Happy Valentines Day to Me

Aren't these flowers gorgeous! Jeff sent me these for Valentines Day and I absolutely love them! Tulips are my favorite flower and these make me smile everytime I look at them. I have such a sweet husband.

My Beautiful Daughter

Whether she is going to a dance, sledding with friends, or attending a school basketball game..... she is always beautiful both inside and out! I am so incredibly blessed to be her mother.

Icy Trees

I don't like the ice on the roads, but I think it's beautiful on the trees.

Winter Wonderland

Here are a few pictures of our latest winter storm. School was closed for a week because we had a couple of layers of ice mixed in with the snow.












It was really beautiful!

And The Band Played On.............

Here is Miras at one of his band performances. They played for a local nursing home and did an awesome job

The band is called Southwest Ohio Homeschool Band. I have been really impressed with all levels of the band. They have a wonderful director and lots of supportive parents.

Miras

Here's a few pics that I took the other day. Isn't he ADORABLE?

Christmas 2008

Here's a picture we took of the family this Christmas. As you can see we have added a new member to our family. Shane married Tasha on November 30 in San Antonio TX. We are so excited for them both and enjoyed spending the week with them.

What's Been Going On...........

Wow, it has been way too long since I have updated my blog. I think I may just try to update with pictures. So here it goes.........

Here is Miras on Halloween. His favorite thing to say as "King Miras" was "bow down to me" . I think he might have talked one single person to actually bow down! He had a great Halloween because he was able to trick or treat on 2 different nights. That meant LOTS of candy.

We even got Grandpa to be King for a while. I thought he looked like the King from the old Imperial Margarine commercials. Grandpa is a great sport!

Shane came for a surprise visit the weekend of my birthday. It was a great surprise and the kids had another"fun" session of taking the dreaded Christmas photo! Needless to say, we had to take a ton of pictures before we got a good one!

On November 22, Jeff's brother Adam married Heather and we are thrilled for them. They are both so happy and their wedding was beautiful. Here is Kelsey, Miras (in the back) Shane and me enjoying the wedding reception. We were excited that Shane could visit again for the wedding.

One other important thing to mention is Shane graduated from his Ranger Program. I don't have the pictures from that, but will be sure to post them as soon as I have them. He is now an Airborne Ranger Medic. He will be continuing his medic training starting in January.

Bonfire Fun

I love this picture!
A father, a son and a really big fire!
Life is good!

Halloween Fun

Kelsey and Miras decided to decorate for Halloween today, since their mom is too lazy to do it.

They had a great time together and mom is glad she didn't have to do it!

I did take a few pictures so here they are...............

Carving the pumpkin!

The finished Jack-o-latern

with a snake on top

Miras' favorite decoration

Kelsey's homemade wreath

Our Trip to Las Vegas

Jeff and I were able to travel to Las Vegas this past weekend. He had to be there for work this week, so we decided to go early. We were able to stay in the room that his company had for him and it was REALLY nice. Just down the hall was a workout area and we worked out everyday that we were there.

One of the highlights of the trip was getting to meet our new nephew Jake! What a sweet little baby boy. He is the happiest baby I've ever seen. Paige and Todd are pretty happy themselves! We enjoyed being able to visit with them each day we were there. Thanks Paige and Todd!

Jeff and I were also able to go to Hoover Dam. What a cool place. It was a gorgeous day and we loved learning about the Dam.

I returned home yesterday and I have to say, I am wishing I was still on my little vacation. I missed the kids, but it was just so relaxing that I didn't want to come home.

Oh well, back to reality!

We've Got the Power ! (Finally)

Last Sunday afternoon we got hit by Hurricane Ike! Yes, we live in Ohio and we still got hit by level one hurricane winds. It was pretty scary. We lost about 6 trees which created a huge mess, but, thankfully, no damage to our home. We also lost power and this became the biggest challenge from the storm. At first we weren't too worried as normally, the power is not off for very long. But as the hours went by and the reports came in saying we might be without power for a week or more, we decided we needed to come up with some plan for keeping our food unspoiled.
I took the ice that was in the freezer and dumped it in a cooler and loaded the cooler with as much food from the fridge as I could. Luckily, my mom's power came back on rather quickly, so I bagged up more food and took it to my mom's house to store. Our next problem was the deep freeze in the basement. My inlaws were also without power and were able to get their 35 year old generator to work, so we took turns keeping our freezers cold with that little old generator.
We really did pretty well throughout week. We used candles for light and I have decided that I would like to purchase a few oil lamps for the next time. We also need to buy a good sized generator to hook up to the house so we won't be scrambling the next time we lose power. It really was a learning experience for us, as to how we need to better prepare ourselves.