off we go!

We had a great time in Michigan seeing everyone for Christmas! we made it home Christmas eve to prepare for Santa's arrival. the girls had a great time the next morning. it took mike only hours in the cold to set up their new trampoline =) they were very greatful and spent nearly 3 hours bouncing yesterday. today we are getting ready to depart on our second leg of vacation. we are trying to catch a C-5 out of the base here at noon. the plane will drop us off in New Jersey. i am just hoping we can get home somehow. once this whole winter break is over, i will post some pictures of what we have done, and believe me, its alot!

some pics from recent good times!

Anya and her candy cane reindeer from the school's Breakfast with Santa.

Asia didn't really want to take this picture. He was a good Santa!

L to R: Zach, Anya, Amy, Adam, Grace, and Ana (all the kids who decorated gingerbread houses, except Asia)

Asia took her gingerbread house decorating very seriously!

Asia's completed house.

Uncle Brandon's new dog, Bentley. Asia made him look at the camera for the picture.

Thanksgiving

our thanksgiving weekend started wednesday. we left dayton just before 2 and put up with crappy ohioian drivers for nearly 3 hours. lucky us, we hit the 275/96/14 interchange right around rush hour. as soon as we got to grandma and grandpa's the girls just had to play in the snow (mike had an itching for a snowman too)!

Thanksgiving day we woke up and watched the parade, of course! Then we headed off to Aunt Jean's house for thanksgiving with the Otte family. anya and asia really like playing with heather and keara. boy were they pooped after that day!

Friday morning we were up early for some Black Friday shopping. i dont know if it was worth that much lost sleep, but it was kinda fun. we had dinner that night with my mom and dad, grandma sue, grandma and grandpa charnesky, brandon and allison, and eric and jasmine. it has been a while since we had all the family together. it was nice. one day i may even post about the hilarious pumpkin vs. sweet potatoe pie tasting. it was alot of fun sticking an ice cube down brandons shirt too! uncle brandon was very impulsive and gave the girls an early christmas present- a dual screen car dvd player, it made the car ride home alot smoother! Thanks uncle brandon! we drove home that night and made it in around 1 am.

Saturday was thanksgiving with mike's mom and dad and three brothers and families. I have to say that no matter how good the food is, the third thanksgiving dinner in a row just isnt as easy to stomach. mike really liked Jen's mashed potatoes and i need the recipe for the stuffing. that way i can eat more when i am ready to eat again! here is a shot of all of the grandkids (we are up to 7 now)

L to R: Ian, Asia, Madeline, Anya, Juliet, and Will

It was a long weekend. Maybe we will be up to do it again around christmas. here is just a cute shot of Asia

1 little indian girl!

Asia's class put on a little show monday. her class sang Mister Turkey, God Made Fall, and 10 Little Indians. It was very cute. i tried to get a video, but i killed the camera doing it so i am going to try to get a copy of someone elses video. i hope we can. but if you ask, she and anya might just put on a show for you.

pics from boonshoft

Here are our pictures from the trip to Boonshoft Museum.

long time, no post...

i guess it has been a while since my last post. not much has been going on. two weekends ago we went and joined the Boonshoft Discovery Museum. it is pretty cool. we took a bunch of pictures, but you know me, i will get to them soon. having this membership will make it so most zoos will let us in 50% off. i think next time it gets nice we will try heading out to the columbus zoo. we had some people over saturday for an early thanksgiving. i tried a bunch of new recipes and they all came out pretty good. one of our friends brought a chocolate pecan pie which mike said was to die for. there were desserts up the wazoo, but i have skillfully pawned them off on friends and teachers! thank goodness because with the busy thanksgiving we are going to have, who needs extra dessert now.

today when i dropped asia off at school, she didnt cry or cling or anything. she gave me a quick and ran off to do playdoh. i guess she really is growing up. =) anya's front tooth is finally growing in. she has been waiting a long time for it. now people wont be able to ask her if she is going to ask santa for her "two front teeth" for christmas. i think she heard that one a thousand times!

yesterday in the car i heard christmas music on the radio and was offended. its only the middle of november and already people are cashing in on the holiday. i am a firm believer that the christmas season doesnt start until santa comes to town during the thanksgiving parade!

anyway, thats all of my ranting for a while. i will try to get some pictures of the girls up in the next couple of days.

Halloween pics!

I know it seems odd that i have already posted pictures from trick or treating. go figure, we live in ohio now. that's all i have to say!

VOTE for your favorite pumpkin!!

pictures from our busy weekends

Mike turned 21 again, but we put 10 more trick candles to make it right!

The girls with Grandmas and their prize pumpkins.

Grandpa pushing Asia on the rope swing.

Anya and Asia digging in their giant hole.

Anya showing off her dirt!

I made a caterpillar cake for Juliet, previous experience helped!

Anya and Asia wore their tye dyed pumpkin shirts, Juliet was a ballerina.

Asia really liked the pizza, notice Anya's eating technique. =)

Ian wasn't shy about his pizza either, he must have been watching how Anya ate.

weekend of oct 25-26

this weekend was our least busy so far this month.

saturday we drove to the dayton mall too see how it was... it sucked! there were no toy stores, only clothes stores. and it wasnt that easy to get around in either. there was a 20 minutes (each way) drive wasted. although, on the was back home we stopped for gas and paid $2.289/gal. i thought this was a great price until i saw it for $2.249 on the way to the library.

sunday was our pumpkin day. first we went to meijer. no pumpkins but we got carving kits, and an umbrella for anya. next stop, walmart. no pumpkins, that was a quick "in-out" operation. next stop office depot to get a new calculator for mike. while anya and i checked out, mike and asia checked lowe's for pumpkin. no such luck. we were on our way to kroger to see if they had any pumpkins when we paseed by frank's fruit stand. they had pumpkins! unfortunately they only took cash and since pumpkins were $.30/lb my pumpkin ended up being a little smaller than i had planned. they all came out very nice once they were carved. anya designed her face and asia talked us through hers. we tried to light candles in them to see how they turned out but last night we had lots of wind gusts and our candles wouldnt stay lit. later that night the wind got worse and i chased our recycling down the street twice. somebody skull came rolling over to our house too. if it warms up, asia and i are going to find out where it came from.

i will post pumpkin pics later!

weekend of oct 18-19

saturday we went to a haunted house. they had a "lights-on matinee" especially for kids to see what goes on. there were no monsters in costumes when we went through and the "actors" from each scary room described what would typically go on there. one of the cooler things there was a spinning tunnel with tiny blue LEDs that you walked through on a cat walk. there was wind blowing against you so it made it very disorientating. anya and i both felt the effects for a couple minutes afterward. later that evening i went back a ran a 5K finishing with a new PR 26:23. yay, go me! my knees felt like crap later though.

sunday was juliet's birthday party at the cincinnati zoo. like many other zoos we have been too, this one wasnt in the nicest part of town and was a pain to get into. they were have trick-or-treating at the zoo this weekend so it was packed with little kids in costumes. the party was good, you know, pizza, cake and ice cream... but we got to see a 4-D movie. the fourth D is water being spit on you and things poking the back of your seat. there was even some snow. pretty cool. pictures to come later.

weekend of oct 11-12

this weekend we went to my parents house and the girls went to the co-op farm with the for a harvest party. they did a pumpkin hunt and played in a big sand pile. they each came home with a very nice pumpkin and also pretty dirty. sunday, we did a corn maze and had some apple cider and doughnuts. i will post pictures later (yes i know that it is already late). grandma took pictures at the corn maze, so i will have to get them from her. =)

Happy Birthday Daddy!

happy birthday Hunny! we all love you very much!

here are more pictures from the fun run the girls did on sept. 27.

our little cactus

Last time we were at aunt chris’s house we dug up a cactus to take home. He was looking pretty bedraggled at the time (since uncle howard had just mowed over him), but we nursed him back to health in a 2-liter green house. That little bugger grew and grew. We recently repotted him and here is a picture. Unfortunately asia got one of its little red prickers in her finger. =)

saturday, another busy day

saturday was another busy day! we all got up early and i ran a 5K. i finished with a PR of 26:41. its about 2 minutes faster than any other run ive done. i was quite happy with the results. this race had some fun stuff for the kids too. there was a giant sand pile, a little hay maze, craft projects and more. the girls also did a fun run. anya went straight from the race to a birthday party at Libby Lu's in the mall. we call it the "sparkle store". the girls all had their hair, makeup and nails done and then got dressed up and did a dance in front of the store. anya was the only girl that had her hair done, the others got wigs. anya still has sparkles in her hair from it. when she came home, she wasnt feeling well so she ended up going to be around 4. she is almost 100% again. just a bit of residual tiredness i think. here are some pics from our busy day...

exciting weekend

we had quite a weekend...

friday after school and work, mike googled and found a place similar to our old favorite X-bos. This place is called The Magic Castle. they have an indoor "soft play" area and games to win tickets. they also have medieval themed putt-putt golf. the girls played in the soft play area until they were tired out. once we were home, i made pancit and we rode our bikes to a park and had a picnic dinner. anya barely made it up that last hill.

saturday, we, the girls, participated in a fun run. Anya and Asia both got medals for completing a kiddie run (they finished in under 6 minutes so i am guessing it was about 1/4 mile). Asia ran the whole time except at the turn around. anya jogged a bit and then waited for asia and then jogged a bit and then waited for asia. someone got a cute picture of them a the finish line holding hands. we were very bad about remembering the camera this weekend. i did the 5K race and finished with a 29:15. i never knew ohio was hilly until then. asia said on the way home that she is going to keep running races so she can win more and more and more medals.

sunday we spent some time a the garlic festival. mike and i agreed that it would have been more fun if we hadnt eaten lunch first. the girls got to make slime, which was a big hit! we also went on a very bumpy hayride.

all in all, it was a fun and busy weekend. sorry there are no pics to go with all of the exciting events =(

USAF Marathon

Mike ran the Air Force Marathon on saturday and did really well. he finished with a time of 3:01:24 (that is a 6:55 pace) he placed 28th overall and 5th in his age group. he is still sore from the run, he kinda walks like an old man right now. Steve and Jen came up and ran the half-marathon. Steve finished in 1:36:23 (7:21 pace) and Jen was right behind him with a 1:38:42 (7:32 pace). I had fun staying home with the 4 kids and grandparents. Anya and Asia sure do like have cousins around to play with. Anywho, i didnt get any pictures because the finish line area was way too crowded. maybe next year!

Will's B-day

we went to Will's 1st birthday party on saturday. what a cutie. anya and asia had lots of fun playing with Juliet. she will be 4 next month so she is closer in age to asia, but anya really enjoys her as well. here are some pics from the party. we would have had more, but i forgot to check the battery before we left. oops....

yesterday we had some severe winds and it took out a lot of trees in the area. i guess now we are ok with not having a nice big old tree in our yard. a branch from one of the trees around here fell on a house a broke a little hole in their roof. maybe i can get come pictures once the battery is charged. anya and asia both didnt have school today. they were happy about that one!

Asia's first day of preschool

today was the big day! Asia started preschool today! she is going 3 days (MWF) from 8:30-12. i know its a long day, i was surprised at the hours. heck, anya was in kindergarten for less time. she is in a very small class, just 5 kids. i think it is good for her. she was very reluctant to let go this morning (it was hard for me too). Mrs. Carmelli, her teacher told me that she did pretty well. she had some times where she cried, but she got over it. she has been talking about school all day long. we will see how friday morning goes. cross your fingers!

sorry about the quality of this picture. asia only let me get one at home and she didnt want to take any pictures at school.

Labor day weekend

we spent labor day weekend in Michigan. it was great to be able to get there is just anout 3:30 hours. we spent some time with my folks and some with mike's. Mike ran a 30K (~18.6 miles) in milford. he did very well. he placed 4th in his age group and 23rd overall with a time of 2:06:47 (that translates to a 6:49 min/mi pace) while we were at mike's parents we got to meet our new niece, Madeline. she is very cute and still sleeps alot. anya and asia were quite taken with her. we all enjoyed the long weekend but were happy to get back home. this place is just about starting to have a homey feel to it.

Anya's first day of school

Wednesday was anya's first day of 1st grade in her new school. it is a big change from her last school. she was in half day kindergarten last year so being at school for most of the day is a big change. also, we all have to get up alot earlier than we are used to. her day was mostly ok, but her drink leaked in her lunch box, she didnt have enough time to finish her lunch, and when she left school she went out the front door when i was waiting at the back and she was pretty upset when a teacher brought her out the back door. besides those unfortunate events she said she liked it. however this morning she didnt want to go. (sniff, sniff) my baby is so grown up =)

getting all settled

I know we have been off the radar for a week or so, but we are finally getting settled in. we got our keys last tuesday and immediatly started unloading our uhaul. the truck showed up with our furniture the next day which made it difficult to unpack because we had staged all the boxes in the garage. anyway, the house is quite a bit smaller than our last one so we are keeping alot of stuff in the garage. maybe this is the sign i have been waiting for to start purging our stuff. anyway... we celebrated asia's 3rd birthday saturday with family. both sets of grandparents we here and also two of mike's brothers brought their families. all 5 horenziak grandkids were present and accounted for.

the next day another grandkid was added to the count. tim and rachael welcomed their first, a baby girl named madeline. congratulations!

here is our new address in case you missed my email:
106 Ficus Circle
Dayton, OH 45431

off to unpack more boxes, see you later