Merry Christmas!

I have been extremely busy the last couple of months.  I totally missed posting about November.  We had a great November and a wonderful Thanksgiving with our whole family.  I also turned 39 in November, so maybe that is why I don't want to think too much about it :)

We have had a wonderful December so far as well.  The kids, Nero and I took a long weekend and went up to Michigan while Brian was working.  It was great to have some relaxing time at home when it wasn't a holiday.  I even got a chance to go see my Grandpa Krotzer.

We also had a chance to go to the lights at the zoo at the Toledo Zoo with Grandma Linda and Grandpa Butch.  Isaac wanted to see Santa so he and I stood in a long line and when we were about the 3rd family from seeing Santa he decided he had to use the bathroom.  I told him that I didn't think we had time to wait in line again.  He was very mature about it and said "That's okay, I already told Santa what I wanted."  We had luckily gone to see Santa the weekend before when the kids and I went shopping the weekend before.  I was very proud of how mature he was. 

Mackenzie has made a big change as well.  She has always gotten easily scared at movies and hasn't cared to watch them in the theater.  Even watching them at home she has to be able to run out of the room and hide in the hallway for a while.  When we were visiting Midland, "Big Hero 6" was released.  I asked the kids if they wanted to go see it and to my surprise Mackenzie wanted to go.  Issac spent the time in at Grandma's house and got some alone time with Grandma.  When we were back at home she and I went to see "Penguins of Madagascar".  She seems to be perfectly fine at the movies now, which I love!

Finally, and most importantly, Brian and my newest niece and nephew decided to join us all early.  They were born on the 18th.  Unfortunately they haven't gotten to go home yet.  Adriana is in a NICU in Saginaw and Gabriel is in a NICU in Ann Arbor.  Both are doing great.  Adriana is off all machines and there is talk of her going home this weekend.  Gabriel has only a feeding tube and that seems to be mainly precautionary because he had some damage to his esophagus after he pulled his initial feeding tube out and they tried to put it back in.  They think that Gabriel will be able to try eating on his own this weekend or early next week, once they are confident his esophagus has healed.  I have gotten to see Gabriel, and he is truly one of the cutest babies I have ever seen.  The NICU in Saginaw is a little more strick about visitors, so I have only seen pictures, but she looks equally adorable.  I can't wait until they are home and I can hold them!

Here is Adriana:

 

Here is Gabriel.  It is a little dark because he was sleeping and we didn't want to wake him:



Christmas has been great so far.  We aren't finished yet.  Brian and I got to see Michael and Gabriel on Christmas Eve and we are headed up to Midland tomorrow to see the rest of my family.  We spent yesterday with Brian's family.  The kids had a blast hanging out with their cousins and their new toys.  While we were waiting for everyone to arrive we had a little dance party.  Here are a couple of shots:

 

 

This morning we had Christmas at our house.  Mackenzie got a new purple bike and Isaac got Skylanders Swap Team from Santa.  Just what they asked for : )  In the picture below Isaac has his new spy gear on.  His cousin, Carson, had asked for a spy suitcase for Christmas.  The first one I ordered got damaged (by Isaac) and Isaac got it for Christmas.  It was a big hit with both of them.

 

Mackenzie's bike looks big, but we went to a bike shop and tried it out and she can touch the ground, just barely and she peddled it a bit and it seems to work well.  Plus it is great since we shouldn't have to replace it for a while.  It even has gears!  Isaac spent much of today playing his new Skylanders game. 

I will post some updates after our final Christmas celebration.  I hope that everyone has a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

October

October continued to be busy at our house.  We went apple and pumpking picking, as we always do in October.  I helped out with Misty's baby shower and Brian got ready to head to China.

The baby shower went well.  Misty had a great turnout and I think that everyone had a good time.  I have to find my camera to download pictures and once I find it I will post a few pictures.  Mackenzie was super excited about the baby shower and I think she enjoyed it.  She and Lexie helped me put the centerpieces together :

She mostly hung out with Lexie at the shower (she didn't even want to sit by me, sniff), but she did help me with some of the games and with passing out the prizes.  She was also there when I was setting stuff up for the games and doing a little decorating.  She helped put out the centerpieces and some of the game stuff that we put on the tables ahead of time. When we got back Isaac asked me when he and Dad were going to get to see the babies.  I told him we would all get to see them soon after Christmas, since they aren't due until January.  He had thought that Mackenzie and I got to go up for the baby shower and that the babies had been born and the boys didn't get to see them :)  Both kids are super excited to get to meet their new cousins.

I managed to finish Mackenzie's Elsa dress for Halloween.  It helped that Isaac wanted to be Iron Man and I decided there was no way I was going to make an Iron Man costume, so I bought his.  I volunteered in Isaac's class for their Halloween party.  I made kettlecorn for all of the kids and then helped Isaac's table put together their craft item.  Before the party started the school did a costume parade.  Here is Isaac's class waiting for the parade.  You can see Isaac with his back to me towards the front of the line as Iron Man:

Here is a better shot of Isaac in the parade:

Here are a couple shots of Mackenzie as Elsa (with Anna and her cat):

 

Brian is currently in China.  He gets back on Monday.  He told me that he is staying in a Chinese version of Disneyland.  I don't remember the name of the city, but I guess they built the city to look like an old Chinese city, so it isn't "authentic".  So far he has had no problems eating, which is good.

My mom came down to help me out earlier this week, which was awesome because work is quite busy right now since we are in the middle of open enrollment. The kids spent last night and Grandma Linda and Grandpa Butch's since I had an evening open enrollment session.  Thank God for grandparents!  Nero liked having Grandma Kathy around as well. 

He is a pretty happy dog:

I am a Slacker

I went from a goal of updating my blog every week to every month.  Now I failed at that goal :)

September was a very busy month for us.  I keep thinking I should update my blog with the events, but then don't have pictures downloaded of all of the events so I don't do it.  So, I am going to put the update out there with or without pictures and hopefully I will come back and add pictures later.

The month started out with a trip to the opening Notre Dame football game over Labor Day weekend.  We had a great time tailgating with the Sullivans (Theresa, Pete and Sean).  Their other two kiddos (Andrew and Marcella) did not care to join them for the football game.  The game was technically the last Saturday in August, but since the weekend stretched into September, I am counting it as September.  Thanks to Theresa I do have a couple pictures of the tailgate:

You can see how happy Isaac is to be there in the first picture of T and I. and Mackenzie is in the background of the picture with Brian.  Here is a shot after the game (or at least after we left the game) of the kids in front of Touchdown Jesus:

 

After the game we stayed in South Bend for one night and on Sunday we headed to Winona Lake, IN.  It is a very cute town, obviously on a lake, that has built up its downtown with historic homes converted into artisan shops.  When we got there on Sunday everything was closed.  I thought that the trip was going to be a total bust, but fortunately although they were all closed on Sunday they were all open on Labor Day, so we were able to walk around and visit the shops on Monday.  Here is a shot of Brian and Isaac that I am quite fond of:

 

Also, here is a shot of a water feather that the kids were quite fond of.  You can kind of see them under the willow tree as they were walking around the feature.  Mackenzie ended up falling in and getting out quite quickly.

 

September 3 was one year after my dad passed away.  It was harder for me than I thought it would be.  However I am guessing that he was smiling down on all of us after the ND shutout of Michigan.

 



The next weekend was Mackenzie's birthday.  I swear, I took pictures of her slumber party, but I took them on the actual camera and haven't downloaded them yet.  My mom came down and helped me out with preparing and executing the party.  Mackenzie had 5 other girls over for the slumber party and they had a blast.  I made a stuffed bear and a pillowcase for each girl and we started out with an activity where the girls searched for a set of glow jewelry with a number on them.  Then based on the number they received they got a pillowcase with a bear in it.  Each bear was different and when they took their bear out they got to name it.  It was a fun activity.  I had a couple other arts and crafts activities for the girls, but they mostly entertained themselves a lot of the evening.  At bed time (a late bed time for Mackenzie) I put on a Sophia the First video that she had chosen while the girls laid down to watch it in her room.  I then went down to try and watch the ND vs. Michigan game.  At about 10 o'clock the two neighbor girls decided that they wanted to go home, so I walked them home.  At 10:30 another friend decided that she wanted to go home.  Mackenzie ended up with 2 friends sleeping over, which made the next morning, her actual 8th birthday, much easier for me.  I think that the girls had a lot of fun, but I have a feeling that Mackenzie won't want to do another slumber party for her birthday, which is perfectly fine with me.  I think that she and I are a lot alike and I think she realized that she would enjoy sleepovers with only one friend more than slumber parties.  At least this is what I learned after my one and only sleepover :)

The next weekend my mom came down and watched the kids and Nero for us and we went to the ND vs. Purdue game.  It was the Shamrock Series game for this year and it was played in the Indianapolis Colts' stadium.  We went to the pregame events and got quite close to Rocket Ismail and Paqui Kelly (Coach Kelly's wife) as they were raising funds for the Kelly Cares Foundation.  We also got to listed to the Notre Dame marching band as well as a few speakers.  Then we headed into the game.  We actually had great (although very high) seats. 

 

The next weekend I had an upgrade project go-live (conveniently during a Notre Dame bye week) so I was missing in action at home.  The kids got to hang out with Grandma and Grandpa and Dad all weekend.

 

Then the final weekend of September I was home for a blessedly quiet weekend at home.  Brian had to work so we weren't all together, but the kids and I had a fun weekend of not doing a whole lot and enjoying it.  The kids are a bit overscheduled right now.  They decided that they wanted to do karate as well as swimming and I didn't think it through before signing them up.  So now they have karate on Mondays and Wednesdays, they get bussed to the bowling alley after school on Tuesdays, and they go to swimming on Thursdays.  So by the time the weekend rolls around, it is nice to have some unscheduled time.

 

I know it is the middle of October but I will save the latest fun for an October post later this month.

School is Back

Well it is unbelievable, but yet another summer is nearly over and it will be September on Monday!  The kids went back to school early this year and Isaac is officially completing his first year of school today.

Here he is on the bus on Monday:

 Our neighbor, Aubrey, also started Kindergarten on Monday.  Here is a shot of the 3 kids waiting for the bus:

 



 Mackenzie started second grade last Wednesday and here is a shot of her waiting that morning for hte bus:

 

And here is one of her getting on.  She has the same bus number and driver as last year: 

 Last weekend my mom and I went to Petoskey, MI together.  We stopped in Gaylord, MI on the way up and went to their Farmer's Market.  Gaylord is a really cute town near Boyne Mountain so the downtown area has an "Alpine" theme.  We started our wine tasting at the Farmer's Market. A new winery called Seasons of the North was doing free tastings at the market.

We then headed further north and tried 3 more wineries: Crooked Vine, Royal Farms, and Harbor Springs Winery.  Mom's favorite was Crooked Vine, because the owners were extremely friendly and informative about how they started the winery, chose the labels, and the grapes that were used for each of the wines.  I am a fan of Harbor Springs Winery because they make an awesome hard cider.  We were originally going to try to do one more tasting at Mackinaw Trail Winery.  Brian and I had tried and liked their wines when we were up north earlier this summer, but we decided we had had enough.  We had a lovely dinner at Palette Bistro:

Then we walked around the McLean and Eakin bookstore and a couple other shops and called it a night.

 

That same weekend Linda and Butch took Mackenzie to Chicago to go to the American Girl store



while Brian and Isaac got to have boy time.  I think that everyone had a great weekend to close out the summer.

 

Just a few more pictures to share since it isn't often that all of the cousins from the Krotzer side get together.  Tina brought the boys up for a visit.  They spent the week in Midland and then came down to Perrysburg on Friday.  Mom, Tina, Brian and I got to spend some time together trying out the Wii Fit and on Saturday we all headed to Columbus and we spen the day at the Cherry Valley Lodge where they have a Coco Key water park.  It was a really pretty lodge and the kids had a blast at the water park.  Micheal, Misty and Lexie actually headed to the water park on Friday so they were there when we got there. 

 

Here is a shot of Nicholas, Mackenzie, Thomas and Isaac on their adventure: 

Lexie joined a little later after she had finished her breakfast and then led the way to the end of the adventure:

 

This weekend we are headed to South Bend for the opening game against Rice. We are going to meet the Sullivan's there for a rockin' tailgate. Go Irish!





Where did July go?

I cannot believe that it is August already.  We had a very eventful July.  We spent July 4th at Mom's cabin.  We set off fireworks of our own on the 4th and watched others set off even bigger fireworks the rest of the weekend.  Michael and Brian talked about putting on an even bigger show next year.  I am not sure what I have gotten myself into and I am sure Mom feels similar.

Brian and my 10th anniversary was on July 10th.  We went to a concert on our anniversary (Train and Gin Blossoms) and then went to Petoskey, MI for the weekend.  Both were fantastic.  We stayed at Stafford's Perry Hotel in Petoskey and I would highly recommend it.  We walked around downtown the first night we were there and found many great shops including an excellent bookstore.  I got a book about Chinese workers and I spent quite a bit of time sitting on the veranda of the hotel reading my book.  I think that I could have happily spent the whole weekend reading on the veranda.  

The next weekend I heard on the radio on the way home from work that Willie Nelson and Alison Kraus & Union Station were playing at the zoo that night and that there were tickets still available.  Brian called his parents when he got home and we left them with the kids (and the chicken and vegetables that I had roasting in the oven) and went to the concert.  We ran into some folks we knew at the concert including our neighbors who also left their kids with the grandparents for the night.  The concert was awesome.  This is now our third concert of the year.  I think that is a record. 

We did manage to get the kids back to the lake the last weekend in July for Lexie's 13th birthday party.  She had a lovely party and despite predictions for rain it was a wonderful day for the party.  I think it is safe to say she will be well clothed when school starts this year and she also has plenty of books to keep her busy for a while.  Aunt Misty got sorbet for Isaac and Brian and I think that everyone that tried it was pleasantly surprised.  Their allergies make everyone's diets more diverse :)

We went back up to the lake this past weekend to celebrate Grandma's birthday.  Again, despite predictions for bad weather we had lovely weather.  However it got pretty chilly at night and the water was pretty cold.  Luis, a co-worker of mine, brought his family up for Saturday afternoon and the kids had fun playing and swimming together.  That morning we were notified that the city of Toledo had put a ban on drinking and bathing in our tap water.  That was pretty interesting information.  Brian called his parents and was told that the stores were sold out of water for quite a ways.  Luis told us he had to get almost to Ann Arbor that morning before they found and open restaurant to get breakfast.  On Sunday they did not lift the ban although they said that healthy adults could take a short shower in the water (um, what?).  So Mom was gracious enough to keep the kids for us and we filled a 10 gallon cooler with water and bought 14 2.5 gallon containers of water at the store to bring back with us in case anyone needed water.  I won't go into tree hugger mode, but basically climate change and pollution from fertilizers is bad and we need to do something soon!

While we were at Grandma's filling up with water, Nero made himself quite comfortable in Grandma's kitchen:

They finally lifted the ban at about 10 am on Monday morning.  So we are back to having safe tap water, I guess. 

Oh, and we pulled Isaac out of daycare and Haley, a former student of Brian's has been watching him when Brian has to go to ONU.  One day they used my leftover fleece to make Ninjago costumes for him and Mackenzie.  Here is a shot of Isaac in his costume:

 

So it has been an eventful summer so far. It is hard to believe we only have 2 weeks left before school starts! 

Nero Update

A lot of people have been asking for pictures of Nero so I thought that I would post a couple.

It is nearly impossible to see his eyes anymore, unless you pull his hair back.  They are brown if anyone is interested.

He finished his obedience class and got Most Improved Dog.  If only he could behave in public the way he behaved in obedience class :)  Kidding aside he is a good dog, but we still have a lot of work to do on getting him more comfortable with meeting new people and on his mouthing.  I actually thought we had the mouthing under control, but this week he has been grabbing me and the kids with his mouth a lot.  So back to square one on that one.  He is also getting quite loud, so we are trying to figure out how to quiet him down.  However he is very happy and he does listen quite well most of the time and he has not had any more accidents since after the surgery so I am going to count my blessings for now and hope he grows out of some of the other things.

Vacation

We took a short family vacation to celebrate the end of the school year.  We booked it prior to getting Nero and the resort we stayed at did not allow pets, so we had to leave him home with a sitter.

We spent the first night in Pittsburgh.  We really liked Station Square and the kids really enjoyed the Disney themed fountain show.  The inclines were the hit of Pittsburgh for us though. 

 

 At the top of one there was a museum and you could see how the incline worked.  It was pretty cool.

 

The view of the city was pretty cool as well:

 

 On the way out of Pittsburgh in the morning we stopped at Round Hill Park.  They had a working farm that we got to walk around and we saw 13 piglets and their parents, chickens, turkeys, sheep, and horses as well as the buildings and a garden.  It was a pretty neat stop to break up the drive.

Then we were on to Shenandoah Valley, VA.  We stayed in a 2 bedroom cabin at the resort we stayed at and they had 2 pools and a large hot tub outdoors, which was pretty neat.  The kids got to tie dye t-shirts as well, which they enjoyed.  We also went to Shenandoah National Park which was really beautiful.  We hiked down to the waterfall, which was a bit longer of a hike than we thought and we were all pretty worn out by the time we got back to the car, but I think it was worth it:

 

 

 

On our way home we stopped and got to spend some time with Aunt Bonnie and go out for crabs.  I failed to take any pictures that night, but we had a lot of fun.  She actually has a neighbor with 2 foxes and the kids got to pet one!

Graduation

 Isaac graduated from pre-k this year and they did a nice graduation event for his large class.  As we were getting ready to go to the event Mackenzie had a small breakdown because she hadn't gotten to go to her graduation.  The year of her pre-k graduation I attended a conference in Orlando and the kids, Brian and my parents flew down and we all went to Disney World.  I asked Mackenzie which she would have preferred, Disney or graduation and before Isaac's ceremony she said she would have preferred graduation.  After the ceremony she informed me that she would have chosen Disney.

Isaac did very well and was extremely proud of his diploma.  They even threw their hats in the air at the end of the ceremony.

 

Here is another great shot of Isaac sleeping in his Lazy Boy:

They Look so Peaceful When They Sleep

I am so excited that it is May.  We had lovely weather this weekend, the school year for Brian is over at the end of this week, and the craziness of April is over. 

I keep thinking that I should take pictures of Isaac when he is asleep in his La-Z-Boy and I always forget to take something upstairs with me to take a picture with.  I remembered my camera earlier this week and here is Isaac sleeping, in one of his more normal positions:

Then, of course, I took a picture of Mackenzie as well: 

Mackenzie has made a canopy on her bed (really her dad made it) by putting a fitted sheet over her headboard and footboard, thus the extra flowers over her.

 

This weekend we opened up our new tent.  I ordered it and it is an 8 person tent.  I knew that an 8 person tent would need to be large, but I didn't realize just how large.  Here is a shot of it set up in our living room:

Even Brian can stand up in it which means it is over 6 foot tall and although I would argue that 8 people couldn't sleep well in the tent, I guess they could lie down next to each other in it.

 

Here is a shot of the kids lying in it:

 And here is a shot of them sleeping, finally:

 

As an example of my practical oldest child, Mackenzie went into the tent with blankets, a pillow, kleenex, a flashlight, a book as well as about a dozen stuffed animals and baby dolls.  Isaac on the other hand has his sleeping bag, a pillow and about 4 stuffed animals.

 

They thought that sleeping in the tent was pretty fun.

 

Today I divided up my huge mum plants.  I divided one into 8 piece and the other into about 6.  I am hoping that all of the pieces survive and look nice.  Hopefully I did it right.  Our blueberry and strawberry plants also seem to be coming back nicely, so hopefully we will have homegrown strawberries this summer (or at least the birds will).  The blueberries are supposed to take one more year before they actually produce berries and to be honest I am not sure I have prepared the soil properly.  So we shall see next year. 

People keep asking about Nero, so here is a shot of him just a few minutes ago.  We wore him out this weekend.  Our obedience class yesterday was supposed to be 2 hours long and we were there almost 3 hours, so he didn't get much sleep in the late morning and early afternoon and we were pretty busy until dinner time, so he was pretty exhausted by then.  Today Mackenzie walked around with the dog  most of the morning putting together a show and then they performed the show, which seemed to really wear him out and then this afternoon he was napping when Mackenzie came in to say the neighbor dog, Lily was out so he went out and played with Lily for a while.  So here is a tired 40 pound Nero on the kitchen floor:

He is going in for surgery (nuetered) on Wednesday.  I am feeling a bit guilty about it already, but everyone suggests we do it, so I am following the advice of those more knowledgable.  Hopefully it is the right decision.