Delaney is Thirteen Years Old!

It's hard to believe that we have a daughter who is thirteen years old! Her birthday was back on January 4th, but we weren't able to schedule her family birthday party until this past Sunday. Her grandparents, cousins and most of the family were there to celebrate her birthday.

If you didn't notice, Delaney got her VERY long hair cut short! She got more than enough chopped off to donate to Locks of Love. She had been thinking on and off about it, and she apparently decided it was time! She got it cut back on January 16th, and it has been very hard keeping quiet about it. She wanted it to be a surprise at her birthday party, so now that the 'cat is out of the bag' -- we can finally post about it!



Everyone has loved her new hairstyle, and she has absolutely no regrets. She can just get her hair into a very small ponytail for soccer practice. All is good! :-)



Here she is blowing out the 13 (!) candles, with her brother and some cousins sending good wishes of their own. Her cake was a purple leopard-print design, that Aunt Danah decorated up for her to match her new bedroom decor. She decided that her old bedroom decor was 'too young', and for Christmas and her birthday selected a brand new bedroom set. We've been putting her room back together in stages, and it is almost finished! Just a few final changes to make...



This is the new 'teenager approved' decor! :-)



Delaney received lots of wonderful gifts including some birthday cash, gift cards, a flat iron (perfect for her new hair!), and a jewelry box that she filled up that very night after her party. She's a very lucky girl to be surrounded by such wonderful family and friends.

We actually had a small double-celebration that day, as Delaney's great-grandma Imogene turned 90 this month on January 17th! Most definitely something to celebrate!!!



After all the festivities were over, Kyle ended up playing outside in the snow and creating his first snowman of the year.



And it is a good thing we snapped a picture, because the warm and stormy weather that blew in melted poor Mr. Snowman overnight. We woke up to a pile of mushy show with a very wet hat and scarf. Kyle was a little bummed Mr. Snowman didn't even last 24 hours!!!

And Kenny is next, with yet another milestone birthday!

Luv,
Ken, Dani, Dee & Kyle

Holiday Festivities!!!

Sorry for the long time without any posting, but it has been so crazy with all the holiday events going on. We've had a wonderful holiday season, and we are pretty tired with all the festivities we enjoyed and looking forward to the start of a brand new year. There is lots to share!

First, Kyle and Delaney played yet another online holiday game that they would like to challenge everyone to play as well. It is called Super Santa Kicker (think holiday angry birds), and they had a lot of fun -- with a bit of frustration here and there -- getting through all the levels. Can you get through all the levels? Let us know!



Finally it was Christmas morning! Kyle couldn't WAIT to go see what Santa left everyone and get started opening gifts.





Santa didn't disappoint, as always, starting them off with Kyle receiving an ipod nano and Delaney receiving an itouch. I hardly think they've set them down since they got them!

They definitely weren't disappointed with everything else either, receiving a lot of fun stuff, including this PERFECT shirt for Kyle:



As well as a Nintendo 3DS for the two of them to share:



Afterwards, we all got dressed up and headed over to celebrate Christmas with Kenny's side of the family at Kim's house. It was nice seeing everyone and all the cousins got their picture taken together.



The younger kids especially had a lot of fun!





Everyone played some games together, and the kids had a lot of fun dancing with the wii Just Dance games. Delaney even took some videos and pictures with her new itouch from Santa, including this cute one of Teresa and Michael.



Then the next day, we dressed up again and headed over to celebrate with Danielle's side of the family at Danah's house. Before the festivities started, we took a lot of group shots of everyone as it seems as if it is the only time we get pictures taken with everyone! :-)


Ken, Danielle & Danah
Dinah, Imogene & Dan
Kyle, Delaney, Parker & Connor


Great Grandkids with Imogene.


Grandma with Danielle & Danah.


Danah's family with both boys and Taggert!


Our family!


Dan's brother John and his daughter Elizabeth (Kristine is away at school) with Danielle and her sister.

Then it was FINALLY time to open gifts. The kids thought taking pictures took way too long. :-) Delaney picked out a brand new bedroom set, and she opened up a lot of accessories for that throughout the night.



Kyle got a bunch of fun gifts, including NERF laser tag -- which he sooooo wanted!



And Parker and Connor were acting silly throughout!





Even Taggert got into the fun and had several of his very own gifts to open (with some help).



Whew! Ready to chill out now and enjoy what's left now of our break!

Ken, Dani, Dee & Kyle

Yes, Christmas is here... we're just behind!

We actually decorated our house the day after Thanksgiving, but it's been so crazy here schedule-wise that I haven't had a change to post any pictures. :-) It's always something, right? Kenny did the "boring" work and put the tree together for us, and the kids and I had fun trimming the tree.





Ta-dah! One beautiful Christmas tree, all festive for the holidays -- hard to believe that it is that time of the year already.



And since the soccer ornaments were taking over our regular tree, we got a special tree for our soccer room a few years ago. Soccer tree is all up and ready to go as well! LOL



The kiddos each have their own little personal Christmas tree in their rooms too -- so all four Christmas trees are up and ready for the holiday season!

Dani

 

The End of Soccer Season, Halloween and Much More!

Delaney had a few games to finish out the soccer season. The weather was pretty cooperative, even kind of nice at times, especially for the end of the fall season. I'm definitely NOT complaining, it so could have been worse!























Delaney loves playing soccer, but she's ready for a little break and just concentrate on winter training coming up in January after the holidays. Delaney finished the season leading the team in goals and assists. The team grew a lot this year after their first season playing on a larger field 11v11. We're looking forward to the spring season (not only just because of the warm weather).

And next thing you know, it was time for Halloween!!! Kenny and the kids got all dressed up and ready to get some candy. :-)



This year Kyle decided on a ninja costume. He isn't allowed to have a "weapon" when dressing up for the school's Halloween party, so he was very excited to have his special ninja sword while trick-or-treating.



Delaney was a stick figure this year. She had on a black morph suit underneath, covering her from head to toe basically in black. :-)



And Kenny, well, he dressed up too. A punk rocker with blue hair and a glowing mohawk in desperate need of a shave? :-)



Kenny and the kids walked all around our neighborhood trick-or-treating. They came home with a lot of loot, and then found out a friend hardly had any trick-or-treaters and was wanting to unload a bunch of goodies. So off they went trick-or-treating at the Rhee's and came home with a crazy amount of candy for the night.



Kyle and Delaney were ecstatic as they were going through all their loot at the end of the evening -- too much sugar that night for sure!





Then this past Sunday morning, Kenny and I woke up to our very own Breakfast Cafe presented by Delaney and Kyle! :-)



We each had our very own menu; Delaney and Kyle each wrote one. This is the one Kyle wrote that Ken had:



We had a yummy breakfast of pancakes, sausage and eggs. More of a brunch really, as we were both very full not normally eating such a large breakfast. LOL We were very happy to pay our bill of lots of hugs!

Love,
Ken, Dani, Dee and Kyle