go ahead, tell em jack

and tell them he did.  at the front of the room. to his entire 1st grade class!

and yes, at church, it IS painful!

bragging rights

omaha's zoo has legitimate bragging rights.  voted #1 in the world (yes, world- you did not read that wrong)- the henry doorly zoo is quite incredible!  after a tiny sebbatical from zoo membership, we recently renewed and were so happy to return.

when accompanied by exclusive zoo friends, it is even more magical! (yes, we have a favorite set of friends for the zoo- don't you?)

panic on NYE

"home for New Years?  what are we going to do?  do we have any traditions?  what does everyone else do?  is there a party circuit we aren't privy to because we're so often gone?  maybe we should do something???  but we're rookies at NYE?  and we don't want to stay up with overly tired kids until midnight?  should we throw the kind of party we want? do we dare???"

...  yes, we dared and we had only 2 days to plan a party!  but that wasn't the scary part.  the panic set in as positive RSVPs kept coming until our guest list totalled 14 adults and 26 kids!  

"seriously, what were we thinking?  clearly, we weren't thinking!  why were we so careless? no one will even enjoy the party because it'll be a chaotic nightmare." 

we spent inordinate amounts of time planning structure to remedy our rookie status oversight and it paid off.  the party was fantastic! (minus, of course, the 2 days of preparation panic)  and we celebrated just as we wanted- with our kids and our friends!  everyone was happy, relaxed, and free of injury to ring in 2015!

signs of life

the FLU has visited our house and though the kids (and aunt jordy) are thus far immune, the parents are most certainly not!  this picture is the only evidence we have of life in the past 4 days.  otherwise staying in, sleeping long hours, watching mindless TV and even skipping his last two days of work before a new job- this is the one time dave and i ventured out alive.  as always, lake Z was good to us.  resuscitating life momentarily, we slid all around the iced over lake.

luckily, this terrible sickness didn't settle in until after the bachelor season kickoff- a dirty secret tradition that becky and i might have been devastated to miss!

hustle bustle 2014 edition

this year, kindin was let in on the big secret!  after crying incessently about wanting an elf on the shelf for the 3rd year in a row, we decided it was time to clue her in.  the devilish grin that immediately spread across her face was priceless but it was only 3 short days before she realized santa followed suit.  

a legos party for the boys

a day of tears following the ornament exchange with some of my most beloved and missed phoenix friends

a religious version of shake it off for the yw christmas party

stinky cast removal (it wasn't stinky- kindin just wanted to be prepared.)

it's practically a gingerbread factory around here: a party for k and 11 friends and a gingerbread event for the 1st graders   

a nutcracker tradition with our closest omaha allies

the longest date night we've had since newlywed dates with these most fun friends! 

a ridiculously humongous christmas tree

reaching 25# weight loss (sponsored by overnight oatmeal)

and dolly growing up really fast 

some things never change

jack loves his bath.  every night, jack loves his bath.  even when time is of the essence, jack loves his bath.  and... (as implied) jack loves his bath irresponsibly!  for years we have gone in and out of the bathroom at least twice nightly to police his bath-taking. (there almost always has to be a 'time to turn the water off now' reminder and an 'it's time to stop playing and get yourself clean' speech.)  we've tried various tactics to help him love bath time a bit more responsibly-  allotting more bath time, switching to showers, cutting back on showers to every other night, and giving strict time constraints- but continue to get plenty of nighttime exercise up and down the stairs a few times managing jack's bath time.

living in husker nation

some friends invited us to the unl cornhuskers game.   we had been somewhat interested in finding out what all the fuss is about so we happily obliged.  my brother was kind enough not only to watch our children* but also to boldly exhort us to wear husker colors.  we'd heard it all before in this crazy land where football is religion- how can you not?  it's hard to escape all the fuss: the supermarkets blast the game to the few shopping souls not watching the game intently; you simply can't find a donut that isn't slathered with red on game day; and a surprisingly shocking amount of households are decorated with huskers paraphanilia.  with 15 minutes before departure time, panic set in!  (we didn't want to be asked over and over how long we'd been in nebraska and we genuinely worried that our generous hosts might be annoyed if we showed up colorless.)  so we raced to target for college gear. here we are -feeling silly but embracing our billboard attire:   

here's the craziness we speak of:

and here's our wonderful friends (who yes, might have been annoyed if we weren't wearing red and black):

aahhhh... the cornhusker game is truly an experience.  and yes, we were so glad we had red on!  



*while we were gone, a funny thing happened.  justin was making mac and cheese for lunch and jack chided 'yuck' when asked if he'd like any.  he was quickly but quietly escorted out of the kitchen by his older sister and came back solemnly with his tail between his legs stating, 'I'll have a little bit please.'