Valentine's Day!

Keelin had a Valentine's Day party Friday at her daycare. She brought Valentine's to all her friends. The bag she brought home from the party last Friday is still in the living room and she continues to go through it.

Keelin dressed to go to daycare on Friday in her heart shirt.

(Thanks Grandma, Aunt Mary, and Aunt Linda!)

Saturday was a very busy day for our family! We started the day taking Keelin swimming at the YMCA! She had a blast! and Drew and I enjoyed relaxing in the pool.

Keelin encouraging her mom to put the camera down and come swimming.

Keelin and I made heart cakes. She helped me with each step.

Dumping in the confetti hearts.

Keelin did all of the sprinkles. I did all of the frosting.

Saturday night we all went out to the tavern for dinner. Keelin got a Dora balloon!

Where Can You Find Extra Time?

I hope everyone had a wonderful Valentine's Day!! Drew, Keelin, and I had a very busy day! I will post pictures later... I really do have a good excuse as to why I haven't been blogging lately! I will do better.

Super Bowl...Go Cardinals!

We are watching the Super Bowl right now! We are cheering for the Arizona Cardinals! Keelin is the only one who has "actual" Cardinals attire! She says, "Thank you, Uncle Jeff, for the awesome Christmas present!!" My brother lives in Phoenix, Arizona and bought Keelin a Cardinals sweatsuit for Christmas! Drew is wearing St. Louis Cardinals and I am wearing Ball State Cardinals.

Snow Day

Today was our second day off school due to an ice storm Monday night (and all day Tuesday) and now 4 inches of snow that fell over night. Keelin likes to come into our room early in the morning. It was no different this morning. She climbed in our bed around 4:45am and stuck around for awhile and since Drew or I made no move to get up she decided to go back to her own room and sleep longer! YES! She came back in later and went to the window to see the snow.

Kicking back enjoying another day at home!

Let's go outside and play in the snow!

Keelin made snow angels! We called them snow tinkerbells.

What a lovely looking angel!

Drew threw snowballs at us!

Keelin and I buried Drew!

Keelin was kind enough to help her daddy up.

Keelin loved the icicles!

She even helped her dad shovel the driveway.

The ice on the house, trees, deck, and fence are beautiful!

We are very fortunate...we still have our power.

First Snow!

Keelin and I are home today because it is Martin Luther King Jr. Day! And we got our first snow fall of the year! Keelin couldn't wait to put on her boots and go play!

Keelin tried to make a snowball but it just wasn't packing snow!

She doesn't forget about the summer activities!!! She headed right for the stairs saying, "Go swimming!" What a suprise she saw when she got to the top!

What happened to my pool? She said, "No swimming!"

And Then There Was Three

We surrendered our dog Moose on Saturday to the Humane Society. She has been growling and snapping a lot lately. She aggressively snapped at and bit Drew last week when he went to take one of Keelin's toys away from her. This has been brewing ever since Keelin was born and we really hoped it never had to come to this, but we have to look at the safety of Keelin. She was a great dog! We had her for 7 years.

Video of Keelin Running

Here is footage of Keelin practing her running.

She counts and says, "Go!"

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!