New Year's Eve Party

Tonight we are going to Cindy & Johnny's for a New Year's Eve party. It's a pitch-in appetizer/dessert theme which is great snacking food!! I'm taking a Chocolate Chip Cheeseball (see recipe below) & Lil' weiners in sauce. I'm taking my Apples to Apples Game (& the Jr. version for the kid), playing cards to have a Euchre tournament (hopefully), and there will be a Nintendo Wii for the kids to play. I'm hoping other people will bring some new games... I'm always on the lookout for fun games to play with friends! My mom is keeping Blair tonight because she is scared of Ella (Cindy's dog). That way, Tony and I can both play games together (instead of in shifts) like we usually have to do.

2008 was a great year for my family! Tony and I are so blessed. We have 3 healthy & absolutely adorable kids, fantastic family & friends, great jobs, a nice home, and a WONDERFUL relationship! I couldn't ask for anything else! I'm looking forward to 2009 and some more memories to share.

Chocolate Chip Cheese Ball:
1 package (8 0z.) cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup butter (not magarine)
1/4 t. vanilla
3/4 cup confectioners' sugar
2 T. brown sugar
3/4 cup mini-chocolate chips
3/4 cup chopped pecans

Beat together cream cheese, butter, vanilla, and sugars. Stir in chips. Refrigerate 2 hours; make into ball and refrigerate 1 hour. Roll in pecans. Serve with vanilla wafers, teddy-shaped graham crackers, animal crackers, etc. Note: Can stir in pecans and serve in a bowl instead of rolling into ball.

Playing the Wii

Mom taking a break after a game of bowling.
Rhett, Tony, and my dad played Little League World Series.

Micah cheering them on (doing the splits).

Blair using a flashlight for her Wii remote.

My parents came over last night to play Wii Bowling. Rhett is awesome, there's no other word to describe his skills. He scored a 222 (one hundred points more than my mom)!!!! He had 4 strikes in a row.

After the game, we had a snack of homemade candy that Sharon had made for my mom. Yum!!! There was so much to chose from (and they were all so good), I don't know what was my favorite.

Christmas at the Kaelins'

Guess which one is Micah's!!!

They spent most of the week leading up to Christmas morning shaking all of the presents and trying to guess what was inside.



On Christmas Eve we went to Tony's Aunt Bea's house for the big Coomer Christmas. When we left, we headed to church to take communion and read the Christmas story. However, Rhett & Micah fell asleep on the way (it was about 10:00), so we prayed in shifts. Blair and I went in first, and then Tony went in alone while I waited in the van with Rhett & Micah. Tony was in charge of turning all of the lights, computer, music, etc. on and off so our timing worked out well.

On Christmas morning, Micah woke up first (about 7:10) and came to get me. She didn't want to go into the living room without Rhett or Blair. Everyone else that I talked to said their kids were up by 6:00 and didn't wait for anyone. It's kind of a tradition at our house that we all go in together while the video camera is recording (using a tripod). I never remember to take pictures because of all the excitement. My dad came over to see what the kids got and then at noon we went to my parents house for dinner. The Kaelin side isn't doing their Christmas until mid January (Tony's aunt and uncle are visiting his cousin in France), so we only had one stop to make. Although it was weird, it was nice to just come back home and relax while the kids played with their new toys.

On Monday night, we went to Sharon's for another Christmas dinner. She fixed lasagna & spaghetti. I really had a good time. I told Tony that we should get everyone together more often. I say that now while I'm off of work and things are easy. Ask me in a couple of weeks and see how I feel then. ;)

Christmas Cookies for Santa

Silly poses while waiting for the cookies to bakeThey decorated the cookies ALL by themselves!!! ;)

Happy Birthday, Jesus

The other day Rhett and Micah wanted to have a birthday party for Jesus. Not the greatest picture, but the idea behind it was good. So today, as you are opening gifts with friends and family, take some time to remember the true meaning of Christmas!

Girls' Night Out

(Rachel, I probably should have done a retake, too!!) ;)

Monday night some friends and I went out to eat at the Cheesecake Factory!!! I LOVE that place! The food is amazing (I ordered the Stuffed Chicken Tortilla) and although I'm not a big fan of cheesecake, I do like theirs. (I get the Fresh Banana Cream Cheesecake.) It was so nice to get out and have some fun with the girls. Actually, my whole day was "Girls' Night" starting with a shopping adventure at Edinburgh Outlet Mall with Cindy & Tabby. My social life gets put on hold so much during the school year, so it's nice to have some time off of work to hang out with friends and catch up on what's new in everyone's lives. I would like to make an effort to go out with the girls more often. We had a couple of ladies cancel on us (sickness & out of town guests), but we still had fun! We've already started thinking about where to go next. So if anyone has any suggestions or would like to join us, we'd love to hear from you!!!

Waiting for the Wee One's Christmas party to start
Santa made a visit to the party.

For the gift exchange, Micah received a My Little Pony & book

The kids at church performed their stick puppets at church last week. Rhett had white gloves for one performance and sticks for the other performance. I was very impressed with his confidence and skill! He's really coming out of his shell! We are so proud of him!

So apparently I didn't take any pictures in the month of November (crazy, huh???). These pictures were taken at Micah's Wee Ones Christmas program.

Rhett's job was to hand out programs as people entered the Sanctuary.

While Rhett was handing out programs, the girls went on stage to pose for some pictures.

October Pictures

Eating is exhausting, I'm telling ya!
Rhett & his friends Ethan and Lizzie at the Fall Party in Mrs. Webb's class.

Greater Clark held it's First Annual Class Pumpkin Decorating Contest this year. My class had been studying owls and chose to decorate our pumpkin to look like Owl from the book Owl At Home. I'm not creative and almost panicked and called Maria to come decorate our pumpkin for us. My room parent saved the day by finding some examples on the internet!! (Thanks, Liz)

We went with a sport theme for Halloween costumes this year.

Future UK Star!!!

I ordered Micah a cheer uniform from Kratz's Sporting Goods (don't ask how much it cost)! Blair is wearing her UK cheer uniform.

I'm back!

Since it's been FOREVER since I've blogged on a regular basis, here's a quick summary of the past few months. I haven't taken as many pictures as I usually do ... I've just been so busy lately. This school year has really been harder as far as finding extra time to get things done. The school coorporation extended the amount of time that the kids are in our classrooms, which means my planning time was drastically taken away (almost 50 minutes a day!!!!!) That means that I am having to stay after school longer each day. By the time I go and get the kids from my mom's and get home, it's usually after 5:00. From 5:00 to 9:00, I cook (or Tony brings home take-out), clean up the kitchen, household chores, laundry, homework, play time with the kids, baths, reading, devotions, and bed-time. If you know me, I'm completely exhausted and ready for bed by 9:00 or 9:30 on most nights. So ... that's why I haven't been able to blog as much as I would like. It's either blogging about my kids, or using that time to play with them, and well, I'm sure you know which one gets top priority!!! BTW, Tony is a TREMENDOUS help, but he's even busier than I am with his deacon responsibilities, practicing his guitar/songs, and teaching at Ivy Tech.



With all of that being said, I do apologize to all the faithful blog readers out there who check in each day (only to be disappointed to find the same old blog). Maybe over Christmas vacation I will get back in the swing of things!!!

Susie's New Blog

There's a new blog to check out! Susie has started a blog from the grandma's point of view! It's amazing how much she's done in a short amount of time! (She's making me feel guilty of blog neglect!!) Check it out at: throughmemawseyes.blogspot.com

10 Years!!!!

Today Tony and I are celebrating our 10 Year Wedding Anniversary!!!! Can you believe that? It's went by so fast! He has planned a weekend getaway for us, something that I've always said I wanted to do. We are going to Lexington, KY for the weekend to watch the UK Football game. You see, I'm a huge Cats fan, and Tony is an IU fan. People are always giving us tickets to go to IU football and basketball games and we've bought several football tickets to tailgate with friends. When one of my cheerleaders from CHS went on to cheer/dance at IU, we made an effort to go to many games. But UK tickets are harder to come by. So even when we do make it down there to a game, we are always sitting in the Indiana section. ;( Just think how ridiculous I look sitting with my royal blue shirt in a sea of red. ha! ha! So Tony went out of his way to get tickets to Saturday night's game (it's homecoming) and made reservations at a hotel for Friday and Saturday night. I'm so excited!! I'm hoping to do some shopping in all of the little shops downtown. I've heard it's such a cool atmosphere there. I would also like to check out the campus as well. I think Tony was researching other things to do last night, too.

Side note: I know most of you know that when we went to Disney World for our honeymoon, that we have always said we would go back for our 10 Year Wedding Anniversary. However, since I only have 1 day off for Fall Break, we decided to wait and do that over Christmas Break instead. The day after Christmas we are leaving to go to Florida and visit my aunt and then on to Disneyworld. My mom and dad are coming with us to help with the Rhett, Micah, and Blair.

Back to this weekend, the kids are spending tonight at Cindy's and Saturday night at my mom's. They are excited as well. Since school has started, it's harder for me to find time to hang out with Cindy and her kids. They can't wait.

Tony: I love you with all of my heart and am so thankful that God brought us together. You are my best friend, a fabulous husband, a wonderful dad, and a strong Christian leader. I am so proud of you and all that you do. I can't wait to share some much needed one on one time with you this weekend. We have such a unique and strong bond, that words just can't explain. I still think of Allison Kraus's song You Say it Best, When You Say Nothing At All. It's been an amazing 10 years and I look forward to living the rest of my life together with you.

Random Pictures

Hanging out at the Zoo
Rhett & Hope hanging out at the Zoo
Rhett took this of us at Lisa's wedding
This is the "civilized" picture ...after this, they went a little crazy with silly poses!!
Micah slept in rollers so her hair would be curly for school one day!

Pirate Treasure Map

Emily found the first clue!

John, Dustin, Caleb, and Devin took turns holding the boat in place.

"The Captain"


The Treasure Map





The Treasure Box!!!!!!



On Labor Day weekend, while we (Marcye's family, Tabby's family, Cindy's family, and my family) were camping, we went to Patoka Lake to see Abby & Troy's new houseboat. While we were there, they had planned a "Pirate Treasure Hunt" for the kids. The kids found a floating bottle with a treasure map inside while swimming in the lake. The kids (I went along to help with the little ones) boarded the pontoon and headed out in search of the treasure! The first stop was so funny because no one knew exactly what they were looking for. Emily ended up finding a clue tucked away inside another bottle. That clue led us to the next stop. Each stop was named although I can't remember any of the names except for "Chigger Island." The kids were super excited at each stop to see who would find the next clue. Everyone had to work together to get on and off the boat. At one stop I overheard Rhett and Micah trying to decide if this was a "real" pirate treasure hunt or just pretend... and came to the conclusion that of course it was real!! ;) Rhett actually found a couple of the clues ... he was really into it! When we finally reached the treasure (which was on a boat in "Party Cove"), even I had no idea what to expect. The treasure box was filled with candy, chips, crackers, cookies, etc.!!!! There was plenty to share! Rhett hasn't stopped talking about it since. He has drawn pictures of pirate ships, sharks, whales, pirates, fish, etc. He has played with his Imaginext Pirate Ship almost every day, and he's even mentioned wanting to be a Pirate for Halloween. Thanks to Abby and Troy for a great day full of fun and adventure!!!

Hurricane Ike

This is the tree that was my backdrop for the "First Day of School" pictures ;(
Another view of the tree that has now become Rhett's favorite thing to climb!
This tree landed on the swing set.
The roof after it was patched (notice the blue and gray tarps)
The shingles that we collected in our yard.

Hurricane Ike... in Kentuckiana!!??!! We had a huge wind storm Sunday afternoon and much of Kentuckiana is without power. Clark County is in a State of Emergency and all of the local schools are out for the week.

We started our Sunday afternoon like any other, with a trip to McAllister's, and while we were eating the electricity flickered a couple of times. It looked like at any moment a storm was about to occur, so we ate quickly and headed home. Not long after leaving the restaurant, Tony got a call to go to the church and check on a gutter that had fallen from the "wind." We turned down a country road to detour back to the church. By this point, we could tell things were looking bad. I had just told Tony that maybe he should take the kids and myself home first and then go to church, when in front of us about 20 feet a huge tree and telephone pole fell across the road blocking the entire road. We had to back up and go a different way. On Highway 62 there were huge foam insulation boards flying off of the roofs of 2 constructions sites. It was a mess!! When we got to church, Tony looked things over and then we headed home.

We pulled in our driveway to find our 1 "good tree" (a Bradford Pear) half way down, the basketball goal landed about 12 inches from Tony's car, and we could see shingles and branches everywhere. We quickly got the kids inside and watched through the windows. By this point, the electricity had already went out. It was an amazing experience! Everything on our deck had blown to one side. Our tabletop broke off of the base and our grill was laying flat on the deck (we actually could use a new table and grill anyway). By 4:00 things had calmed down and we headed out to inspect the damage. The rest of the tree had fallen, our other large tree had fallen close to the swingset, and we had quite a bit of roof damage.

We headed to Tony's mom's house to get some tarps to patch the roof and on our way home Tabby had called to tell us they were bringing a generator and were coming to help patch the roof. Johnny and Cindy came too. Brian, Ernie, and John also stopped by to see if we needed help. We are truly blessed to have such great friends and family to help in times of need. The generator was fabulous! Tony and I keep saying we need to get one, but it's just one of those things that you don't think of until something like this happens. The girls (Tabby, Cindy, Desiree, Olivia, Blair, and I headed to Meijer in Jeff, the only open store, to get some food, supplies, and stopped at the only open gas station to get gas for the generators. When we got back, my Mom and Dad had stopped by to help.

Sunday was definitely a day of excitement and action. Rhett was all excited and said, "This is the best day ever!!!" The fallen tree was a big "playland" for all of the cousins and neighbor kids!! Little did he realize the damage caused from the storm.

Monday we all went to the zoo (a total of 10 kids and 6 adults) and when we got home about 5:30 our electric was on. However, the subdivion next to us didn't get power until last night. It's

Wednesday and there are still many places without power, including our church. My school is now a make-shift shelter for food and showers. Today was the first day Tony went back to work. They still are without power but have moved the computers next door and are using generators. When I talked to him at lunch, he said that the plant people are working outside. That's one blessing ... the weather! It's been in the low 70's during the day so at least the people without electricity can open the windows.

Another blessing has been having some extra family time. We've just enjoyed slowing down and spending some quality time together!! Speaking of family, I hear Blair waking up from her nap, so I'm off to check on her.