Well - The holiday is over - Time to share!!

Hope everyone had an enjoyable Christmas. Here are just a few images from our holiday - enjoy!!

Our Christmas Tree on Christmas morning - before kids!

Kurtis doing his best to be good as he waits for his turn to open a gift at Jeff's Dad's on Christmas Eve. This year, Lindsey stayed with us before Christmas so she opened her gifts before she left us. Santa was only going to be coming to her mom's house - since that is where she was Christmas morning. We did allow the boys to open gifts from Mom & Bob at the same time - just did not feel it was fair to have sissy open something and the boys not too.

Here is sissy. Can you believe that she is almost 16! She has her learning permit and her grandpa is teaching her to drive.

Here is Jeff's Dad with Lindsey & Kurtis on Christmas Eve. Maybe next year dad will be with us on Christmas morning!

Jeff surprised me with a pair of pearl earrings for Christmas! Now we just have to get my pearl necklace restrung and I can where out my pearls!!!!

Both boys were so good on Christmans morning - Kurtis actually let Joey open his gifts by himself. Joey had lots of fun once he figured out that there were toys in the there!!

Dad & Dominick at Aaron and Amanda's on Saturday.

Kurtis decided it was a good day to become an M&M (Kenny & Jacob's Halloween costume).

I guess it is time to update...

I know, it has been quite some time since I last talked about anything on my blog. Honestly, I really have not been excited about doing it since I lost my job. But that is for another time - hopefully soon I will have some good news to report on that front.

In the meantime, I thought I would share some pictures from Halloween and a special event Kurtis got to enjoy through school. So here we go.

HALLOWEEN

Hilliard decided to have Halloween on Thursday Oct 30th this year. I believe it was for several reasons...statistically, having Halloween on a Friday or Saturday night is more dangerous for the kids but also because the Hilliard Darby & Davidson High School Football teams were in the playoffs and they did not want to make people choose between going to the game and Trick or Treating.

Since I lost my job mid-September, Halloween costumes ended up being quick & easy "Homemade" costumes. Kurtis was "Ben 10". This is a cartoon character that he really likes. As you can see, I just used a permanent marker on a white t-shirt and printed off a logo from the computer to glue on the shirt - voila! Joey's was even easier - he was a football player! No work involved there.

We went up and down the street with a new neighbor. Their son is 5, so he and Kurtis play together as often as possible.

WALK-A-THON PIZZA PARTY

Every year, to raise money for the PTO, the school holds a Walk-a-thon. This helps in two ways, it raises the money for the PTO but also encourages the kids to get exercise. Early in October, the school had the walk-a-thon inside the school (due to the weather). Kurtis walked 19 laps around the inside of the school in the 30-40 minutes that they were walking. The kids also go to enjoy snow cones on that day.

Well, as an incentive to get the kids to raise money, there were several prizes for the top children. Jeff took the pledge sheet to the bowling alley several nights one week and Kurtis joined him on another night. Kurtis ended up raising $625 for the PTO. This made him the child who raised the most money for the school!

As a reward, Kurtis got his name mentioned on the morning announcements and earned a $100 gift card to Toys-R-Us (we are making him wait to use it until after Xmas so he can get things he does not get during the holiday).

Along with the recognition, the PTO took the top boy & girl from each grade (k-5) and a friend to a Pizza Party at Iacona's in Hilliard. To get to the party the kids (and the principal - Mr. Spicer) got to ride in this...

A HUMMER STRETCH LIMO!!!!!

This is Kurtis with his best school friend - Will.

Joey, Jeff and I meet Kurtis at the school and followed them to the restaurant. Here is a picture of Joey at the pizza place:

Everyone had a good time and they were all well behaved. This was Tuesday November 25.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. Talk to you again soon.

Well - He is off...

Today is Kurtis' first day at Kindergarten! This is what I call the first official day, when all the kids were going to be there at the same time. Hilliard has a staggered start for the Kindergarten class so they can do an assessment (again) to see what the kids had learned over the summer.

Kurtis is officially a Hilliard Britton Bobcat!

As you can see he is a little excited about going to school.

Daddy wanted to talk to Kurtis to tell him how proud he was of him and to let him know that daddy and mommy love him.



A little about how Britton Elementary is working the Kindergarten class this year...Kurtis did not have a teacher assigned prior to school starting. Instead, they wanted the kids to come in on a staggered start to do the assessment and learn a little about their personalities. Based on this assessment, the teachers would try their best to match the child to the teaching styles of the teacher. When Kurtis comes home tonight, we will know who his teacher is.





Before leaving today, the teachers said that they were expecting 46 kids. They also said that the majority of the kids this year where girls (unlike last year where is was the opposite). Kurtis already has a couple of friends in the school that are all older from the neighborhood. One, Nick, is in 1st grade and Kurtis got to see him at recess on Tuesday.





This picture is from Tuesday when Kurtis went to his first day (assessment).

I was ok dropping him off until I was leaving. Then it kind of hit me that my little guy was getting to be so big. I can't believe that my "baby" is in school. As most of you know, I am not the most emotional person. Things like this usually don't get to me but I did start to well up. Guess it is harder to let go then I thought it would be.


As a special treat for Kurtis, I will be taking him to Chuck E Cheese's for lunch after school is over. More on that trip tonight or tomorrow.

Great Bowling Game

Today I shot a 175 in the bowling league I am in with Jeff. This is the best game I have shot in a league - ever!

Now some of you may be asking if I also happened to beat Jeff with that score - unfortunately not today. I did beat Jeff last week in a game (he was really struggling).

Kurtis' Glasses

Well today was the day I had hoped would not come. Ever since I first found out I was pregnant I had hoped my children would have Jeff's fantastic eyesight. But that was not meant to be...

In the past, I had noticed times when Kurtis' left eye seemed to be slow or drag a little. On occasion I would even notice it being turned in some but it always seemed to be a time when he was tired - never when he was wide awake. Guess I should have had him looked at sooner because in May when we went for his Kindergarten assessment for Hilliard they did a vision test.

During this test, they noticed it too - saying that he tried to turn his head to look out using his right eye instead of the left (because the right was covered). Again I really did not think much of it because he was extremely tired (we had bowling the night before) and I thought that was the reason.

Well - they wanted him to be looked at by the pediatrician to see what he said when I took him in for his 5 year shot/check-up (see previous post for that visit). Nurse did a little checking but he really did not want to cooperate. That is when they referred us to the opthamologist.

We went to that appointment about 2 weeks ago. During the visit, the nurse did the initial vision screening & when that was over - all hope of him not getting glasses was gone. He would get some of the answers correct but there was no real consistance to his results. So without any further ado...

The glasses are a metallic blue with Spiderman web designs on the arms. The biggest problem right now is that he is looking over the top of them to see the TV when he is sitting about 8-10ft away from it. He says he can't see the TV. I am hoping that it only a temporary thing. Maybe I will call the doctor tomorrow to ask.

For those of you who want to see a recent picture of me & the boys...

Joey is not feeling well right now - summer cold. Both boys have really enjoyed spending most days at the pool with the babysitter. I am glad I found her. Other than a few issues she has worked out well.

Well that is all for today hopefully soon, I will have more to write about on a regular basis - my baby will be starting school.