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!!!