McKenna's Birthday/Christmas with Grandma & Grandpa Novak

Today was McKenna's 8th Birthday! I find it hard to believe that it has been 8 years. I clearly remember that, oh so long, week of labor and pure fear knowing I would be delivering 8 weeks early. While that was a stressful time, I thank the good Lord above for blessing me with a healthy child.
To celebrate her day, she slept in until 10 A.M. (I guess there are some benefits to her getting older. LOL) We then headed to Chuckie Cheese for a late lunch with some friends. It isn't what I would have chosen, but she wanted to play the games and win "crappy" prizes. Mission accomplished!
Later in the evening, we headed to Grandma & Grandpa Novak's to have Christmas with my dad. Mark and Pam arrived today, so we got to celebrate with them as well. Their children are getting so big and have fun personalities. While we were there, we celebrated McKenna's birthday with a cake from Dairy Queen. I have yet to let her open any of her birthday presents, which is killing her, as I will be hosting her birthday party on Thursday evening for my entire family. Below are some pictures from the evening.

Chase and I (minus the fact he wasn't looking)

Mark posing as a worker from Dairy Queen (Max works there...sorry, Max!)
McKenna soooo excited that this day has been all about her!

Singing Happy Birthday to McKenna

Maddie and Pam posing with the "gag" gift of the clip on cami

McKenna got another Zhu Zhu DS game

An attempt to get the three kids pictures together

We still have one more Christmas that needs to be had. I am beginning to wonder if this holiday season is every going to end. Merry Christmas and Happy Birthday, McKenna! What a blessing you are!

Love,
Megan

Family Pictures

Back in November, my dad took some senior pictures of Allison and some family pictures at Concordia Theological Seminary and the Old Fort. I finally got around to picking a few of them out. They turned out really nice! Here are a couple that he sent to me so I can finally get them posted. If you are ever interested in getting pictures taken, let me know. He does this on the side and is really inexpensive. It is definitely a hobby of his.

Merry Christmas

WOW! What a busy fews days it has been in the Curtis household. We have been busy shopping, wrapping, spending time with family, and traveling. Our weekend started with Doug and I doing some serious Christmas shopping as we didn't have it completed due to the fact that I went to school up until the 24th. YES...the 24th was my first day off of school. Christmas Eve was spent with my family opening gifts and going to church. We woke up on the 25th with our kids opening gifts from Santa and then headed to Lafayette to be with Doug's family for Christmas Day and the 26th. It was such a pleasure spending so much time with everyone. We hope that you enjoyed all of your family and friends over the holidays. Here are pictures from the past few days.

McKenna with G.G & G.G. (Great-Grandma & Great-Grandpa)

McKenna got her Northface Fleece, hat, & gloves!! (Thanks, Grandma and Grandpa Shook)
Santa brought McKenna an IPod Touch!

Christmas morning after we opened gifts

Doug with his kids

McKenna and I on Christmas morning

Doug's mom and sisters

Debbie and her kids (and grandbaby, Lia)

Dawn and her family

Doug, Allison, and I (missing two...McKenna was with her dad & Dane went to Florida)

Merry Christmas to all! We are preparing our house for McKenna's birthday on Tuesday. More pictures to follow from that event.
Love,

Megan

Kid's Christmas Party

Oh...holy business at the Curtis household! I have totally forgotten that I needed to update the blog for any of you that may be interested. Between school, basketball, holidays, and life...I just haven't gotten this done. Here are a few updates:
Doug's basketball is going well. His team is off to a decent start at 6-3. This is the best start in the last three years, so it is giving him something to look forward to for the remainder of the year.
McKenna has started her basketball season at LHS and is averaging about 14 points per game. She loves it and just understands what to do with the ball and what to do when you don't have the ball! We are working on slowing down so that the rest of the team can be included in the game since she knows to get the rebound and immediately go to the other end of the court while everyone else is still trying to find the ball. She just says, "Mom, I am just too quick!" (That's my girl!) I hope that I can keep her hooked as she still seems to enjoy cheerleading.
The older kids are finishing their semesters at school and looking forward to a break. Dane will be heading to Florida while Allison will be just hanging out around home with Chase and family.
I am busy making sure that everyone is where they are suppose to be. I am definitely looking forward to Christmas break. It is absolutely my favorite time of year! On Sunday, McKenna and I went down to a neighbors house who was having a Kid's Christmas Party. It was sooo cute and there were a ton of neighbors and their children there. It was great seeing everyone that we haven't seen due to the colder weather. Everyone brought a cookie plate and Santa showed up to pass out presents to the children. Their faces were priceless when he arrived. Below are pictures from the evening. (Notice my baby is growing up!!!)

McKenna posing by the Christmas tree!

McKenna and Murphy (although he isn't thrilled with her holding him)
Posing by the fireplace...

The neighbor boys stopping their football game for a quick picture!

The kids got to make ornaments...very cute!

McKenna getting her gift from Santa...

Sitting on Santa's lap to open the gift...Posing with Santa...all smiles!!!

We certainly hope that everyone has a very blessed holiday season with family and friends.

Love,

Megan

Life

Life just continues to fly by in our household. Basketball is getting ready to start...TOMORROW! I officially become a widow again for the winter season. :-) Doug is very excited for this season to start as he believes that he will have a great team this year! He anticipates winning between 12-15 games this year! McKenna had her second grade program a week ago! She loves to sing so watching her is always a joy! I have captured some pictures of her below. She finally allowed me to curl her hair for this program. What a treat! Usually I am not allowed to touch it because it hurts to much; however, she wants to let it grow so I am sure that the two of us will battle over this again. This weekend we took family pictures at Concordia Seminary and the Old Fort. We couldn't have asked for a better weekend to take these. As soon as I get those back from my dad I will get those posted. They turned out really good and we will definitely have a hard time deciding which ones to pick.

Posing for me prior to going to the program!

Waiting for their cue...
Using the sign language with the song...too cute!

McKenna's artwork on display during their song

On another note...Allison has officially decided to attend IPFW to play her college golf! This will be a great opportunity for us to still continue to follow her throughout her college career. She is very pleased with her choice and will have the opportunity to play Division I golf. She will be living in the newly constructed dorms with another teammate that has signed to play there as well. Have a great week!

Megan

Busy, Busy, Busy

Fall always proves to be a very busy time of year for our family. Between golf, school, and McKenna's activities there just never seems to be enough time in the day. The last few weeks have been jammed packed with too many things to even mention so I will just update you on a few. I am having to learn how to deal with being a mother to a child who absolutely loves cheerleading. For those of you who know me, it is taking all of my effort to swallow my pride and allow her to participate in cheerleading activities that have come available. I must admit she is very good at it and is constantly flipping around our house doing cart wheels, back bends, walkovers, etc. So a couple of weeks ago, McKenna participated in a cheerleading clinic at DeKalb High School where she won the jump off contest for having the best jump. She, along with the other 100 girls that went to this clinic, then cheered the following weekend for the Barons at their football game. She loved every minute of it! The cheerleading coach is begging for me to have her come to DeKalb High School so she can cheer for her since she made such an impression on her. OH MY!!! What have I gotten myself into???? Below you will find some pictures from the game. Fortunately for Doug and I, she is really unsure as to what she wants to do. If she is playing basketball, then that is what she loves. If it is softball, that is the love at that time. Soooooo....there is still hope that she will choose "a sport". I am not sure that anyone in my family will be able to go watch a cheerleeader after all the sports watching my family has done the last 30 years. :-)
On another great note, Allison has verbally commited to play her college golf at IPFW. She is very excited as she is the first golfer that has been offered a full ride scholarship. She will be living in the new dorms next year with another girl that she has known through golf. Doug is even happier that she will be playing locally so he will be able to continue to watch her college career. There is a lot of relief and stress taken off the shoulders of her in trying to make this tough decision. This weekend she will make her fourth appearance of her high school career at the state tournament. We are anxiously awaiting for the weekend to see if she can better her 16th place finish from last year.
As for the rest of our family, Doug and I will be celebrating our 4th anniversary on Wednesday. Neither one of us can believe it has been four years...it has gone extremely fast. Dane is still just doing school and driving down to Indianapolis about every other weekend to see Brittany, his girlfriend, who is attending the University of Indianapolis. Hope all continues to find everyone reading this well. Have a great week!

Pre-game smile!!!

Not quite sure about cheering in front of all those people
Warming up for the big game!

Group practice...getting ready for her jump!

Quick shot before the National Anthem

Whole group cheering with support from the Baron cheerleaders

Labor Day Weekend

Well, it has been a little while since I posted, but I am back. What a crazy, busy weekend with lots of traveling! Our weekend started by traveling to Lafayette to watch Doug's nephew play football on Friday evening for Harrison High School. Unfortunately, they lost, but he has a great season ahead of him. Then on Saturday, Allison played in the Hall of Fame tournament at Battleground. She, nor her team, played very well. She was disappointed in her performance so Doug helped her practice her irons today. Her senior season is rapidly coming to a close. She is trying to decided where she will play in college as she has a few really nice schools that are interested in her. I shall keep you posted as to what she decides. My guess is that it will be fairly soon.
On Sunday, Doug and I returned home to pick up dogs and head to the lake to help put everything away for the summer. It is quite depressing in actuality! The weather didn't exactly cooperate...in fact this is the first weekend all summer that we needed sweats and sweatshirts. The water temperature dropped dramatically. McKenna spent the weekend with her dad, but popped down to our house for a little while. She was able to ride the jet ski with my cousin, Casey (whom she just loves)!
Doug and I returned this morning after we completed our task of helping put everything in it "winter place". Last Thursday, Doug's jeep (that is probably truly on its last leg) quit working; therefore, we spent this afternoon getting it looked at. Good news...it is only the battery! Maybe that will mean that we can get another 50, 000 miles out of it. LOL! Doug was truly a hilly billy in that he had to jump start the car on Friday morning to get to work and in the South Side parking lot on Friday afternoon while his students got a glimpse of his lovely car. Instead of helping, they just watched and laughed at him. I can only imagine this site. We are very excited that this is a short week and our looking forward to another very busy weekend. Have a happy week! I have posted some pictures of our fun weekend.

The boy's getting the shore lift out

Doug striking a pose...look at the muscles or better yet the beer :-)
Casey and McKenna on the jet ski

I found a snake in between the logs and it finally made an appearance

Casey and McKenna (love this picture of the two of them)

McKenna in her swimsuit and six pack. BURRRRRR!!!!Grandma Novak and McKenna cuddling

Neighborhood Friends

Finally, the air conditioner is off (at least for a couple of days) and the windows are open for some fresh air! Tonight was another beautiful evening! There have been very few evenings since school has started that we have not gotten home and McKenna has darted straight out the door to play with the neighbor boy, Kieran. He and McKenna play so well together. He is so darn cute...he is always coming over ringing the doorbell wanting to play. Although they are a couple of years apart, McKenna still enjoys playing outdoors with someone. She is the mother hen of Kieran and his two year old sister McKenzie. Tonight there were a couple of other neighbors playing. We provided the neighborhood with popsicles (which they all loved) and they provided the swingset. I got a few pictures of them all being silly! I certainly hope that this weather continues for a few more weeks! I love it!!!

Kieran, Katarina, McKenna, & Joey eating popsicles

Picture # 2
Playing upside down on the love seat giggling hysterically

Second Grade & Bounce Mania

What a crazy, busy week! McKenna and I survived our first week of school, while Doug started his teacher work days on Thursday and Friday. He will start with students on Monday. McKenna loves her teacher and is looking forward to going everyday. In fact, a breakthrough happened this week...McKenna popped right out of bed each morning with no crying or fighting. I am so proud of her for this milestone. I think that this truly means she is growing up. This is making our mornings much more smooth. Allison started her senior year at DeKalb on Tuesday and has been having a good golf season; although, they just had their first dual match loss in 63 ROUNDS! This is her first dual loss of her high school career. Meanwhile, Dane will be starting his sophmore year at IPFW on Monday.
To unwind from the busy week, Doug and I decided to take McKenna to the Canlan Ice Sports Arena to check out the bounce mania that they have in one of the rinks. I heard about it through a couple of different people, but we just haven't had the opportunity to go there. It wasn't too terribly expensive ($7.00 for McKenna and we got an adult pass for free) and McKenna had a blast. In fact, adults can get on the inflatable courses, as well. I attempted this, but didn't last real long. However, prior to arriving I assumed that it would be in a separate section of the arena from the ice rinks. Boy, was I incorrect! It was in the rink and it was FREEZING!!! I strongly recommend that you wear sweats and a sweatshirt if attending this fun place. We will definitely be going back again. Below are some pictures from the first day of school and bounce mania.

McKenna's first day of Second Grade (all smiles)

So proud of that book bag
First trip down the slide

Posing at the top of the slide for a quick picture

Making the climb...

at the bottom...going head first.

Peeking through the turnstyles...

That obstacle course took the wind out of me!!! (I am too old to keep up!!)

Race to the top...

I lost!!!