You can take a girl outta Hawaii, but you can't take Hawaii outta the girl! :) She's spoiled rotten...I will drag her bed as the sun shifts throughout the day...she's got about a 5 hour stretch of prime sunbathing time! :) She would much prefer to be out on the deck and it takes her about 3 times of attempting to go out with the temps in the 20's before she gives up!
We had a stretch of temps in the teens and Leila was stressing out about not going on her daily walks to grab the girls from the bus. Once it got back above 25 we bundled up and braved the cold!
He loves to accessorize!!!
Cutest Cowboys fans ever!!!
Abby was feeling under the weather for a few days!
Luke set up a tea party for Rachel!
Clark Kent! :) I didn't even realize he had on his superman shirt until I pulled it up on my computer.
Family movie night...we've started the kids on Star Wars and they LOVE it!
He wanted a picture with Leila.
We are under attack!!!! This is the hallway leading from Luke's room to the kitchen.
Kai and her shirt for her 100th day of school...100 pompoms in the shape of a K.
We had an unexpected mini-vacation over MLK weekend in January. The girls were already supposed to be off from school on Friday for a teacher work day and Monday for the holiday, but we woke up Thursday morning to an ice storm and school was cancelled. Thursday ended up being a beautiful day in the low 50's! Leevi had four days off also, so we planned lots of outside activities since the weather was in the mid to high 50's. Our neighborhood is not ideal for biking and scootering and we really miss it since we were able to do it all 4 years in Germany. We don't have sidewalks and the whole neighborhood is slanted on a hill, so it's fun going down (sort of!), but not so fun trying to get back up on their bikes. So, we loaded our bikes into Leevi's truck and went park hopping on post!
After about a mile ride, we stopped at the track and they rode/ran at least another mile here! We got Luke's scooter out to give him some exercise too! He's so close to mastering the technique, we just don't get many opportunities for him to practice because of the hills!
She did great too without having much practice since we left Germany!
We've had this seat since Hailey was 1 and still love it!!! Kai got the most use out of it in Mannheim, but each kid has enjoyed it. It's much easier to balance and you can talk to your child without having to shout over your shoulder, not to mention, they have a great view!
Hailey girl was super fast!!!! It almost makes me wish we had lived on post! I love our house though, but it was nice to have access to so many parks that day!
One last thing from 2014 that I forgot to blog about! Leevi and Charlie Green took a trip to Normandy. It was a place we all wanted to see but the 10+ hour drive was just too daunting! The guys made a golf weekend out of it and had plenty of bonding time on that long drive in the tiny rental Fiat! :)
Somehow they got two sets of golf clubs and pushcarts along with their luggage to fit! Clown car to the extreme! :)
The Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial
It was a very moving experience for both of them.
I asked my dad for some info about my grandparent's families who had fought in WWII. My grandmother on my dad's side had two brothers die in WWII. Bobby (Robert) was a year out of high school and landed at Normandy and died June 15, 1944. He was buried in France and after the war his remains were exhumed and reburied in Charlotte at the same cemetery that Gramps is buried in, Forest Lawn Cemetery, Charlotte. One of her other brothers was also KIA, James Blalock (Blalock). The neighborhood kids called him The Professor. Before they could do anything, they checked with Blalock. He had red hair and was very athletic, learned and respected. I am told that he was a great golfer. I was able to find this info below about him online. My grandmother's oldest brother survived the war and her youngest brother was too young to be drafted.
This is info on my grandfather, James W. Watt, also on my dad's side. He died just a few weeks after Hailey was born: TRANSPORT PILOT. 314TH SQUADRON, 9TH AIR FORCE. EUROPE 1943-1945. AIRLIFT OF WOUNDED, AIR DELIVERY OF PRIORITY SUPPLIES. REPATRIATION OF PRISONER'S OF WAR. Gramps also had 3 brothers who served in the war: Eddie and Harold were Officers in the Navy (Atlantic Theater I think) and Walt was the youngest and served as an enlisted man in the Pacific Theater, eventually “occupying” Japan after the war. He claims to be the last Sailor to come home because he was single and low priority to come home.
Whoa, this is it...I made it through 2014!!!!! This is just a hodge podge of photos that didn't go into any other posts...hopefully I didn't repeat any!
Our fall decor we put out at the end of September...my poor mums didn't make it very long though! My thumb is definitely NOT green!
Stinkin cute Cody and one of the pics I took for his 2nd bday!
Oh you know, just chillin at the bus stop on a Barbie car in my jammies and rain boots!
Oh my, when did she grow up??!!!
I found this on the iPad, ha!!!
Yikes, scary!! Hailey was bit by our neighbor's dog!!! A 4yr old was holding it and struggling with keeping her back from Leila and Hailey went over to help the little girl so we could walk by and it jumped and attacked Hailey (apparently it's protective of the little girl, sigh) The parents didn't know she had the dog outside and I felt horrible that I let Hailey go help the girl. Those are TEETH marks on Hailey's face and we have NO CLUE how it didn't puncture her skin. She also had a nip on her elbow! Super scary for all of us, but a valuable lesson was learned about remembering that pets are animals!!!
Six Flags over St. Louis is an hour and a half away from us. My parents bought us 2015 Season Passes and we were able to use those 2015 passes for the rest of 2014 until they closed Nov. 1st. We are excited about going back in the spring!
First bonfire of the season!!!!!
That's a shell-less egg that Kai is holding!!! We followed this experiment and made a naked egg!
Kai lost her 2nd tooth because Luke and her bonked heads/faces and it knocked out! :) She's working on her 3rd one, the top middle, so hopefully that one falls out uneventfully!
Leevi and Kai working on her 'office bed'
Leevi was the builder and somehow I became the painter!
With lots of helpers!!!
The morning before we moved it to her room...she was so excited that she brought out a chair and drew her first picture!!!
It really is awesome!!!!! My favorite feature are two cubbies that Leevi added on each side of her bed for her to put her stuffed animals. They look so cute peeking out!
Hailey didn't want a bunk bed/office bed, but I found a cute canopy idea on Pinterest that she liked...
It's 3 curtains mounted to the ceiling with a curtain rod.
We had our first snow in November and haven't had anymore since!!!
This was the first time that Luke has played in the snow and he LOVED it!!!!!
The little hill in our front yard is perfect for sledding!
I guess you can consider that our first snowman!!!
Snow baseball!!!
And we made snow cream for the first time: 4c of snow, 1c of milk, 1/4c of sugar, 1tsp of vanilla!
And then went back out for round two with Bri!
We finally added the center tracks to his train set...this is definitely a well-loved toy!!!
Leila getting her daily booty-scratch from Rachel!!!!
Hailey is a converse kid...we gone from pink to black and now to mediterranean blue!
The girls and I made fabric covered cork boards for their rooms.
Don't mind the disaster on Kai's desk...an artist in the making!!!
