Fourth of July 2012

Our neighborhood has fireworks on July 3rd and we were excited to get to see them. We even got invited to sit with our neighbors in their secret spot and also one of Brian's co-workers-so we felt loved. The sad thing is a bad thunderstorm blew through about that time and so the only fireworks we got to see were God's. I did introduce Piper to sitting on the front porch and watching the rain. It is one of my favorite memories growing up is sitting on the front porch with the rain coming down and talking with my parents and sometimes just taking in God's beauty of storms. I have always loved storms. So Piper really wanted to see real fireworks and we could not convince her to watch them on TV so we went to a town about 20 minutes from here to watch their fireworks. It was a really good show and we had great seats and one person even commented it was better than the capital fourth. I told Piper she was right that fireworks are better in person!! A fun thing is right after as we were coming home a bad storm came through and we had to drive through it. God was protecting us as it stopped raining by the time we got home and we have a detached garage so we didn't have to go through the rain to get inside with sleepy kids. Here are some fun picture!!

 What do the Mckean's do while waiting for fireworks?  Electronics-Kindle, Phones, and Touches!

Already met the doctor

As most of you know I am not a big fan of the doctors so we never go unless for a physical or it is really necessary.  Christian had not been to the doctor in over a year until he had a 7 year physical.  Piper got sick on the way home from the Natural History Museum and had a horrible runny nose all week-we went through several boxes of tissues.  On Friday of the same week, Christian got the same fever and nose starting to run.  I know it was just a virus so I tried to ride it our.  Piper on day 10 was still miserable so I called the doctor and asked to see Christian too.  Piper did get antibiotics just because she thought she had an ear infection.  They are finally not blowing their noses every 2 seconds.  We went through 6 boxes of Kleenex in 2 weeks.  The doctor has a lot of the same view I do about sweating out fevers and not giving antibiotics and trying to just get over it.  Hopefully we don't have to see her again for awhile!

Natural History Museum

We ventured into DC. We took the metro,which the kids really loved.  It dropped us off and we walked right onto the mall.  They were setting up something on the mall so it was not as spectacular I would have liked for the kids first view to be. I didn't get many pictures just because Piper was not acting herself and turns out when we got home she had a fever. Piper and I went in the butterfly garden they had and enjoyed seeing all the pretty butterflies. Christian loved seeing all of the dinosaur bones but would not stand still long enough to get a picture. We saw the hope diamond, which is like seeing the Mona Lisa(which I have)-yep that is what it looks like in the pictures.   It is an amazing museum, and we will be going back again and it was super easy to get there on the metro.

Our first few adventure in Virginia

We live about five minutes away from the Air and Space Dulles Smithsonian. It houses the Discovery Space Shuttle, and many other planes from many different times. We decided it would be our first adventure. It was busy since it was a special weekend, but really cool. They also have a air control tower that you can see plans landing and taking off from Dulles. I can honestly say that the Discovery Space Shuttle was amazing. We will be going back. We also got to see the Piper Cub Airplane.  When we had Piper I think a million people when they heard her name asked if my husband was a pilot and my brother even called her Piper Cub for while.  Fun fact is when they flew the Discovery in the elementary school the kids will go to had an outside day just to watch it fly over. Here are some of the pictures

Moving to Virginia

Well on June 7th a new adventure in our lives started.  We moved to Virginia.

God has been preparing us for sometime, but we really thought it would never happen.  I had started nursing school and loving it.  We never thought Brian's work would come up with the numbers for us to move and maintain our same lifestyle, but the numbers we prayed for were the exact numbers that they came up with.  So in January we decided we were going to move.  We had to get our house ready to sell and put it up for sale in February and ended up selling it in a week and half.  We got the exact price felt like we needed to sell it for. The week it sold was the same week we got to go on our house hunting trip in Virginia.  We saw some great house, but none just jumped out at us.  However, we found one we really liked and were about to make an offer when our realtor said there was a house that just came on the market today would you like to go see it.  We said sure.  We walked into our house and it was home!  It was at the very high limit of our budget, but we would not have to do anything.  The great thing is we would not have to do anything to it.  So we went for it and got it.

We closed on our house in Texas on May 4th.  We moved into an apartment for the next month until the kids finished school.  The Hills was having their Sports Camp the week right after school was out and so we decided to stay and the kids had a great time doing basketball (Christian) and Art (Piper). 

We made an amazing decision and decided to let the kids stay with grandparents for a week while Brian and I get unpacked ect.  We got so much done that week and almost everything unpacked by the time the kids got here.

I flew and picked up the kids in Tulsa and we flew back the next day.  The kids loved the house, but that night as they went to bed both of them broke down in tears and so did we.  I think reality kicked in and they realized their friends were not here.  We have had a few sad moments, but the kids love our alley in the back where all the kids play.  There are a lot of kids in the neighborhood and Piper has really bonded with the girl next door, Vivian.  I just wish we could find a little boy that Christian would love.  I don't know if anyone will compare to Nevin and Mason Harwood.

Here is a picture of the move and the massive amounts of paper and boxes.  However, as I am writing this- all but one box is unpacked!

Sking 2010

We had a great time sking. It was mine and the kids first time to ski. Brian had not been since he was 19 or 20. The first day we got there checked into our condo, which was amazing. Brian and I said it was almost nicer than our house. It had granite counter tops and a fully stocked kitchen. The kids really enjoyed sleeping together in a room with 2 twin beds. Brian's mom decided not to come so we had an extra bedroom. The next day we just tried to figure out where everything was, rented our skis, ect. We played in the snow a lot and just had a great time together. The third day the kids and I went to ski school. The kids had a great first day!! I had an instructor that was not that great just said do this and didn't really give any individual instruction. We are going up on the mountain after lunch and turned to him to say "How do I get off the ski lift?" His answer was you stand up and ski right down. I fell down getting off and one of my skis came off and a total stranger helped me get them back on not my instructor. After I was crying my instructor decided to give me off to another instructor for a private lesson. He was patient and amazing. The insteresting part about both of these men and the 3 or 4 others I met is all of them were over 60 and this was their retirement job. The private lesson went extremely good and at the end of the day on the last run down the bunny slope was "I think I saw a smile that time." I was still a little nervous to go up with Brian the next day. However, we dropped the kids off at ski school and we were off and I got off of the chairlift better this time with a little help from my honey. He helped me and was extremely patient. I was hurting and fell a couple of time and decided to take a break while he went and skied a little more. I decided I would give it another try and it was much more relaxed and fun this time. I said we could come back sking at some point in time. The second day of ski school both kids got to go up on the mountian with their teachers. Christian fell a lot and was not sure about going again the next day. We decided on the third day that Brian would go up with Piper first and Christian and I would stay down and then Brian would switch kids. We were not sure how hard or easy it would be with them. Brian took Piper up and came down and said I can take both of them. He took both of them on 2 runs. Brian said they were both awesome. They will be happy to tell you they are better than mommy. Brian had to make Christian play follow the leader with Piper so he would not go too fast. I have never seen Brian beeming so much as when he came off the mountain with them except maybe the day they were born. We went back to the condo every night and enjoyed a dinner and games-I think the kids favorite was probably yatzee. The last night we went to Fat Boy's Pizza and went in a few shops on the town. We headed back for the last night in the condo. The trip back we made in record time because I think we only stopped to go to the bathroom twice and stopped to eat once. We didn't stop one time from Amarillo to our house-5 and 1/2 hours. We had an amazing time!!!

The view from our condo

Good Night Things

Christian started a ritual of good night things before he goes to bed.  It started out with just a hug and a kiss, but has progressed into much much more.  It is also a stalling tactic to lengthen good night time.  Good Night things include:
Kiss
Hug
Eskimo kiss
Butterfly kiss
high five
zurburt
tickle
goobble up
scratch your back
big fat whoopin

Piper has now picked up on the stalling tactic and started doing it too.

It really is just sweet moments with our kids and just don't know how long it will last.