Christmas Party #1 - Check!

We had our first Christmas party this Sunday with Bryan's parents and siblings. We were supposed to go up to Grant, but the weather changed our plans, and we had the party at our house. We had our traditional primbe rib dinner and opened gifts. Our main gift was the trip to GWL, but we got some more gifts to open. Thanks, John and Kathy, for the great Christmas! You are always way too generous! So now one Christmas celebration is done, only 4 to go!

Playing with my new camera!

This one is Travis at his school party. He made this "Christmas tree" out of an ice cream cone, green frosting, and marshmallows.

Bryan bought me a new camera for my birthday, and it has finally arrived in the mail! I still cannot believe he got me the PINK one that I wanted! What a good husband. These are just some shots of my kids as I tried to figure it out!

GWL 2008

Grandma Kathy with the kiddos

Always drama trying to get all the kids to pose!

Sadie was wiped out from the water park!

Still not sure how much fun Uncle Nick had.... he did enjoy the impromtu visit to the casino though!

Best buddies Payton and Rylee enjoyed the lazy river!

Bryan, Travis, and Bailey too!!

Noah was awesome at crossing the lilly pads.... Ask Nick how that worked out for him!!!

Grandma Kathy helped Tyson jump across!!

My 3 kids

Here are the kids attacking Aunt Stacey!

Grandpa John, Rylee, and Trav knocking at the Thorpe's door

Grandpa John tucking Tyson into bed!

Bryan is checking out what's on TV!

Goodnight Trav!

Goodnight Rylee and Tyson!

Did they make this wall for jumping? That's what my kids think it's for!

Tyson and Grandpa eating some dinner!

Travis and Noah

Sadie enjoyed crawling all over the hotel room and eating leftover crumbs from dinner!

The girls eating dinner

Taking a picture with the wolf!

Another wolf....

And everyone has the picture with this big bear!

Grandma Kathy and Tyson

Another classic picture!

Well you all have Aunt Sharon to thank for nagging me all the time to add new posts! Last Sunday we went to The Great Wolf Lodge! Bryan's mom and dad took the entire family there this year for our Christmas present. We had a really, really fun time! All 15 of us went! We piled into 2 vehicles and drove up to T.C. Once we got there, we all had lunch at the McDonald's right across the street from the Lodge. Then we found our rooms (Kathy and John and Stacey and Nick all stayed in the "Majestic Bear Suite." It was very nice!) and immediately went to the water park. After a few hours, we all had a delicious sloppy joe dinner in Kathy's room. Everyone brought snack food and treats, so it turned out to be a yummy meal. Then after dinner we headed down to the game room. Next we went to the lobby for story time. They even made it snow in the lobby, which was just beautiful! I have never been to GWL at Christmas time before, and WOW, I just loved it. It was so cozy and the Christmas decorations were amazing. After the kids were tucked into bed, the adults played some card games. After I drank almost a half of a gallon of Strawberry Margarita, some of us decided to head out to the casino. It was a Sunday night, so it was dead there, but still a lot of fun! I won nothing, Nick won nothing, Stacey won nothing, but of course John and Kathy each won over a hundred bucks! They were kind enough to share some of their winnings with us, including treating us ALL to the breakfast brunch buffet the next morning! I cannot say enough about how much fun we had. It is rare for the entire family to be together! Nothing is better than seeing my kids have fun, and they just LOVE it there! It was definitely a Christmas gift to remember! And thank God we made it home safely.... I never remember being in white-out conditions like that! Thanks again to Kathy and John for such a wonderful Christmas gift!

The Grandkids

My sister took some pictures of the kids for some possible gift ideas for my dad for Christmas. Here are some of her shots!

Advent by Candlelight

This was our table, decorated by my mom.

Megan (my best friend) and me

My sister-in-law Jessica, me, my sister Maria, and Maria's MIL Pat

On Friay night my church had their first "Advent by Candlelight." This was such a WONDERFUL evening. It is for ladies only! Each table was decorated by the table sponsor, and then each table provided an appetizer, dessert, salad, and fruit/vegetable for the buffet. We walked around and looked at all the tables, and they were just amazing. People used their finest china, and the centerpieces were all so interesting and gorgeous! We enjoyed wine, great food, beautiful music, and the company of some very special women. If anyone has any tie to OLC in any way, I highly recommend coming to this event next year. It is so worth it to take some time, slow down in this crazy month, and really appreciate the true meaning of Christmas!!

Sorry for the lack of blogger updates....

but once again, I lost my stupid (as Tyson says, "no say poo-pid") camera. Every time I lose it, it always comes back to me though. And sure enough, it has been found. I took it up to Kathy's last weekend for Thanksgiving, and it got lost somewhere in her house. So I got no pictures of Thanksgiving, and the camera is still up in Grant, so I cannot take new pictures! Sorry! It is my pet peeve when people do not update their blog regularly, and now I am guilty! I hate my piece of junk camera too. None of the buttons work on it, so you can't zoom, delete, or look at any of the pictures from the camera. Junk! We will have to get a new one before we go on our CRUISE in 4 short months! CANNOT WAIT!!!!!!!!!

Nothing new and exciting around here. I am still looking to fill one daycare spot. It is very stressful to be short on money right before the holidays. I've had a few interviews, but everyone seems to live on the opposite side of Rockford as me and no one wants to drive so far! I don't blame them! I am sure it will all work out, as it always does.

We got the world's ugliest Christmas tree last weekend! I saw a sign for Christmas trees for only 30 bucks, so we went there. It turns out this was not a real Christmas tree farm though! It was a guy who has a big field of huge pine trees. He will cut off the tops of these huge trees. I just couldn't bare to tell the guy the trees were ugly, so we just picked one out. I didn't realize exactly how ugly it was until we got it home. It looks TERRIBLE! I wish I could take it down now! But it's a memory I guess! The kids think it's great, and that's all that matters. :)

I am looking forward to the next few weekends and all the Christmas parties! Today my sister is coming over to bake Christmas cookies! :) I love all this snow (for now) and the Christmas spirit is in the air! Happy Holidays to all!!!! Hopefully new pictures will be posted soon!