The latest

I haven’t updated this thing in a while….. We really don’t have much new going on. We got both the kids report cards this week. Ryann had A’s and 1 B. The B being in her math class, again. Adam has already contacted her teacher to see what we can do to help pull that grade up. We’re confident with a little bit of hard work she can pull all A’s. Aiden got all M’s again, so he is still mastering all his subjects still. He also had a report card sent home from his GT teacher. The kids in GT can receive 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5. 3 basically means they have had continuous growth and 5 would mean they are above the teachers expectations. Aiden had all 4’s and 4+. He still has perfect attendance too!
 
Ryann has had a few orthodontist appointments, and things seem to progressing in that area. She now has a removable retainer on bottom, which makes eating MUCH easier. And I don’t know if it’s just wishful thinking on our part, but I swear her teeth have already started to move! She has another orthodontist appointment next month, followed by a visit to the dentist. Poor child has to spend a lot of time letting people dig in her mouth. She is still taking tumbling, and having a lot of fun with it. I really hope it’s something she decides she wants to stick with; she seems to be picking up on things at a remarkable pace. Last Friday Adam, Aiden and I drove to the high school in her town to watch her TOT (Teams of Tomorrow) performance. She did a wonderful job, and looked like she had a lot of fun! Next time we get her it’ll be time for the Daddy daughter dance, she is so very excited!!!
 
Aiden has had a lot less excitement. He has a dentist appointment Monday. He is excited to show the dentist he lost that first tooth, and now has a new loose onet! He has been busy with soccer, one practice and one game each week. Aiden has also been busy preparing for the Destination Imagination competition coming up in February. His school didn’t have enough kids interested to form two teams, (one team made up of K&1st grade students, and another of 2nd, 3rd and 4th) like in the past so this year they combined the two teams and created one team of 7 kids. Which means Aiden will be competing in the older kids division. I haven’t been to a meeting yet, Adam has been taking him, but from what I can tell it’s a LOT of work for the kids, since the parents are not allowed to help. So other than that, and looking forward to his SIXTH, (boo!) birthday he has been spending a lot of time playing.
 
Adam and I haven’t been too busy, just working mostly. Adam has been spending a lot of his extra time at the gym with a personal trainer, (using up one of his Christmas gifts) trying to get his core muscles stronger, which will help is back too.
 
Like I said, not too much going on with us, but it had been a while since my last update. We hope you are all doing great!
I’m getting busy adding new pictures to our photo site, so check back there later.
 

First snowfall of the year....

Granted it wasn't the 13" + we got last year, but it was plenty for us to play in!

Bye bye 2010!!

Happy New Year!

We’ve been incredibly busy since my last post. I doubt I can recall everything, so we’ll just hit the high points.

The Tooth Fairy visited Aiden the night of my last post.

He was so excited, I was sure he wouldn’t get a wink of sleep. He finally nodded off and the Tooth Fairy left him $5.00, floss, toothpaste and a note. He was SO excited when he woke up the following morning to find all of his goodies.

He can not wait to lose another tooth, he checks them daily. His permanent tooth just started peaking through his gums last week, he is so eager to see how big it will be!

The visit from the Tooth Fairy rounded out November for us. The month of December was such a whirl wind, which I’m sure is true for everyone. We started the month off with the Fuson Christmas.

Adam and I hosted again this year; we had 19 people show up! I LOVE hosting the Fuson get together! We always have such a great time. It’s always so nice to see everyone. This year Aunt Brenda and Uncle Frank were able to come, and it just made the day that much more special! The kids love getting to spend time with their cousins, aunts and uncles. I wish it was something we could do more often. Kim and her brood really need to move back to the metroplex – we miss them!

The PTA hosted breakfast with Santa. I had to “work” the event, but Adam brought Aiden, and they had a really great time. This is the first year Aiden has ever shown any apprehension about visiting with the big guy. So, he learned that this was not really Santa, but one of his very special helpers. For whatever reason, that eased his fears.

He was very excited to learn that this Santa was an Aggie. Whoop!

December 17th was the kids last day of school for 2010. Both had class parties. Unfortunately we didn’t get to attend Ryann’s, but she said she had a really great time. Here are a few pictures from Aiden's party.

I'll work on getting you a few pictures from Ryann's party.

The 17th was also Ryann’s cheer party, again it was an event Adam and I had to miss – but here is a picture of Ryann and her sister, Kamri at the party.

We picked up Ryann the morning of the 18th, and she was with us until Christmas afternoon. Adam was off the kids’ entire Christmas break, and they spent the week leading up to Christmas spending time together, and doing lots of playing. In the evenings after I got off work we squeezed in our Christmas traditions, starting with a trip to the Gaylord Texan to visit ICE! Although this is something we’ve been doing for the past several years, it was Ryann’s first time to go. We all had a wonderful time walking through Charlie Brown’s Christmas. It was a chilly 9* in there, but we were very well prepared, and were able to take our time, and really enjoy it!

New this year were the snow hills. We bought the kids unlimited tickets and they spent about an hour going down the slides. It was so much fun watching them have such a wonderful time. I really hope they bring these slides back next year!

We went with Gamma and Papa out to Prairie Lights, and drove through the beautiful Christmas lights display. They have over 4 million lights, and we enjoyed seeing every one of them!

We also had to make Santa’s cookies. This is probably one of my favorite things to do with the kids. They always have so much fun. This year rather than just using white icing and sprinkles, we used royal icing. I think we all enjoyed this much more. I’ll tell you what, Adam and Aiden both shocked me with their icing skills!! I defiantly think we’ll be doing our cookies this way in the future. Each of us picked our favorite cookie, that we had iced, and that is what we left out for Santa.

Every year Keller holds a Christmas decorating contest, so after we made our cookies, and picked out the ones Santa would get we packed up the rest, headed to Starbucks to grab some hot chocolate then drove around and looked at the winning subdivisions, streets and houses. It’s always so much fun, and this year Jax joined in the fun!!

That brings us to Christmas Eve.

We had a wonderful lunch with Kay. Then headed to her house to exchange gifts, (we were all spoiled as usual). We spent some time visiting with her, then rushed home and got ready for church. I always love our church’s candle light service! After church we headed to Kobeya, for our traditional hibachi Christmas Eve dinner, (I think next to the gifts this is the kids favorite Christmas Eve tradition!). After dinner we headed home and the kids got the last gift out of the advent calendar. They also each opened one gift – new Christmas PJ’s. We watched Polar Express, read Twas the Night Before Christmas, tracked Santa, put out milk, cookies and carrots and crawled into bed. Both kids were beside themselves with excitement. I think Ryann probably only got an hour of sleep the whole night. Santa had to be EXTREAMLY sneaky, but he finally got all the gifts under the tree, and stockings stuffed…….

Ryann was the fist one up; she came in and woke up Adam and I. It took a good 15 minutes to coax Aiden out of his nice warm bed, but I think he was glad he got up when he walked into the living room and saw all those gifts. We spent about 2 hours opening gifts, and then another few playing with them. Ryann used her new sewing machine and made a pillow.. and then we were off to Gamma and Papa’s house.

Gamma prepared a wonderful Christmas lunch, we visited, and opened gifts, and watched movies, and visited some more. Then Adam took Ryann to her mom, while Aiden and I stayed behind and played some more. It was a late night, but we really did have the most terrific Christmas! I just love getting to spend all that time with family – just enjoying each others company!

On the 29th Ryann got her braces.

I had to work, and couldn’t be there for her appointment, but Adam took my camera and got some pictures. From what I understand she did really good, cried a few times, ended up with a split lip (OUCH!), but in the end it all turned out just fine. She has braces on the top, and an apparatus of some sort behind her bottom teeth to correct her under-bite. For now, her back teeth don’t touch – which is making eating, and cooking for her a bit of a chore- but in the end it’s all going to work out, and be worth the inconveniences she is experiencing for now.

Adam, Aiden and I spent ringing in the New Year at Jennifer and John’s family friendly New Years Eve party. We had a wonderful time! Adam and I were both shocked Aiden was able to stay up till midnight! We’re ready for another amazing year! I hope to do a much better job keeping this blog, and our photo albums up to date! I spent a good chunk of the last several days adding pictures to our photo site, so check them out when you have a chance, - (Click the box)They go back as far as November!

We’re back to work and school today. We were all dreading it, but so far it’s been a wonderful day!!

We hope you have a wonderful Year!!