Merry Christmas letter

Christmas 2008

I thought I would do a little Christmas letter on the blog in case anyone cared to see what has been going on with us. I did a few Christmas cards this year (see above) but not enough to reach out to everyone so figured I would do it this way as well.

We have had a fun year. We are enjoying our two kids grow like little weeds...or I should say into beautiful flowers! They are adorable...but we are biased of course.

We moved into a home that we built this past May. We really LOVE being back in town and 5-10 min. from EVERYTHING! We chose to make our house green....a little different from the rest of the houses in the neighborhood but we like it and have got many compliments from the neighbors about it.










Sam started Pre-school in Sept. and loves it. His favorite friends are Chloe and Carter. Luckly they are very well behaved and probably the sweetiest kids in class so that makes me happy! There is one little boy (that will remain nameless) that is not so great. I was in Sam's class all day last week and he hit Sam on the head, he was crying, yelling, not doing ANYTHING he was told. At one point I thought we lost him but he was under the table. The kids told me that is where he was....must do that often. It is sad to see, but on the other hand makes me a little annoyed that he has to get all the attention and all the other kids are just doing what they are told. At least it is only one kid I guess I we can be thankful for that (trying to find a positive for every negative these days :)

Sam and Carter

Sam and Chloe

Katelyn is getting so big. She is walking (almost running), loves to eat, and watch her brother. She also beats up on him. She is one strong cookie. Sam is pretty good with her, but he has his days!
I have been with Burwood for a year+ now and love it. It is so great to work from home, part-time, get paid well, and be able to stay home with my babies and watch them grow (thanks dear!)! I hope to do it for many years to come. I know I will need to get another full time job down the road and it would be nice to stay with them, we will see! Mike is at State Farm and loves every minute of his work week (Joke). Our favorite thing to do is just sit and watch the kids play. We are so very blessed.

We wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!!!!

This & That

Just wanted to update some recent pictures of the kids. This was them one morning before breakfast. :)
Just a picture I took of Katie that I liked. She looks so cute with stuff in her hair but she doesn't keep it in for long.
Tried to get a picture of them for the Christmas card. Did not go so well. This would have been a good one if Katie was not putting her hand up to Sam's face!

Another morning before we went to the store. Sam decided he wanted to do Katies hair :)
Sam wanted me to add this one. He went to his first ISU Basketball game last weekend (Thanks Mark and Marla for sharing your tickets with us)!

Taking pictures at State Farm. Again, not an easy task to get the two of them to look at the camera at the same time AND smile nice :(

Just like this one, holding hands. And it shows Katies cute outfit (Thanks Nana & G-Bob)

Almost perfect. If only she was showing off her adorable smile and Sam did not have a big ole stye in his eye. They are pretty darn perfect to me anyway :)
We got to take our own pictures this year. This was the first. The second and third were pretty much the same....then....

We got her to calm down and stop crying! Not bad. We plan on starting to bake some Christmas goodies next week so I am sure there will be more pictures to come. Hope everyone is enjoying the Holiday season!!!

Grandpa

Yes, I have Christmas music at the top of my playlist. I know it is early, but I just love Christmas music. I figured I would get in the spirit early!

When I think of Christmas one of my favorite memories is going to midnight mass and listening and watching my Grandpa sing in the Choir. He LOVED to sing. He would get all dressed up with his suit and clip on tie :) and was so excited to get to church. It has been almost a year since his passing. I miss him very much (and my grandma's too). So, the Christmas music is for you Grandpa. I am sure you are singing up in heaven. Love ya!
One of my last visits with him. Isn't he just so cute :)

I am glad Sam got to meet him. He liked walking around their room with my Grandpa's walker.

This was my Grandpa's 90th Birthday. He and my Grandma lived very long lives. This was the last time I saw my Grandma. I think my daughter looks a little like her. Same eyebrows. And they share the same middle name...Genevieve.

Thanks for listening...to me and the Christmas music!

Katie's First Steps and Dance Party USA!

Katie took her first steps!!! (Novemeber 10th) She has become very daring ever since. She will be all over on foot in no time!

We were having fun this morning...Dance Party in Sam's room. Here are a few more videos!!

We listened to "No more monkey's jumping on the bed" Sam really liked that one. Sorry it goes in and out. That is not you, it is the camera!

And we listened to "If your Happy and you know it". Katie liked the part where you nod your head! :)

And I will close with a few cute pictures, just because I can!

Sam had is Adnoieds out last week. I just love this picture in the room before he went to have it done. They are watching TV. Katie is doing her classic head tilt and Sam is just cheesing!

Sam and Katie got a visit from their cousins Lexi and Lindsay and Memaw and Papa. I just think it is so cute how they are lined up at the window! Get well soon Aunt Amy :)

Just think this is a cute picture how she is sitting on her new seat that she loves! Thank you Jill, John and Dean (and family) for such an awesome Birthday gift!Just love my babies smile. It makes me smile :) Enjoy!

Birthday/Halloween Party 11-2-08

This past weekend we went to my cousin Jill's house in Fenton Missouri to celebrate Katies birthday and we decided to let the kids dress up one last time and have some more Halloween fun! Thanks again Jill for everything. We had tons of fun!!

This is all the kids getting ready for the scavenger hunt with the adult they picked to help!

Looking through all the goodies they got afterwards!

Most of the kids all dressed up for one last time. Missing a little monkey (my nephew Ben who was to scared of THE HULK, and a cute little skeleton (my cousin Jill's littlest Max who was taking a nap).

Katie playing in all the fun leaves we dont have at our house b/c we only have one little tree out front. It is cute for pictures but I would not want to rake them all :)

Halloween 2008

Here are a few pictures of the kids all dressed up with friends and family! I have to say they are the cutiest police offer (how Sam says it!) and ladybug I have ever seen!

This is Sam and his friend Joshua. True Hero's...firefighter and police officer :)

Katelyn, Sam, Josh and Natalie. So cute!Katie and Natalie in the same little Halloween outfit!

Sam with his preschool class. The little mermaid up front is Chloe. His little girlfriend.

Me and the kids trick or treating at Nana and G-Bobs house.

I can not believe I did not take a picture of Sam and his cousins Lexi and Lindsay on Halloween. That is who he went Trick or Treating with. :( Well, hope everyone had a great Halloween!

More pictures of the kids...

Here are just a few of my favorite pictures that have been taken since my last post. I will try to post more frequently. Our computer crashed so it was slow for awhile. Enjoy!
Katie and her cute nose scrunch face!

Mom and the kids at the zoo...

Playing at the park outside of the zoo.

Going down a big slide at the Apple orchard/pumpkin patch. Sam LOVED it. We went down many times.

Katies favorite time is BATH time!

Yippee Mommy! I get to sit facing forward now. I am SO BIG!

Sam at his first swim lesson. The blond in the middle is his little cousin Lindsay. I have a feeling he is going to be in this class for awhile. He does not like getting his head under.

Sam on his first day of Preschool! He loves it. If you ask him who his best friend is he always says Chloe. She is a cutie! First girlfriend maybe :)

Here are some videos. I am so excited I can post these! THe first is Katie dancing. We say she is doing the Rump Shaker! Then she is playing Peek-a-Boo...so cute.

Then, b/c we lost some of the recent ones of Sam due to our computer problems :( Thought I would post one of MIke and my favorite videos of him. He is about 18 months. He loved driving dadoes truck! He knew a lot of words...as you can see some of them being, ball and car. I have a lot of work to do with Katie. She is not saying much of anything yet.

Sam and I went camping!

I figured since I am on here updating pictures of Katie I might as well go back aways and update some others too! Sam and I went to State Farm Camp Night with our best friends...Marla and Joshua. It was the first time Sam and I had gone camping. We did pretty good. Except his minor night terror and hard time breathing that night that at least woke Marla and I up!

All of us in front of one of the fountains. This turned out great. IT was hard b/c we were working with a 10 sec. timer!

Sam had a lot of fun with Josh's camping toys.

I think this pictures is so funny b/c his face is magnified. They are so cute!

Us in front of our tent that we all shared!

Katies 1st birthday!

Wanted to upload some pictures from Katies Birthday Party. She had a lot of fun. Helped open gifts, ate her cake and never got upset. The Mantle was all about her (and still is, to lazy to change it again :)

A few pictures of her eating her cake. I still cant figure this blog stuff out. I wanted to rearrange them but oh well. You get the picture :)

She is so sweet. She was just eating it all up, the attention that is...

Driving around in one of her gifts, her own little buggy!

Helping mommy open gifts. She loved the ones that were wrapped in paper!

I just love how she is sitting in this picture :)

My favorite one of the day. She is such a big girl. I just love her to pieces!

A video of her digging into her cake. I just wanted to see if it was easy to upload a video. It takes awhile but pretty neat!