Davin's 13 - I have 3 teenagers now - HELP!

Happy 13th b-day Davin! We sang happy birthday and Eleni promptly blew out the candles for him! She just got so excited!
Davin chose to not have a birthday party and receive $200 from us instead. He bought himself a laptop. He has been saving so he didn't even have to use any of his birthday money.
Nash loves Davin even though he's going to be 1/2 of Davin's weight soon. It's pretty funny to see him carry him around. Davin weighs in at a hefty 77 pounds (I think I have been stealing his poundage). The law in Ohio says that you are supposed to be in a car seat until 80 pounds. Could you seriously see me pulling up at the junior high or his club soccer practice and having him get out of a carseat!!! You would not believe how much this kid eats!

Baking Cookies

There's nothing like baking cookies in your church dress while feeding the dog flour! It is always an adventure when Eleni is over and she always says something hilarious. I finally have HELP in the kitchen. Kenzi loves to cook and she made most of the cookies! Yes!

Halloween pics with the Corsons

A dog is a much better companion than 3 older brothers who have no patience with an annoying little sister! These 2 have a special bond!Kenzi went from princesses to wanting to be a Ninja and a fascination with Ninjas. She's kind of at a weird age right now because she still loves attention, but she isn't getting all the attention she used to get as a toddler. I love having Eleni here so she has to act more like a big sister which has been really good for her. I was worried that she was going to be the spoiled baby of the family forever!

Elvis is in the building band season 2010

Centerville placed 12th at Nationals! Yeah! It was especially fun because Boyce and I left the other 2 kids at home and spent a weekend together watching the older boys!



This was the BEST part of band season. Bryce and Kaid were able to enjoy a year of high school together and they had a blast. Everyone knows the Fish boys because they were cute and always chilling with t


Like I said, the boys were always around girls. One of the cabinet moms told me the story of how Bryce's uniform is ALWAYS the last one in the closet. One day she told another mom, "Bryce is the only one not dressed yet. He's probably out hugging another girl." When they went to go find him, that's exactly what he was doing! The boys are particularly fond of these 2 girls. :)


We had a blast with the Elvis theme this year! The kids did a lot of dancing!
Kaid made the cymbal line and loved it! He won a rookie of the year award!

The New Diamond Back

Kings Island Rocks! The new Diamond Back has a big drop and is a smooth ride! I loved it after I got over the first hill - Davin informed me that I am now a screamer!

Marching band groupies on the road again

Kaid made one of the two cymbal spots for freshman this year. He's happy to be marching and enjoying the time with Bryce in the band. Many parents have asked if the boys fight because their siblings do. Luckily, my boys have developed a better relationship than they have ever had - it might have something to do with them both hanging out with all the girls every chance they get! I'm enjoying Bryce playing taxi for his little brother also!
We have started another season of marching band, but this year Bryce is a senior and boy do the parents go all out. We have so many senior dinner things going on for band - it's great. Here Bryce is with some fellow tuba players. The show theme is the "icon of Elvis" so if anyone has any good, cheap gift ideas let me know. We love watching all the shows during band season, and I'm not handling my son being a senior very well. It really does go by too fast!

Cooking with Kenzi for her 8th bday

Kenzi wanted to have a cooking party, so of course I went crazy and had a blast putting it together. I made 20 six inch cakes for the girls to decorate. I sure wish I had a double oven! They loved learning how to frost them and using bags of icing with different tips.
I made all of the girls these little cookbooks!
Kenzi LOVES being the center of attention!

They decorated their own aprons!
Making pizzas....YUM! Boyce was in charge of this and so the pizzas were a little large for the girls. He's used to boy-sized portions! They turned out great though.

Valentine's Day

I always make the kids breakfast on Valentine's Day and have a personal letter and present on the table also. When the kids were younger, I use to buy them a stuffed animal or toy, but now that they are older I do gift cards or cash. Teenagers always like cash. I keep a copy of the letters that I write them, and it has been fun to see what their interests were that year. I'm hoping that I will continue the tradition and always send them a letter every year on Valentine's Day.

bringin' in 2009

This was a big snow storm for Ohio. The problem with the snow here is not that we get a lot of it, the problem is it snows, rains, snows, rains, and creates this thick layer of ice everywhere. Kaid spent hours breaking up the ice underneath the snow (rock salt doesn't do anything for it). We were out of school a couple of days for this because of the ice. The kids have loved the snow because it has been 5 years since they've had it. I still hate the snow.....Wyoming did that to me.

Kenzi reading to the dog. She can get pretty lonely sometimes because her brothers don't play with her that much. Sometimes her dog is the only one that will pay attention to her. And you know labs - they always want attention!
Boyce had the boys cook me an incredible anniversary dinner for our 18th! We had ribeye with sauteed shrimp on top and lobster. They took my order and served me. Of course I had to have one of everything. The best part was they cleaned up the kitchen afterwards.
The boys were at a New Year's Eve party, so we had a few friends over last minute and played their Guitar Hero. It was a blast jammin' to some 80 songs. When the kids are away, the parents will play!

Spending Christmas in Catskills, NY with Grammy and Grampy

After we left the city, we went up north to Catskills, NY to spend it with Grammy and Grampy Fish. We spent 4 days lounging around in our Pj's, eating, playing games, eating, sleeping in, and eating some more. I gained 2 pounds thanks to Lynita's fudge!

Darwin read the Christmas story while the kids did a puppet show. Did you know baby Jesus wanted to hit everyone and fight? Ethan was hilarious with baby Jesus!Yes, that is Grammy Fish singing with Guitar Hero. Ask Kaid how it went haha. Ryan and Lynita are definitely the best jammers of the bunch. I'm sure the neighbors didn't appreciate the loud singing as much as we did. We decided that they don't get out much with little kids at home, so they went a little crazy rockin' out when the kids were in bed.
Notice in the background that Kaid has just thrown a snow ball and Davin is the recipient of it!

Christmas in New York City

BRRRRRR! We picked the coldest day of the year to be tourists. We planned a trip to New York City for Christmas because we had never been and that is one of the perks of living in the East. We are only 9 hours away! We only had 2 days in the city, so we tried to pack a lot in. We rode a train from my brother-in-law's house into the city, a tour bus around the city, the subway, and then a boat around the harbor. We totally did the NY tourist thing. It was awesome!

Kenzi's favorite thing about NY was the pigeons. We paid how much money for her to chase birds around!
This is one my newest nephews, Owen. Boyce and Owen were bald buddies. I think the count for our nieces and nephews is now 57! Can you believe it? We are adding 5 in this year alone!
They had a huge ferris wheel in the Toys-R-Us. Davin and Kenzi love to play Monopoly together (probably because Davin can convince her to trade anything for his benefit of course), so I had to take a picture of this cart.
You can't tell in this picture how cold it is on the top of the boat. No one else was on the top because they weren't as stupid as we were. What we will go through for a few pictures.
Ellis Island - I love the history of New York.

We had to see the TREE. We didn't put up a Christmas tree this year (yes, we are that cheap) because I kept telling Kenzi we were going to see a big one. It was cool to finally see where my morning news is taped. I needed to see, hear, smell (good and bad), taste and touch NY because it always looks different compared to television.

Cute niece and nephews with Santa (the paid Santa of course). They were troopers being dragged around New York.
Bryce's favorite thing was a little jazz club he visited called the Village Vanguard. I'm ready to go back and see some more things!