KABAJ girls lunch

I was fortunate enough to be able to to meet up with my girls from KABAJ.  It was almost the whole group but the B part of it was out of the country... but seeing how we had TX and CO represented we felt pretty good.  :)





I always forget how much fun we have together and how well we still mesh after all the time spent in between visits.  Our little outing which I thought was just gonna be a casual eat thing and then head out ended up being 4.5 hours long!  And I felt like it could've gone on longer but when the girls are in town they are on a pretty tight schedule of all the family and friends that want to see them!

Until next time my sweet ladies!

JVG

New Year's

Welp.  That happened quickly.  Another year has gone by!  And what a year it has been!  I know that a lot of people usually do a breakdown of everything that happened in their year (but I guess that's what the blog is for haha).  We didn't do anything exciting for the holiday, since we had Justus, and well, we aren't big party animals ;)  But... we are ready to take on 2015 and all the excitement and adventures it will lead us on!






JVG

Visit with the Slatterys

We finally made it up to visit with the Slatterys!  I had wanted to visit with them after she had Scarlett, but I know that life with a newborn is extra crazy so I wanted to give them their space.  So, they luckily called us to see how things were going and we finally set up a time to visit.  :)

Last time we were there it was a horrible blizzard!  I wasn't entirely sure that we were going to make it but we did!  This time wasn't bad, but they live out in the middle of nowhere...

This is the only picture I have from the visit!  

This visit went really well!  Sweet Scarlett is so easy going.  Sometimes I feel like DJ feels inadequate or insecure and then that makes the visit awkward but this visit was a lot of fun and just relaxing and chatting about life.  :)  We actually told them that we would come back in a few days to support Hannah in her first 10K!

Can't wait to see them in a few days!

JVG

Our 4th child

After Christmas we were able to have Justus with us for a few days!  We had been planning on it for awhile now and I know that he looks up to Gaetan so much.  I also know that he was excited to be able to have some space to himself for a few days as any teenager would like!

Everything was chill and laid back.  He is really easy going and was helpful with the kiddos too!  Of course Dude loved having a big 'brother' around to play and be silly with and I liked having him too.  He is a bit of a picky eater, but we got past it and he did quite well trying new things.

The girlies loved having him around too

haha caught him mid cough... oops!

They played a lot of computer games and stayed up late watching movies and just hanging out.  I know that it did him so much good to be around Gaetan, so I'm glad that we could!  We actually had him for a few more days after that before break was done too!  I'm hoping we can have him down more often.  :)

JVG

Officially training... again

Training has officially started again.  This was at the end of December but, as always, I'm behind in blogging.  This is only a 15 week schedule and I'm really excited about it.  Amy found a great program that will help us with the hilly terrain and I look forward to all that it entails!  We are already almost done with week 4 and I have enjoyed and looked forward to all the training days.  :)  Can't wait!  Ticket is bought, race is registered for, new shoes are broken in... we are GOOD TO GO!




JVG

Christmas

The actual day of Christmas was really laid back too.  :)  I woke up and made breakfast for everyone on just a few hours of sleep.  I was impressed that I was as functional as I was!  My kids slept in late which was awesome because they had gone to bed late... so the Young's opened up their gifts and stockings beforehand which was just fine.  My parents aren't really big into the whole show of it, which I'm glad.  Its just hard to coordinate with all the kids and making sure people aren't getting too annoying because they are so excited for presents!






















We then just played with the presents for awhile and then we finished up the gingerbread houses!  We had glued them together the night before to let them rest but my kids were really excited to decorate! It actually went really well.  I was considered that we were just going to make a big mess and Mom was going to get mad, but everybody was patient and I think they did a great job.  Even Holly's toughest kid sat down and enjoyed.  :)























I laid down for a nap and G kept everything together and going.  Of course.  :)  He is the man.  I feel bad sometimes because I know that no matter who anyone else brings home they are never going to be better or even compare to how awesome he is.  Things continued to go well until Holly came back and picked her kids up and left.  Then, we were there just for a little bit longer to help clean up and then we headed home.  It was a good Christmas and it was really nice to be able to spend it with almost our entire family.  Miss you Jon, Megan and Daniel!

JVG

Christmas Eve

What are the holidays without a little drama with the family right?  Well, this one I kinda started but it had been bugging me for awhile now.  My sister had wanted to get details down for what to do at mom and dad's for Christmas Eve/Christmas Day.  It had come out that she wasn't going to be spending Christmas Day at mom and Dads but the way she worded it made it sound like her whole family wasn't going to be there.  Turns out, nope, just she isn't going to be there.  WTF!?  On Christmas Day you're going to leave your kids somewhere while you go to your boyfriend's?  That's messed up. And the fact that the kids could've gone but it was just more convenient for them to not was even more irritating.  I get that she is dating and all that but HELLO!  Your number one priority ARE YOUR KIDS.  NOT TRYING TO FAWN OVER YOUR NEW BOYFRIEND.  I was pissed.  She, again, was taking advantage of mom and Dad and just pretending like she didn't know she was doing it.  So... we had it out a little.  More or less it was me asking hard questions she didn't want to hear and her crying and saying how difficult life has been.  I'm not doubting it at all.  I would never want to be where she is... but the fact remains that she needs to man up, take care of her kids, and when parenting gets tough (because it will when they're teenagers) you can't just bury your head in the sand and pretend it's not happening and that it will go away.  It, in fact, will only get worse.  Then, she was all like, 'I will be there all morning, just gone in the afternoon.'  NOPE.  She woke up, went back to her place to get ready, had breakfast and then left.  She probably saw her kids for 2 hours that day.




















Christmas Eve was actually really low key once we got to Mom and Dad's.  We just did puzzles and hung out.  The cousins were all on devices so they weren't as obnoxious as they could've been.  There were so many treats and goodies it was amazing that I didn't get diabetes that day!  We all pitched in and did sandwich stuff and appetizery things all day so that Mom didn't have to cook.  Then, we sang some carols, played pin the nose on the reindeer and the kiddos went to bed.

The adults stayed up WAAAAAY late and played Tripoly, which is my favorite game ever.  But, we finally called it quits after I realized I had to be up in a few hours.  Overall, I think it was a really nice Christmas Eve and even though I had some tough things to say to Holly I think she took them well.

JVG

Christmas with Oma and Mike

We had Christmas with Oma and Mike the week before actual Christmas.  The beginning of the visit was a bit rough (you know, the whole picking a time and date, us rearranging our schedule to accommodate, then her not showing up and then not telling us when she will actually be there... that type of thing...) but it turned into a good visit.  It's so hard to move past a bad beginning and not let it ruin the rest of the visit, but i think everybody did well and the kiddos loved their presents!

She didn't go overboard with them which was nice, and they got some pretty awesome stuff.  Dude got this remote control dino that you can 'teach' things too, Lucy got an amazing Melissa and Doug doll house and Norah got this fun pop-up house that fits perfectly in her room.  The kiddos had a great time playing with their stuff and getting things set up.  We got them this candy thing that dude picked out from World market and some Nutcracker glasses with beer from around the world.  She collects nutcrackers so I thought that this would fit nicely.  :)

























It was overall a good day and I was thankful that they made it safely and that everyone had a good time.  :)

JVG

Polar Express

The library was doing a movie night and I was really hoping that the kids could go because I thought that it would be a lot of fun but they were HORRIBLE during the day.  I can't even express how frustrated I was with them so I wasn't going to let them go... but G thought that maybe it would be a good idea to let them go and see how it turned out.  Well, they were angels and loved it!  They had never seen the movie before and they had hot chocolate and candy canes at the lib so that was amazing for them.  They got to stay up late and hang out in their PJ's.  I think it kinda helped them get over their funk which I was certainly glad for!




JVG