What a crazy and emotional weekend.

I started off doing a photography session that brought me to tears.

The next day we said our goodbye’s to our friends “The Petersheims”.

I posted this first photo on my photography blog but decided I should probably put it here as well for those of you who don’t follow the other blog.

You see Brittneigh’s Mama has cancer and we’re not sure how much longer she’ll be with us so My Christopher asked me to take photos of the two of them together.  Their very dear friends came along with them that day so we got a few shots of the four of them together.  I loved this one because everyone seems so carefree and happy.  They just don’t have many of these moments lately and I’m so happy I captured it for them.

The next photos are of a little gathering my work girlies (and a few spouses & kiddos) had for our dear friend Angie and her hubby Merlin.

They’re moving to Idaho this week.

It’s been a blessing for all of us in NICU to work with such an awesome nurse.

We will miss her dearly.

Share on Facebook

Today we celebrated Brittneigh’s 18th birthday

Chris thought it would be extremely funny to get those candles that won’t blow out.

She didn’t

The following are photos from the day.

We Love You!!!!

Share on Facebook

This year Christmas started extremely early (at least for us) in the morning.

Britt had to be at work all the way in Anderson early so we started our day at 5:30am.

Britt is a bit dramatic and wiggles around quickly.  This is the only photo that wasn’t a complete blur.

Here is my very tall Christmas tree.  I know there isn’t a topper, but the ladder isn’t tall enough to allow for someone to reach high enough.

I’m not sure how ‘awake’ Cory was at this time.  He went right back to bed afterwards.

Cade on the other hand is excitable no matter the time of day.

Christopher was very happy to have his iPod replaced.  Of course I had a mushy card and even more mushiness engraved on the back of it.

Yes, I got a wii fit and Cade is probably more happy about it than me.  Please forgive our sleep attire, or at least Cade’s.  He chooses to always wear my old t-shirts.

Hope you all had a very Merry CHRISTmas.

Share on Facebook

Today was the last day for our local Fall Foliage Festival.

This is an event that we always try to make it to every year.

Cade loves the rides.

Chris loves the elephant ears.

.  .  .  .  .and I love the cotton candy, and the pineapple whip ice cream.

It’s really the only reason to go.

well.  .  .  .that and the really cool items for sale by different vendors in the area.

This year the knitted hats were quite popular.  I saw so many teenage girls sporting these hats.

I was freezing and so were my ears so I got one too.

They also had the neatest little knit sweater/jackets with pointy hoods.

You know, like the very cool knit hats that you see babies get their photos taken in.

I just had to have one of those too.

Not for me of course.

They were much too small.

I do know a very cute baby whose mommy loves hats that would look uber cute in this little contraption.

The weather is perfect for such a thing.

I got a new point an shoot camera so I don’t have to lug around my big clunky camera everywhere for good photos.

I was so ready to part with my Nikon Coolpix.  I was very happy to sell mine to my friend Michele whose very same

camera got broken yesterday.

I’m definitely a Canon girl.

I never want another Nikon as long as I live.

Danny-o met us at the festival.

I think he misses home.

Cade and I shared this huge bag of cotton candy while riding the gigantic ferris wheel.

This is the county courthouse from atop the ferris wheel.

It’s ancient.

My Christopher waiting on his elephant ear.

The gigantic ferris wheel Cade and I like to ride on.

Now for a little sad news:

My Christopher’s ex-wife (aka Britt’s Mama) was just diagnosed with ovarian cancer.

Could you please keep her in prayer?

Thank you.

Share on Facebook

Unfortunatly Britt lives nearly 2 hours away from us and so that limits the amount of time she gets to spend visiting. She’s a teenager and has a job. She’s a junior in high school and has lots of homework, etc., etc.

But this week was fall break for she and Cory so she came out for a visit. Luckily for me she needed some new fall/winter clothes so that gave me an excuse to shop. And I also needed to replace my Christophers’ holey hoodie, you know the one that I think every man in America owns that has holes in it and that they never let you get rid of because it’s broken in or just so comfortable. Then they promise to never wear it in public, but when you catch them they say something like “well you haven’t replaced it yet”.

Now it’s replaced and he can semi-retire the blue one to yard work only.

Britt’s never been to The Edinburgh Outlet Mall and honestly it’s just about as close as any of the other malls to where we live, so that’s the one we chose to go to. Not to mention there are always sales.

Did I mention we love shopping?

Share on Facebook

Share on Facebook

On Monday Chris and I decided to take the kids to Kings Island. Cory decided not to join us, but Britt and Cade were very excited to go, especially since Cade was finally tall enough to ride the big roller coasters. We had a wonderful time, the weather was super, not too hot at all and there were practically no lines. I don’t think we waited more than 10 minutes to ride anything. Here are a few photos from our day.

Britt, Chris & Cade on their way in.

The Stunt Coaster

My Chris waiting for us to finish eating lunch.

Britt taking a break.

Cade and his very favorite cartoon character, of course that’s the only picture I took and the booger blinked.

Cade & Britt riding the Drop Zone.

Britt, Cade & Chris riding one of the water rides, by this time I was exhausted and just didn’t want to get wet anymore.

Cade was drenched by that ride.

Another water ride, I know this is blurry, but it’s the only shot I got.

Share on Facebook

Well the day was fantastic. I was actually able to have about a 3 hour nap before going to dinner. Plus my oldest son who is horrible with secrets managed to keep it quiet this year. Though he really wanted to tell me and kept asking if I wanted to know where they were taking us. I was strong and told him no repeatedly. So anyhow at 4:00pm we had reservations at Mongolian Grill on the northside. I’ve never been before, my Dad just loves the place and has suggested us to go there many times. Well we finally made it and I wasn’t disappointed. It was fun, the kids loved it too. I don’t think my Mom was as surprised as I was though, maybe my Dad is bad with secrets too.

This is the big grill. Cade is watching them prepare his food.
My very cool boyfriend who planned the day.
My oldest son Cory who actually went with us without arguing.
Britt, I think this was taken right after Cory sneezed and snot landed on her hand.
Cade enjoying one of many glasses of Lemonade which was followed by many trips to the bathroom.
My wonderful MOM!!

Share on Facebook

In mid-February Britt and I spent a weekend in Chicago. January 2nd was Britt’s 16th birthday so I decided to take her to a couple concerts and shopping to celebrate.

Day 1
On Friday the 15th of February at around noon we left home for what they call the windy city and believe me it definitely was much colder there than what we left at home. I thought we should leave early so we made it there early enough to check into the hotel and take the train downtown to United Center. Of course I thought there would be restaurants within walking distance of the place, but I was wrong so we ended up eating greasy, not to mention nasty tasting pizza. The place was absolutely huge and luckily there were plenty of guides to show us to our seats. So the guy takes us up to the last row ( I had no idea our seats were in the last row) where there was this huge camera right where our seats were supposed to be. We then proceeded down to the ticket office where they had to reassign us to new seats. Our new seats were now in the 3rd row of our section which was awesome, we were actually close enough to make out who was who on stage. The Spice Girls put on an awesome show by the way.

Our trip back to the hotel was pretty uneventful but absolutely freezing. Luckily the hotel provided a driver to pick us up at the train station anytime we wanted, which mind you was every time since it was -2 degrees at night.

Day 2
Saturday morning we managed to be up, have breakfast and be at the train station by 10:30am for our very busy day of shopping. Britt has never been to Chicago before so we decided to go to the Magnificent Mile to shop. Fortunately the weather was much nicer to us this day, it was a bright sunny day and the temperature was in the mid 30′s.

Sometime around 2pm I convinced her we needed to eat lunch. We found this awesome little Bistro and had very huge hamburgers (so much for my diet).

Afterwards we spent another hour and a half shopping and even managed to stop in at the Hershey store and get the guys at home some chocolate. Back to the train and the hotel to prepare for our evening at the Blue Man Group show.

Back at the hotel we spent about an hour resting our very tired feet then were back off again to the train station. At this point we were finally figuring out how to get around by train and didn’t have to bother practically every poor soul at the stops to figure out which train to get on to which stop to connect to whatever train would get us the closest to our destination. Very confusing but I’m proud to say we didn’t ever take the wrong one anywhere. We managed to make it to Briar Street Theater early enough that we had time to have dinner at this little Mexican restaurant about a block up the street.

Then back to the show. We were in the poncho section which meant we would probably get splattered by something resembling paint or have some sort of food item thrown at us, but we didn’t care. After finding our seats and sitting for about 15 minutes someone from the show asked us if we would mind being part of the show. I wasn’t so sure, but Britt was all for it so she convinced me to agree, so off we were to the back of the theater for the first 20 minutes of the show until they escorted us back to our seats as late arrivals which meant we were on camera and up on the big screen up front so everyone could point and laugh at us. I don’t think she’ll volunteer us for anything like that ever again. I have to say it was the best part of the trip though.

We were so tired by the end of this day I was sure we would pass out once back to our room, but as luck would have it I was not able to get to sleep until well after 2am. Britt on the other hand fell asleep talking to me sometime around 1:30. Luckily for me I have a man who works night shift on the weekend at a very small hospital which wasn’t very busy and was able to text message with me until I was sleepy.

Day 3
On Sunday morning we were up and out of there by 9:30am. The trip home was much shorter than the trip going, thank goodness. Remind me never to drive to Chicago on a Friday ever again. One of the lovely people on the “L” (train) told me that Friday rush hour starts Thursday night and ends Saturday morning. I won’t argue that one ever. So anyhow, the trip home was uneventful, Britt took a short nap and I think I was only honked at a couple of times to drive faster than 75mph on 65 south. I guess there’s no such thing as a speed limit up there.

All in all, we had a blast!!!!!! . . .and can’t wait to do it again.

Share on Facebook

We are so happy to say that someone is finally interested in buying Chris’ house in Anderson. As most of you are aware, he has had that house listed for over a year now and has continued paying that mortgage and began paying half of the one in Paragon last summer so his work week seems endless at times. Matter of fact he is in the middle of a 12 day stretch right now. It will be so nice for him to not have to work as much and to actually have him home more than 2 nights per week.

Our eyes continue to heal after lasik and we are no longer required to use the antibiotic and steroid drops anymore. Speaking for myself, I’m not even noticing very much dry eye symptoms so haven’t really needed the rewetting drops either.

Brittneigh started her new job this week and seems to like it so far. She’s working at Skyline Chili up in Anderson. Now if only Cory would follow suit.

Cade had a very brief illness on Sunday, he had a mild cough and ended up running a fever that night of 102 degrees. By Monday morning he was back to normal, up before Chris was even home from work and playing hard all day.

Share on Facebook