HAPPY BIRTHDAY KRISTEN!!!!!a little late

Our Kristen is 13 years old. She's officially a teenager and loves the sound of that. I can tell you she's been acting like one for at least the last two years anyway. She is still in band and orchestra which she enjoys and I see no sign of stopping anytime soon. Hannah Montanna and High School Musical have started to fade away a bit and the Jonas Brothers are the current craze with her and her friends. She has been a strait A studen all this year and we are very proud of her for that! She is still in girl scouts and is on track to earn her silver award by the end of summer. She has grown up so much and it's hard to believe in 5 short years she'll be going off to college and be on her own.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Well it's that time of year again and our little angels had a blast. Eric took them out trick or treating along with my sister Melissa and her son Eli. They did a lot of walking, well kind of wagons were involved but still from our house down past my Dad's and over to Leon and Maries house and back that is a lot! We now have 3 huge bags of candy that will probably last us until Easter when the vicious cycle will start again with Easter candy and then summer parade candy. It's a wonder any of my children have teeth left. Now it's time to start our Christmas shopping which is exciting and scary all at the same time.

IN LOVING MEMORY

Today is the anniversary of my Mother's passing. It feels like it has been much much longer, it has been an emotional year. I never imagined that I would be going through life without the help of my Mom this early in my life. On almost a daily basis I find myself with a question I would have liked to ask her or wondering how she would have done something. I have tried to fill her shoes as much as I can where I can with my children, making birthday cakes and sewing halloween costumes has been difficult but much easier than trying to share her love and wisdom. Anyway I love my Mom and I will always miss her and I wish with all my heart I could do something to bring her back. I love you Mom.

The Windy City

A couple of weeks ago now we went to Illinois for my cousin Liz's wedding. We had some bumps in the road because we were sick on the drive up there but we had a good time. We took the kids to the Brookfield Zoo and saw the dolphins, which was just terrific! We did not realize how pink her bellies are. The kids got to the the spectacle bears like on Diego which was just so exciting for them. The hotel we stayed at was very nice and it was where a lot of my family was staying and that was nice. We got to have breakfast together and we took the kids swimming. The wedding was of course beautiful. It was outdoors and you could not have imagined a more perfect weather. Christopher and Eli put on a show while we waited for the wedding to start and at the reception all of the kids danced and sang and were quite the life of the party. Monday before we left we went into Chicago and hit Navy Pier. Our fun was hampered because it decided to rain while we were there. They do however have a very cool stained glass museum we went through and we did a little shopping. We also went way down to the end of the pier to get pictures of the lighthouse. Christopher was ridding on my back and at one point fell asleep on my back. It was pretty funny, I'm sure, watching me walk around bent in half with him on my back. We got home late Monday night we were exhausted but it was worth it.

Camera work-out

Today we went to the zoo. One reason was to get the kids out and active. The other reason was to give my new camera a work out. It was sooooo fun. I took about 500 pictures. I narrowed it down when we got home to 350. The kids had a ton of fun climbing on everything and feeding the fish. Kristen had a bit of a teenage I'm too cool for this tude going on but even she had some moments of fun. All of the kids ran through the sprinkler they had going and then played in the fountains a bit but Christopher got soaking wet. We go on vacation to my cousins wedding near Chicago this weekend and I cannot wait to use my camera again. We plan to visit the Brook Field zoo there. I am excited about that because they have dolphins!

Love it!

Eric got me a new camera yesterday. It is very fancy by my standards probably not in general by DSLR standards. I am loving it though. It's fast and the zoom lens is awsome and I have done pretty much nothing but take pictures for the last two days. I cannot wait to take it to Chicago this next weekend! I'll post a few of the pictures I took and you can tell me what you think.

School Begins!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Alissa and Kristen have both started school. This is Alissa's first real school year as a kindergartner. She has been loving it. She loves her teacher and her new friends although she is not very good with names so I can't share that with you. She did tell me there are 2 other girls in her class with the same shoes and that automatically made them friends. I am confident that she will have a great year. I did not get as emotional this time as I did when Kristen started kindergarten of course Alissa did not try to kick me out of the room either. I did get a little choked up when on the 3rd day she wanted to walk into the school herself like a big girl. She's so grown up. This is Kristen's second year at the middle school so she has an idea of what to expect. She has a friend of mine's husband as a teacher so she better behave herself. She has already started some of her extra activities. Choir, volleyball. So she's off and running and having a good time. She was very excited to find her best friend is on her team and even has a class with her this year. So she just can't wait to get to school in the morning. During the nice weather she rides her bike and she loves that also.