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.