I turned 31 on March 10th, and what better way to celebrate this month by going from this (dark brown hair):

Then to this... 

...and now to THIS!

Yes, I am 31 and added pink streaks to the underside of my hair. Yes, I am 31 and added bright, vibrant, magenta colored "peek a boo" highlights. Yes, I am 31, I am a mom, and I did something bold and colorful and crazy with my hair. 

If you don't like it, that's not my problem and frankly I don't really care, because I love it! <3 

-Kim

Another day, another story.

Well here I am again, Internet world/friends/family! It has been almost a year. I say everytime I update after a long period of time that "I hope to blog more" and "I will post more often". I cannot make that promise this time but I will try. Here is a summary in photos of what we have been up to.

We have spent time with the kids doing lots of small, quality time activities.

Weekly lunches with mommy at school

Bowling fun

Spring break 2015 at New Smyrna Beach

More bowling

Playing Mario Party 10 together

Universal Studios

We went on a cruise in November 2014 to the Eastern Caribbean

Saint Thomas (from the ship)

My boys in Puerto Rico

The bead king, Jacob with his brother Brad!

We listen to a lot of music and go to a lot of concerts

Vinyl records = the best

Brad met Keegan from Vinyl Theatre!

Twenty One Pilots are allllllways the best |-/

Fall Out Boy and Paramore

Hans and I are still very much in love and celebrated 8 years married

Hanging out in South Florida

Hot air balloon ride at Downtown Disney

Bradley is making great grades in high school this year and is officially in the Pre-IB program in 9th grade. He is so smart and is taking Pre-IB classes along with Honors and Gifted! He loves Twenty One Pilots, Fall Out Boy, My Chemical Romance, and other rock bands. Basically he is a mini-me when it comes to music (see my shirt in the above photo? yep |-/). His room is covered in posters and string lights. He saved up his money for almost 18 months and paid for his own gaming desktop computer. He loves watching @carbonstealer do "speedruns" of Super Monkey Ball Deluxe on Twitch as do the rest of us. He wakes up at 4:50am each morning to shower, do his hair (he has longer hair now) and get ready for school. I still text him at 6:00am from my room to wish him a good day and tell him I love him. He is our goofy, funny, kind soul and he will be fifteen in 37 days. My gosh he will be old enough for his permit.

Jacob academically is doing fantastic in first grade. Behaviorally he is getting better. He is spunky and does what he wants to do when he wants to do it. He eats what he wants (unless we put our foot down) when he wants (unless we put our foot down). This means at school if he doesn't like the lunch, he buys a cookie and Cheez Its. If he is bored in class, he talks. Some days when he gets a "straight face" in class (the teacher grades behavior daily by smiley face, straight face, or sad face), I ask him why and I get this response: "Well I was talking and the teacher said to stop talking but I didn't hear her because well I was talking" - all in one breath. Then he smiles and shrugs. Most days we fight with him to do his homework but when he is done with it he is happy. He hates going to bed at night to this day and makes excuses to get up - "I want water", "I want a hug", "I am hungry" are all common excuses we hear. Ever since was old enough to get the world around him, he has not wanted to go to sleep because 1) he is afraid he will miss something and 2) he wants to be just like his big brother Bradley. Which brings me to that: my kids adore eachother. Even with the 8 year separation of age. Jacob copies Brad's likes and dislikes most often, and he wants to always do what Brad's doing. If Brad likes a song, Jake memorizes it and sings it with him. If Brad doesn't like a TV show, Jake doesn't either. It is frustratingly adorable at time - but most often more adorable than frustrating. Jake loves to go to the park, and play video games. He and I eat lunch together in the cafeteria of his school weekly on my day off. He loves swimming and he LOVES his "baby girl" Clara who sleeps with him every night. He is my sweetheart and as I tell him - my "favorite first grader in the whole world". 

Hans is still with his company and for the most part enjoys what he does. He is a part of the Tuesday softball league and the Thursday bowling league. He has recently decided to go back to college with me at Western Governor's University. I work evenings right now and he works his shift during the day, comes home, cooks/cleans/entertains the kids, and then spends time with me when I get home. He helps with homework and does laundry. He deals with meltdowns from the kids when Jake and his friends don't get along, and is still there to help his friend Bret take apart a car something-or-another when he needs it. He is the most genuine, humble, laid back man I know. And he chose me. How lucky am I? He seriously completes me. I am the planner, the A-type organizer, the goal setter, the "5-year-achievement" person. He is the sporadic, WhoNeedsACalendar, go with the flow man. I would not have it any other way.

We are all happy and (for me, mostly) healthy and thriving. The past year has been memorable and in a good way. 

As for me, my depression is mostly 99% in check, my anxiety is all but gone, and my migraines - well they are still there most months at least once. I have worked for a company since September that is incredibly pleasing, and the best part rarely if ever stressful. I am now on the Activities Committee and help with planning the celebrations and events in the center. I help write articles for the company informational emails. I have great perks, one of them being a great amount of vacation/sick time. I was able to take the week of Spring Break 2015 off and spend real quality time with the kids and with my husband. We had fun and no schedule to follow. I still love to cook and bake. I am a co-admin of a Facebook group where kindness is encouraged and vibrant - RAOK Angels. Those ladies are wonderful human beings and so bright and cheerful when I need it, and I am there when they need it. I am passing my classes in college and am taking extra classes to try to graduate sooner. Oh, and I recently went from a brunette to a blonde...

...and yes I can say blondes do have more fun. JK. :) 

We are all doing really, really well. Really well. We are just moving forward, enjoying life as it comes with it's ups and downs, highs and lows, twists and turns. We are doing it all together, as it should be. We are a solid family unit and we love eachother more than anything else in the world. 

-K

Updated Photos of the Family!

I now realize it has been a while since I have posted any updated photos of Brad & Jake or myself & Hans on here. It always goes straight from my phone to Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter. In an effort to get back into blogging here we go! Photos galore! :)

Hans and I - April 5th - Run or Dye 5K in Kissimmee, FL (before)

Myself flexing posing after the 5K :) 

Jacob ready for t-ball! 4/5/2014

My guys - March 2014

Jacob and his friend Douglas (left), March 2014

All four of us at Universal Studios Orlando, 2/2014

The newest member of our family, our baby girl Clara! 

February 2014

Christmas in South Florida!

Why hello there, Blogger! I haven't seen you in ages. It has been so long in fact that I am not used to the new layout of posting! :) Anyway... to begin with...

...Our Christmas this year was fantastic and will be remembered as one of the best that we have had. Not for the presents that any one person received, but for the quality of time we were able to spend with family. This year we went down to South Florida (Cooper City, FL to be exact) to my husband's parent's house. We arrived on Friday night and spent some time with his parents, and his sister and niece - Lil & Ava. We arrived around 10pm so soon after that we just went to bed.

The next morning (Saturday) we had breakfast and went to the grocery store to get a couple things. Mostly just enjoyed each other's company and hung around the house. Lanie, Jim, and Austin (my sister/brother-in-law and nephew) arrived at 6pm and from there Bradley & Austin were inseperable! They haven't seen eachother since last year and they are close in age (12 & 15). They would play Monopoly on Austin's Kindle Fire and - since Austin has his learner's permit - Lanie would take Austin to practice driving and Brad would tag along. I was able to cook dinner for everyone and we all ate and just talked.  Later that evening at 11pm Hans & I went to Walmart because we are crazy to get some last minute items for Brad, Jake, and the "white elephant" gift exchange for the adults. More about that later... :)

The grandkids - Austin (15), Ava (2), Bradley (12), and Jacob (4)

Sunday was a nice, lazy day. We are breakfast, played Catchphrase, Lanie and Hans worked on a puzzle on the back porch, Brad - Austin - and Jake all played together. Lil, Tom, and Ava came later and then we all played with Ava and watched her run around with Jake. It was so fun seeing Ava and Jake play together... and they played together so well! She is 2 and Jake is 4 so again, they are close in age like Brad & Austin are. It works out very well. Later we had burgers for lunch & pizza for dinner. Wait... what was I doing most of the day, you ask? I was laying on the couch watching movies. Yep. I was relaxing! Later on, their cousins (and my cousin in laws...?) Brent and his wife Dely came over with their kids, Dani & Brandon. We were able to get some great photos and again, the more the merrier. We had a great time with them.

(Jake, Ava, and Brandon on the piano)

(Front row: Dani, Ava, Brandon, Jake -- Back row: Lanie, Austin, Brent, Hans, Brad, and Lil)

That evening - Hans and I realized we still had to wrap every present we had bought all through the year! Yes, we went to South Florida with our presents unwrapped, in boxes. All of them. So we spent the next hour or two wrapping lots and lots of small and large presents for the kids, from Brad and Jake to Ava and Austin. Finally, around midnight, we went to bed.

(Brad playing Catchphrase)

Monday (Christmas Eve) was very pleasant. Cooking began very early in the morning for our Christmas Eve meal. In between all the cooking, we went over to Potential Church where my in-laws attend and enjoyed their Christmas Eve Candlelight Service and sermon. Pastor Troy Gramling is a good speaker.

We ate dinner later that evening. It was incredible. We had roast turkey, mashed potatoes, corn, dinner rolls, olives, cranberry sauce, stuffing, gravy made from scratch... My mother-in-law is a great cook! After dinner and cleaning up - the games began. Ava and Jake played together while the rest of us (adults and teens) played the games for our Christmas Eve celebration! This has begun a new tradition in the Reller/Krasnor/Sheets Christmases for sure.

To start: We played a scavenger hunt that Lil made up. It all took place in the back yard. We were put on separate teams ("Team Frosty" and "Team Prancer") and then beginning with one clue we had to find the next clue and so on... until we got to clue ten where the winner was chosen. I was on "Team Frosty" and we won... YAY! :)

The next game we played was "Minute to Win It" - Christmas style. These were the games that my mother & father-in-law thought of. We had to hang ornaments on a yard stick suspended on an empty paper towel roll. The one with the most on there in a minute wins. Well, my mother & father-in-law dominated and won! After that, we had to take metal hardware nuts on a candy cane and stack them from the candy cane onto a table, one on top of the other. Jim won this round as he was able to get all ten stacked in no time, while the rest of us did six, seven, or they would topple over.

(Geoff & Gail win it all!!)

 The last game we played was a card game called "Spoons". We went through several rounds, starting with ten people and then it came down to two. Father vs son, Hans vs Brad! Hans ultimately "won" but there is always next year for a rematch! By the time this was done, it was 10pm so we all got the kids in bed and went to bed ourselves, so we could be up bright and early for Christmas.

(Clockwise from left: Lanie, Hans, Austin, Gail, Brad, and Tom)

The next morning, Brad was up at 7am. Jacob and Austin wanted to sleep longer so they slept until Ava got there (with Lil & Tom) at 8am. From that point, it was eating breakfast, drinking coffee, and watching the kids open gift after gift. They are so blessed and they had so much fun! Ava received a "Doc McStuffins" doctor set and she kept walking around and giving her mom Lil a pretend bandaid. Jake got an Iron Man dress up costume and so he was walking around most of the day dressed up as Iron Man. Austin's big gift was an iPod Nano and a gaming chair, so he and Brad (who also got a gaming chair) were sitting next to eachother, in the chairs, streaming Coldplay over the speakers in the chairs. It was a lot of fun being around everyone and again - very memorable.

We left at 2pm that afternoon and arrived home at 6pm. The rest of the night was unpacking, cleaning, laundry, and trying to relax a little in between as the hubby and I both had work early the next morning.

Here are some more pictures from Christmas... enjoy!