30 Things My Kids should know about me.. In 30 days.

I saw this really cool post on Pinterest awhile back. I pinned it and forgot it. One of my friends just pinned it and I saw it again. I decided to do it! The best way for me to do anything is on the laptop. It's easier to type it out and why not blog it? Then I can see it whenever I want. :-)

So, Day One!
First thing my kids should know about me is to list 20 Random facts about myself! (this reminds me of a feature in my US Weekly magazine, they ask a celeb random things about themselves and I always enjoy reading them) Maybe this should be included in my list hahaha!

Here goes...
#1. I was born tongue-tied and had my frenulum lasered when I had my wisdom teeth pulled, at age 24.
#2. I started school (kindergarten at age 4, which made me the youngest in every grade. When I was in 3rd grade they wanted to advance me to 4th grade because of my reading and writing skills, but they didn't because I was already a grade ahead by age standards.
#3. I am afraid of deep water, I used to be an excellent swimmer but, got thrown into a pool and never recovered from my fears.
#4. I was in a spelling bee in 3rd or 4th grade and lost because I spelt dolphin wrong, D-O-L-F-I-N.
#5. I failed my drivers license test 2 times before I passed.
#6. I was going to help start a girls hockey team in high school, so I got some rollerblades to practice skating during the summer in Minnesota. Never played hockey.
#7. I studied to get my boating license at age 16.
#8. I applied to be a foreign exchange student for my Junior year. I was runner up because my grades weren't good enough.
#9. I switched schools every two years and was in Catholic schools until 8th grade, when I went to live with my grandma.
#10. I hate spiders
#11. I see 11:11 almost daily on my clocks. I think it's my grandma's saying hello!
#12. I used to smoke cigarettes heavily, until I became pregnant with Ethan. Best choice I ever made, to quit and stay quit.
#13. I have never been a runner and used to fake injuries in volleyball so I didn't have to run.
#14. If money were no object, we would live in the mountains of Colorado and have a cabin in Northern Minnesota.
#15. I was named after the baby across the hall. My mom thought I was gonna be a boy, Joshua.
#16. I wanted to join the peace corps after college.
#17. My first job was a dishwasher at a restaurant, age 15.. and im still washing dishes! ;-)
#18. I've had about 50 jobs, give or take in my life. Age 15-26
#19. My favorite number is 11.
#20. I love Peanut M&M's, but not plain peanuts.

SnOMG 2013 Part 2

After our intial storm on Thursday, we got another inch or so that evening. Sometime in the afternoon the schools called another snow day so, we knew that today would probably be spent lounging, making a snow fort and playing outside. Nate woke up and jumped out of bed and went outside. I fed the kids and they were bugging my to let them go outside. Then, they saw him hollowing out the snow fort! There was squeals and laughter, PLEASE!!! can we go outside?! I knocked on the window and motioned to Nate (who was entirely un-visible from being the fort, he's 6'3") to let them out. He okayed it and I have never seen Ethan get his outerwear on SO FAST! I wish he moved like that on school days! I decided to venture out and take some REAL pics, that weren't from inside.

Here are pics from Snow Day #2!


Here is the OFFICIAL Vorhies deck measurement! 13" of beautiful white snow!!


How I found my husband! what a kid!!


Sweet Avery with her massive snowball!


Strong Man Ethan!


Nate working on the final touches of the fort



My family piled into the snow fort! (nate said 6 people could fit in there!!)

Hope you enjoyed the pics! :-)

SnOMG 2013! Part 1

As most of you know, Kansas City was hit with Storm Q otherwise known as SnOMG for the rest of this post.. I had two people close to me scrambling to get out on flights the night before the whole city shut down. They made it out! We, did not. In fact, I haven't left the comfort of my home since Wednesday! I know, it's only Friday.. I tend towards the dramatic :-) Anyways! Wednesday night pretty much the whole town was shut down in anticipation for this major storm. I'll admit, I scoffed at the native KCitians. Since I am such a traveled snow person, I mean, I grew up learning how to drive in snow! One of my drivers training lessons abruptly ended because I right turned into a snowbank! (In my defense, there was a big yellow school bus preparing to turn left at the same time!!) I scared my grandmother countless times with my driving in snowy conditions at age 13,14,15 when I would pull a little to close to the side of the road to turn onto our gravel road.. So, yes! over half my life, at this point, was spent in MN. I'm no stranger to snowy weather. But, I have never seen a town shut down over it, BEFORE it snows like, KC! I mean, it's not like we live in FL or AZ or somewhere unreasonably warm where snow has no business being, We are smack dab in the middle of the country, Tornado Alley, prone to all jet stream interactions imaginable.

Moving along... town shuts down Wed night, which was probably a good thing.. *claps* Nate knew he wasn't going into work, Ethan knew he wasn't going to school. I knew all my plans were likely to be cancelled and I could bake treats and have a carbfest while we hibernated! yahoo! It started snowing Thursday morning, barely covered the grass when I woke and it snowed until early afternoon.. It was coming down fast and its was cloudy! It was actually a THUNDER-SNOW!! dun dun duuuunnnn... The kids literally popped out of bed and into their snow gear they were so excited! I wasn't feeling the best so I said to Nate " Take some pics!!" after being outside in the visibility, which was poor. He said, You need to take pics if you want them! I can't see with the snow.. So, I sat inside with whiny dog, Huddy and snapped pics from the windows..

Here is Snow Day #1 Pics...


*look at the crazy fast moving snow!*

*Nate shoveling, Bad pic, but look at how dark it was out there!*

"helping dad shovel"

Avery's adorable pink cheeks when she came in!

In total the kids went out twice, about an hour each time. Nate shoveled and piled all the snow in a mound so he could make his "EPIC SNOW FORT" so that "Ethan will have the childhood I had!" He grew up in Colorado and he said "I haven't seen snow like THIS since COLORADO!" he was so happy!! :-) I love snow also, its so pretty and clean and makes everything quiet and serene. I must note, when we went to bed last night I commented to Nate how bright it was outside from the snow. It was like a natural GLOW!.. I miss that from MN! <3

I think a second post is in order, this is getting lengthy! More pics ahead!!

Vorhies Christmas : Part 2

On Christmas Eve, after a nap I awoke to Nathan telling me our heater fan wasn't blowing out air, after the inital panic and a troubleshooting with an excellent hvac guy we went about our evening like, we had planned, THANK GOD! Complete with BoLings Chinese and driving around to see the lights in town. When we got home we set out Santa's cookies and egg nog and tucked the kids into bed. CHRISTMAS MORNING!! Santa came and brought Avery a Lalaloopsy and Ethan a video game. Ethan's Rescue Bots Avery's Bunny Even Hudson got to open something! The AFTERMATH:

Santa & Christmas Cookies!

We went to Bass Pro Shop for our yearly Santa picture. This year the kids were really excited to put in their wish with him, since we had an Elf this year named Leo! Ethan was very concerned about touching the elves that were helping the with the pics, he didn't want them to lose their magic! He also wanted to make sure touching Santa was okay too, didn't want to mess up the whole gifts thing. I assured him all was fine! The picture turned out HILARIOUS! and I posted it on my social media sites with the caption, None of them are impressed! haha This is one I took, At least E is smiling! While we waited in line, Ethan practiced shooting with a bow. Sunday before Xmas Eve we cut out cookies while Mae-Mae was here! The kids loved it! Ethan loved cutting out the stars, they were his favorite. Pre-baked Now time to decorate!! (and nibble) Final Products! Avery's final product:

Vorhies Christmas: Part 1

We started off our Christmas celebrations on Saturday 12.22.12, Nate's folks came down from Iowa and stayed until Monday afternoon. We made sugar cookies, Nate and his dad went on a hunting trip Sunday afternoon while we decorated cookies and drank lots of coffee ;) Sunday evening the kids got to open their presents from Mae Mae and Papa! They had brought down this huge target box and told the kids not to touch it or look inside it all weekend. So, when it was time to open it, they were beyond excited! Mae-mae had moved all the gifts out of the box and hidden them under a blanket so, when they opened the box, it was empty. Avery let out a huge sigh and threw her arms down in exasperation! priceless!!

Here's the box!
Princess Castle!!!
Matching Princesses!
Legos! mae-mae and pa-pa putting the princess castle together! We LOVE YOU!

Christmas Season 2012

We sent out two different Christmas Cards this year. My cousin Craig and his wife Shelley are trying to build up their photography business so, they took some photos of us for xmas cards. We ended up using the family photo for family cards and then did a cutesy one of the kids for friends.


The kids were so proud of helping with the tree!

Final Product! I will leave you with my favorite outtake;