Tuesday, December 29, 2009

A Christmas Celebration!

Wow what a Christmas. We did a bit of traveling but still had plenty of time to hang out at home and enjoy each other and our new gifts. On Saturday December 12th we had our Lenning family Christmas where there was I think a record of 45 people in attendance! Thanks Denis and Ginger for hosting! It was a great time!!



Then on Christmas eve we had our pizza dinner and the kids opened their present from us and the ones from each other. We had a blast playing with the games they got before bed. Christmas night was a bit crazy. Cole was up screaming at about 1:30am, after I got him back to sleep we heard Nathan tip toe down the stairs at 4:30am and finally decided to get up with them around 6:30. Not bad considering. The boys tore through their stocking stuffers and we had to hold them back before they started ripping through presents! All in all, presents and breakfast were completed by 7:45am....well before most people even think about getting up. The toys were a hit though. Some of their favorites included sum swamp, a robot arm, 'Vert car' (Sabre from battle force 5), any and all battle force 5 related toys, legos, and the long awaited shirt and tie Nathan had been asking for.

Before picture:







Cole really was happy with his 'vert car'!

And After:


We spent Christmas dinner with dear friends and the kids had a blast playing with all of their toys. I'm horrible and didn't even get 1 picture of that celebration. Pam if you have any shoot them my way!

Then on the 26th we had our Melcher family Christmas. The boys loved seeing the mass quantity of toys under nana's tree! and of course being able to play with their cousins who they don't see too often. Some other favorites from that party were legos, remote controlled helicopter (even though this was meant for Nathan, I think Chris has just as much fun playing with it!), boggle jr, clue jr, more race cars and tracks, and the fur real puppies. I honestly didn't think they boys would like them but Lance feeds his and puts it to bed every night!



Lance loves his new cousin Molly. She was only 3 weeks old!


Chris got some awesome personalized cutting boards! Super cool! Thanks dad!


Our little family


Lance and Cole with some gifts:



and Nathan giving a thumbs up to his swing k'nex!

Thursday, December 10, 2009

Long overdue update & Lance's 5th birthday

So I've neglected this thing! So much has happened in the past few months....Nathan starting kindergarten, Lance starting young 5's, Halloween, Lance's birthday, the arrival of my precious niece, and preparations for Christmas. Let's just start by saying the Decker's are doing wonderful over here in snow land (it's only December 10th and already we're on our 3rd snow day!). The boys are loving it! Nathan had a great set of conferences a few months ago as did Lance. Nathan is almost reading and Lance learns new stuff nearly everyday. Cole is wild as ever, wishing he was a 'big boy'. Although potty training will still be the death of me. I've lived with the fact that...it will just happen when he's ready....whenever that will be!

Anyway, most recently I guess was Lance's 5th birthday. He could not wait to turn 5 since all of the kids in his class are already 5 (being that close to the Michigan cutoff, he was certainly the youngest). We decided to have everyone together at nana and papa's house since his special day this year fell on Thanksgiving!



Sunday, June 21, 2009

Father's Day!



We had a great father's day! The boys and I made Chris the above picture to frame for his office. We did this a few weeks ago and it basically took everything Nathan had to keep it a secret. He almost blurted it out the minute Chris got home from work! They did great though and it only took 1 try to get some good pictures (bribed by popcicles of course).

Then we headed to Michigan Adventure with some friends. It was a BEAUTIFUL day and the boys behaved so well. There were tons of rides for all of them and Cole even got to ride a roller coaster! Then of course the water park! Full of water slides and a wave pool. Fun fun!

Here is the photos we took for Chris back in 2007. I think I skipped last year for some reason.

Monday, June 1, 2009

Nathan's 6th birthday party....superhero style!

Nathan decided (well with some help from me) to have a superhero birthday party. Since his birthday was on a Monday I figured we'd just invite the boys from his class for an afternoon party instead of having a big to do with family and 'my friends'. (After this years experience maybe I'll go back to the old ways next year!). Thankfully only 6 kids rsvp'd.

We had batman invitations, superNathan cake, batmobile pinata, and you can't forget personalized superhero capes. Although I can't take the credit for them, Lauren you did a fantastic job!

The party started at 2pm and little did I know that 6 year old boys don't want to play the fun games I thought they would! Obstacle course was a bust, spoon/golf ball relay turned into a war zone, and balloon between the knees race - well no one made it to the end with an inflated balloon. So the pinata and cake was done by 3pm with an hour to spare. Now what? I guess it was a good thing I got water balloons! Nothing like a good water fight before sending them home! All in all it was a fun party and I think I walked away with just a minor ulcer!







Fifth Third Riverbank 25k results!

A bit late but thought I'd share here my glorious news! I trained for the 5/3 riverbank 25k again this year. Had a few injuries along the way but still felt 'ready' for the race. The morning of, it was cold and drizzly. Miserable! Not to mention everyone was in an uproar about the course change due to flooding. I was hoping the rain would pass through or at least hold off. The race started at 8:20am and at about 8:18am it started to down pour. No amount of wicking material in my under armour running clothes could keep me dry! I started with the 9 minute pace guy hoping I could keep up with him. I would have been happy with any sort of improvement from last years time, although last year was pretty impressive for a beginner!

So right out of the get go we start sprinting. Ok so we need to break away from the thousands of people who started with the 9 minute guy would should have really started with the 12 minute guy but holy cow it was non stop. They certainly were not going 9 minutes/mile! I think mile 5 was 8:19 and that's when I decided to fall behind a bit. Luckily this year I had my GPS so I could track my own time. I was doing really well the whole time really, had some sore muscles throughout but nothing unbearable. I ended up finishing 2:17:45, almost 4 minutes faster than last year! Averaging 8:53 min/mile! I really could not have asked for a better time. During the walk through the food lines afterward I could hear everyone else complain about this and that and how bad they did and I walked away with my head held high!

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Bye bye training wheels!

Today Nathan decided he wanted to take his training wheels off. We'd been asking him since last summer but he always said he wasn't ready. We figured this summer would be the perfect time for sure since all of his kindergarten friends are on 2 wheelers. So today was the day. They came off and within seconds he was off on his own. Chris held him up for literally 10 seconds and that was all the help he needed. No running down the street, no riding into garbage cans, no tipping over. He's a daredevil now too, standing up to pedal and 'racing' Lance. Take a look!





Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Newly Painted Living Room

As if you can get any more exciting than that! We finally painted (well had someone paint) the horrid looking living room that we've been looking at for 4 years! No more dings, no more scratches, no more crayon drawings, no more holes in the walls! I wonder how long it will last! The painter just finished up. Take a look!

Before:




And after:





We still plan to paint the wall leading up the stairs. and I have a whole list of other rooms to start!

Sunday, January 18, 2009

Big boy bed

And just like that Cole has decided that he should be sleeping in a big boy bed. We've had the toddler bed set up in his room since the day he was born. It was just easier that way. I kind of wondered when he'd make the switch since both big boys were in their toddler beds before they turned 2, not that I was in a rush to let this wild man free. None of them ever tried climbing out. In fact most of them would only try to climb IN!

Every now and then Cole would pick 'dat bed' to sleep in. He'd climb in but upon us leaving, we'd turn to find him straight by the door.

This morning I took the big boys to Sunday school and when we got home I asked Chris how Cole was like I always do. He showed me a picture from the camera of him sleeping in the tot bed. I couldn't believe it. No coaxing, no going back and forth putting him in....he just decided today was the day (which is great since I'm loaning out our crib starting sometime in February!).

Again tonight he decided it was time to sleep in the big bed, and at the rate he's growing we're going to need a queen size by mid summer!

Happy 2nd Birthday Cole!!!

Sunday January 11th Cole turned the big 2! and boy did he let everyone know! He just loves being 2 and considers himself one of the big boys now. He hasn't really had much of the terrible 2's thankfully....or maybe because Nathan's terrible 5's are masking it?

We didn't have a big party for him. Christmas was 2 weeks earlier and I had just gotten my surgery bandage off 2 days prior. I did manage to make him an Elmo cake. It snowed like CRAZY that day so I decided to hold off on taking him to Build a Bear until just this weekend to replace the monkey he gnawed the nose off of. His real present on his birthday was no nap! oy oy!

He had his 2 year check up on Friday and he weighs 29 lbs and is 35.5 inches tall. He showed Dr. Aaron where all of his body parts were, and that he wanted a red sucker! The things they remember about doctors offices! Dr. actually asked me how his appetite was! I couldn't hold back any laughter on that question! The kid eats everything! Anyway, here are some pictures (past and present) of my big man.

Here I am reminiscing about my last 2.5 hours of being pregnant, just before changing into the gown. Cut me some slack though....It's 5:30am, ON MY DUE DATE and I'm 40 lbs swollen!



And here is my BIG 9 lb 6 oz baby boy. Thank goodness for c-sections!



And of course the recent ones. He enjoyed the 8 people he had singing to him!



But we all know you can't be a Decker (or a Melcher for that matter) unless you like cake better!



For good measure I had to show off how cute he is :)



Here are the build a bear pictures. He had a hard time deciding what to pick out. A dog, a bear, an elephant....finally ended up just replacing the monkey!



And he wouldn't go near the thing that inflated it with stuffing. Here he is putting the heart in though.



and last but not least you can't leave without giving it a good wash!

Sunday, January 4, 2009

Hand surgery

Well in case this is new news to you I'd thought I'd share. 3 years ago I broke my right hand/thumb (the joint that connects the base of the thumb to the wrist). A very hard spot to break and on the joint at that. I decided to make a running catch during a softball game with my right hand. Unfortunately I must have forgotten that my mitt was on my left hand. I did make the catch but not w/o consequences! I was casted and went through therapy, etc but it still hurt 2.5 years later. Turns out severe arthritis had developed causing the pain and the 'bone spikes' as I call them were 'scraping' away the cartilage in the joint. So I decided to have surgery to have the arthritis removed as a way to avoid having to have the joint fused together.

5 days later and still reliant on every one for most of my daily activities. I've got a wrapping on my hand about 6 inches thick up to my elbow that completely encompasses my thumb. I'm off pain meds and narcotics but still unable to drive, open sippy cups, make sandwiches, open child proof locks, zip coats, change diapers ( :) ), so I have 4 different people doing my weekly 'duties' next week. 1 to take Nathan to the bus stop, 1 to take Lance to school, a different one to pick him up, and one to take Nathan home from school. I'm also going to be hanging out with neighbors often! I guess I really took for granted all the things we do with our thumbs....our RIGHT thumbs!

I have to have this eye sore on my hand until Friday, and then I'm sure it will at least be in a removable splint which will be much better than this foul smelling thing.

Christmas!

What a great year! and can you believe the furthest we traveled was up to Rockford the week before!!! The boys could not wait for Santa to come and the conversations the morning of were classic. The big boys were of course up before 6 and had their stockings opened before they got us. Once Cole was up everything flew by and Christmas including breakfast was over by 7:30am. My parents came over that night and Saturday we had the whole Lenning family over. I'm so thankful for everyone making the trip and believe it or not the weather actually cooperated for once!

Christmas eve we continued the family tradition of opening only gifts from each other and the ones from mommy and daddy are usually games. I set them out Christmas eve morning and Nathan had them 'organized' within minutes. All separated according to person! and there were only 9! They had fun picking out gifts for each other and actually using their own money to buy them. The big ticket items this year were geotrax (like we need more!), a bike, a scooter, remote control everything, and a HUGE tote of crafting stuff!

Christmas eve before opening our family gifts.



The 'before' picture



Lance on his new bike



Nathan showing off a present



Cole got into it this year too!



The 'after' picture!



And after a very long day, a Christmas family picture