Quick Trip

On Monday Josh was leaving for an interview in Aurora, Illinois, just outside of Chicago.  We had done a lot of traveling with the kids and I figured we would stay home for this one and take a little break.  I had asked Shane a few days before if he wanted to go or stay home and he said stay home so it was confirmed.  But on Monday about half an hour before Josh was leaving Shane suddenly said, "I wanna go with Daddy!  I wanna leave Michigan!"  So we hurried and packed up and went with him, and I'm glad we did.  The kids are really pretty good in the car for the most part (here Shane is watching a movie and Marissa is finding other ways to entertain herself;) )

and they love hotels.  Who wouldn't when there are free cookies in the lobby

 and a swimming pool?

 

That night Josh had a dinner with the residents, so we dropped him off then the kids and I went to get dinner of our own- deep dish pizza from Lou Malnati's.  It was in a cute historic district and we had a lot of fun, minus me getting lost on the way there.

 Then we hung out in the mall while we waited for him to be done

Tuesday was his interview so after the continental breakfast we dropped him off, checked out a few stores, had lunch, and went to a little zoo.  They had all regional/ish animals which I guess was why they could stay open, and it was free!  We had a lot of fun, except I kind of got creeped out because the cougar REALLY wanted to eat Marissa.  I was trying to find where he was, and then I saw him and as soon as he noticed her he leaped over and was trying to find a way through the fence.

We walked over to the glass viewing area and he followed us and was pacing back and forth watching her

and there she is, pointing to him and happily saying "kitty!" while her mother nervously eyes the enclosure and tries to reassure herself it's secure!!  He followed us around the whole exhibit.  May we never run into one in the wild!!

 Josh called me and said the directors wanted to meet us so we went to pick him up and stopped in to say hi, then headed on our way home.  Overall it was a really fun time, and I'm glad we ended up going!

Christmastime with Kids

Did you know, in addition to wise men and shepherds, baby Jesus also received visits from a jaguar, gorilla, lion, and polar bear? ;)

Christmastime with kids is that much more fun.  Now that Shane is getting older, the anticipation and excitement of Santa Claus coming is a lot of fun, but I have especially enjoyed this year teaching him about the Christmas story.  As I have tried to explain it all to him it has made me think about why Jesus coming was so special, who He is and what He means to me.  One night as I was putting him to bed (when all our best conversations occur), we were talking about how Jesus was born in a stable with all the animals and how he laid in the hay.  He said, "And how did the animals feel?  Were they a little bit mad that he took all their hay?" After a good laugh, I explained to him that they were probably very happy because they love Jesus.  "Why do they love him mom?"  As I explained to him that he is our Savior and died for all of us, I thought to myself what an awesome job being a parent is and how happy I am to get to teach him this.

First Snow

We got our first snow last week and I always forget just how magical the first snow is until it comes again. I especially love seeing it through my children's eyes now.  Shane loves having snowball fights and insists on wearing boots everywhere so he can stomp on any patch of snow he finds.  I love the way Marissa's eyes light up when she says, " Snow!  snow!"  She discovered ice on the airplane and now that the snow is melting and is patchy and frozen it's like great big chunks of ice right at her disposal and I have given up trying to stop her, I just try to make sure it's not yellow ha ha.  I know the magic will fade as the months pass, but these first snows make me think that I kind of want to end up somewhere with snow.  I guess that's a good thing because so far Josh's favorite programs have been in places where that should be the case:)

 

 

Shane at 4

(Here is Shane opening his birthday card from Grandma Dettinger when we got back from Muncie.  He loved it because it combined two of his favorite things- jungle animals and silly things)

A few things about Shane:
-still loves cars, cars, and more cars.  I think it is kind of his comfort thing, because I started noticing after Josh had been away for awhile and things were not really normal around here, he just wanted to stay home all day and play with his cars. Since he's been back he is starting to branch out again.
-He loves animals, especially scary ones, really anything scary, and bad guys.
-He loves to be silly and make up words and rhyme weird words
-Favorite movie is Cars 2 and favorite show is Jake and the Neverland Pirates
-Breakfast of choice is Special K Vanilla Almond, and loves bars of any kind.
-Gets himself dressed in the morning, but usually not without a lot of prodding from me.  He is still a stop-and-smell-the-roses kind of guy and likes to take his time with everything.  Unless that thing is eating baked goods.
-Enjoys school but in true boy fashion doesn't give me many details about it.  Usually when I ask him he'll say, "Um, I'm not telling you anything," but little details will pop out later.
-He's very into counting backwards at the moment and loves those kind of books.
-Is still not very into drawing or crafty things.
-Can be defiant at times but mostly is very well-behaved and sweet.  He asks for hugs and kisses all the time (sometimes because he is trying to delay doing what I've asked him to), and especially loves them from his sister. 

Well, I guess that was more than a few things... but pretty much, he is an awesome kid and I'm so glad he's mine!
 

Happy Birthday Shane!!!

My little boy up and turned 4 on me!  He had been looking forward to December 6th for months because he knew he would get the car he wanted for his birthday.  He started his day off with preschool, and we took birthday cookies for his class.  When we got home and Josh got back from working the night shift in the ER the long awaited moment was here.    

Josh is opening the box for him.  Do you think he was a little excited??

"I have Victor H!!"

 We had lunch and opened some presents from Grandma Nebeker.  I had to laugh because the first two he opened were clothes, and he very nicely asked, "How about we open something for playing?" 

After that we headed on a road trip to Muncie, Indiana.  Josh had an interview there the next day and they put us up in a hotel so we made a trip out of it.  I would feel bad that Shane was in the car for 4 hours for his birthday, but he got to watch Cars 2 so he didn't mind one bit.  We stopped at Burger King for dinner and got to the hotel around 7.  It was a fun little surprise to see that the program had left a book for each of the kids in Josh's packet. 

We brought a cake with us, which was the other part of the birthday Shane had been anxiously awaiting.  His request: m and m's and sprinkles.  I can do that buddy.  He enjoyed his cake, but especially the frosting- he ate all of it off his piece and then before we realized it he had taken his fork and was taking chunks of frosting out of the pan ha ha.

Then we went swimming in the hotel pool 

 

 Marissa was almost as excited about the pool as the copious amounts of toilet paper at her level in the bathroom.

 

The next morning Josh left for his interview while we enjoyed the continental breakfast, then we hung out for a little bit and went to a luncheon the spouses in the program had for us.  One of the spouses even babysat the kids so I could go to the dinner that night.  I think Shane had a lot of fun, and so did we!

Trip to Truckee

The Saturday after Thanksgiving we drove my parents back to the airport and took a little trip ourselves to the Dettinger's new house in Truckee, CA to stay with them while Josh did his interview in Reno and one in Phoenix. (Truckee is just outside Lake Tahoe and 30 minutes from Reno).  It was so good to have Josh flying with us! 

We got to Truckee late Saturday night, and even later when you factored in the time change, but the kids managed to stay wired and we were glad because we got to spend a little time with Josh's sisters who were leaving the next morning.  (We missed you Sarah!)  Josh hadn't seen his siblings in almost 2 years.

Jake and his family stayed til Monday

 and the kids were so excited to have some cousin time.

Marissa of course couldn't keep her hands to herself.  At least it was a lot less rough this visit:)

After church we went on a walk to a nearby lake

and got to check out the town.  Truckee is kind of a ski resort town up in the mountains and the houses were all so beautiful.  We are definitely glad they moved here!

 

They were sad to see their cousins leave but luckily having Uncle Matthew around is like having a cousin.  Shane and Marissa LOVE him

He got a little annoyed by them at times but was pretty cute with them too.

 I was happy to see them warm up to Grandpa and Grandma so quickly, I think skype really helps.

 

We spent a week there and got to see beautiful Lake Tahoe (albeit from the car because of rain/snow darnit), the high school that Greg is principal at, and spend lots of quality time with Josh's family.  And I finally got to go to one of the interview dinners:)  Thanks for hosting us Greg and Shelley, and for putting up with our shenanigans:)

 

Mom and Dad Came

My mom and dad came to visit the week of Thanksgiving and we were so glad they did!! We started their trip bright and early to pick them up at the airport at 6 am. They had taken the red-eye flight and I'm pretty sure they were pretty tired but they let us cart them around all morning anyway. We stopped at McDonald's for breakfast, then headed to Lowe's for their kids workshop.

 The kids made sleighs (well, let's be honest- the adults did ;) ), and then they had a bunch of Christmas activities going on in the greenhouse.  Santa was there, but he was right next to a coi pond, which was way more interesting.

I thought it was brilliant they had him on a bench so timid kids could sit next to him instead of on his lap, but Marissa wasn't buying it.

Shane was a little friendlier once the candy came out...

We had a fun week and took them to the children's museum, 

and to Frankenmuth to go to Bronners, the world's biggest Christmas store,

and then of course we had to walk through town and get some fudge :) 

Grandma even got to go with Shane to his Thanksgiving Feast at preschool. 

 But the best part was just hanging out with them

 

and having someone to help read some of the millions of books we go through around here!

 It was the last week of Josh's away rotations and they couldn't have come at a better time, I was so done with being alone with the kids, and apparently so were the kids!  They were so excited to have their grandparents here, and I got a good idea of how Shane had been feeling when my parents went for a walk the first day while Marissa was napping and when Shane realized it he asked where they were and said dramatically, "We can't be alone AGAIN!!"