Some pics

A few weeks ago (Happy 1st Birthday George~offically middle aged sometime in Nov), George, our fat, but friendly hamster got stuck trying to get into his house. Instead of using his door, he went through the window. After laughing & taking some pictures, I helped him squeeze through. Cute little butt & tail I might say.
2 weeks ago, Peter's class had a field trip to a petting farm. Thank goodness it was colder out, because I'm not good with farm animal smells. Kiersten is in the pink to the left & Peter is in the red & black hat right in the middle of the picture. There were lots to see, most of the animals were rescues.
Betty & Barney
Feeding Goblin, he was so sweet.
This bunny basically slept through all the kids holding him.
Posing for that perfect christmas card photo. Needless to say...20 pics later and a very impatient girl, I got one (not shown) that I will be using. I let Kiersten put on some light pink lipstick & eyeshadow much to her daddy's dismay. She loves it when I get ready b/c she needs her hair blown dry, a little powder on the nose, a little lipstick (please mommy) and eye shadow. Its not an everyday occurance, trust me!
Here's Rocky!
CHEESE!

The first real snow!!!!!!

Thanksgiving Day, my father in law came over and had dinner with us. The next day, Friday, we headed up to Traverse City to spend time with my family for the weekend. We ate too much, but it was worth it. This was Rocky's 1st big car trip with us & she did really well. She didn't have any issues with her going to the bathroom outside in a new place. TC got quite a bit of snow on T-Day and Rocky loved playing in it!

Pete & I did some shopping for our niece and nephew. We didn't shop for the kids since we had no room in the car anyway (luggage, dog crate, etc...). I have been working on Christmas Cards....and am excited to get those sent out next week. I have been shopping here & there, but its hard. I can't shop with Peter because he's nosy & Kiersten is getting too smart! Since she can speak very well these days & has a great memory, secrets are hard to keep in this house!

The ATM literally ate my debit card (long story) on Monday so I can't order any toys for Christmas (Pete & I only use our 2 credit cards for gas) online until I get my new card. I got a temp card from the bank, but its not going to be my regular card, so I can't use it to 'order' stuff. By the way, Leapfrog.com is having a 25% off sale through Dec 5th & free shipping for purchases over $50.

I have pictures to post when I get a chance to download them from the camera! Until then....KEEP WARM!

The Weekend

While we didn't expect to beat OSU, we didn't expect to do as poorly as we did. However, its not like OSU scored major points, they'll just get their ass kicked at the Rose Bowl (remember last year?) which makes us all smile. Sorry, Ohio State...no rioting in Ann Arbor, no couches being burned and I bet you didn't have to bring your campus security with you to Ann Arbor. While Lloyd Carr is retiring, as we all expected, its for other reasons that most of you don't know about. Pete had to travel 2 times through OH this month, it pained us to have to pay tolls through part of it. It really did.

I ended up not going to the game and gave my ticket to my friend's boyfriend. My friend & I ended up at the Business School in front of the large screen TV watching the game & we stayed all nice & dry. The boys, however, were cold and wet by the time we met up again. We had a great dinner & drinks and headed back to our hotel to chill out.

Thanks to my brother driving all the way down from Traverse City to take care of Peter, Kiersten and Rocky on his own! Its not an easy job...everyone needs to be fed, Peter needs attention, Kiersten's needs help with the potty (wiping), even Rocky needs to be taken outside every 2 hours. The house was a little messy, but all is well.

Now its time to get to bed and the beginning of our holiday week starts Wednesday.

Happy Turkey Day Everyone! Eat a lot and be safe!

GO BLUE!!!!!!!

Q. What do you say to an Ohio State Buckeye in a three-piece suit?
A. "Will the defendant please rise."

Q. Why did Ohio State switch from artificial turf to grass?
A. So the cheerleaders would have somewhere to graze.

Q. How many Ohio State football players does it take to change a light bulb?
A. Only one, but he gets three credits and $1,000 for doing it.

Q. What does the average Ohio State student get on the SAT?
A. Drool.

Q. What is the most confusing day in Columbus?
A. Father's Day.

My First Parent/Teacher Conference

It's actually my 2nd if you count pre-school, but still important. We got Peter's report card a few days before my conference day and we were impressed. He has already 'MASTERED' several categories of what is expected of him by the end of the school year in his first month at school. His teacher gave some suggestions as to what we could work on (counting by 2s & 5s up to 50, formal writing and reading, simple addition & subtraction etc...). Pete taught him to count by 2s and 5s all the way to 100 in about 10mins today. He also knows how to count by 10 already. He has been reading formally for some time now, he can read a lot of the easy Dr. Suess books and easy to read books. We have been working on simple math for about 6 weeks now. We just have to work on formal writing, but other than that....I may start him on 1st grade stuff to keep him challenged. I feel like I've actually prepared him for school, its been a lot of pressure as a stay at home parent to accomplish everything! Peter of course, is just naturally excited about learning and inquisitive which makes my job easier!

The report card is on a scale of 1-4 (4 being already mastered). His teacher had told everyone from the 1st day of school, she normally doesn't give out any 4s. I found out she gave out a total of five 4s (for both A.M. & P.M. classes, about 40 kids) and Peter got 3 of them!!!

Since he did so well, we let him choose his reward. We went to Chuck E. Cheese on Saturday and then he went mini golfing with Dad later on (Kiersten had fallen asleep so the boys dropped us off at home first!).

On another note....we're finally able to get a new car! We have been trying for several months now to get the company lease program (its a great packaged deal), but Cerebus has been making a lot of changes at Chrysler & they've kept a lot of things on hold. However, we are very limited to what we can get. We wanted the Grand Cherokee Limited, but they are only offering 4x2 & we don't believe SUVs should come in 4x2s, only 4x4 or else what is the point in driving an SUV? The Durango was an option, but they only had white in what we wanted & we do not like white on a vehicle. We weren't interested in a truck. We finally were forced to settle on a Jeep Commander which we can live with. Its not our favorite, we wanted the 4 door Jeep Wrangler, but they are not offering that because it is a popular and selling vehicle right now. Maybe in the spring we can get a second car (the 4 door wrangler!). It will be nice to have a new vehicle, but we'll miss not having a car payment (we haven't had a car note in several years!).

OSU is overrated.

This week is the big game that we have all been looking forward to. Pete & I are both going & we will be in the student section. In fact, my brother is coming down to watch the kids & give us a night away (yes, we are staying away for at least 24hrs!). Maybe he'll understand what I go through on a daily basis.

OSU has had an easy schedule so their stats look good, but they are overrated and losing to IL showed that. U of M hasn't been the team that we expected, so I can't say we'll take the game this weekend. Either way, at least we won't riot & tear up cars with OH license plates on them and act like a bunch of idiots ( :

GO BLUE!!!!!!

Our Newest Addition

This is Rocky. She is a Shih Tzu/Pomeranian Mix that we adopted off of craigslist. She has been part of our family for 15 days now and we're very happy. She is about 15mths old, so she's not a puppy, puppy, but has a lot of puppy in her. She came from a home with no kids, but does very well with Peter & Kiersten. She has really helped break Peter & Kiersten of their fear of dogs. It doesn't help when a lot of the small dogs they come into contact with (my neighbor's 2 pugs) jump and scratch all over you. We reached a milestone today....Rocky FINALLY took her 2nd bowel movement of the day OUTSIDE! She has a bowel movement first thing in the morning outside, pees pretty much outside every 2 hours, but she is a ticking time bomb in the afternoon, you never know when she is going to go. I think she was allowed to go inside (she was an apartment dog) & I have been working my butt off trying to break her of this nasty habit! Otherwise she is crate trained and knows a few things like sit and stay. We had a great rapport with her previous owners (obviously adopter beware) & they promised to send her full shot record to me so I could have it for our vet. I can't get her groomed without her being up to date on her vaccinations. Here we are over a week after she told me it was on its way...nothing. I have emailed twice this week and have left her a message. We are just disappointed in her previous owners because it has only hurt Rocky. If she needed her shots, I would have had it done already. Now I can't be 100& sure that she has been spayed either. They won't even give me her previous vet name so I can contact them myself! What goes around comes around.
First night in her new home!

A few days hanging out with the kids!

Pictures from the past 2 weeks

I laid down on the couch for a quick 30min nap, woke up to find Kiersten asleep on the other couch. I got up to start dinner, checked on the kids a few minutes later only to find Peter took my place and fell asleep too! We had a early morning start & this is what happens after school.
All Smiles (for the moment)
Soccer class came to an end October 13th. Peter truly enjoyed and received a medal. It ended just in time since mornings are getting cooler.


Sunday, October 28th, our beach association had their Halloween Party. We dressed the kids up and went over for a short time. It was a cooler day and both kids had to pee so we came back home & ran errands instead!

Monday, October 29th, we carved our pumpkins!

Halloween Party at School on October 31st! Kiersten and I stayed for the 2nd half of class and got to enjoy most of the festivities.

Waiting patiently for Daddy to get home..the clock is ticking......
Overall a great night. Trick or Treating is only 6-7pm here and with daylights savings time, it worked out well and felt much more safe. They each got a half a bucket full and we knew most our neighbors in the area (from the beach association). It rained about 30mins after we got inside the house-made it just in time!