He's too scary

While at the store and wanting to keep the peace - oh, and lessen the load of my purse - I allowed each boy to have 2 turns at the prize-winning contraption (aka Claw Machine). You know, something like this....

I was assisting Jackson with his second failed attempt when Kian took his turn, putting his coin-inserting skills to the test. Once I realized he'd started his side of the game, I ran over and tried to help him get whichever toy seemed possible with only 12 second left on the clock. Much to my surprise, that pesky little claw grabbed ahold of the creature pictured below. Just as we thought it was another failed attempt, the claw somehow looped one of its hooks into the little circle his hand forms, and we'd won. WooHoo! I have never been so lucky as to win something out of one of these machines. I guided Kian to the retrieval door and let him pull out his prize. He was surveying his winnings while Kyle and I stood by, in disbelief. As this was happening, I hear Kian say, "Put him back. He's too scary. I don't like it." Then he shoved Santa Taz back in the door and walked away. He didn't (and still doesn't) want anything to do with this guy. Jack looked over and gave me the "I'll take it" look. Let's just say Jack is quite pleased. Here's the scary guy...

until next time...lc

You can't go wrong with...

Crockigator. At least that's what Kian calls them. Too cute!

until next time...lc

Pancake Breakfast

We haven't had a pancake breakfast in quite some time, so in honor of our beloved Indianapolis Colts we had horseshoe-shaped pancakes. Jackson wasn't feeling the best, so he spent the majority of his time coloring in the book Nana P gave him for Halloween versus eating breakfast. He did so at the table, so we were happy with that.

until next time...lc

Unveiling The Fruits of Indiana's Taxpayers' Investments

Yesterday, the new Indianapolis International Airport terminal hosted a Community Day during which the public was invited to take self-guided tours of the new airport terminal! It was a pretty exciting day, and we all had a great time, thanks to Mommy's planning of the event. A little family tension aside - due, in part, to a certain big brother's decision not to nap earlier in the day - we really enjoyed seeing the results of all the hard work and investment put in to building this new facility. We even got to explore the guts of the baggage-handling area, where your luggage is unloaded from your plane and carted over to the appropriate baggage claim carousel. It was cool as all get out to get to see the inner-workings of the operation! Here's a slideshow of the pictures we took during the tour...



And, here's a video of this art piece (I think that's what it is, anyway) that's hanging between the garage and the entryway to the terminal. We only noticed it on our way out, so we're unsure if we were just in too much of a hurry, going in, to see it, or if it was only activated after we'd finished our tour. Either way, it was pretty neat!

(K)

Pumpkin Patchin'

Well, we've managed to do it again - our family, along with Ryan, Miss, Ethan, Dylan and Sara - hit Beasley's Orchard last weekend for the opening weekend of their annual Apple Festival. It's a 4-year-strong tradition we've established to get out to the festival, take a hayride out to their pumpkin patch, and pick out our respective families' pumpkins. We also typically take in the orchard's other offerings - apples, popcorn, cider, music, puppet shows and various craft and food stuffs. It's always a blast to get everyone together and take in all the harvest colors and goods! The boys always enjoy themselves, as do we adults. It makes me proud to have gotten this family outing organized, and revisited each year - hopefully we'll keep it running for many more to come.

Here are some pictures we took...thanks, especially, to Sara, who took over photography duties for Laura and I. Sis, you really took some great pictures for me to play with and put up here - THANK YOU!!!!

(K)

C.L.E.A.M. (Cash Lies Everywhere Around Me) Get the Money, Dolla Dolla Bills Ya'll

For someone with such horrific natural vision (my eyesight is -50000/20, or something), I can spot cash laying on the side of the road as I drive by it...literally.

Wednesday night, we were leaving day care, and as we crossed over an intersection, I spied something green and papery in the corner of the yard out my window to the right. Seconds after getting through the intersection, I told Laura to stop the car, that I'd seen money out on the road. She scoffed at me, but pulled over. I ran over to the spot where I'd seen the money lying, and, sure enough, it was a $5 bill.

Laura asked me how much I'd found this year - I didn't realize it was $45 until she asked about it. She went on to say that I'd better stop finding money on the ground, or I was going to have to start reporting it as taxable income.

(K)

Misc.

Not sure what to title this one. Kyle and I were discussing last week one day as we were taking the boys to daycare that we only have 2 free weekends until next year. Granted, there's still 3 months left, but we have something going on what seems like all of the time. I think to myself that we are someone insane for rushing around like we do, but when we do have time to sit around and relax, the boys continue at full speed ahead, not allowing us to sit and enjoy some free time. I guess it only makes sense to keep forging ahead.

Take for example the weekend we're coming off of. Friday evening was met with dinner on the run, followed by shopping for some last minute things for our pictures today. Oh, and getting some fall/winter clothes for Jack since it seems like he's growing out of everything we saved from last year. Saturday morning we actually slept in until 715am. What a relief. Good thing, since we had a busy day planned. We went over to watch the Ben Davis Center Grove Freshman football game. Mark emailed me last week and let me know that he and Molly would be coming up to watch Jon play. We had a great time catching up with them even though it felt like it was 2 degrees outside. Shortly after the first quarter ended, we left for Jackson's soccer game. He played better than ever. He improves more and more as the weeks pass, but yesterday's game was case in point. He played great defense and really enjoyed himself. Too bad someone skipped out on snack duty though. Oh well, just after that, we headed over to Cajuns Cafe for a quick bite to eat. Sara met us at Jack soccer game and had lunch with us too. It was great to have some time to spend with her. Once lunch was wrapped up we stopped by Target and then went out to Beasley's Orchard for our annual pumpkin pickin' event with the Campbell's. We met up with Ryan, Melissa and their boys. We had a great time as usual. (We'll get those pictures posted one day, I promise.) After a short nap at home, we went to the grocery store, picked up a pizza for dinner and came home for a camp-in in the living room. The boys watched The Simpson's movie and eventually fell asleep on their air mattress. We all 4 ended up in our bed this morning. Kian and I ran a few errand this morning while Kyle and Jack did the yard work, ate some lunch, grabbed a short nap and then went to Forest Park in Noblesville for our family pictures. We had a rocky start with Jack, but he turned his frown upside down when we told him that we would buy him a new football, give him $5 and let him pick where we ate dinner. Hey, who said bribery doesn't work? He was quite the ham after about 15 minutes and posed like a champion. We look forward to getting the CD back with all of our photos. Angela, our photographer was completely awesome! I'll have to ask her to link her website on here so she can get some more credit. She did a great job catching the boys' expressions and attitudes even though they both seem to want to go in different directions. Oh, and the park we went to (her suggestion) was awesome! They even had a carousel for us to enjoy. What a way to top off our weekend. We ended up driving home around 7pm. Jack fell asleep on the way and went straight to bed. Kian on the other hand continued to be the challenge he always is. We still love him nonetheless.

I haven't mentioned on here before either that I've accepted a PT position at the Clarian West Medical Center in the HR department. I'm going to continue at Simon for a while working PT as well. So long as I wake up and go to the right place on each given day, I'm doing well. It was a difficult decision to leave Simon, but I think it'll pay off as time goes along. I've hesitated saying anything on here mostly because it seems so official when you put it in writing, even though I've been doing it for 3 weeks now.

I have about 200 other thoughts running through my head now, but I know I'm only going to ramble if I continue typing. And Kyle is making some fresh salsa and my eyes are watering from whatever it is he's putting into it. I have to stop or I'll likely be crying here soon. I'll get more family stuff up and pictures posted as soon as time allows.

until next time...lc

Kian's 2nd Birthday Party

We're a little behind in posting, so there may be more pictures than words for this post. We had Kian's birthday party at our house last weekend. He asked daily leading up to his party, "It my Birthday Party day?" He was a little upset when we told him the Wednesday of that week that it was Kyle's birthday. Oh well, he understand more as he gets older. All he really wanted for his birthday was a cupcake. He was quite pleased when he was rewarded with one. Enjoy the photos. Also, thanks to everyone who came and enjoyed the day with us.

The morning of, we were finishing up the cupcakes. This was a failed attempt on my part to make strawberry icing. Kian did not mind one bit as he rather enjoys licking the beater from the mixer. He was on quite the sugar high all morning. Thank goodness we had lots to do as he ran off the sugar.

Everyone started arriving during his nap time. Here he is with his Uncle Joe getting in a last minute snack.
Lots of presents. He opened the first one and would have been more than happy with stopping there so he could play with it. He finally caught on to the fact that ALL of the presents were for him and he could keep going.

A (not so great) pic with Jack.

And the long awaited cupcake. We forgot to practice blowing out the candle. We talked about darn near everything else that would go on that day, but failed to do this one. Oh well, he still enjoyed the attention. He even sang to himself. How sweet!

Here's a picture of one of the cupcakes. I made strawberry cupcakes with chocolate syrup icing. YUMMY! We all love them. The icing was literaly the icing on the cake, even though it was a cupcake. Super delicious!

until next time...lc

Birthday Buddies

Kian and his cousin Mel share the same birthday. Jack likes to refer to them as "Birthday Twins". He's starting to become more aware of relationships and tries to apply his knowledge whenever possible.


Kian and Mel will always have a special bond due to this, but I don't think they'll mind. We were off to Mel's party on their actual birthday, but stopped to celebrate our family meal at El Rodeo on the trip down. Oh, and that was only after we went to Jackson's soccer game the morning of. We've been quite busy here lately, cramming everything possible into our schedule. The boys love the hustle and bustle all while Kyle and I lose more and more sleep. Oh well, we will catch up on that sleep one of these days. Until then, we'll just have to learn to live it up!



I just realized that we failed to take a picture of Mel and Kian together. We'll have to put that on the list for next year.


Even though Kian and I are attached most of the time, we don't have many pictures together. Here's a decent one.

Papaw Hop was so nice to sit with Kian as he ate some birthday cake and ice cream. Oh, and he made sure Kian had ever bit of icing possible. This included letting him stick his finger in the cake prior to it being cut. Sorry Mel! I wasn't sure this was the best idea since we had a 2.5 hour drive back home, but he passed out within 5 minutes. Thankfully he slept the entire trip home. Not a fun drive with all of the storms we encountered.

A silly picture of the girls surrounding the cake. (L to R: Katy, Brooklyn, Mel & Sydney)

Jackson and Bo are very good buddies. They grew quite close last summer when Jacob spent the summer with us. It seems as though they always pick up right where they left off. And that usually involves being silly!


Jack grabbed the camera to capture a few pictures as well. Here's one of the birthday girl with her mother, father and cousin Sydney.

We had a great time at your party Mel and look forward to many more.

until next time...lc

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Another year has passed, however we are so happy to have you as part of our lives. Jackson, Kian and I are extremely lucky that you are such a great husband, daddy and friend. We could not ask for anything more.

I know you are a little sad that it's your birthday....

but we all age as the years pass on. So smile, life is short.

That's more like it.

We cherish each day we have with you and look forward the years to come. Your hugs warm our hearts and keep us safe.

Whatever the occasion, we love to have you by our sides sharing each and every moment with us.

So, here's to many more birthdays to come.

Lots of love,

Laura, Jackson & Kian

2 Happens

I'm stealing the title of this blog from what's printed on a t-shirt we bought for Kian as one of his second birthday presents. We've developed a bit of a tradition, ordering the boys cutely-sloganed shirts memorializing their birthdays, and Kian's, this year, says "2 Happens."

So, our baby turned 2 today (or, at the time I'm writing this, technically, yesterday). We're learning more and more just what a different - but, of course tremendously special and amazing - person Kian is from his brother. Jack is generally pretty easy-going, follows direction and discipline pretty well. Kian can be a bit more hard-headed and driven about the things he wants to do, even when he fully recognizes mom or dad do not approve. Quite honestly, we sometimes wonder if the boy has a compliant bone in his body. He's also much more of a mama's boy than Jack's proven to be. Kian has to know where Laura is most any moment she's not in his immediate field of vision.

None of these are bad things, at all, simply nuances of his personality we're still learning to manage and understand. He's definitely his own little person, and he's just as thrilling and exciting a person to be around as Jack is. We've been so unbelievably fortunate to parent these amazing, articulate, and intelligent children; and, Kian reinforces those fortunes with every minute he graces us with his presence.

Happy birthday, big boy...your journey's really picking up steam now!

(K)