Winter Weather Advisory

Yes, that is right. Texas is in a winter weather advisory. Chad had no school today because of the threat of freezing rain and ice. By us none of this ever happened, but north of us it did. As of right now there is school tomorrow, but it is suppose to be worse tomorrow than it was today. We do have freezing rain here and so that means that there might be a possiblity of no school tomorrow either. I love listening to the weather people and all the other Texans. They think that life cannot go on when the weather is this cold. We did go up to school for awhile. Chad had some work to do and so we went with him and Maddie ran around the gym chasing a superball.

Besides the cold weather, we are getting ready for baseball to start on Monday. The field is pretty wet, so Chad isn't even sure if they will be able to get on the field on Monday. Chad's dad had left us last Thursday for San Antonio, where the weather is even colder than here. After our day of jungle digging, we went over to some friends' house on Sunday night. The Odinga's had some people over since there was no school on Monday. The girls went with us and while we played Taboo, Maddie played with the dogs and Emma slept on the fouton. We had a good time and then just relaxed yesterday. Today with no school for Chad, I was able to get some grocery shopping done and some other stuff around the house.

On Sunday I did go to Michael's to use the gift card that my parents gave me for Christmas. I got some really good stuff for scrapbooking and cards. I have decided that I want to get Maddie's scrapbook done. I am only going to do the first year and so I have even gotten the pictures I need into a folder on the computer and now I just have to send them to Wal-Mart. I am hoping to get hers done and all the while get Emma's organized to do when I can. I even got started on some Valentine's.

The girls are doing good. We rescheduled Emma's 6 month check up for this Friday. We ended up going to Waco last Thursday with Chad for a baseball coach's conference. Emma is getting up on all fours and starting to rock back and forth. Maybe by the time we head to Wisconsin she will be crawling. Maddie is Maddie. She is starting to throw more tantrums, when we say no to her. She also is just starting to use no back to us. I think that that is pretty good. 19 months and now she is starting to use no. She usually says no to everything, even if she means yes. You will ask her if she is ready to eat and she says no as she is climbing into her chair.

Hope that everyone up north is keeping warm, I saw that it is pretty cold up there too. I also heard that there is snow. Maybe some of it will stick around for Maddie to play with in two weeks.

Our Saturday

Well we are homeowners, so that means taking care of the yard. For those of you who have been to the house, you know that we have what you might call a small jungle on the side of the driveway. I had dug out about half of it this past fall and the other half has just been sitting there. I told Chad that the rose bushes needed to be gone before baseball, so we can actually go outside and not worry about Maddie running into one or grabbing a branch of one. So we decided that we would start the digging out process today. We started at about 10 and finished at 4:30, we did have about an hour and a half break when the girls needed lunch and then to be put down for their afternoon nap. Maddie spent half her time outside with us and the other half running back into the house to watch tv. Emma did spend some time outside in her saucer and then the rest of the time napping. We managed to get the rest of the jungle dug out and also the rest of the leaves in the front yard raked and bagged. We thought about it too late to take a before picture, but we did get some after pictures. Sorry they are a little dark, I wanted to take a shower and then I went out and took the pictures.




















This is from the end of the driveway, the garage is on the upper left















This the view from inside the garage
















All this trash is just the jungle. The black bags are two deep

Despite all of the work we did today, I feel good about our progress. Now we just have to decide what to do with the space. There are still a few rosebushes to take out in the backyard and the front. Those will have to wait until another day.

Back into rountine, sort of

Well we have been back for about a week now and we are getting back into the swing of things. The girls have been getting over their colds and getting used to the same old routine of being home. Grandpa Janetzke has been with us since last Thursday and will be leaving this Thursday. We didn't see him much the first couple of days he was here, but that is because he was at a conference. Chad and him did manage to get a round of golf in yesterday and today we spent some time at the park. I thought today was going to be the day we were going to have to take Maddie to the hospital. She was playing on the playground and at one of the spots of the play area where there is an open area, like where you can go across on the rings or climb up or go down the spirally thing. She decided that she wanted to get off, she did just step off, she did at least turn around and dangle herself off before falling. Good thing grandpa was there to break her fall a bit. I think she was more scared than hurt and just a few minutes later she was back to playing.

This past weekend we also got to hang out with the Keiper's and the Brennan's at the Keiper's on Saturday. There were 7 kids in all. Emma wasn't the littlest, Faith is just three months old, but then the next is Maddie and the oldest is in Kindergarten, so you can imagine what the house was like while we were there. It was fun to see them all playing and interacting. Even Emma was having a good time watching the boys playing ball in the house.

This week should be pretty routine. Emma has her 6 month check up on Friday. The girls and I are on our own from Thursday to Friday. Chad will be in Waco for a baseball conference. There is no school next Monday and then the week after that baseball starts. Not only does Chad have to get into a different mind set, but so do I. It sounds like we are going to have some visitors in March and then some more for Easter. We have started looking at making summer plans and hopefully we will get some of those finished sooner than later.

It sounds like it has been staying somewhat warm up north, I am still hoping that maybe there will be a little snow on the ground while we are there in February. I know that Maddie would love to play and sled.

We hope that everyone has recovered from the holidays and are able to get back into a routine of your own. We are praying for cousin Sam as he got tubes in today and also his annoids(spelling) out.

The rest of the Christmas pictures

All good things come to an end

Well Christmas vacation is officially over. Chad is at school at a meeting. There are no kids there today, but they still needed to be there for a meeting at 9am. I think that Maddie is happy to be home, sleeping in her own bed, and playing with all her toys. We are all glad to be home in our own place and not living out of suitcases, but we enjoyed our trip up to Wisconsin. The last time I wrote was the 27th. That afternoon we headed up to Germantown to hang with the Janetzke clan and some extended family. It was good to see everyone who was there, but the evening was a little shorter than we probably would have liked, but Maddie and Emma were still under the weather and so they needed to get home to bed. Thursday was spent running around with Grandma Heff trying to get things for the mini-family fun night on Friday. Maddie was with us in the morning. We then headed home for lunch, Maddie took a nap and Grandma and I were back out. The evening brought Katie and James over to see the girls and then we got to go out with them for dinner. We went to Saz's, the wait was over an hour, so we then went to The Chancery. We hung out there for a bit and then went over to Leff's for a beer. Friday was getting things packed and ready to go. Amy and Ben got to the house about noon and we got to play with them for awhile. The evening was my mom's card club get together. We were up at Mount Olive and it was good to see all of them. The little kids seemed to enjoy the games we put together and also all the prizes they got. Cousin Sam wasn't feeling well, so Amy headed home, but Ben stayed and slept over at Grandma and Grandpa's with us. Saturday morning we headed out for Joplin, MO at about 8:45am. We pulled into Jolpin at about 7:30 that night. We made pretty good time and the girls did great in the car. I think that they were so tired, that they appreciated just being able to sleep whenever. Maddie ran around the hotel room awhile until bedtime. We then headed out on Sunday morning about 8:30am and were on our way to Carrollton. We got there around 2pm and spent New Year's Eve playing cards and visiting with the Wilde's. Yesterday we got on the road at about 10:15 and were home in Spring by 2pm. It was nice to get home and to be able to unpack everything. Maddie was happy to see her toys and I think just a familiar place. The next couple of days will be low key and on Thursday Grandpa Janetzke comes for about a week and a half. He has some meetings here in Houston and also in San Antonio. Baseball starts on the 22nd and the girls and I are leaving on February 1st for Wisconsin. I have a feeling that this month is going to fly by. We hope that everyone had a Merry CHRISTmas and a Happy New Year.

Pictures up to noon on Christmas Day

Christmas is over?

That's right, it has been here and has gone. I am still trying to figure out where the last week has gone. We were in Springfield,MO a week ago getting ready to finsih our drive to Wisconsin. We have been having lots of fun the last week, but it has been exhausting. Being sick and having one kid being sick doesn't help either. Both Maddie and I have been fighting colds for the last week. I guess my body has gotten used to the warm weather and isn't able to take the change as easily. We spent last week at Chad's parent's house- everyone was there and we had a good time. We didn't get too much game playing in, but we did get a round of Fact or Crap in on Christmas Eve. It was a fun game that Josh had gotten as a present. Maddie loves to open presents and she opened pretty much everyone's. She also crashed by about 8pm in the middle of the living room just completely exhausted. Christmas Day was with the Heffelfingers. Most of the presents were opened by adults because the kids just wanted to play with each other. We then headed to my aunt and uncle's house for the evening. Yesterday was a relaxing day. We did get to take our new wagon out for a spin. Maddie, Ben, Joel, and I took them to the playground and Ben and Maddie played for awhile. We ended the evening with us at the Chancery for dinner. We were going to go to Friday's Front Row, but no hot water. Today is a trip up to Germantown to see some of Chad's aunts, uncles, and cousins. We have a lazy day tomorrow and then Friday we will be getting ready to head home on Saturday morning. We are spending New Year's in Carrollton, so our drive is a little bit shorter than normal, so that is helpful. Now we will just have to see if all of our stuff can fit in the car. We hope that everyone had a Merry Christmas and that your New Year is happy.

Our Christmas

A moment to relax

Okay, so I have about a half an hour before the Wilke's come over, so we can celebrate Christmas with them. I figured I should give a real update about us and the girls. The last few weeks have been just a whirlwind of time. I don't even know where most days go to. Okay, so Maddie has been getting over her double ear infection. She has been a real trooper about it. She has been more active everyday. We are getting into our "terrible twos" already. She is starting to throw mini-tantrums when she doesn't get her way. She is still as active as ever. She got to write the Christmas letter this year. This afternoon after church we had our Christmas here and she was just loving it. I can't wait to see what she is like when we are with everyone up north. We had to wait until Chad got back from school this afternoon and there were a few times where I caught her trying to open the presents on her own. We got her a train set and she loves it. She has been playing with it all afternoon.

Emma is still growing more and more. She is so ready to crawl and gets so mad that she can't move around. She has started growling at people. It is quite humorous to have her start growling in church. She likes to pull the paper off the presents, but has no idea what is going on.

I feel like we are closer to being ready to go than we were just a few hours ago. Tomrrow will be another story. Chad starts finals tomorrow. His final is actually on Wednesday, but he won't be there, so he had to get everything done and copied, so he is ready to go. We will hopefully have an uneventful trip and get to Wisconsin in a timely fashion. We get to stop in St. Louis and see Jamie and Greg and to meet their daughter Naomi on Wednesday for lunch.

In Memory

On Friday afternoon, Reverend Edwin Keiper was called home to the Lord. This is Isaac's grandpa and Paul's (the A.D. at CLHS) dad. Paul and Christa have been in Austin off and on since after Thanksgiving. The funeral is on Thursday here in Houston, but we will already be in Wisconsin. I know that some of you who read this blog, know Paul's brother Val from CUW- all of the siblings have been in Austin for the last few days. So we are praying for all the Keiper's.

We're Back

Well we are back up and running here at the house. I am hoping to actually post something to read tonight. We are frantically trying to get everything ready to leave on Tuesday. I have laundry going right now and so that means trying to get the girls started on packing. We will see if I can get something up later, if not I'll post once we get to Wisconsin and let you know all about our road trip.

Technical Difficulties

We are experiencing technical difficulties at our house with our internet, so I'm not completely sure when we will be back up and running, so I am posting from school. We are in the rush this week of trying to get everything done for the trip home. Everyone is doing fine. Maddie went to the doctor on Friday for her 18 month check up. She is great, except that she has a double ear infection. She hasn't been acting any different than normal. This would explain the extra clumsiness she has been experiencing the last week or so. So we will hopefully get some pics up when we are back up and running at the house, but for now, we will be getting ready for our trip home and will see a lot of you in the next few weeks.

Winter Weather is Welcome

I know, I know, all you northerners and your snow are probably saying to yourself that I am crazy for wanting winter weather. But you have to remember something, our winter weather is your spring weather without the snow. In the evenings it has been getting down to freezing and during the days it is anywhere from 50-60. By the end of the week we are suppose to be back into the high 60's, but then another front should move in. Now if you are still wondering why I want the winter weather, it is probably because I was born and raised up by you. I like having 4 seasons, not 2- comfortable and uncomfortable. Anyways, enough with the weather. As much as most of you don't like the snow, I am hoping that it will be there when we get there in a couple of weeks. Remember that Christmas is the only time Maddie will get the chance to have snow. There are kids at the high school who have never seen snow- I don't want Maddie to be like that.

This week-what a week. We were getting back into the swing of things from Thanksgiving break. Chad thought that his grades were due on Monday, but instead he had all the way until Friday to get them done, so that was some relief for him. Wednesday he got to take the day off and come home to help with the girls, as I seemed to had pulled something in my back. I was reaching in the cupboard for a bowl and then I couldn't move, it had been spasing for a little while, but then after they stopped, it was just real sore, so trying to pick up our two girls was a feat in itself. So he came home and helped. The weekend wasn't too much of anything. Friday he had to ref at one of the grade schools with Phill, so I went and picked up Christian from his basketball practice and then we had pizza with them at our place. Saturday I was set on getting some Christmas shopping done, but ended up with not too much. Sunday we ended up going to late church and then we just spent the day playing and watching football. I did get the tree and decorations up and Maddie is still a little curious about the tree. She hasn't taken any ornaments off, but has to go around and touch them all. She has tried to put the lights in her mouth.

This week looks pretty slow. Maddie has her 18month check up on Friday. I think that she has grown up, but I don't think she has grown out, we will see. This weekend is the faculty Christmas party. I'm not sure if we are both going or if I am just going to send Chad. We will see how the week goes.

We leave in two weeks from tomorrow and I am already trying to get things ready here. I have been trying to make a list of the things that we will need in the car and for the ride. I'm sure we will be getting ready up until the moment we leave. Have a great week.

This week in Pictures

Thanksgiving 2006

Jamie has started putting these slide shows on her blog and since I have completely redone my blog, I thought that maybe I would try something a little different with my pictures too.

It has been awhile since my last post, but that might have something to do with the fact that we haven't been home in over a week. Last Saturday (the 18th) was a playoff football game, we won 65-41. That meant that they survived another week. We took off for Carrollton on Sunday morning about 9:30am. We got there about 2:30, that was after a short stop in Ennis for lunch. Chad had the opening worship for the conference on Sunday, so the girls and I stayed home. Monday Maddie was in heaven with having other kids to play with. Kathy watches 4 kids, but only three of them were there, so Maddie had friends to play with the whole day. Emma and I did some errand running in the morning and then came home for a nap. I went to pick Chad up at Prince of Peace and we went out with some of the staff from CLHS. It was nice to be out without the girls. Tuesday was a short day for Chad, so the girls and I went and picked him up and we went to the mall for lunch. We then headed home and that night Adam (Chad's college roommate), Kimi-another CUWer, and her husband came over and had dinner with us. We then ended up playing 8-handed euchre. It was a lot of fun. Wednesday was a hang out day. We went to church in the evening and then came home and played more cards. Thursday-Turkey Day. The girls gave us a great Thanksgiving present and they both slept for about thre hours. Emma was in the pack-n-play all by herself. It was so nice to have my hands free to do other things. We got to play outside since it was 78degrees. We ate and of course played more cards. Friday we (the girls) did venture out to Michaels for a few things. The boys stayed home and watched the Texas/A&M game. A&M did come out the winner, but it was a good game. We took Eric and Christina out for pizza while Dave and Kathy celebrated their anniversary. We came back and watched The Incredibles and then when everyone got home, it was another round of cards. I have no idea who won how many games, but we will have to get the official scoring from Dave and make sure we let Grandma and Grandpa Bickel know. Saturday we headed out at about 9:30. After taking out time and stopping at Pizza Hut for the lunch buffet, we managed to pull in about 2:45pm. Last night was a try to get unpacked and get things together. Maddie was so happy to see all her toys, that she managed to take everyone out of her toybox, all the ones off the shelves, and even dump her bins in her room. It is like is was some sort of homecoming ritual for her. Today was church, grocery shopping and football. We still have some unpacking to do and some getting the house in order. We are going to get all the Christmas stuff out next weekend and start the decorating. This week should be pretty low key, nothing major going on. Chad has just 8 weeks until baseball, so planning is beginning. We have just three weeks until we leave for Christmas and so we still have shopping to get done (I have a feeling that some of that will be done once we get to Wisconsin), and plans to make for while we are home.

We hope that everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving. We can't wait to see everyone in just a few weeks for Christmas. I am hoping for some snow for Maddie to be able to play and sled in. I just have this feeling that she will love sledding.

In a new weight class

Well Emma had her 4 month check-up today and I think that she now weighs more than her cousin Ella who will be a year old next month. She had to get shots again today, but she did great. Maddie didn't have to have a check up, her's is next month. We got some medicine to hopefully clear up both of their colds that have made their noses run constantly for the last 3 weeks. We go through about a box of kleenex every 2 days. Other than that, just still recovering from the trip home last weekend. We are getting ready to leave again on Sunday morning after church. Saturday is the football playoff game, I don't think we will be going, but Chad has to be there to supervise. At least the game starts at 6pm instead of 7:30, so he should get home semi-early. We hope that everyone has a great Thanksgiving and it may be awhile until we post again.

What a Weekend

We have been gone and back to Wisconsin and it seemed like such a whirlwind weekend, but it was a whole lot of fun. The flight up there was good. Emma had a little hard time adjusting and then finally fell asleep. At least there was another kid on the plane that screamed the whole flight. Then Friday we went to Martin Luther and got a chance to catch up with Mr. Wingfield and saw cousin Alex in class. We met Amy, Ben, and Sam at Grandma and Grandpa's and headed out to Chuck E Cheese for lunch. Ben and Maddie had lots of fun playing games and running around. The rest of the day was spent hanging out. Saturday was Eric and Jackie's wedding. It was a good time. We went to the hotel after the ceremony and just waited for the reception to start. By 6pm some of the Janetzke clan came to take Emma and watch her up in the room. Maddie then stayed and danced for awhile. She was having a ball, she was dancing and doing sommersaults everywhere, even on the dance floor. We hung out for awhile, but came to the conclusion that we are getting old as we all sat around a table and just talked. In the morning we got up and ate breakfast with everyone and then it was off to the Janetzke's for the day. It was awesome to meet Luke and to see everyone. Not too much to report from Sunday, just a lot of catching up and hanging out. The flight back was pretty uneventful. We got back to the house by about 3:30 and it was just getting things in order for the rest of the night. I have loads of laundry to do to get ready to pack to go up to Carrollton this weekend. I can hardly believe that next week is already Thanksgiving. Tonight we are going to the girls basketball game, since the next home game isn't until December 15th or something like that. We have about 5 weeks until Christmas. That isn't that far away either. We are looking forward to having a little bit more time to see everyone then. Here are pictures from this weekend.














Get outta my way- Stuart and I might just run you over














Here's how Emma spent her day at Chuck E Cheese















Almost everyone looking at the camera















Waiting for the party to start














Just can't get them all at the same time














Cousin Ella-boy does she have one heck of a scream














Dancing with dad














Luke and Emma just talking to each other














Luke might be wearing the wrong colors, but we still love him

A warm up here, so I think we'll head up north

Yes, we had our fall weather. It did dip down into the 40's at night here, but this week it is suppose to be back to 80 by Thursday. So what a perfect time to fly to Wisconsin and feel the nice 20 degree weather. I have a feeling that the longer we are down here, the harder it is going to be to adjust to the cold when we go back to visit. I think that I will be able to tolerate the cold because we get to see everyone. I am getting so excited to head home. It seems like it has been forever since we have seen anyone, even though Grandma and Aunt Jana were just down here three weeks ago. I have started to try to get organized for the week, but I'm sure that on Wednesday evening and Thursday morning we will be getting everything together.

This weekend was Homecoming. We did manage to get to the game and stay for the entire thing. We won 42-14. Maddie loves going to the games, so she can just run around with all the other kids. It was a little cold. It actually felt like football weather. Saturday Chad had announcing duty at school. The TAPPS had regional play at school and so he announced all the games. We went up and when the games were down, Maddie did what she does best, ran around the gym. Today has been a pretty lazy day. We went to church and came home and I went grocery shopping, it has been watching football the rest of the day. I have managed to throw some laundry in and get some other cleaning done too. This week looks pretty low key, just getting ready to go on Thursday. Christian does have a basketball game on Tuesday and so we might go to that. We can't wait to see everyone and meet cousin Luke. Maddie has been practicing her dance moves, so she can dance with cousin Ben at the party where there will be cake (Ben told me that there was going to be cake at this party on the phone the other day).














Maddie never wants to leave her hair in ponytails, so this is what she normally looks like when she pulls them out.














Here are the girls waiting for the game to start on Friday, Maddie was trying to sit like Emma (since she was propped up on the couch)














Outside at school, just hanging out on the picnic tables



















Always wondering why the camera is always in her face














Isaac trying to give Maddie a kiss

2 pumpkins, a duck, an A&M football player, and Superman

Here is the line up minus one pumpkin. The missing pumpkin is Faith, but she was there. Well we went trick or treating up in the Sommermeyer's neighborhood on Tuesday. It isn't like we don't like our neighborhood, but we just thought that it would be more fun to go with other people. Maddie had a great time. She just followed Isaac and Gabe's lead. We then went back to the Sommermeyer's house for pizza and to hang out just for a little while. Other than Halloween this week, we haven't had too much going on. This week is Homecoming and the big game is tomorrow. I think that we will be going, since this is the last home game anyways.

The weather has cooled down here, so that has been nice. The last few days it has been in the high 60's, which has just been wonderful. It actually feels like fall. We are hoping that when we get to Wisconsin next week, we will get to see some fall colors. Hopefully no snow, we can wait for Christmas for that.

Emma News: She is getting to be her own person more and more everyday. She definetly is the complete opposite of Maddie. She is going to be our high maintenence kid. She is growing more and more. She is getting the hang of sitting up for just a few seconds at a time. She has rolling over from her tummy to back down, now we just need to get her from her back to tummy.

Maddie News: She continues to amaze me that we haven't made a trip to the ER yet. She will no doubt have some broken bone in her life. She is learning new words. There is going to be a day where she just starts saying them all at once. She is also learning some signs for some words. We have please and thank you down and are working in a few more.

Us News: Pretty much the girls' lives are our lives. Chad is working hard on getting baseball together, since the first practice is January 23rd. It isn't that far away. We are all looking forward to our visit home next week. We will have then just 4 days after we get back from Wisconsin to get ready to head up to Dallas for Thanksgiving.

Here are a few pictures from the last week: