Keelin's First Race

Keelin ran in her first running race this morning! The Evansville Courier and Press had a health expo downtown this morning and Drew volunteered to help with traffic control for the 2-mile run/walk event. Afterwards they did kid dashes! Keelin ran in the 2 years and under 30 meter dash!

Keelin and Drew waiting to start the run

Keelin decided to get some practicing in before!
(I have video footage of this that I will try to upload.)



Keelin at the start line!

Drew waited with her

And they are OFF! Go Keelin go!

Keelin showing off her medal!

Keelin loved the bouncing toys at the expo!

and...she is still wearing her medal!

Holy Spirit Epiphany Party

My work had their Epiphany dinner last night at Hornville Tavern. We had a great time together! We had a white elephant gift exchange that got pretty fun!

Holy Spirit Faculty and Staff

Drew and I in front of the fireplace

Drew and I went over to my friend Jamie's house to play Wii after the dinner.

Here are Abbie, Me, Brandi, and Jamie on the couch.

My Hometown, Mason

Monday, December 29 we came back down to lower Michigan to my hometown, Mason. We actually spent a whole day here! Usually we just pass through on our way home to Indiana. It was so nice to see all the changes!


I have been going over the Mackinaw Bridge for so many years now and I still get so excited each time we drive over it. (For those of you who don't know... the Mackinaw Bridge contects lower Michigan with upper Michigan.) The lakes were not all the way frozen, but they looked so pretty with the broken ice.


In the town square of Mason, there sits a huge Santa Claus and his mailbox! We took Keelin to visit Santa! She loved seeing him but did not want to get near him!

Perry Christmas in Northern Michigan

On Sunday we went to my grandma perry's house to celebrate Christmas with my mom's side of the family. We watched the Packers vs Lions football game, where...yes...the lions finished the season 0-16! I am so glad I converted to a Colts fan years ago!
Keelin had so much fun playing with my aunt Jackie! Someone who seemed to have as much energy as Keelin! They went shopping throughout grandma's house bringing me random items in a Santa Claus gift bag and then returning them back to where they came from! My aunt Jackie and aunt Margaret even put a Christmas napkin on Curious George so he would have a diaper! Keelin loved it!

Keelin received Elmo Live from my aunt Mary and aunt Linda. Keelin did not want to touch him and as you can see in the pictures didn't want to get very close to him either. She enjoys dancing along with him and laughing... but she still won't touch him yet! She likes to take his seat away and watch him fall down! She is so loving!

Planck Christmas in Northern Michigan

Like I said in my last post...We arrived in the UP early Friday morning. We had no Christmas plans for Friday so we ventured out into the woods to do a little snowshoeing and skiing. My dad and drew cut a path with snowshoes through the deep snow. My mom and I skied behind them.





The woods behind my grandma's house were beautiful! There was so much snow. Drew stuck his arm down into the snow to see how deep it was and I didn't think he was going to make it back out. Drew and I fell the most on our venture into the woods! My parents are veterans! I don't think either one of them fell.




Along the way we came to a mutilated deer... coyote or wolf pack attack! It happened that morning because it was on top of the fresh snow. What a way to witness mother nature at its finest!

Saturday we had Christmas with my dad's family. Keelin opened many wonderful gifts. She got a Michigan State and a Red Wings t-shirt. We had a big dinner that night! My mom's mom and 3 of her sisters joined us.

My grandma feeds deer out in the back of her home. My dad goes out in the morning to feed them hay and corn. Sunday morning he took Keelin out with him. Typically, the deer come right up and eat out of the the bucket he holds, but they were too scared of Keelin! As you can see in one of the pictures a deer got pretty close to them. I love the bottom right picture of Keelin standing alone in the feeding pile with many deer staring her down. YIKES! 26 deer that morning!

Out for an icy run! Drew, Uncle Larry, Todd, and Jeff (not returning yet) went out for a run.

Uncle Larry went back out for a SLOWER run with Melissa, Tracey, and I. This was my first time running since October 12th!

The Cousins!

Jeff, Drew, Me, Todd, Tracey, Melissa, and Keelin

4 generations

Keelin was helping Todd play the guitar. Todd sang for us on our last day up north.

Christmas in Evansville

Our Christmas started in Evansville! We went to Mass on Christmas Eve at Holy Spirit. Since Keelin is so young, we attended the children's Mass.

Our family picture by the Christmas tree before heading to Mass

After Mass we went to Drew's brother's house to have dinner and see his Colorado brothers, Taylor and Austin, who were in town. Clay and Jamie gave Keelin her birthday present and we played Wii.

Christmas morning we spent with just the 3 of us. Santa Claus brought Keelin presents! She opened her special Christmas ornament and hung it on the tree.




We went over the Drew's parents house in the afternoon for Christmas with his mom, Butch, Clay, Jamie, Kate, Kristin, Aunt Harriett, Uncle Don, and cousins Jackie and Jenny. We had a great time and Keelin opened more wonderful presents.

We left later that afternoon to travel 12 hours to northern Michigan to see my family. We arrived at 4am to snow measured in FEET! This will be my next post!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to all! We made it back from the frozen tundra and we are starting the new year cheering for MSU in the Capital One Bowl. Look carefully... Drew is wearing Michigan State attire!!!! I have tons of Christmas pictures to post! I am starting with the new year and working backwards. Hopefully I will be able to post everything before I go back to work!

Moose is wearing her MSU collar, but you can't see it in this picture!

Christmas with Friends

( I robbed this picture from Jamie's blog! I thought it was too cute!)

Monday my friend Jamie watched Keelin while I had a doctor's apt. Keelin had such a fun time and Kyle and Hannah made sure she never got bored! We usually scrapbook on Tuesday but we got together on Monday instead... and due to Christmas stress and frankly no creative feelings decided it wasn't the best night to scrapbook. Keelin did give Kyle, Bailey, Hannah, and Reagan presents. I crochet slippers as one of my many side hobbies (which my husband thinks I have way too many of) and the picture below is of Hannah, Kyle, and Bailey opening their slippers.

Keelin's New Big Girl Bed!!!!

Now that Keelin is 2 years old, we took the front off of her crib! We took it off on Sunday and it has been going great so far! She greets us in the morning by our bed...which will take some getting use to! This morning it was at 6:08 AM! Yikes!

Drew is giving Keelin the "you need to stay in bed" talk...

Keelin is showing us how to sleep in her new bed.

She is so proud!!! I'm a big girl!

A Visit from Aunt Kristin

Keelin's Aunt Kristin is in town from Flagstaff, Arizona for Christmas! She came over to spend some time with Keelin Saturday night. It took Keelin only a few minutes to warm up to her distant aunt and finish her pancake dinner (yes...she wanted pancakes for dinner!!!)
As you can see... she enjoyed her aunt! Kristin read her a few books before bedtime.

Our Dog Moose

Since I always blog about our daughter, Keelin, I feel that I should give our dog Moose some attention! We bought her a new bed for Christmas to keep in the kitchen. A soon as we put it on the floor she sniffed it out and hopped right in. She spends her days in the kitchen now because she has been having some accidents on our new carpet. At least now she has a comfortable place to lie down.

Keelin's 2nd Birthday...Take Three

It only took me 11 days to post my daughters birthday pictures!
The final birthday post! We had Keelin's Tinkerbell Birthday Party on Sunday, December 7th.
(She turned 2 on December 1st.)

Keelin with her Tinkerbell cake and balloons!

Keelin blowing out her two candles.

Keelin opened many wonderful presents! She loves all of them!

Keelin and her friend Hannah decided to get a workout in during the party! too cute! It doesn't look like they were trying too hard!

Keelin and Hannah are good buddies!

Typically you see people running on a treadmil...but not much of that was happening here! Keelin enjoys playing with Hannah and Kyle (who are brother and sister and the kids of my friend Jamie)

After the tables were put away Keelin went for a ride in Mamaw's old stroller! Mamaw pushed for awhile and then handed her off to...

Papaw!
He pushed and handed her off to...

Uncle Clay! Keelin kept saying, "MORE!"

A moments pause for a family picture!

Happy Birthday, Keelin!

Keelin's 2nd Birthday...Take Two

Keelin's second birthday started with her opening her big present from us. We got her a kitchen!

Drew is explaining to Keelin what is in the box.

At my work we are doing Advent Angels and my "mysterious" Advent Angel got Keelin a birthday present! That gives me one clue: Whoever has me knows my daughter's birthday!

We took Keelin out to Hornville Tavern for her birthday dinner. She is blowing out her candles on her cake!

Keelin and Mamaw were having a cake eating contest...no forks! Look...they even have their own paparazzi!

Aunt Jamie, Uncle Clay, Mamaw, Great-Uncle Don, Great-Aunt Harriett, Aunt Kate, and Papaw all joined our family for Keelin's dinner.

Look at family picture! When does that ever happen?

Keelin had a very fun evening! Thanks everyone for making that day special for her!