New Addition

We have a new addition to our household and his name is Nero:

He is a Bergamasco, which is an Italian breed, so we named him Nero which is Italian for black.  He is adorable (of course, he is a puppy) and very good natured allthough he is quite timid right now.  He recently started barking at my shadow when I take him outside and he isn't too fond of visitors at the house. Mackenzie loves having a dog and is a little overly affectionate with him right now, but I am sure she will calm down.  She is being very responsible with him and takes him out (when it isn't too cold) and feeds him in the mornings (even though she doesn't like being woken up to do so) and when I tell her after school  that he has been waiting all day for her and she needs to show him some affection she is happy to do so.  Isaac was disappointed at first that he didn't fetch.  Bergamasco's are herders by nature and aren't prone to fetching.  However, we found a soft ball that he likes and we are working on that, which makes Isaac happy.  He is having less accidents, mainly because we have a better schedule and we are taking him out frequently, which makes me happy. 

He is however barking alot the last couple of days and biting.  He seems to be playing, but it is starting to scare Mackenzie a bit so we are trying to nip this in the bud.  So if anyone with experience has any suggestions, please let me know.  Tonight we are trying to shake pennies in a can when he barks to see if we could get him to stop, which is something a coworker suggested to me.  I am also going to get us signed up for some training classes that came highly recommended.

The kids are doing great.  Isaac is registered for kindergarten and we are looking forward to that.  I don't think that I am going to be one of those moms that cries when all of her kids are in school, but we will see.  Mackenzie brought a homework book home this week that has the word submersible in it.  I was shocked that she has books with words that long in first grade.  Obviously I believe she can read 10 letter words, since I am her mom, but I was still amazed.  I feel like I was still working on 4 and 5 letter words in first grade.

Isaac turns 5 in 2 weeks, amazing!

My Kids Crack Me Up

We had an awesome weekend this weekend in Midland.  The kids and I drove up Saturday morning and Grandma Kathy, Uncle Mike, Lexie and the three of us went to Snow Snake and went snow tubing. We did this last year as well.  It is a great way to get outside in the winter and enjoy ourselves without having to put in the effort to ski or snowboard (both of which I am not good at).  Uncle Mike told Mackenzie that he would teach her next year though.  The kids had a great time hanging out with Lexie at dinner and at Grandma's house overnight.  Then they got to go see Copper at Uncle Mike and Aunt Misty's today (Aunt Misty hurt her ankle so she couldn't go snow tubing with us).  They got to see Copper which they loved.

Here are some funny stories:

Isaac is really into Lego's lately.  He has a problem with the word instructions though and often asks us about his "constructions".

Mackenzie's reading is improving rapidly and her vocabulary is improving with it.  Lately she comes out with sentences that make her sound like an adult.  For example, the I bought two new Kids Bop CDs for the kids.  They each had one to listen to and I was getting pretty sick of hearing "I threw a wish in a well, Don't ask me I'll never tell . . ."  So I bought them new ones.  One morning I went upstairs and heard Mackenzie say, "Mom, I need to speak with you."  I went into the room to see what she needed and she informed me, "A song on this Kid Bop is inappropriate for children."  She then looked at the CD case for a minute and informed me that "Gumball Style" uses the word sexy which is inappropriate for children.

Isaac knows that his name means laughter and he thinks it means that he has to tell funny jokes.  The problem is that he is 4 and his jokes often don't make sense.  He finally let us in on the secret that his name means laughter so we are supposed to laugh at him.  Now he will make a comment and we just ask him if we were supposed to laugh and if he says, "Yes", we laugh.  Then he laughs.

Mackenzie has a friend named Sahdiya.  She is actually Mackenzie's locker mate.  The other day Mackenzie told me that Sahdiya calls everyone, including boys "Lady".  I informed her that some boys might take offense to being called lady.  So now she calls me lady (as well as her friend Payton).  However when she says "Lady" I think she must be copying how Sahdya talks because she says it with an accent and doesn't sound like herself.

Isaac had his underwear on backwards one day when Brian was getting them ready for school.  So Brian had him strip down by the door to the garage to change them around.  There is a large window there that goes almost to the floor.  Mackenzie exclaimed, "Isaac you can't be naked in front of the window, you could get arrested!".   She also informs me that I can't leave my children (which I threaten to do when they are dawdling) because it is illegal and I could be arrested.

Late Post on a Great Vacation

It has been a long time since I have posted anything.  I have been over-scheduling the family quite a bit, I believe. 

We went to Disney World after the new year.  We all had a fantastic time.  Grandma Kathy went with us on the roadtrip down to Orlando and Grandma Linda and Grandpa Butch met us at Disney.  I won't bore you with the details of the trip, but it went about as well as possible aside from getting back home during the polar vortex.  Poor Grandma Kathy was stuck at our house an extra day at the end of the trip.

Here are some pictures from the trip:

Grandma Kathy took Isaac to lunch at T-Rex Cafe in downtown Disney:

 

and Mackenzie to dinner at Cinderella's Palace:



 

While Grandma and Isaac were at the T-Rex Cafe Brian and I took Mackenzie to Pollo Campero.  Mackenzie was in Heaven:

 

 Brian and his mom got to ride Dumbo together:

Mackenzie's favorite princess:

 

Isaac's favorite character:

 

 

 A family photo at the Country Bear Jamboree:



Crystal Palace is still the perfect character lunch for our family:

 

We loved the new Be Our Guest Restaurant and Gaston's Tavern.  The cashier in the tavern told us Gaston was outside and the kids waited quite a while to see him, but it was absolutely worth it.  He was the most animated character with the kids and they both loved him:

 

Mickey:

 

Cinderella:





 

The castle lit up for the holidays:

 

It was definitely a magical time for all of us.

 

Caution: Christmas Pictures Below

We had an exciting Christmas week.  We started out the weekend before in Midland and headed back to Perrysburg on Monday.  We spent Tuesday with the Phillips clan and then spent Christmas day mostly at home. 

At Grandma Kathy's Mackenzie got a lot of My Little Pony items, which made her very happy.

 

Isaac received quite a lot of Imaginext items, but I think he was most excited about the Pirate themed Hot Wheels toy along with Jake Hot Wheels cars that he received from Uncle Mike, Aunt Misty and Lexie.  The picture is out of focus because he was jumping around too much to get a picture.  He did this after opening a lot of presents.

 

We did a couple of other fun Christmas things in Midland that were still open, since it was before Christmas Day.  Isaac went to the Santa House in Midland. 

 

Here is a very typical Isaac pose:



Here is Isaac signing Santa's guest book:

And finally, here is Isaac with Santa: 

 

We also went to the Christmas Walk at Dow Gardens.  They had set up a cute photo opportunity out front where they had a giant sparkling ornament that you could sit in.  My iPhone didn't take a great shot, but I think this picture of the kids with my mom is still pretty cute: 

At the walk they had an area covered in luminaries where they had lit a candle for everyone that the hospice team had worked with that year.  There was a candle for my grandmother, my great-aunt and my dad.  It was very nicely done and a very pretty tribute.

Finally, I love this picture.  I have a picture of Isaac laying in a toddler bed with Mackenzie when he was only a couple weeks old.  It is my absolute favorite picture of the two of them.  I couldn't resist taking this shot of the kids sleeping together at Grandma's house:

 At Grandma Linda and Grandpa Butch's we got a shot of them with all of their grandkids.  We held the kids hostage for this one and told them that they couldn't open any presents until they took a good picture.  They are focusing on another camera, but I still think I got a pretty good shot.

We always start out opening stockings.  After we were done, Mackenzie took it upon herself to start putting the stockings back on the mantle and even tried to replicate Grandma's color pattern.

After the stockings the gift opening began.  Mackenzie was really excited about all of her new kitchen toys.  She also got quite a bit of American Girl stuff, which was also very exciting.

 Isaac got a lot of lego sets, but really liked the truck that he put together himself and his hat that lights up.  Isaac and Mackenzie love the Prep and Landing shows.  This year they spent time dressed up as elves (aprons and safety glasses that they got at a Lowe's event) and pretending to make toys.  Now Isaac has a Coal Elf hat as well and likes to pretend to be a coal elf.  It was also useful for him to find things under Grandma and Grandpa's couches :)

Last, but not least, Christmas at home.  Mackenzie got a cat Fur Real Friend and Isaac got Imaginext City from Santa. They got a lot of other great stuff from Mom and Dad and Aunt Tina and Thomas and Nicholas as well, but the Santa gifts were definitely the highlights for them.

We all had Mickey Mouse pajamas for Christmas this year and the kids learned on Christmas day that we are going to Disney!

Finally, if you made it to the end of this long post, you get to read my heart-warming story of Christmas.  When we were at church on Christmas Eve the pastor did a children's sermon.  Mackenzie and Isaac went up and the moral of the sermon was that Jesus was the best Christmas gift that any of us could ever get.  When the kids came back to sit down Mackenzie told me that she told the pastor that her little brother was a great present as well.  The pastor actually repeated what Mackenzie told her during the remainder of the service. 

Happy Holidays!

Snow, Snow, Snow

We have gotten a lot of snow this week and the kids are loving it, especially Mackenzie.

Saturday it pretty much snowed all day.  We stayed home and enjoyed the day together, doing a lot of prepping for Christmas, including making Christmas cookies.

On Sunday morning we took the kids shopping for Christmas gifts for cousins and then we headed to the hill to go sledding.  After sledding for a while, Mackenzie decided to build a snowfort.  In the picture below, you can see Brian in the background, but Mackenzie is hiding behind her fort:

 Here you can see Mackenzie's head poking up from behind her fort:

 

Isaac loved sledding, but when we got home he was ready to get warm.  As we were getting out of the car I said, "Let's head inside and get warm."  I resceived an animated, "No" from Mackenzie.  Isaac and I headed inside while Mackenzie went down the street to get Payton.  The girls used our two sleds to drag big chunks of snow from our front yard, where the folks plowing the snow were nice enought to pile it on top of my flower bed, to our back yard.  They made a nice circular snow fort/house.  Mackenzie informed me that they just need to make the beds now.

Mackenzie continues to spend time in the snow each day.  Isaac on the other hand is loving pbskids.org.  He has decided that he really likes hot chocolate if he does spend time in the cold though.

I finished wrapping Christmas gifts today.  I think that I am ready.  I am sure that I forgot something though and I will be frantic on Christmas morning over something.  One more week . . .

Hilarious Conversation on the Way to Gymnastics Tonight

Isaac:  Mom, you are going to be invited to my wedding.
Mom: Great, I would really like to be there.
Isaac: You have to get a pretty dress.
Mom: OK.
Isaac: Mackenzie you will be invited too.  Dad will be invited to my wedding too.  He will have to wear his nicest shirt.  Mackenzie you have to wear a nice shirt too.  Uncle Mike will be invited too and Grandpa Butch.
Mackenzie:  I am not going to where a shirt.
Isaac: Oh, right you have to wear a pretty dress.
Mom: Isaac, do you know who you are going to marry?
Isaac:  No, who?

Happy Thanksgiving

It has been a long time since I have posted.  A lot has been going on, including a change to my work schedule, 3:45 am calls with Malaysia, my 38th birthday, and Thanksgiving. 

Isaac and Mackenzie both continue to entertain us immensely.  They have been having a lot of fun picking out Christmas presents.  Last weekend I took them to Meijer and after grocery shopping I let them wander the toy aisles to pick out what they wanted to ask for from Santa and Dad and me.  They had already checked all of the toy catalogs we had received and circled what they wanted in those and we had shared that information with grandparents and aunts (cause lets face it, they do the shopping).  Mackenzie picked three items out pretty quickly and narrowed it down to two quickly.  Isaac on the other hand wanted everything he saw in the "boy" aisle and it took him a while after we left the store to narrow down his top two.

When we were watching the Thanksgiving parade we saw the Rockettes.  We had gone to the ONU Holiday Spectacular the weekend before and one of the songs performed was "I Want to be a Rockette".  I asked Mackenzie if she remembered the song and she explained to me that she does not want to be "Rockhead".  We explained to her what the Rockettes were and she watched them for a while.  Lately Mackenzie makes up songs and sings them constantly.  She informed Brian that if he needed her, she would perform in one of his shows.

On Tuesday Brian took Isaac up to Grandma Kathy and he got to spend a day and night alone at Grandma Kathy's with Lexie, whose school had been cancelled due to ice.  Brian, Mackenzie and I joined them on Wednesday evening for dinner.  We had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  My Grandma and Grandpa Conklin joined us for dinner as well as Michael.  Misty joined us after dinner.  After the kids went to bed we played some high-energy domino games and drank some of the wine Mom and I got during my birthday trip to Sandusky.  A lot of little things reminded me of my dad over the weekend and I had my moments of sadness.  It was odd to me that what made me most sad was seeing the desk he has setup in the basement to work on his wine bottle lights, lazy susans and other woodworking while I was folding laundry.  However, it was nice to be with family.  The whole holiday was low stress (the most stressful time for me was being in charge of the gravy).  The kids even seemed to get it.  They got along most of the time, went to bed fairly quickly each night, and helped out as much as they could.  Today before we left Isaac helped Grandma put the Christmas decorations outside.  When I called my mom tonight she told me Mackenzie was quite the task master and that they had gotten a lot of decorating done in the house.

Meanwhile Isaac came home with us and we got "Planes" from the RedBox and had dinner in the den, with a fire going and watched the movie.  He watched the movie very intently and when the two main planes had a disagreement he got very sad and started crying.  It is so amazing to get to see the two of them develop.  It is heartwarming to see that he understands the emotions and the relationship between the characters.  When I met with Isaac's teacher last week she explained to me that she loves listening to Isaac during morning prayer time because he speaks to God like he is a friend and he tells him long, detailed stories.  I love that his teachers pay attention to those things.

So things are good, not great yet, but very good.  Brian and I are watching "World War Z" right now.  I have finally decided it is time to forgive Brad Pitt for leaving Jennifer Aniston for Angelina Jolie.  I thought that Brian would like this movie because he has been talking about the zombie apocalypse.  Hopefully I don't have nightmares tonight.