Our Christmas

Things have been so busy around here that I am just now getting to the post about Christmas. We had a wonderful day. My parents were in town from South Carolina and my sister from Austin, TX. We all spoiled each other and had such a great time. My favorite gift was my Garmin Nuvi. It is respectably known as Jill and it/she has already gotten us to several places with no trouble at all. Everyone has returned home and we are now enjoying a couple of relaxing days before Dallas returns to work and "life" as we know it continues.

We hope you had a great Christmas!

Cathi

Cookies for Santa

Griffin, his Grammie and Aunt Barbara made cookies for Santa on Christmas Eve. They had a ball and Santa loved them. Need I say more?

There's nothing like a haircut

I don't get my haircut very often. It's actually ridiculous how long I wait in between cuts. I mean, I love the way it looks when I have it done. One reason I usually wait is it takes me forever to find someone I like. Well, back in August I did find a girl here who did an awesome job on my hair. So about 2 weeks ago I called to make an appointment for Friday morning since my parents will be here and they could watch Griffin for me. When I called, they said Stephanie doesn't work on Fridays. "Oh Great!" I thought to myself. But before I could even think, the woman on the phone said but she does work on Wednesday nights and has an opening. PERFECT! So Griffin and I went to the gym this afternoon then Dallas picked him up there and I was able to get my hair cut and highlighted. I had four inches cut off and I love it. Please remind me not to wait so long in between cuts next time! Here's a picture. Remember, it's almost 10pm and I had Dallas snap this with no prep. I don't look so good but my hair does!

Cathi

Too much sugar

Today started out as any other ordinary day. We got up, got dressed and headed down for some breakfast. Then it's always off to the gym. We both love going there so it works out well. After my workout, we went to Kohl's to look for this pesky rug I'd like to get. It was the 4th one I've been to in a week and still no luck. Then I decided to stop at the one McDonald's around town that actually has a playplace. You see, in Texas, they ALL have playplaces - Chick Fil-A, McDonald's, Burger King - take your pick. Here in Illinois, there are hardly any. So I have the usual - grilled Southwest Salad (it's very good, by the way) and Griffin has his usual - Nuggets and a soda. Well, it's not just an ordinary soda. It's a splash of Root Beer, then some Sprite, then a little Coke then topped off with a little orange. It looks gross and I'm sure tastes gross, but he loves it. After a couple of those, he's bouncing off the walls. And I guess it doesn't help things that two of his good friends, Emily and Madalyn, are over for a couple of hours. They just had some popcorn for a snack and I insisted they have water and/or milk with it. Maybe that will help the sugar wear off!! Can you *hear* how loud it is in my house?

Cathi

Don't let the sunshine fool you!

We had a snow storm last night that dumped a lot of snow throughout the Midwest. We were lucky enough to only get about 3 inches. This is a perfect amount for sledding. And look how sunny it is. What a great day! Oh, wait a minute! Is that a breeze I feel? Oh wait. I think that's a WIND, not just a breeze. Oh, and the thermometer shows a temperature of 16 degrees. And the weather man said the wind was gusting up to 20 MPH. I wonder what that makes the wind chill factor? All I know is, I showed up at the sled hill for about 3 minutes to snap a few pictures of Griffin and Dallas and I was outta there. It was FREEZING!! They last about 45 minutes! I just fixed them a big cup of hot chocolate with lots of mini marshmallows and they are cuddling under a blanket on the couch watching football! What a great Sunday afternoon in Illinois.

Optimistic

Griffin has a different letter of the alphabet every week at school. They learn several words that start with the letter. This is the conversation we had today on the way home from school.

Griffin: "Mommy, our letter person is Ms. O. She is optimistic."
Me: "Oh you're right. Do you know what optimistic means?"
Griffin: "Yes Mommy. Mrs. Nicholson said optimistic means when you're walking down the street and you fall down and scrape your knee you JUMP up and say, "I'm ok and keep on going. That's optimistic."

I guess he's right!
Cathi

SNOW!!!

BURRR! We had about 6 inches of snow on Tuesday. Dallas was out of town (in Puerto Rico, no less) so Griffin and I headed out to shovel the driveway. It's actually something I don't mind doing however, my lower back has been hurting and after shoveling, I think it's completely thrown out of whack. Most of you know that I like to work out a lot. I took yesterday off and rested. But today I headed to the gym and did the recumbent bike for 30 minutes and treadmill for 15. It didn't hurt my back too much. The reward was a nice long soak in the hot tub. It's feeling a bit better now.

Cathi

Stepometer

Yup, you read that correctly - STEPOMETER.

Griffin has this fascination with my pedometer. It was on my dresser a week or so ago and he decided it was the coolest thing ever. He's been wearing it everywhere and showing it to anyone who will look. He did the 3210 steps while at the gym this morning. He knows the more he runs around and the less he sits at the computer, the higher the number on his stepometer. He got it up to 17510 the other day - by not resetting it for two days. Smart kid.

The Christmas Show

This afternoon was the Little Shepard Preschool's Christmas show. Griffin's class has been practicing for nearly two months. They did a wonderful job. Griffin was standing in the middle of the top row - so in other words, front and center. He told me he was very nervous and handled it by pulling down his eyelid and sticking out his tongue. I tried to get a picture but the lighting was so terrible in the sanctuary that I never got one. He did manage to sing a little and had a great time with his friends. We had a big cookie party afterwards and that was his favorite part!

I have a short video to add but I'm still working out the technical difficulities. I'm going to have to enlist the help of my sister-in-law, Jennifer for this!

Please pray for a classmate's dad, Richard, who is very sick in the hospital. Richard and his wife Alex, have 4 boys under 6 years old. Thank you!

Cathi

Oh the weather outside is frightful . . . .

but we ventured out anyway. It started to snow about Noon today. An inch or so fell before is changed over to sleet. And now it's just been raining for the past couple of hours. We were anxious to see how the roads would be since Dallas and I actually had a date night planned. One of our first in many months. Our friends the Veenstra's were lined up to watch Griffin for us. Well, we headed out at 3:30 and it was slow going. We made it to their house fine. They only live a block away from the mall so it was great. The mall was not crowded at all. We were able to get some shopping done and not have to fight the crowds. We were going to eat dinner at the mall but the only sit down place they have is Ruby Tuesdays so we went just down the road a bit to Keywester Restaurant for some great seafood.

And now we are home in our flannels with the heat going all just hanging out. Life is good.

Cathi

It's Bowling Time!

We took Griffin bowling for the first time while we were in Texas. We had a blast. He did so great and loved it. I think he might be a natural. He got at least one strike and one spare!

And as you can see from the score, he beat me and our friend Meagan in the second game. Dallas said I played "good Mommy bowling." In other words, it was nice of me to let Griffin beat me. Truth be told, he did it completely honestly! I stink at bowling.

Two is better than one

Another great part of our trip was getting to spend time with our nieces. We have four - Brooke, Charlotte, Ruby and Eliza. The ones pictured below are Ruby and Eliza. They are 17 months old. The last time we saw them they were about 9 months old. They are very adorable kiddos and have been such a blessing to our family. They weathered SeaWorld for 7 hours with hardly a complaint.

When we went to one of the shows at SeaWorld, Ruby was lucky enough to sit with her big brother, Rehm and big sister, Charlotte and her cousin, Griffin. We had just bought them (the big kids) cotton candy and popcorn for a snack. So Miss Ruby was able to eat both of those things for the very first time. She was happy as a clam. Meanwhile, her sister, Eliza was with her Papa on another row and didn't get to experience these wonderful treats!

This was them watching some of the big kids (and their parents) on a water ride. They had 3 of their 4 grandparents there to help supervise.

Ruby Caroline

Eliza Claire

A week in Austin, Texas!!

So much to tell you about! I hated not being able to blog while I was away however, I didn't have my laptop or my cord to the camera to upload photos. The highlight of our trip was our adventure to SeaWorld on Monday. It was a beautiful 80+ degrees and we headed out in 2 mini-vans with 12 people for our drive down to San Antonio. We had a blast and had the entire park to ourselves. Not really but there was hardly a soul there. We could go on a ride, hop off and over the ropes and jump in line to get on the very next time. I haven't been on a rollercoaster in years and managed to get on one twice. It was great. I chose to be the official photographer while the crew went on the Rio Loco. Here's a picture or two to see why I didn't go on it!







There are many other things to write about with regards to the week and I'll add them to a separate entry.

Cathi

TEXAS - Here we come!

We are leaving in the morning for Austin, Texas for a week! We are all looking forward to spending some time with family. It's 11am and not a single thing has been packed yet. I am the world's best procrastinator. And we are having 8 people over tonight for our growth group and dessert. Do you think I've cleaned yet? Nope. I've got ALL afternoon!

After waking up to 25 degree temps we are really looking forward to the 70+ degree days that await us in Austin!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Indian Griffin

It today's world of political correctness, I wasn't sure if "indian" was still an approved word or not. But at Griffin's school the letter of the week is "I" and they have been learning about indians. I guess it's still ok to say. Well, here's my little indian. He made his get-up at school today. Griffin is an "I expert" because he has TWO "I's" in his name. Oh, to be in Pre-K again. . . . .

Cathi

Holiday Dinner

There was an amazing Holiday Dinner at my church last night. There were over 300 women in attendance. The evening is catered and included spinach salad, chicken with polenta and an awesome pumpkin bread pudding for dessert. The even is held each year to raise money for a women's shelter in our town. We collected over $3500 last night! Hopefully, this will be a true blessing to the shelter.

Each table is hosted by a member of our church and they are responsible for decorating them. Each one was more beautiful then the next. Who knew there were so many creative people out there. My table host, Alyshia did an awesome job decorating and hosting our table.

We also had a demonstration from the chef herself on how to make the pumpkin bread pudding. I think I'll have to try it over the holidays. It's NOT a Weight Watchers friendly dessert, that's for sure. I think everyone went away from the dinner feeling like they were in the holiday spirit and ready to do a little entertaining for themselves.

Cathi

Texas A&M v. Univ. of Missouri

We were lucky enough to have a trip planned to Columbia, Missouri to watch the Texas Aggies take on the Missouri Tigers in a great football game. The first 3 quarters were actually good and the Aggies were within 5 points with 9 minutes to go in the 4th and unfortunately ended up losing 40-26. We had an awesome time. Everyone we met - Aggies and Mizzou fans alike, were so friendly and happy to be enjoying the football weekend.

Helene and Dallas met us there. They drove up from Austin. We had a nice time together and enjoyed doing one of our favorite past times together - watching Aggie football. There was a Christmas craft show at our hotel that Helene and I made sure to attend before we went to the game. I was able to get a couple of presents and see some very nice things.

At exactly 3 minutes and 46 seconds into the game Griffin leaned over to me and said, "Mommy, I'm ready to go now!" I just had to crack up. Ummm, we drove nearly 7 hours to go to this game and we are NOT leaving now. He did great once he took a walk and had some food. He experienced "Dippin Dots" for the first time and loved them.

The weather was perfect. It had been so cold in Chicago the prior few days that I had packed hats, gloves, scarves and long-johns. We ended up with just long sleeves and an Aggie t-shirt with our fall coats. We even saw several students in shorts and t-shirts.

It was a 6.5 hour drive for us through the very FLAT Illinois. When we crossed over the Mississippi River into Missouri we got to enjoy the last of the fall colors and some rolling hills. We had a great family weekend.

Cathi

What to do on a cold Chicago afternoon??

Well, the sun was shining and the wind wasn't blowing too bad so I decided to plant some bulbs. I got a bag of 100 pink tulips about a month ago from Costco and they've been sitting in the garage waiting to be planted. Today I made a trip to Costco and guess what? The bags of bulbs were on clearance for $2.00. Being one who would NEVER pass up a good deal, I purchased another bag of 50 bulbs. Dallas was already not excited about planting the first 100 so I thought I better take matters into my own hands. I got on my winter coat and a scarf and bundled up Griffin and outside we go. Well, the ground was hard as a rock, not frozen, but hard. I got about 35 bulbs in the ground in two areas and called it quits. In the meantime, our neighbor came over to play with Griffin. After about 10 minutes the kids said, "can we play inside?" I said sure and when I let them in, check the thermometer . It was THIRTY-EIGHT degrees!!!! No wonder they wanted to go inside!

Cathi

An afternoon at the Prairie Forest Preserve

Not too far from our house is an awesome prairie forest preserve. We spent most of Sunday afternoon exploring. It was a beautiful fall day. Griffin found a stream to throw rocks and sticks into. And of course, we had to play his favorite game - "hide and go seek." It was a little hard to play seeing that we were in an enormous open field with prairie grass as the only thing to hide in/between.

Griffin decided he needed to take some pictures while we were there. The picture of Dallas and I was his first shot. Pretty good if you ask me.

I never have a picture taken of just me but Dallas snapped one yesterday. My mom made me the scarf for Christmas last year and I love it. This was my first time to wear it this fall. It was about 50 degrees out and really beautiful.

This is what Griffin looked like after about an hour of playing in the creek. He was making "Mud, bark, stick, seaweed stew." That got us talking about the book Button Soup. He decided that we needed to make button soup sometime this week. And he even asked, "how will it taste if you only put a button in it?" We had to remind him of what else was put into the soup. Maybe I'll read him that book again tonight when he goes to bed.

Cathi

Can I really be a blogger?

I've been contemplating doing this for a while now. I guess it's time. It seems I am emailing more pictures to friends/family lately. Maybe creating a blog and sharing the pictures this way is a better way to do it.

What are the odds that I would get Dallas to share here as well? Heck, what are the odds that he'd even look at this?

I know I'm not a very good writer so it may be really boring. And we lead a pretty average (insert, boring) life right now so I don't know if there will be much exciting news posted. At least my mom will get a kick out of it.

Cathi