Santa

Last Thursday was Hometown Christmas.
This is such a fun tradition our little town has.
Santa arrives on a fire truck and lights our city tree.
Our family has these very special best friends. We are all close--the kids see each other as cousins or siblings as do the mommies. It is so special to have forged such great friendships.

The kids entertained the crowd by singing Christmas songs as they paraded around the tree.
These ended up being my favorite photos of the night.

Then came Santa. I do have to say I was a tad disappointed about the backdrop or lack there of...I wish they would have thought it through better. There is a tree just on the other side of MW. However the angle of the chair means it won't show up in the photo. Just a tad annoying but the real reason is for the kids to see Santa and that is all that matters. Who needs a photo op? {ME! ;) }

Grandma Rachel brought over this suit jacket of Chad's from his childhood on Wednesday. MW thought it was the most wonderful, coolest jacket ever. When I told him to get around for Santa he insisted on wearing his fancy gold button coat for the occasion. There was no way I could say no. So he is looking quite dapper for his visit.

MW is finally getting ok with seeing Santa. Here they are telling Santa their wishes.

The rest of the night was spent eating chili, making smores and crafts. It was a really fun night made extra special with good friends.

Rewind: April AND May

So let's rewind shall we to catch up on all I have neglected these few months.

Mid- April we had a family wedding in nowhere KS. But the hotel we stayed at was super nice {amenity wise}. And may I add that the kids view staying in any hotel as a major vacation. HA!

 Weddings are fun, but oh so boring to the kids; until the reception. Bring on the dancing and cake and they are happy. Actually we didn't get to stay long because they were running on empty and getting a tad cranky. Of course once we get back to the hotel room they are bouncing off the walls. MW was quite the comedian as we were all trying to go to sleep.

I hope they are always friends.

Look out word a crime fighting duo is on the prowl!

Who sleeps like this?!

I found this app called little hoots. A fun way to capture my "kids say the darnedest things" series. 

What can I say he is my little buddy. I have really loved all the time we get alone while sister is at school this year. It is our bonding time. He is a tad crazy and loves me fiercely, but I wouldn't trade him for the world.

I love her face. She went through a phase of wearing her hair like this. I have no idea where she learned this style but she rocked it. But she is growing up way too fast.

An impromptu picnic with friends at the park.

My mom wanted to take the kids to HOME. We don't have cable, so I don't see commercials and never know what movies are out. I wasn't sure what this movie was about and if we would even like it; but it was good. No Big Hero 6 in my book, but close the message of friendship was fantastic. Two thumbs up from the kids.

Our church did an amazing "Thank You" night for their Kidzworld volunteers at All Star sports. It's has several rides and we as a church group got to have free run. The kids loved it. It was a beautiful night for KS and a great night to ride rides and hang with friends!

Me and the girls on the Tilt a Whirl! Our favorite!!

Lo and MW school of beauty is now open. Daddy was their first satisfied client. 

Ah, gymnastics. It takes over my life in the spring with meets nearly every weekend. This is one of our gym tees and I hate t-shirts unless they are fitted. I learned this little trick from pinterest last year to fix all Lo's over-sized school tees and tried it on mine. NAILED IT. Basically you just lay a fitted tee you like on top, mark it, and then sew down the line, cut off the excess material {make a headband for your daughter out of it}. Easy, peasy, lemon squeezy. Tips: use a triple stretch stitch AND sew a little wider than your marks so there is more give. The end.

This daughter of mine. I love her. She got this from reading Audrey Bunny by Angie Smith. Amazing book and lesson!! Clearly my baby girl latched on.

Gymnastic meet "coma." All weekend long meets =exhaustion. But I love my job and the impact the girls have on me and sometimes I have on them. It is a blessing.

One day, well, actually since we moved in I wanted a new look for my living room. I was over the "country bumpkin" look as my husband loving refers to it as. BUT, there were more important things to do, update and spend $$ on. However, after 8+ years of the same living room, I got a spark under me and just took it all down. I thought 1). I will never be "inspired" with all of this still on the walls and 2). I am getting pretty good at tweaking and re-decorating with no money and stuff I have around the house. So here we go...I wanted a window pane for a focal point, but didn't know where on earth I would find one for a reasonable price...so I got to thinking about my frame collection that I hoard keep and decided I would just make one. So I did.

I even notched those flat "dowel" rods to make the grid. NAILED IT. I then sprayed painted the glass with looking glass spray paint to make it a mirror. Cost ~$9 {$8 of which was the spray paint!!}

There is more to come, but I am proud of how it is coming along with very minimal money spent. I feel like I am coming into my own on the decorating front and finding my "style" if you will. Each room tends to hold a lot of similar patterns and colors/hues, so I guess that is a good thing.

One Friday Lo was out of school, so we took advantage of our zoo membership. We all love the giraffes! Again another beautiful day in KS. Perfect zoo weather.

This photo cracks me up...the Giraffe is photo bombing us. HA!

My two favorite guys reading together! MW chose reading a book over TV. You have no idea how HUGE this is. HUGE!!!

My little gymnastic buddy now along with his favorite gymnastic bear. HA!

Happy Mother's Day to me! Being a mom is just about the greatest thing I have ever done in my life. I love these two so much. It's been 6 years, and I am still in awe that Chad and I made them. They are such a part of us each in so many ways it is frightening. A huge thank you to my MIL for taking the kids over night so I could get the day "off" to just do whatever, whenever. I ended up crafting the afternoon away! It was bliss. Then the next morning Chad got up early and got me QT coffee and breakfast, it's my favorite--aside from Scooter's but apparently they can't be asked to be open by 730a!

Last Tues we took in a WSU Shocker baseball game. Chad was gifted the tix for teacher appreciation week and since it was my only day off all week we took full advantage. MW was only there for the popcorn. We weren't able to stay the whole time but had a great family night none the less.

Lo: Micah you are a red head. Protect your head!! Protect your head!! 

A moment of sibling love!!

Wow. Long post.
I found this note while cleaning up Lo's room. You know while she is at school and can't intervene as I toss out 100 papers she has scribbled on. This is the first thing I have seen that she sounded out words on her own!! This was something I wasn't sure she was capable of yet.  It says : "Do Not Touch my number without Leighton's permission." I had to ask. And then she proceeded to tell me that even if we did ask she would tell us "no." HA!

Friday night we had Pre-Team and Team tryouts. Leighton was so nervous. See aforementioned fear of new situations and change in previous post. After I bribed her with Braum's if she would stop crying, mostly so I could do my job, she tried out. It was basically just a regular practice, but we moved through all the events with specific skills in mind that we would check off. Based on what we saw the coached would decide where they would fit best. Lo was already on pre-team so the next step is team. I was unsure and still am if she is truly ready, but technically skill wise she is...big decisions. She was most excited about getting a medal last night! I am proud of her and she has been working hard. As an added bonus I may get to coach her next year...not sure if that is good or bad?!?! HA!

Finally, Saturday we went to Stearman's for a grad party. It is an air strip/hanger/burger joint. When we arrived there was an Army Helicoptor parked outside and then were loading up. So naturally we had to watch it take off. The kids thought it was super cool and loud.

And that concludes our REWIND. Super long, and if you made it to the end YAY!!! Maybe next month I will get it together better?! Yeah, don't hold your breath. HA!

Table Rock 2014

Can I just preface this post and future posts with I miss blogging. I love to write my memories down. I have always loved keeping a journal--it was my favorite part of class--creative writing. However, I am tired. Like I don't know if I have a disease, condition or just plain lazy, but girl I am tired. And tired does NOT yield itself to creative writing. It barely yields itself to a coherent sentence. Point. I have a 100 things I would like to post on from this month and no brain power. Blah. Thus, why you don't hear from me too often.

ANYWAY.
Last week we left for Table Rock Lake. It's a 4ish hour trip with maybe one-ish stop. It took us nearly 6 hours. 5 adults, 6 kids, 2 vans and 1 boat will do that I suppose. Here we are locked and loaded and ready to go. I got the luxury of riding down with my two precious angels. Chad got to ride in an adult car. Lucky! Micah wanted a snack every 2 minutes and asked 118 times if we were there yet. Lo was fantastic. She was super quiet and kept herself entertained.

This is Day 1 on the boat. Life jacket-ed up and ready to set sail.

The entire group consisted of 7 adults, 10 kids and 3 tubes, 2 boats and a partridge in a pear tree...

Micah had a huge "fear" of the water this year. We couldn't get him off the boat to swim or tube. I finally went out on Big Mabel with him and sat. He seemed to  like that as long as we weren't moving.

Now for my sass the master water skier. She is just so freakin' cute out there.

Hiding from the wind.

So on day 1 MW and his friend came back for naps and I opted to be the babysitter---I may or may not have wanted to nap too. By 4 they were up. I had zero cell service so we walked to the dock. It was probably .25 mile but up and down steep hills in extreme humidity with two 4 year olds sucked.

So we waited on the dock hoping they would be coming in soon since dinner time was approaching. We waited...and waited and waited through a rain shower and waited some more. No signs of them. Boo. The kids were so disappointed. They wanted to go out on the boat.

So we walked back and as soon as we got back they came in. Of course. So they did their best pouty faces and con-ed a daddy to take them back out all by themselves {and me of course.} It was a beautiful sunset ride.

Cuddle time!!

Day 2

So here he got on Big Mable by himself and then the big boys tipped it over. I thought he would freak out, but when it go flipped back, there he was just laughing and laughing. (I did convince him to tube with me and he loved it. Silly boy.)

More skiing. This time she was able to get up all by herself. Normally I would get in and push her up. Now she is rocking it.

Lo water skiing 2014 from Michele Keethler on Vimeo.
Um, more cuddle time?!

This is MW form of "tubing." He is a hoot.

After a bad incident skiing. She let go wrong and bit the board. :(

Daddy's turn at skiing. He sort of got the hang of it...maybe next year?!?

chad skiing 2014 from Michele Keethler on Vimeo.

Me skiing. I haven't skied since I was 10-13. I did so well until the driver swerved the boat to toss me out when I wasn't ready and I bit it hard. :(

Micah and his homie. He had all the big boys wrapped around his fingers. Nice babysitting for this mommy.

Chad knee boarding.

And I shall end with this sweet pics of my babies. Sleeping peaceful on the last day. We all shared a Queen sized bed. Yeah, that was fun. But so worth it to have a fun, mostly relaxing vacation out on the water thanks to wonder friends we share life with! Until next year.