Where did the year go?

Oh my. I swore I wouldn't do this anymore.....I did it and I left ya hangin', didn't I. I'm blaming it all on Facebook! It's true. Since I have started using FB, my blogging has pretty much come to a stand-still.

Well, let's see if I can recap the year as it's been.

My last entry was about INSANITY.  I said I'd post pictures, but I decided to only put them on FB....if you want to see them, check 'em out there! I finished it and will be doing it again in January. I'm thinking that this will be an annual event!! The workouts are still happening, they're just not anywhere as intense as what I experienced at the beginning of the year. My next venture will be TURBOFire. It looks like it's going to be a blast....I sure hope I'm ready for it!  Here's the lowdown on the family:

Aanika flew through 1st grade like it was nobody's business and was all too ready for 2nd grade. She spent the summer going to Camp Lakewood, visiting her Oma & Opa at the lake, days at Six Flags riding her coasters and many a lazy day at the local pool.

My summer was busy with a bathroom remodeling that is finally finished. It's lovely and relaxing and that's exactly what I wanted for it!
Kevin, well, let's just say he's had an interesting year. He's busy, busy, busy but he always made time for the family.

Fast forward to the new school year~

• Aanika's a 2nd grader, still a bookworm and has grown more in the last year than we can keep up with. At this rate, she's right on target for that 5' 10" growth chart prediction! We're not too sure she's going to keep on with violin. She doesn't seem to have the same interest in it that got us started down that road. Although she can play it "technically" she doesn't show the signs of having the ear for it. *sigh* Kevin is playing with the idea of starting back on piano....maybe Momma and Aanika can jump on that train when it comes through. ; )
• Kevin got a new toy! Because he has worked so hard this summer and missed out on a lot of fun, I bought him his "dream" bike! I know that he would never have bought it for himself....he'd just keep going to the store and admire it from afar. The surprise was awesome! He was actually speechless for quite a while.
• I've got some projects in the works for myself.
   

I'll do my best to post again soon to let you know how they're going....

INSANITY

We've reached the end of our 60-day INSANITY challenge. http://www.beachbody.com/product/fitness_programs/insanity.do?code=GETINSANITYDOTCOM The little girl even gets into it a bit on the weekends! Here she is working out with her daddy the other day.

We'll be posting our before and after pictures so check back soon!

Aanika's 7th Birthday!

Aanika had a fun-filled birthday! She picked Three Margarita's (Mexican) for lunch and then it was on to the big event.....THE PARTY!!



She invited 7 friends (7th birthday/7 friends) and all of them came! Here they are in the swimming finery and ready for a fun time.


Thanks to everyone who came and sent gifts....she had a wonderful day!

Little sick girl

Little bugs make for nasty playmates. Aanika has been home from school for the last 3 days!! Augh! For a kid who LOVES school, this is like torture. ; ) Pediatrician checked her over and is treating her with some meds.

Next post:
SHE'LL BE 7 YEARS OLD!!

I'll post pictures then.....

The little girl and her friends

It's been pretty quiet around here lately except for the amount of playdates that the little girl has been having. So, just for fun, I thought I'd show you some pictures of the little girl and some of her best buddies! We're so very thankful for these friends as well as their families. It's great knowing that she's growing up with such a great group of kids.


Joy and Aanika having dinner in her room - a very special treat!


Joy and Aanika selling flowers and seeds on a very warm November day. They made their own sign as well as a song that they sang at the top of their lungs as the cars went by. ; ) Best yet, they made over $6!


An after-school play date: Aanika, Kendahl, Joy and Jada. All of these sweet little girls live in our neighborhood.


Aanika and Kylie riding their bikes. Kylie lives two doors down....


The girls of summer....

Fun start to 2010

Just HOW do you start a new year out? Working? Travelling? Nope! For us it's taking down the Christmas decorations and the tree and best yet, ice skating!

As Momma took down all the little things of Christmas, the boys of the family tackled the tree. As you can see here, Mr. Smudgy is doing a fine job!


Here is Kev and Aanika getting ready to skate. Sorry, it's the only picture I have of her since they wouldn't allow cameras on the ice.


I did however manage to sneak it out and take a quick video of her. Sorry, the picture is sideways....like I said, I was being sneaky!

Aanika did really well except for one monster fall. She was finally venturing out on her own and it was going to be the last time she was able to get on the ice before the session closed. She no more touched her second skate to the ice and .....brief silence....SPLAT! and then the tears came. She was a tough cookie though! We stood her up, wiped the ice shavings from her bootie, dried her tears, gave her a hug and lots of encouragement and then off she went! All in all, a very fun outing. ; )

Long time, no see

Wow, it's been quite a while since I updated this! Facebook has kind of taken over as my posting site but I forget that not everyone is there....so, my new year's resolution is to keep this site current! ; )

We've had a lot going on this year. Aanika is now a FIRST GRADER and is a total bookworm. She loves school and says the library is her favorite class. Can that be considered a class? She thinks so, so I guess we'll just have to encourage that.

This summer was all about fun, fun, fun!! We spent many hours at Six Flags (daddy bought her and momma summer passes), bike riding - she's now confidently on two wheels, and all things little girls can do in the summer. We went to Oma & Opa Sprecher's house on the lake quite a few times and had lots of fun with her cousins, Aunts and Uncles as well as some new friends she met there. There were scooters to ride with the other kids, boat rides, dock jumping and even her first ride on a SeaDoo!! She loved her summer!



The end of our summer took us on a family trip to Wyoming to visit my nephew who is living and working on a beautiful ranch as well as a visit to Yellowstone. The trip went way too fast and we're looking forward to returning!




Now it's already past the Christmas season and we're moving full speed ahead into 2010....are we ready? I hope so! Violin is back in session for the Spring season, we're looking into Summer Camps for the little girl and tentatively making trip plans for something special next Christmas! We're also going to be starting some renovations on the house so that ought to be a ton of fun too.

Like I said, I'll keep this more up to date so be sure to come back often and see what's happening in our world!

Aanika's first BIG haircut

She did it! She finally decided to cut her hair and it was so worth it! We all love it but can't believe how much older she looks.

First grade, here I come!

Dad's Spring 2009 vacation

Well, the first week of Dad's visit was great (got to golf) but the second one was rain, rain, and more rain! We decided to take a trip down to Branson to visit with the in-laws and to play a little. Unfortunately for us the rain followed but we made the best of it and ventured off to Silver Dollar City.

The start of Dad's last week will be at a Cardinal's game on Monday night with Kevin. After that, the week remains wide open to the adventures we'll have! Check back soon for some more updates.

Dad on the tee

Travelling to Branson

Having some fun in the Funhouse

Dad, Tim & Kevin

Mary Had a Little Lamb

Aanika's doing wonderfully in her violin lessons and wanted to post a video of her playing.

Here she is playing Mary Had a Little Lamb.

Cil's furniture redo adventure

Wow, I got it done!

I bought some old and really beat up wicker furniture last fall with the intention of redoing it.

These are the before and after shots.

The BIG 4-0

Kevin's turned 40!

After the super surprise he threw for my 40th, I wanted to do something fun for him so I tried MY hand at a surprise party. Somehow I managed to keep it a secret from both Kevin and Aanika (don't ever tell her secrets!) for several weeks and we had a lovely evening with a bunch of our friends.

(The little girl in the picture is our friend's daughter, Madeline....she loves Kevin)

I made a chocolate cupcake-cake for my chocoholic sweetie, we had food delivered in and many of us overdosed on Mousse Au Chocolat that Hendrick made especially for the occasion (it's soooo good).

All in all, a great night!

Sweet Faced Girls

These are Aanika's best buddies, Joy and Kendahl. They all flew off the bus on Wednesday and managed to wrangle a playdate out of us moms. Since it was such a pretty day, they came over for some fun out in the 70 degree weather to play hopscotch and to jump rope together. I just couldn't resist getting a shot of them with their sweet little faces. They always have such a good time together!

I'm so thankful that we found this neighborhood.......

Happy 6th Birthday Aanika!

Aanika's 6 years old already - how the time flies!

Watch her grow with us....

One year old

2 years old

3 years old

4 years old

5 years old

6 years old ..... going on 16!

The first baby tooth is gone!

Aanika was cutting her eighth tooth when she was nine months old and she's finally lost her first tooth just before her 6th birthday!
After more than a month of having a very loose tooth, her new one came in behind her baby tooth instead of underneath it. By the looks of her dental x-rays that were taken the other day we think that three others on the bottom might do the same thing. Not a big deal but it draws out the process of actually losing the tooth. Fun fun.

Snow Day & Sledding

I got in my exercise AND my fun today! I was out shovelling at 6:15 a.m. and 50 minutes later I was finally finished. We got about 5 inches of fluffy stuff last night on top of about 2-3 inches of sleet that fell yesterday. Two whole days off of school and only one of them was good for sledding.

We were out on the neighborhood hill this morning by 10:00 a.m with some friends and other kids from the neighborhood. After about an hour or so we headed back in for lunch, a bit of a rest for Aanika and then back out on the BIG hill with our little friend Kylie (we have to drive to that one). 1.5 hours later we're at McDonalds for French Fries and milk (bleah!) then home to play some more in the yard. I finally got them in the house around 5 pm for a hot bath! Sheesh, I'm pooped.....

Three Sickies

Ever have one of those days? This is what I woke up to a couple weekends ago - my three sickies....Hubby, daughter AND the cat. It's been almost two weeks now and they're still fighting it - except for Smudge, he was only sick for about a day. Good time to be a cat I guess!

He's got the blonde girl thinking

Many of you know that I'm a true blonde and often poke fun at myself for being flighty but I gotta tell you about a blog that I follow that kicks me out of my "not a thought in my head" kind of mode. I'm not a muller of thoughts or a deep thinker in any way but I soooo look forward to his posts because I know that I'm going to get a new perspective on things and love the challenge of being more in this world than who I am and of doing more for it than I ever thought I could.

Ryan's blog today is powerful - be sure to click the link and check it out. This is Reverb

The New Citizen Oath

Today Aanika took the oath of an official "new" citizen! (Sorry, I have no pictures). Even though she technically became a citizen on the day that our plane landed in Chicago in 2003, there was still some final paperwork that would make it official. I've procrastinated for five years with getting this taken care of but I'm so glad I didn't get it done when she was a baby. After seeing her her stand there with her right hand raised promising to protect her nation, bear arms if necessary and to be a productive citizen, it was worth it! It was even better when the officials that oversee the process complimented her on how good she did with the oath....sure wish I could have recorded it!

First snow and other stuff

SNOW!
We've gotten our first snow of the season so, of course, I had to stick Smudge out in to check it out. He wasn't too sure of it and I bet he's glad he's got a cozy house to go back into!

FAREWELL
We've had to say goodbye to a good friend recently. Vivian is a consultant friend of ours who lives in California, flies in each week and then would leave on Friday just to do it all over again on Monday. Well, we adopted her into the family and she and Miss Alex (another consultant friend) would come over one or two times a month for a home-cooked dinner and some fun on the Wii. She told us that, because of our family, she saw what she was missing in having a family of her own and that's why she resigned her position. We're sad but we wish her the best of luck in her new endeavors. Playing on the Wii will never be the same for us after having played with her! Check out the clip of her with Aanika playing Tennis.....
VIOLIN PLUCKING
Technology is a wonderful thing. Aanika has a program on the computer that she can play along with an orchestra for her at-home practicing. As her training advances she'll be able to analyze her skills with it. Very cool to say the least! The clip below is of her using it for the first time.