Hello! Happy New Year! Goodbye 2015 and Hello 2016! Hope this New Year finds everyone well. Life is exciting here in the Tiemann house. As it normally is. I can't even remember the last time that I blogged. It appears that it's been since before Thanksgiving. Since it's been so long, get ready, because I'm going to catch up as best I can and there will be so many pictures.
Sydney, my dear 5 year old, became a really bad nail biter sometime around the summer. She bites them to the point of bleeding, so finally after trying lots of other things, Shawn told her that if she didn't bite her nails for a week we'd paint her nails (the were so short we couldn't paint them for fear of burning and infection) and if she didn't bite them for two weeks, she could paint his nails. Week one went by and she earned her nail painting. Week two went by and sure enough, she earned her chance at painting her Daddy's nails. She's such a sweet girl that she decided, on her own, to share her reward with Rylie. They each painted a hand with two different colors each. I'm pretty sure all three of them enjoyed it.
Thanksgiving came. Shawn and I had done so well on our food prep and time management that we even made cinnamon rolls from scratch for Thanksgiving morning. They were delicious.
The day after Thanksgiving, in our home, is traditionally the day we haul all of our Christmas stuff out of storage, put up and decorate the tree and fling Christmas all over our entire house. And of course, we do it in Christmas cheer like style.
Sydney had a class family project to decorate a gingerbread man. We were supposed to help her come up with something really amazing and oh boy did we ever.
The pictures they took, and we bought, were priceless. One even ended up on our family Christmas Card.
We went to the Olde Fashioned Christmas Parade. We try to go every year, but this year, we had the best view we've ever had and even met up with a couple of friends to sit with.
We celebrated our niece, Leigha, turning 3.
She had an Octonauts party and we had a wond-arrr-ful time. Heh Heh Heh... See what I did there?
We celebrated our nephew CJ turning 7, with pizza and a Star Wars party.
Shawn and I took Ben and Sydney to see the local version of the Nutcracker Ballet. It was put on by the dance school and ballet theatre out here and both of the kids had friends in it. Both Ben and Sydney have asked to be in it next year.
While we were at the ballet with the big kids, Torren was at home with the little girls. They ate pizza and ice cream and watched Minions.
We celebrated Morgan's birthday with her.
We have lots and lots of December birthdays. My sister's birthday is also this month but they decided to do CJ's big party, and then going out with a couple of close friends for her the following weekend, instead since they are 2 days apart.
Rylie's class made gingerbread houses, and boy did they turn out fantastic.
We had parent watch week at the girls dance classes. I didn't get any pictures from Sydney's but I did get the perfect opportunity for a Rylie picture.
Ben and Sydney's school had their class Christmas parties. As usual, I volunteered to bring snacks. I brought reindeer food and snowman cheese sticks to Sydney's class and Santa bananas and Santa Strawberries to Ben's class. All of the snacks were a hit.
The kids had so much fun in their class parties. Lots of fun activities, food, and friends. It was their last day of school before winter break and also Star Wars day, where the kids were encouraged to wear Star Wars clothing in honor of the movie release.
The very next day, Shawn's parents watched Rylie and Scottie, so that Shawn and I could take Ben and Sydney to see Star Wars in 3D. We don't usually do the 3D movie options because the glasses are a pain for the little kids and we can't justify the price, but they didn't seem to mind and for this movie, the extra money was well worth it.
After watching the movie, we loaded up all the kids in the car, as well as Terry's dog, and headed back home. Everyone else came out also and we did our family gingerbread houses. This is a fun thing we've done a couple years now and we really want to make it a tradition. We have so much fun doing it.
Shawn used to be quite anti pug in my fight to get one of our own has fallen in love. He always asks Terry to bring Luke with him when he comes to visit and the two of them have become bros. He says ok, once we buy a house, we can get a pug.
We met up with Shawn's sister Kelly and her boyfriend Adam for a nice walk on the plaza to look at the lights. We love to do this every year. There are people playing instruments, window displays, beautiful lights, and it's just an amazing atmosphere.
We spent some time watching Christmas movies and shows as a family and making lots of cookies.
Christmas Eve was the annual Ugly Sweater Christmas Party at Shawn's parents house.
After the party, we drove home, set out cookies for Santa and went to bed. Christmas morning, Santa had come and we had a surprise. Ralphie, our Elf on the Shelf, had decided to stick around one more day to say goodbye.
We opened presents together and enjoyed our morning, then started cleaning up the mess and cooking like crazy since we were hosting Christmas dinner.
After everyone left, we sat down to watch Christmas Story one more time for the year.
The night after Christmas, family came over for leftovers and video games. Sydney got mad that she didn't get to pick the arena for Smash Bros.
Early the next morning, at 4 am-ish, illness struck. Someone, unknowingly, brought a stomach virus to Christmas day. Sydney, Scotland, Torren, Terry, my mom, her husband Rob, and my brother were miserable. Vomit and Poo everywhere... sorry TMI, I know. My sister told us that she and her husband had it the day before and it went away pretty quickly. The next morning, everyone else was feeling better, but I had caught it and felt like death. The next day, Torren's mother had come down with it, Torren caught it again, and so did Terry. Morgan had it the following day. It was awful, but thankfully everyone seems to be better now.
In the meantime, Shawn's birthday was the day that I had the stomach bug. I had to cancel his party since most of the attendees were ill and I felt awful about it. I wasn't able to make him a cake, and couldn't run out to buy decorations, a card, or a cake. He ran out to pick up a cake and dinner, so while he was away the kids and I made him cards and decorations. Needless to say, Shawn rang in his 30s with a bummer of a day, but we did the best we could.
Since I was much better on Tuesday, we sanitized the entire house.
Wednesday, Shawn and I went to look at a house. The house was a bust but I had my hair and make up on and felt human again.
We rang in New Years with a small party of just our little family. We watched Minions together and ate snacky food. Then at midnight, we celebrated with champagne for the grown ups, sparkling cider for the kiddos, fun hats, noisemakers, and pull string confetti fireworks.
This week Rylie goes back to school on Tuesday, Ben and Sydney go back on Wednesday, and life goes back to normal. Shawn's dad's birthday is tomorrow night, so I believe we are going out to eat with the family. We all have head and chest colds, but I'm determined to enjoy what is left of winter break with the kids. The house search continues as well as gets more serious. We are now 100% ready and able to buy. It's nerve wracking, exciting, stressful, you name it. Dance starts back up for the girls again in the next week or two, Ben's art classes will start again as well. Soccer starts in a couple of months, not to mention all three of the girls birthdays in the next few months. Life just keeps going crazy busy for us Tiemanns but we are enjoying the ride. We've started planning our summer holiday, possible spring holiday, and the kids summer sports. Lots of fun.
Sydney, my dear 5 year old, became a really bad nail biter sometime around the summer. She bites them to the point of bleeding, so finally after trying lots of other things, Shawn told her that if she didn't bite her nails for a week we'd paint her nails (the were so short we couldn't paint them for fear of burning and infection) and if she didn't bite them for two weeks, she could paint his nails. Week one went by and she earned her nail painting. Week two went by and sure enough, she earned her chance at painting her Daddy's nails. She's such a sweet girl that she decided, on her own, to share her reward with Rylie. They each painted a hand with two different colors each. I'm pretty sure all three of them enjoyed it.
Thanksgiving came. Shawn and I had done so well on our food prep and time management that we even made cinnamon rolls from scratch for Thanksgiving morning. They were delicious.
Thanksgiving day we had three stops to make. First was Terry's house, where we ate our gigantic and delicious meal. Second was my mom's house where we snacked and enjoyed chit chat. Third was Shawn's Aunt Kathy's house where there was plenty of extended family and plenty of other kids for Ben, Sydney, and Rylie to all enjoy.
The day after Thanksgiving, in our home, is traditionally the day we haul all of our Christmas stuff out of storage, put up and decorate the tree and fling Christmas all over our entire house. And of course, we do it in Christmas cheer like style.
Sydney had a class family project to decorate a gingerbread man. We were supposed to help her come up with something really amazing and oh boy did we ever.
Shawn got a fitbit and in an effort to get more steps, enjoy time together as a family, and enjoy our city, we went on several walks down town to enjoy the lights.
Every year, the preschool creates a tree for the Festival of Trees downtown and then the kids get to walk down to see all of the donated trees that are going up for auction. It's lots of fun for the kids and the parents. This year Shawn got to go with us. He'd never been. Sadly, he had to work, so he didn't get to walk with us, and he had to leave the event early.
We went on a fun train ride where we got to get pictures taken with Santa, eat cookies, and drink hot chocolate. This was a first for our family. It was quite fun although a bit long.
The pictures they took, and we bought, were priceless. One even ended up on our family Christmas Card.
We went to the Olde Fashioned Christmas Parade. We try to go every year, but this year, we had the best view we've ever had and even met up with a couple of friends to sit with.
We celebrated our niece, Leigha, turning 3.
She had an Octonauts party and we had a wond-arrr-ful time. Heh Heh Heh... See what I did there?
We celebrated our nephew CJ turning 7, with pizza and a Star Wars party.
Shawn and I took Ben and Sydney to see the local version of the Nutcracker Ballet. It was put on by the dance school and ballet theatre out here and both of the kids had friends in it. Both Ben and Sydney have asked to be in it next year.
While we were at the ballet with the big kids, Torren was at home with the little girls. They ate pizza and ice cream and watched Minions.
We celebrated Morgan's birthday with her.
We have lots and lots of December birthdays. My sister's birthday is also this month but they decided to do CJ's big party, and then going out with a couple of close friends for her the following weekend, instead since they are 2 days apart.
Rylie's class made gingerbread houses, and boy did they turn out fantastic.
We had parent watch week at the girls dance classes. I didn't get any pictures from Sydney's but I did get the perfect opportunity for a Rylie picture.
Ben and Sydney's school had their class Christmas parties. As usual, I volunteered to bring snacks. I brought reindeer food and snowman cheese sticks to Sydney's class and Santa bananas and Santa Strawberries to Ben's class. All of the snacks were a hit.
The kids had so much fun in their class parties. Lots of fun activities, food, and friends. It was their last day of school before winter break and also Star Wars day, where the kids were encouraged to wear Star Wars clothing in honor of the movie release.
The very next day, Shawn's parents watched Rylie and Scottie, so that Shawn and I could take Ben and Sydney to see Star Wars in 3D. We don't usually do the 3D movie options because the glasses are a pain for the little kids and we can't justify the price, but they didn't seem to mind and for this movie, the extra money was well worth it.
After watching the movie, we loaded up all the kids in the car, as well as Terry's dog, and headed back home. Everyone else came out also and we did our family gingerbread houses. This is a fun thing we've done a couple years now and we really want to make it a tradition. We have so much fun doing it.
Shawn used to be quite anti pug in my fight to get one of our own has fallen in love. He always asks Terry to bring Luke with him when he comes to visit and the two of them have become bros. He says ok, once we buy a house, we can get a pug.
We met up with Shawn's sister Kelly and her boyfriend Adam for a nice walk on the plaza to look at the lights. We love to do this every year. There are people playing instruments, window displays, beautiful lights, and it's just an amazing atmosphere.
We spent some time watching Christmas movies and shows as a family and making lots of cookies.
Christmas Eve was the annual Ugly Sweater Christmas Party at Shawn's parents house.
After the party, we drove home, set out cookies for Santa and went to bed. Christmas morning, Santa had come and we had a surprise. Ralphie, our Elf on the Shelf, had decided to stick around one more day to say goodbye.
We opened presents together and enjoyed our morning, then started cleaning up the mess and cooking like crazy since we were hosting Christmas dinner.
After everyone left, we sat down to watch Christmas Story one more time for the year.
The night after Christmas, family came over for leftovers and video games. Sydney got mad that she didn't get to pick the arena for Smash Bros.
Early the next morning, at 4 am-ish, illness struck. Someone, unknowingly, brought a stomach virus to Christmas day. Sydney, Scotland, Torren, Terry, my mom, her husband Rob, and my brother were miserable. Vomit and Poo everywhere... sorry TMI, I know. My sister told us that she and her husband had it the day before and it went away pretty quickly. The next morning, everyone else was feeling better, but I had caught it and felt like death. The next day, Torren's mother had come down with it, Torren caught it again, and so did Terry. Morgan had it the following day. It was awful, but thankfully everyone seems to be better now.
In the meantime, Shawn's birthday was the day that I had the stomach bug. I had to cancel his party since most of the attendees were ill and I felt awful about it. I wasn't able to make him a cake, and couldn't run out to buy decorations, a card, or a cake. He ran out to pick up a cake and dinner, so while he was away the kids and I made him cards and decorations. Needless to say, Shawn rang in his 30s with a bummer of a day, but we did the best we could.
Since I was much better on Tuesday, we sanitized the entire house.
Wednesday, Shawn and I went to look at a house. The house was a bust but I had my hair and make up on and felt human again.
We rang in New Years with a small party of just our little family. We watched Minions together and ate snacky food. Then at midnight, we celebrated with champagne for the grown ups, sparkling cider for the kiddos, fun hats, noisemakers, and pull string confetti fireworks.
Friday, New Years day, Shawn had poker night at Terry's house. We all tagged along and the kids got to play with their cousin Langston. Little did Shawn know, I was working on a replacement party for his birthday. While he was playing poker I was organizing with his mom.
Yesterday, what Shawn thought was going to be a little family dinner at a restaurant we frequent near his parent's house, turned out to be a large get together with family and friends, with decorations and balloons. After dinner, at Terry's there were more decorations, tons more balloons, and cake. He had such a wonderful time and I think it really made up for the awful original birthday.
And now, we are back to today. Chili is cooking on the stove, where it's been simmering all day. The Chiefs football game is on the TV. The kids are watching iPads and coloring. Ben has beaten the Lego Jurassic World game he got for Christmas, and Scotland is dressing up with her Peppa Pig princess set.
Comments
Thanks for a fun holiday season.