Christmas at Tim & Mindy's

After we celebrated Christmas at my parents we went over to my cousin Tim & Mindy's house. They have a nice big finished basement so it's great for family gatherings. We ate LOTS of food and had a great time. I got Emma and Alli American Girl outfits for their dolls. It was great to see the aunts, uncles, and cousins. Congrats to my cousin Pat on getting engaged to Jenni. We all really like her and can't wait for their wedding next summer in Seattle. This year I was bad about taking pictures, but I promise to take more next year. I'm sure my cousins were happy I was not picture crazy this year.

Christmas at Mom & Dad's

We celebrated Christmas at my Mom & Dad's house. It was great to be home. My Dad cooked his famous biscuits and gravy and we had eggs, cinnamin rolls, and toast and then we opened presents. My Mom went overboard and bought Craig and I lots of presents. She's the best. And my Dad too. My Dad got my Mom a Kindle and suprised all of us...Go Dad! My brothers and I got them a new set of nice pots and pans. We also got my Dad a record player (yes, to play old records), as he has TONS of old records and wants to convert them to DVDs. I didn't know they even made those anymore, but they do. We got my Mom a gift card and some other smaller presents too. It was a great Christmas!

Charleston Girls

We had a Charleston girls reunion while we were all home for Christmas. Allison, Sorry I forgot to take pictures before you left. (so unlike me) First we went over to Allison's parent's house and had a few drinks and then we went to Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner. It was nice that everyone got to meet Allison's 4 mo old baby Cora. Cora is such a sweet baby! After Buffalo Wild Wings we went to Mike & Stan's and hung out with everyone from Charleston. It was great seeing everyone.

Aruba Trip

Craig and I spent the week in Aruba and had a great time. We did not do much besides relaxing by the pool and eating nice dinners, which is exactly what we needed. The weather was very nice, 90 and sunny every day. It was a great vacation!

Christmas with the Kids

We celebrated Christmas with the kids a little early because they will be on a cruise with their Mom and Step-Dad over Christmas, but we will have them Dec 28-Jan 3. This year the kids got a lot of fun stuff...Ethan got several games for the Wii, a PSP, clothes, gift card for more clothes, etc. Julia got a scrapbooking kit, boots, clothes, gift card for more clothes, coat, money towards her computer, etc. We also participated in the Adopt A Kid program through my work and bought presents for two underprivledged kids from a nearby Chicago school. We always have fun picking out the presents. The kids realize how lucky they are which is great.

Decorating the Christmas Tree

Today we decorated the Christmas tree and listened to Christmas music. I can't believe it's that time of year again. I love the holiday season. This year we will be celebrating Christmas in Charleston with my family. The kids will be with their Mom and Step-Dad on a cruise. We will have them for a week starting the Monday after Christmas and we will have them until New Year's Day. I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season!

Thanksgiving

We celebrated Thanksgiving in Chicago with my parents, Bryan, and the kids. (We missed John, Sue, and Tommy!) My Mom and I started cooking on Wednesday. We prepared the sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, stuffing (my Dad helped as well), and frozen cranberry salad. We bought a semi-cooked turkey from Whole Foods so we only had to cook it for 2 hours. The morning of Thanksgiving we baked the apple pie. We also made crescent rolls and had cranberry sauce. Craig made the mashed potatoes and Ethan helped by cutting the potatoes. My Dad made the gravy. It was great having so much help and the food turned out great. It was a very nice Thanksgiving.

New Jersey Trip

My Mom, Dad, brother Bryan and I went to New Jersey to visit my brother John, sister-in-law Sue, and my nephew Tommy. (Craig went to Vegas to visit his family b/c we couldn't fit it all in). We had the best time in NJ! Tommy is such a cute, sweet baby. We had so much fun taking turns feeding him, changing him, rocking him, etc. We all went out there to meet our new nephew/grandson and for Tommy's baptism. He was baptized on Sunday and then they had a party at John's golf club, Eagle Oaks Golf Club (he is he assistant General Manager and Director of New Membership). Sue's sister, Karyn and I are the Godmothers and Karyn's husband Dave is the Godfather. It was so nice of them to include me and such an honor. The baptism was really nice. Tommy did such a good job during the baptism and slept pretty much the whole time. The dinner at Eagle Oaks Gold Club was delicious and the club is beautiful. John, Sue, and Tommy - we already miss you tons and can't wait to see you again soon. We love you!

Pictures of all of us holding him and Tommy getting a bath. He didn't cry at all.

Pictures from the baptism with my family and Sue's family.

The grandparents, cousin Mia & Alex, and the cake.

Craig's Birthday

We celebrated Craig's 44th Birthday with the kids and ate dinner at Red Lobster. I think Craig looks great for 44! Happy Birthday, Craig!

On a walk with Allison & Cora

Allison came over on Monday and we went on a walk to Starbucks and had lattes and breakfast. I did not go into the office on Monday because Comcast was scheduled to come between 1-4 so I decided to take the entire day off. We had such a fun day. We also went to Target and did a little shopping, but poor Cora had a dirty diaper so we decided to leave.

Cora is getting so big-she's over 12 lbs. She is smiling a lot and is at such a fun age. I'm glad that she is bigger b/c newborn babies are a little too tiny for me. I wish I could hang out with them everyday. Actually, on Wednesday I went over there again b/c I didn't really get to hold her on Monday. I hope I get pregnant sometime soon so Cora will either have a future boyfriend or a best friend. Thanks for a fun day Allison & Cora!

Bella's new haircut

Bella got a haircut...

Bulls Game

Craig's friend Rick has amazing season tickets to the Bulls games and he was nice enough to invite Craig and I and we also brought Allison's younger sister Natalie. The seats were about six rows behind the basket. The Bulls were down 20 points and came back to win the game.

I took these pictures on my camera phone and the quality is terrible...

Train Concert

Craig and I went to a Train concert at the Vic and it was a lot of fun. I bought the tickets for one of Craig's anniversary presents. Unfortunately, my camera phone takes bad pictures from a distance...

Halloween

Craig and I went over to Scott and Allison's house for a little Halloween celebration. Scott made awesome jambalaya and we brought over corn bread and some appetizers. Allison's Mom and sisters were there too. Danielle (her oldest sister) has two boys, Marek and Lukas and they love Cora so much. It's so cute to see the three of them together. Thanks Scott and Allison for such a fun party! We love you guys.

Here are the pictures (click on them to make them bigger):

EIU Homecoming

We spent the weekend in Charleston for EIU Homecoming and it was a lot of fun. We went to the parade at the Hutti's house with Tim, Mindy, Emma, and Alli. We missed about half the parade because we slept in a little (sorry Mindy!). Thanks to Mindy and the Hutti's for hosting the parade party. Then we went to tailgating at the game with my uncle Hank, my brother Bryan, cousin Tim, Mindy, Emma, Alli, my cousin Nick, and my Dad's friends' Dan and Ted. The weather did not cooperate very well and it rained several times and of course we forgot our umbrellas. Craig, the kids and I went into the game and it turned out to be a good game. The weather got a little better and we watched the Panthers beat the other team (can't remember their mascot). After the game we were lucky enough to get invited to a private tailgating party with Tony Romo. He was in town because he was being inducted into the EIU Hall of Fame and they were retiring his number 17 jersey. Allison called her Mom and asked her to get us in so Debbie invited us to go with her. That was SO nice of her and we were SO excited to be able to meet Tony. Ethan is a BIG Tony Romo fan so he was super excited. Allison's Dad introduced us to Tony and we were even able to get a picture with him. He was really nice. THANKS Allison, Debbie and John!!!! After the game Craig and I went out and met everyone at Mom's. The whole Charleston crew was at Mom's and it ranged from age 21 to 61+. It was a BLAST seeing everyone. The bartenders even had t-shirts that said I heart townies!

Other news: My Dad just had a major surgery and it went really well. My parents normally would have been at the game with us as they are season ticket holders, but my Dad was still recoperating in the hospital. He went home the day after the homecoming game. I'm so happy everything went so well!! Dad - you are a strong, stubborn man and thank God for that! I LOVE YOU AND MOM SO MUCH!

Here are the pictures from the game:

Molly Kirk's Wedding

Allison and I came in town for Molly's wedding, but decided to come early. We came on Tues and the wedding was Friday. Craig and Scott drove down on Friday. The wedding was at my old church so it was really nice to go back. The ceremony was very nice. It rained for 3 days straight so they had to change the wedding reception plans. They originally rented tents and set them up at the Country Club, but after all of the rain the dance floor was under a foot of water so they switched it to the inside of the CC. We had a lot of fun...hung out with good old friends from Charleston...of course Molly and her husband Bob, Dee Dee Witmer, Danielle Dibianco and we saw Megan Jacobs, Jay Kilgore, Danny Gerling, Garrett Kirk. It was Allison's first night away from Cora and she did great! Congrats Molly and Bob!

Dinner with Tim, Mindy, Emma, and Alli

I went to dinner at Los Potrillos with my parents and Tim, Mindy and the girls. It was great seeing all of them. Emma and Alli are getting so big and have such cute personalities.

I spent Tues-Sun with my parents and we had such a great time. We got out old scrapbooks and photo albums and it was fun to hear about when they first started dating, etc. I love you Mom & Dad. Thanks for such a great week!