December

We started off this month with David and Dayna's preschool christmas program. It was really cute! The were in the choir. All week we had to hear about how it wasn't fair that I (Dayna) don't get to sing into a microphone. If you asked her how practise went her response was "stupid, they don't let me sing in the microphone" Imagine our surprise when that night she actually did sing "into" a microphone. She went to the front of the stage with about 4-5 other kids and stood in front of her own mic. We realized after that, that the issue wasn't singing into the mic, but holding the mic! The both did really good and sung their hearts out. You can still catch them walking around the house singing the songs. Dylan also had a Christmas program at church. Once again he sung from the heart as he praised God!It was Dylan's 7th birthday Sunday, so we got to do what he wanted to do. Needless to say he got to pick what was for lunch, and no surprise to us that was Subway. He has been asking for a Nintendo DS for almost a year now, so it was no wonder that it was on the top of his Christmas/Birthday lists. We had been telling him no way, it costs too much ever since he started asking for it. Well, sometime during the summer the store had it majorly on sale and I bought it at that time. It is the only thing he has been asking for so we knew we were going to have to disguise it. We wrapped it in about four boxes all inside eachother. He had no idea what was going on, just that he had to keep unwrapping boxes! You should have seen his face when he finally got to the DS!! All he kept saying was "Thank you that is what I wanted!!"

Dylan thanking his brother and sister for the game they gave him for the DS.

Dylan showing David and Dayna how to play it.

Dylan with his mint-chip icecream cake. The snowboarders on it is what sold him the cake. Now we have one birthday down, just Christmas and the twins' birthday to go!

Dave's Birthday

Yesterday was Dave's 32nd birthday, the kids were sooo excited! They all had gone with me on Monday to get Dave's gift and kept the secret wonderfully. Dave tried and tried to get it out of them but they did not tell. I thought for sure the two little ones would break, I knew there was NO way Dylan would tell. Although, now that I think about it he probably would have if Dave had promised him a DS (his most desired Christmas/Birthday gift). We went for lunch at Red Robin and Dayna let the waitress know that it was her daddy's birthday. We all got to share his icecream sundae, thanks Dayna!! When Dylan got home from school we got to have Dave's birthday cake, which the kids were so proud of. They made it themselves. David and Dayna poured in all the ingredients and Dylan used the mixer. They thought it was the best cake EVER!!

Oct 31, 2009

This year for halloween we actually bought the kids some costumes! Usually we just have them make due with whatever we have laying around, but after looking at Dayna's princess dresses and the tears in them we decided it was time. The kids love to dress up and this gave them something to use for months to come. In case you cant tell Dayna is tinkerbell, Dylan is superman and David is Buzz Lightyear. The kids had been begging to carve their pumpkins for a few weeks, but we just never got around to it. So after Dylans soccer game on the 31st we let them paint their pumpkins. They were very content to just do that! Dylan painted his like superman, he painted a cape on the back of it.

About a week before Halloween, Dayna was running around the outside of the trampoline, playing whatever game she herself was playing, and tripped and fell onto the sprinkler box. She got this huge bump/shiner on her eye. We were very happy she did not split it open and need stitches. She spent the next 2-3days looking into mirrors to look at her owie.

September thru October

Dylan was excited for soccer to start this year! He is playing in Escalon again--missed the sign ups for Ripons league and really didn't want to have to drive there for practises and games! He really likes it, although playing goalie is his absolute favorite! I tried to get some pics of him actually playing but because it is still mainly herd-ball it was hard to get any good ones. October was spent with the first two weekends being in Tulare and the third in Wisconsin. The kids loved going to my dad and moms because they got to play with the puppies. Little did they realize that the puppies had grown since they had last seen them. David would just sit on the ground and they would be all over them in a matter of seconds. Dayna enjoyed racing them. It was a decent foot race to tell you the truth!! Needless to say, we went home with shirts and shorts/pants with holes in them!

Steve and Alyona's wedding in Wisconsin (Oct 17) was beautiful and unique! It was cold, but we didn't get rained on so everyone still enjoyed it. The wedding was on a bluff overlooking Lake Michigan. It was really neat to see the Ukrainian aspects of the service intertwined into the wedding. The reception included Ukrainian dancers and a toast from Alyona's sister (who doesn't speak a word of English, but read her entire toast in English!!). Everyone had a great time and we are sooo happy for the both of them!!

The Koolhaas men waiting for the wedding to begin. One of the few pics that included them standing still and behaving!! They had a good time being all together again!

Finally!!!

Just wanted everyone to know that there now should be more updates on our blog!! We went out and bought an aircard or mobile broadband or whatever they call it. All I know is now our internet seems freakishly fast!!! I am hoping this means my pics can be downloaded easier. I do know that old habits are going to be hard to break. I clicked on a web site and am soooo used to it taking 5-10mins to get to it that I walked to go put a load of laundry in and happened to glance at the computer as I was walking away and it was already there!! I know to most of you that is no big deal, but to me it was AMAZING!! Online Christmas shopping here I come!! I just thought I would let you all know about my excitement for the day (as pathetic as it is)!

School Days

The kids on their first days of school. Dylan is in 1st grade at Ripon Christian and Dayna and David just started 2 days a week at Children's Christian Preschool here in Escalon. All of them were super excited to start school.

Koolhaas Weekend

This past week/weekend we got to spend time with all of Dave's siblings. We spent a lot of time swimming, hearing all of the details of the upcoming weddings and meeting the newest family member Andrew (Jay and Melanie's youngest). We had a great time together and it was a lot of fun to watch the kids interact with eachother. On Thursday we went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. The kids were just amazed with the fish and David keeps asking when we can go back! If you notice that Dylan is not in any of the pics that is because he had school that day. Don't feel too sorry for him, he got to get off the bus with his friends and go out for dinner with Uncle Kenny. He too keeps asking when he can do that again!! This is us eating lunch at the FishHopper. Dave, David, Dad and Dayna looking out over the bay.

Everyone taking in the fish.

Summer Fun

Sorry it has taken me so long to post a new update!! I have honestly tried many times, but kept getting kicked out. The end of June we went to the Colorado River for almost a week. We enjoyed the relaxing atmosphere and spending time with family (my family was ALL there). The kids were excited Uncle Jason even came especially after knocking his knee out in softball a few days before! Dylan mastered waterskiing and found out just how much fun it is. Now we can't go to my parent's house without him asking if we can go to the lake to go skiing! We've created a monster! David and Dayna LOVED the tube rides. The first ride or so they were so bored on. Little did we realize early on that the faster we went and the more waves we hit the more fun they thought it was! They actually scared me! They would really bounce and get air, I would think they were crying, but they would just be laughing. We could hardly get them to get off when their turn was over! Don't worry, Dylan put a lifejacket on before we actually pulled them.

After a few days at Bransons Resort we moved to the Blue Water Resort and Casino near the dam. They had a waterslide inside which all the kids loved! It was a good thing we did not start off there because the kids would not have left!! This week we went up to Pollock Pines to visit a high school friend of mine. We had a great time at the lake that is near her house! The kids had fun playing in the water, chasing the ducks and riding the "boat" or "jet ski." Kelly and I had a nice time talking and constantly counting to eight. Eight was the number of kids between the two of us that we had to keep track of, it was scary thinking that next year that number would grow to 10! Thanks Kelly for a wonderful time!

Kindergarten Graduation

Today was Dylan's Kindergarten Graduation!! I still can't believe that he is that old already (and I know he's not really all that old)!! It was a cute program with a few songs and they had little sayings for all the letters of the alphabet. He was the letter Z. "Z is for zoom, this year has flown by. My brain is packed full, now I am quite a smart guy." He was perfectly understood which was a concern of ours. He remembered to say is slowly AND clearly. It looked like he was having a really good time up there.

Afterward, we had everyone who was able to make it over to our house for lunch and dessert. Dylan loved the gifts that he got and having everyone over to "his" house. This is Dylan opening his gift from Dave and I. It was a junior set of golf clubs. He just happened to tell us last night how he wishes he had golf clubs so he could go golfing with dad. It was the perfect gift at the perfect time! Now we just have to get him to understand that he doesn't get to go everytime Dave goes and not to get too frustrated when he can't hit it all the way to the flag on just a couple of swings.

Look at that look of complete surprise and excitement! And that was when he just thought it was a golf bag without clubs! The eyes and mouth continued to enlarge when he realized clubs were included!

Stockton Ports

Last night we took the kids to a minor league baseball game in Stockton. As you can see it was very empty there, which made it very nice for the kids! They were able to run around in the aisles and climb over the seats without making anyone upset. You can tell the boys enjoyed it a tad bit more than Dayna. The weather was perfect! We had 90-some degree heat that day and I was didn't know whether it was going to be hot or cold (because of it being so close to the Delta) in the stadium. We really lucked out!! The kids were in shorts, and we brought sweatshirts but did not need to use them. Each of the boys caught a baseball in their gloves thrown to them by a player. Dylan had caught his first so of course the little brother was extremely jealous. David was mad for about the next twenty minutes, hitting the seat with his glove and telling us that this baseball game was "no fun."

I don't think Dayna even knew the boys caught the balls. She was totally wrapped up in the peanuts! She kept saying, "These are good peanuts. I never had peanuts like this before."

Dayna also kept on eye on "Splash" She knew where he was at all times. Anyone who knows her knows she LOVES animals and to her this was just one giant animal to love. The kids were thrilled to be able to take a picture with him and as you can tell Dayna couldn't stop moving while we were by him. Apparently I should have switched to a higher shutter speed!!

The kids' favorite parts of the night were:

Dylan--When the Modesto Nuts won and catching the ball

David--I like my baseball

Dayna--Splash

Easter and Oakie-fun

We went down to my parent's house for Easter this year. The kids almost enjoyed the egg hunting as much as eating the candy inside the eggs. Dylan really enjoyed playing shuffleboard with Great Grandma VT and is wondering when we can go back to her house to play it again!



Jason, my brother, does some sort of racing with this jeep that he has. Dylan thought he was sooo cool getting a ride in it and going over a jump. Something that David and Dayna were too little to do. Yes, he is seat-belted in with a 5-point harness!
These past few days have been sooo hot. The pool is still too cold to swim in and the kids were getting bored with the sprinklers and trampoline. Apparently, Dave had said at some point something along the lines of boogie-boarding in the barn, so that had been all that the kids talked about for days. So, the otherday we took them to the barn to attempt it. They were able to go about 5-10feet depending on the weight of the kid. They really enjoyed it despite it not really working. David's turn on the board turned him immediately so I didn't get any pics of him. After that fun Dave turned on the wash sprinklers and the were able to really run through sprinklers!

After all this fun in the barn, the kids were put to work. They had to help clean out the water troughs ??sp?? that are in the barn. But, since that involved water as well they had fun doing that also!

Finally, another post!!

Well, I finally got the computer to post a couple of pics again. I will admit it took me a long time before I was even willing to try again. We started this spring with an attempt at a garden. Dave made us a raised bed which in clay dirt ended up taking almost one whole afternoon. The kids and I tried jumping on the shovels, but were only able to get about an inch of dirt onto the shovel. The next day Dylan and Dayna helped me plant the plants. David was sick in the house for that whole day. We tried our hands at tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, strawberries, squash, zucchini, and a couple of cucumbers. Unfortunately, they were in the ground about 2-3 days before we had about 3 days of some strong wind. Looking at it now, they almost all look dead! Dave refuses to give up hope, I am thinking that is because he put the most work into it. We will find out in the next day or two if any of them are going to come back. It is probably early enough that we could try to replant a few of them. We will see what happens. The first week in April, Dylan had his first elementry school program. It was really cute with songs sung in many languages. He seemed to have a really good time doing it. Before the program, he was able to show us around his classroom and the workbooks/projects/papers he has been doing. He was really excited to show us everything and David/Dayna enjoyed playing on the toys at "Dylan's school."

I decided to have the kids decorate cupcakes for Easter today. It is one of Dylan's days off so I thought this would be fun entertainment indoors, especially when it looks like it could rain any minute outside. The kids enjoyed choosing the cupcakes and then putting whatever on it and as much on it as they could. Needless to say, they enjoyed quite the sugar high for the next hour or so. I was not surprised at all when no one would eat their lunches!
That is Dayna's new way of posing for pictures. All the latest pics I have of her, she is tilting her head this way. I have no idea where she got this from or why it started. It has produced a couple of cute, almost innocent pictures of her!

Problems with Dial-up!!

I have been trying for weeks to post pics from our weekend up at Shaver Lake. I know that the rain messes with our phone line and that in turn prevents the internet from working correctly. Now, for some odd reason everytime I try to download photos to the blog it kicks me out after about five minutes or so---very frustrating. We had a really good time though and the kids had a ball sledding. They could not get enough of it. As soon as we got home David was asking when we could go to the cabin again!! Dylan tried his hand at snowskiing. I think he had a lot of fun in his class and then skiing down the hill with Dad, Grandpa and Uncle Jason. He came down with a huge smile and was able to dodge the snowboarders who were all on their butts!! Those people scared me while skiing. I don't consider myself a very good skier and everytime one would sit down in front or near me I got real nervous hoping I would be able to avoid them and not crash into them. Sorry Frank and Jake for the time that I did hit you two!! Dave enjoyed being out on the slopes again, I was glad he got out there too, because he likes to remind me that he has only skied once since we've been married! At least he has gotten the chance to waterski a few times!! I did get a few pics to download to facebook so if you want to see some pics you can do it that way. I will keep trying to get them on here though as well.

Farm Show 2009

Yesterday we spent the day at the Tulare Farm Show. The kids had a blast. They got to climb on any tractor that they wanted and as much as they wanted. They walked and walked and walked for hours. Stacy did bring a stroller for Brayden to use, but Dayna was the only one who slept in it!! Thanks for bringing it Stacy! We were a little bit worried about the weather, but it was a nice day. Just a couple of rain drops were felt. The kids were disappointed because they all had new umbrellas along and were anxious to get to use them. These are just some pics of the kids enjoying playing on all the farm equipment.

My mom decided she wanted this for Valentine's Day because her, my dad and all the grandkids could fit on it easily!!

Should they be doing this??

The kids and I have enjoyed a break from the rain and have been outside the last few days. Within the last week they have realized they could do something that I had thought Dylan forgot he could do. They love to climb up on the playhouses and just sit on the roof. I have no idea what they talk about while they are up there because from the way it looks they just sit there and talk. Today Dayna decided she wanted to try. Once we convinced Dylan that "girls" could climb up there too she did...only to cry out in tears because she was so scared. We then decided that the blue one was the girls'. She had no problem climbing and playing on that one!!

For some reason I am unable to take a single picture with out them insisting on at least one "silly face" picture taken. You can't exactly tell, but David did tell me that he is making a silly face in this picture.

We have had a lot of fun these last few weeks!! It has been VERY busy as well. It started off in mid-december with a friends birthday party. We had nine 5-7 year olds running around the house. Thankfully it was a nice enough day that they mostly just played soccer in the backyard! Then on the 20th, we had family over for Dylans official birthday.

Christmas was a lot of fun. David and Dayna still continue to ask me when its Christmas so they can have more presents and see santa. Dylan prayed the other day for Dayna so that she would know that santa isn't why we have Christmas, but that it is Jesus' birthday! He was very concerned that she didn't understand that it was Jesus' birthday.
The kids with their stockings Christmas morning...it probably didn't help Dayna's thinking about santa. Dylan swears he heard Santa's reindeer on the roof during the night. That was a huge admission since the day before he was still convinced there was no such thing as santa! We we able to hit every Christmas party this year, that means 3 extended family parties, 2 family parties and then our own Christmas party. It was a very busy week and the parties weren't over yet!!Today we celebrated Dayna and David's 3rd birthday with the Koolhaas family. When we were in Tulare we did all the Dec/Jan birthdays before Christmas. Now we can relax and try to find a place for all the gifts!! We hope you all had a Merry Christmas and a great new year!!