HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

I want to wish everyone a fantastic new year and new decade! As I look back on this past decade, I get a little overwhelmed with emotion. It's just been fantastic, I met my best friend (and married him), we had adventures in Australia and New Zealand, we moved to Idaho, I got my master's degree, we bought a couple of houses (and sold a couple!), got a dog and were blessed with two wonderful children. Phew, actually, I'm kind of tired thinking about all of that! I'm hopeful this next decade will be just as exciting, rewarding and joyful.

I also want to take this opportunity (man, I love having a blog, I get to do all the random shout-outs I want!) to send my love to all the special people in our lives. This past decade wouldn't have been nearly as meaningful and wonderful without all of our peeps. You know who you are!

Since we are ringing in this new decade in with the true Kearney spirit of adventure, we are currently moving so I haven't been able to post any pictures of our Christmas. As soon as we are settled, I will post some. We had a fun filled Christmas holiday! (As mentioned in a previous post, we recently sold our house *wahoooo* and so we are moving to a great little rental house, while we try to find our next home. We are so thankful for our excellent realtor, Ryan Skene, for selling our house!!! If anyone needs a realtor referral, we'll give you his contact info!!!)

I'm running out of ideas!

Entertaining a 5 year old and almost 3 year old when it's cold outside is getting a little difficult... Morgan is on winter break from preschool and I fear she's getting a little stir-crazy. So what's a Mommy to do? Why, t.p. her, of course!

I love the look of disgust on Aidan's face over his sister and my shenanigans... Don't worry, we pulled him to the dark side and he thoroughly enjoyed decorating our living room with toilet paper.

What's really frightening about this picture is that I think I make this face a lot.

What I really wish I had a picture of is Ryan's face when he came from work to find the inside of our house, as well as our children t.p.'ed. I love being a mom!!

Merry Christmas!

The Kearney's are ready for Christmas! (Well, kind of, I mean there are still presents to be wrapped, food to purchased, cookies to be made, etc., etc.). So I guess "mentally" we are ready for the holiday!




I took Morgan shopping yesterday to get some last minute presents. We bought Ryan a new ipod (yes, I can post this because, well, keep reading). I took Morgan with me for some "girl time," and right after we bought it, she told me that she had a plan to ask Daddy if he wants an ipod for Christmas. I said, "NO," because if she were to ask him that question, he would definitely know what we had just purchased. She asked me several times if she could ask him that and several times, I said, "NO!" So guess what she asked Ryan right when we walked in the door, "Daddy, do you want a new ipod for Christmas?" Aye, aye, aye! For those of you who don't believe in karma, come meet my daughter and I. I used to do this EXACT same thing around the holidays....

The holidays wear this little guy out. He's decided to only wear red, head to toe, these days. I like to think it's because he's in the Christmas spirit, but I think it has more to do with Lightening McQueen. (Note: 5 minutes after the taking of this picture, Aidan turned our couch into "Aidan Lake." So our house smells like a litter box at the moment. Good news, I have been wanting a new couch!)

Helping Daddy with the lights, well okay, just lying around while Daddy puts the lights up!

What could be cuter that 12 singing Christmas trees?

Not much! Morgan's school, Garabatos, had their Holiday program on Friday. It was so cute to hear all of their little voices, even if I don't speak Spanish and could really only pick out the word, "Navidad" here and there. Morgan was pretty proud of all of her hard work.

I get the giggles everytime I watch this. Apparently when you are preschooler, maintaining a loud noise level is the most important part of the performance!

1st Annual Pub Crawl

I won't post a lot of pictures of this night, but we were celebrating two things. First, the holidays with our great friends and second, WE SOLD OUR HOUSE!! The theme of the night was "dress to impress." To the normal person, this would mean, dress nicely. To Laura, Jed, Ryan and myself, this meant, dress like an idiot. Because we were doing last minute selling your house things on Saturday, we couldn't get to the thrift store to pick up our tacky outfits, so we sent Laura and Jed to do the dirty work. Here's what they came up with. And yes, Laura and I are wearing matching light and hot pink cords that are way too short and in the style of "mom jeans."

Yes, Ryan's shirt is too short and second, yes, there is a hole in it. Laura and Jed said picking out Ryan's outfit made them laugh all day. Since it hasn't happened in our 30's, maybe we'll act like adults in our 40's? Probably not, that's right around the corner. Perhaps our 50's...

The whole gang. Ryan really got into the "spirit" of his outfit.

Gingerbread houses!

Luckily for me, I am friends with Molly, who is extremely creative and crafty. This was the second year that she put together gingerbread houses for the kids to create. It is so much fun, although, a difficult temptation for our little sugar addict, Aidan! Thanks Hamiltons for a fun morning!

NEED - MORE - CANDY!!!

Santa Claus is coming to town...

Well folks, I am happy to announce that Morgan's severe and nonsensical fear of Santa Claus has left. Phew! I mean, seriously, who doesn't like strangers bearing gifts? Maybe it was the whole "being good" all year thing that she didn't like. Or could be she's going to be one those anti-big-brother folks who doesn't like the idea of someone watching over her and knowing when she's asleep, awake, being bad or good, so be good for goodness sake whole thing. That is kind of creepy when you think about it! Or it could be that she's the true daughter of a social worker, who has ingrained a whole new level of stranger-danger after my days of doing child protection work. Regardless, the fear is gone!

Anxiously awaiting the big guy's arrival. At this point last year, Morgan's heart was pounding a million miles an hour and she was hanging onto me for dear life.

Giving Santa a big hug. Maybe this was her way of saying sorry for treating him like there was fire coming out of his eyes and nose for the past five years or because she really wants a "princess toy." If someone can figure out for me which "princess toy" she is referring to, that would be helpful.

Oh how far she has come! Last year, we sat downstairs in the Hamilton basement, while Morgan and Fisher screamed to the high heavens. That was fun.

While not being terrified, Aidan was still a little unsure. This was about as close as he would get. He did have on his favorite "p-tar" shirt on for courage.

Wiggle and Giggle...

I recently signed Aidan up for a "wiggle and giggle" class so that he could meet some new friends and so we'd have an activity on Mondays while Morgan is at school. The premise of the class is that the moms will dance and play with the kids while the instructor leads, and then the moms will move to the sidelines as the kids become more comfortable. The other children seem to follow this plan, however, as with everything else with my children, they play by their own rules! Each week, all of the moms start the class off by wiggling and giggling with their little ones and then sit back and watch their little darlings. At this point, Aidan has usually decided that the wiggling and giggling is overrated and he joins the mommys on the sidelines. What makes this funny is that I continue to dance and play, and he cheers me on. He claps his hands, like any proud parent would do, and exclaims, "Good job mama, you's a good danca! Yah!"

Hi ho, hi ho...It's off to the allergist we go...

This is a familiar refrain at our house, as we are starting to feel as though the allergists office is our second home. It's that time of year when Morgan's skin starts to look like she's been boiled (eczema) and we have been suspecting that she does have asthma after all. As I was driving there this beautiful morning, I was thinking...

• Thank God it's the "just" the allergist's office that we have to go to. Morgan's allergies are potentially life-threatening, but with vigilance, she'll be okay. We are SO lucky she has a condition that we can control.


• Thank God we have insurance! I can't imagine not being able to access a specialist when you need to or having to choose between buying food and going to the doctor.


• Thank God we have good jobs so we can pay our sometimes astronomical co-pays. (Even though we do have good insurance). Seriously, do they put diamonds and gold into Morgan's eczema cream? That's the only reason I can think of that it costs $500 a tube !!!!!!


• Thank God we have a daughter who is "detail oriented," okay, let's admit it, she's kind of anal. She does a great job advocating for herself.


• Thank God we have wonderful friends and family who are just as vigilant as we are about what types of foods are around Morgan.

We have so much to be thankful for!

p.s. She does have asthma... But knowing my daughter, it's not going to slow her down one little bit!