All issues resolved...let's hope!

Well, last time I updated this blog, I thought I had my computer fixed.  Well, it turns out that my hard drive had gone bad and needed replaced.  So, after much discussion and a lot of hunting around on the internet (using the church computer; thank goodness I had that so I could find a replacement!) we decided to get me a new laptop and once my HP laptop was fixed, we would "hand it down" to the girls.  Of course the girls are very excited about having their own computer.  Dale helped us fix it up so it would be in good working order for the girls.  I have set up a separate account for each of them on the computer, with me set as the administrator setting all the parental controls.  It's a little annoying at the moment while they are beginning to visit "safe" sites because I have to give them "permission" by entering my password on the pages I think are ok.  But I think it's worth it to keep the girls safe on the internet.  Eventually, I will be setting up an email address for each of the girls so you will be able to email them directly. 

I got a really good deal on my laptop.  4 GB memory, 500 GB hard drive, HD LED LCD screen, HDMI output, and a fancy multi gesture touch pad...which takes some getting used to, though I haven't had the opportunity to use it's special features, Dolby HD speakers, Webcam and mic, and Windows 7.  We'll see if it's better than Vista and XP.  It's a Gateway and it's red.  I found it on Tigerdirect with free next day shipping!  Another great deal Alexis was able to get was Office 2007.  This is the version that has the professional basics: Excel, Word, Powerpoint, and Outlook which is usually priced around $230.  We got it for around $75 including tax and shipping!  Of course that hasn't come nearly as quickly, but we're being patient especially since Alexis is not in school at the moment and doesn't need the programs at this time.  Hopefully it gets here before school starts back up.

On Friday the 18th, the girls and I went to the Brownsburg Post Office to apply for our passports.  We needed to expedite them because we need the passport number for the girls' school applications.  The clerk at the post office said it would take 2-3 weeks for us to get them in the mail (and we had to make two trips to the post office that day because they would only accept either a personal check-and we don't carry checks around with us-or a money order or cash.  Well, I didn't exactly have $450 dollars on me, so the clerk held onto our applications while I ran home, wrote a check, and brought it back).  It only took them a week to get us our passports.  We got them on Saturday and I'm guessing we would have gotten them on Friday had it not been a holiday.  Pretty good!!  The girls were really excited about their passports, and honestly I was too...I've never had one before:)

So that's our excitement in a nutshell.  Hopefully I can get back on here and write all about Christmas and the birth of our Savior in a while, but for now, I need to get ready for more celebrating!
Love to you all!  Merry Christmas!

On the fritz

My computer has been seizing up on me.  It's only taken three days, but I think I have it fixed.  But I truly dislike sitting all day working on the computer trying to fix it's issues.  Especially when I have so much that I need to be doing, most of which involve my computer at least in some small portion.  But that's why my internet prescence has been lacking lately.

I'm excited about the Nursery school program on Thursday.   I'm hoping to record it on my Flip so Ryan can see it when he gets home.  Keep your fingers crossed that Kaylee stays healthy and doesn't miss the program like she did last year:(

I feel guilty that Ryan is having to do all the house hunting and other administrative things on his own...please keep him in your prayers that he won't get overwhelmed by all the details on top of the BIG job he has to do in Spain. 

So it begins...

I have always loved the spirit of giving this time of year!  That brings me so much more joy than anything at all that I ever get.  And honestly, giving to my kids is probably my favorite because I love them so much and they are so good!  I'm really excited that we have two new family members this year!  Maggie and Sam!  They are both so sweet and super-duper cute!  They are special kids with special parents and I feel very blessed to have them in my life:)  Anyway...some upcoming things I hope my readers will take the time to keep in their prayers:

• Families that are struggling to make ends meet.  This time of year has got to be hard on them
• Families dealing with the loss of a loved one in the last year.  Christmas time always seems to be a difficult time when you're missing someone
• Separated families-due to work or divorce-may they find a way to celebrate this Holy holiday together and remember the true meaning of Christmas (luckily Ryan will be with us for the Christmas holidays, but will be travelling extensively from today through the end of July)
• Anyone who is struggling with an illness

The last of the pictures :(

The last of the pictures from our Disney trip.  The first two are from "It's a Small World".  We didn't have to wait one bit to get on that ride!

These next few are from "Tom Sawyer's Island".  I liked it a lot!

Another of my favorites...waiting with the 3D glasses for "Mickey's Philharmagic"

The girls waiting to meet Mickey and Minnie...with the fair trophy

(this was right after Kaylee had gotten one of her big boo-boo's of the weekend, so I was surprised she smiled so big!)

This is what our "maid" did with Kaylee's borrowed toy from Nursery school

And this is from Downtown Disney.  They had tons of HUGE things made out of Lego's, but this was my favorite!

more videos...

These videos are from our first night at the resort. We were walking around the lake after dinner and stopped by the pool. Back behind the pool was a play area. These videos are two of the shorter clips of the girls playing on the playground. When we came back later that evening, we saw a racoon running through the playground (I know, yuck!). It wasn't very scared of us either! We also saw a bunny and Kaylee got about 6 inches away from it before it ran off into the woods. There were also tons of gray squirrels around the resort and the girls kept calling them Sandy. But the playground was fun!

I think I'll do more pictures today

These pictures will be from our flight to Orlando and our Resort in Disney World.

Here are the girls at the Indianapolis Airport waiting for the shuttle to take us to the terminal:

 Here are a couple of pictures of the girls on the airplane.  They were so excited and they both got really loud during the take-off:

 

 

The girls in our room:

Some pictures around the Resort.  It really was beautiful!

This one is perhaps my favorite picture of the whole trip:

And the girls...tuckered out from our day of travel; preparing for our big day at the Magic Kingdom:

More Video

This is a video of the water slide at our resort-Coronado Springs. Kaylee is the 4th kid on the video, followed by Alexis, then Ryan. The funny story is, they had just rotated life guards in that area, and as you can see, the sun was beginning to go down and it was starting to get chilly. So, I held up a two showing the girls they could slide two more times before it was time to go. Well the life guard saw this and called Alexis over to him. He told her to come and tell me I had to go down the slide. I totally would have, but we had dinner reservations about half an hour from then and if I got my hair wet...well...we wouldn't have made it. So the girls settled for Daddy, but the life guard wasn't happy. He said "I wanted you to go down." (if you listen carefully you can hear him talking in the background) Sure he did;-)

But, the girls had so much fun on that water slide. They even made a new friend named Kaitlyn. I would guess they probably went down the slide at least 25 times.

I just could not get over how friendly and happy all of the employees were both at Disney World and our resort. I don't think I ever saw any worker who was not smiling. Even the people that cleaned the restrooms!

Well, I probably have enough material for a post a day for about a month! So keep checking back!

The Flip

We got back from our trip to Disney World yesterday afternoon. Let me just say, it has been a whirlwind since we've gotten back to Indiana!!! But I just wanted to take a moment to post a video. This video is of the girls riding the Carousel at Disney World.

There are quite a few other videos for me to post, but they take a long time, so bear with me!

Disney World

Our internet connection is tempermental...so hopefully I can post a couple of pictures=)

In Minnie's Sunroom:

Meeting Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse (this was something Kaylee was VERY excited about):

And the girls in front of the Castle.  It was very beautiful when it was dark and all lit up with the Christmas lights!

We have some great video and some more pictures, but I'll post those once we are back.  Let me tell you...November is the time to go to Disney World.  The weather is perfect...not too hot...not too cold.  And the wait time for the rides on average was 5 minutes.  There were several we just walked up to and got right on, especially in the morning.  Very nice!  We did spend a long time waiting on one ride, but it kept breaking down.  That was our longest wait...about 1/2 an hour.  But we have had a great time.  And if you ask them, the girls will tell all about their favorites=)

Good ideas!

So, I decided to give Alexis an outlet. She now has her own blog...authored by her! It should be a lot of fun to read and see. Instead of writing something today (she didn't have time before school) we recorded a video (with my new Flip UltraHD). Anyway, here is the link to her very own blog:

Alexis Tells It All

Add it to your favorites and check back often. She may post things more often than I do!

In other news...yes I think I like my new camera! The main reason we bought it was so Ryan could get video of homes he tours while he's in Spain, since I can't go on every trip with him to help find us a house over there. But, our other video camera is so old...it takes TAPES!! Can you believe it?!?!? And I never have been able to upload those videos onto the computer. So, that was another reason. The Flip is nice and tiny and takes HD video. I made sure that I got it in time for our Disney trip!
Anyway, enjoy Alexis's blog!

More fall fun

We had our annual halloween get together with the usual suspects.  We all have an awesome time together:

Alexis was Cleopatra

Kaylee was a witch

Friday, we finished up Kaylee's family birthday celebrations

Last night we hosted the St. Andrew's Cross Softball party

And Alexis got to hold little Keegan Tatman

He's such a cute baby!

Our pretty tree

So this spring, we had a 'big' tree delivered and planted in our backyard.  It is an October Glory maple and my goodness is it ever pretty!

1st of the Halloweenies

Alexis:  What do you call someone who is afraid of Halloween?
Me:  I don't know, what?
Alexis:  A Halloweenie!

Here are some first pictures of the festiveness:

Proof that Abby in fact loves Kaylee!

Kaylee's class...quite the fun group!

And Kaylee in her witchy costume.

Kaylee's Pumpkin

Alexis's Pumpkin

There will be more as the weekend goes on, yay!

Woah!

I find it hard to believe I haven't written anything since Alexis's map project.  I apologize for that!  So here's a synopsis of what we've been up to:

• the usual school, homework, workouts, etc
• we went to Terre Haute a couple of weekends ago for the Annual Thomas Family outing.  We went to Pumpkin Works on Saturday and McCormick's Creek on Sunday.  Abby and Murphy even got to go with us to the park.  I think they finally recovered on Wednesday...they were pretty tired!  But we all had a really good time!
• Kaylee and I spent my birthday enjoying each other's company.  At the last minute, Ryan and I got invited to the Make-A-Wish banquet and I needed to find a cocktail dress.  So Kaylee and I spent my birthday at the Greenwood Mall shopping.  She picked Chinese food for lunch and then we had a Berry-Pom smoothie.  It was a pretty good birthday!
• Ryan bought me a new stopwatch for my birthday.  It's very nice and is quite handy for my workouts.
• Tuesday night was the Make-A-Wish banquet.  The girls got to spend the evening with Gramma W.  I know they had a really good time, they always do!  Ryan and I mingled with the Colts and other professional type people.  It was a lot of fun for a good cause.
• Alexis went to her first slumber party Friday night.  I got a phone call at 11:45 stating that she was 'homesick' and ready to come home.  I wasn't really surprised.  And that's exactly why we didn't send her to camp this summer!
• Saturday we took Kaylee birthday shopping back at Greenwood mall.  We ate Chick-Fil-A and took her to the Disney store.  She picked out a couple of Wall-E toys. 
• Sunday morning Alexis woke up not feeling well...she's got the flu.  Her highest temp so far has been 102.6 but we are managing the illness well at home, so I highly doubt we will be making any trips to the ER.  Say a prayer that none of the rest of us catch it!  We've got big plans this weekend!
• Fall break is this week yay!
• We have big plans of going to ISU's homecoming and celebrating Kaylee's 5th birthday with the Terre Haute crowd this weekend. 

So that's what we're up to.  Here are a few picture highlights from all of our fun