An Ellis Christmas...

Christmas has come and gone...the tree and decorations will soon be down - the house can be restored to order!! I love that feeling... altho- it seems so bare and empty.

Christmas Eve day I had 3 appraisals so took Glenn with me. We were home by 11 and he worked in the basement while I typed up the reports and started making dinner. We had Prime Rib with au jus, twice baked potatoes, corn in butter, rolls and Martinelli's - rootbeer for Glenn cuz he can't stand Martinelli's. It was so nice having a candlelight dinner and just the 4 of us. After dinner we cleaned up and the kids got to open 2 presents... tradition... PJ's and an ornament. Here's a photo of the kids in their PJ's. Christmas Morning... usually they kids wake us up at 5 - YES I said 5 - I know we are crazy - but this year the kids let us sleep till 7. Altho- they did get up at 2 something in the morning....again tradition... my brother and I started this tradition and my kids GLADLY carry it on. They are allowed to open the presents in their stockings (usually little stuff) and they can organize the presents. So they got up... and Glenn didn't like them up and being noisy - so they went back to bed at 2:30.

Kaitlin has got to take that tonsil shot every year!! She has to post her funny tonsil picture of herself on her blog - I dare you Kaitlin!!!! :)
Glenn getting his most wanted- most asked for present this year - Call of Duty - World at War

The BIG surpirse present!! We have ALWAYS told them - time and time again - "they don't need cell phones - they WANT cell phones. They can't have a cell phone until they get a job and buy one for themselves" Welp - this year I have seen a need for phones... they have 'borrowed' mine on numerous occasions. So Black Friday shopping day Glenn and I were out, they had a stinking good deal on some phones and I twisted Glenn's arm enough that we got them new phones. It was sooo hard keeping that a secret from them for a month - expecially when they would plead with me how much they 'needed' one!! They were SOOOO surprised and SOOO happy. It was fun making their day a HUGE success!!

Checking out their new phones... they tell me they will be texting more than they will be talking - so we'll see!! Already seems to be true - since that's all they've been doing the past day! Seems alot of their friends are happy they have cell phones (what a home phone isn't good enough anymore?? )

Once we got the the craziness from the morning cleaned up and everything organized we got ready for round 2. My dad & his wife and her son, my brother & wife and their 6 kids were over at 3. We had a ham with some fixings and celebrated round 2.

Glenn, Glenn, Hailey and Jeff

Glenna, Dad, Sara, Makenna, Kaitlin, Abby, Glenn, Hailey, Jeff and Ben

Kaitlin and Hailey

Band Concert

Kaitlin had her winter band concert - it was nice - BUT it was wayyyy too long. A little over 2 hours... We didn't get home till 9:30 - tell me, why did they schedule this the week of finals??
Kaitlin did a good job. She wasn't looking forward to it, since she had to wear her new band uniform. She tells me she is dropping band next year cuz she doesn't want to march in the marching band (and he made it mandatory if you are in band you have to march) and she can't stand the band uniforms!! :)

She plays the flute and picked it up rather quickly. When she started in 7th grade she advanced from beginning band to regular band and now she is 2 points away from being 1st chair.. 1 point from 2nd chair. 1st, 2nd and 3rd chairs are all soooo close!

I think the band uniforms are pretty spiffy lookin' but don't blame her for not wanting to wear it - I would have been the same way!!

Lookie....Lookie!!! :)

I got a new accessory for my villages!!!

O' Cristmas Tree

I absolutley LOVE this time of year and seeing all the pretty lights (not some of the LED ones - they seem so off to me).
I had fun shopping after Christmas last year and got lots of new things. It was Christmas morning putting up all my new decorations. We changed where my villages went and Glenn built me a new set up so I can expand my villages. That is one of my favorite things to put up. I decided my 9' tree was just TOO big and kept it in the box. So last year I got a 7.5 ft pre lit slim tree for $25 and we put that one up instead. I love having 2 trees, had 2 growing up and just like having 2. One is pretty and has a theme and the other is fun family tree.

Family Photos

My sister in law took our family photos this year. We haven't had the 4 of us photographed since 2004???? I think??? So it was time!! She did an amazing job!! Thanks a bunch Sara!! :)

My favorite one of the kids

My favorite one of Kaitlin

One of my favorites of Glenn
One of my favorites of the family

A Fun Week

Glenn and Nick playing indoor with their new team. Their coach is the one in the black standing behind them with his back facing us. He looks like one of the boys!!

Last week Glenn had an indoor soccer game with his new team. They played the Elite team and got their butts kicked.. but it was still fun to watch. In this video Glenn almost had a goal!! He just kicked it a little too far in front of him so the goalie got it!

The following Sunday we got 4 extra kids staying with us. We always wanted 6 kids and have experienced that this week. It's been crazy, it's been fun and the Xbox Nazi in me started coming out!! :) Once the boys cleaned up and did what I asked they were able to play again. They are great kids and we loved having them over.

We had 4 teenagers - two 15 yr old boys - Glenn and Nick, one 14 yr old girl - Kaitlin, one 13 yr old boy - Tyler, one 10 yr old boy - Parker and one 7 yr old girl - Cassie. The first night they were here Parker and our treadmill got into a fight and the treadmill won. Parker, Tyler and both Glenn's were playing in our exercise room & Parker was running on the treadmill - turned it up to 10mph.. was doing OK.. Tyler said something to him then Parker lost his concentration and fell, twisted around and the treadmill threw him into the wall. He had some treadmill burns on his shoulder and face - ended up with a puffy eye(I had a photo but can't find it!!) Once the bruise started to heal his eye looked like he had eye shadow on!! He was such a trooper about it too - poor thing. We felt SOOO bad!!

We had them for turkey day at my brothers house, so with our 6 kids and his 6 kids plus everyone else made for a full house!! I think they had 23 people.. it was fun!! At least Cassie had another girl her same age. She didn't want to come back home!

Cassie made sure she got in the hot tub twice a day and last night they spent it in the hot tub during our first measurable snowfall - throwing snowballs at the house, fence and jumping on the tramp and jumping back in the hot tub. They had a blast and it was one week of an endless sleepover that comes to an end tonight!! Bummer for the kids... peace for the parents. :) We just really wished we had the theater room/game room complete so they could have had more fun!

This & That

A little bit of this first: Glennie did a flip flop. We had signed a letter of commitment with Rush and then the U16 P2 Westminster coach called the end of that week. He *really* wanted Glennie on the team. So after all the pro's and con's and deliberation again, Glenn decided he wanted to play for Westminster. We found out that he had until Nov. 15th to back out of the Rush commitment. So he did. YAY - now the Call's and Ellis' can have fun together at games. Glennie's indoor season started this past Thursday.... and he had a blast. We also found out that he will be in a tournament in Gilbert, AZ come February. We now have both kids playing for Westy and hope to be there till they are done with competitive soccer.

Now onto the bigger stuff. We are in the process of finishing our basement. Below is the floor plan Glenn drew up. The storage room will double as a closet and have access to under the stair storage too. There will be 2 food storage closets across from the utilities and where it says 'study' will actually be a home theater room. The family room/rec. room will consist of a small pub style table with a pool table(the pool table we got on sale at Walmart last Christmas Eve for $100!!!!!!) and a wet bar. We have moved the wet bar to the end of the wall near the corner there. We have all the electricity done and working... the water lines for the wet bar have been started... and we need to chisel the bathroom concrete to move all the rough in plumbing - fun fun! Glenn has done everything himself and we are looking to hire out someone to do the drywall/mud and taping. Depending on the cost!! He's done it before and knows how much he hates it... but if it's too expensive then he'll do it!!

Here's the floor plan

When we moved in, we tore up all the carpet and pad the builder put in upstairs and put it in the basement. We figured with the theater room, probably being noisy and my office is right above it, we added some padding in between the studs and joists. This photo is on the stairs looking into the pool table area and the theater room.

This is of the hall looking toward the bedroom. Food storage closets on the left and utilities on the right.
This is the bedroom. We contemplated what to do here for a while. We had this pipe that stuck out and we had to build around it. We thought of a night stand, but it wasn't centered.. so we ended up with a 1/2 wall. The bottom part of the wall will kick out, till almost half and then go back in. We've thought about building bookshelves or something on the top.. but for now.. we'll just have a bump out in the wall.

This is the wet bar area that will be in the rec. room

This is the theater room. The floor is all one level, except for the part where the couch will go. We raised that part to have 'theater seating' - we will have 2 theater recliner chairs in front of the raised portion.

The Decision

Kaitlin's last day of soccer was Saturday - wahhhh. I really LOVE soccer season. I love watching the kids play and am amazed how good they are becoming.
Kaitlins team won 3-2.. tough fought battle too. The team they played had not lost a game... they tied games but never lost. Kaitlins team came in 4th out of 18 teams. Looks like they are moving on to classic.

The orange girl there going for the ball

One v One

It's a foot race... but only one has their eye on the ball!! =)

Kaitlin kicking the ball through that girls legs

As Kaitlins season is winding down, tryouts for highschool boys are in full swing. After attending 3 kickarounds and 3 tryouts he ended up making two P2(premier level) teams with 2 different clubs. He had himself a HUGE decision.

Rush vs Westminster

Rush has a coach from Germany - played professional soccer there, coached in Germany and blew us away at a training session we went to. Assistant coach played in Mexico and coached there. Knows alot of the boys, will play most the game and in the sweeper position which is his 'shining' spot. Team of 15 boys

Westy has a highschool assistant coach that taken their varsity boys to the state finals and are doing amazing. They also have a team higher (Elite III) and that coach is the mens head soccer coach at Regis University... which they will be doing some training sessions with. He and his friend - Nick- would be on the same team (So Lisa and I would have LOADS of fun at the games and tournaments) They carry a roster of 17 boys and he would be playing somewhere in defense.

So the pros and cons and deliberation began. We told Glenn to pray about it, list the pros and cons, look at everything, talk to his friends and make a decision. He called me the next day and said.. he is going with Rush. Purely a decision made on play time. He knows he'll play his favorite position and get more play time than Westy.

I was so happy he made a decision - Glenn and I couldn't have decided. I have to admit... I am sad.. the selfish part of me is sad. The Call's and the Ellis' could have had SOOOOO much fun... wahhhhhh

Guess we'll see if the right decision was made - if not - there's always next year!!

What an honor that he made both P2 teams.

Halloween

This was the first year the kids did not go trick or treating. Still, the kids got dressed up, Kaitlin answered the door and Glennie hid in the bushes or under the swing to scare people.. dont worry no one was scared!! Maybe 2 girls who thought they saw something!! Kaitlin heard them say, 'I saw him - No really! I saw him - he's there!!!'

Kaitlin was a crazed prom girl and Glennie was a frozen army man. Kaitlin decided to do dad's hair - pink spray and lots of pony tails!

We had 98 trick or treaters and turned the lights off at 8:30. We were tired of answering the door by then. So here's our Halloween

getting ready
sitting on the front porch with his paintball gun

crazy girl from 'prom night'

Gotta love the hair!!

In the dark.. you couldnt see him at all

A letter, a pin and an award

Varsity soccer may be over but club is just beginning. Glenn went to a couple try outs and made a U15 P2 team with North Area Rush. However, today was all about school soccer and it was a big day for Glenn. We had the end of the season soccer banquet tonight where he was given his letter and pin. YAY!!!

Who needs a letter jacket when you can stick it on your shirt!! Can you guess what he is bugging us for?

Glenn with his letter and certificate.

These are all the boys who lettered this year.

Manny - Junior; Josh - Junior; Jordan - Sophomore; Glenn - Freshman; Gilberto - Junior; Matt - Junior
Kaitlin was awarded the Best Team Manager

Kaitlin receiving the award from 'Proffe' Head Coach Jose Navarro.

Now her school season begins.