It's been a Long Time

Wow - It's really been a long time since I've blogged. Last spring I got bogged down with school. It was great but challenging to be back in the academic world. We decided to put that on hold for awhile - probably until the kids are in school full time then maybe I can go to school during the day full time. There were just too many challenges other wise. In the mean time, Kurt went for and received a promotion at the bank. He now is more of an administrator and does a lot of traveling. Because of this I have slightly cut back on my hours at work so I get the kids out the door in the morning. We have also sold our house to my dad and are moving within the next week to a larger house in Macungie (Yay!). This process has been exciting and our realtor is now going to be our neighbor as well. Landon is starting Kindergarten in September and Lauren will be starting at the Village School. (I may actually have Thursday mornings to myself Yipee!) We are going to escape to the Beach for a few days in the middle of August and thanks to Mom and Dad M Kurt and I will get to have our traditional overnight for our anniversary. Harder to believe that it will be 10 years at the end of August. Wow. I do resolve (if anyone is still reading) to be a better blogger this fall. I promise :)

Where does the time Go?

Where does the time go? It's hard to beieve that it's Feb.1s't. The holiday's came and flew by. Landon is now 5! I would love to know where the last 5 years went! We had a nice birthday celebration with cake and ice cream with family and he celebrated at Chuck E Cheese with two of his friends from pre school. I've also started classes at LCCC with the hope of being accepted in the nursing program. I did well on the entrance exam, but don't want to get too excited until I have a letter in my hand that says I did or did not get accepted. The other fun news was that I was able to upgrade my camera. I now have a 8MP Canon Powershot SX100. It is pretty nice. The zoom is impressive and I am able to shoot in black and white or sepia.

We hope that all is going well with everyone and that we get some more warm weather soon.

Hugs

Mary

It's Beginning to Look Alot Like Christmas

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.... Slowly but surely at 1301 Arch Street. On Friday afternoon we went to Tranquility Tree Farm to get our tree. This was the first time in about 5 years that we had a live tree. We didn't cut our own this year but had fun , picking one out. It was snowing lightly which made it feel really like Christmas. (For all of those concerned, we tried to put a hat

and hood on Lauren and she replied, "I no wear it").

This picture is on Landon by the official Kershner tree which he has helped to decorate over the weekend.I can see us making Tranquility a yearly tradition. It was a fun place to go. Today we attended a Christmas party at a social club that we belong to; the highlight was a visit by a special guest. The kids were happy to see him. Lauren was very quiet. Landon, of course talked a mile a minute. Santa was relieved that he reminded him that we had seen him previously at the mall. Landon asked him for Geo Trax and Landon told him that Lauren would like Jessie and Bullseye from Toy Story and blocks and dolls would be ok too. (She's sure lucky to have an older brother who speaks up for her :) ) The club was very generous to the kids. Each child got a stocking with a stuffed animal, a coloring book/project, candybars, candy cane, a picture of their visit with Santa (we got two) plus a $5 bill (we again got two). Plus they had food set out. A very nice time. We will definitely be back next year for sure. Pop was disappointed that he had to be out of town, otherwise he would have joined us for the fun.

We hope everyone else is having fun getting in to the holiday spirit! We hope we will get to see most of you in the coming weeks.

Hugs

Mary

Just a Quick Note

I just wanted to drop everyone a quick note to let you know that we are all ok and thankfully were NO WHERE near the South Mall when the shoot out occured earlier today. We were close by at a local Giant, saw the helicopters hoovering and were really too close to where the suspects where holed up in the apartment buildings, but thankfully we managed to miss all of the excitement. (Although Landon was fascinated to see all of the helicopters, thankfully he didn't realize the magnitude of the situation.)

I know some of you were probably worrying if you saw the national news and saw Allentown, Pa. We are all safe.

Later I will post pictures of us getting our christmas tree from the tree farm in the snow. Something much more fun!

Hugs,
Mary

Giving Thanks and Happy Birthday

This is a little late, but I would like to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving! Luckily we got to see a lot of family over the extended holiday and to those we didn't, we are sorry we missed you!

We were very thankful that we got to celebrate Thanksgiving with Grandmama and Grandpa Rockwell and Nana Messenlehner. It was great for the kids to have their great grandparents their for another holiday. I was lucky to have NUMEROUS birthday cakes. (ALL chocolate of course (Is there any other type???)) This picture is from the celebration at Pop's house and I am being assisted by Landon, Lauren and my nephew Ian to blow out the candles on my cake. Now, that I am getting, ahem, older, I apparently need more help according to the younger generation (smile). (They also thought I needed to have every single candle on my cake because I was "old" . They didn't know how old I was, just "old". Got to love kids.)

On my birthday I played hooky from work and went to a scrapbook store in Hershey where I met up with my best friend Beth. Beth and I have been friends since the beginning of time or eighth grade, whichever came first. We're as close as sisters can be without being sisters. I've introduced her to the world of scrapbooking so I had to introduce her to Times to Remember. (Plus I had a 20% off coupon good the month of my birthday and who doesn't love an excuse to shop....) We both were able to leave all of the kids at home for some serious shopping AND lunch. Heaven for moms of toddlers. After lunch Beth had to leave I still had some time so those who know me knew I couldn't pass up the chance to go one more place....

Yup. Chocolate World. Had fun doing the ride and was restrained in the marketplace. My co-workers were disappointed that I didn't bring stuff back for them. I did bring back "fresh" Kissables back for Landon as per his request. Hopefully we will take the kids back to Candylane over Christmas break.

Hope everybody had as much fun as we did over the holiday and didn't eat too much. Hope to see lots of people over Christmas.

Hugs to all

Mary

Do Not Be Alarmed and Look who came to Dinner

Do not be alarmed if you see this young man at your house - he is just fighting fires! This is Landon's version of a fireman's outfit after his trip to the firestation. Notice the boots, hat, hood, air regulator, coat and helmet (that's too small but he won't give it up!)! He put this outfit together by himself, came into the kitchen and announced that he was off to fight a fire. I love his imagination. He constantly surprises me with what he comes up with when he's playing. Lauren is similar because she learns from Landon. We have one of the "bouncy" horses with springs that the kids can ride. Well, the other night they took trick or treat bags, pretended they were feed bags and strapped them on to the horse (both ends of the horse too). Then they proceeded to mix up food for the horse and then they "groomed" the horse. This kept them occupied for a good 30 minutes.

Tonight we hit Perkins for dinner. I found out that "Woody" from Toy Story was going to be there. We had a great time and had a nice dinner with Gram. The kids both posed for pictures (Lauren was slightly hesistant but by the end of the time she was blowing kisses goodbye and Landon of course was an old pro at posing with characters.) A bonus was that they got to get balloon masterpieces as well. Lauren got a purple puppy and Landon got a sword and hat. A nice way to spend an evening.

Until Later

Mary

Hi, Baby Cow

Happy Sunday afternoon to one and all. Hard to believe that it is nearing the end of October with this wonderful weather. This afternoon, we participated in Lehigh County Open Gate Farm. It has been going on for 35 years. Farms all over the county open their doors for tours, etc one afternoon in the fall. This is the third year that we've participated. Landon decided that we should go to a dairy farm this year. It was quite an experience. We got to get up close and personal with the cows. I was proud of both kids; neither was afraid of them. Lauren was talking a mile a minute to the baby calves. The youngest one we saw was only 6 days old. We got to go on a tour of the farm, a hay ride, see lots of John Deere tractors and get chocolate milk and sausage at the end of the tour. The farm also raises pigs. They get the pigs when they are 40 lbs raise them to 250 lbs in the span of 3 months. They want them to gain 2 lbs a day! (Then they get sold to the butcher :) It was a nice way to spend a beautiful afternoon and a neat way for the kids to learn that milk does come in other forms other than the plastic container at Giant.

Other than that we've been busy with soccer and managed to get to the zoo with Beth and Evan. Had fun seeing the animals one last time before winter. The kids were excited because they were allowed to get stuffed animals as souveniers. Landon of course got a tiger and named him Dmitri and Lauren got a Lion and Landon named him Merlin. We probably won't head back to the zoo until spring. Coming up this week is Trick or Treat! Landon is going to be the race car driver Tony Stewart and Lauren is going to be the cutest witch. I'll be sure to post pictures. We are also (weather permitting) going to the pumpkin patch with cousins Griffin and Cassidy who will be celebrating their one year birthday on the 25th! Happy Birthday guys! Looking forward to sharing some cake with you on Sunday!

Hugs to all

Mary