Thanksgiving!!!!

...and yes! This will bring me up to date.

Jonah's class had a Thanksgiving program instead of a Christmas program this year. Jonah and all the kids were really cute! ...except the little boy who wouldn't stop picking his nose (no, not Jonah!).

We spent Thanksgiving day in Radcliff at the Schandings. We always have a great time with David's parents, siblings and spouses, and all the little nieces. Jonah calls them "the girls." "Are the girls going to be there?!" he always asks.

I can't decide what's funniest about this picture: David sneaking into the photo, the goofy expression on Jonah's face, or the ultra serious look on Bella like she's practicing her super model pose.
David's brother Greg brought all the cousins traditional costumes back from Afghanistan where he was stationed with the Air Force. They put on a lovely parade.

Of course Jonah had to strike his warrior pose.

The weekend following Thanksgiving we drove out to my aunt's house in North Carolina to eat even more turkey. Here's a photo of Jonah with some more cousins. I don't take very many pictures of adults I've noticed.
I'm so happy to now be caught up! Now maybe people will stop harrassing me.

Next up by request... Our skydiving experience!

Who's That Man?!

I'm almost caught up! I only have that glorious holiday Thanksgiving left. It will be a long blog, so I'm going to take a little break. On any typical night here at the Schanding household we have some light hearted entertainment to pass the time. Most of the time, Jonah is at the center of this whimsical fun. Tonight he decided to play mail carrier dress up in David's honor. As you can see...

Safari Man!!!!

and Kung Fu Mail Carrier!!!!

I hope you enjoyed our silly family fun!

A Christmas Story

Jonah and David have many things in common including their love of sports, board games, dogs, and that little holiday known as Christmas. I'm not sure which one gets more excited. They sort of build each other up into a little ball of frenzied holiday cheer. Both of them are already conspiring to catch Santa in the act next year. David reminds me of Clark Griswald in his joy of putting up the Christmas lights. He went all out this year...

We continued our traditions of visiting Santa at the local mall, driving around to see the Christmas lights, and also added a Christmas song dance competition that was a blast. Unfortunately, I don't have any photos of the dance competition.

We actually woke up before Jonah this year which was quite astonishing.

Is this from Halloween? No, Jonah got the Darth Vader voice changer from Santa and he
loves it!
We couldn't have had such a great Christmas without all of our wonderful family and friends!

New Year's Eve Celebration Kiddie Style

We had a pretty wild and crazy New Year's Eve celebration here at the Schanding household. ...at 7pm. David wanted Jonah to be included in the festivities, so we had a mock countdown to 7 o'clock that night. Then we acted loud and crazy, banging on pots and pans and shooting toy guns. We even had some bubbly apple cider on hand to complete the festivities. May seem to some as pretty lame, but we had a great time. Happy New Year!

Way Out West

Boy! I'm like super behind on this thing. I don't think the once a month thing is going to work. I can't remember when it's been a month. Maybe I'll update it every weekend. First I've got to get up to date. I think I'll start with the more recent past and work back through the holidays. I hope that sounds good to everyone.

In the most recent past, we were able to take an unbelievable ski trip vacation in Steamboat Springs, Colorado during the first week of January, thanks to the kindness and generosity of my mom and her husband. I don't think David and I really believed we were going until we actually stepped off the plane (which we had to catch 7am New Year's Day but that's another story in itself) in Colorado. This is the view from the condo where we stayed with my mom Sandi and her husband Lewis and my 2 brothers, Jason and Jon.
We were also able to spend some great quality time with my Aunt Deb, Uncle Brian and cousins Shannon and Stephanie, all of whom live in Colorado. (David fact: His family lived in Colorado for several years. They moved to KY when David was 5 or 6) I kept waiting for all of us to be together to get a group shot but then we were never all together at the same time. Darn!

Here's David and I hitting the slopes.

While David and I would ski, Jonah would go to snowboarding school. He was really excited to learn. The first day in CO, my brothers and Lewis rented snowboards but turned them back in after about 30 minutes, saying how incredibly difficult it was. David and I totally expected to pick up Jonah from the snowboard school ready to throw in the towel. But no, he couldn't wait to go back the next day!

Jonah's mastered the ski lift.
Oh oh! Is he going to fall?
He's got it!

What a cutie!
There you have it! Thanks for sharing our most excellent Colorado adventure. (We also visited some Colorado hot springs which were amazing. Hopefully, I'll photos soon to blog.)


***I have to give a great big Schanding thank you to Amber and Phil for being so awsome to babysit the pups while we were gone. We can't thank you enough!! ***