Christmas and Alexis' Birthday

Well, it's here and done! Christmas was here and went and my baby girl turned 6!! We had a great holiday and hope you all did also. I am ashamed to say that while I did get everything on video Christmas morning I didn't take one still picture of the kids opening their gifts. Shame on me! As with everyone else, this time of year is super busy for us. The kids had various activities with church and school to perform in. Then Alexis was asked to be an angel in the children's Christmas service at church. We usually head to my mom and dad's in Bellefonte but we had an ice storm that held us up until after lunch. We got down there (in our pj's) after lunch to open gifts and then made it to Mike's parents for dinner and gifts with them. Mike's sister, Heidi, and her kids are visiting us from Arizona so we've been busy seeing them. We've been enjoying our time together and are looking forward to another great year. Here's to 2010!!!



Breakfast with Santa


Christmas morning

Alexis' carousel cake


Us ringing the bells for Interfaith Mission for church.

Tis the Season

Well, we did it.  We went for our Christmas tree.  Every year at this time I say how next year will not be as busy and I'll try to calm things down...this wasn't the year.  As a matter of fact, this has been the busiest year I can remember in a looonnnggg time.  We have the house decorations up and the kids are getting very excited, which gets me excited.  We'll put the tree up next weekend and then the countdown to Santa begins.  Here are a few pictures from the trek to the tree for you to enjoy.

Matt helping Uncle Pete carry his tree.

Kids wanted a silly face picture

Halloween Costumes

Well, here it is, November already!!  I've got to start my Christmas cards soon=)  But before any of that I just wanted to share this years halloween costumes with you.  Alexis was Hannah Montana (whom she's not even allowed to watch on tv but...) and Matt was our pirate.  They went trick-or-treating with their cousin Gretchen and had a blast.

Sled riding and jack-o-lanterns

Thought I'd post a few pictures of our recent few weeks.  I am simply amazed that Sunday is the 1st of November.  Where does the time go????  Last week we had our first snow day already with our record breaker snowfall so the kids took advantage of it and went sledding.  They were pretty disappointed when they found out that the heavy, wet snow is only good for snow balls and not for sledding.  They had fun anyway!  We've got our pumpkins carved for Halloween and are gearing up for trick-or-treat this Saturday.  I'll post more pictures if I am able to get some.  They're calling for (more) rain for us.  That could make for a miserable mommy chaperone that evening.  Although with the promise of a few chocolates that evening I may be ok =)

Fall and School

Happy Fall~

So fall is here so the calendar says and the weather man too...it's rainy, cold and today they're even calling for snow.  We've had a busy September and October so far.  

Mike trained and ran in a 50 mile race called the Tussey Mountainback.  He was part of a relay team and they won their relay division.  It was very exciting for him.    School is in full session.  Alexis isn't adjusting as we'd hoped she would to kindergarten so that's been difficult.  She cries almost everyday but it seems to be on the upside so we're hopeful for that. Matthew, on the other hand, loves school.  At one point we had him crying because he wanted to go to school(he's only 3 days a week) and Alexis crying because she wanted to stay home!!  I tell ya, can't win for trying.

We finally broke down and bought a hot tub that we've wanted since we built our house.  The kids (and I) LOVE  it.  We also just had our 3rd Annual Weyandt fall festival.  It was a lot of fun and Mike did the hayrides again-always the favorite thing to do.  

Hope this finds you all well.

Mike after he finished his part of the relay race in the Tussey Mountainback.

Hayride from the fall party

kids in the new hot tub

Matt and Daddy driving the tractor for the hayrides

Today was Matt's day

Today was Matt's first day of preschool.  He was soooo excited!  We dropped him off and he went right to the toys and could've cared less that we were leaving.  I'm so happy for him that he enjoyed it.  He didn't want to come home when it was time to leave either.  

1st day of kindergarten

This is after she got off the bus.

Greeting Mommy from the bus...


Alexis had a great first day of kindergarten!  It started off a bit rocky to say the least but she came home smiling and gave us 2 thumbs up!  She loved the bus ride and is excited to go back tomorrow!  Yeah!!

Matt turned 4!!

Well, it's official.  My baby is 4 and we celebrated at the Grange Fair.  We had so many friends and family show up come to help us celebrate and we are so thankful for that.  (Not to mention them paying admission to the fair to come to a birthday party:))  At one point we had to question whether it was a birthday party or Christmas with all of the gifts he received.  He was so excited the entire day.  Here are a few pictures of the day.  Enjoy!

End of Summer

Hi all

Another busy month has passed us by and I'm starting to dread the upcoming weeks.  I am having real difficulty with Alexis starting kindergarten!!  I know she'll be fine and by the end of September be well on her way but YIKES!!!   

Anyway, we're off to Grange Fair this week so I'll have lots of pics to post-I hope-from us camping and having fun over there.  Matthew will be turning 4 on Sunday so we'll be celebrating that and then he's off to preschool.  I start my Chemistry class tomorrow so in a few weeks all but Mike will be back in the classroom!  

I just got back from a girls trip to Washington DC.  We packed in as many museums as we could in 3 days and I think we still could've used 3 more.  We had a great time!

Happy last week of summer!! 

More summer fun

Hi all~

It is hard to believe that it is August already!  We've had a very busy summer and this last part doesn't seem to be slowing down much.  These are some pictures from our trip to TN and our camping trip to Knoebel's amusement park.  We had a blast.  We went with our camping buddies, the Moyer family and the Gordon family.  We had a great time riding the rides and camping.  It was a big week for us with Alexis in particular.  It started with her being big enough to ride the roller coaster's at the park-scared me to death!!  She loved every thrill ride we'd let her on!  Then, the next week she had "kindercamp."  Her school's kindergarten does a 3 day (1/2 days) mock run of kindergarten.  They got to meet their teachers and see the classroom and do some small activities.  She did pretty well overall, should be an interesting September.  Now we're getting ready to pack up the camper for the grange fair and to celebrate Matt's 4th birthday.  Football is right around the corner and I'm so excited.  (Mike and I are headed to Pittsburgh this week to watch a Steeler preseason game, can't wait!!  Hope all is well.

Trip to Tennessee

We've been having a great trip in Tennesee.  The kids did great on the airplane ride and had fun with it.  They've gone swimming with cousin Jack, 'playing' with Stephen, gone shopping, been riding their 'hot wheels' bikes.  Today we went to a place in Kentucky called Kentucky Down Under.  It is a small scale wildlife place with Australian animals such as kangaroo's, emu's, dingo's and lots of birds.  The kids had a great time feeding the birds, they got to milk a cow, pet an emu and a kangaroo.  Matthew was happy to see all the animals that he watches in the Wiggles movies!  They also have a huge cave that we got to go down into.  Alexis wasn't so sure about going down but when we came out she wanted to go back down again!  Tomorrow we're going to celebrate Betsy's birthday-should be a great day!   I'll post more pictures as they come:)  Hope this finds everyone well!!