Simple Gifts

I just got home from my favorite church service of the year. I have loved Thanksgiving Eve Service for as long as I can remember. This year pastor focused on the fact that for the first time in many of our lives we are having to go without. I thank God every day that we have been blessed with jobs that we love, a roof over our heads, food on our table, and healthy children. This year, though, I have realized the importance of the simple things. So as I think of all of my blessings this last year, what I think of are family game nights, sitting around the fire making s'mores on a warm summer evening, watching The Apple Dumpling Gang and eating microwave popcorn, reading books cuddled in our big blue chair, trips to the zoo and Wildlife Prairie Park, and homemade breakfasts on Saturday mornings.

So as I look back on this past year, I am so thankful for all of the simple gifts God has blessed us with!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Birthday Mom!

You have been the best mom anyone could ask for! I am so blessed to have you in my life not only as a mom, but also as a friend. You shaped me into the person I am today. You showed me how to care for others, love unconditionally, and accept people for who they were. You taught me how to be strong and stand up for myself.

I look back on how you raised me for guidance as I try to be a great mom to Emmy and Tyler. I pray everyday that I will be able to instill in them the values and respect that you instilled in me! Thank you for always being there for me!

I Love You!

Happy Birthday!

Christmas before Thanksgiving

Today I took down all of my Fall decorations. I was so sad to be putting away my pumpkins and turkeys six days before Thanksgiving, but since we are leaving the day after Thanksgiving for Florida, I realized that this weekend will be our only time to decorate fro Chirstmas before December 12th. Since I take down my Cbristmas decorations on December 26th, I thought we may want to put them up a little earlier this year rather than have them up for only 2 weeks.

I also worked on some Christmas shopping today. So did everyone else. Toys R Us was insane, but at least I got in, got what I needed and got out! I need to do more internet shopping next year!

Car Conversations

Emmy: Daddy, do you know what the stars are?
Daddy: What do you think they are?
Emmy: Nickelodeon says that they are fairies that are making their wands light up
Daddy: Could be
Emmy: But I think that they are angels that are very far away, that is why we can barely see them.

Emmy: Why aren't we supposed to swallow gum?
Mommy: Because it doesn't get digested and it might get stuck in your intestines
Tyler: What re you intestines?
Mommy: The part of your body where your food goes after your stomach but before it comes out as poop.
Emmy: What happens to the gum after you swallow it.
Mommy: You poop it out
Tyler: Cool! Your poop would smell like gum!
Daddy: No, Tyler your gum would smell like poop!
Tyler: Gross!
Mommy: Exactly! That is why we don't want to swallow our gum!

words can't describe...

too busy for babies

On our way to school today we were talking about birthdays and Tyler mentioned that there were a lot of birthdays in October. Emmy proceeded to give us the reason why there were so many babies born in the fall. First, people are too busy at the pools to have babies in the summer. It is too cold in the winter to have babies and of course, everyone is busy planting flowers in the spring so there is no time for babies. That is why Fall is the perfect time to have babies and hence the large number of birthdays in October!

Christmas in November

This weekend kicked off Christmas in Morton. We had our Holidazzle celebration Friday and Saturday. Friday night we headed downtown to see Santa, shop at our local shops, and look fro Tyler's Tree of Dreams poster. After he found out that Emmy had won 2nd place, all he wanted to do was find his. We walked up and down main street to no avail. We did get to see Santa and tell him what we wanted for Christmas.

After we enjoyed the shops, we waited for our town Christmas Tree lighting and then headed home.

Saturday we had two soccer games and another search for Tyler's Tree of Dreams poster.

Game One- Orange Tigers vs. Lime Lizards- An exciting match-up of two Kindergarten unbeatens. Tyler played hard and ended up scoring a gaol despite being kicked in the shins and knocked down a couple times. Boy was he a trooper! After the game when we congratulated him on his first goal he was not at all excited, but at least we were!

In between games- Off to Field Shopping center

for more Holidazzle and to look

for Tyler's poster- and we found it!!!!

Game Two- Orange vs. Lime- Emmy's plan was

to score one goal instead she scored 2 goals and had two assists! We didn't have to worry about her not being excited. She managed to tell everyone she saw the rest of the day that her team had one and she had scored 2 goals and had two assists!

Positivity

Just a quick update on my tooth situation. I just knew that I was going to have to have a new crown put on my tooth (at least $600!) I went to the dentist today only to be told that it is only a superficial crack! All I needed was a little polishing and some sealant! A huge thanks to Dr. Anderson for his quick, painless and cheap fix!

mommy...can I tell you somefing?

This is how Tyler prefaces most every statement and today it was followed by "it is kind of difficult to...(sleep, go to wrestling practice, clean my room, etc.) because of the bump on my head. I got a call around 2:15 to let me know that Tyler had a head-on collision with a first grader. Unfortunately, he hit the front of his head on the back of Justin's head. Needless to say Tyler took the brunt of the impact and has a huge bump on his head!

It kind of tops off one of those weeks. First I have been sick all week and just kind of crabby. Yesterday at work I was eating a popcorn ball, which wasn't good, and I managed to crack the crown on my front tooth. Then I woke up this morning and just knew it was Friday. What a rude awakening when I realized it was just Thursday! Finally I have to make 50 breast lump key chains tonight for the weekend. Not my idea of a great Thursday night.

On a more positive note, tomorrow is Friday and we are going to the Christmas tree lighting here in town. Also, the kids and I have started planning our Disney trip. Tyler spent the whole night reading Birnbaums Guide to Disney World. I think we are going to get him on the Haunted Mansion this time and Emmy is going to ride Tower of Terror with Grandma and Grandpa.

So despite a kind of icky week, we have a ton to look forward to!

Nocturnal bathroom visits

Each night, Tyler gets up at least once to go to the bathroom. Most of the time he is probably walking in his sleep, so I make sure he at least gets close to the potty. Two nights ago, he came out to tell Brian that he had to go potty so Brian sent him to the bathroom. Brian listened but didn't hear anything hit the water. He walked in to see Tyler peeing on his shoes and clothes he had laid out for work the next day! Of course Tyler didn't remember a thing, but I think Brian learned to make sure Tyler is actually awake when he uses the bathroom in the middle of the night.

Last night Tyler had his 2nd wrestling practice and he is already improving. Tonight he and Emmy were wrestling and he actually pinned her! Maybe we have found his sport!!

A few weeks ago the kids were able to decorate posters to celebrate our local "Holidazzle" celebration. I ran by the bank today where they have the winning posters and Emmy took 2nd place from her school. I'll try to get a picture of her poster in the window sometime this week.

70 Degrees in November?

For those of you not Central IL this weekend you missed out! Emmy even wore a tank top and shorts yesterday as the thermometer topped 70 degrees...a rare occurrence this time of year! We had such beautiful weather this weekend and the kids made the most of it!

We had a relatively busy week because winter sports have started. Tyler is trying his hand at wrestling this year. Now I enjoy most sports, but wrestling is very new to me. I thought I was doing well until the coaches began talking about a special foam that they make for wrestlers to wear that keeps the germs off. They also made it very clear that the boys should shower immediately after every practice. On top of that, they described a typical wrestling tournament. The day will begin at 6am or so (now Tyler hasn't seen 6am ever!) and will finish up around 2 or 3 in the afternoon. during the tournament Tyler will wrestle 3 times with each match lasting about 1 minute. So if you do your math, we will be waiting for about 7 hours and 57 minutes at each tournament!

After Tyler's first practice he had learned one move. He came home and practiced it on Emmy and she had him pinned in about 15 seconds. Tonight is practice number two...can't wait to see what move he learns!

Indoor soccer also started this weekend. Tyler had his first game ever on Saturday and he did great. He had no problem being aggressive. In fact he managed to knock over his own teammate to get the ball and had a great breakaway play to the goal when was on defense. He did great for the first 3 quarters but by the 4th quarter he was watching the clock and chewing on his shirt. I think our goal for this session will be to actually play the whole 32 minutes.

Emmy also had soccer on Saturday. She had played outdoor soccer and enjoyed it. Her team never lost and usually beat their opponents by at least 3 goals. Though she believed that she was the 3rd best player on the team, she had a lot to improve upon. Her indoor team is not quite as good. In fact, Emmy could be called the star player...for at least 1 quarter anyway. She spent the first quarter and a half running up and down and side to side trying to cover the entire field. Unfortunately, she was dead tired for the 2nd half of the game. Her team ended up losing and the worst part is they actually keep score on an electronic scoreboard so we can't even lie and tell her that her team won.

I promise to update more so the postings are not quite this long, but today I am home sick, so I had a bit of time to work on the blog so you got all caught up on last week's activities.

Starting Over

Wow it has been a long time since we've posted! I've (Carrie) decided to start over on this blog. So much has happened since June when Brian posted last.

July

In July, 15 of us headed to Disney World for a fun-filled family vacation. We had a blast! this year we did a few things we had never done before.

We got to watch the fireworks from a special spot with a delicious dessert buffet.

We also signed the kids up for a Pirate Cruise where they got to find a hidden treasure.

After we left Disney, Brian, the kids and I headed to Vero Beach for a few days. This was the first time the kids had been to a beach and this was the first time Brian and I had tried a relaxing beach vacation. I think we're more theme park and water park folks, but I will say the resort was beautiful!

August

August brought with it the beginning of school! Emmy is in 1st Grade and Tyler started Kindergarten. Emmy loves school and as Tyler said a few weeks ago he is starting to get used to it! In fact yesterday he came home to tell me he was going to have new attitude towards school. Of course today when I asked him about his new attitude, he said it got off track, so I guess we'll

see!

August also brought about Fall Sports! Tyler played Flag Football for the Morton Hogs and Emmy was on the Shamrocks soccer team. Emmy loved soccer. Tyler liked the games, but was not a big fan of the twice a week practices.

September

For those of you not familiar with Central Illinois, you may not be aware that with September comes Morton Pumpkin Festival. This entails a week of gorging on pumpkin donuts, pumpkin pie, pumpkin ice cream, pumpkin chili, etc. It also includes a pumpkin decorating contest. This year's theme was Christmas in the Pumpkin patch. Emmy decorated her pumpkin like Santa Claus. Tyler thought he could wait till Halloweem and make a jack-o-lantern. Maybe we'll try again next year.



At the end of the month Brian and I got to head to San Antonio to surprise a fraternity brother of Brian's from college. Nine of us met down in San Antonio for a long weekend and had a blast. As you can see Brian and I went to the Alamo, a bunch of wineries, and the Missions during the day and enjoyed the Riverwalk each night! It was exactly what we needed!

October

October is always a big month for us. We have our nephew's birthday, Emmy's birthday and all of the Halloween activities we can fit in! Since Jack and Emmy have birthdays less than a week apart, we decided to hold a birthday party together. This years theme was Dr. Suess.




The weekend after our family party Emmy had her friend party. She invited her whole class and some friends from her summer camp. Despite the flu outbreak at Bethel, we still hosted 13 kids plus two cousins for pumpkin decorating, making caramel apples and overall Fall Birthday Fun!

Finally October brought Halloween. We love all the festivities leading up to Halloween. We went to Howl-Zoo-Ween and Wildlife Scary Park. We spent our Halloween evening Trick or Treating with Jack and Brooklyn in Dunlap!

So, now you are caught up on our life. I have made a commitment to myself to keep this blog up to date, so check back often!