Christmas in NC

We spent the week after Christmas in North Carolina and had a great time with family.  We celebrated Christmas with the Taylor's, celebrated Graecyn's 6th birthday and Abbie's 11th birthday.  Graecyn got to go to Build-a-Bear Workshop with Nana and Granddaddy for her birthday, which she was so excited about!

We even when bowling and roller skating...a first for Graecyn and Cody!  It was a fun week!

Christmas Fun

Christmas is by far all of our favorite time of the year.  It's so fun to see the kids get excited about the traditions that we have started since we've been married as well as the traditions we've carried on from our childhoods.

We like to get our Christmas tree as early as possible (preferably Thanksgiving weekend); some years we have to get it later because of our Thanksgiving travel, but the sooner we can get it, the longer we get to enjoy it.  We always have to get a real tree (one of Daddy's family traditions) and we have been to the same tree lot since we moved to MI over 7 years ago; the guy that runs the tree lot recognizes us and remembers we moved here from North Carolina and that we always want a frasier fir tree.

It usually takes a few days before we get the tree decorated and Graecyn usually says she wants to help, but then ends up watching "A Christmas Story" instead. This year she wanted to decorate her Barbie houses and did a great job...she even put a picture of "A Christmas Story" on her Barbie's TV.

Daddy, Graecyn and I went to "The Glory of Christmas", an amazing Christmas production put on by a large church near us; this is the 4th year we've been and we enjoy it every year.  This year, Graecyn and I went to see "The Nutcracker"; we both hope to go again next year.

We baked (and ate) lots of sugar cookies, visited Santa (Graecyn asked for an American Girl and American Girl doll stuff and since Cody was a little overwhelmed by Santa, Graecyn told Santa for him that he wanted cars).  We also made sure to get out and play in the snow!  Graecyn and Cody both loved the Christmas tree and Cody loved to make the musical ornaments play music...all...the...time!

Christmas Eve Eve we got McDonald's from the drive thru and then drove around town looking at Christmas lights.  Since we were going to be traveling to North Carolina Christmas Day, we decided to go ahead and let the kids open all of their wrapped presents on Christmas Eve day so that they could have some time to play with their toys.  We had a big breakfast and then the wrapping paper started to fly.  Graecyn got an American Girl doll from Grandma and Papa, legos, and lots of new outfits for herself with matching doll outfits.  Cody got lots of new cars and trucks to play with and got a car-shaped tent.

Christmas Eve, Graecyn set out a card, chocolate chip cookies and milk for Santa and oatmeal and a carrot for the reindeer.  We read "Twas the Night Before Christmas" (one of my childhood traditions) and Graecyn had no problems falling asleep despite the excitement of what was to come (Cody's still too little to really understand Christmas Eve, so it was like any other night for him).  Christmas morning everyone awoke later than expected and Daddy headed downstairs to make sure Santa had made a visit.  The kids were pretty excited to see what Santa brought (Santa even left a letter).  Graecyn got lots of American Girl accessories, a Fingerling monkey, the game "Pie Face", hair chalk, and some candy.  Cody got a roller coaster ride, a garbage truck and helicopter, a Spiderman, and some candy.

We watched "A Christmas Story" all morning and the kids played with all of their new toys while Eric and I got the house cleaned up and car packed to hit the road to North Carolina after lunch.  

Overall, it was a great Christmas and so much fun to experience Christmas through our kids!!

Thanksgiving in Iowa

We traveled to Iowa for Thanksgiving this year.  It was a bit more challenging than normal because we had to work around Graecyn's school schedule and Eric's work schedule (Eric started working for the Rochester Community Schools in September...fortunately, he has the same vacation schedule as Graecyn).  Since Graecyn and Eric only got the Wednesday before and Friday after Thanksgiving off, we opted to fly to save time.  Cody did pretty well for his first flight in his own seat - the hardest part was getting him to stay seated with his seat belt on during take off (he just wanted to be down and moving around).  Fortunately, I had several distractions packed and it was a successful flight.

We had a fun time in Iowa and enjoyed being with family.  We got to meet the newest member of the family, Eloise Ramona Johnson, who was born at the end of September.  Everyone wanted to hold her, even Cody!

Cody loved seeing all of the tractors and equipment on the farm and Graecyn and Cody even got to help Papa feed one of Uncle Will and Aunt Danielle's calves!  We swam at the Y (Graecyn loved the big water slide and Cody loved the baby slide), played games, zip lined, jumped on the trampoline, rode bikes inside the wash bay, had dance parties, and slumber parties.  It was a fun filled time!

Fall Fun

We had a fun and busy fall.  The temperatures were above normal most of the fall, which allowed us to spend a lot of time outside.

L-R: Celebrating Eric's 38th birthday, Cody waiting for the school bus with Graecyn, family photo

Eagle Dash: Graecyn's school had a fundraiser, the Eagle Dash, where each student had to guess how many laps they could run in 30 minutes and get pledges for each lap they completed.  Her guess was 10 laps (actually, her first guess was 10,000 laps, but we talked her down to something a bit more reasonable)...she completed 14 laps and raised almost $30 for her school!  She ran the entire 30 minute time slot her class had...all in the rain!  I was there to cheer her on and she was so focused and determined to accomplish her goal, that I don't even know if she realized I was there.

Gymnastics: Graecyn is staying busy with gymnastics and had a "Gymnastics Showcase" where she and her teammates got to show off all the skills they have learned this year.  She also had a "mock" competition later in the fall where she and her teammates did their individual routines on the bars, beam, and floor.  She is very close to being able to do a bridge kickover and desperately wants to accomplish a back flip.  She gets nervous before performing, but loves it!  She did such a great job and I was so proud of her!

Renaissance Festival: We enjoyed the Michigan Renaissance Festival, which is always a fun day!  Graecyn dressed up and got new butterfly wings.  Cody was just happy to go on some of the rides and walk around with Graecyn's purse on! :-)

Halloween: We had a great month celebrating Halloween throughout October.  Graecyn and I painted pumpkins and Eric carved one too (Cody was too young to have any interest...maybe next year we can get him to do one).  We went to a local "trunk-or-treat" with Graecyn's BFF, Callie.  This year Graecyn decided to dress up as a 'punk rock cat' and Cody's costume was a carpenter/construction worker.  He refused to wear any part of his costume and cried the whole time I tried to get a picture of him.  On Halloween, I didn't even fight him and let him not dress up - he really didn't care anything about trick-or-treating and just rode around in his stroller watching the other kids.  We had a few friends over to trick-or-treat and Graecyn and her friends had a great time.  It was fun this year to see Graecyn so excited, especially when she would run into her friends from school in the neighborhood.

50th Day of School: Graecyn's class celebrated their 50th day of school by having the kids dress up in 50's style clothes and enjoyed root beer floats.  She had a lot of fun dressing up!  The yellow glasses have become a favorite accessory since then and she wears them all of the time now (they were old sunglasses that we removed the lenses from).

Graecyn's 1st Concert: I took Graecyn to her first concert with her friend Piper.  It was Koo Koo Kangaroo, a children's band that is described as "Beastie Boys meets Sesame Street".  They listen to this group all the time at school during free time, so it was so fun for her to see them in person.  There were 2 other artists who opened for Koo Koo Kangaroo that were more hip hop (fortunately, they were kid friendly). Unfortunately, we only got to stay for the first song of Koo Koo Kangaroo because Piper ended up getting sick (we rode with Piper and her mom).  Graecyn still thought it was pretty cool to see them in person.

It was a fun, fast, memory-filled fall!!

Graecyn's 1st Week of KINDERGARTEN!

My baby girl is in KINDERGARTEN! I can't believe how quickly that happened!  Her first day of school was Tuesday, Sept. 5.  It was a 1/2 day (8-11 a.m.) and parents were required to be there for the first 2 hours.  So needless to say, the day went great and there were no tears from anyone.  We celebrated the day by taking her to a special lunch at Bar Louie after school.

She changed her mind on what she wants to be when she grows up - she now wants to be a 'Princess Rock Star Mom Hairstylist'

New friends from school - and they all live in our neighborhood!

She did not have school on Wednesday (only last names A-M went full day Wednesday and only last names N-Z went full day on Thursday); so her first FULL day of school was Thursday.  We decided to let her ride the bus and got to the bus stop in plenty of time (the bus stop is 5 houses away).  She was nervous, which made me even more nervous.  We let all the parents at the stop know that we were new to this routine and one of the mom's asked her older daughter, Ella, to help Graecyn on the bus (I was so thankful for that).  When the bus pulled up, Graecyn nervously, but confidently got on the bus and the second the doors closed, the tears started flowing for me.  I don't know why, but I didn't think sending my baby off on the school bus would affect me as much as it did.  I think I had fewer tears dropping her off at daycare for the first time when she was 3 months old.

That first full day of school was the longest day ever for me and I had a horrible time concentrating at work; my mind kept wondering if she was feeling scared? was she still nervous? was she making new friends? was she having fun?  I left work a few hours early to make sure I would be home when she got off the bus and I was a bundle of nerves waiting for the bus to pull up.  As soon as I saw the bus coming around the curve in the road...and Graecyn's little smiling face peaking out the window...all of my nerves disappeared.

She had a FANTASTIC day and absolutely loved riding the bus.  She was all smiles and chatted non stop about her new friends and the fun things she did.  This mama has never been more relieved!

Friday morning, Graecyn bounced out of bed at 6:15 a.m., bright eyed and bushy tailed proclaiming, "I can't wait to go see my new friends at the bus!"  Hoping she feels this way about school every morning!

Mrs. Knoblock's Kindergarten class

Summer Vacation Part 2 - Iowa

Our 2nd summer vacation was a week in Iowa.  It was an exhausting, fun-filled week and so many memories were created!

The drive went really well - Cody got to be forward facing finally and we played his favorite movie, Moana, on the car DVD pretty much on repeat to keep him happy.  After 2 full days in the car, the kids were so ready to get out and play.  All of their cousins were there to greet them and Papa was waiting with his new zip line!

Addison created a bucket list of things she wanted to do while we were home and we managed to check off almost everything!

We boated, went swimming, fished (Graecyn caught a huge snapping turtle!), and played on the Maui Mat.  We went to the amusement park, ate Taco House (my FAVORITE!), had water balloon fights, rode the golf cart and go cart, shot off fireworks, played kick ball (so much fun!), and more.  

fishing & golf cart rides

Boat rides and swimming

Barefoot Bar fun

Pioneer Days kiddie and regular parade

Amusement park fun

Fun with cousins

The kids had so much fun together and it really was one of the most exhausting, most fun weeks creating so many fun family memories!  We can't wait to do it again next summer!