Merry Christmas 2017

(Past years: 2016. 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011)

These Days It's Instagram

As you all already have realized, keeping this blog updated has fallen completely off my priority list.  Though I still hope to post sporadically for the time being and would like to get back to a more regular schedule sometime in the future, for now the way I'm documenting the life of our family is through Instagram.  For those of you who are on Insta, you can find me @k_kornrumpf, but I finally took 15 minutes to figure out how to put the latest photos into the sidebar of this blog for everyone else.  So have a look over there ------------------------------->

and if you scroll to the bottom of the pictures, you'll see a link that will take you to all my Instagram photos (hmm that only works if you sign up for an Instagram account, sorry!) 

(Also, if you're reading on your phone, you'll have to scroll to the bottom of the page and select "view web version" to see the sidebar).

Now the Christmas picture should be coming soon, since it's one of Brian's favorite traditions, but after that I'll see you again sooner or later!

Nathan's 8th Birthday

Somehow, amazingly, this guy turned 8 years old this year!

EIGHT!!  And he's in SECOND GRADE!! All I can think of are the cliche sayings like "time flies" and "the days are long but the years are short", but I guess their being cliche doesn't negate their truth!!

Months ago Nathan told us that he wanted to go back to Knoxville and be with the grandparents and Grandmother to celebrate his birthday.  Since fall break happened to coincide with his birthday weekend, and Brian was able to switch around some of his vacation days to be off work as well, it was a no-brainer to head to Tennessee for the celebration. We don't typically do friend parties for the kids (yet?), so these big family celebrations are our family's current tradition, and it thrilled me that the tradition was just as meaningful to Nathan as it had become to all the adults.

He was showered with gifts, for which he was sweet in showing appreciation. 

We took the opportunity to snap a few group pictures with Grandmother (bonus: everyone was still dressed up for church).

Then it was cake time.  This year Nathan's request was chocolate cake with white icing.  Yum!!

You make me proud, buddy.  I pray that you will continue to grow "in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man" as you already have in past years.  I love you Nate the Great!

And I had to include this sweet picture of Andrew with Grandmother.  He is such a ham and keeps us all smiling!!

First School Days for All!

"I'm Going to Eat You Up!"

Scene: At lunch, the three kids and I are eating together at home while Daddy's at work.

Andrew (to me): "I'm going to eat you up! And me and Daddy are going to buy a new mommy!"

Me: "How are you going to buy a new mommy?"

Andrew: "Because I'm gonna pay for a new mommy."

Laughter from the peanut gallery.

Me: "Where's your money to pay for a new mommy?"

Andrew: "I need a new wallet!  I want you to buy a new wallet for me."

More laughter from the peanut gallery.

Me: "How many dollars are you going to spend on a new mommy?"

Andrew: "Hmm... three!"

More laughter, end scene.

More Pictures with Family

For a while now I've wanted to get updated pictures of the kids with the grandparents, and a recent visit to Nana and Granddad's provided the perfect opportunity!

And here are are two sweeties who were helping me get my camera settings dialed in correctly. First is no smile Andrew...

... and then his reaction when Sarah tried to convince him to smile!  (Both in contrast to the open mouth he currently uses for his "smile" as seen in the first photo).

Then Grandmother and Gran came over for a visit to see our new house in NC, and I grabbed the opportunity to get another picture I've been meaning to take for ages. 

And once again, Sarah was there beforehand to volunteer herself and Andrew as models as I tested my camera settings. 

A McDoald Memorial Day Reunion

Well, its been a long while, but things are starting to settle down after our move to Charlotte. But this is a "catching up" post, from the beginning of summer when Uncle James, Aunt Kat and "baby" Konnor make the trek down from Chicago to visit Knoxville for the weekend.

All the kids were over the moon to see their cousin again!  The day before we had gone to visit Gran and Pawpaw, and Andrew was already standing at their door watching for Konnor to arrive. The next day we didn't see Konnor until after his nap but immediately he was surrounded by smiling cousin faces eager to talk to him and play with him and tickle him.  He wasn't quite sure he wanted all the attention! After finally being given the chance to wake up, he loved playing games with Nathan and Sarah.  Andrew, however, realized that Konnor was competition for his favorite cars and trucks, so the excitement from the day before was quickly tempered. Sharing is hard!!

We waited until the end of the night to take pictures, so the little guys weren't feeling super cooperative (just like last year), but we still managed to get some good shots. Enjoy!

All the grandchildren!!

Four generations...

The McDonald men...

Four generations of girls...

The Chicago McDonalds...

End of School, Spring 2017

We now have a rising kindergartener and a rising second grader. Its a little had to believe, but in a few short months I'll have two thirds of my kids in elementary school! But of course I'm getting ahead of myself...

Sarah's last day of school was on Wednesday.

And because Andrew especially was having so much fun taking pictures...



Then today it was Nathan's turn for last day of school pictures.  Poor guy, all week his prayer request before bed has been that the week goes by slowly because he doesn't want school to end.  But time marches forward and waits for no man and all that, so here we are at the end of his time at Paideia.  He is really going to miss his friends here!

Here's his "no smile" face.  (I tell the kids not to smile when they're giving me cheesy or forced smiles, then usually I get a better one when I ask them to smile again.)

And I'm going to take the blame for "horray".  Nathan was asking me which way to spell it this morning, and at 7am when I was trying to get everyone ready and out the door plus take pictures, I didn't give my full attention to his question and gave him the wrong spelling.  Sorry buddy!

But now "horray" for summer vacation!!

Happy "Hap Birt Nat"

Hap(py) Birt(hday) Nat(han)!  The whole family enjoyed getting together the celebrate Nathan's 7 1/2 birthday today.  Our family's developed a tradition that on the kids' half birthdays we invite the whole family over for dinner and cake.  No singing though - that's reserved for their actual birth day celebrations!

I know it doesn't look like it, but Andrew had a great time and especially enjoyed his cake and ice cream.  He also was cracking us up with his sayings (especially Pawpaw), but all I can remember right now is when he repeated after Pawpaw "Dat's good cake Ka-dy".

And not to forget our Sarah-bear, whose 5 1/2 celebration is coming up in just two more weeks!  She really enjoyed spending quality time with Uncle David, whose been on the road lots so we hadn't seen him in quite a while. 

It was nice to get almost all of us (we missed you Aunt Bridget!) together to celebrate a special boy!

Easter 2017

Yes, its been a long while since I've updated the blog, but we took our traditional Easter family picture so I decided I had to post it.  Plus here's a quick snapshot of life right now...

We are moving.  Brian starts a new job in Charlotte in May, then the kids and I will move over at the beginning of June after Nathan finishes school.  Which also means we've been spending the past weeks and months getting our house ready to sell.  It has been somewhat overwhelming, but the house looks great and we pray it will sell quickly when it goes on the market next week.

Nothing much new is going on with Nathan and Sarah.  They will play Legos together for hours sitting on the pool table in the bonus room and listening to books on CD.  Then they will be screaming at each other and crying about some little thing.  So pretty much like normal 7 and 5 year olds, I imagine.  They both love school and are both doing very well. 

Andrew, on the other hand, is still changing almost continuously.  Especially noteworthy is his language explosion in the past two months - we all just love listening to him talk!  He gets so excited to tell us what he's thinking that he gets stuck on his words sometimes, but almost everything he says is with great excitement and cheerfulness and lots of expression.  Nathan still tells me regularly "I don't want Andrew to grow up.  He is such a sweet baby right now!"  Here is a list of Andrew-isms that we don't want to forget:

• "Bap-bouie" and "bap-rumbo-tumbo" - two nonsense words that Brian would always try to get Andrew to repeat back to him right after Andrew started talking. 
• "My too-ah-tee" - For a while the kids would ask for their "T-R-E-A-T" after meals, but it wasn't long before Andrew caught on to what they were asking for and started asking for a treat as well.  Now we all call treats "too-ah-tees" sometimes.
• "Yesh" for "yes"
• "Ride M5 please Daddy", "Ride Oldsmobile please Daddy", "Ride lawn mower please Daddy".  Two things of note about this kid: he loves cars and anything with wheels, and he is super polite!
• "Please Mommy please"
• "Trailer itch" - the trailer is always referred to as a "trailer hitch"
• "No no no no no"
• His names for the family: "Nee-nee" for Nathan, "Ah-rah" then "Say-rah" for Sarah.  "Nana Da-Da" for Nana and Granddad.  "Nana Pawpaw" for Gran and Pawpaw.  "Dee-dee Nana" then "Nah-muh-mur" for Grandmother. 
• "Daddy new truck home" and "Daddy new truck work" and "Daddy orange truck home", etc.  It is always of vital importance to determine which vehicle Daddy took to work and which vehicles remain at home.
• "Nee-Nee bye-bye school" and "Ah-rah bye-bye school" also of great importance to Andrew is listing where the other family members were during the day.
• "Tiddy-tiddy tatty-tatty meow meow" - the long name he uses to refer to his favorite stuffed kitty cat.  

A Bonus List - Alternate Titles for This Blog Post

• Easter 2017 - Yay! I remembered I had a blog!
• Easter 2017 - But don't hold your breath for more.