Gram

Gram passed away this morning. I told Jake that she went to Heaven to be with Gramp. He said that he was sad and that he would miss her, but now she and Gramp could be "togeder".

Children's Christmas Party

Work held a Christmas party for it's employees children. We had a great time! Each child had a chance to sit on Santa's and tell him their Christmas wish; they each received a Melissa and Doug puzzle. Before the party Jakob was only interested in the gift and not meeting with Santa..thankfully, he changed his mind. He did comment at the craft table "I wonder who is under the costume?!". The children enjoyed cookies and milk and holiday crafts.

Kaleb staring at Santa

Brothers~ December

He's One

Our little baby turned one today! We celebrated with Nana and Grammy by having pizza for dinner and of course cake for dessert! Kaleb wasn't too thrilled with the ckae, but LOVED the frosting. His favorite gifts were the Thomas laptop and Thomas ride on.

Larry

Larry passed away this morning. He and I have worked together for a few years now. He was such an awesome guy and had a great sense of humor! He always had a smile on his face, even during times of frustration. I had the joy of starting my day with him saying "Good Morning Jenn" and "Oh hello!" through out the day....I will miss that. He loved to ask about the kids, especially "Baby Bobo".

Christmas is only a few weeks away

Not much time these days to make scrapbook pages and post, so here are a few pics since from the last 2 weeks.

Missy and Luc came over to bake XMAS cookies this past Sunday. What a great time! I think Jake enjoyed eating the frosting and sprinkles the most and Lucas loved eating the ones he had decorated!

Lucas and one of his cookies

Jakob and Missy making sugar cookies

We decorated the house for the holidays Thanksgiving weekend. The first thing Jake does when he wakes up in the morning is turn on the tree and all of the XMAS lights downstairs (he even has some in his room in place of a night light).

I found the antlers and nose (it blinks when you have it on).

This Saturday morning on our way out for coffee, it was snowing (the second snow of the season..it actually lasted a few hours)...here is Jake trying to catch snow flakes on his tongue.

I was able to do 95% of my shopping Friday night and only going to 2 stores. Finished up making our cards..just waiting on Shutterfly to print and send; also finished projects for the Grandparents. This week won't be as busy as the last or the upcoming weeks. We will be celebrating Kaleb's first birthday (just having cake with the Grandparents) this week and Grampy's the following. The next two weekends we will be busy with holiday celebrations (my work is having a party for the kids..along with Santa; and a Charlie Brown Christmas). On the 10th, I will be heading to VT for work..unfortunately, no play. Then before you know it, Christmas will be here.

Can't wait for Christmas morning!

Happy Thanksgiving

The temperature outside read 73 degrees as the turkey was being cooked in the fryar. It was warm and beautiful out!

My brother arrived early and my parents were late. I did most of the cooking this year as I didn't want anyone in "my kitchen"..hahaha...and my Mom was able to relax for once! Kaleb enjoyed a little bit of everything for his first Thanksgiving meal....Jake at a few things..Shawn ate hardly anything.

After dinner, everyone relaxed; I had the house put back together by 3 p.m. Nana came after 5 for dessert and leftovers. She and Kaleb enjoyed a little nap.

*click the yellow person in the lower left hand corner of the slideshow, then click on the album name for a larger view

Charlie Brown Thanksgiving Festival

Missy, Scott, and Luc came along for the Thanksgiving Festival held at my parents church. We had fun: they had a fresh popped popcorn table; a toast table with all of the "fixings"; food and refreshments; games (one game was turkey bowling in which you had to use a turkey as a bowling ball), crafts, and raffles; and pictures with Charlie Brown and Snoopy!




More pictures will be posted on Shutterfly..

Family~ Kevin and Shawn

Brothers~ November

Halloween

The kids both have more Halloween pictures on their pages.

We had to wake Jakob up to go Trick or Treating, otherwise he would have missed it! After dinner we visited our neighbors and then headed through town on foot. We went to new houses and some old- a few people over at Cathcart Commons remembered Jake! We walked around for about an hour..Jakob couldn't even carry his pumpkin it was so full. He ran into a classmate even! He loved going door to door, but we had to remind him a few times what to say because he was so excited. He even commented on the architecture of some of the houses by saying "I love your house!". Kaleb was dressed up like Pooh and Daddy was his driver for the night. He was really good, not a peep out of him. Of course when we headed back down our road, Jake wanted to keep on going!

Romp in the Park: Part 2~ Simonzi Park

Romp in the park: Part 1

This afternoon Jake and I met Nana at Hyde to see the Kids Circus (click link above to check them out). We made it to intermission (an hour in) and then Jake had a melt down. We ended up leaving.

After headed to the orchard for cider, we went to St. Mary's Cemetery to walk around and take photographs. Jakob shares in my love of cemeteries. It was chilly today and previous winds had knocked over ornaments and potted flowers, so he helped pick them up for the ones "buried under there". He is curious to know their names, and tries to "read" them- he has come close a few times.

My Fall Line Up

I thought about doing a Fall line up for Todd..but it would take forever! All I have to say is thank God for Tivo.

Brothers~ October

The Great Pumpkin Festival

Today my parents church held a pumpkin festival for the community. It was a great afternoon and the weather was perfect. Here are 2 pictures from the day..the rest can be viewed at our Shutterfly account. Enjoy!

Todd Stewart

Todd decided to upholster Jakob's chair as it was ripped on the bottom. Came out pretty nice.

Mai Ling, Mai Ling

Grammy and Grampy have a new puppy! A 4 month old Pug named Mai Ling. She is so cute, cuddly, and loves to give kisses! She snuggled right up to me and took a nap.

Jorge's Visit

Jorge came to visit from Mexico for Jaime's wedding and is staying the week for work. He came over for dinner tonight. He brought some nice presents, including a Dora Chutes and Ladders game- all in Spanish!

Nine Years Ago

We have made it this far with no major snags and I hope for many more wonderful years. We are happy, even though we get to each other at times. We are both not on the career paths that we would like, but what we hope to do will come in time. We are not living in that nice big house like we had wanted, but we make it work. We have debt like most, and that will clear sooner rather than later. We have 2 beautiful, happy boys that are the light of our lives. We have a plan, and in a few years we will be living our dream.

We celebrated with dinner at Manny's while my Mom watched the boys. The food was delicious. We donot have many recent pictures of just the two of us, I found a few of my favorites from "years ago" and scrapped them. Almost all of the kits used were created in honor of the "Think Pink" campaign for Breast Cancer Awareness (month of October).