Sunday, March 16, 2014

Its March


The subject of this blog is a phrase I have heard several times in regards to there not being a blog for a month or 2 or 6.  its not said in a friendly voice. . .   Much has changed since august, so I will try to outline what occurred in each month since then.  Truth be told the Company I worked for IPO’ed in October which made the time leading up to it less than ideal for blogging and the time since not a lot better, due to sleep deprivation, never wanting to see a keyboard unless its necessary, and a few other side effects.  Thankfully it couldn’t steal my hair any more than nature had already started doing, so I have that going for me.  Anyway, here’s a synopses by month

September – In September we started to notice a real uptick in kinsley’s words, which was neat.  Of course this meant that there were three females in the house vying for a limited amount of time to speak, but thankfully I am really good at not talking. OCCASIONALLY, that may be due to my addiction to learning which lela would call my addiction to reading twitter facts about the Hawkeyes, but generally its due to my willingness to do whatever it takes to make this family run, don’t listen to her.  I made my 3rd trip of the year to The Printers of the year for our pending IPO this month also.  For those of you not fluent in accounting nerd, The Printers are a place where they print things.  I know, shocking.  Well they help you get awesome 400 page documents ready to file with the SEC (the regulatory agency, not the conference devoted to cheating).  They are magical places where you spent 20+ hrs straight, with immeasurable amounts of food and drink – sort of like casino’s but with windows so you can see the outside existing and also without the potential loss of anything other than hair.  And a few other things.  Anyway, emma was in soccer in the fall.  She did a bit better than previous tries, she’s getting there but is still a bit on the timid side.

October – Emma coins the term “Stand behind your horse, Kinsley”.  Of course I am pretty sure she meant to hold her horses, but she still says that saying to this day.  The Company I actually worked for IPO’ed that month, a bunch of us got to go watch the bell ringing which was a great experience, but New York and I were ready to break up for awhile.  The Casa de Huebner just doesn’t flow quite the same when one of us has to travel.  Lela and I went to our first Hawkeye football game in a few years, the Hawkeyes rewarded us with a win in OT.  We still haven’t seen a home loss together, so any time the Hawkeyes are in need of a win the should call us and give us free tickets.  No seriously.  I tried to get the girls addicted to What Does the Fox say, which was successful, but they eventually figured out it was annoying.  I mean I thought it was funny but females apparently disagree

November – we took emma to her first Sporting KC game.  It was super cold and of course went into OT and it was late so we couldn’t stay, but emma seemed to enjoy it.  not surprisingly there were the many annoying fans (many of which annoyed me more than emma) but it was great.  I look forward to taking emma to her first hawkeye game in the next couple years, which inevitably will be worse  Thanksgiving is in there obviously too.  On top of the usual t giving festivities we headed to Disney on ice on our way back.  Please note, Disney on ice was at the same time as the ohio state/Michigan game that came down to a 2 pt conversion and we were driving as Auburn took Bama’s field goal back for a touchdown.  These are the things we do for our kids, such sacrifice!

December – this was the first year emma really, really got Christmas.  Our Elf on the Shelf, Gabby, was spoken of frequently, htough I am not totally convinced she aided in better behavior.  Kinsley seemed to like the concept too, she at least got into trying to find gabby every morning.  our street does a pretty good job of lighting up their trees at the very least, and every night the girls were excited to see the lights.  Of course I took the lights down fairly early after Christmas so as to not be doing it on a bitter cold day , so we had to explain to emma (who was very disappointed) that some people are just rebels and leave them up.  She didn't like it.  we still didn't bite the bullet this year with a real tree, we figured we’d get one last year out of our fake tree.  Anyway, Christmas was a ton of fun, the cousins had a blast together and its really fun watching them get to experience this stuff together.  Emma did go back to school and told her teacher that santa didn't come because grandma didn't go to bed as she woke up and saw grandma on the couch.  She never informed us of this and of course, Santa did come, so sometime I worry that she is going to tell some random story that is going to end with me in jail. 

January – Kinsley’s bday.  It is really hard to believe that Kinsley is 2, she is still our little peanut (generally around 10th percentile in most advanced metrics, or whatever it is the doctors measure her on) but she makes up for her lack of size with pizzazz.  She’s very active and doesn’t take crap from anybody, I have seen many occasions where she throws an arm bar at another little person who gets up in her grill.  Not that you want your child to be mean to other kids, but its somewhat amusing to see her request space in that manner.  Her and emma have really built a bond too, when one is away they seem to be so lost without each other.  Since Kinsley’s 2nd birthday she seems to be talking like crazy, even more than in the fall.  She has sentences now and is really good at communicating most things.  MOST, as in not when there is an emergency like when she really wants some pistaccios, you know the important stuff.  One of my favorite parts of the day is when Kinsley wakes up she yells “MOMMY IM UP!!!!”. 

February – nothing too much as far as activity.  My company was releasing Earnings which meant there wasn’t a ton of free time and lela was busy with year end crap too.  We did ge out in the couple small snow storms and get to play.  The girls are not made for the snow, they generally come out with me while I shovel for about 15 minutes and then want to go inside to get hot cocoa.  Not that I blame them, but isn’t shoveling snow almost as fun as hanging out in a warm house?  Emma is also more and more sure of her funniness  - she loves to say things and then just smile. “End of Story daddy” (a saying that she hears from her teacher at daycare), “Really daddy I don’t think so”, “Actually” (I say actually a lot, I admit it), “that’s not really fair to me”, “ do it to me!!” (whenever we are lifting Kinsley up or doing something that is much harder to do with a 4 yr old) are  a few things we hear frequently with emma.  I have broken up with college basketball at least 6 times also due to the hawkeye’s late season swoon. 

Anyway in general the girls are great.  I mean we did have a weekend where we discussed the viability of duck taping your child at nap time, but you’ll have that with rice fueled little people.  Emma is a great kid, she loves to do things like color (which is the last thing I would have ever done as a child) but she is also a very physical kid, which is fine.  She’s no boy (there is a noticeable difference) but she’s not a princess which is just how we would want her if we could choose (of course we choose nothing with emma, she dictates).  Kinsley is non stop laughs, she loves to play with babies, even if it mostly means just taking off all there clothes.  She also comes home most nights and requests that I put basketball on, which makes me happy, maybe we will have some ballers in the house.


I am going to get some pictures up this week, we are back on the saddle, I promise.

Monday, August 26, 2013

Catching up with the Huebners

 

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.  Tis how we would describe Disney. 

 

Before we start into it I want to preface it with thanking  my parents who made it all possible.  I want to be clear it was a great trip where we had a ton of fun  that we will always remember, so please take my other comments in jest in that they are amusing observations.

 

To our youngest daughter Kinsley.  I cannot wait until you have an 18 month old child.  I pray each day that that child lives life with as much “enthusiasm” as you.  Accordingly when you have an 18 month old, we are going to take you to Disney.  We will also stay on resort and let you enjoy 25 min bus rides from each resort while your child also expresses the enthusiasm through screaming and thrashing around.  Oh and we will for sure bring our stroller, in hopes your child can get mad every time we put her into and then fall asleep finally as you try to exit the park and have to get her out.  Also, note to Disney, you have a great place and you print money.  Maybe you can come up with a bus system that allows open strollers so we don’t have to wake up kids to get on and also so dad doesn’t have to be the guy constant folding it up and running into everybody with it.  Hopefully your husband will take your screaming child outside too when said child freaks out in every show possible.  We know all you really wanted was to be able to walk around, unfortunately while you are a very skilled walker for your age, your legs have the length of a 9 month old and don’t get you anywhere very fast. 

 

To our oldest daughter Emma – we hope to do the same when you have a 4 yr old.  We hope that your child is also as enthusiastic as you.  We hope that she freaks out if her opinion isn’t followed also and that she follows the similar pattern with the whole falling asleep as we leave the park as you did too.  Hopefully she enjoys the little mini water park at the hotel as you did and plays for hours in it (see I am not totally snarky).  We hope that she enjoys meeting princesses also and parades and sleeps the entire flight home.  Hopefully your husband doesn’t get sunburned at the beach as I did and have to deal with a huge blister on the top of his foot and sunburn everywhere from when the sunscreen that he applied 4 times washes off  in the water. 

 

We really did have fun.  Emma got into the princess and parades the most I think.  She enjoyed some of the rides, but she is not the most adventurous kid in the world, rollercoasters are not her thing for sure.  Luckily she had just surpassed the magical 40 inch requirement that allows you to go on the majority of rides.  Kinsley had fun too as she loves animals, but really wants nothing more in life than to walk around herself  and see the world.   Emma still talks about Disney and how she wants to live there  (she says that about many things she likes).  We also had a great day at the beach as you can see in clearwater, sans the lighter complected folk getting some crazy sunburns.  Oh and the flight back, though it was delayed was phenomenal.  Emma literally slept the entire time and Kinsley a decent chunk . 

 

Below is a litany of pictures from our travels as well as emma’s bday.  More about the girls later