Reese's 5th Birthday

Poor Reese always kinda gets the shaft for her birthday! With it being right after Christmas, everyone is kinda partied out, including us! So unfortunately, we have a tendency to just do something pretty low key for her. Luckily tho, she is perfectly fine with that plan!

This year, the weekend before her birthday, Troy and I took all the girls down to the Quad Cities for an overnight stay in a hotel and a Harlem Globetrotters basketball game. (Or the funny game as Reese calls it!)

Our friends, Janae, Ambria and Camden were able to join us for some swimming time, which was great. (To bad Trent had to be out of town for work!)


The afternoon was a lot of un, aside from a small potential drowning situation w/ Cam! Let me tell ya, someone very special was watching over that little boy. Proof of how taking your eye off a child for 5 seconds could impact the rest of your life. Thank God, Cam was fine....but Janae was a little wet! And after a few beers to stop the shakes, we were still able to enjoy our afternoon!

This was Boo Boo's first time in a pool, and I have a feeling it won't be her last. She loved it. She simply floated around in that yellow thing for about an hour w/o hearing a word from her! Which reminds me exactly of her big sister Lauren. She did the same thing when we took her to the Dells when she was this age.

This was Lauren back in 2004 at the Dells.....

After we got done swimming, we got ready to go get some pizza.

After we ate, Troy & I took Lauren & Reese to the Harlem Globe Trotters game. (Thanks again Janae for watching Paige so we could enjoy the game!)

The girls loved the game. Reese's favorite part was when the guy bent over to get the ball and farted. And Lauren's favorite part was when the guy was shooting a free throw and the other guy pulled his pants down from behind! The whole show was pretty entertaining and I would highly recommend taking your kids if you get a chance.

On Reese's birthday, keeping w/ tradition, we headed to Happy Joe's. Unfortunately, I didn't recognize the window in the background and how horrible my pictures were turning out. This is the only pic I was able to get of her w/ her famous Sundae.

Her she is, all dressed up in her new outfit and boots, ready for her big day at school! Cupcakes proudly made and ready to distribute!

After school, I picked Reese up and I wish I could have captured the look on her face. Her #1 godmother had sent her balloons to school for her big day. When she walked out that door, carrying those balloons, her face was screaming, "Hey everyone, look at me. I'm cool. I know it. I got balloons!" It was priceless! Thanks D, for making her day extra special!

Happy Birthday Reese Olivia! You are beyond one of a kind! I can't wait to see where your personality takes you in life! We love you and hope you had a GREAT 5th Birthday!

The Life of a Teacher

So, Troy is sitting in the kitchen right now correcting tests. I went into the laundry room to start a load of laundry and when I walked out, he was opening up a bottle of wine. Just for the record, we NEVER drink wine. (But we are out of beer, so...)

Anyway, quote of the night:

Me: What are you doing?
Troy: Opening up a bottle of wine, want some?
Me: Um no, I hate wine. Why are you drinking wine?
Troy: Gotta do something to get thru correcting these tests and we're otta beer, so.......!

Ha! Not sure if I should post this or not, but figured, what the heck! He'll be mad tomorrow when he sees this, but I couldn't help myself! You go honey!

Chant w/ me now everyone: Mr. O.....Mr. O......Mr. O!!!!

Hahaha!!!

Christmas 2010

It never seizes to amaze me how fast the Christmas season comes and goes. Months of planning, shopping, decorating and bribing children (yes, I bribe my children), and in the blink of an eye, the holiday season over with!

I think I'm most disappointed this year in how fast it went because both girls finally "got" the Santa thing. It was so fun to watch! Everything from getting the cookies and milk ready for Santa on Christmas Eve, to Lauren claiming she was going to stay up all night so she could talk to the real Santa, not those helper Santa's in the mall! (Note: she made it to 10:15, not to impressive considering we finally were able to get them to bed at 9:50! Good try Lo Lo, maybe next year!)

And most precious, was to watch the older two interact w/ Paige, helping her w/ all her gifts and showing her what Santa brought. Great memory!!!

Santa's Cookie Plate & presents he left:

In keeping with tradition, we went to mass on Christmas Eve and came home to have dinner w/ my parents. Troy's parents usually join us as well, but Terry & Keri were home this year so they stayed at the farm. The girls always get to open 2 presents from Troy and I on Christmas Eve....and Grandma is usually good for a present or two as well (shocker, I know!)

Boo Boo opening up her first Christmas present:

Christmas morning, the girls woke up at the crack of dawn, but had to stay in their room until Paige woke up. If I only could have captured the excitement in a bottle from that room! It was hilarious.

On Christmas day, we headed out to the farm. And with the farm, comes lots of excitement! Try picturing a farm house with 1 bathroom, 11 adults, 10 grandchildren, a kitchen full of food and a mother-in-law bound and determined to RUIN you diet (love ya Marilyn!), cards, board games, sleigh rides behind a 4-wheeler, lottery tickets, presents & more! It's a jam packed day of food and fun and I wouldn't change a thing! (Well maybe one thing, I'd like to be able to wear my fat pants ALL day!)

Godmother of the decade! D and her 4 godchildren!

Who doesn't love a healthy game of King of the Mountain!

New generation sleigh riding. Kids these days, I tell ya! When I was your age....nevermind! Not worth it!

The day after Christmas, we headed north to the Hemann Christmas. On the way home, it was obvious the girls had a great Christmas!

Eric and Dianne weren't able to make it home until the next weekend, New Year's Eve weekend. So we celebrated Christmas w/ the Steger on New Year's Day. (Side note: great motivator to stay sober on New Year's Eve knowing you have a family gathering the next day!) Grandma Cleo was able to join us again this year. She's just about to turn 84 and still kickin like she's....well, maybe 80 or so!

4 Christmas get together over a 8 day period and we only were able to capture ONE family picture! Oh well, at least we got one!


Hope everyone had a great Christmas holiday! I know we did....just went way to fast!

Two Months Wrapped into One

I'm not exactly sure how, but months 7 & 8 seemed to have slipped by rather quickly! I was able to snap the picture, but ran out of time to post them! So here you go, two months wrapped into one!

Between month 6 & 8, this little one went from my baby to my always on the move monster! She started devouring baby food like it's going out of style and before I knew it, all of her clothes were to small!! She loves her sweet potatoes and squash. Peas and green beans still leave a bit to be desired, but she's getting better. At her last doc appointment, she was up to 18 lbs, 4 ounces! She was kinda stuck at 16 lbs for a couple months cause she had an ongoing sinus infection and just wouldn't eat much. But once we got that under control, her appetite went thru the roof! And it's still going!

On a sad note for me, and as hard as I tried to prevent it, Boo Boo started crawling about a week before Christmas. While she's still not to quick on her knees, she still manages to get into everything already! Nothing is safe from this child! And I have a terrible feeling she's going be to be a climber! I totally forgot how much work this was!!!




If you look closely, you'll see how wrinkled the 8 month paper is. It's getting harder and harder each month for her to sit still long enough to snap a picture!

8 months already.....not fair! I got all teary eyed and told Troy the first time I saw her crawling, "No!!! Not fair. Looks like we're just going to have to have one more now!" If I could have captured the look on his face! Ha ha!