The Noehren's

This year we had a Kentucky Christmas.  We took the kids to CoCo Keys, a favorite indoor water park in Cincinnati, and had a nice dinner at a ribs place Brian has been wanting to try.  Grant fell asleep on the drive home at 6 pm and slept until 7 am the next morning!  He was one tired boy!  Dusty the Christmas cat turns 11 this January!  We had a nice Christmas Eve dinner and read the Christmas story by candle light and opened one present like we did growing up.  The kids woke up so early Christmas morning that I had already taken an hour nap by the time we went to church at 10 am!  Hahahaha.  Here is Grant's favorite new toy:  ...and Haley's:  Here is what Brian and I got for ourselves:  new garage door torsion springs.  His and Hers.  We both love surprises, but I can't say this is the kind either of us was wishing for!  It ended up being a good thing we stayed home thi...

A few weeks before Christmas, Grant got his chance to take Hootie the Owl home from preschool for the weekend!  Hootie looks like he's had better days - but he was a fun addition to our family for a few days.  Hootie joined Grant riding his scooter,  ...and riding his bike.  Hootie loved the horse at Meijer,  and the park.  Thanks for coming Hootie!  Grant's class has been working hard for their Christmas program.  It was great!  Here is the carpool gang.  Such cuties!

This week I flew out to Utah to see Steph, my best friend from the U, get re-married.  I was so lucky to be able to go (thanks mom and dad for being me for a week!) and so happy to meet Kirk and hang with my favorite gal and her family.  Flying into Utah never gets old for me.  I love it!  It is beautiful to look at the valley and mountains from the sky and to remember all of good times I had here with extended family and in my college years with friends.  You also can't help but think of those brave pioneers too that actually walked the whole way I just flew.  I may be an east coast girl at heart, but ahhh - Utah.  I love you!  Here is Steph and me now:  ...and here we are 17 years ago in our freshman dorm room! Looking back I'm sure we were hated for our very loud and crazy ways - but I am absolutely positive we had more fun than any of them - so there!  Here are me, Steph and Nikki (another dorm friend) now: ...

This year we hosted Thanksgiving at our house!  My parents and sister Amy and her family from Illinois made the trip.  It was a ton of fun! The grown up table:  The kid's table: It's always fun to catch up and let the cousins get together.  We missed not seeing my other 2 sister's and their families in DC, but it was a lot of fun to host and cook an obscene amount of food!  It sure beats the drama of last Thanksgiving!  Remember?  I do! http://www.teamnoehren.blogspot.com/2010_11_01_archive.html I am truly thankful for the many blessings in my life.  Happy Thanksgiving!

Our little man turned 5 this week!  He was very excited - especially when he realized that even though he's 5 he doesn't have to go to "long school" (as he calls it) until next year.  5 Things we Love About Our 5 Year Old: 1.  He keeps us laughing - today while we were driving Haley to school he said "I live in my nose holes - oh wait - no I don't!"  I have a whole book of these! 2.  He is quick to appolgize sincerely - a great trait at any age. 3.  He loves most things with wheels - bikes, cars, trucks etc. - and loves to name the cars as we drive by.  He has a special love for Ford F150's and we literally spent about 30 minutes in the Home Depot parking lot the other day admiring the 232 trucks there that day.  I never expected my 5 year old to say "Mom!  I found a Ford F350 with a dually!!"  I'm pretty sure this stems from our family's favorite show Top Gear. 4.  He's a pretty good beat boxer and loves to be...

We got dolled up last night in our pirate best for our ward's fall festival.   Brian's wig made me chuckle.  He said it looked like he was going to an Aerosmith concert.  On our way home we drove by this over the top Halloween house on Tanbark Rd.  If you live in town - it's worth getting out and walking around day or night to check out all they have going on.  Today, I'm back to being a sick Pirate.  I guess I over did it last night!  Boo. 

Brian flew to Iowa this afternoon for a quick work trip and as Grant said tonight's dinner prayer he "blessed daddy that he can have a safe trip to another world."  Haley and I got a good laugh out of it.  Sweet boy, let's keep daddy on Earth! 

Fall has officially begun now that the 2011 Noehren applesauce and apple pie filling has been made!  The house smelled heavenly. Our 2 bushels made 6 jars apple pie filling and and 14 jars of applesauce.  Yummy!

Over the years I've learned that I seem to be prone to some wacky embarassing moments.  I've also learned to just roll with it and get a good laugh.  So, yesterday I'm at church teaching the adult women's group and realize that my nylons are creeping down.  Then I realize I can't even form sentences because they are creeping WAY down and it's probably only a matter of minutes before they are down to my knees and visible below my skirt.  I tried my best to move forward but then realized there is NO way I could stand in front of a group and teach a lesson with this going on!  After weighing my options I told them my pantyhose were falling down, ran out of the room to an empty room across the hall - ripped the things off and returned to teach my lesson!  How embarassing - but mostly how funny is that??  I'm sure I had everyone's attention!  Have you had any embarassing moments happen lately?

Not many outside of academia understand the throws of academia - but victories come in the form of publications, presentations and grants...and I am happy to announce that this week Brian got all 3, plus notification that his lab will recieve a 100K facelift (much needed for the old centerfuge NASA spun monkeys in)!!!!!  The grant is one of the big ones that will carry him through the next 3 years and fund the majority of his salary plus pay him to work on his month off (which he never really took off anyway).  Universities like it when you get somebody else to pay your salary!  So, he's happy to finally focus on his true love - research - and not be spread thin with everything else and I'm happy for him!  Plus, this is a major help in getting tenue (aka - not moving again)!  It really is the best week ever!

I just had to share my EXTREME joy!  My dining room is no longer empty...AND the beautiful china my mother in law has helped me acquire finally has a home.  Although our dining room has been empty for over 2 years now we weren't planning on buying anything until next spring.  But last Thursday I felt this sudden urge to start thinking about pretty centerpieces I could make for Thanksgiving when a lot of my family is coming.  Well, as my wheels started turning - I quickly started thinking that maybe we should be thinking about getting a table now - when we need it, rather than in 6 months.  I call Brian to tell him how my centerpiece ideas have now turned to table ideas and even though he thought I was nuts he agreed to check out some stores after work Friday.  Well after looking at 7 stores Friday and Saturday morning I came home not seeing anything I was crazy about and everything was so expensive!  In my dejected state I decided to look at...

Friday, Grant's preschool went on a fieldtrip to a fun apple orchard.  We got to pick pumpkins, apples, go on a hayride and play on their amazing playground.  While I was working Saturday night, Brian roasted marshmellows in the firepit,  looked at the stars through Haley's new telescope she bought with her birthday money,  ...and then camped out in the sunroom for the night!  It was adorable to come home and see all 3 of them fast asleep in the sunroom.  Looks like I missed all the fun this time! 

We decided it would be fun to check out our state capitol, Frankfort, after Grant's soccer game last Saturday.  We took the country route through horse farms and stumbled upon Wallace Station totally by accident!  It's a fun sandwhich place that was featured on Diners, Drive-In and Dives.  It's ironic too since I was planning on going there for the first time this week with friends but had to stay home because our tree trimming guy was running late.  Haley enjoying her man sized BLT.  Frankfort is small, but the capitol is really pretty!  This one's for you Michelle!  We saw it in a window of the capitol on our walk in.  It was in the Commision of Women's offices and we thought of you!  Now would be a good spot to put in a plug for you to move here and work for our commision instead! It was a fun afternoon, complete with 3 sleeping people in the car on the ride home. 

Last Friday night we hosted a bunch of UK students that work in Brian's lab for a kickball/cookout party.  It was way fun!  First we headed down the road to play some kickball at the park.  They were kind enough to let Haley and Grant play and few had the heart to get them out so it was a guaranteed point!  Then we headed back home for a cookout.  As you can see - there is a lot of "estrogen in the lab" as Brian says.  They are 1st, 2nd and 3rd year DPT students so he also acts as pseudo advisor to many of them too. He does have one Ph.D. student, Caroline, who is AWESOME!  Without her help Brian would be even further buried.  He can't say enough good things about her - plus she had my kids wrapped around her little finger in a heartbeat!  Our friend Chandra moved in town this week and came to the party too.  Her boyfriend Mike (the buddy Bri hiked in Colorado with earlier this year) got a job at UK in the Ki...