Disney on Ice

A couple weeks ago Dan and I took Elise and Owen to go see Disney on Ice. We had never been and thought it was a lot of fun. The costumes were pretty impressive and even the cheap seats were good seats. Owen liked it but was disappointed by there being "SO MANY" princess numbers and there not being a CARS number. Maybe next time... Ellie was in love.

We showed up a little early so we bought the kids a couple of these light up spinners to distract them and keep them happy (at $20 a pop! ugh).

My boy has been a little camera shy these days, not sure what's going on with that!

Not Ellie or mom... we love getting our pictures taken :).

Daddy and his daughter.

A desperate attempt at a family picture (sans Mags who was getting some Grammy attention). We had a good time and think this will be fun again next year. Daniel gets some good deals on shows like these through work so I think we will be able to take advantage in the future.

Turkey Dash 2009

With all the running that's been going on around here, several members of our family decided to participate in the Katy YMCA Turkey Dash. I've been running for awhile now, Ryan has been running longer than I have, my mom has started in the last month or so... so we had a bit of a running group going on! Daniel talked a big game swearing he could beat me in the race only having run a handful of times in the past month. Kim also did great though had to take it easy considering her current condition.

Our running crew.

The girls.
The boys.

My friend Tiffany and I... she and I run a lot together and have done a couple races together now and plan on more this upcoming year.

Dan and I... we look SOOO ready to get out there and sprint past each other to the finish, don't we?

My mom was so awesome!! This was her first race (Dan's too) and it was so fun to be able to share it with those first timers because it really is very exciting (and addictive).

A pre-race picture before we have at it on the race course!

This was the group of us from our church that came to race on Thanksgiving morning. I loved cheering everyone on.

Here's my mom coming in for the finish-- WOO HOO!!!! Since I couldn't manage a decent picture of anyone else crossing the finish, I am happy that I got this shot of my mom!

FOR THE RECORD

Erin won!!!-- I ran the 5K in 23:53 (that's about a 7:42 pace)-- gun time

Dan came in second-- 5K in 25:02 (that's about a 8:04 pace)-- gun time

(stupid chip timing was messed up so you can probably subtract at least 30 seconds from that).

Also, I came in FIRST in my division and Dan came in 10th!! We did awesome!

So, off the block Daniel shot past me and I thought to myself, "Oh crap, he is totally going to beat me and I've been the one training like crazy!!". I was about 50 feet behind him for the first mile... we ran it in about 6:30 minutes! Then, I caught up to him, looked at him, smiled and knew that I wouldn't see him again until I watched him cross the finish line from the other side :). VICTORY!!! It is so sweet.

January 31 I am participating in a marathon relay with 3 of my friends in Waco. 3/4 of us are having our husbands run our legs of the race. It should be fun and I am excited to see if I can still beat Dan in 2 months. I'll keep you posted.

Houston ZOO

On Monday, I decided to take the kids to the zoo. We had gone the week before, but because I bought a zoo membership we can now go anytime we want. It was a really good investment, we got a 25% discount through Dan's work and we got a supporting membership which allows us to bring in 3 adults and 10 kids every visit. All for about $90, so we will probably go at least monthly, if not bi-weekly or so. Mostly I like it because I don't have to feel obligated to stay when the kids melt down. We go in the morning and about lunch time or shortly after the kids start to go crazy and I know it is time to go home.

This past visit the kids and I and UNCLE PAT (who is home for Thanksgiving) went to the zoo together. The weather was gorgeous and I'm happy we went. Though we did spend a good chunk of the time at the zoo playground, the kids still enjoyed the animals.
We left before seeing the reptile exhibit last time so I was pleasantly surprised home much they enjoyed it when we went this time. They thought it was pretty cool. Ellie was way into the snakes and Owen loved the lizards. GROSS!

Ells bells seeing how her hand matches up to a monkey's hand.

This was a little crazy because she was right next to this HUGE ape (picture does not do him justice)... he did look a little hungry and kept eyeing my children.

The girls.

My brother and I cheesin' it up McPherson style.

This little Magdals... I am thinking about keeping her...snotty face and all.

Uncle Pat!!! Sure wish he lived closer.

Owen was so funny, he stayed in this little tunnel for like a half hour.

Mom and Ellie.

My boy.

Uncle Pat catching Maggie on the way down.

Magdalyn-- this girl makes too many goofy faces.

Owen having a little snack on the playground.

Elise thought it was pretty cool that the hippo was eating her. She kept asking me to go see the hippo at the zoo and I kept thinking that the Houston zoo doesn't have any hippos, but obviously, they have one!

The giraffes were fun as they have two baby giraffes and they are all always so easy to see!

Ellie riding in the choo choo wagon... which was so much better than the stroller I brought last time!!!

I love this picture for some reason. Owen and Uncle Pat. Owen is at this stage where he doesn't want his picture taken so it really is like a miracle when I get a decent one. McPherson cousin pictures are happening this week... should be interesting to see how that works out!

My Magdalyn chowing down on fruit snacks. This girl LOVES fruit snacks (I never have liked these much) and will eat several bags if I let her... thankfully she is also a good fruit eater and loves crackers as well.

Uncle Pat and Owen checking out the Sea Lions--- I told Pat on the way to the zoo that he is playing man to man (Uncle Pat to Owen) and I will play the zone defense. Worked out well I think! Certainly much easier with another set of hands around. We look forward to lots more zoo adventures this year.

Owen Turns 3!!!

Our big boy turned 3 on Friday!!! We were all so excited. I was especially eager for him to turn 3 so people would stop being so surprised that this 45 pounder was still a two-year-old!! A long time ago I saw a great idea for a birthday party, "Puppet Theatre". It was perfect because I had been wanting to get the kids a puppet theatre for them to perform their own puppet shows (they are really into the pretend play right now) so I decided to combine the two and make a party out of it!!

We started about a month ago thinking of ideas and how we wanted to make it happen and I think it turned out alright. It's easy for me to think about all that I wish I had done and didn't or what things I could have done better, but I think it went well! So, here are the pictures for Owen's 3rd birthday-- "RED PUPPET THEATRE"

For food, we did Owen's absolute favorite... hot dogs, but the real show stoppers were the yummy cake and cupcakes my mom made!!!

We did have to put the cake away for a bit because Owen got a little too excited and wanted to have at it right then and there. But we did let him lick the icing with his fingers later on... he was the only one that got to eat that cake :).

... and yes, these were as good as they look!! Red velvet cake with red sprinkles!

The red food bar.

Flags, flags and more flags! I had one mom say, "when you said you were making flags, I thought you were just doing one little string to go across a table or something". Um, no. She apparently doesn't realize my tendencies to go a little overboard!

I also made hats and mini puppet theatres for each of the children but I didn't get any pictures of the mini theatres and they were so cute!!! GRR.

The Puppet Show.

The puppet show, complete with popcorn for everyone, went really well!! Dan and I kind of threw it together at the last minute so it was really surprising how much the kids loved it! I mean, the house was a zoo with around 20+ kids there most the time, but during this show, the kids were eyes were GLUED on the show!! It was great... and it must be said that Daniel and I might have a future as puppeteers.... ok, not.

Getting ready to play games (the front room came in very handy for this sort of thing--- and you can see in the right hand corner the mini theatres... a little anyway).

LUNCH--me making sure everyone has what they need... though I should mention that there were LOTS of moms helping me out and cleaning up too!!!

Someone enjoyed the cupcakes a little too much.

Opening presents:

Owen opened the first present. That's it. Just the one. He wanted to open it and play with it and hardly noticed another gift (until after the party).

So this is when all the kids jumped in to open his presents for him... and this is also when control was lost.... even with 10 moms around.

All and all, I think the party was very successful! We are lucky to have lots of kids around the same ages as our children. Owen loved all of his gifts. It's amazing how every gift was so perfect for him!!! He will be entertained until Christmas for sure!!!

Happy Birthday my sweet boy!! We love you so much and are so happy you are in our family. You keep me on my toes and say and do so many fun things. Can't wait to see what 3 has in store for us! (hopefully a mostly potty-trained year).

What's been going on...

So much has been going on (the reason I haven't blogged in so long). We have settled into our new home nicely. The kids love our new house, as do Dan and I. Maggie stuck around me for the first week or so, unsure of her new space to roam, but now they all scatter all over the house to play. Keeping this house clean certainly takes a lot more time than did our other house, but as long as I get some time at home, I can keep a good groove as far as house work goes.

We have been very fortunate to fit right in and make lots of new friends here quickly. I realized from living in Austin that it was important for my own sanity and happiness to have friends and also for my kids to have friends and do things with them often. We've been lucky to do that and have so many already! There are so many great people here and we have probably got a busier life now than ever!!

I took the kids out of preschool a month or so ago. There were several reasons... it cost a lot of money, Owen still had two more years after this year of preschool to do, it was quite a distance from our house and I didn't care for the school they were in. I was concerned that them not going would be hard for all of us, but it has actually been great. We are involved in a babysitting co-op so I get out whenever I need to, we are always playing with friends, we go to the gym each day so they get to play in the play center there and we go places each day. It is actually working out great and I've enjoyed them all being home together every day. We are considering doing a preschool co-op with some people in the ward in January, but I am hoping it will be low stress.

In other news, I ran another race on Halloween. It was a 5K- 24:45 was my time. I ran with my friend Tiffany who I have been running with a lot on the weekends. We, along with lots of others and members of my family, will be running a 5K on Thanksgiving as well! Also, in January I am running in a marathon relay with 3 other friends--- I am so excited about it that I can hardly stand it!-- and I am ultimately training for a half marathon that I'll be running in March. I figure that I will never be this into running so I might as well do all that I can. I am amazed that I've been able to do it, that is for sure!!!

The weather here has been so gorgeous this past month. We have practically been living outside!!! The kids enjoy riding bikes and playing out there and I am able to weed and work on the flower beds (which I finally finished... it was quite the effort) while they play. It must be said that culdesac life is definitely the life for us! Here are lots of pictures of the kids playing outside:

Owen has been a busy boy these days. He is still his independent, happy self, but continues to be a pretty lovable guy as well. He is at a great age to have little conversations with and has realized that he can keep up with Ellie in the talking department. He is so smart and knows all of his letter sounds and is constantly telling us what words start with what letters and visa versa. His feet are bigger than Ellie's and he keeps catching up to her in size until she has another growth spurt of her own. Potty training hasn't happened yet. We tried before we moved here and he was good for a few weeks but then decided he wasn't going to do it. After talking with many moms I realized he is not unusual, but I do hope to get it done after the new year.... just in time to do Maggie.

Elise has been so great to have around these past couple months. I've enjoyed our time together and will miss her next year when she ventures off to kindergarten. She definitely rules our roost and has convinced herself that she is a mom as well. She is actually a wonderful big sister and always takes such great care of her brother and sister. Ellie does love to do lots of crafts and activities which gets hard when mom has to do other things around the house and can't always pay full attention to her. She is so beautiful and smart, we love her so much! Something about Ellie that always boggles our minds is how she has such a great memory. I mean, this girl can remember things and places and people from years ago and she is only 4! Certainly it is apparent that some gifts are innate and she definitely was born with a wonderful memory-- she is going to do awesome in school.

Our Magdalyn Beth... is growing!! She is 18 months now and cuter than ever. She has lots of curls so we are convinced she will have curly hair but you never know. She is such a sweet girl, loving to give everyone big hugs and kisses almost whenever requested!!! She thinks she is as big as her brother and sister and is always trying to keep up with them. Maggie is as goofy as she is cute and she is already our silly child. Just the past few weeks she has started trying to say more things. She doesn't have a real extensive vocabulary... why does she need it when she has a big brother and sister around to do all her talking for her and when she has got her parents jumping whenever she grunts and points?!? Maggie loves to sing and dance and run and play... she is so sweet!

Our goofy girl.

Daniel is busy with work and enjoying his new job. I think he wishes he didn't have to rely on others so much to accomplish what he needs to, but I am sure that will resolve itself over time. As you can tell, we are doing well and loving our new place. We miss Austin and our friends there but know this is where we were meant to be. We love it and are certainly staying entertained and busy.

Halloween 2009

We have been MIA in the blogging world for quite awhile now, but I hope that I can catch back up and start documenting what is going on in our lives.  I always regret not recording memories and posting pictures that we can look back on. 

Halloween was fun this year.  Maggie was an octopus, like Ellie was 3 years ago, Owen was the Lightning McQueen pit crew and Elise was Tinkerbell.  I had fun with the costumes this year.  They were really easy and maybe that is why it was so fun.  Maggie's costume we already had, I spent $2 on ebay for Owen's costume and I bought Ellie's wings and tutu on Etsy.  I was happy to have gotten the tutu because once I got it in the mail it was easy to figure out how to make them myself and can now make one whenever I want!

Here is our little family at our church Trunk or Treat.  This was definitely the highlight of our Halloween celebration as our neighborhood kind of flopped as far as trick or treating goes.  Now we know for next year to venture out to other neighborhoods.  There seem to be a few that are the hot spots for trick or treating.

All of the kids really dug into the cupcakes, as you can see!

This is the best I've got of Owen.. he has been tough to photograph these days.

Magdalyn munching on a cupcake.

All in all it was a pretty fun Halloween.  We enjoyed a couple of parties, various crafts, treats and endless amounts of candy.  Another great Halloween for our family!

Holland

I'm going to post a few pictures from my trip to the Netherlands last month in the hope that it inspires Erin to catch up on all the fun stuff the kids have done with Halloween, pumpkin painting, ear infections, etc.  I stayed in Delft, which is minutes south of the Hague by train.  It was nice, but I was there essentially by myself, and there's nothing more depressing than sight-seeing alone.  It was rainy the whole time I was there, so I spent a lot of my free time in the hotel room watching Dutch TV.  Good thing they broadcast a bunch of stuff in English with subtitles or I really would have been bored.  As it was I caught up on reruns of "Two Guys, a Girl and a Pizza Place." 

The street my hotel was on.

The "new" church

The building on the other side of the town square from the "new" church

Proof that I was actually there and that I'm not particularly good at taking pictures of myself.

The "old" church.  Supposedly the tower leans a little to the left.  But you can't really see it in this picture.

The canals - there were little kids playing in those big plastic bubbles.

Street singing

Strange sculpture (a blue heart?)

The one nice weather day (afternoon really).  You can see the leaning tower a little better in this picture.

A sculpture of a guy in front of the new church.  I don't remember who he is though.

And that's it.  I'm sure I'll get to go again, so I wasn't too sad that I didn't really do anything.  Mostly I realized that two weeks is a long time to be away from Erin and the kids.  So, no offense to the Dutch people, but I hope my next trip is shorter. 

In the midst of this seriously long blogging drought, we really have been busy settling into our new home.  Since I haven't taken pictures in an embarrassingly long time, I thought I ought to snap a few before Daniel takes the camera with him on his trip.  Here are some pictures of the kids while we played with play dough.

Elise has started to settle into our new home.  She still has a bit of a hard time grasping that she won't be seeing her old friends again, but is enjoying getting to know the new kids from church.  She continues to want mom and dad to entertain her most of the day and loves to teach Owen and Maggie anything and everything.

Owen, who refuses to look at the camera long enough to snap a decent picture, is doing great.  He is having a hard time transitioning back into preschool, but that is probably because he is two and gets to run wild every other minute of the day.  He is starting to learn letter sounds and what words start with which letters.  He is also finding several friends his age and talks about them often.

Magdalyn is kind of at a difficult age.  Always on the go, hates riding in the car and can't be apart from mom for more than a nano second.  Luckily, she is getting cuter and cuter by the day and has been handing out the kisses left and right.  She also loves to sing and is finally starting to form a couple of words.

Maggie is such a goofball that I wanted to include all of these silly pictures.

And this will be me for the next 3 weeks as Daniel leaves for the Netherlands tomorrow.  Wish me luck.

House Changes

I was holding off to see if I was ever going to get more stuff on the walls, but it hasn't happened yet. So, I am going to go ahead and post a few before and afters. Some of the angles are different, but here is a sneak peek of what we have done so far.

Family Room Before:

After:

Ellie's Room Before:

After:

Playroom Before:

After:

Hall View Before:

After:

Breakfast Area Before:

After:

Erin's First Race- 10K

Well, I did it!  I ran in my first ever race.  After my brother-in-law convinced me that I can run outside if I can run on a treadmill (I had NEVER run outside before), I decided to try a race.  I found one online that was being held in about a week so I did two quick training runs and then went to the race.  I had three goals for this 10K:

#1-Finish

#2- Keep Running- don't stop

#3- finish in less than an hour

Before the start of the 5K/10K, they had a 1K for the kids in the stadium, so this is me in the stadium before the race started... spandex and all!  Yikes.

Ready to start the race... there were several hard core runners, but they were up in front right on the starting line.

This is me crossing the finish line.  I have to admit, I was pretty proud of myself.  I finished in 56:15...not bad for the first race.  I ran the entire time, even as I was grabbing water on the side of the road... admittedly, I am going to have to work on the coordination that is involved in drinking water while running.... several times it went up my nose and was lucky to get a swallow before it all sloshed out of the cup.  I passed many people and even passed people who looked in much better shape than me.  After I finished and rested for less than a minute, I felt like I could keep going as well.  PLUS, I didn't get lapped!

This is me getting my reward for finishing second in my division!!!  The first place girl ran it in 38 minutes... uh, not even close! 

This is Maggie and I right before we left... I was pretty sweaty!!!  Now, I am thinking on working on the 10 mile run and then maybe, just maybe I can pull off a half marathon???  I don't know, we'll see.

First Day of Preschool

Elise and Owen started at a new preschool this past Tuesday.  We were all excited about it and the kids couldn't wait to get there.  I expected to have a little bit of time for transitioning and what not, but this was the easiest thing ever!!   They must have remembered how preschool works from when they went last year because they didn't skip a beat.  They went in so easily and were good and followed directions the entire time!  (I really need to figure out what they do at preschool that works so well because they sure don't follow MY directions).

Owen's teacher is Miss Nadja.  He loves her already.  He is in the 2's class and looks like he could eat his other classmates.  He is easily and by far the biggest kid in the class and bigger than most kids in Ellie's class as well.  He has been playing well says the teacher and has been going to the bathroom at school without issue.  (Again, why won't this work at home?)

Elise's teacher is Miss Carrie.  She was having a hard time remembering her name so I told her to think about how Miss Carrie rhymes with "scary".  Well, it worked but I think she sometimes slips and calls Miss Carrie, Miss Scary.  She loves preschool and is already considering her classmates as her best friends and doesn't know why mom isn't inviting them all to the house yet.

Saturday= Pool Day

Continuing our fun weekend with our Zielke family, we went to our neighborhood pool (which is now only open on the weekends.. rip off).  Anyways, there isn't much to say, but lots of pictures to share.  I will say that despite some of the frightening expressions on some of the children's faces as they were coming down the slide, they actually had a blast!!!

Erin and Owen

Kyra

Uncle Ryan and Addy

Owen

Kim, Kyra and Elise

Grammy, Elise and Kyra

Addy

Kim striking a pose

Erin and Maggie

Owen and Kyra (you can't tell me this isn't cute)

Dan and Maggie

Erin and Papa (or dad)-- (again, you can't tell me this isn't cute :))

Kyra and Ellie, apparently after an unexpected dip

Elise and Owen

Ryan, Addy, Kyra and Elise... SCARY!

Maggie taking in some rays (I know, that pacifier... but really she doesn't want to give it up and I have more important things to do like potty train the boy)

Elise Louise

Papa enjoying the after-swim lounge chair. 

Fun at the Park

Last weekend Kim & Ryan and their kids came down for the weekend to celebrate Ryan's birthday.  It was a lot of fun and something we did to keep the kids busy was head to the park.  They really had a lot of fun and it was nice to find a park with some tree cover for shade.  It was still really hot, but we went fairly early, so we survived.

The tire swing was a big hit and Uncle Ryan kept it going for the kids.

30 years old folks... yes, this man turned 30.

Only one of a sparse selection of pictures we were able to catch of Owen who was pretty much in motion the entire time.

Magdalyn Beth sure enjoys a slide.

Sisters.

Kids of all ages enjoyed the park.

I'm including this picture because I was about to kill Daniel during it.  He was swinging SOOOO high and there were many kids around and if any of them had come near him, he would have completely wiped them out.  That is me next to him and I am sure if one zoomed in, I would have a pretty furious expression on my face.  Luckily for him, he flew off a few seconds later.