February is Always a Busy, Busy Month!

This year it was Kim & Ed's 10th Wedding Anniversary on 2/15/13! Ten years ago, our little girl was an adorable flower girl at their wedding. It's really hard to believe that she was ever that little.  Kenny made them this cute little video:

Click here to see! (Hopefully this link works, as the file was pretty big!)

Finally, after many previous attempts (sick kids, auto problems, etc.) our friend RuthAnn was able to come and visit!  YEAH!  She visited with her niece Sara and daughter Gracie.  The girls had a lot of fun hanging out together (basically being bums):



Delaney and Sara have played together since they were pretty little, so RuthAnn made them take a picture together to match a much earlier pose.  (They weren't all that thrilled and did it without the stuffed animals this time.  HA!)

Delaney and Sara when they were little (with their Build-A-Bear pets):



And Delaney and Sara now, when they are teenagers.  What a difference, huh?



They were good sports!  :-)

Finally, Kyle got a brand new electronic guitar.  He absolutely loves it!  This guitar fits him a lot better, so hopefully it will be easier for him to keep up with his lessons.  We wouldn't have been able to find it without a lot of patience, tolerance and help from a lot of people -- so thanks to everyone who put up with all our incessant questions (as we know nothing about electronic guitars and all their paraphernalia).



Ugh, and I got to have another birthday too.  (Yeah, me.  I told Dee they aren't quite as much fun as you get older. HA!)  My mom thoughtfully saved me the candles from Kenny's birthday, so I could use them at mine.  (* roll eyes *)



Only one more birthday to go this year, then we are done for the year (our immediate family at least)!  Kyle is thinking of a minecraft theme. (They are addicted to that game.  How many other parents hear their kids tell each other, "You are getting low on cows."  Seriously.)

Kyle has also been trying out wrestling.  They have a program set up for grade school kids to try it out for a little bit -- a few practices, then a few actual meets.  Let's just say he's not overly fond of it, and unless something drastically changes... we don't see him wanting to play it again.  But he's being a (sorta) good sport and finishing out the program.  He's been getting better each time!  I'm not sure he has the same competitive drive that Dee has, at least in sports - because he definitely has it in abundance for video games!!!



After his last meet, Kenny and Kyle had to book it to the elementary to make the Science Fair.  I'm glad they were able to make it, because Kyle placed second with his project.  Great job, Kyle!!!  We're so proud of you!  He was pretty excited.





And this month, whether the weather is going to get nice or not, Delaney's soccer starts back up!  Her Three Lions team will start off with a tournament in Indianapolis; here's praying for A LOT warmer weather than we have now.

Luv,
Ken, Dani, Dee & Kyle


 

Kenny's Jail Experience and Birthday! Fun Times!!!

For all our friends who aren't on Facebook, here are Kenny's jail pictures.  Kenny was working at Taft's Beach Bash.  It's a big annual fundraising event for the middle school Delaney attends, and the kids have a lot of fun at it.  One of the many activities available is you can pay to send your friend to 'jail' for a short period of time.  This year, Delaney figured out she could send her Dad to jail -- and she took photos of the entire event.



There is an actual police officer there to escort those who need to serve their jail time to the facility.




As she was snapping photos, Delaney was laughing the entire time.



And then she spent the remainder of the bash avoiding him so he couldn't retaliate.  Doesn't that smile say, just you wait?  (He never could find her, by the way.)



Good times, good times!  She now opened the door for Kyle.   Since it took her until 8th grade to figure this out, she only had this one shot.  When Kyle hits 6th grade, he'll have three years to take advantage of this!  :-)

We also got to celebrate Kenny's birthday!   Check out these 'lovely' birthday candles that my parents found for him.  Sweet, huh?





Happy Birthday, honey!  We love you!!!

Dani, Dee & Kyle

 

 

Dee's Birthday, Reading, Flat Stanley, and More...

Happy 2013!  I can't believe the last time I posted was last year.  :-)  We were completely busy with all the holiday festivities.  As much fun as they always are, I am thrilled to have them behind us at this point.

Starting this year, we are keeping track of every single book that we read.  We each have an account on Shelfari, which lets us easily keep track of everything as well as see what our friends are reading.   It's really neat and very easy.  If you are a reader, we'd love to have you join us.  You can follow us, then we can follow you back.  Delaney is Dee44, Kyle is Sopts4, Ken is Soccer22 and I'm just under Danielle Benich.  So far Kyle has over 500 AR points; he's currently reading the Lord of the Rings trilogy and enjoying it.

Delaney is now officially 14 years old - yikes!  So hard to believe, honest.  She's going to be in high school next year.  I'm not sure that anyone is ready for that.  She decided she was too old for a "birthday party" and instead just had her birthday meal at Olive Garden (again - her favorite).  We even let her open her gifts early, so she could enjoy them over Christmas break.







Delaney and some of her friends went ice skating a few times over the break at Deep River Waterpark.  One day it was pretty warm out, and we had to call and see if they were even open. (They were, they have a way of keeping the ice cold.)  They had a lot of fun and pretty much closed the place down each time.  Kyle went once, and he decided that ice skating wasn't his thing.  :-)







Kyle did get to help out a friend of his, Max.  He was doing a Flat Stanley project at his school (in Illinois), so Kyle and Flat Stanley got to go visit a few of Crown Point's more well-known spots and even Kyle's school.  He had fun with it, but he hopes that the next time Flat Stanley decides to visit... it is warm.  :-)











Have you ever seen the cartoon Phineas and Ferb on Disney?  The kids and I just love that show.



It is so cute, so funny, and they aren't afraid to use words with more than one syllable.  (For that alone, I would love it.)  Here is an excerpt from the last show that I just had to share:

Phineas:  Well, the inspiration for today’s activity manifested as we performed our morning ablutions.
Isabella:  I love it when Phineas uses unnecessarily long words for common things like brushing your teeth and washing up.  
Baljeet:  Yes, it is gratifyingly erudite.  
Isabella:  It’s not as cute when you do it.  
Baljeet:  Ah…  I am cognizant of that fact.
  
Seriously?  Is that awesome or what!  If you haven't seen it, check it out.  It is good for all age levels.

And last, but definitely not least, my Grandma Imogene turned 91 this month.  We had a yummy meal celebrating with her.  Here's a picture with some of her grandkids (mine and Danah's):



We love you Grandma!!!

Love,
Ken, Dani, Dee & Kyle

From the Benich Family...

 


  The Benich Family wishes everyone a Merry Christmas and a blessed 2013!

 

 

Love,
Ken, Dani, Dee & Kyle    
 

The Holidays Have Arrived!

 

We started out by decorating our windows with some snowflakes.  At first glance, they look pretty and show that we're embracing our winter season (however reluctantly by some of us).  But you have to look closer to realize that these aren't just ANY snowflakes, they are Star Wars snowflakes!!!  Over a period of several days, with a lot of patience and an exacto knife, I cut out each and every Star Wars design that was available.  I downloaded the entire collection from here.  (And since then, I've found even more... but I don't think I am up for cutting out any more.)  Here's a close-up of a few of them:

   

Fun, huh?  Kyle knew what they all were and absolutely loved them.  :-)   Then we were getting our house ready for a holiday party, as my family was going to celebrate Christmas a bit early at my house to accomodate everyone's schedules.  Since I had been asking for years to fix our bathrooms up, I asked if we could simply fix a few things before the party.  And somehow it morphed into practically remodeling both bathrooms.  A couple of weeks before the party, my husband decides to take my holiday and pre-party stress to a whole new, yet unachieved level by tearing apart both our bathrooms.  So, here's our lovely downstairs half bath before (showing the lovely brownish/orangish sink and toilet):

 

   

And here's our just as lovely upstairs full bathroom (you really can't see all the little areas that are falling apart in these pictures):



 

I thought we were just going to paint, fix the floors and do some minor changes.  And then this is what the downstairs half bath looked like:

   

Seriously?!?  We were having a party in our house in a couple of weeks.  It was time to bring in help, so my parents came over and one of Kenny's buddies, Chris.  And somehow, after a lot of work from everyone, our bathrooms finally came back together before the party.  I'm thrilled they are looking a lot nicer (since I've pretty much wanted to remodel them since Dee was two), but next time let's not be doing any house remodeling during the holidays and just a couple of weeks before a party at our house.  

Downstairs half bath:  

 

 

Upstairs full bath:  





 

Whew!  After an intense cleaning, it was time to celebrate Christmas with my side of the family (complete with remodeled bathrooms).  Our family, my mom & dad, grandma, sister and her boys and boyfriend were all there.  We ate way too much food, had a lot of fun opening and sharing gifts, and played some fun games.   

 

The kids were thrilled to open some gifts early.  They've been wearing new clothes to school this week and playing new games.  It's helping make this last week before Christmas vacation not drag on so long.  Three more days to our two weeks break from school (and Dee's birthday too)!

~Dani
 
 

Thanksgiving and More!

First, Kyle and Delaney would like to extend their third online holiday game challenge. This one is called Super Santa Kicker 2 (think holiday angry birds only with Santa), and they had a lot of fun -- with just a bit of frustration here and there -- getting through all the levels. Can you get through all the levels? Let us know!



If you missed their earlier challenges from the last couple of years, here is last year's Super Santa Kicker (the original) and Factory Balls, The Christmas Edition.  Good luck!  The kids love to hear other success stories (or failures) -- so please let them know how you did.

This year we had our Thanksgiving celebration a week early due to scheduling issues, so that everyone could be there.  We ate way too much food and had a nice time visiting everyone, and the kids had a great time visiting.  So for the actual Thanksgiving day, we just had a nice meal here at home just the four of us.  Kenny made an awesome turkey (with a new recipe), and we had another yummy meal.  :-)  Before we ate too much again, Delaney and Kenny headed out to play soccer in the morning at the 13th Annual Turkey Cup at the Dyer Indoor Soccer Arena.  This is Delaney's second year playing, but Kenny has played a few more years.  They had a great time.







We're having a wonderful Thanksgiving Break.  It's going by too fast.  (* sigh *)  We did get our Christmas decorating done in the house though.  :-)  The kids did a great job starting on the Christmas Tree.





 

  I came down to help finish up (and fill the gaps on the tree).  :-)

 

While Kenny started hanging our stockings and some of the more difficult decorations.




But he did come back in time to put on the most important ornament: the one that plays Kenny Roger's The Gambler with Santa going all in!





  Tah-dah!  Our Christmas tree is officially finished!

 



  Great job, guys!  :-)

 

And the rest of the house has been decorated too:









I also finally finished the new cushions -- behind the door and behind the couch.  YEAH!!!






 
  And last, but not least, we can't forget our soccer tree!!!  :-)



Luv,
Ken, Dani, Dee & Kyle