Nathan's first ski lesson!

Well we finally found something Nathan likes to do...SKI! and you won't hear any complaints from these parents. He really is a natural. His first lesson was Tuesday 12/29, he went up the tow rope and snow plowed down. He couldn't stop talking about it and his instructor was very happy with how he was progressing. After failed attempts at t-ball and soccer you have no idea how happy we are that he found something he likes. Take a peek for yourself!

On the way to the slopes....what a cool kid!



Goin up the tow rope. He actually did it by himself a few times too!



Comin down!

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!

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!

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.

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!

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!