Newton . . . Kansas . . . Kansas . . . Newton and Subway

Tonight our family took a rather uninteresting trip to Alco for the sole purpose of using the 30% off coupon we received in our e-mail to buy a 4-slice toaster. Nothing enlightening or exciting about that, right?

Right, until the ride home, when, as we are passing by the north Subway, our son interrupts his litany of snack suggestions once we're home (orange, apple, no, orange, no to Daddy's offer of fruit snacks because he already had some today, never mind that we had oranges for dinner, he was settled on an orange) to ask us (and I quote), "Is that the third Subway in Kansas?" I couldn't help it; I broke out laughing. We had to explain that no, in fact that with approximately 33,700 Subway restaurants world wide in 95 countries and 15 in Wichita alone, there are likely a hundred or so in Kansas. Doug dutifully tried to explain that like Wichita, El Dorado, Hesston and other Kansas cities Caden is familiar with, Newton is a city, a smaller part of the state of Kansas.

Caden listened rather attentively (for him) and then declared, "I can't believe I have to tell you this, but Newton and Kansas are the same thing!" He acted like we were certainly the dumbest people he'd ever had to ride in a car with.

Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas which included being able to attend Christmas Eve service at church with both sets of our parents. We followed Christmas Eve service with a yummy "breakfast for dinner" meal at our house. Christmas morning Doug woke up early to make us muffins and juice before opening our stocking and gifts with my parents. Then we headed to Doug's parents to open more presents and eat lunch with our entire immediate family (both sets of grandparents and Doug's brother, sister-in-law, and niece and nephew). All 3 of us were quite spoiled by Santa, each other, and our parents!

#1: our decked out tree loaded with lots of presents
#2: Caden proudly showing off his Sooner stocking
#3: my reaction to opening a gift from Doug and finding
an entire carton of my favorite peppermint chapstick
#4: our nephew, Jensen, opening a present

We got tons of wonderful gifts, but here are some of our highlights:
CADEN: tiger pillow pet; Ultimate I Spy Wii game from Santa; 40+ Hot Wheels; basketball, hockey, and boxing Wii games; cash; Wal-Mart gift card; scooter

SARAH: 2 muffin pans; Paula Deen pot set; peppermint chapstick; new headphones; necklace with Doug and Caden's names on it; books; iTunes gift cards

DOUG: hunting license; hair clippers; new headphones; iTunes gift cards; new iPod; Sooners sign; clothes

#1: our niece, Tegan, lost among the all the presents
#2: Jensen showing off his new Chiefs jammies with Mommy Melissa
#3: Caden showing off his new football jammies (he got 5 pairs of desperately needed new jammies!)
#4: Tegan showing off her new Moxie beauty salon girl

We are certainly blessed this holiday season!

2010 Mini Re-cap

Since it has been 8 months since I last blogged, I thought I'd do a brief re-cap of 2010 before 2011 begins and I re-commit to keeping our blog updated. I'm just going to do the highlights for each person and our family.

CLOCKWISE: goalie during indoor soccer; visit to OKC Zoo;
Pre-K Graduation; Astronauts Doug and Caden

CADEN: lost his first tooth (and 5 more since); played indoor soccer; graduated from Pre-K in May; played t-ball; grew taller; started KINDERGARTEN!; played flag football; made new friends; grew taller and taller; has some permanent teeth growing in; had his first school field trip (big day: visited a local dairy farm; fire station; police station; and Dillons to culminate a study on community helpers); turned 6 in November and had a big swim party to celebrate; grew taller and taller and even taller (Honestly, he's VERY tall. People comment on it all the time. He got to play Joseph in his Sunday School class' Christmas program because he's the tallest boy. He has a good buddy at school who is much, much shorter and they look like the odd couple when they stand next to each other. Very funny.)

CLOCKWISE: t-ballers L-R Grayson, Tegan (our niece), Caden;
Coach Daddy Doug and his favorite player; ARRRH me cutest pirate lad on Halloween
serious during flag football game;

DOUG: continues to work for IDG (Industrial Distribution Group) in Wichita as the warehouse and facilities manager; coached Caden's t-ball team, which included our niece, Tegan, and Caden's best friend, Grayson; coached Caden's flag football team (interesting experience to say the least!); lost lots of weight; worked part-time for the Wichita Photobooth Company owned by some friends here in Newton; got to ride along with our friend Dan who is an El Dorado police officer (Doug was thrilled and texted me in the middle of it announcing he thought he'd change professions and become a cop! He got to see a lot -- signal ones and fours!) 

CLOCKWISE: nerd day in Pre-K; feeding a rabbit at Tanganyika Wildlife Park;
1st day of Kindergarten; found him one morning nearly all the way under our bed

SARAH: still working for USD 373, but started a new position in August as the instructional coach for the newly configured Santa Fe 5/6 Center; watched two of my very favorite former students graduate from high school (aside from making me feel very old; it made me so proud as a teacher! Thanks Matthies and Goeverts for inviting me and especially Peter and Tyler for making me so proud!); lost some much needed weigh; continued part-time with the Wichita Photobooth Company; enjoyed watching Doug and Caden during t-ball and flag football seasons

CLOCKWISE: my favorite boys at the KU game; Caden and his new best bud, Officer Dan;
Happy 6th Birthday!; the whole gang at the KU game

FAMILY: celebrated our 10th anniversary in July; Doug's mom battled a recurrence of lung cancer with chemo and CyberKnife and is now in remission, thankfully!; Sarah's parents moved from Newton to Savannah, Missouri; visited the Oklahoma City Zoo and science museum (very fun!); Kansas State Fair fun in September (TONS of rides for Caden and Mommy and even got white-knuckled Daddy on the Ferris Wheel); twice the grown-ups participated in a mystery dinner theater in Kansas City (once for our anniversary and once with friends . . . great fun both times!); enjoyed Caden's first live college football game watching the Jayhawks (who ultimately won, though we totally missed that part) against the Buffaloes with good friends (Thanks Dan and Shannon for going with us! Caden now thinks Dan is AWESOME!); had family pictures taken by a good friend in early December (Thanks so much Shannon! We love them!! A few are featured at the top of our blog and some others were showcased on our Christmas card this year and four more our shown below)



CLOCKWISE: a smooch for Mommy; so very tempting!;
funny to us; our little family

All in all, 2010 has been a year of change for our family, but has also been one filled with lots of love and laughter. We couldn't ask for more. Looking forward to the adventure 2011 will surely bring!