Extra, Extra, Caeden Turns Seven!!!!!!!

One of our new traditions with the "Potocnik Four" (Megan's four newphews and nieces) is to give birthday presents which include an activity or event and time with us. Since we have done this twice now, we are starting to feel bad as it is just as much a gift to us as it is the kids. Our first event was taking Madison to the Tour of Gymnastics Superstars back in November. This time it was Caeden's turn for his 7th birthday.

We went to Caeden's birthday party a week ago and took our present we had created to express our gift. The kids are starting to catch on to our tricks. The large box which included the one piece of paper titled "Extra, Extra, Read All About It" didn't really trick them this time. They started asking if it was a trick as soon as they saw it. We promise to come up with more "unique" and "unexpected" tricks for future birthdays. Despite the little trick, Caeden was super excited and ready to go that night.

Yesterday, Caeden picked Taco Bell as our dining location so we decided to take him to "Ken-taco-hut" (a Kentucky Fried Chicken, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut all in one building). We chose this particular location just because we knew he thought it would be cool to go to a place with 3 restaurants. Sure enough, he did! "Ken-taco-hut" was yummy! Caeden named Wade "Ken" since he had chicken, and himself "Taco" since he ate tacos, and Megan was "Hut" just so all were represented even though she also ate tacos. After lunch, we went bowling which was great as Caeden got a strike and several spares. Then we played Sequence and the card game Golf before taking him home. He was pretty tuckered out and slept on the drive home (hmmm...so did Wade!), but we all had an awesome time together!

All the kids are great! Caeden is an awesome nephew and we love him very much. We are so thankful for family and the time we get to spend with them. We can't wait for the next birthday surprise (too bad the next two are not until July and August)!

Our First Holiday Season

After all the anticipation, Christmas and New Year's seem to have passed us by too quickly. Yet, we were grateful for the excitement and memories we made together as we celebrated the holidays as a married couple (6 months already!). We first celebrated Christmas in Chanute with Megan's family. We took part in a Christmas eve service at church and enjoyed listening to the Christmas story of the birth of Jesus, singing some Christmas carols, taking communion, and visiting with old friends. On Christmas morning, the little Potocnik kids awoke to find toys surrounding the fireplace after Santa's visit (they found these toys around 8am...a little earlier than planned...can you blame them for not sleeping in???). We spent time all sharing and opening gifts with one another and then the afternoon playing the many new games...Settlers of Catan / Cities and Knights, Sequence, many versions Uno (who knew there were so many!), and other kid games. Later, we enjoyed a Christmas dinner - ham, Grandma's homemade noodles, sweet potatoes, green beans, salad, pumpkin pie, and a chocolate brownie/pudding dessert...yummmm! After a couple relaxing days in Chanute, we traveled to the Springfield area to visit Wade's family. We visited one sister in Springfield and then stayed at another sister's house. Wade's nephew and bride-to-be got a Wii for Christmas so we spent about 3 hours bowling and hitting baseballs. The warnings on that thing are true...it can give you motion sickness and it makes you really sore the next day. No major injuries though! The next day brought about more fun activities such as shooting clay pigeons with shot guns. Unfortunately, Megan caught the stomach flu virus that seems to be going around and missed out on Raylene's special breakfast so Wade ate an extra portion for her and said it was delicious. We exchanged more gifts with Wade's family and enjoyed more relaxing days with family.

Our New Year's Eve/Day wasn't too exciting. Wade had a minor case of the flu stuff too and Megan was still recovering, so we stayed home and watched the festivities in New York. It made for a quiet evening and day, but we were just thrilled to have a few more days off before the "busy" tax season rolls in like a storm. We don't really know what "busy" season means since it seems we are always pretty busy at work, but it's coming no matter what we call it. So we are working hard to do several things on the to do list before we go back to work on Monday. Regardless of the busyness that lies ahead, we are just happy to have celebrated the holidays together and excited for what 2009 holds for us!