Dark Ages

Well, we completed the move.  And everyone is alive.  Every THING isn't necessarily alive anymore (we had a whole box of glass casualties) but all in all I would rate the move as a success.  We had a TON of help and I am ever so thankful.  Even if it meant inappropriate pictures being taken in my fresh new lovely home (Matt I'm talking to you).  If you haven't noticed though the blog has been suffering, that is because I have been living in the Dark Ages.  I gave Chad one task (as far as utilities go) and that was to set up Cable and Internet as he is the more picky of the two of us.  It took him approximately 2 weeks to complete said task.  You see Chad has a cell card on his computer and gets the Internet wherever/whenever he wants.  So his sense of urgency was a weeeee bit different than mine.  I could honestly go without the TV, but the Internet…that was starting to kill me.

Anyway, thought I would start my return with just a FEW pictures of the house.  PRIOR to move in, you know when it was shiny, new and CLEAN.  Perhaps one day when we have furniture and stuff I'll bore you with more pictures, when you can actually tell what the pictures are supposed to be!  I took a bunch of pictures honestly but with no furniture in them you can't distinguish a family room from a bedroom so I'll spare you all of those.  It's your lucky day!

And here are the things we are loving right now:

1.  When you ask Nolan what his favorite part of the new house is he quickly responds with "The basement, I can ride my bike down there".  (it's the little things in life people)

2. Bennett's favorite part is just running.  Running around the island in the kitchen, running from the playroom to his room and then back again, running through the jack and jill bathroom from his room to Nolan's.  You get the idea…running running running!

3.  My favorite part of the house is all the closests…don't open them but I assure you they are amazing!

4.  I don't know what Chad's favorite part of the house is yet, I would say his "office" but he is currently working on a folding table and I'm not sure that was the dream he had for himself!

The Day we moved I was talking to Nolan in the car about the move and this about sums it up in Nolan's eyes..."We don't live with Grandma anymore, but I still love her".  I couldn't say it better  myself Nolan, thanks Mom and Dad for letting us "hang out" for a few months.  I know we kind of rocked your world, but we thought it would be some good quality time with the grandkids before you move.  Do you think they agree?  

Party of 1

We are in the middle of moving and there is A LOT going on around here.  But there is always room for a little Dance Party.  Am I right?  Even if it's a Party of 1!  I couldn't decide which video I liked better so you get both.  He has got some killer moves, and they just keep getting better.  Please note the STELLAR outfit that went along with this.  Sometimes I wish we'd just go back to that awful Tie-Dyed shirt that he wouldn't take off!!  Happy Friday!!

She'll Miss Us

Well moving day is closing in on us, and though my Mom probably has a hidden countdown calendar I do think she will miss us a LITTLE bit.  Here is one of my (and most certainly her) fondest memories of our time here.  Bare with me, it may not be that exciting of a story but it's something I don't want to forget.

This is the ritual that takes place EVERY NIGHT.  Every night the boys get a bath (well most nights anyway).  When Nolan gets out of the bath he puts on his monster hooded towel (or whatever hooded towel is clean) and runs to whatever room my mom is in.  He then proceeds to stand at the doorway with just his "claw" showing on the door and the following conversation transpires:

Grandma:  OH NO, not the claw!

Nolan:  Roooooooooooooar! (running in all monster like)

Grandma: Oh no it's a monster!

Nolan:  It's not a monster...it's just your naked grandson 

(as he drops his towel to the floor and streaks away)

It loses some luster via blog, but I assure you it's adorable.  Now if my mom doesn't miss him for that little act she will definitely miss him because he says sweet things like this too:  "I don't like that girl in the kitchen (pointing to my Mom)…I Love her".  Seriously he's so darn cute, you know when he's not being so darn bad.

The Curse

It's official, we have an issue with a curse. "The Curse of the Shower".  Sounds scary right? Well, it kind of is.  My friend Lori was expecting a girl in February, well Miss Payton decided to make her way into the world 13 weeks early so she arrived in November.  She has had some struggles (inclusive of a surgery already) and remains in the NICU but is fighting hard and making some successful strides.  Her story so far is nothing short of a miracle, however while she is making positive strides she still needs lots of prayers headed her direction.  So if you are reading this I ask you to do just that, say a little Prayer for Miss Payton.  She is the sweetest thing you will ever see, all 2lbs 12oz of her!

So you are probably still wondering about "the curse of the shower".  Well, when Lori was having her first baby we planned her shower and her son, Parker, decided to show up the week before (8 weeks early).  So now we planned this shower and Payton decided to show up the week before (13 weeks early).  SOOOOOOO, next time Lori is having a baby we are totally scheduling the sprinkle for AFTER her due date.  Superstitious or not, I think it's worth a shot.

So our shower turned into more of a celebration of Payton, since she is already here.  It was full of PINK PINK PINK and even included a headband making station.  SURELY some beauties that Lori can't wait to put on her cute little head ;)  I mean they've got to look better on her than Jessie at least!

Welcome to the world Miss Payton, we are so very excited to have you and can't wait for you to break free of that hospital.  Keep fighting, you have a lot of people in your corner.

Carrie

That's right, we are on a first name basis around these parts with a big country star.  A couple of weeks ago we had a Girl's Night that landed us at the Carrie Underwood concert.  I love her.  I don't just like her, I like want to be her…bad.  Or at least make her my friend, is that so much to ask?  Most of you may not know that she was also a Tri-Sigma sooooo technically we are "sisters."  Top that, nope I bet you can't.  God I'm awesome.

Here's the crew before we left…

And here comes Carrie…(insert screams)

Here we have Kim and I enjoying our adult beverages simply because we're the only ones that can at this point AND it's fun to rub it in a little.

At one point Carrie was on a floating stage which was pretty cool, and she was ALMOST close to us.  One thing I did notice that I thought was a little weird was her tendency to do a lot of waving to the crowd.  And people (uh hum…Rachael) actually wave back like Carrie was waving JUST to them.  Silly people.  Silly Rachael.

And the BIG finale.  "Blown Away" of course, and it kind of looks like she is actually being blown away here.  Just like we were with your performance Carrie :)

 

The Innkeeper

Last night Nolan had his Preschool Christmas Program. I had NO IDEA what to expect from this little production. Nolan didn't talk too much about it and we didn't get much information from the teacher either. Up until the night before I didn't even realize Nolan had ACTUAL LINES! Oh brother! So we show up to school and Nolan is in RARE form. I mean bouncing off the walls times 100.  You know the embarrassing behavior where it looks like you can't control your kid but you can't really "yell" at them either because you are in a very public christian place. Yep that was us. And here is what I was dealing with.  Cute…yes.  Embarrassing…yes.  Punished for his behavior…we tried.

So here is the actual footage (Thanks Mom, turns out I hadn't really figured out my video camera yet and THOUGHT I was taping this part but really wasn't…fail).  

You need to listen REALLY closely when it comes to Nolan's turn, he does indeed say his lines he just says them in a kind of ummmmm strange way.  Turns out Nolan is the class clown and I TOTALLY did not see that coming.  We've got issues.

Here were his actual lines...

What, you don't think this "Innkeeper" looks like he knows what he's doing?

Let me set the stage (get it) a little bit for these next pictures/video.  We showed up about 45 minutes early for this little show, and that is SO NOT ME.  Usually I'm the one rushing in 5, okay 10, minutes after it starts.  Well as it turns out 45 minutes early gets you a seat in the front row.  Well of course this paparazzi mom didn't mind that seat one bit.  I even had a chance to "practice" on the Kindergarten class and get my settings all lined up and I was P-U-M-P-E-D.  That is until they decided to move the preschoolers up and they were literally almost standing on my feet.  Wah Wah.  Perfect picture opportunity ruined.  So I apologize for the shots up these kids nostrils AND the loud shouting singing that may or may not puncture your eardrums.  But even as an extreme very loud close-up this could not have been any cuter.  Nolan and his buddy Jacob stole the show (I thought) and were singing their little hearts out!  Oh, and another lesson learned…a tie is seen merely as another prop to a 4 year old.  Preschoolers wearing a tie definitely goes on the "Do Not Recommend List".

And Nolan's fan club...

 

Better than Medicine

Mr. B has been under the weather for a couple of days.  I'm talking the kind of under the weather where we took him to a restaurant and he puked all over the floor (and Chad) kind of under the weather.  Who's jealous they weren't out to dinner with this crew?  Check please! 

It seems that the only place he really wanted to be was in someone's arms, which is rare for this active little dude.  One of his favorite spots was in his brother's arms and it was oh so sweet.  However, while I pray for a future full of plentiful sharing, I do pray that this virus is not something Bennett shares with Nolan.  But I sure am glad Nolan shared some extra love with Bennett these few days, totally scored him some Big Brother points in my book (and Bennett's).  

Overruled

My brother and sister in law came in town to celebrate Thanksgiving and asked if I could snap a few pictures of my nephew Cy.  Well of course I will, only problem…turns out Cy likes pictures about as much as my kids do (sorry Sharon, must be a Kuntz trait…and it's strong).  BUT I'm in luck, this kid can't move yet so he's kind of like my prisoner.  Therefore we were able to get a few totally adorable pictures before he was completely done with me.  

I'm starting with one of my favorite pictures mainly because it will probably make my brother mad, and believe it or not…that's still fun to me.  Geoff HATED this hat that Cy is wearing.  It's a hat that I bought to take a picture of Bennett in, but we all know how hats and Bennett go…they don't.  So I took  this as my opportunity to use the hat and I think Cy looks absolutely adorable (as I believe most of you will agree).  So sorry Geoff you have been overruled because it's my blog and I can do what I want.

Perhaps

I'm thinking maybe, just perhaps, Bennett wanted some Cheez Its.  I mean is that too much to ask?  Oh wait, he didn't ask he just decided to help himself.  I guess I should be happy, I mean at least he is self sufficient.  Right?  I feel like I say this a lot but here it goes again...good thing he's cute, or Chad might want to get rid of him like he wants to get rid of the dog!

Hold On A Second

Last week I spent my Friday morning with a new baby in town, Mr. Rocco.  And my goodness was he precious.  I'll tell you what though, this kid (much like his parents) does not want to miss a beat.  I don't think he slept a wink until I was walking out the door (except for one split second where I think I got a long blink to look like sweet slumber).  I have to tell you when I first talked to Katie I asked what kind of pictures we were doing…just the baby, the whole family, a little of both?  She responded with something like "I don't know, I guess we should be in a couple."  You better bet that if I were her, and looked like she does two weeks after giving birth my response would have been something more like "hold on a second while I go put on my bikini real quick."  My Mom always told me life wasn't fair, and I believe these were just the moments she was referring to.  Here is a sneak peak of their pictures and the AWESOME room that Rocco gets to claim as his own.

And just because we are in the midst of the hustle and bustle of the Holiday Season we threw a Santa Hat on him for good measure.  I believe he is "dreaming pondering a white Christmas"