Peugh Family Christmas

We spent Christmas Day with my family. Two of my sisters were in Dodge. I missed my sister Susan as she couldn't travel to Dodge until Sunday and we traveled back to Manhattan on Sunday. We had a great time with many laughs and some great coffee courtesy of my sister, Tamie, our personal Barista. She is serious about her coffee making. She lives in Dodge City so the nearest Starbucks is 60 miles (located inside the Garden City Target Store). Tamie measures her Starbucks syrups, her Starbucks Espresso Roast and steams her milk with a thermometer to ensure the final product is the right temperature. It is really quite a show but I will say the coffee was YUMMY.

Santa brought the kids these cute shirts with their names on them.

Keenan got his Vikings Jersey

Kira got ANOTHER American Girl Doll. I was completely opposed to the idea because I don't understand why she needs more than one. Plus, I know she will grow out of this phase soon and it seems like quite an investment in dolls to only outgrow in a few short years. Oh well, Kira was thrilled.

Keylee got some "furry crocs" and a princess purse, crown and other accessories that every princess must have.

By far the best part of the trip for Kira was horseback riding. Kira LOVES to ride horses and this time my brother-in-law, Greg, spent several hours with her teaching her some riding technique.

Schartz Family Christmas

We spent Christmas Eve with Joe's family. Joe is the youngest of six children. This year was a special Christmas as Joe's siblings, including Joe's older brother who recently completed his deployment to Afghanistan, were all in Dodge City for Christmas. It was a short weekend but it was great to see everyone. Joe's sister, Jeri, leading the family in Christmas carols.

Joe's brother, James, gave Kira this jewelry box that he had made for her in Afghanistan.

Keylee with Uncle John reading the book he gave her.

Keylee received a new princess dress from her Grammy and Papa. She is now Sleeping Beauty. She wore this dress the entire weekend (with her new crown). Maybe the Cinderalla dress that she constantly wears that is in shreds can be retired.

SANTA CAME EARLY

Santa stopped by last night and made a delivery. I always make a special request for Santa to stop by before we travel to family for the holidays. I am opposed to the idea of hauling all of what you see in this picture only to haul it home plus what the children receive from other family members. We had a great evening. Keenan's main gift from Santa was the pop-a-shot as shown below. Kira's main gift was a digital camera and two very specific, and very hard to find, Star Wars figures. Keylee's main gift was the Disney Mega Castle.

Photo of the kids with most of their gifts piled up.

Keylee's reaction when she saw that Santa brought her the Disney castle she wanted a/k/a "the pink castle." Keylee is in costume for the arrival of the castle. She wears this outfit all the time, which most of you know from my previous posts.

I will draw your attention to the package just behind Keylee, which is wrapped in newspaper. Joe has taken wrapping tips from his father as often times Joe's dad will wrap his mother's gift in newspaper. The tradition continues as that is my gift behind Keylee. I will say under the newspaper wrapping was a great pair of boots. Keenan's pop-a-shot: I bet he already shot 100 balls last night. It has been non-stop fun for him. He is doing his shooting in his Peyton Manning jersey that he received for Christmas. He loves jerseys. He asked for the Minnesota Vikings jersey and stated "I want the jersey because I like the Vikings jersey and the helmet not because I like the team" :) He doesn't know but he is going to get the Vikings jersey from my parents.

THESE ARE A FEW OF MY FAVORITE THINGS

I attempted to attend a "Favorite Things" party last night. A friend organized a party where each person brought three identical items. Then, a name is drawn and that person shared their favorite things with three other people by drawing three names out of a bag and sharing a short story as to why the item they brought is their favorite thing. It was a fun and different idea so I thought I would attend the party. My friend Julie picked me up. I am already running late. I made one trip out to her car with a bag, which I believed to be durable as it had a cardboard bottom, with three bottles of wine. The three bottles of wine represented my favorite thing. I run back into my house to get the buffalo chicken dip I made for an appetizer. Finally, Julie and I start toward out destination in Aggieville to meet up with the other party-goers. We park, I throw the bag of wine over my shoulder, I grab the buffalo chicken dip and off we go. Then, I hear a "boom, boom, boom". Yes, it was the sound of shattering glass. Shattering wine bottles to be exact. So, my favorite things were now shattered in the alley (near Starbucks so be careful when going down that alley). I looked down to examine the glass and thought . . . . this just sums up my week.

BEFORE

AFTER

I did attend the party where I saw some good friend, had some good food and shared many laughs.

Our "baby" is 3 today!

Despite the heartbreaking loss Friday night, we DO have something to CELEBRATE! Our princess Keylee turned 3 years old today. It is so hard to believe that three years have passed. Keylee brings such joy to our house. She seems to learn so much from having older siblings. She always has something to say and always keeps us laughing. Keylee loves to draw, color, dance, sing and wear her Cinderella dress. Keylee always wears her Cinderella dress. I have decided there are some fights worth fighting with her but telling her she can't wear her dress isn't one of them.

Keylee's second birthday

Keylee's first birthday

The day Keylee came home from the hospital . . . . . . where does time go?

New Season

This past Friday the MHS Indians managed to accomplish the following: 1) Retain the Silver Trophy 2) Centennial League Champions 3) District Champions 4) Host Derby Friday night for the first round of playoffs

Happy Halloween

We had a great Halloween and lots of fun with the neighbors.

Halloween School Parade

This year Kira's classroom had to select a historical character to dress up as for Halloween and present a written report to the class about the person they chose. Kira chose Sacajawea. I felt like the costume I found for her actually turned out really cute and she did a great job presenting her report.

Kira reading her report to the class.

Keenan's class could wear their Halloween costumes for the school parade.

Keenan as Obi Wan Kenobi.

Each class walks through the school and the crowd of parents to show off their costumes. Keenan threw out a little a Jedi Master judo chop at the camera. ha

Chicago Marathon - Bitter Sweet

10/10/10 has come and gone. The Chicago Marathon is over. I had an absolutely great trip to the "windy city" with some great friends. This was the largest Chicago Marathon to date. The streets were constantly filled with people for the marathon. I was truly amazed at not only all the runners but all of the international runners. As I stated, the trip was fantastic. I was disappointed with my time as I finished ten minutes slower than my goal. I managed to convince my friend Debbie to run with me and I managed two other friends to join us in Chicago for a "girls weekend." I said I was not going to run another marathon but just continue to run half-marathons. I have changed my mind. I have already looked at the marathon calendar and picked out two marathons that I may run. I told Joe before Chicago that if I didn't finish under 4 hours I was running again. When I told him I had two marathons picked out to run I got the predictable sigh and eye roll. Don't get me wrong, he was very supportive of my recent efforts. However, I think he needs time to recover from the marathon, ha.

me and my friend Debbie

Debbie, me, Tanna and Darci in front of an incredible little breakfast cafe. Yum. Reminded me of "The Chef" here in Manhattan. I didn't post pics but we also ate at Harry Caray's, shopped on Michigan Avenue and went to see The Lion King. I was so happy to have my friend Darci with me. She is an expert traveler. She travels so much for her work that she is so efficient in her use of time and transportation. She had the CTA map memorized.

A couple pics from the Marathon Expo. I was OVERWHELMED by the number of people. WOW. People... People ... and more People!!

Beautiful view out by Lake Shore Drive.

Getting ready to fly out of Manhattan Regional Airport.

GO INDIANS!!

Indians are heading into week 6 undefeated at 5-0. I will miss all the action this weekend but Joe ensures me they can handle it without me :) I will often find Joe and Keenan playing football outside or in my living room (which I don't like). Not only are they playing football but they both wear helmets. Seriously .......

10.10.10 It is almost here!!

Tomorrow I load the plane and head to Chicago to run the Chicago Marathon which will take place on Sunday, October 10, 2010. I am so nervous and excited at the same time. The weather forecast is great and the marathon is sold out. I am hopeful (but not too optimistic) I can make my goal time and I think Joe is too. I told him if I didn't make my goal I was going to keep doing it until I did. He just sighed and said "I hope you make your time then." I think he is tired of the alarm going off at 4:30 a.m. for me to get up and run. It should be a great weekend. I will post pictures when I get home.

( picture I found online from last year's marathon)

Game Day - Game Delay

I generally do not go to the Kansas State football games as I generally have my fill of football on Friday night. However, this week Joe was taking his players so the kids and I decided we would tag along. Joe left the house at 6:00 a.m. to get up to the school to begin watching film before the players showed up at 7:00 a.m. I sent him a text about 9:00 a.m. and said "I am not sure about this weather." He wrote back "it is north of us, nothing to worry about." My parents (who go to all the home KSU games) loaded up in our car and we drove to the stadium. Shortly after the game started, the announcer came over the speakers and stated that were are going to have a 30 minute lightning delay. Hmmm. Iwas not as worried about the lightning as I was the the large cloud moving in. . . . (see below)

Kiddos at the game (just before bad weather moved in)

the large cloud referenced above . .

First Day of School

Kira started Third grade this year and Keenan started Kindergarten. We are so excited as Kira and Keenan both have GREAT teachers. We are looking forward to a great year.

Keenan got Mrs. Smith which is the same teacher Kira had. Joe and I were really hoping Keenan would get her. In fact, I had a lot of anxiety leading up to the day when we learned who the teacher would be as I could only imagine him with Mrs. Smith.

Stellaluna . . . . Maybe?

I put the kids down to bed at 8:30 p.m. Joe was still at his “back to football” parent meeting. I have been suffering from a cold or allergies (not sure which) so I was in bed too. Keylee was next to me and we were watching Yo Gabba Gabba (yuck) and Kira comes in with her fake sleepy eyes and says she can’t sleep. I said, “get back to bed and don’t get up you have school tomorrow.” She left the room and a split-second later she was by my bed and said “mom a bat just flew past me.” I said, “Kira please, it was probably a moth and get back to bed!” At that point the bat flew in my room and swooped right at me and Keylee. Kira hit the floor. I pulled the covers over our head and then peaked out. To my surprise, it was coming at us again. When I peeked out the second time I couldn’t find the bat and I was hoping it didn’t fly out into the main living area. Kira reported that the bat was behind the TV. I told Kira and Keylee to run out and I shut the door. I called Joe and said I need you home we have a bat in our room. He replied “a flying bat.” I said “yes, I think I can handle a baseball bat.” He came home Kira and Keylee were in hysterics. Joe assured them that now that he was home the bat would be caught. He went to the garage got the broom, put tape to the end of the broom (we know this trick from when I had the bat in my office) and he went into the room shut the door. A few minutes later, I heard a whistle and he said “one bat in a box.” We took the bat outside and let it go. Ick. I think it followed me in when I let Rosie out. I let her out about 15 min. before we first encountered the bat. On the way to school Kira said "Mom, my teachers are never going to believe the bat story." I looked at her and said "maybe we shouldn't tell your teachers that you had a bat in your house." I was thinking, oh great the first day of school and the teachers will think Kira is crazy when, in fact, the story was true. After talking to some neighbors I have learned that bats are not uncommon around here. I have one neighbor who states that they have had ten or more bats on their porch at night. I am not sure that information actually makes me feel better. I would like to think this is one isolated event. Now, I find myself on constant "bat watch." Kira and Keylee are convinced that the bat was Stellaluna. They keep asking me if it was Stellaluna and I can only reply . . . "maybe." I just need Stellaluna to know she is not welcome here.

Dodge City Days

While Joe and I were in Las Vegas the kids went to Dodge City for a week. It was Dodge City Days so there was plenty to do. My sister, Tamie, came to Manhattan and picked up the kids. They stayed a few days with her, stayed a few days with my parents (Grandma and Umpa) and spent time with Joe's parents (Grammy and Papa) too. There was so much for them to do I am convinced they didn't even have time to miss us. They brought home many stories and Kira has even requested that we move back to Dodge City. I said NO.

Dodge City Days Parade

Cooling off with a popsicle

Dodge City Days Rodeo in their Dodge City Days t-shirts

Keenan with his cousin Gage (my sister Tisha's son)

Keenan, cousin Gage, and Kira with Uncle Greg (my sister Tamie's husband) getting ready to feed the horses.

Kira told me she was in heaven being able to see the horses everyday. My sister Tamie lives in Dodge City and has horses. Kira loves horses.

Keenan with cousin Gage petting the new Philly.