Welcome Natalie and Joann

Welcome to America cousin Natalie. It was so nice to finally meet you in person. Brian and Natalie figured out it had been at least 15 years since the last time they had seen each other.
We took Natalie and her friend Joanne to see Chicago while they were here. Here is Madison taking a funny picture at Millenium Park.

This is Natalie on the left and her friend Joanne on the right lookin so cute all bundled up for the cold.

Girls picture at the top of the sears tower.

I need to learn how to center these self portrait pictures better.

Here is grandma with Austin and Madison at the top of the Sears tower.

We had so much fun meeting you both... or should I say."we took a liking to the both of you"

We can't wait to come visit you in England someday.

Painter in me

I'm so excited this project is finally done. I have to admit I'm not very artistic so I didn't think I could pull it off... but it looks pretty good. My designer (okay so she's really my friend Meilnda but also an interior designer) drew the patterns onto the canvases for me and then they just sat there in my dining room for weeks because I was too scared to paint them because I might mess them up. If you notice, the patterns come from the pillows on my couch. Great idea Melinda... thanks again! And thanks to my dad for hanging them just perfetly centered above my couch for me.

Christmas Day

Try to bear with me, there are many photos in this blog. The kids finally dragged Brian and I out of bed around 6am. They headed downstairs first to check their stockings. They were both pretty excited that we have a chimney now for Santa to come down...
Here's Austin all smiles about his new fishing game for PS2.

Madison must have been on the "nice" list this year because she got exactly what she asked Santa for... Baby Alive. No one told me that this baby actually poops though which means we need to buy diapers for her.

After opening gifts at home and having our traditional cinnamon roll breakfast we packed up the van with my parents and headed off to Ohio. We were originally supposed to stay in Ohio for a few days but plans changed at the last minute. We still had a great time spending Christmas Day there. The afternoon consisted of eating, opening presents, taking tons of pictures, eating some more, bowling tournament on Wii, guitar hero, still more eating and hanging upside down on Jeremy's new back stretcher thing.

I guess you know who we are!?!?!?!?!

This is my sister Sheila with her hubby Jeremy and 3 beautiful girls Marissa, Makayla and Myah. Thanks for being such awesome hosts. Everything was beautiful in your home, yummy in our tummies and fun memories were made for the rest of the day.

Here is Nana and Papa with their 5 grand kids. I guess 6 if you count Molly the dog.

Does he look like a rock star or what??? Especially with little Molly sitting on his lap. haha

And here are the Champions of our bowling Wii tournament. Congratulations mom and Austin.

Christmas Eve

Our Christmas Eve morning started off at Bakers Square for breakfast with our friend Mr. Tim. Thanks for the awesome gifts... the kids love them!
Here is Madison putting reindeer food on our back porch. The kids were very excited to find that it was all gone in the morning. They just couldn't get over that Santa's reindeer were actually on our back porch last night.

We let Austin read the traditional "The Night Before Christmas" story before going off to bed.

Madison thought Santa might like a holiday cupcake and milk instead of cookies. There was nothing but crumbs in the morning... so I think he enjoyed it.

I have no picture to prove this, but Madison woke up at 2:30 AM and thought it was morning time. She woke Austin up and they both ran into the living room and then Austin saw the clock said 2:30 so they both went back to bed. I don't know how they both managed to fall back asleep after the excitement of seeing that Santa had already visited our home.

December 23, 2007

We ventured out into the bitter cold for Church on Christmas Sunday! It was well worth it... there's just something special about singing "Silent Night" with 500 other people holding up candles and hearing your kids voices louder than everyone else!

Aren't they cute?

So we've had our camera for a couple years now and just found out today it has a timer on it so we thought we'd try it out for a family picture!
Merry Christmas!

Let it Snow!

The kids were so excited to wake up to a beautiful blanket of snow outside. I left my snow pants and boots at school over the weekend so didn't get to play in the snow with them, so I took pictures instead.
There are snow angels all over our yard!

Looks like we got close to 10 inches. Brian is really wishing we had a snow blower.

Gingerbread houses!

Here's a couple pictures of the kids making gingerbread houses with their friends. I think they licked more frosting and ate more candy than what actually made it on the houses... but at least they had fun doing it!

Then Madison made this huge gingerbread house at a friend's birthday party that made her original house look so small.

Mom and Dad's night out!

Doesn't happen very often so i thought I should post a picture!

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas...

Last night we went to the kids' school where Santa and Mrs. Claus were there to meet the children. Austin wasn't as excited as Madison was (starting to doubt the whole Santa deal)... but Madison hopped right up on the big guy's lap and told him she really wanted a Baby Alive for Christmas this year. Austin finally smiled for a picture when i told him he wouldn't get any cookies afterwards if he didn't smile nice. (bribery never hurts when you want a good picture) Then the kids shopped at Secret Santa's Shop to buy each other a gift and one for mom and dad. By the time we left the school the snow was really starting to come down. It was so beautiful and sparkly coming down. The first snow is always fun and gorgeous. Believe me by February I won't be describing the snow with those words anymore. The kids had a ball playing in the snow after school with their friends

This is Austin trying to explain to Santa what "Tech Deck" is since that is what he wants for Christmas. By the way... if anyone knows what that is, please fill me in...

The kids are very excited that we actually have a fireplace for Santa to come down on Christmas Eve. It's our first year "our stockings were hung by the chimney with care"

Here is our Beautiful Christmas Tree... notice the snow on the tree outside the window. I love it!!!

Poker/Potluck

This month's Poker party was also our Christmas party with our friends, so we made it Potluck and Poker. Can't get any better than that. After we stuffed our faces with delicious food and devoured Kristi's yummy Eclair Cake, all 15 of us chose cards to see what table we would play at. 4 long hours later there was a winner! I wasn't planning on posting a blog and/or photo from every poker night, but since Brian won this time and the picture was hilarious I couldn't resist.

The champion gets the Trophy, jacket and a gold star next to his name on our poster. Hey look Tony got a star next to his name too. Oh wait... that was a blue star for "first out" Better luck next time.

Mike Ditka

Brian was so excited when I told him that Mike Ditka was going to be at our local grocery store signing autographs on his wine and salsa bottles today. He took Austin and a friend of Austin's with him. They arrived at 5:20 PM and luckily didn't have to wait outside. Ditka didn't start signing autographs until 6pm and there was quite a line, so they didn't actually get to meet him until almost 8:30. We have a nice Chicago Bears Super Bowl Championship mug that Brian actually inherited from his Uncle Bruce that died a few years ago.

Any of you who know Brian well can imagine how excited he was to meet Mike Ditka... NFL Legend who coached the Bears to win the Super Bowl in 1985.

When they got up there, Brian asked the lady if she would take a picture of them with Mike Ditka. As he was signing the mug, Brian and the boys got behind the table to get the picture when out of nowhere Ditka yelled "keep it moving we have people in line here" Brian doesn't exaggerate much and he said it was really loud. Actually I asked Austin and his friend what they thought of Mike Ditka and all they could say was he yelled really loud.

When Brian came home and I asked him how it felt meeting Mike Ditka he told me his heart was still beating really fast. I said , "that cool, huh?" He said No... he yelled at me and it scared me.

He doesn't look very nice in his picture either. Oh well, at least it allows for a good story.

Thanksgiving

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving with their families. Brian's mom and dad drove here from Florida for the week to spend the holiday with us. They were coming in town the Sunday before Thanksgiving, and unfortunately Madison came down with the flu which later turned to scarlet strep. So we weren't able to do a whole lot together the first part of the week since she was so sick. We kept our fingers crossed that she would be better by the time her cousins were in town so she could be around them. Luckily by Wednesday she had no more fever or rash. Sheila, my sister, and her husband and three girls came to our house to hang out for awhile and we later went out to dinner. We love taking pictures of all the cousins together. Even though the girls bicker every once in awhile... they always have so much fun together.

The day after Thanksgiving I woke up at 5am and ran out to a few stores with my mom for my annual black friday shopping spree. I didn't stay that long though because we all decided to go up to The Museum of Science and Industry hoping it wouldn't be very busy since most people are out shopping that day. (By the way, we were really wrong about that) Brian's mom and dad and cousin were able to come with us to the museum and we had a good time.

Carolyn, Samantha, me, Madi, Austin and Brian in front of a huge Christmas tree on display.

Yes, this is my daughter picking the nose of a statue on the train at the museum.

Austin would hardly let me take his picture when we were at the museum until we got to the car exhibits, then he started posing in front of every car with a big smile on his face telling me to take a picture.

Austin and Madison with Grandma and Grandpa from Florida. Miss you guys!!!!

Poker Night

So once a month we play Texas Hold Em with some friends. There are about 10 of us that are regulars, but sometimes others join us and there can be as many as 15. I never thought I would like poker so much that I would actually look forward to it. There even is a traveling trophy now that the champion gets to keep for the month that they won. You may laugh... but we even have a poster with all of our names on it and you get a star sticker next to your name if you were 1st, 2nd or 3rd place. (even first person out gets a "special" sticker too)

Henry is my archrival in poker, so it's taking a lot for me to post the picture of him holding the trophy. Hope you enjoy it, Henry, because it won't be happening again anytime soon.

Finished Living Room

I'm so excited that we finally got our living room & entryway painted. The whole house needs a paint job bad, but we decided to start with the living room area since we just bought new furniture for that room. We love how it turned out! Thanks Melinda for helping me pick out the colors! Now if we can just get something for the walls....

Bunny, Bear or Dog?? You be the judge!

When Madison was born her Aunt Sheila made her a "bunny" blanket. She was pretty attached to it like any child's blankie the first few years. (when I say pretty attached I mean REALLY attached around the age of 3. I considered breaking into the church when we left it in the nursery one Sunday night.) Even though she can live without it now, she still does cuddle with it when she's sick or because she has to go to her room for a punishment. Well she has been cuddling with it the past 24 hours because she caught that flu bug going around. We started looking at the so called bunnies closer and wondered if they were really bunnies after all. I can't imagine after almost 7 years that the beloved "bunny blankie' doesn't really have bunnies on it. What do you think??

Piano and Basketball

Madison started taking piano lessons two weeks ago. She seems to love it so far so we hope she sticks with it. Here she is with her teacher Miss Sarah.

Austin and his teammates celebrating their first win. 24-11. This season should be pretty exciting.


Number 11 is the cutest one on the team.