Be Tough!

First Rule On Parenting:

Don't teach your kids any new words of wisdom unless you plan on abiding by those words yourself. Case in point: this video.

Mackenzie & Jace's Concert

Not a lot of posts recently, mainly because we've had a busy (and largely unsuccessful) basketball season after Christmas. Some makeup games from before break meant we played six games in 11 days...and lost all of them. Uggh. Our JV team didn't fair much better, but at least we got a win on Friday.

We decided to brighten our spirits by having Mackenzie and Jace put on a concert for us. It included a change of wardrobe, some crazy songs, and even Jace with pom-pons (sigh). Don't try to recognize any of the songs, because they didn't know them either.

KSU Basketball

We usually try to make it to at least one KSU basketball game, and usually the only time I have to do it is during Christmas Break. Last Tuesday we went to their game against Wagner. The game was a blowout, but thanks to some great seats we got to see the action up close, and we heard from about 10 people that Mackenzie and Jace got on TV. You might not be able to tell from these pictures, but it was a lot of fun. Since the football team is home once again for the holidays it is good to see the basketball team picking up the slack.


This is as close to the court as we're going to get! Great seats!



This was taken right after Willie had passed Mackenzie by for a T-shirt after she had been yelling for one. How could he do such a thing? :)



And this was taken after Jace had had enough basketball. Can you tell he was upset?



Karmen and Jeremy Girard and their two boys went with us to the game. Thanks for the tickets, guys!

Chapman Schools Demolition Update

Here's a video I shot today that shows the update of the high school and elementary school demolition. They started the big part of the high school demolition this past week, and it didn't take them long to get rid of what has been an eyesore since June 11. Depressing? A little, but definitely necessary.

I'm assuming much more will be done by the time we get back from traveling to Nebraska for the holidays.

Jace and Mackenzie Shake It Like It's Hot

Jace has adapted an interesting dance technique to the Christmas songs we've been playing. I'm not quite sure where he got his dance moves, but I think it comes from my side of the family!

Needless to say, this has blackmail written all over it when he gets into high school!

OK, so maybe it's not a big surprise to you all, but for a town without a lot of stores left, Casey's opening back up was a big deal to us.

This story begins right after the tornado on June 11. Mackenzie was saying prayers one night when out of nowhere she says, "And I pray that Casey's gets fixed." When we asked her why, she said, "So that we can go get donuts on Saturday mornings again."

Fast forward to this Saturday morning, the day after Casey's was back up and running. She didn't know it had opened up, so we told her we had a surprise. She didn't know what it was, but she was not happy that she didn't get to eat breakfast first.

Jace, on the other hand, just thought it was cool to be riding in the car with his pajamas on!

Mackenzie's frown turned upside down, however, when we pulled up to Casey's and she saw the lights on and cars parked outside. Then she was fighting to get her car seat unbuckled as fast as she could!

After that, they headed straight to the donut aisle before contemplating their first purchases. It was a tough decision!

All that was left was to enjoy the breakfast back at home. Hey, donuts may not be a big deal to you, but to a 4 year old and 2 year old who have had to drive by an empty building for six months, donuts are just about the best food on the planet!

More Mackenzie-isms

Here's a good story about why kids are great:

Mackenzie was coloring today and brought over a page she had been working on. Nichole commented how well she was doing at staying between the lines, and then she said, "When did you grow up so fast?"

Then Mackenzie says, "Don't worry mom, no matter what I will always be your baby, even when I grow up."

Of course Nichole and I did the usual proud parent response of smiling and giving each other the "aren't we lucky?" look. Then Mackenzie pipes in, "I'll be your baby until I'm 100. Then I'll get a boyfriend."

I can only hope she waits that long!