Rhett's Letter to Santa

Dear Santa,
Hi! How are you and your wife doing? The things I really want is a rip-stick and a TV! I want lots of Lego sets and Star Wars movies, and Indiana Jones movies, too. I want a brother and a puppy.

Love,
Rhett Kaelin

Sulayne's Christmas

This was on Megan's blog, so I thought I would share my answers, too.

Sulayne's Christmas:

1. Egg Nog or Hot Chocolate? Hot Chocolate. But my favorite is hot Apple Cider! Mmm! It's so cold outside tonight, I could use a warm cup right now!

2. Does Santa wrap presents or just sit them under the tree? Just sits them out. At our house, each kid has a spot where Santa tries to organize their presents into piles.

3. Colored lights on tree/house or white? Definitely COLORED lights!!!! I'm known for my green and red porch/garage lights, too! I am such a kid at heart!

4. Do you hang mistletoe? No.

5. When do you put your decorations up? The day before Thanksgiving since I'm off work that day. That way, I can shop Black Friday!

6. What is your favorite holiday dish? Homemade Chex Mix! It's my weakness every holiday season.

7. Favorite Holiday memories as a child? baking cookies with my mom, setting the alarm for 12:30 just to "check" if Santa had came yet, playing Rook with my family, going to my grandma's house, eating chex mix, begging my dad to ask Santa if he could bring just one present early, the excitement of waking up to see what Santa had brought, riding around town with my family to look at Christmas lights

8. When and how did you learn the truth about Santa? I don't remember exactly when. I do remember kids on the bus telling me that Santa wasn't real. When I was in 5th grade, I remember still getting several Cabbage Patch kids that year for Christmas. I'm not sure if I complained, but after that, there were no more presents, just money.

9. Do you open a gift on Christmas Eve? We go to the Coomer family on Christmas Eve and the kids open a present. We also do a gift exchange for the adults. I let my kids open their pajamas on Christmas Eve, too.

10. How do you decorate your Christmas tree? Tony puts up the tree, shapes it, tests the lights, and does the garland. I put on the ornaments. The past 2 years, the kids have helped me. We have a tall (10 foot), skinny tree, so I leave Tony a small pile of ornaments to hang on the top, since we can't reach. We play Christmas music and drink apple cider while we decorate. Then, we hang garland down the staircase and across the fireplace mantel. The kids have a small tree in their bedrooms that they decorate themselves.

11. Snow! Love it or Dread it? Love it! (I hate the cold and hate when it gets dark so early, but I love when it snows and I LOVE LOVE snow days!!! Again, I'm a kid at heart.

12. Can you ice skate? Yes ... Tony and I had went ice skating with friends from CIC the night we met! Well, I should rephrase that yes to yes I can ice skate, but it may not be pretty.

13. Do you remember your favorite gift? I remember getting a juke box style record player, a KISS guitar, and as a family we got an Oddysey (kind of like an Atari). But my ultimate favorite was my first Cabbage Patch kid. Her name was Hillary Ferdinand and I still have her! She had red hair like me and I took her with me everywhere I went for what seems like several years.

14. What's the most important thing about the Holidays for you? Baby Jesus ... that's easy!

15. What is your favorite Holiday Dessert? I'm not a huge dessert fan, see #6. If I had to pick something, it might be peppermint bark.

16. What is your favorite holiday tradition? A couple of years ago, Rhett and Micah asked if we could buy a birthday cake to celebrate Jesus's birth. I also love baking cookies for Santa with my own kids.

17. What tops your tree? Nothing at the moment. Our star was ruined when our basement flooded, and I haven't bought a new one yet. When Tony and I first got married until just a few years ago, we had a Marvin the Martian tree topper.

18. Which do you prefer giving or receiving? Neither, just because I don't think I'm good at picking out gifts for others and like I said in #8, I stopped receiving gifts when I was in 6th grade.

19. What is your favorite Christmas Song? Little Drummer Boy is my favorite (especially Fred's version). I also like Away in a Manger, Christmas Like a Child and many "specials" that people sing at church. When I was a little kid, it was all of the Alvin and the Chipmunks songs and the Red Baron and Snoopy Christmas song (I'm not sure the real name of it).

20. Candy Canes: Yuck or Yum? Yum!

21 Favorite Christmas Show? A Charlie Brown Christmas

22. Saddest Christmas Song? Since I've been a mom, I'd have to say Mary, Did You Know? I'm also very melancholy and like a lot of sad songs.

Cute Quotes

I need to start carrying a pad of paper with me to jot down the funny/cute things my kids say. Here are a few that I wanted to share:

Blair: After pointing out the dusting of snow to her the other morning, she just stared with this puzzled look on her face. Then said, "Who did that?"

Micah: While eating a snack of nacho cheese and chips, she said, "Mom, I didn't know that the raisin girls made these chips!" Confused, I went to the table where she pointed to the picture of the girl on the Santitos chip bag (she looks very similar to the girl on the package of raisins).

I've been thinking all week that I need to blog that, and I need to blog this. Of course, now that I'm sitting in front of the computer, I can't think of anything else that they've said. But, hey, at least I've updated! ;)

New Carpet ... Finally!

Our new carpet was installed yesterday! Our basement flooded in September and the carpet has been on back order. It was supposed to take about 5 days and it ended up taking over a month... ugh! But no complaints. It could have been a lot worse.

The kids have enjoyed the open space in the basement! Although Rhett is looking forward to being able to play the Wii soon! (All of our furniture, etc. has been in storage/unfinished part.) Now all that's left is to arrange the furniture. I'm wanting to do something different, to make better use of the space. I'm hoping that Cindy and Tabby can help me with that. For those of you that have been in my basement, I'm open to suggestions!

I've survived ...

the 1st 9 weeks! The first 9 weeks of school are always the hardest for me. When mom goes back to work is a big adjustment to the whole family to say the least! There's always so much paper work, testing, analyzing data, getting to know the students, parent conferences, etc. Plus, everything that needs to be done at home, too! This year is even more busier because I'm taking a literacy training course and I'm now the Team Leader again (I took several years off). Shew! I've been pressured by several blog readers to update, so I thought I would start by letting everyone know why I haven't had time to post lately! ;)

A LOT has happened in Sept. & Oct. so stay tuned for more updates!!

Sellersburg Celebrates Princess Contest

Isn't she just adorable? We were so proud of her for participating and not being too shy this year! She picked out her dress ... which was much fancier than any dress I would have chosen. It's funny because I realize that our tastes our different. I need to start taking her with me when I go shopping for dresses. Don't get me wrong, I think her dress is absolutely adorable, I just tend to buy more simpler styles. By the way, she also picked out her shoes, which have little clear heals that don't really show up in these pictures. Micah is definitely a shoe girl! It's so much fun having a little girl to play dress up with! Micah is so much of a girly-girl! Speaking of that, I'm off to read another Fancy Nancy book to my little girls right now!

1st Day of School Pictures

I still can't believe that Micah is in Kindergarten! Here are some pictures of the first day of school:

Rhett with his teacher! ;)

Micah with her teacher, Ms. Harbin

Rambling

I've forgotten how crazy-busy the beginning of the school year is! I'm exhausted. Rhett is in my class this year ... what a blessing. He's doing really well and I'm so excited that we will have this special time together!

I wanted to tell everyone that my mom got her CA-125 bloodwork back and her number went down from 28 to 18!!! (That's good news!) The radiation is working. She meets with the radiologist in a couple of weeks so I'll give another update at that time. She's feeling pretty good, but a little tired now that she is back to babysitting. Tony's mom has graciously offered to help out by babysitting one day a week to give mom some much needed rest time! Thanks Sharon!!

Micah was in the Sellersburg Celebrates Princess Contest a couple of weeks ago. She did a fabulous job! We were so proud of her! She wasn't shy and I didn't even have to go on stage with her this year! lol! Cindy came over and fixed her hair ... she looked so cute. I will post pictures this weekend.

Blair's funny saying for today: She constantly is telling everyone that she is "a big kid now" and thinks that she should be able to do everything that Micah does. Well, today when it was clean up time, all of a sudden, she said, "I can't know how to clean up. I too little."

An Update on My Mom

My mom's cancer (Ovarian) is back. I had been waiting to tell everyone until we knew what treatment option they would choose. She will be admitted Tuesday (the 18th) at Norton's for 48 hours and will have a localized radiation treatment. She will have to lay flat and the radiation will be administered through hollow needles only at the centralized location, which is close to her bladder. She can only have 1 visitor each day for 30 minutes and the visitor must wear protective lead gear. It sounds awful! Please pray that she will be comfortable and that the time will go by fast.

It has been 6 1/2 years since her initial diagnosis and she has went through at least 6 rounds of chemotherapy and 1 round of radiation treatments. She has been through so much. Also, pray that this treatment works and that she will not have to endure more chemo treatments for awhile.

BFF

I just love watching these two together. They are just so cute! I took these pictures of Brooklyn and Blair the week of VBS. I pray that they will always be close friends. Every night (and before each meal) Blair prays for "Bwooklyn, Wizbef, & Bella" along with many, many family members. I love this age ... she's just so funny and sweet!

Hanging Out on the Houseboat

Here are the pictures that I took the day we went to visit Abby & Troy on their houseboat at Patoka. All the kids swam, even though it was only in the 60's that day!! They kept saying that the water was warmer than the air.

Now Accepting Used Cell Phones

So my kids are all into playing with old cell phones. Well, actually, Micah and Rhett are begging for their own cell phone and Tony and I both think they are just too young. Plus, I keep thinking, who in the world do they think they would call? And, if they do want to call people, why can't they just use my phone? I know. I know. It's just the idea of having a real phone. That's where you the reader can help me out. They would love to have an assortment of cell phones and chargers to play with at home when they play house and are riding in the golf cart. Rhett keeps asking me to "e-mail my friends" to ask if they have any extra around the house. So ... if you have recently upgraded and are willing to part with your old phone, please let me know!! As you know, my kids are full of imagination and love to pretend, so here's your chance to make their day!

Atlantis Water Park

Hope and Rhett on their way to the water slides.
Blair splashing in the kiddie pool.

Brian Anthony and Micah under the waterfall.

Blair, Micah, Brian Anthony, Olivia, & Rhett taking a break for some pictures.

Micah and Brian Anthony catching some rays.

Bowling

Rhett and Tony were supposed to being a "tough man" pose

Rhett took this picture ... it's pretty good other than Tony's head got cut off just a little!

Uncle Sean entertaining Blair

Devin, Sharon, and Tabby hanging out.

Blair playing on the floor (I'm sure they had just bleached it, right?)

Micah and Desiree waiting their turn to bowl!

Since it was rainy and yucky and our big family get together was cancelled, we decided to go bowling on the 4th of July! Rhett and Micah LOVE to go bowling! The are pretty good little bowlers for their age ...and even better at Wii Bowling! Blair had just as much fun rolling around on the floor ... yuk!

Zoo Pictures

Founder's Day Parade

Picnic Fun

Micah just loves picnics! So one day we decided to have an impromptu picnic at home. I meant for us to lay out our blankets in the grass, but Micah insisted that we have our picnic on the driveway. I'm sure Tony will love everyone seeing pictures of him playing picnic with the kids! ;)