Getting back to business

I cannot believe how fast life travels sometimes. Take for instance this blog, it really doesn't seem like it has been a year since I last gave you all a nice in depth review of all the fun in the Rinehart household. Here we are butting up against another Halloween and we have not once scratched the surface of all the fun and excitement around here...and there has been a lot. So here is the cliff notes of our busy life.

The biggest news is that I'm soon to be a daddy of four. Jenni and I were blessed with that news in May and we are due to have another little one in February. We aren't going to find out the sex of this baby, for the simple fact that I'm terrified that it is another girl. Don't get me wrong, I love my girls but they are definitely causing me to show a little salt in my pepper colored hair. My current little sweethearts are always testing me and I just know what more stresses they will cause as they grow up...and to add a third to that is scary. Just think, the possibility of the two (maybe three) girls graduating and getting married in the same year....AAAHHH! In all seriousness, I could care less what gender this new blessing is and I'm starting to get excited to have them enter this world. Girl or boy, they will be a wonderful addition to this crowded house.

We also bought a car this last year. Well, a new to us car. I took the Civic in for new tires and a tune up and the mechanic called me back saying, "we need to talk about your car." Long story short; the Civic was dead, I traded it in for a Ford Freestyle, had some issues with the dealer, and now have officially filled up every seat in it. So much for the third row of seats giving us more spaces for butts.

The kids have been just as busy, Jon's lost some of his teeth, Kayla is riding her bike, Lily is trying to potty train, we spent another year in soccer and t-ball, both the girls took part in dance class, and this summer everyone learned to swim. And that is just scratching the surface of their fun.

We've had a wonderfully busy year of fun and I'm sure that any of you can understand why it is hard to imagine that I haven't had a few minutes to visit this blog in a year. I'll try to do better as we gear up to welcome Baby #4 into this world.

Whoa Nelly!

So, it's been awhile on blog updates and I'll be correcting that soon. For now, just know that we've been super busy and we've accomplished alot. We've had the normal holidays and birthdays but we've also squeezed in losing teeth, dance recitals, soccer games, eye surgery, car buying, and soon to be summer vacation. I'll catch up as soon as I can stay tuned.

Halloween Night

We had a pretty awesome day for Halloween. I thought it was going to be a little shaky this morning when both Lily and Jon climbed into my bed around 6am. But they ended up being pretty well behaved while we goofed around the house. Then Jenni's parents called and wanted the kids for the morning to play in the leaves and I let them go and have a good time.

We were invited to a Halloween party over at one of the kids' freind's house so as I started rooting around the house for the proper clothes and costume peices I realized that I had to dress Kayla up as a Snow Princess and I had no idea on where the little girl makeup might be and also that Jenni had all of the hair care stuff with her on her trip to Dallas this weekend. So, I called Deb and asked if she'd help me out and get Kayla all prettied up for her costume. She of course agreed, and with some help from Dave (that Grandpa can paint nails and comb hair too) Kayla was ready to go.

Now, Jon was a pretty easy costume fitting. He's big enough to dress himself but Lily was a little difficult. She was suppose to be a little toddler witch, Jenni bought her the costume a long time ago, but during our Halloween decorating Lily found Kayla's old pumpkin costume and wanted nothing to do with the witch. So, we have the picture below.

We headed to our party and had a great time. Suzanne did a fantastic job keeping the kids entertained with little crafts and cookie decorating. Then we all strapped the costumes on the kids again and hit the road trick or treating. The kids made out pretty well and we had a great night.

Halloween (part 1)

Here we are the week before Halloween, so it's now time to start thinking about decorating the house for the big event. So tonight it was pumpkin slaughter night (a.k.a.- jack o lanterns). It was definitely a little less stressful this year, all the kids have finally gotten over there slimy finger phobia's and cleaned out their own gourds leaving Jenni and I with the ever important task of carving the infamous orange veggies. We started out letting the kids draw the faces on their pumpkins, they did a pretty awesome job. I am amazed and the artistic improvements in them as the get older.

Then after I popped the pumpkin tops Jon and Lily dove in and cleaned out the yuck.



And after an hour or so of family fun, this is what we were left with. It was a nice time.

Part 2 will obviously follow after next Saturday's night of fright.

Grandpa

Many of you know that recently my Grandfather past away and it was during his memorial service that the attendees were given the opportunity to share a story about Grandpa. I sat in my seat trying to suck up my tears and gather my thoughts to tell my story, but the service moved on and I missed out. I regret not being more prepared to share this story and I wanted to re-tell it and share one of my most favorite moments with my Grandpa.

It happened about four years ago while I still worked at the radio station and had my own morning interview show, every now and then we'd get a really cool opportunity and one day I got the flier to take a flight in a WW2 aircraft. I thought that would be pretty awesome adventure and I found out that I could take another person with me, so I called my dad and asked him to go with me. I told him that I would be flying in the B-25, dad told me that that was the airplane that Grandpa flew while he was training in the Army Air Corp and that I should call him. So I did and of course he said he wanted to go. Dad ended up going with us to take pictures and to have lunch with Grandpa and me, but the trip took a drastic turn for the better.

It turns out that the night before our flight the KC 4th of July fireworks malfunctioned and the whole show went off in about thirty seconds, so all of the KC media covered that story and ditched the free media airplane ride on the B-25. I did my interviews with the owners, they shared stories of the plane with Grandpa, and then as we were loading up they asked Dad to go to. Since the plane was empty they made and exception and let all of us go. So there we were three generations of Rineharts flying on an old WW2 airplane and crawling around inside it just as Grandpa did 50+ years prior. Let me tell you the inside of that plane is pretty small to crawl around in, but Grandpa found himself in the tail gun, the nose gun, and everywhere in between.

I sat down with Grandpa after the trip and talked about it with him and featured him on my program, I encourage you to take 20 minutes and listen to the show (that I'm trying to get uploaded). It starts out talking about the plane and then about my Grandpa, I just listened to the show again and hearing his voice again made tears come to my eyes. I love my Grandfather and I'll miss him dearly.






If you'd like a digital copy of the recording or full resolution pictures just send me an email. I'll keep working on this upload thing, blogger is being stupid.

Soccer Season

This fall Jon decided he wanted to play soccer and we signed him up. As usual the league was looking for more coaches and I also decided that I'd sign up as well, so here is the beginning of Jon and I's youth soccer season.

I just look like I have this little guys full attention, I'm a great coach.

And here's our little soccer star.


Finally, I'm not really sure how this happened, but it is a cool picture.

Bruce's Memorial

First thing, one of the people in my life that I've always admired and believed was one of the bravest people in the world was my cousin Bruce. He was quite a bit older than me and lived a good distance away so I didn't spend a lot of time around him, but he taught me more than most people I know. Bruce had Cerebral Palsy and could not walk without the use of crutches and he never let that affect his quality of life. He taught me that we can't ever judge a person as inept just because they have a disability and that you can do most anything you want with pure determination. Sadly, Bruce passed away recently and we gathered in his hometown in Illinois and celebrated his life with the family.

As with most funerals, you get some good out of the experience. In this case it was spending some quality time with my family. My sister flew in from Denver with her son, my other sister and her family attended, as well as my siblings still at home with Mom and Dad (yes there are a lot of us). After a long drive on Friday, we spent the day on Saturday playing. We splashed in the pool in the morning, attended the terrific memorial service, and then headed to my cousin Stephenie's house and played the rest of the day away. Stephenie and Jason have some farm animals that Lily and Greysen liked to terrorize, it was one of the first times the two kids got to actually play together.

There was also a zip line there and that gave us all kinds of entertainment. All of the kids gave it a go and the babies in particular loved it, check out the looks of joy on both Lily and Greysen's faces as they held on for dear life.


Although, my sister Paola, looked like she didn't quite trust me when it was her turn to take the ride.

It was a fantastic trip and I'm so glad we made that long drive to Illinois.