A Kick to the Wingdings is No Way to Start the Morning...

Today, on our typically-protracted exit to the car on the way to daycare, Jack and Kian were having a bit of an argument over who could carry out the sharks and who could carry out the alligator. They both knew they'd have the toy animals for no longer than the ride over to day care, but that mattered not to the 2 most stubborn humans on earth.

In any event, Jack yanked back on his alligator, only to have Kian make an attempt to slap him. When Jack dodged just enough to allow Kian's hand to breeze by him unscathed, he got overly-saucy and decided to smack Kian in the butt as he walked away, giving up on the situation. After Jack landed that blow, Kian just spun around, walked right up into Jack's face, and kicked him in the crotch!

Jack dropped to the ground like a sack of sand, and began whining immediately. Laura and I did the, "OH-CRAP-STIFLE-LAUGHTER-ENOUGH-TO-MAKE-DISCIPLINARIAN-ROLE-BELIEVABLE" look at one another, then Laura asks, "Kian, did you just kick him in the peanuts?"

To which he flatly responded, "Yeah," before carrying on like nothing had happened.

(K)

Updating "Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow..." Post Below

Last weekend, I dragged Jackson outside with me while we had some relatively mild weather, so that we could try to rake up some of the leaves in our yard. This is the first year in which our tree, and our neighbors' trees, have been at a maturity level to drop enough leaves in our yard to justify a full-blown raking.

I was raking on the side of the house on which Laura posted, earlier, where the boys had lost their gray horse, when I felt a bit more resistance to my pull on the rake than I would've expected. I picked up the accumulated pile of leaves, and felt something bulky and heavy buried within - the gray horse!

The beautiful thing: I took it inside to Kian, and because he'd received enough farm animals to replace that horse ten-fold, since losing it, it was no big deal to him that it'd finally been recovered. Ha ha...glad we didn't go through any monumental efforts to find the thing!

(K)

Happy Birthday, Brook-A-Lynn!

It was Brook's big Third Birthday on Sunday. We got to party down and celebrate with her on Saturday night, and we were so excited to get to enjoy her day with her! She was absolutely adorable, showing everyone her age with her pinky, ring, and middle fingers on her hands. We had a great time, Brookie, thanks for inviting us to your party! Sorry we couldn't stay all night and help you celebrate it like the rock star you are!

(K)

And, Last, But Certainly, Not Least...Hoppy Christmas!

Well, here it is...the post for our final Christmas celebration. As you can probably tell, Christmas is clearly not all about a particular day for us - as is likely the case with you, and your family, and nearly every family these days. It's about getting together with your friends and/or loved ones, the people that make your life what it is, and the people that motivate you to get up each morning, draw in that first breath, and provide the literal and figurative motivation you need to walk out the door and face the tidal wave of bullpuckey each of us face in order to chisel out lives for ourselves.

Laura, the boys and I have been so fortunate, and so grateful, to have the people about whom we blog - and whose pictures you see below - to play such major parts in our lives. We couldn't do what we do day in and day out without each one of you contributing to us your wisdom, your heart and your joy.

With that, enjoy these pictures from our gathering with Steve and Tammy - Papaw and Nana Hop.

This present excited all of us, Jack just portrayed that excitement best - even if he did leave Laura hangin' for a sec. It's a year-long membership to the Indianapolis Childrens' Museum!

And, that's it...that's the end of our Christmas and New Year's celebration blogging. Sorry it was super drawn out, and took way longer than it should've. But, once and for all...

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, Everybody!

(K)

New Year's Eve with the Indiana Ice, Ryan, Miss, Ethan and Dylan

A few months ago, Laura got the opportunity to buy some discounted tickets to the New Year's Eve Indiana Ice game at Conseco Fieldhouse; so, I called Ryan to see if he wanted to bring the boys to the game with us. He agreed, and we all attended the game together.

There was a DisneyRadio promotion and concert going on, as well, and the band that was to perform was also asked to drop the ceremonial first puck of the game. These little 18 or 19 year old geeks went slip-sliding out to center ice, and Ryan tells Ethan to ask me, "Uncle Kyle, do you think those guys have on white belts?" If you don't get that, don't worry...it's funny, but not.

Anyway, the game was a thriller! The Ice went down by 4 goals, heading into the final period, then proceeded to score 5 goals to win the game! It sure sounded like an exciting comeback - I spent the entire 3rd period walking around the club-level concourse with ol' antsy-pants Kian who just refused to sit in the seat and enjoy the game. He wasn't even engaged by the fights (there were quite a few, actually) like the rest of us - somethin' ain't quite right with the boy. Ha ha ha...

Well, below are some pictures we took that night...enjoy!

Jack took these last 2 pictures. I like the kid pointing out the 5-year-old with the expensive camera in the first one (yeah, dude, I get a bit concerned by it, too, but he's proven to be capable of handling it without breaking it). Then, in the second one, you'll notice the little girl in the lower-left corner. Jack was flirting with that girl all night long. I think that's part of the reason he asked to borrow the camera - to capture a picture of her for posterity's sake! We're gonna have to watch it with this one!

(K)

A Homestyle Christmas - This is How We Do It

Not to insinuate that there's anything particularly special about the WAY in which we celebrate Christmas, but our time together is always special and fun. This has become our tradition - jet home at whatever hour we need to on Christmas Eve so that we ensure we all wake up at home to enjoy Christmas morning together as a family. Hopefully it's another tradition we'll be able to maintain for many years to come.

Our tree and the presents. This was actually taken Christmas Eve afternoon, after we'd gotten the boys into the car in preparation for the trip to Jasper. So, we cheated a little...sue us.

Jack came tearing into our bedroom (Kian had snuck into bed with us sometime through the night) and trying to quietly, but excitedly, wake us up to tell us a bunch of presents had just shown up under the tree. This is the boys running out to assess the situation.

Trying to determine to whom the presents should be given.

Let the ripping and opening commence!

One of Jack's requests for Santa this year was tennis racquets for he and I so we could play tennis together.

When Laura took the boys to Kiln Creations, they painted this pen and pencil holder for me to take to work! I love it! This little tidbit was conspicuously absent from Laura's blog post about their trip...sneaky!

Laura got a necklace from the boys, and a perfume/lotion/lip gloss gift set from me. I know she'll probably disagree, as this was like 7AM with no preparation, but this picture of her is outrageously cute.

Merry Christmas, Part Three! One more to go!

(K)

Up Next...Christmas with the First Group of Kiefers

So, here's Xmas, Part Two - our Christmas celebration with Laura's mom, brothers, sister, sisters-in-law, nieces and nephew. We always wish we could spend at least a day or two down in Jasper with our family there, but work schedules and our own family unit's Christmas celebration usually makes that a logistical impossibility. Oh well, we're happy we get to spend whatever time we get to spend with our family - be it an hour, or several days, like we were able to do in Tennessee. The boys adore their cousins, and the adults all get along quite well - it's usually a great time.

Kian picking on Aunt Adie's glasses (which, at Brooklynn's birthday party, he continued to do, and eventually popped the lenses out of her glasses) which we're going to have to break him of, post haste. Sorry, Adrienne!!!

Captain Goofball, Nolan.

Brook, Kian and Mel doing their best Gene Simmons impersonations. Now, to convince them not to make videos, later in life, that get spread around the internet...

Jackson excitedly opening the Eve to accompany his Wall-E toy.

Brook, Jack, Adalyn, Ashley and Nolan having fun.

It's usually in the third year that the kids lose all sense of propriety in opening presents, and begin to go into full-blown rip and reload mode, Ashley. Hang in there!

Nolan creeping out the baby.

Brook calculating the risk/reward of snatching something from Jack's present pile.

Mel got pretty jazzed over this one...I think maybe it was the American Doll set we got her?

Brook's thrilled with yet ANOTHER Dora-related toy...mom and dad, not so much.

EXTREME CLOSE-UP!!!! Hi Adalyn!

Katy and Matt

Way to be the odd-man-out, Joe. Two pretty girls' faces, then your mug.

Behind me snapping this picture, someone threw a whole pile of free bowling passes in the air, eliciting these reactions from J and Frank.

King Kian, Master of All He Surveys From His Poppa-San Chair.

Merry Xmas, Part Two! To Be Continued, again...

(K)

Have A Jolly Campbell Christmas

Alright, so it's finally time for me to get off my duff, edit some pictures, and throw these bad boys up on the blog. This is the first of a series of holiday-related posts that you'll see over the next day or so. I don't think I'll get to them all tonight, so consider the holiday blogging a work-in-progress.

This first set of pictures was from the get-together Laura and I hosted for my family: my brother and his family, my sister and her boyfriend, my uncles Chris and Steve, and my grandmother. This was a great night, although we missed my Aunt Jean, who was home, not feeling well. Of course, we really missed all our extended family, who weren't able to attend for various reasons, but we certainly enjoyed the time we were able to spend with everyone who could make it. Great food, great people, gifts all around - can't ask for much more!

Here's the table setting for dinner. We got out my grandma's Noritake China and her crystal glassware for the occasion. It was a gorgeous set-up, much fancier than we're accustomed to!

The homemade lasagna Laura prepared...this was OUT OF CONTROL! So good, I was rather upset with myself when I said, "Ah, yeah, one will be more than enough, we'd have too many leftovers if you baked two."

The troublemakers, at their table...notice the distinct lack of niceties in the dinnerware department here.

While this looks like Kian's in a mild state of shock over something going on, I actually just caught him mid-yawn.

AND LET THE SANTA'ING OF THE PRESENTS BEGIN!
If I remember correctly, here, Chris was asking Dylan how he felt about being duct taped to the wall... Still handing out presents.Sara and Dan eagerly await their bounty.
I'm sure one of the boys did something ridiculous here.

Ryan and his boys testing out the goods

Kian didn't nap all day, and was pretty active, so we knew he'd be in trouble when he started hitting the beers at like 4PM. At least he's wearing the properly-identifying t-shirt.

Ethan ended up staying over that night, so here's the boys in their typical sleeping arrangement. As you can see, Kian caught his second wind just in time to enjoy some popcorn and a movie!

Merry Xmas, Part One, Everybody!

(K)