And Now We are Six & Sixteen!!!

Last night we celebrated John and Tessa 6th Birthday (January 19th) and Zack's 16th Birthday (January 26th), with dinner, gifts, cake and ice cream and of course,watching the Spartans basketball game on TV.
It was another great Wheeler/Addison-Kakela evening of celebrating our kids growing and making our lives as fun and delightful as they do!
We are so blessed to have all of you!

Megan and Her Girls

Saturday afternoon Megan and Lindsay and Sydney were here for a visit. For once, I managed to get a picture of her and her Dad, and the girls with their Papa. We had a great afternoon together and got caught up on a lot. The kids all enjoyed themselves as usual---you would never know they didn't see each other weekly when they get together--time in between visits disappears! Thanks Megan!

Buddy Basketball

Buffy, Ben and Alex are playing "Buddy Basketball" this winter at the Hannah Center. In East Lansing Kindergarten and First graders start with this progran and learn the "basics" and have scrimages before going into teams and having real games in Second grade.
Buffy is fine with that arrangement....Alex and Ben are pretty disappointed and think they're ready for some regular competition.
Actually, from watching them in the driveway and at Hannah, I tend to agree with them, but they do get some pretty good pick-up games in the drive ways with their older brothers' friends!

Nolan's First Band Concert

Thursday night was Nolan's first ever band concert. He decided at the end of last year that he would like to learn to play the trombone when he went to 5th grade this year at Wheitehills Elementary School. He has music class every Monday and Wednesday morning and is fairly consistant about practicing at home.

Abbie and Ryan May, who are our dear friends and neighbors, and Nolan and Aidan have been in school with since Spartan Village pre-school, are also in band at Whitehills. Abbie is playing the Saxaphone in the sixth grade and Ryan is playing the trumpet in the fifth grade.

We all went to the concert, which was wonderful and fun to watch. All three of the kids did a great job and played terriffic! We came home and celebrated with ice cream cake.

Good job Nolan, Ryan and Abbie!

Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday, Happy Birthday!!!

Happy Birthdays to Nick (15), Jake (8) and Audrey (5)Wheeler! We celebrated all three yesterday due to various illness each of our families have had since last week when the birthdays started.
It was great fun and because Moday is a holiday there were lots of sleepovers! Happy Birthday you three!!!

New Year's Eve!

We had a great stay at home New Year's Eve this year. Everyone tried to stay up until midmight....some made it some didn't! Our friend, Jon Houston, was here for dinner and it was fabulous to see him and have time to catch up.
We stayed awake in order to procede with all of our traditional superstitions. We are looking forward to this new year!

Christmas Morning!

There is no other morning like it! This year the kids stayed in bed until 8:30 and then got up and sorted the presents. Pete made coffee while Alex gave me a foot rub to help me get up because he knew "you must be really really tired". It was a great morning, as always. Lots of squeals of joy and surprise!
We have a terriffic afternoon with our friend Lori and her family for dinner here. The kids loved playing with their new toys and sharing their games. It was great fun AND food!

Christmas Eve

Our annual Kakela/Wheeler/Ritchey Christmas Eve celebration and dinner pictures can't capture the fun and excitement that we have with all of these kids each year! I think each year gets more fun as they get older, and more excited or there are more of them, or something! It is so fun to watch them grow and share their excitement and joy of the holiday. I feel so blessed to have all of you! I agree with you Chelsea, it's the BEST!

Pre Christmas Eve!

We all had a wonderful evening with Aunt Kate and Uncle Rick, Chris and Beth on Wednesday December 23rd! There was just enough pre-Christmas excitement to have the entire house nice and warm and noisey! We loved having the evening with all of them! The kids loved their presents and are still having fun playing Wii games. Pete shows off our wine opener EVERY chance he gets to everyone who comes in the house! It was great fun and an evening I will always cherish!

Christmas Cookies

These are all "better late than never" posts.... we did bake some mighty awesome Christmas cookies. These are the decorated best of the best! The decorators had a lot of fun!