Merry Christmas to One and All

It's begining to look a lot like Christmas

These past few weeks....wow! They have been full! Full of activities, service, shopping, stress, pink eye, fun, excitement, sadness, love, repeat....(except the pink eye part).

We've been busy with school programs and parties, church service and festive family outings. I don't remember a Christmas ever being as full as this year. I'm finally finished with our church giving tree project. Also our family has been busy supporting a family from church who tragically lost their son last week. We've recovered from a house full of runny noses and goopy eyes. Add to that some of our family traditions such as Zoo Lights, Wonderland Express and CSO Welcome Yule...there you have a FULL December. Christmas cards may or may not make it out this year, but I did get some cute pics of the kids in case they do. Whew...Christmas is in two days...what should I get Kermit? Any suggestions? =)

Guess who's coming to dinner!

Byron and Co...that's who! My brother Byron drove his family up from Texas to spend THanksgiving with us! We had such a fun time! THANKS FOR MAKING THE TRIP! WE LOVE YOU GUYS!



Above is all of us sitting down to Thanksgiving dinner. Pie would come later...and it was then that we realized my pumpkin pies from Costco needed to be refridgerated. Oops, ours had been on the counter for a few days. Tammy and I whipped up 2 pies from scratch in 20 minutes. They turned out awesome! Our apple pie was great too! Tammy, we are dangerous together!


Above: All the kids lined up in fromt of Portillo's.

We spent one of our days at the Museum of Science and Industry. We loved seeing the German Uboat and the model trains. I love this time of year when they have the hall of Christams Trees from around the world.
Below: The Links, what a great family they are~


Below: Here we are. (This picture is our only family shot in months. I better get on the stick or this picture will be our only option for Christmas cards....I mean New Years Cards by the time we get them out.)


Below: THE German Uboat

Below: Greyson towering over Chicago


We spent one of the days at the Field Museum. You can't come to visit us without seeing dinosaur bones! Good Times!
All of us in front of Sue the T-Rex.

Field Museum. View from 2nd level

Above: Dino bones

Above: Brynna

Above: Avrie

Above: After the museum we went to Starfruit for some frozen keiffer. Note, if you ever go there I recommend getting a berry smoothie b/c it tastes like a berry smoothie. =)

I couldn't resist this picture of Maggie. Her face says it all. Turns out that frozen keifer wasn't a huge hit. My favorite comment was from Caden who said, "I don't think mine is vanilla." At least the toppings were good! =) (Kieffer is sour...and for some vanilla and sour don't mix well I guess.)

The entire time they were here the kids just played and played the entire time! Every now and then they'd come away from their play for food or something. =) Our "playcave" was in use constantly. The older boys loved playing fooseball....we also had some nailbiter rounds of Chinese Checkers. Greyson has some good moves!
above: Greyson and Caden

above: Brynna and Annaliese

above: Addie and Maggie

Below: Annaliese saying goodbye to cousins! We love you all!

We can't wait to see you again! We loved having you here! Let's do it again real soon! WE LOVE YOU GUYS! xoxox

Two times FOUR

It's been birthday time around here! The twins turned four on Wednesday. They are sure tell everyone the meet that they aren't three any more.
We had a "smallish" birthday party here at the house with their friends from their primary class. We had tiny cupcakes, tiny ice cream cones, tiny cookies, tiny pretzels, etc. The girls enjoyed playing "pass the parcel" and opening presents the best. They were so happy to have their friends over to help celebrate! They had a very happy day indeed.

On Thursday the girls got to have cupcakes at school. Annaliese came down from Kindergarten for the occassion. Again they were thrilled. What a great day!

Weekend Review

What a fun weekend we had! On Saturday the girls had primary program practice at the church so after that was over we loaded up into our fresh and clean car and headed to the Botanic Gardens. The weather was devine...it felt like 65 or 70 degrees and sunny! The girls had so much fun climbing trees, jumping in straw (one of the water pools was filled with straw for the season), and climbing on rocks pretending to be mountain goats. I tried not to make eye contact with others passing by afraid they'd tell me to get my kids out of the tree or off the rocks or something. Nobody gave us grief though. The girls obviously weren't hurting anything, they were just having fun being outside. Funny girls! They had a blast and so did Kermit and I.

Let's see what else, oh yes....Kermit fixed a plumbing problem. He had to cut open the ceiling in our entry way and buy a new seal for the toilet upstairs. Lots of dust created but problem solved!

We ate out at a restaurant called Basha. Kermit loves middle eastern food so every now and then we go. The kids ate up their chicken shawarma pretty well. Oh, and we ate out at Five Guys the night before...I'm on a roll!

The girls had their primary program on Sunday, they did so well! It's so funny how many people commented to us on how different our girls are. Addie got up and said her lines with no help, nice and loud and clear. She sang half the time when she wasn't turned around looking at the big kids behind her. Avrie froze and barely squeaked out her lines when it was her turn but sang loudly and was very reverent and still. Annaliese did her lines perfectly and sang well...she was very wiggly on the stand sitting up there with her class just loving that she was up there. All in all they did great! I loved watching them say their parts and sing so well. That evening we called/skyped both grandparents and sang for them. Annaliese sang "I'm trying to be like Jesus" the rest of the night non stop. A good reminder to us all.

Ding Dong the Rat is Dead

Our secret is out. Kermit and I agreed we wouldn't tell anyone but I couldn't keep my mouth shut so half the world knows about this, you may as well know too. Just don't tell my kids. They don't know.

A week ago Sunday I left the sliding doors open in our minivan after we got home from church. On Sunday the kids helped themselves out of the car, my arms are full of bags, coats, purse, etc. I forgot to go back out to the garage and close the doors behind the kids. It's not uncommon for this kind of thing happen in our family. Our car is parked in our garage so it's not a big deal. In the evening when I'm locking up for the night I close the doors if they happen to be open, end of story. Not a problem.

Monday I am driving around town and I notice a big blob of poo on my dashboard. Hmm. Gross. Weird. I look over to the passenger seat. Big blob of poo on the arm rest. Disgusting. It becomes obvious we've had a visitor in our car. I will make an effort to ALWAYS make sure I close the van doors. In the eight years we've lived in our home I have never seen a rat in our garage, but clearly we had a passer though on Sunday night. I will take the car in to get deep cleaned asap. I do just that.

Tuesday, I go grocery shopping and leave Halloween candy and pasta in back of my nice clean car.

Wednesday I go to get candy out of the back only to discover...dun, dun, dun...pasta all over the place and candy packaging all chewed up. EEWE! We have a problem!

We spent all week setting traps and glue boards all over the car. Every morning we'd find that the traps were sprung but no catch. Finally we had evidence that the beast was at least injurred...the red stuff on the carpet confirmed it. (GeeeROss!) (BTW...when ever I say "WE" I mean Kermit. That is just to gross. It was even too gross for him but he had no choice.)

Finally on Saturday morning we find that none of traps were sprung and no rat on any of the glueboards. Terminex comes over and helps us investigate further. We take out all the seats, clean out the nasty rat hole glove box, etc. Nothing. We decide that the rat somehow got out. Good ridance. I sanitize the bajebahs out of the car.

Tuesday morning...There's no denying it, something is dead in here! PEE-U! I drive it with the windows down and take it straight to the dealer. They tear open the dashboard and after 2 hours of searching....they find the beast. SICK! SICK! SICK! I know you all just lost your appetite a long time ago but SICK! Apparently it was a huge sonovagun too! They found him in the upper passenger side dash, whatever that means. I feel sorry for whoever had to get him out!

Wednesday afternoon...I pick up my car from the dealership...smells fresh and clean, just a little musty from the carpets being shampooed. The dashboard and armrests gleaming. The steeringwheel so shiny it is slippery. At last a sparkleing clean and rodent free vehicle.

After a week and a half I can drive without worrying about being attacked by a by a killer rat. I can drive without the windows open but truthfully I'm still grossed out. It's just not the same. I'm getting more hand sanitizer to keep in there for extra measure. I think I may even go out and buy more Lysol and go nuts again. I totally understand if nobody ever wants to ride in my car ever again. Frankly, neither do I but I have no choice. I'm worried the little rat is going to start haunting my car since he can't terrorize us in the flesh anymore. But for now...DING DONG the rat is DEAD (and gone from my car)!

Halloween 2009

Kermit's friend from work stopped by. Had to snap this photo! It's not every day you get a giant bottle of Windex at your door.


Halloween is such a great holiday! The kids have been just so excited. All month they've been singing and singing their little hearts out every Halloween song they know. They have been going back and forth on what they want to dress up as. Every night before bed they would ask how many days until Halloween. Serious stuff here. Very VERY excited. We finally decided after much debate on their costumes. Avrie, a unicorn. Addie, a walking strawberry. Annaliese, a witch. I had a lot of fun making them their costumes. My sister kept me company late in the evening working on these gems...we visited via Skype. (I love Skype! What a great invention!) I have decided that a glue gun is a very handy tool and one that I have under utilized in the past. I went through many a glue sticks on these costumes and even dusted off my sewing machine. I really loved it and look forward to next years costume challenge. The most rewarding part though is how proud the girls were to wear my creations. They were so happy and so proud to be wearing such nifty duds.
We went to our church party on Friday night and had a great time. We were having car trouble so we took a cab to and from the party....and that was a highlight in and of itself. We were late as usual, but it was a great party I'd say. One of the better I've seen in my day here in Chicagoland. Kudos to those who planned it!
Saturday, which was the actual holiday...Kermit and I spent the entire day cleaning out the basement. Now that was spooky! We had fun working together and were able to get rid of so much stuff. Seriously, it was long overdue and we did it! I love clean basements! In fact I dream about someday having a basement so clean and organized that I could take guests down to our storage room and just show it off. Exciting I know. But I seriously do hope to be able to show off my basement someday and I know you all can't wait.
Saturday night we invited a couple of families over to eat pizza with us and trick or treat in our neighborhood. It was a fun and casual evening. Kids ran wild, pizza inhaled and good time had by all I think. Halloween 2009 a success!