One year ago...

Work is somewhat slow today, so I was reviewing old photos and found these two from a year ago, yesterday.
As you can see, some things haven't changed for Kyle.
But some other things have...

Baseball fever

This Spring, Kyle has moved up a level to "Mustang". It's for 3rd and 4th graders so the ages range from 8 to 10 years old. Again, Kyle finds himself having to step it up to play with the "big boys", but he's definitely holding his own.
Last Saturday, he had his first time on the pitcher's mound. He was scared to death, but did just fine.

Kaiky's new bike

On Friday, Kaiky got a brand-new bike. We immediately took it for a spin.



Later, Kaiky scatted on her new bike.

Spring is coming! Maybe.

I couldn't resist these Violas and some Pansies when I was shopping recently. It was a little early to plant them, but they were a good buy. I waited about two weeks before putting them in the ground, but they are in now. Aren't they pretty?

BUGZ! Kaiky's first grade musical

Kaiky was so excited about her first grade musical, BUGZ! She was a firefly and got a yellow t-shirt and antennae to wear in the production and keep forever.

Big Birthday!

Jen, me, Dory and Nora celebrating!

At the Hop!

Recently, Kyle performed in the third-grade musical production, "At the Hop!".

Here is a short video of one of his performances. He is sitting in the front row, first boy on the left, next to the boy in the black leather jacket.


Proud performer with his two biggest fans.

See any resemblance here?

Queen of the Hoop

Since Kaiky couldn't hoola hoop at all at her birthday party, she's been practicing every day in her room.

Check out this video. It's funny and phenomenal at the same time!

Happy 7th Birthday Kaiky!

Kaiky is now 7! Yay! Wow, how time flies!

She had a great birthday party, an "undernighter" which means that her guests all come in pajamas, but don't stay overnight. I love it!

So she had all of the girls from her first grade class at school as well as her long-time buddies — Madelyn, Ava Claire, Josie and Bella. We were sad that Cori and Eddie weren't able to come.

We had a fun-packed evening with a hoola hoop contest, pin-the-tail-on-the-pony, hot horse shoe (hot potato using a real horse shoe courtesy of Dory and Gravano), pizza and cake.
Ava Claire and Kyle playing pin-the-tail-on-the-pony.
Madelyn, Bella, Kaiky and Josie play hot horse shoe.

Cabin Fever

For fear of sounding like a broken record, (and also to think that my kids don't even know what a record is...yikes) I won't say it's cold here again. But it is. So the kids are getting pretty stir crazy and we're doing pretty much anything for fun.
This weekend Kaiky did a lot of drawing on her new dry erase board she got from Ashley's birthday party.


She drew her "best horse ever", which definitely required some photos. And then we took turns drawing on the board. I could only come up with a lame drawing of a teddy bear. Amazing how the use of computers "deleted" my drawing abilities!

Big snow

We still have a lot of snow since it's been so cold here. Today is our first day, in 18 days, that we will reach a temperature above freezing.

Looking ahead...and cringing.

At the end of last summer, I took some "Random outdoor shots" for you all to see, and for all of us to refer back to as I hopefully do some gardening this spring.

Well, I have some new, not-so-random shots that were taken during the last few months. Now I understand why there is a lack of gardening and some other weird landscaping quirks — especially in the back yard.

Since the time I took those nice, sunny outdoor shots, I worked my booty off to move some of my favorite perennials from the old house to this new yard. Now you can imagine my disappointment to see this:


Yeah. That's the entire back yard under about 2 feet of water. This seems to be a regular occurrence. It first happened in September (not shown) when we felt the effects of Hurricane Ike via serious rainfall. We had to pump the water out of the back yard for days.
This time (shown here) I got to brave borderline freezing temps to get the pump going, only to find that the hose was blocked by ice. So after a while of wading around in icy water and wrestling the frozen hose, I got the back yard pumped out a little bit. After 24 hours, the temps dipped below freezing and we had to stop the pump. I can't wait for all of that to melt and end up in the basement again.
But you see where my little garden peninsula is...sigh.

Christmas Day 2008

Better late than never!

Yes, I am way behind. Christmas is all packed away until next year but not forgotten.

First, I thought I was going to be way-cool and have this nice little video all ready for an "Overseas Christmas Wish", but in my usual fine-fashion, I blew it. Better late than never!



Christmas was fun, we spent Eve at Grandma's with Mikey, Allison and Madison. Kaiky adores Madison and enjoyed the time they spent together. Both Kaiky and Madison love books.


Every year, the kids worry that we won't get home from Grandma's before Santa goes over our area. So when we get home, the kids are total wrecks — running around trying to get their pajamas on and get in bed so Santa doesn't skip our house. So this year, the kids got their jammies on at Grandma's house.