So, we had a lovely holiday! Christmas Eve we spent with Chris’s family in Muscatine (though we missed the Laughead get together which we are very sad about… sorry guys!!). Christmas day was spent in West Liberty with my family. The kids were happy with all of their gifts and I think we all had a great time!
Audrey with Great Grandma Wheeler
Audrey and Aunt Sharon
Michael and his Bakugan
Our Christmas breakfast of weird but tasty holiday bread, eggs, bacon, pancakes, and oranges.
Chris loves his nuts
Audrey loved her hair straightener.
Michael and MORE Bakugan
Audrey the rock star
All in all, the holidays were good to us, Merry Christmas to all!!!
We hope this day finds you happy and healthy and enjoying friends and family!!!
Love,
The Wheelers
It’s that wonderful time of the year when the Thraps travel down to Muscatine for the beginning of the Christmas holiday and we get them FIRST so we can celebrate our little group Christmas together! They arrived last night and even though we worried about getting the kids hyped up, we decided to go ahead and do presents!!!
My kids made out like BANDITS!!! Audrey got a cute frame for her room and a DS game…
Audrey opens her first Thrap Christmas present… a pretty frame for her newly remodeled room!
Audrey’s very own DS game! Lilo and Stitch!
Michael opens his Thrap gift, a DS game!
Chris got some new CROCS for when he is done with nursing school (we are SO excited about that in just ONE MORE YEAR!!!) and Kate got her favorite… a Hobby Lobby gift certificate AND an eNV!!! The HL gc is from Becca and the phone was a group gift from Chris AND the Thraps! I am THRILLED!
Now, we got the Thrap family a GROUP gift this year because we knew there was something that their whole family was REALLY, REALLY wanting. This summer on a fluke run to Best Buy the guys found this game called “SingStar” for PS2. It’s kind of like karaoke but with the music videos and the real songs. We fell in LOVE! We also went out and purchased the SingStar Pop, SingStar 80’s, SingStar 90’s, and Josh got SingStar Rocks throughout the summer! The only downside was that the Thraps did NOT have a PS2, so when we would visit we would lug ours and whenever they would visit us we would SingStar it up! Sooooo… when I was perusing Craigslist this fall and came across somone selling their PS2 system, I thought… HEY… I could get ALL of the Thraps just ONE present instead of trying to find something individual for all of them! So, last night, they happily opened their Christmas present from the Wheelers! A PS2 system, the two games that they had purchased (that we had been housing since we were the ones with the PS2) AND an EXTRA set of the microphones for the game!!!
I think it was a Merry Thrapmas Christmas for EVERYONE!!!
So, we got a call Sunday night from Michael’s teacher telling us that she has nominated Michael for the “E for Effort” award at school! She told us that there would be a school wide assembly where Michael would receive his award and that we were welcome to attend. Chris and I cleared our schedules and braved the weather to get to Kirkwood Elementary. It was an amazing moment for us and for Michael when his name was called and he ran up to the front of the gym surprised and VERY proud of himself!
Michael is such a wonderful kid (as is his sister, of course) and we are so excited about the progress he’s been making at school and his own life! He is definitely TRRFCC!
I apologize for the grainy pictures, but we were really far in the back of the gym!
Michael receiving his award!
Michael and his E for Effort award!
So, no, today is not Jacob or Elise’s birthdays, but this weekend we spent some time up in Ankeny celebrating their blessed arrivals in our lives! Unfortunately, I am a total doof and forgot to take my camera and get some pictures!
Friday we arrived just in time for the men (BLESS THEIR WONDERFUL AND AMAZING HEARTS) to load up the children that were not involved in the Pokemon party to see the Christmas light display that just decided NOT to be there beautiful countryside of outer Des Moines! Becca and I stayed back at home with Michael and Jacob and several of his friends to decorate Pokemon shirts that Becca so craftily made and eat Pizza and RED VELVET pokemon cake! Once the boys were gone, the men returned with the other children and we went about putting them to bed. Once they were in bed, the adults got to play some cards–YAY!
Saturday came, all too soon, and it was time for the men to yet again (SERIOUSLY, BLESS YOUR HEARTS!!) take the superfluous children to the yearly Iowa BBQ Society’s Tree Giveaway in Des Moines. Once again, Becca and I stayed behind to give 6 little girls pedicures and makeovers! After we dolled them up (or Speared them up… good gravy lol) it was time for the photo shoot! After that there was POKEMON cake LOL! Once THOSE children were gone, we played some more cards and tried to talk Josh into spending a relaxing evening at home, but being the incredibly good hearted man that he is, he talked most of us into attending the Ward Christmas Dinner. So, we braved loading all of the children plus one extra friend of Jacob’s into two cars and set off! After the dinner we came back and bantered about what we should do and decided that watching a movie might be nice, so we chose American Dreamz. It had some funny parts (“Ohhhh Poopie!”), but I would have to give it a big thumbs down otherwise… still it was fun to catch a movie with the Thraps! Once the movie was done there was an attempt to play some more cards, but we soon realized that kids up late+adults trying to play cards does NOT = smooth night lol! So, we all just called it a day and headed off to bed. Right before we fell asleep we checked the weather to see that there was a potential ice storm coming our way, so in the morning we gathered up our things, played ONE last ROOK game and set off for home!
As the kids get older and I get more tired these weekends take a lot out of everyone, however, it’s always great to get to spend time with loved ones so THANKS Thrap Family for hosting!
So tonight we took some time to set up the Christmas tree! We found some Christmas music and pulled out our Craigslist tree that I sustained moderate injuries and humiliation for and set it up. I must admit that I was dubious about having a fiber optic tree because I thought it would look cheap and silly, but we were all pleasantly surprised that having a fiber optic tree negates having to have lights which is just easier anyway!
We had lots of fun going through our ornaments and talking about where they come from. It was really neat for Chris and I to hang up our “First Christmas Together 1997″ and for each of the kids to hang up their “Baby’s First Christmas” ornaments.
After the tree was up, the kids wanted to pretend like it was Christmas day and have me take pictures of them jumping around excited and then taking pictures of them pretending to make snow angels in our carpet (which, of course, was pretending to be snow).
Decorating the tree
It’s so hard to decide where to put the ornaments!
Taking great care to hang the ornaments
Making more pretend snow angels in the pretend snow!
So this summer Chris and the kids and I have gotten a chance to spend more time with Aunt Sue and Uncle Pat. We have had wonderful times there, the kids loooooove to be spoiled by Aunt Sue (and she loves spoiling them), and we have done lots and lots of fun things like going to the zoo, going to the children’s museum, going to rocket park, and going to the Festival of Trees. No matter what, Aunt Sue makes sure the kids have a good time. But when the kids go to bed, the adults break out the cards for some EUCHRE!!!
I will admit that since the dawn of our Euchre games, Sue and I have not had the best of luck… one night Pat and Chris beat us 13-1… GAMES of Euchre. Over time, both Sue and I have gotten braver about calling the trump, and thusly, our games have gotten better. And finally…FINALLY… we have news to report. Today, Aunt Sue and Kate BEAT the men THREE games to ONE!!! That’s right! We won. We might never play again so as not to ruin our record!
Things are going surprisingly well…but shhhhhhhhhhhhhhh… you didn’t hear this from me!
That would be supernannying your almost 10 year old for bedtime. Michael, love him dearly, and he has improved SO much from even just a year ago, but we need to nip this bedtime battle in the bud. So, here is goes. I put him to bed an hour ago and his first time out I told him it was bedtime and took him right back to bed. His second time out I told him it was bedtime and took him right back to bed. His third time out I took him right back to bed. This then brought on a battle of how many times he could get out of bed to get me to talk to him. When that didn’t work 15 times, he resorted to crying about how his mom hates him. Ugh. That’s hard to push through because I wanted so much to explain that I do love him, but he has to get to bed. So, instead of talking, I hugged him and put him back to bed. However, that just got me about 5 more times of getting out of bed and crying about how his mom still hates him.
Chris is about crawling out of his skin. I really appreciate him trying to work through this and trust my reasons even though he may not agree it’s what we should do. Wish us luck!
Yes, for whatever reason (gee, I don’t know, I guess we’re busy or something) our blogging has been less than active! Chris is in his second semester of nursing school and it is definitely keeping him on his toes. He’s started his clinicals for this rotation at Mercy Hospital and he was blessed to have most of his clinical mates from first semester with him again!
I am in my final year of graduate school and doing my advanced practicum at Four Oaks. It is a wonderful placement and I am so excited for the work I get to be doing! I sincerely never thought that working in a therapeutic setting with children was something that I would be doing, but I am loving it. It keeps me busy working 3 full days a week and classes on top of that.
Michael has been so busy this fall! He’s been in cub scouts as a BEAR! He’s been working hard and enjoying spending time with his friends at Church. He’s also been working weekly with some new friends at the Children’s Center for Therapy. He looks forward to this every week and feels like he is making some excellent progress. School has been going fairly well. He’s made some new friends this year and GASP, even misses school on the weekends!
Audrey is doing great in school too! She enjoys her teachers and has been doing well on her spelling and math. We were hoping to get she and Michael into Tae Kwon Doe this semester, but our schedule’s just didn’t have any give. We’re hopeful that the spring semester opens up a little and that maybe we will be able to have a few more extra-curricular activities for the kids!
As for the pregnancy test, it was not mine of course, but a friend of mine who with her husband has been trying to get pregnant for years. Happily, last month they found out that they are finally with child and we couldn’t be happier!
Thanks so much for keeping up with us! I will try to get a little more blogging in from time to time!
