down, eyes open and mouth closed.

And finally, last Friday, we had Brat boy’s first school dance (the theme was the 80’s) .  After the dance, on the way home, he told me he has a girlfriend.  I asked how long this had been going on and he said “a while” which meant since Monday night HAHAHA!

Apparently I couldn’t get any photos of them but her mom was so I copied it from facebook.  He is completely smitten, the photo is on his phone and he hung out with her on their gifted field trip instead of his best friend and they text like crazy.  He even shaved for the first time before the dance!  I have to admit, it’s kinda cute.

So now we’re all caught up!  Hopefully I won’t take so long to post again!

We had a great Christmas, here are just a few of my favorite photos. Unfortunately I kept messing with the camera settings and missed some of the shots of the kids opening gifts, grrrrrr…..

I have to say it was fun having a little one around who didn’t just want clothes or electronic devices!

Grandma made A’s apron so now all three girls have one handmade by her.

I have to say that my favorite gift that I bought this year was an impulse purchase for this kid who swore he’d wear it if I bought it:

We’re so blessed that we have each other and our health.  After the horrible tragedy in the CT school it’s been hard to imagine what I would do if one of these guys weren’t here.

I want to remember how fun AN was this year, she was addicted to the movies “Prep & Landing” and “Prep & Landing:  Naughty Vs Nice” or “the silly little green guys”.  She asked for Barbie with a scooter (Santa brought two Barbies with a golf cart because it was easier to drive) and seems happy with it.  I want to cherish how Kels was really helpful with checking to be sure Buddy our Elf on a Shelf had moved every night and wrapping gifts, etc.  And how cute Brat Boy was in his Beaker hat and how it ALMOST made up for only wanting cash and an iPod Touch this year.  Dave, who spent hours cutting down cedar trees, staking them and putting lights on them so I could look out to the front and back yards to enjoy them.  How Barbara and Boyd came up to spend the holiday with us, we had a great visit with them!  And finally, having my family so close and being able to do so much more with them now that Cindy’s family has moved up here.  Oh and the image of Mom with the three littlest kids on her lap so they could all watch the “silly goat video”!

I love Christmas but the tree in the living room made everything seem so crowded and the room dark, the kids and I took all of the decorations down on December 27th.  That has to be a record!

I’m hoping that 2013 will be just as much fun and full of blessings as 2012 has been!