How is it March already?

Am I the only one who is just so over winter and snow?  UGH!



Somehow the last post we had was back at the end of November!  Geez!  Time just flies, doesn't it?  So much for making more timely posts.  Oh well!  HA!

Right after Thanksgiving we got all the Christmas stuff out and decorated.  Loki was super excited to see the tree again.  He made his own little perch inside where he could hang out.


 

 


Being the geeks that we are, we took advantage of the Star Wars mania with the movie release and made our Christmas card this year appropriately:



Then it seemed like all too soon the Christmas celebrations started up.  Kenny first had a get-together with some buddies at the Balmoral Race Track.  Nothing says Christmas like betting, right?



Our family had an early get-together with Danielle's side of the family the weekend before Christmas.  The kids started off opening a twofer gift: each family got a new X-Box One system.  We had them open at the same time, so everyone was surprised.



Then, of course, they had to get a whole bunch of accessories to go with as well.  They were very fortunate to have received all the wonderful gifts that they did -- even the clothes!  :-)



The annual holiday Christmas pictures were taken again.  Even Loki got in on the fun with the kids, wearing his brand new Christmas tie (much to his chagrin)!


 


There were several celebrations over Christmas weekend with Kenny's side of the family.  Christmas morning, we did our immediate family gifts.  The kids got a bunch of stuff they've been wanting, and Loki got a brand new water fountain that also grows some grass.  I think he was intrigued with the box initially.  HA!  And I got a pretty new pair of gold Converse.  Sweet!!!


 

 


Later that same day, Kenny's side of the family came over to celebrate.  There was too much food and lots of fun for all and even more annual holiday pictures.  Kyle also got to play Christmas songs for everyone on the guitar.  Yeah!


 

 

 
We had one more celebration with Kenny's family, with yet again more holiday pictures, then somehow Christmas was over.



We had a wonderful break from school during this time that unfortunately didn't last near as long as we needed, but it was definitely better than nothing. On to the New Year's celebrations!!! Unfortunately my reign as New Year's Eve champion was short-lived.  Kenny once again was the champion for the night, but for the first time... Kyle was in the running.  He only needed 1 more game for a tie, two for a win!  But it was something insane like 4am in the morning, and we were all too tired to continue.


 


Delaney turned 17 this year... soooo hard to believe!  School, practices and everything started back up on her birthday so we were remiss in getting a good photo of her with her cake.  (I don't remember, but I am guessing she wasn't all that thrilled about getting her picture after working hard at practice too.)  She spent the day before with Phoenix, so she shared this photo with us:



I had also received some hot rollers for Christmas but hadn't had anytime to play with them yet.  I finally got them out and messed around with them.  I snapped a quick picture the first time I tried them.  Does anyone remember Cynthia from Rugrats?



But I am getting used to them, and they do a great job curling my hair.  They are just what I wanted!



Delaney's soccer started back up right after the New Year: Three Lions United practices, soccer combines, college visits, and more.  We've also been to Ohio and Indianapolis for College Showcases.  The Cincinnati trip was great - 70 degrees and sunny.  The week after, not so much.


 


Thanks to Grandma, Papa and Phoenix for braving the weather and cheering Delaney on!

It was turnabout time!  Delaney was excited to get all dressed up and ready for the dance.  For a year-round soccer girl, getting all decked up is definitely not her norm.



They were tortured with a photo session before they headed out; they survived just fine, however.  Afterwards they had a nice dinner at TGI Fridays before finishing up for the evening.


 

 

 




Great Grandma Imogene turned 94 this year!!!  It was so nice to celebrate with family and some friends.



Kenny and I both endured our birthdays again this February.  They really are much less of a celebration than when you are younger, aren't they?  And this year I had the added "bonus" of a snowstorm on my birthday.  Kenny and I were checking out the non-stop snow, definitely no birthday dinner out that evening.  It was nice though to have two snow days afterwards; the kids were ecstatic!


 





February 29th was Rare Disease Day: a day to raise awareness of all the rare diseases in the world, including LAM!  Since its start in 2008, Rare Disease Day has grown larger each and every year.



Thanks to everyone for your support of Delaney and Ken's trip to England with her Three Lions Club.  Everyone purchased raffle tickets (although no one won from our group), helped sell to others and shared the information with others.  Delaney has made her goal, and a little bit extra to help with some of Ken's way.

Now, time for Spring!



Love,
Ken, Dani, Dee & Kyle

 

Busy, Tired and Frankly Tired of Being Busy!

I am really starting to hate the word "busy," and I have been diligently trying to work on getting rid of as much busy as I can... but with kids' schedules, work schedules, home/vehicle maintenance, basically you name it... there is only so much that you can eliminate.  Ugh!

©The Strempka Gallery

©The Strempka Gallery

Our last post left off with Delaney in mid-season with her Crown Point High School team.  They had a pretty decent season, but didn't accomplish all their goals -- especially losing sectional this year.  Delaney had some great game winning goals in the Chesterton game and the Sectional opener against Merrillville.  Kenny was able to get some videos:







Even with hectic soccer schedules, a girl still gets to dress up and go to Homecoming.  She braided her own hair too; even soccer girls like to play dress up once in a while!

Dee and Phoenix, Homecoming 2015

Kyle has been continuing with his guitar lessons.  Kyle's guitar teacher wanted him to compose his own song.  So, over the past few months, Kyle had his first song completed (with some help from his teacher).  How cool is that?  Check it out:



And Kyle is still growing (much to Delaney's dismay, as he is already taller than she is).  While she has been told that she is basically done growing, the podiatrist said that Kyle has a lot of room on his growth plate to go.  He's having some growing pains.  He has some stretching exercises to do, new inserts for his shoes, and a brand new shoe size.  He's now a size 10 -- bigger than his Dad now.

Halloween!  Kyle ended up going out in the rain and trick-or-treating with his friends.  He went as Agent Phil Coulson from the Avengers.  When people asked him who he was, he responded with, "I'm sorry, that's classified!"  He also had business cards to hand out to potential heroes inviting them to join the Avengers Initiative.  And, of course, afterwards there was the very intense candy trade!!!




 


Delaney didn't go trick-or-treating, but she did get dressed up to go help out at a Halloween party at school. She was a spider-vampire lady of some sort.  :-)



It's hard to believe that her junior year of soccer is officially over!  The Sports Awards night was held last week.  Delaney was presented with a few different awards: DAC All Conference Team, Academic All-State, NWI Times All-Area Team Honorable Mention and Post-Tribune All-Area Team Honorable Mention.  Senior year, here she comes!



Once CP soccer ended, it was Three Lions time for a bit.  The team had a College Showcase to attend on November 6th and 7th.  They had a few weeks of practice and some good games down in Indy.  After that weekend, she was benched.  She has some injuries to attend to -- some mid-season injuries to her knees and ankles.  She is in therapy; resting and stretching are the best thing she can do right now.  Hopefully she'll be good to go again when winter training starts back up again.  She has been in contact with various college coaches and is planning some college visits and some campus ID events.

And we've had our first snowfall!  It wasn't just a dusting; we had about 6 inches total.  Crazy!  So not ready for winter.  Can we just skip to the warm weather again?  :-)



Now we get to get ready for the holiday hoopla!

Luv,
Ken, Dani, Dee & Kyle
 

We Are Definitely Back into the Swing of School and Soccer!

 


Delaney has been quite busy with her Crown Point soccer team.  They're currently at 4 wins, 2 losses.  Their LC game was stopped after lightning, 1-1.  Since it was a conference game, they had to reschedule the last 20 minutes.  After two overtimes with a still 0-0 score, they went into penalty kicks.  Unfortunately they lost 1-2 after the PK's.  Their Highland game was a win at 2-1, Delaney got the winning goal at the 75th minute.



Next they had their first away game at Portage, giving them another win 4-0.  With another away game at Lowell, giving them a 1-0 win.  It was a rough game, but Delaney managed to sneak a goal in after a great assist.  Their second loss was away at South Bend Saint Joe, always a difficult game 0-4.    Then they trounced LaPorte with a 8-0 win.  And weather continues to be an issue!  Their Culver Military game was cancelled due to lightning, and today's Chesterton game was delayed today due to heavy rain/stormy weather as well.  Can't wait to see how the rest of their season goes...

My sister had a fun family pool party with outdoor movie night.  It wasn't quite as warm as everyone would have liked, but the kids seemed to have no problem hanging out in the pool anyway.  Delaney and Parker just lounging about.



And the party was finished off with a great outdoor movie night watching Guardians of the Galaxy.



Delaney had her normal Saturday practice cancelled, so she decided to go watch her cousins at the Cross Country meet.  They are "runners to watch" -- exciting!





Believe it or not, this year is our 20th Wedding Anniversary.  Crazy, right?  Kenny planned us a week away in Florida over our anniversary, and since we had our honeymoon at Disney -- we even had a day at Epcot on our actual anniversary.  Other than our day at Disney, we hung out at the pool, slept in, played some mini-golf and just relaxed.  It was AWESOME and went by so fast!


 

 


Even though hurricane Erica was giving us a bit of a scare for our week off, we ended up having some lovely weather.  We spent several days just hanging out at the pool.  I was able to do a lot of reading, while Kenny was getting through a lot of computer stuff.  After a delightful day lounging about, then we'd go out for a yummy evening meal.



Then on our actual anniversary, we headed out to Disney and spent the day at Epcot.  Kenny even had us each get Anniversary buttons that we wore all day, and we were constantly getting congratulations all day from everyone.  We rode several rides then headed over to the Polynesian for a delicious lunch since we stayed there for our honeymoon. 


 


We even got our picture taken with Mickey, who just happened to have Goofy there with him.  And Goofy was SO excited that Kenny was wearing a Goofy shirt!!!  In the evening, Kenny had a reservation at Mexico for a scrumptious dinner.


 

 

 


And last, but certainly not least, we caught the fireworks before heading back to our hotel. AWESOME DAY!



Hard to believe that it has been 20 years since we were married.

 

And back to reality...



Luv,
Ken & Dani