It's almost 2007

Hello and Happy New Year everyone. It is 9:38 p.m. on New Year's Eve and Adam and I are sitting here at home watching the Discovery Channel. What we are watching is actually rather interesting. It is about Mount Everest and people attempting to climb it. I guess we are getting too old to go out and whoop it up on New Year's Eve. We had a busy weekend and are both tired. We will be asleep when the new year rolls around. We left on Friday morning and went to Carroll to have Christmas with the Sullivan side of the family. The kids got to open their gifts that night so they were pretty happy about that. On Saturday morning Adam and I took Maddie and Carter shoe shopping. They both needed new shoes. Maddie had a tear in her old shoes and her socks kept getting wet and her feet getting cold. She really plays hard during recess on the blacktop at school and she is hard on her shoes. They usually only last half of the school year before we need to replace them. Carter just outgrew his shoes. It worked out perfect because Kinnick fits into Carter's old shoes. When we got back to Grandpa Sullivan's house Carter was very cranky (he stayed up until 1 a.m. the night before). He did not want to take a nap but needed one badly. He finally fell asleep on my lap so I just left him there. I did not want to try to move him and end up waking him. I watched the Hawkeyes play basketball and ended up falling asleep myself. While we were napping Adam and Kinnick went to visit Grandpa Adkins. They spent some time hanging out over there and I think that Grandpa really enjoyed watching Kinnick run and run and run some more. Maddie went to see Charlotte's Web at the movie theatre with Aunt JoJo, Kate and Logan. When everyone got back to Grandpa's house we watched the Alamo Bowl. We all know that the wrong team won that game! This morning we got up and came home. The drive back was CRAPPY. The weather is not nice here today. We got back home just in time to unload our stuff and head into Whittemore for another Christmas gathering. This was the Simonson Christmas with my aunts, uncles, cousins, etc....We did not stay very long because our road was bad on the way into town. The visibility was not the best either. We had an early supper, gave the kids a bath, and got them off to bed. Maddie is spending the night in Whittemore with her cousins. I think Adam and I are on our way to bed now too. We are tired!!!!! Love, Stephanie

Hope you had a GREAT CHRISTMAS!

It is hard to believe that Christmas has come and gone once again. We had a wonderful weekend. I spent all day Friday cleaning the house. On Saturday my mother-in-law and her husband arrived. We stayed up late wrapping presents for the kids and setting up the Geo-Trax set that we purchased for the kids. That took until 4 a.m. On Christmas Eve we had our Christmas with them. The kids were excited about having them here and opening gifts of course. Kinnick did not want to open gifts. All of the excitement was too much for him. It really threw him "for a loop". I felt terrible for him. When we were done opening gifts we had chicken noodle soup, chili and ham sandwiches. The kids were tracking Santa on the NORAD website and were excited when they saw he was in the United States. We got the milk and cookies out for Santa and then Carter asked if we had carrots for the reindeer. We did not have any so we decided to leave an apple for Rudolph. They went right to bed after that and we did not hear a peep out of them. We got the gifts out and by the time all of that was done I was more than ready for bed. The kids got up around 8:30 a.m. Christmas morning and were ready to open gifts right away. Some of the presents were wrapped and some were not. Once again Kinnick did not want to open his gifts. He was frustrated with all of the excitement and noise. When the gifts were all open Adam's mom and Doug got ready to leave for Carroll to see Grandpa Adkins. Adam and I spent most of the day taking the toys out of the boxes. THAT TAKES FOREVER! The boys took a nap and when they got up we headed into my mom and dad's house to have Christmas with them. We opened gifts, had snacks and watched football. It was fun and the kids got more fun stuff to play with. They spent all day yesterday and today very entertained by all the new things they got! This weekend we will go to have Christmas with Adam's family and will need to be back here Sunday afternoon for the Simonson christmas. BUSY! We will ring in the new year at home with our children. If we stay up that late....

Well, I will try and get some pictures emailed out tomorrow for you to see. Love, Steph

Went to visit Santa today

Well, we actually did it. We went to Algona with all 3 kids and saw Santa today. I had them all dressed in blue jeans and red turtlenecks. They looked so cute. Kinnick wore his little Santa hat too. Carter and Maddie did not want to wear theirs. When we got there Carter instantly latched onto my leg. Maddie did not want to sit on Santa's lap but did promise that if it would help convince Carter to do it then she would. So we all went over to sit by Santa, including me! Maddie sat on Santa's lap and Kinnick stayed close to me and Carter did too. None of them cried so that was a bonus! I was pretty happy about that. I really expected Carter to flip out after how he was at Halloween. After we were done with that we had to go to K-Mart for a few things and then it hit me, a migraine. It was terrible. All I wanted to do was come home and sleep. The kids were cranky when we got home so I told Adam and Maddie to go into town for supper and I stayed home with the boys. We were all supposed to meet for supper tonight with the people who help us with farm work, but I just had such a terrible headache. It is 10 pm now and the headache is a little better. Well, I suppose I will try and get some pictures to upload so that you can see our visit to Santa.

The weekend is here

It is Friday night and almost 9 pm. Maddie and Carter are watching a movie together in the living room. It is a Christmas movie and they both seem to be watching it quietly. Must mean it is good. Kinnick went to bed an hour ago because Carter only let him nap for an hour today. FUN! Adam is on the phone and I am sitting here just working on the computer. We plan to take the kids to visit Santa over in Algona tomorrow afternoon. That should be interesting. If I am able to get any pictures I will post them this weekend. We are going out for supper tomorrow night with all of the people who help us out on the farm during spring and fall. I also hope to get some gifts wrapped this weekend too. I got a few done last night but my basement was really cold and I did not sit downstairs very long. I used to love wrapping gifts but I am just not into it this year. I just think it needs to snow so that it feels like winter. I am hoping for a white Christmas. Well, Carter is yelling for me now and he seems to be convinced that I need to come and watch the rest of the movie with him. Have a super weekend everyone! Love, Steph

I wonder if anyone checks this anymore???

I have been so bad about getting posts on here that I wonder if anyone still checks this BLOG out? I sure do hope so. I need to get better at posting and I am going to try really hard to do better. I cannot believe it is the middle of December already. I just got my Christmas letters ready to mail today. That is not like me to be so behind. Things have just been crazy. I am looking forward to Christmas but will be happy when the chaos ends and things start to settle down. I will really need to work hard to catch back up on my school stuff. I have been slacking in that department and will need to pick up the pace after the first of the year. Adam has promised me that he will handle the kids when he gets home from working at the bodyshop so I will have my nights free to focus on schoolwork.

Our puppy is doing well. He is getting so big already! He is pretty well behaved and seems to be adjusting to living with 3 children. He knows just how to look at me with puppy eyes and make me want to stop what I am doing and pet his belly.

I am going to try and put some pictures on so we will see if that works or not. It is almost 11 pm and I should get to bed soon. Adam is sitting here watching TV and enjoying a bowl of ice cream. What a great bedtime snack!

Take care! Steph

I have not posted forever!

I really am sory that I have not posted for so long. I am sitting here thinking that gosh, it is already December. Where did the year go? We have been really busy!!!! I had family here the week before Thanksgiving and so we hung out at my mom and dad's house quite a bit. My stepsister, her husband, and 3 of the 4 kids came up from Oklahoma City. It was great to see them! They headed home the day after Thanksgiving and that afternoon Adam's mom and her husband came to our house and spent a few days with us. It was fun to have them here. We spent quite a bit of the time shopping and by the time we were done we had a new living room set and a new kitchen table and chairs too! It was our Christmas gift from Adam's mom. I love all of it! I still walk into my living room and cannot believe it is mine. It just seems as though I am going to leave the room and when I come back it will all be gone. Well, I need to go and get supper ready. It is almost 6:30 and I do not have any idea what we will have! Have a great weekend everyone! Love, Steph