Hello to New Readers!!

Hello to those of you who read about my blog in our Christmas letter this year!

Well, we had the first 2 Christmases of the 6 total that we are going to have this year. Matt's mom came up last Saturday. We all went to the Christmas concert at the Church of the Resurrection on Saturday night. That church is amazing, so you can imagine what the concert was like. Full orchestra, choir, kids choir, men and women groups...it all sounded like a professional concert.

Sunday night we hosted the McAtees and McCartys for our Christmas gift exchange. This was the 2nd year of this event. We all buy gifts for the 3 boys (and now the 2 babies). The secret to buying the gifts for the 3 boys is to buy 3 of each gift...the exact same thing. Then there isn't any fighting over what they received!! Each boy received a new sled, a marshmallow shooter, and a floor puzzle of the USA (yes, I was the boring mom this year!!).

As you can tell, we always seem to have a good time with this group!!

We did take the boys to see Santa Claus last week at Bass Pro Shop. Collin and Dylan sat on Santa's lap together...neither one of them cried!!

Let's see what else happened...this week has been crazy with the snow, and now ice will be coming tomorrow. Today my department had our gag gift exchange. I ended up with a KU National Championship poster. We always have to display our gag gifts in our cubicle for the remainder of the year. I unhappily taped up the KU poster on my wall, but promptly printed out huge Powercats and taped them all over the poster. It's been a good week at work...we all were given parking permits for the underground garage (since the landlord threatened to give us all parking tickets for parking in the garage when it snowed on Tuesday). Plus we all got the "OK" to wear jeans for the rest of year. Let me tell you...that's a big plus!!! I get so much more work done when I'm comfortable!!

Dylan has his class party tomorrow. Friday is Collin's last day at Heather's until February. She is scheduled to be induced on December 30th, if Maddie doesn't make her appearance before then. Then, we're headed to Wichita on Saturday for an overnight trip, if the weather holds out.

What a nice relaxing Sunday!!!

Good Sunday morning to everyone! I'm sitting here in my nice comfy pants, listening to Matt give Dylan instructions downstairs on how to build shelves, while Collin is snoozing in his new bed...well not really a new bed...we decided that he doesn't like to take naps in his room. Considering how bright it is in his room versus how nice a quiet and dark it is at daycare for his naps, Matt set up the pack 'n play in our room, and Collin has been snoozing for over an hour now. Yeah!!!!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We went to Des Moines with my M&D and Great-Gma Nora to see Auntie Bev, Uncle Rod, Anne, Corey and Logan. We drove up on Thursday morning and came home Saturday afternoon. We got a hotel room for our family of 4, with a pool so Dylan could swim. Well, Collin wanted to keep everyone on the 2nd floor awake Thursday night by screaming every hour or two. So Collin and I spent Friday night at Auntie Bev's so we wouldn't get kicked out of the hotel.

Dylan and Logan got along great and played and played and played. Auntie Bev taught Collin how to crawl up the stairs. Thank goodness we don't spend a lot of time down in our basement!!

Friday night we left all 3 boys with the grandparents, and went out to dinner and a comedy show with Anne and Corey. That reminds...Anne, we didn't pay you back for those tickets.

After everyone left on Sunday, we dug out the Christmas tree. We had to put it in the living room this year, since Collin's room took over the front room where we used to put it up. I was just excited because since it is up against a wall instead of the front window...I didn't have to worry about putting lights and ornaments on the back of the tree!!!

Last night we headed out to McCarty's to watch the Big 12 Championship football game. This was our first chance since the babies started moving around on their own to really let Collin and Kameron play with each other.

Kam was a very good host...until Collin yanked the binky out of his mouth!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Wow, it's been awhile since I posted. It's not like we weren't doing anything around here! : )

Matt has been in Dallas several times during the last couple of weeks. His Grandma Bogner passed away last Wednesday evening, so we went back to Colwich for the funeral on Saturday. I hadn't attended a Catholic funeral mass, but it's definitely a fantastic way to say goodbye to someone you love. It's a terrific send-off. We are all definitely better people from knowing Grandma Bobbie.

We're headed to Des Moines for Thanksgiving. I went ahead and started digging out the Christmas stuff last night. I have everything out except for the Christmas tree. Poor Moxie's stocking was relocated to hanging on a kitchen cabinet because we only had 4 stocking holders. Collin took her place.

Here's hoping that I have lots of pictures from this holiday week to post next weekend to give you all something to see!! : )

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

I've found myself a musical lover!

I took Dylan to see Lion King on Broadway yesterday afternoon at the Music Hall in KCMO. Even though he wasn't feeling good, he loved what he saw. There was lots of action and dancing and singing to keep his attention. We left at intermission though, because he was burning up!! We came home and he laid on the couch the rest of the evening. Poor little guy!!!

We just watched a lot of football the rest of the weekend. Our Trailblazers won Friday night, so they move onto the next round in the playoffs. Collin has become their biggest fan!!

K-State lost (of course) to Missouri, and the KC Chiefs lost (of course) today. Matt worked all day today, so the boys were very good and played so that I could get all kinds of projects done. I switched out the summer clothes for the winter clothes, hung up a few new decorating items (I'll have to take a picture of my favorite thing), and put the bigger car seat in Matt's truck for Collin.

One last picture...this is how we have to change Collin's diaper nowadays. He moves too fast!!!! Lori Harris gave Matt this idea...stand him up to something so he can play.

Happy Birthday Collin!!

My baby is 8 months old today. Just said his first word last night...not exactly sure what he was saying...either ba-ba for bath (because I heard it for the first time when I carried him into the bathroom while the bath water was running)...or ba-ba for Bubba (big brother Dylan).

Here he is posing with Hunter, our friend's dog. This dog is the best dog...so calm around kids.

Halloween round-up

Well, I'm sitting at home on a Monday afternoon because Collin got sick at the babysitter's. It must have been a fluke thing, because he's fine now. He's taking a little snooze now so I'm going to catch up on my blogging.

Halloween was a success at our house. The weather was awesome, so we skipped Boo Bash. We ate supper with McCarty's and McAtee's, and then headed home. Matt and Dylan went trick-or treating around the neighborhood, and Collin & I sat outside to hand out candy. Collin's cow costume didn't fit him anymore, so he wore Dylan's dragon costume from Dylan's first halloween. Take a look at the two pictures below. Dylan is in the picture that was taken on our front porch at our old house. The two of them look pretty much the same in that costume.



Saturday night we went out for Steve McAtee's birthday. The 6 of us went down to the Power & Light District. We ate at Gorden Biersch Brewery (awesome food), and hung out at Howl at the Moon and PBR clubs. The PBR is a country bar, so it brought back all of my college memories of hanging out in Longhorns!!! Matt's mom came up to see the boys, so she babysat for us.


The rest of the weekend was a bust...thanks to the KSU Wildcats who got BLOWN OUT by those "stinky Jayhawks" as Dylan would call them. Good grief...fireronprince.com gets my vote as the best website of the year.

Brrrr...it's feeling like Halloween weather!!!

Here comes the cold wind....I love how it feels outside when the wind blows and it's dark and you see everyone's pumpkins glowing on their front porches. I love our neighborhood this year...everyone has orange lights and pumpkins and scary stuff on their porches. Everyone went all out!!! This year should be fun on Halloween. We are planning to trick or treat in the neighborhood...all of the neighbors are sticking around this year...and then we're heading out to McCarty's house for a bonfire.

Last night I had a MOPS meeting. Our yellow table provided the dinner...chili and the fixin's. I took cornbread muffins. We had the best speaker....she is with the MOPS organization, and she spoke about how to find God in this hectic world we live in. I (along with all of the moms at my table) agree that we are always rushing the kids to get their teeth brushed, coat on, into the car, hurry, hurry, hurry, we'll be late!!! It's hard to do, but I have to remember that I just need to take a moment and breathe. We'll get to school, I'll get to work. The verse she ended her speech with was Psalms 46:10...Be still, and know that I am God. Just the way she said it made me take a deep breath and exhale. It was like a calm had settled over me. It was just a very good evening!!

Have a good week everyone!!!

I don't think we ever slow down!!

It was such an awesome weekend for being outside, and we definitely took advantage of it in the great town of Marquette!!

Matt had a golf outing planned for Friday afternoon with his department at work, so the boys and I headed out for Marquette around 2 or so. I had thought about stopping by the Smoky Valley High School football game since it was a home game, but we were going to go through Lindsborg too early to just stop by on our way to Mom & Dad's. So, I vetoed that idea....until Mijkin, my best friend from high school, called me on the way home. She said that the 1988 State Championship football team was going to be honored at halftime, and EVERYONE would be there. Well, since I haven't been to a SVHS anything since I was in college, I decided that we could go. And I didn't have to twist Dad's arm too much. After we ate supper, me, Dad & Dylan headed over to Anderson Field in Lindsborg. OMG...everyone looked so totally different!!! I found Mijkin, and sat down with her, while Dylan and Dad hung out together. I couldn't help but stare at everyone, but it took me so long to figure out who they were. Let's just say that Mijkin and I feel pretty darn good about how we look for our age!!! Everyone seemed to be either bald or heavier. There weren't very many girls there...only the wives of the former football players. I actually sat down behind a couple of guys who were part of our "Group" in high school, and I didn't even realize it. But it was so good to see them and catch up and of course, show off my pictures of Dylan and Collin!! That's another thing...everyone seemed to have kids in junior high...they were shocked to find out that I had just had a baby!!! Yep, started kind of late!!

Anyways, then on Saturday, Marquette hosted their Autumn in the Valley fall festival uptown. So Mom and I took the boys up to walk up and down Main Street. For those of you who know Marquette, you'll understand when I say that it took us a good 30 minutes to walk through the whole festival. Here's a picture of the boys in front of some of the decorations. As usual Collin is sticking stuff in his mouth!!

Then on Saturday afternoon, I met Mijkin up at the park in Marquette so the kids could play and so Collin and Kenzley could meet each other. Kenzley is almost 1 month older than Collin, but very petite...especially next to our football player. Here is the picture we took of the 4 kids...Dylan (5), Collin (7 mo), Kenzley (8 mo), and Kira (8). Kerrington (6) was playing at a friend's house.

We headed back home on Sunday to see how Matt was doing with his bachelor weekend. He tackled chores around the house, watched football, and hung out with Moxie. He was so bored with the KSU game Saturday night that he took pictures of Moxie and sent them to my phone!! I knew she was special to him!!!

Happy Anniversary!!

Yesterday was our 9th wedding anniversary!!! We went to lunch at EBT Restaurant to celebrate.

Today I'm heading back to Marquette with the boys for the weekend. Matt is staying up here to catch up on some things. He has a list a mile long to work on. Saturday is the fall festival in Marquette...Autumn in the Valley. I've never been to it, so it will be fun to get out and see everyone.

Mom and Dad have dial-up internet service, so I may be going through blogging withdrawal by the time I get back home on Sunday.

Have a good weekend!!!

Awesome Giveaway

Since I'm hooked on using coupons at Walgreens these days, I thought I would pass on the following giveway to my friends!!!

http://savingourcents.blogspot.com/2008/10/just-when-i-thought-i-was-done-purging.html

I really tried to keep my cool!!!

Well, we had an interesting pick-up at Dylan's school today. The kindergarten classes didn't have school today because of P-T conferences, so he had full day care through JCPRD. They went to Chucky Cheese today for their field trip. Knowing that he didn't have to be picked up until 6 p.m. (not that I would leave him there that long), I left at my regular time and stopped at Walmart on my way into Gardner. Well, I had been there 20 minutes when the school secretary called me to find out if I was going to pick up Dylan since he was a car-rider today. I said no, because he's not a car-rider today...he's in JCPRD. They said well, he says he's a car-rider today. I thought to myself...and you're believing a 5 year old? Anyways, there was just a mis-communication, and he went back to JCPRD. Well, I sped through Walmart, went to pick him up, had a stress-filled conversation with his JCPRD teacher, picked up Collin, felt bad, and came home and sent an email to his JCPRD teacher, apologizing for acting all crazy. She just responded back, whew!!!, and said that she was actually going to call me tomorrow to apologize for her attitude. Matt just told me that I should just let it go and move on.


Oh, and Matt just read my posts, and said that I forgot to say that he waxed both vehicles last weekend, and that I should have posted a picture of his shiny truck!! LOL!!

Good night everyone.

K...S...U...Wildcats!!!

OK, so I'm back on the bandwagon after our impressive offensive performance this weekend down in College Station. Our Wildcats beat Texas A&M on Saturday. Now, the defense...not so impressive. But a win is a win, and hopefully we'll beat Colorado next Saturday!!!

Friday night my boys went to the GEHS football game, and watched the Blazers beat Eudora 41-3. I invited all of the girls from our street to our house for wine night. We've decided that this will be a monthly occasion. We didn't even get started playing games...we had too much catching up to do!! In the picture below is Blaire, Robin, Gricell and Allison.


On Saturday we all went to Coen's birthday party. Coen used to be in Dylan's preschool class at Madison before his family moved to Overland Park. Coen has a little brother, Hayden, who was born last December. The party was at Incredibowl...the boys bowled 1 game (I'm proud to say that Dylan won...he bowled two strikes...definitely takes after his mother!!), and they played 1 game of laser tag....Dads against boys (and Sydney, Kohlton's sister). The boys won!! They came out drenched with sweat...they had so much fun!!! They are all getting suited up in the picture below (Sydney, Coen, Brady, Steve, Kohlton, and Dylan).

Then we headed to Dairy Queen for ice cream cake and presents. It's so awesome to get these 4 boys together for their birthdays...we all know what they like to do, they all get along so well, and we can re-use the gift sacks. I think we've been doing that for a year now. : )



On Sunday, we went to church, Dylan went to Sunday school, Matt planted some bushes, and we watched some football. At least the KC Chiefs didn't play, so they didn't lose again. : )

The Stress We're All Feeling

Working in the financial industry, and especially since I work with people's retirement accounts, I've been hearing from lots of people worried about how much money they are losing in their accounts. I've gotten way too many calls from people needing to withdraw money from their retirement accounts in order to keep from losing their homes to foreclosure. It's so sad.

Worrying about our future is always at the back of my mind lately...hoping and praying that we don't lose our jobs. I just got an email from Pastor Steve from First Light Methodist Church acknowledging the state of the economy. He is going to focus his Sunday sermon on "Faith and the Economy." He will be talking about "what it means to be a person of faith during uncertain times" and that we need to focus our attentions to God for reassurance. He included a scripture from Psalm 27:13-14. I am still confident of this: I will see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living. Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart and wait for the LORD.

Boy, it's hard to do, but I know I need to be patient. It will work out somehow.

Dancing with the Stars

We're all sitting here watching my favorite show of the fall...Dancing With The Stars!!! I can't believe Cloris Leachman made it another week!!!!

We had such a busy weekend, and it was so hot!! Definitely not football weather, but we went to a bunch of football games.

Friday night GEHS won their fifth game in a row against Spring Hill. We met up with Brady and Kohlton's families, and also ended up sitting by one of Dylan's buddies from his kindergarten class. Look at these cute little guys in their Trailblazer blue sweatshirts!!! Zachary (on the far right) has a brother who plays on the football team.



Then Saturday we headed to Manhattan for an embarrassing loss to Texas Tech. Holy cow...it seems like just yesterday when our football team was good and we waited around to see where we were ranked in the Top 25. I hope this drought doesn't last long. I'm trying so hard not to be a fairweathered fan. Look at the guy sitting on the other side of Matt. This picture was taken before the game even started, and that guy was already frustrated!!!

On Sunday we went to the Kansas City Renaissance Festival with Brady and his parents. I haven't been there since I was in 7th grade when our school took a field trip. It was fun...not a lot of stuff for little kids to do. Brady and Dylan wants swords, but we said no to that pretty quickly. They liked the wrestling show and the jousting show. That was pretty much it. Adrienne and I agreed that us moms need to go by ourselves to shop. There were some cool jewelry booths.

Now we're back to the work week. I'm hosting wine night at my house on Friday night for the girls on our street. I'll try to get some pictures!!

Our busy weekend!!

Well, we didn't end up going to the KSU game this weekend...first, because it was going to be HOT, and second, I had several things to catch up on for work. So Steve and Carsyn Harris used our tickets, and came up from OKC to watch the game (Hi Miss Carsyn...hope you had fun!!!). And thankfully KSU won the game. I'm trying so hard to not be a fair-weather fan, but good grief, it's so depressing to remember how good we used to be, and look at us now.

We did attend one football game this weekend...Gardner-Edgerton High School vs. Louisburg. GO TRAILBLAZERS!!! 4-0 to start the season!!! Coach Diener is working miracles with this team. We've got a great team...so I hope we can go far this season. This is what I've been waiting for ever since we moved to the small (ha, ha) town of Gardner...to relive my high school days of when everyone in the town went to the Friday night football game. It didn't use to be this way...the stadium would be half full for the first half, and then everyone went home at half-time. Now, you should see the crowds that head to the high school on Friday nights...and there's even big crowds that head on down the road to attend the away games. I love it!!! It makes me anxious for when our boys are old enough to play football.

Then on Saturday, Matt & Dylan went to the Nationwide 300 at the Kansas Speedway. This is their 2nd race that they've seen this year (they went to the Craftsman truck race in April). I don't mind it at all...Collin and I had a lovely afternoon together...reading blogs!!!



Today we went to church and Dylan went to Sunday School (learned about Noah's Ark, so we had to read the whole story tonight at bedtime). I really need to find him a good children's bible. Any ideas, anyone?

Chris, Mandy & Megan came over tonight for supper and to play at the park. That's all for our weekend. My three boys are all in bed, Moxie is laying on the chair, looking very perturbed that the lamp is still on. How dare I be up this late in the living room keeping her awake?! Time for bed for the ladies of the house.

Kindergarten Heritage Celebration Picnic

Dylan's class celebrated their family heritages last Friday by inviting their families to join them in a potluck picnic. We were all supposed to bring a food item that came from our heritage or a favorite food item that our family likes to eat. Well, since we really don't have one specific heritage, I decided to take tortilla roll-ups...love, love, love the premade ones that you can find in the freezer section at Price Chopper. OK, so I know I cheated, and I'm pretty sure every other food item at the picnic was homemade. Oh well.

Here is Dylan reading a book to Daddy, while we waited for all of the parents to get there.

They put on a little play for us to start the celebration. It was about making friends. The class was divided up into two groups...outgoing kids and shy kids. Dylan was in the shy group...Mrs. Furlong pretty much hit the nail on the head by putting him in that group...except he doesn't look like he's shy in this picture.

Mrs. Furlong is standing at the head of the line (in the white t-shirt). I'm very impressed with how well the kids follow her directions...it's amazing!!! When she talks, they definitely listen!!

Time to Decorate for Fall

Dylan decided that since Collin's babysitter had put out all of her Halloween decorations, we needed to decorate too. So last Sunday while Matt was golfing and Collin was sleeping, Dylan and I dug out the 3 tubs of fall decor. I also promised him that we could go to Target and buy 1 new Halloween decoration. We came home with the pumpkin light stakes that we put in front of the landscaping.





I copied the lady down the street with the orange lights around the topiaries. I bought those topiaries at Walmart when we first moved into the new house...3 years ago. I think they cost $20 each, and I figured they would last a year. But, they've been in and out of the house, unlit and lit, and 3 years later, they've only lost a couple of branches!! (Don't look at all of my extension cords...I'm famous for having a million different cords going every which way.) (Also ignore the dead plant sitting on the front step.)

Junior Wildcat Day - September 6

The KSU Alumni Association offers a program for kids called the Junior Wildcat Club, so I enrolled Dylan in it this year. It costs $40, and he gets a t-shirt and other goodies, and has 3 opportunities during the school year to meet up with the athletes. During football season, they have an autograph session with the basketball players. During basketball season, they get to meet the football players. Then they also have a gathering during the spring football game.

So, Junior Wildcat Day was on September 6th at Bramlage Coliseum. They had all of the basketball players (girls and guys) there to sign autographs. Of course, Dylan didn't want to go down on the floor because he didn't know anyone, so Matt dragged him out there. After awhile, he started to loosen up. Collin, of course, was the hit of the day for the girls basketball players. They couldn't get enough of him!!

Marlies Gipson, who is from McPherson, KS (back home)

Making sure Collin soaks in all of the purple that he can.

Jacob Pullen, our new favorite basketball player

Deb Patterson, girls coach

Shalee Lehning from the girls team...loved Collin!!

I'm kicking myself for not doing this last year...can you imagine getting Michael Beasley's autograph? That would have been way too cool!!!

After the autograph session was done, we all went down on the football field to greet the football team as they came into the stadium to get dressed. I think Matt loved it just as much as Dylan did.

Josh Freeman, quarterback

For $40, I would consider this a great deal!!! I mean, when would we ever get the chance to be on the basketball court or football field...unless of course, our boys become great athletes for KSU. : )

KU Watch Party

Yes, you don't have to blink and rub your eyes...I actually said the dreaded letters, K & U. When KU played on a Friday night a couple of weeks ago, we had our good friends, the McCartys and the McAtees (all KU fans) over to watch the game. We had planned to go to Gardner's football game that night, but it was rained out.

The guys watched the game, the boys ran around the house and made a lot of noise, and the moms sat and chatted. I tried my sangria recipes again, and they turned out yummy!!

I just love the grin on Collin's face in this picture.

Collin and Kameron (Kohlton's little brother). Kameron was born on April 3rd...almost exactly 1 month younger than Collin. They have no choice but to be best friends!!

Dylan, Collin, Kohlton, Kameron, and Brady.

I'm already struggling for a title...

So I'll just post some pictures of the boys. : )


Collin was trying to drink out of the sippy cup like this...without holding it in his hands.

Howl at the Moon!!!

Jenny sent me the pictures from Saturday night at Howl at the Moon!!! This is my friend Adrienne (aka Brady's mom).

Jenny (aka Kohlton's mom) joined us for this party pic. I look horrible!!!

This is me and Adrienne with a couple of Jenny's co-workers dancin' down in the courtyard of the Power & Light District. The funniest part of the evening was when the DJ played "Hangin' Tough" by New Kids on the Block. We started screaming like we were in high school again!! LOL!