Christmas Eve 2010

We were blessed this year to have beautiful white snow fall on Christmas Eve!! I just stood outside for a few minutes and enjoyed the beauty and peacefulness of it.

Our Christmas Eve tradition is to have a family dinner and then the children get to open 2 gifts a piece. They are now at the age where they know that these consist of 1. Christmas pajamas and 2. an ornament. They then put on their jammies and hang their ornament on the tree while I take pictures.

This one if our "family" ornament for 2010!

The pictures aren't really clear but this year's ornament theme let the kids know who my "favorite" was!! :)

Zoey always enjoys laying under the tree and watching the kids unwrap!!

Nolan showing off his new jammies!

Grommie made our night even more special by spending it with us! She is watching as the kids set up our new Wii game "family game night". I have to say I was really excited about playing games like, Twister, Life, Yahtzee, and Mouse Trap until I realized playing them on the Wii is NOTHING like playing in real life. I definitely prefer the live versions!! But we still had a great time playing.

The biggest hit of the night was by far the Wii Glee Karaoke that Nolan and Kami picked out for their big sister! EVERYONE took a turn and LOVED it!!

Coltin really got into it!!

We also were able to do some service during the Holidays. We have a neighbor family whose youngest child has leukemia and has been in the hospital for several weeks. Her mom stays with her and that leaves Dad and the other 3 children at home to fend for themselves. We decided to take a meal to them to lighten their load.

Chriistmas 2010

Joy Love Story Holiday

Turn your holiday photos into holiday cards with Shutterfly.

View the entire collection of cards.

Love notes

Found this and had to document it for future show and tells! :)

Pumpkin carving and Patch

I am really sad to think that this may be the last year that I have a child go on a Pumpkin Patch/Orchard field trip. Although, I will admit, that after going to the patch at LEAST 20 times over the past 15 years, I am quite knowledgeable of all things pumpkins!! I was actually teaching on the day that Nolan went, so Tim stepped up and went! YAY for Daddy!! I was a little worried, because of all the pictures I take all year, the orchard pics are one of my FAVS!! I wasn't sure if Tim would be able to catch the memories the way that I would! But as usual, he didn't let me down!! His pictures turned out AWESOME and I have to admit that the above picture is BETTER than anything I have ever taken!! I mean seriously??!! No editing or lighting for it and it is simply AMAZING!! Maybe I will turn the camera over to Tim from here on out.

The HUGE slide that is a must for all creatures big or small!

In the hay maze!

King(and Queen) of the Hay!!

Cool play ground!

Climbing the wall!

Another big slide!

How cool to masquerade this gas tank as an ear of corn!! Not sure if Nolan needs to go potty or if he is posing and being studly??

Which one to choose!? Tim said that Nolan was very disappointed that all the "big" pumpkins were gone!

Nolan and buddy Chandler drinking apple cider and eating cinnamon/pumpkin spice doughnut!

Always the highlight of the trip for me!!

Nolan, Chandler, and Caleb on the hayride!

His class! I thought it was really cute how the little girls are surrounding my little handsome guy!!

Unfortunately, my older kids weren't home for the carving of the pumpkins. I think it bothered me more so than them. :(

She always likes to pretend she is eating the goop inside!

So intense!!

Trying very hard to clean it all out!

GOT IT!!

I LOVE FALL and my family!!

Smart Kiddos

Every year the kids take state tests in different subjects. The KCCT(Kentucky Core Contents Test) is a standards-based test, which means it measures how well students are mastering specific skills defined by each grade by the state of KY. The scores are ranked in 4 levels, novice, apprentice, proficient, and distinguished. Proficient is what the state wants every student to achieve. Distinguished is the highest level that students can achieve. Last year Kami was tested in reading and math, she earned proficient in math, and distinguished in reading!! YAY! Coltin was also tested in math and reading, and scored distinguished in BOTH!! Tim and I are so blessed to have such smart children! The schools have a nice awards ceremony and recognize the kids who earned the top two scores! Since Coltin earned Distinguished in both areas, he not only was recognized but we was also given a basket of goodies AND an ID card with his picture on it that gets him into ANY high school or middle school function/sporting events FREE!!

Kami's school also provided the students and parents a nice breakfast after the ceremony.
The awards day also happened to be "my school is a class act school" day and all the children were given the opportunity to dress "classy". Nolan took this VERY serious and was quick to put on his Sunday best!!

Kami and her BF Peyton! Peyton also scored proficient and was recognized!!

Coltin had been saving his money to purchase a PS 3 system, and Tim and I decided to contribute the last $50 he needed to buy it as a reward from us!

Coltin, Maci, and Valerie scored distinguished in all areas! These guys are also BFF!

Plain Old Kentucky Boy

Coltin was given an assignment by his English teacher to write a letter to her telling a little about himself. He handed me the letter tonight and asked me if it sounded ok. Well, it was a very sweet letter that made me proud and brought tears to my eyes as well!

Dear Mrs. Roller,

Hey! I am going to start off by saying I'm really going to enjoy English this year. One of my goals for this class, is to earn all A's for the year. My name is Coltin Yantz, and this is going to be a wonderful year!

I love to play basketball. I happen to play for East. I have 1 brother and 2 sisters. My little brother Nolan, loves to mess around. He can be annoying sometimes, but mostly he is fun to play with. Nolan plays baseball. He is really good. My younger sister Kami, is very lovable. She plays soccer for a club called Commonwealth Soccer Club. She is AMAZING! My older sister Peighton, is everything you could ask for in a big sister. We do everything together! She plays soccer also. She plays for East High Varsity team. She is currently going head to head with another girl for the spot as starting goalie. Between you and me, she is going to get it. Now my parents couldn't get any better. They are 2 loving and caring parents. My dad Tim, is a nurse manager and my mom, Mariah, is a substitute teacher.

Now I hope you have learned a little about me. All I am, is a plain old Kentucky boy!!

Sincerely,

Coltin Yantz

Backtracking and trying to catch up!

I have not been the best blogger/journalist for the last couple of months or so. I think that I am so overwhelmed from all the activites and pictures that I just don't know where to start. So I have decided to just backtrack a couple months and just dive in with hopes to catch up. There is no rhyme or reason to the order of the pictures, but at least I will have them in my "journal"!

Kami definitely has learned the game of soccer from her big sis! She has some mad soccer skills at such an early age. Here she was playing in the Bluegrass State games. If you look closely at this picture you can see that she left a boy on the ground in her determination to get the ball down the field! She is not intimidated in the least! Her team went undefeated!!

Nolan swings the bat around as he patiently hangs out for yet another one of his siblings sporting events!

Nolan's Yankee t-ball team celebrated the end of the season with bowling party! I can't believe he will play coach pitch next season!!
Coltin's Astros team won the season tournament! Coltin also hit his 1st out of the park home run this season. He also hit another one during the tournament!

Coltin received his awards and Nolan had to be in the pic as well!

Kami has Grommie hooked on the Nintendo mini games now!!

The kids like to help Poppa work on his boat in anticipation that he will take them fishing!! and he has!!

Kami has been really busy playing 3v3 soccer all summer. This picture is after she played 5 games in about 4 hours and her team won the silver medal!! Then we hurried back to Nicholasville to watch Coltin's baseball team win the season tournament!!

These goofy bald guys waited patiently while the girls met their teachers for the next year.

This was Mr. Moore. Kami's 3rd grade teacher. She LOVED him and learned a LOT from this special man! Her bf Peyton also LOVED him!

We had a quick but great visit with our long lost Atlanta cousins. They stopped in on their way to Chicago for a hockey camp.