He shoots...
He scores...
I absolutely love watching Austin play basketball. I hope that he sticks with it for several years. He's been pretty fortunate to be a part of great teams in the last couple years. This year...not so much. But Austin played well, as always. I told him his team can't finish in the top 3 every year.
We were pretty lucky to have great weather in Chicago in the middle of Winter for the day my mom and I took Madison downtown to see Annie. We arrived early by train and hung out at Millenium park. I considered taking Madison ice skating there, but it was so unusually warm out that day the ice was melting, and therefore several puddles were all over the ice rink.
We had a mini high school reunion with 6 of the 8 of us able to attend. First, we picked up Melanie from the airport. My stomach was hurting from laughing by the time we got there, and only got worse as the day went on!!!! I love my friends, and feel so blessed to still have all of them in my life. Laughing is what we do best together!!!! After lunch we headed to Alice's new place in Chicago and hung out with her for awhile. She wasn't able to join us that evening, because as you can see, she is very pregnant right now.
After dinner at a cute Italian restaurant, and a free ride from a perfect stranger in his white conversion van with black tinted windows...we headed up to the united center for the Bulls game. (alive) After the game, we walked to all the hot spots near the united center. We even got Melanie to dance a little :) Jaci's husband, Ben, was our bodyguard for the night. He works at the united Center and even got us on the jumbotron again!!! Thanks Ben!
My Grandma was in town a few weekends ago and was able to make it to see Austin play in one of his basketball games. Colin is our cousin, and the kids always say they wish he didn't live so far away :(
Madison chose TGI Fridays for her birthday dinner with the family. I was surprised to see her actually get embarrassed when they asked her to stand on her chair while they sang "Happy Birthday" to her.
Mom and Dad bought her tickets to see "Annie" in Chicago next weekend. (I get to come too...yay) It was hard for me to keep this secret for so long, because every time she sees the commercial for "Annie" she would BEG me to get her tickets!
Madison used a gift card from one grandma, and some Christmas money from another grandma and grandpa to buy herself this new bike. I was so proud of her for being responsible with her money. Now if Spring would just come soon so she could actually try it out!!!
Talking to Aunt Sheila on her birthday via skype!
She requested cinnamon rolls for her birthday breakfast. Quick and easy was good since Austin had an early b-ball game today. (We made her hat the night before with a friend that slept over)
WEBKINZ!
Carolyn, this picture is for you! The outfit you got her for Christmas is so cute on her!
Christmas was extra special this year for a couple reasons. First, I got to host Christmas dinner at our house for the first time ever. I wouldn't have survived it without the help of my mom and sister...thanks Mom and Sheila! There was so much food here that we had to put a lot of it on the back porch to keep cool through out the day since the refrigerator was jam packed. It was also great to have my sister and her family in town for this Christmas. They are moving from Ohio (2ish hours away) to Tennessee (8ish hours away) We know we won't be able to see them as often, so it was nice to have this Christmas together.
Mom and Dad with all their grandkids.
This will be the last letter my kids leave for Santa Clause. Austin has known since last year about Santa. Madison was starting to question it over the past couple months, but still really believed and was excited about Santa. Long story short...while I was in the kitchen getting things ready for Christmas dinner, Madison was snooping in our storage closet. She came across the same wrapping paper that Santa happened to wrap her presents with this year. She asked me about it and I told her the truth. She was a bit sad, and had MANY questions the following days. I asked both of my kids afterwards if they were mad we taught them the story of Santa Clause, and they both replied "No". In fact, Madison said she can't wait to be a mommy someday to tell her kids about it. I'm sure I'll be sad next year when my kids seem so grown up that they aren't talking about going to sleep early so Santa will come. Or leaving reindeer food on the back porch for Rudolph and the gang. Mostly, I'll miss using the "Naughty List" threat during the entire month of December. My kids are always so well behaved during that month. Haha
My good friend, Sarah, brought back some special advent calendars from England on her last trip there. If you have never experienced European chocolate...then you just don't know how good chocolate really can be. Today is December 1st, so the kids dug in right after breakfast.
Sarah even bought one for Brian and I to share...but Brian wouldn't let me take a picture of him eating his chocolate this morning. haha
Austin and Madison just discovered that the wish bone from our Thanksgiving turkey was finally dried enough to break in half. Here we go...grab a side...pull!!!!
Can you guess who got the bigger side? She realized after celebrating that she never made a wish beforehand. It was sad to see how the expression on her face changed so quickly. Of course, Austin had a smile on his face.
I've stayed home sick the past couple days from work. Our family has really had bad luck with our health so far this fall/winter season. H1N1, strep, pink eye...you name it, we've had it! Anyway, I decided to gather up enough energy today to post a blog about our Thanksgiving. When I downloaded all the photos from my camera onto the computer, I realized I didn't take even one "family" photo. Or anything, for that matter, besides dogs. Yup, that's right. Spend a wonderful Thanksgiving with my parents and sister's family from Ohio...and all I have to prove it is pictures of their dogs. Oddly enough, there were about 20 pics to choose from, so I chose my favorite of Molly (Sheila's dog above) and Sophie (Parents' dog below) I am, however, thankful for much more than just cute snuggly dogs.
This is as close as it gets to any human in a picture. Of course, the picture was only taken because of how cute sophie was being at the time.
I was trying to clip Sophie's hair out of her eyes. It didn't last too long.
Might as well add some photos of our Christmas decorations. My snowman collection on top of my fireplace keeps growing a little every year. I realized that I forgot to turn the fireplace on before taking this picture. Brian and the kids are always complaining about how hot it is in the house because I always want to have the fireplace going at night while we are spending time in the family room.
I just love Christmas trees! As soon as it is dark enough every night I run to turn on my lights and just sit in the living room to admire it. (It's been up since November 21st)
The game started off REALLY bad. At half time the Bulls had only scored 29 points. You can tell they had quite a pep talk in the locker room during half time, because they came back to win it 83-81 by the end of the game. 
Madi was obsessed with getting on the jumbo tron that night. Our friend Ben, that works at the United Center, got us the tickets and told us he'd try to get us on the fan cam that night since he was working. We finally were on the fancam towards the end of the game when it was getting really loud and fun in there! Thanks Ben!
We had planned to get Austin a Derrick Rose jersey for Christmas. We decided to get him it early since we were going to the Bulls game.
Our seats were great...3rd row from the court. We sat next to a guy that has owned 2 season tickets seats since Jordan's rookie year. Pretty cool!
Madi was dressed as a baby and Austin was a skeleton. You can't tell in this photo, but Sophie is wearing a pumpkin costume.
We stopped by to visit Grandma Shirley before trick or treating.
Brian was feeling brave to dress up as Minnie Mouse for our costume/poker party friday night. He won first prize.
My costume was my Dad's worst nightmare.
Jack o Lanterns!
Don't you love Madison's new artwork my friend Melinda made for her room??
Madi with her 2 friends warming up before gymnastics class.
Too cute!
It's strange how fast 11 years of marriage go by! We celebrated together by going to a new restaurant in Cedar Lake called The Lighthouse! The food and atmosphere was wonderful!! We didn't even mind the hour and a half wait since we were enjoying just having time alone. Mom and dad watched the kids so we could have the night to ourselves. Can you believe we didn't even mention the kids' names for the whole evening??? Wow, what an accomplishment for us.