Officer Joey

I love the way Joey's mind works. He is so analytical (maybe he gets that from me???), but he's also very creative. He often is making up inventions and games.

This day he dressed himself up exactly like his build-a-bear, Officer Pete.

Adorable. :)

piano recital

Joey had his first piano recital this past weekend. He just started taking piano lessons in August, so it's been fun to watch him get better. He seems to really enjoy it too!

That's his sweet piano teacher standing behind him, Mrs. Linda.

And here's a video of one of Joey's piano pieces that he played...

 



Joey piano recital from Michelle Manthe on Vimeo.

dressing up

Joe and I had our small group Christmas party on Sunday. We were supposed to wear "ugly" Christmas sweaters. Thankfully, we were able to borrow some from one of Joe's co-workers. It was a fun night!

These two girls love to dress alike. Since Norah wears mostly hand-me-downs from Kylah, they don't often get to match. But every once in a while I get them something matching, and they love it. I love it too! (but not enough to go buy a whole new wardrobe...)



Don't they look so sweet (and mischievous...)

Christmas parade

We had our town Christmas parade on Saturday. Joey got to walk with his school's float and hand out candy. He was pretty excited to be a part of the parade.

Kylah was supposed to walk with her school, too, but decided at the last minute that she really wanted to see all of the floats. Since she would have had to walk a long way, I think it was a great decision! (and I'm not sure why Norah looks like a little hoodlum...)

I thought it was a really fun parade, and the weather was beautiful!

decorating

On Sunday night after we had gotten home from Nebraska (and had a nap!), we went and got a Christmas tree. I love having a real tree, and Joe complies. :)

 

The kids are always so excited to hang their ornaments on the tree. We have a hodge-podge of handmade ornaments and store bought ornaments. I love it. 

I gave the kids free reign this year to put the ornaments wherever they wanted. Joey was pretty good about dispersing them around the tree.

 

Norah hung all of hers pretty much in the same spot.

Kylah got to put the star on top of the tree this year. 

I've been a little slower to get in the Christmas spirit this year for some reason, but I've been playing Christmas music nonstop and enjoying looking at the lights on our Christmas tree, so I'm getting there! Unfortunately I haven't done any shopping...

 

I am enjoying an Advent book we are doing as a family the month of December called Unwrapping the Greatest Gift. Meredith bought the book for her family to do too, so we are enjoying knowing the Adairs are doing it with us while they're in Australia!

Thanksgiving 2014

We had a fun time in Nebraska over Thanksgiving. All of my brothers and their families and my parents met at my uncle's house in Fremont. Him and my aunt have a great old house that we can all fit in. It's cozy with all of us there but so fun!

 

On our way to Fremont we stopped for a night with the Nunamakers.

The kids had so much fun playing together, and we adults got in plenty of games of Settlers!

I can't believe how big Joey and Logan are now!

On Wednesday we headed to my aunt and uncle's house. We enjoyed a laid back day of playing games and relaxing.

 

I think we had 33 people around the tables for Thanksgiving dinner. Chaotic but fun!

Here the kids are waiting for their turn to say what they're thankful for.

I love my mama!

Papa was able to get the kids out back for a while and get a game of tag going. 

I did a lot of snuggling with my kiddos and nieces. I think this snuggle was after a nice nap Norah and I had just taken. :)

We love having little babies around again. Mia wasn't a big fan of Joe. I think she cried every time he looked at her! He was trying to get on her good side here...

The boys love their Papa (I think the feeling is pretty mutual!)

There were iPads and Kindles played for countless hours. I'm not a fan of it because I think it makes our kids just want to play them more and more and not be creative, but they were on vacation too, so they got a good amount of time playing them. 

It was so good to see my grandma (Nona to the great grandkids)

Kylah got lots of snuggles with her daddy.

My cousins both have girls that are older. My little girls LOVED playing with these older girls, and they were so sweet to my little girls. 

Sweet Olivia.

I love Mia's chubby, squishy cheeks!

Luca was teaching Nona a thing or two about the Kindle. 

I think my mom had a baby in her arms at all times. :)

 

The weather was beautiful the last day we were there, so the kids actually spent quite a bit of time outside. Uncle Pete put all the kids to work cleaning up sticks and leaves in his backyard. 

 

My dad made some fabulous pizza the last night we were there. Luca was his helper.

My friend Sarah stopped by to see us on Saturday night. Her little daughter Berkely is the same age as Norah and they are so fun to watch together. 

It was so good to see them!

This was just a highlight of our fun time over Thanksgiving. You can imagine how chaotic it gets with that many people in one house, but I love the chaos and family all around. We played lots of games and had lots of good chats. And of course, the food was fabulous.

We were thankful to get home on Sunday and enjoy a little less chaos and quiet (well, as quiet as three kids can be...)

 

When we got home on Sunday afternoon the kids of course asked if they could play the Kindle, phone, or watch of movie. The answer was N-O! We told them to go play together.

They set up this whole double wedding ceremony with their animals. Joey was the pastor. It was adorable. I do love when they are creative!

loving on our kids

I love that my kids have grandparents and aunts and uncles that love them and want to spend time with them.

A few weeks ago, Joe's parents were heading down to Hot Springs to help James do some work on his house. They knew Joey and Kylah had school, so they asked if they could stop and pick up Norah and take her with them. Of course! Norah was thrilled that she got to go, although she was a little confused at first why she was the only kid going. She got over that quickly, and realized how fun it is to be the only kid with 2 grandparents, a great aunt, 2 uncles and 2 aunts for four days. Yeah, I'm pretty sure she got whatever she wanted. :) She had a great time!

And then, this past weekend, I met Joe's mom halfway to Kansas City so she could take all three of our kids for a few days until we head up to Nebraska for Thanksgiving. So Joe and I have had three days of absolute silence and kid-less bliss. Of course we miss our little people, but we have enjoyed every minute of being in our own home without kids and without a schedule!

 

Meanwhile, the kids loved their time in Kansas. They got to spend time with Nana and Grandpa as well as their uncles, aunts and cousins. 

Norah even got to have a sleep over at Naomi's house twice! 

So cute!!

So, I think I am officially caught up on the blog! Yay!!!

 

We are going to spend Thanksgiving in Nebraska with the Manes family, which should be a ton of fun and chaotic (how all good family gatherings are!) :)

Hopefully I won't get quite as far behind on the blog next time!

the poor Pilot

I got in my first car accident a few weeks ago. I had all three kids with me on my way to school in the morning. I rear ended someone after she cut me off and slammed on her breaks. Thankfully there was an off duty police officer that witnessed the whole thing, and the accident report corroborates my story that it wasn't my fault! Our poor Pilot is having to get a whole new front end.

 

And I am so thankful that neither the kids nor I was hurt at all.

My friend Leigh's daughter had a dream the night before our accident that someone they loved was going to be in a terrible car accident. (In her dream there was a dolphin in the car that died in the car accident.) Her daughter couldn't get it out of her mind and couldn't sleep because she kept worrying about it. Leigh spent time praying with her daughter that night and covering all of their family and friends with prayer for safety. I don't think it was a coincidence. Amazing how God can work through an 8 year old girl's prayers!

 

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Have I mentioned that I love working part-time. Not only do I get to spend quality time with Norah on my days off, I also get to spend time with Joey and Kylah at their school, having lunch, going on field trips and doing other activities.

 

Last week they had a Turkey Trot at their school during the day. They were raising money for the school, and everyone got to run and see how many laps they could do in 10 minutes. Joey, of course, was fast and wanted to see how many he could do. He did 9!

Kylah did awesome too and got 7! She was so cute out there running with a smile on her face.

Norah ran with Kylah with all the 1st graders. It was so cute watching her little legs run. She completed 4.5 laps! I was pretty impressed with her determination!

the Royals

Since Joe grew up in Kansas City, he is a BIG Royals fan (actually I have given him quite a bit of grief that I didn't know he was such a big Royals fan until this season when they happened to do well. I think the words band-wagon-fan may have come out of my mouth. He says he has always been a fan, but they are never good and never on TV so he doesn't normally get to cheer them on...)

Anyway, baseball was on a lot at our house while the Royals made their way to the World Series. Joey also became quite the Royals fan. We let him stay up a few times to watch the late games. He loved it. 

A few times he didn't quite make it through the whole game. 

We watched Game 7 of the World Series at the Adair house. It was a fun night even though our Royals came up a little short!

 

Speaking of the Adair's...we are going to miss them while they are in Australia. My kids have already wondered aloud how they are ever going to last that many weeks without having their best friends around. We assured them that they would survive. And how awesome that they get to explore the world and then come tell us about it!

We will miss our Adair's though!

family time

Kylah has finally learned to ride her bike without training wheels! We are so proud of her! It took our best friends' four year old learning before Kylah actually got the urge to learn, but once she decided she wanted to learn, she did it very quickly!

On the last day before the weather turned cold, I took Joey and Kylah on a bike ride on the trails by our house. Kylah did awesome out on the trails for the first time. At first she would stop every time we came upon someone coming the opposite direction (I don't think she trusted that they weren't going to run into her!) But soon I got her to realize that if we stay on the right and they stay on the right, then there was room for everyone. :)

Fun times!

Soon after this warm day, the weather turned cold. We got about an inch of snow or less a few weeks ago. The kids were all over that. The best snow had accumulated on the trampoline, so they had a blast playing on that!

Poor little Norah had been sick, so she was stuck inside with me and Joe. She was so sad watching the big kids from the window and wanting to be outside with them.



Thankfully Norah was back to her normal (ornery) self after a few days.

 

I love that my kids love to play games. Norah loves being a "big" kid too, so she loved that Joey and Kylah played Memory with her and she got to do it all by herself. She held her own too!

We also love that the kids are getting big enough to play some adult board games with us. Joe taught Joey how to play Settlers (our favorite game right now!). Kylah was on my team. All she wanted to do was buy ore! Joey really got it, though, and loved knowing he was playing a game we loved. I think when Josh and Val are home next time there will be a big Settlers game!

Speaking of games... Joe took Joey to a birthday party a few weeks ago. Joe doesn't love taking our kids to other kids' birthday parties. But, he was surprised with how fun this laser tag birthday party was. He got to play the whole time too. Him and Joey had a blast!