WELCOME SPRING!!

Ahhh, how we've missed the warm weather! We have been soaking up every minute of the sunshine, in between the rainy days.
Mason has started T-ball! He's had a few practices so far and really likes it. For those of you that don't know, he uses both hands equally, with everything, writing, eating, throwing. It really is quite amazing. He does however dominate batting right handed, but he can bat lefty! We've started with a right-handers mit (throwing right handed) and he does fine with it, but will occasionally take it off and try to put it on the other hand to throw lefty. We will see, but if he keeps this up, the Atlanta Braves may be calling soon!
Audrey is almost finished with her 1 year refresher of ISR (infant swim resource). She actually did well! She even smiled a few times! She has decided she going for the gold in backstroke. What's the age to enter the Olympics! :) To float correctly (this is the recovery position where you are supposed to rest while being still and breathe) you have to have quiet legs (or legs that aren't kicking). Audrey has picked up this habit where she kicks her legs while floating. The funny thing is, she is totally calm, relaxing, and can maneuver to where ever she wants in the pool. STINKER! Barb, her instructor has figured if she just keeps walking around the pool, Audrey follows her, on her back, kicking! Eventually, she gets tired and . . . FLOATS WITH QUIET LEGS! Everything is on her own time! We are in for it!

Yes, I still have an empty cabinet!


My cleaning lady!

swimming to the "monkey bar"

Floating with clothes (one of the checkoffs to complete her ISR training, because you never know when a child will fall in the water)

so cute!

Learning the proper fielding position

Getting ready to give it a ride!

The last couple days, we hooked up the bike trailer and rode to a park close to us. It's a pretty cool park, all wooden. It's like a giant castle with walkways, slides and all kinds of levels.

His first time to do it by himself!

Beautiful blue eyes!

They are getting so big!

Right next to the park. Pretty cool to be that close to a train. The kids however, thought it was . . . very loud!

Hope everyone is doing great!

Love, Kindra

Making the most of the NEVER ENDING snow!

sorry, my computer's being difficult! Here's pictures first, then my update: (who am I really fooling, the pictures are what you really want to see anyway!) :)

We are almost stir crazy around here. My kids NEED the outside! So when it got to 30 degrees, we bundled up the kids and headed outside! Once they figured if they stayed on their knees on the sled the snow didn't get in their eyes as much and were totally into sledding! When it was mommy's turn to sled by myself, daddy thought it would be funny to knock me off. Mason saw I could fall off the sled and come up laughing, so he wanted to try. Kenny would pull the sled pretty slow, but all of a sudden, Mason would "fall off". It was funny.

Audrey's getting ready to start her 1 year refresher for ISR (www.infantswim.com) then she'll be completely ISR trained!! Wish her luck. She hated lessons last year.

Sorry for the boring post, not a whole lot going on except sledding when it snows 5-8 inches every week!!! Bring on spring!!!!

It's beginning to look a lot like Chistmas!

We've had a very, very busy winter so far. By far, my favorite time of year, Christmas time! I love the way my house looks all decorated and all the festivities! So I'll cut to the chase and show all the great pictures of what we have been doing. We had a wonderful Christmas and hope you did too!

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First stop: Mason's school Christmas party.

Audrey as Rudolph:

Mason as Rudolph:

Mason and his friends singing Christmas songs:

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All Aboard! The Polar Express!

We boarded the Polar Express train in Connersville and headed to the North Pole. Along the way we:

Hung out with friends and family:

Got our tickets punched,

just like the movie:

Had "Hot, Hot, Hot . . .Hot chocolate!"

And told Santa what we wanted for Christmas. Then he gave us the first gift of Christmas: a silver bell from Santa's sleigh!

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We wrote letters to Santa, covered them in stickers, and put them in his mailbox at the mall!

This year, Mason wanted to write the whole letter himself! I'll translate:

Front:

Santa, I want a Hula Hoop,

Back:

sword

bow arrow

Mason Lang

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We also successfully potty trained Audrey! Pull-ups for nap time and bedtime, but big girl panties the rest of the time. She put up a fight at first, but soon got the hang of it. She was definitely harder than Mason! This girl just didn't care if she was wet or not!!!

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SNOW!!!!!

We didn't waste anytime when it snowed! Bundle up like the kid from the Christmas Story and off we went. Audrey LOVED just eating the snow. Mason caught on to the wonderful art of SNOWBALLS!!!

Not to shabby for the first snowman of the season! Minus eyes and mouth!

Proof: Making a snowball to throw at mommy!

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Christmas cookies!!!!! Need I say more!

Audrey, modeling the assortment of cookie cutters:

Mason loves working the mixer:

The best part: icing and sprinkles:

TA DA!!!!!!!! Heavenly goodness:

And since daddy was working on Christmas Eve, we took him and the other firefighters at Station 3 a little Christmas joy!:

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Also on Christmas Eve:

Papaw came over to help us sprinkle Reindeer food on our roof!! Thanks Papaw!

And sometime after the kids were nestled snug in their beds. . .

SANTA arrived!!!!!!!!!!!!


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Christmas morning:

The guys at the fire station let daddy go home early!!!!! so he could be there when the kids got up! They got up around 7:30, and started in on the presents. Mason soon understood how fun it was to shred through all the presents in his pile and reap the benefits after everything was opened. Audrey, however, opened a book, looked through all the pages, then moved on to her next gift. Too cute!!!

Everyone together," you'll shoot your eye out!"

*disclaimer-gun pictured is not in any way a BB gun or any gun that fires anything. Just a toy with noises* :)

Santa came through! the BOW AND ARROW!!!!

Audrey, admiring each gift:

Her favorite gift from Santa: A VANITY. . . she sat there forever, when I tried to give her another present she said," just a minute mommy, almost finished!" Good grief. what did we get ourselves into!

Mason's second request: a hula hoop. . . check. and not pictured: a sword. Mason must have been REALLY good this year! ;)

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!!!!