Christmas Eve

We went to Granny’s house for Christmas Eve this year. I really would have preferred to stay home since we have our own family Christmas Eve traditions, but I was polite and went anyways (even if I was super stressed out and just wanting to be back home again). Karen had made a turkey for dinner, and Laurel brought green bean casserole and sweet potatoes. There were some other things like olives and cranberry sauce and rolls. The kids never really seem to eat much when we go over for dinner, because they are always way more interested in playing with cousins.

I was worried about what presents Karen would end up getting for the kids. Last year she went way overboard and bought tons of stuff. Thankfully, it wasn’t so bad this year.

CIMG5447

CIMG5450

CIMG5434

CIMG5448

CIMG5443

And as usual, Kyle was silly. 🙂

Failed baby names

Rebecca and I have discussed a number of baby names over the years of expecting our brood, and some of the names she simply cannot agree with include:

Adam Ondi Andelin

Felix Navidad Andelin

Twins: Michael and Ickael (Mike ‘n Ike)

Shaniqua

Basil (and Ginger, if m/f twins) or any of the: Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme?

I don’t get it. What’s the problem?

(It’s funny, whenever we mention these names to family members, the first thing they ask is, “Are you pregnant?”  I don’t get it.  Why can’t we simply share a joke without being accused?)

And by they way the answer is “no”.

Tyra’s RAD Kids Graduation

Tyra had her RAD kids graduation this morning. It was more of a presentation of the things that they’ve learned. I knew what to expect of the graduation, because I had gone to Ethan’s last year, but I wasn’t sure what to expect out of Tyra. When it was Ethan’s turn, he saw the kids before him going through the course and he nearly freaked out and just would NOT do it. Tyra is a lot more outgoing though and she went all the way through. They basically had the kids go up to a person that was holding some soft squishy things to pretend they were attacking the kids, so the kid had to go into their stance and yell “Stay back you’re not my mom!” Then they had to go up to a dummy and pretty much yell the same thing and try to attack it. THEN they had to try to get past the police officer that has been teaching them. He was dressed from head to toe in red pads, and looked a lot like a transformer. 😉 The kids had to get from the dummy to their teacher, BUT the police officer caught them most of the time and they had to fight their way out! Tyra went through it just like she should, and she gave the officer a couple of good kicks because he had hold of her arms. She seemed rather pleased with herself for getting out of his grip.

CIMG5411

An Early Christmas Present

Kyle got me an early Christmas present. I’ve been trying to get out to run, but since it’s too dark in the evenings and too dark in the mornings it’s been nearly impossible to get outside to run. So Kyle bought me a treadmill!

CIMG5398

It’s pretty awesome. It has iFit capability (and even came with a set of workout cards), some built in walking and running workouts, and I can just get on set it to whatever speed/incline I want, and just run. 🙂