Merry Christmas!

Ice cream parlor set from Santa!

Patrick and Morgan at McNulty Family Christmas, best buddies :)

Sledding at Ellenberger Park...wheeee!

...and sledding some more...

Enjoying the White Christmas morning...

Very happy with his Sky Racers airplane!

Our typical Christmas Eve was a bust this year, being that the kids were still feverish and battling a viral infection. Instead of mass and celebrating with the Bretz side, we stayed home and made our own snacks, watched Christmas movies, and enjoyed the snow coming down. Some Bretz family stopped by with gifts and to wish us a Merry Christmas. All in all, being home was actually a very nice alternative. But prefer the tradition :)

Christmas morning the kids were up before 6...the second time. Patrick was at our bedside around 3 am to tell me that he "didn't hear anything". Santa was very good to them, bringing Patrick's desired Imaginext Sky Racers Carrier and Optimus Prime and Lucy's baby doll and multiple accessories as well as an ice cream parlor set. For the first time, we opened gifts fairly slowly and enjoyed the kids glee (especially Patrick, who announced that most of his gifts he "wanted his whole life") and surprise. Other favorites included a shared Lego set, Leapfrog Explorers, a RC monster truck, and many puzzles and other crafts. Lucy was mostly impressed with a small spiral bound Princess notebook and a LED flashlight that Santa left in her stocking. Who knew. Daddy and I made out good as well! My big gift was supposed to be a food processor (which made pizza dough quite nicely last night, I might add)...but there was a small box pulled out of the tree after all the other gifts were opened. Big, beautiful diamond earrings! To replace...and then some...the ones that Daddy gave me several years ago that I lost. Love that man. I felt a little silly giving him his hiking GPS, which I thought I was secretly splurging on. Oh well.

Celebrating continued later that evening with Christmas dinner at my parents house. The next morning we had a second Christmas morning with the McNulty side. Later that afternoon, we took the kids sledding over at Ellenberger, their first experience on a decent size hill which they really enjoyed. For about 30 mins :) Sunday family dinner was that night as usual at Mom and Dad's and we headed back home on Monday morning.

Fevers broke Christmas weekend, an end to the illness that we felt had been lurking since, well, Lucy's birthday, really. We enjoyed lazying around the house and watching the kids play with the new toys. Totally ready for spring now, unfortunately winter has just begun. We finally decided on a swingset and anticipate it's arrival after the first of the year. The last of our Christmas to the kids, something that we will enjoy this spring and many years to come.

Christmas Fun!

Yeah for some snow! The kids enjoyed the little bit of time we were able to spend outside late last week...but a little disappointed it wasn't perfect snowman-making snow. Friday night we enjoyed pizza at Turoni's on Main and then headed to Garvin Park for the Fantasy of Lights. This has become a tradition for us, something Brian and I look forward to doing with the kids right before Christmas. Saturday night we prepared our holiday cookie dough so we could decorate our Santa cookies tonight. Yummy!

Some of the less fun parts of the weekend include battling winter colds. Patrick is coughing up a lung, which has become expected from him every cold season. Luckily, we wised up after that first winter and are the proud owners of a nebulizer and take stock in Albuterol and Flovent as well as Mucinex...which has spared us trips to the pediatrician as well as more money out of pocket. Lucy rebounded from her stomach bug on her birthday just to find a cold involving the chills and fever at 103. Again, thank God for Motrin....which has allowed us to enjoy Christmas preparations isolated in our own home :) And, for myself, the joys of braces. I have found a new appreciation for oatmeal and soup....but am very much looking forward to the prettier smile over the course of the next 12-15 months.

Happy Birthday Lucy!

Yesterday we celebrated Lucy's 3rd birthday. Wow. Time flies. Three seems so much older than two, for some reason. We are back to that time of year when we can say we have kids a year apart, a four year old and a three year old. Sounds crazier :)

The day started off not so well with Lucy waking up sick in the night, but she had a very speedy recovery. We had tacos for dinner and I was able to pull off a rather bear-ish looking kitty cat cake. We got her a camera among other things, this was by far her favorite. She was showered by gifts from everyone else, including a beautiful homemade doll carrier with matching diaper bag and several outfits from none other than Grandma Bretz. Other fav's include a Barbie doll, a puppy in a carrier, and a whole set of baby doll accessories.

Happy Birthday, sweet girl. You have enriched our lives in so many many ways. Your red curls and impish smile can melt any heart. We love you so much!

Breakfast with St. Nick

Thanks to Grandma Bretz for making us our Christmas vests! We received many compliments!

Meet Daisy!

On our walk yesterday afternoon, the kids and I stumbled across the sweetest little gray kitten. Of course, they had to stop and pet the cat. And pet and play and pick her up. And there were many tears when we left it behind. But not for long, since she followed us. I felt bad and let Patrick hold her on the walk....and she made it home with us....and scored a nice blanket and food and water on our deck. Where she was waiting at the door for us this morning, meowing. Mommy and Daddy caved, we let her in. Chloe, our 6 year old cat, is the least enthusiastic about this new addition to the home. We named her Daisy (really hoping Mommy is right and she is a girl, but figure shortening to Daze if need be is pretty easy :). I figure she is maybe 6-8 weeks old. Really playful and sweet, loves the kids and snuggles right up to both of them during those little bursts of naps that kittens take throughout the day. We have to remind the kids that she is a kitten, that her scratching and biting is just her way of playing and she really does NOT need to be carried around all day. We went to Target and picked up her own bowls and food, as well as some toys that Chloe LONG ago lost interest in. She is scheduled to see the vet on Friday. We are hopeful that with some time, Chloe will begin to appreciate this new friend :)

Happy Halloween!

This is our first Halloween in our new home, obviously, but this holiday particularly is special for that reason. We have trick or treated in our current neighborhood for the past two years, meeting up with friends. I often said how much I would like to live here, and we even walked past our now home last Halloween, newly finished and up for sale. Funny how things have a way of working themselves out :)

Anyhow, this was my weekend to work. Naturally. We carved our jack-o-lantern Friday night and Brian spent today making a big pot of chili. True to tradition, we met up with friends a few doors down and hit up the neighborhood. Daddies pulling coolers of beer and kids walking (what?), enjoying the beautiful day and raking in the loot. Patrick was a dinosaur and Lucy a princess, so excited to don the costumes that have been hanging in their closets for weeks now. We ended up with several people back at our house, eating chili, drinking beer and spiked cider, and plenty of kids underfoot. Happy Halloween!!

Fun Fall Weekend!

Saturday morning after breakfast we packed a lunch and headed over to Shawnee to visit Garden of the Gods and Rim Rock. Following the rather painful drive there (lots of "when are we gonna be there??? This is taking HOURS!!" and anything you would expect from two kids under 5 within striking distance of each other), we arrived. The park was actually pretty crowded. The kids did GREAT listening and held our hands as we scrambled over the rocks. We grilled out hot dogs for lunch and took a nice hike around Rim Rock. Brian and I were impressed with the improved endurance and cooperation this year as compared to this time last year and our disastrous Smoky Mountain vacation :)

Sunday morning we went to mass, out to Donut Bank for breakfast, and off to Mayse Farm Market for what has become our October tradition. The kids loved playing in the hay bale maze, sliding down the slides, sling-shotting gourds across the field and finally riding the tractor to pick out the perfect pumpkin. What a beautiful LONG weekend for the Bretz Family. Hooray for federal holidays!

Testing Windows Live Writer

Just wondering what crazy things I can do with this.

Two peas in a pod.

First Days...

Patrick completed his 3rd day of preschool today, and the growth from this year to last is just amazing. We have decided to give him an extra year of preschool, probably one of the best decisions we have made. He has school Tuesday and Thursday mornings, same classroom and same wonderful teachers at Resurrection. His behavior in general and interactions with his classmates has matured so much. He is excited to go to school in general, walks in without the hesitation that was so pronounced last year. With some prodding from us, he is attempting to make some new friends. He offers more information about his day and is much more interested in sitting down and working on projects, writing his name, counting, reading, etc.

Lucy started dance/tumbling class tonight. She had her leotard on after breakfast and had several crying jags when she realized it was gonna be a while. She very much enjoys having something of her own - brother has school and she has tumbling. Lucy is pretty shy around most everyone except a select few she feels very comfortable with, so this is a great opportunity for her to be exposed to other kids and another adult (NOT me), plus get all the physical and academic benefits. Ok, that sounded ridiculous...but I am a PT. Anyhow, she loved it. Pretty much as long as I was the primary adult guiding her, she was all about the songs and dancing and tumbling. And our good friend, Lucas Rudolph, is in the same class, so that is a double bonus.

Indy Weekend

We enjoyed a nice long weekend in Indy and kept quite busy! We left on Friday morning and took a different route north so we could stop by Sugar Mill State Park. It was the perfect halfway point. The kids enjoyed visiting the Pioneer Village and splashing in the creek. Plus, it wore them right out so they crashed the rest of the drive :) That evening we went with Mom to see Will Ferrell's "The Other Guys", which was pretty funny.

Saturday morning the kids, Carissa and her kids, and Grammie went to the Children's Museum. No matter how often we go, the activities are still as exciting as the first time. The guys were hard at work helping Patrick get his plumbing in order. That evening after mass we went over to Molly and Doug's to celebrate Mom and Dad's birthdays -- they both turned 58 this weekend! Happy Birthday!!

Sunday morning we headed to the Indiana State Fair. What a great time! We got to pet the barnyard animals, go thru the Little Hands exhibit where the kids did "chores" in exchange for "money" at the market, and got to "buy" a treat at the end. We played in several buildings full of kids activities and even fed the goats. We enjoyed plenty of good food - fresh milkshakes, popcorn, apple cider slushies, corndogs, and icecream. There was tons of equipment parked out on the lawn, and we got some cute pictures of the kids climbing all over it. They were thrilled to spend some of their money in the John Deere store, walking out with new toy tractors. That evening we went to Sunday Family Dinner at the Kenneys -- a great end to a wonderful weekend.

Craft time!

The kids are on a roll with "projects" lately. Especially Patrick. It's such a neat thing to see such creativity and persistence. We have been slowly building our "project box" with construction paper, markers and crayers, glue, scissors, hole punches, pipe cleaners, pom-poms, beads, yarn, etc, etc, etc. We save everything that appears (or not so much) to be reusable in a project such as empty paper towel holders, food containers, and soda boxes. Yesterday's masterpieces include a bird costume and a pipe cleaner hat. And doesn't every mother want a large yogurt container punched with holes and thread with orange yarn and pipe cleaners on their nightstand? It just completes the look. I was relieved when Daddy got home and confirmed that no, he didn't need that box for his cord reel anymore. Because it had been transformed into a costume. At the Children's Museum last week we spent the greatest amount of time at the project table where they had a tub of empty paper towel holders, duct tape, and Scotch tape. Might be a very inexpensive Christmas for us this year :)

New Home!

We closed on our brand new home on Friday, July 9th. And sold our old home on Boberg at the same time. An ideal situation, we were very fortunate. I had taken the kids up to Terre Haute on Thursday night where my sister, Molly, met me and brought the rascals the rest of the way to Indy for the week.

We painted like maniacs from Friday night until mid-day on Monday. And got the entire house minus the laundry room finished. Which I did agree to leave white :) Looking back, I have no idea how we got it done. We had a system -- I trimmed, Brian rolled. We are a great team! Tuesday morning we backed up the UHaul to our old house and started the moving processs. It was greatly helped by Brian's brother, Mike, who spent his entire "day off" helping us. By 4 pm that evening, just about everything was moved over and we were deep into unpacking. We spent the next couple of days unpacking, organizing, and running errands. I have to say that I was very proud of our perseverance, but most of that was driven by the realization that whatever doesn't get done NOW will take twice as long with twice the amount of stress with the kids underfoot :)

The home is beautiful. The neighbors are great. We have taken walks the past few nights and clocked 2 miles around the entire subdivision, which will be a great course for jogging. And it will be great to let the kids ride their bikes on our walks, which they were not able to do on Boberg.

THANK YOU SO MUCH to my parents and siblings for helping with the kids this past week. We have been able to get sooooo much done, and relax a teeny bit too :) I know the kids have had a great time touring the city of Indy (from what I understand they have done the Childrens Museum, multiple parks, the pool, seen Toy Story 3 at the theater, had a slumber party with the cousins a time or two, and just had a blast spending time with the family). Mom is bringing them home this afternoon and we are REALLY excited to see them and show them their new home. Funny that this is most likely the only home they will ever know, I really don't know if they will remember their first home. We will. It was a good home for us, we were a little sad leaving, but it's time to move on.

Stop in and visit anytime. Cold beer is always waiting!

St George Island

We just returned from our family vacation in St George Island, Florida. What perfect weather, what perfect company, what a perfect time. My Mom and her sister, Aunt Pam, have been busily planning this vacation since this time last summer. We were able to coordinate 37 people between the two families, giving us 15 kids ages 10 and under spread out over 5 beach homes. We were steps from the beach and the kids loved playing in the sand and splashing in the water. Monday night was McNulty family dinner night, so we hosted a Mexican Fiesta complete with games and activities (that my mother was very proud of) and Wedneday night was Manning family dinner with an Italian theme. Friday night was a pitch in with fresh seafood and all the trimmings. We shopped in town, got the chance to sneak away several times without the kids courtesy of the grandparents, and simply enjoyed kicking back on the beach with a cold beer. We drove 12 hours straight, through the night both times and the kids did fantastic. Definitely the way to go with little ones -- they were out by 10pm and snoozed til 6am. Thanks to Daddy for powering through while we rested :) Enjoy the slideshow!

Big week at the Bretz home!

Whew! What a week we have had! Last Wednesday we put a "For Sale" sign in our yard and last night we signed the paperwork to both buy and sell our home. It was a whirlwind 7 days, but we are very excited about our new home. We will be moving about 5 miles west, a little deeper into Posey County, into a beautiful subdivision called Oakfield. Our home is brand new, built last fall and apparently just waiting for us! The floor plan is open and spacious including a beautiful sunroom, and our yard is a nice flat acre. I am thrilled to finally have a 1)dishwasher, 2)a laundry room, and 3)our own bathroom. The basement is unfinished, eventually we will have a family room, 3rd bathroom, office, and guest room down there. Brian is thrilled to have the perfect spot for a pole barn as well. The subdivison is filled with young families (and some young at heart :), the kids will love being surrounded by so many playmates. We will close on or before July 9th!

In other news, Lucy is potty trained. We went and picked out the final reward tonight for a week of being accident free. The prize -- a shopping cart.

Saturday we leave for St George Island. We are hoping for good weather and oil-free beaches, and ready to kick back with family and relax.

Brian turns 32!

Froggy potty goes everywhere with us!

We had a very nice long weekend at home. Friday night we went out to dinner to celebrate Brian's birthday. Saturday we worked around the house and that evening we were very fortunate to have a few hours kid-free (big thank you to G&G Bretz!). So, we did what we used to do pre-kids. We got the bikes down and rode around 20 miles through the hills of St Wendel, down thru St Joe, and then back home across 66. We threw in a pizza, and had a few beers -- all in front of the TV! On Sunday, Brian turned 32. The kids were so happy to give him his gifts they picked out -- a rubber tent mallet from Patrick (?) and a new water bottle from Lucy. We also picked out some new sandals for the beach, an American-pride t-shirt, and a nice map of Yellowstone for this summer. After breakfast, we loaded up and headed out to New Harmonie for the morning. The boys fished a little bit (like 20 mins, per Patrick 'the fish just weren't biting!'), and the kids rode their bikes and played on the playground. After grilling hotdogs, we headed home for naps. That evening, the Bretz's came down to celebrate over carrot cake and ice cream.

In other news, Lucy has made some great strides over the weekend. Only one near-miss today and many unprompted successes with the potty training. She is very close to getting the big prize -- a shopping cart she has been eyeing at Target. She also has learned how to pedal her trike. A big weekend for a little girl!

Happy Birthday Patrick!

Patrick celebrated his 4th birthday this weekend and we threw one FUN party! His day started with a new bike, which was a great distraction til the party kicked up later. He was very excited to have a 'big bike' with handbrakes and training wheels. I don't expect he will have the training wheels on for long, though! The party theme was monster truck and we rented this awesome bounce house for the day, which was a hit with the little kids...and the big ones too! Patrick was impressed that it came with a popcorn maker, saying "it's just like at Rural King!!" Grammie and Papa as well as Cory, Carissa and the kids arrived that afternoon. Friends and family continued to show up and we enjoyed a nice evening. They weather cooperated and there were plenty of things to keep the kids entertained and happy. Patrick had been eyeing my slow creation of his cake, was very pleased to finally be able to pull the toys off the top and dig in. Or mostly just have the toys :) He received many nice presents and has been occupied with checking out each and every one since. Late into the evening, tents went up in the yard. Papa fell asleep with Morgan, Nolan, and Patrick in the tent (amazingly, not that Papa was asleep but the fact that the kids were). The McNulty kids ended up on a palette in the house -- but Papa, Daddy, and Patrick slept the night away outside. We enjoyed a big breakfast this morning and more playing before the cousins left. What a FUN FUN weekend! And what a very lucky little boy!

Last Day of Preschool

Wow. Where has this year gone? Today was Patrick's last day of preschool. He has grown up so much this year and we couldn't be happier with Resurrection and his progress. Patrick is one of the younger ones in his class, so we have decided to give him another year of preschool before pre-K, so we are very fortunate to be able to spend the next 3 years with Ms. Greene and Mrs. Greulich between the two kids. Besides the academic portion, he has grown so much socially and spiritually as we have become a greater part of the Parish. In fact, most of his questions about God, Jesus, and heaven leave us fumbling for an answer. His best friend is a little girl named Aubree, and we have become closer to her family. Fortunately for us, her sister Alyssa will be in Patrick's class next year and throughout the coming years. When I was a kid, it was tradition to go to McDonald's on the last day of school for lunch. So that's what we did today, and half a dozen of his friends joined us. Hello summer!