More Christmas vacation activities...

Our neighbors the Macks are military retirees and they told us we needed to visit the Patton Museum, so this place has been on our list for a while. Now that Drew is in Cub Scouts, some of the things we do, he can pass of as part of his requirements. This was one of them. I've never been a big museum buff, but this place was pretty cool. It had tanks from all the different wars fought from World War I to Desert Storm. It had different types of guns, jeeps, missile launchers and other warfare. It is located about 1 hour south of Louisville in Fort Knox, which is the Army base here in Kentucky.

"Hitlers Nightmare"

Whoa what a bullet!

"General Patton"

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That night I was making dinner and the next thing I know I look over just in time to see Jack falling down the stairs. Nothing I could do but watch and scream. He fell from the very top stair all the way to the bottam. Luckily he rolled on his side, and it wasn't head over feet. Otherwise I think there would have been much more damage. He came away with a big bump near his eye, which over the last few days has given him quite a nice shiner! This is the 4th time he has fallen down these stairs. I'm not sure how to prevent it. The kid is completely accident prone!

Christmas Eve

The afternoon of Christmas Eve I took the older kids ice skating with our friends the Lorenats. This was the first time Laynee and Drew had ever been, and it was my second time. The first time being back when I was 18. Drew was a stud. He picked it up very quickly and went full out. Not caring if he fell. Laynee was a lil more careful. We usually skated holding hands. It made both of us feel a little bit more reassured with our skating abilities. By the end we were doing pretty good as well. Drew didn't want to leave, but I was cold and my knees hurt. ( I'm def. getting old!)

I'm not so sure about this!

Drew and his friend Brock

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That night the Davis and Mendenhall families came over to have Christmas Eve dinner and decorate some cookies. We made some yummy Cafe Rio and the kids had a hay day decorating cookies. Christmas was in the air. The kids were crazy hyper and ready for a visit from Santa! I didn't get very good pictures, so these will have to do.

Ben, Seth, Justin and Drew
Laynee and Adison

Christmas Morn 2009

Well another Christmas has come and gone. This year the kids were as excited as ever. In years past it has always been me and Spencer waiting for the kids to get up, not this year. Laynee and Drew asked if they could get up at 6 a.m. We said sure, knowing that in years past it never happened. The only stipulation was they could NOT set an alarm. Well the kids went to sleep and had vision of sugarplums except for Jack, which was sick all night with a horrible cold. No sleep for us. Sure enough at 5:55 a.m. Laynee and Drew came bounding into our room, just as we had settled ourselves down for a long winters nap. This was the first Christmas I can ever remember when I did NOT want to get up! I had to get up. I couldn't tell them to go back to bed and take away this Christmas moment. Soooooooo......here is Laynee with her electric scooter. She also got clothes, clothes, shoes, and a snuggie.
Drew on his new bike. He also got an air soft gun with all the equipment, and a remote control helicopter.

Jack saw these bouncer balls from Santa (one was his and the other is Seths) and he would not put them down. He carried them around for a good part of the morning. Whenever he opened a new present, he would try to hold it along with everything else. Funny kid. Jack also got a scooter, a sword, and baby dino.

I didn't get a picture of Seth this year, not sure why, but he got a skee ball machine, a sword, and a bunch of other stuff. All in all Christmas was a success once again.

Seth's Christmas Program....

was today at his Preschool and he did a very cute job, with only a few rare dorky Seth outbursts. If I was computer/techy savy at all, I would upload a bit of his singing, but I'm not. They sang 4 songs. Christmas Bells, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, We Wish You a Merry Christmas, and Happy Birthday Jesus. After the program, we went to his classroom and had some cookies.
They also had Santa there making a friendly appearance for all the kids. This was Jacks first encounter with Santa and we weren't sure how it was going to go, but he was so excited and went over and jumped on his lap and preceeded to tell Santa everything he wanted for Christmas. Santa gave them both a coloring book...I guess we will have to wait for another week to see what else he brings them.

Got your ugly Christmas sweater?

Last week was the annaul Storms Christmas Party. As always, fun was had by all. We did most of the same things. Pot luck yummies, signs, mafia, name game, white elephant gift exchange, and new this year, an ugly christmas sweater contest. I looked everywhere for the worst, but really couldn't find anything. My sweater was ugly, but not bad. On the day of the party, Spence still didn't have a sweater to wear. He called me from work and I told him to pick one up on the way home...he said he didn't want to. I pretty much commanded him to, and I'm glad he did. This is the pretty lil' number he came home with......

And oh yes, he won! Cathy Lorenat put up a good fight with hers, but Spence could not be outdone. I think the fact that it was a woman's vest, and it was too small helped capture him the win. Upclose...isn't the bead work amazing! It really was like wearing armor it was so heavy.