Long post today . . .

I had big plans today to get all updated with everything that went on in the last week, but Blogger isn't allowing posts with photos right now.
Sorry.

Blogger finally is cooperating with me . . .
Emily's birthday was Saturday, December 6 and she had a great birthday weekend. On Friday, she brought cupcakes to school and celebrated with her friends. She wore her fun birthday hat and got a button and a book from school.
Saturday, we decorated cookies with Bailey at Carol's house. The kids had to much decorating and playing. We had a great time with them, but Emmy and Louie really missed Carol's husband George.
On Sunday, she had her birthday party and she was all about the party! It was really fun and she received so many awesome presents. She is really being a great big sister and sharing them with Louie too.

The Holidazzle that wasn't

We planned to go to the Holidazzle Parade last night, Elmo and Grover were the Grand Marshall's. On Wednesday, when we went to visit with Santa Clause, Emily started complaining that her ear hurt and everything was too loud. Uh oh, she's getting an ear infection. Well, I put the magic drops in her ear to ease the pain and gave her some Tylenol. She said that she felt fine.
On Thursday, she woke up with a bad cough that was so bad, she threw up from coughing. So, she stayed home from school and rested yesterday. Bottom line, no Holidazzle last night. She's going to the doctor today to get checked out. Clearly she's got an upper respitory infection. Emily is so susceptible to upper respitory infections, I'm sure that is due to lung development when she was born. They assured us that she was fully developed when she was born (6 weeks early), but something tells me that she might have another side effect of that. . . .
anyhow, the FAO Schwarz catalog came in the mail today and Louie was in heaven! he sat in the chair studying the catalog trying to figure out what he wanted for Christmas. The kids watched "The Polar Express" again today, new favorite (what's not to like about that movie, I love it!)and when Santa was on, he asked him again to bring some Thomas socks. There was a page in the catalog that has a picture of Santa on it and he pointed and said, "Santa, please please bring some new Thomas socks!" (if anyone knows where I can find some Thomas socks, please let me know!!!)

A visit with Santa Plause

I took the day off yesterday and we made out annual trip down to Marshall Field's (I hate that it is now Macy's!) to see the Christmas display and visit with Santa.
Emily and Louie both have an understanding of the Santa Clause thing this year. However, they call him Santa Plause, instead of Santa Clause.
What a great time! We got there at 9:30am (FYI, that is the time to get there, NO ONE there) and met Sara and Charlotte. We walked through "A Day in the Life of an Elf" and then went right in to visit with Santa. We have been talking to the kids about what they would like Santa to bring for them . . . Louie wants new "Thomas the Tank Engine" socks (his old ones are too small and we told him that we gave them to Baby Lorenzo) and Emily would like a doll house with furniture and a family in it. So, we got in to see Santa and Louie asked him for the socks, etc. Well, there was a misunderstanding because he thought that Santa would be giving him the socks right then and there. Needless to say, he had a complete meltdown when he didn't leave with socks!
Emily loved seeing Santa and gave him a huge hug and kiss when we left.
After our turn, Charlotte had her turn on Santa's lap. She wanted no part of sitting on Santa's lap. She didn't scream or cry, but she kept shaking her head NO! whenever Santa held out his hands to hold her. So, Sara sat next to him with Charlotte in her lap.
We're 4-0 in the freaking out with Santa department. No pictures of crying babies with Santa.
After, we went up to the 12th floor to the Skyroom and had lunch. Louie was in HEAVEN, there was watermelon on the salad bar.
I'll post pictures later. I was too tired last night to upload them.

We were going to head down to the Holidazzle Parade because Elmo and Grover are the Grand Marshall's tonight, but Emily is home sick from school today. She "spilled" this morning before she got dressed. Maybe Louie and I will come down by ourselves, we'll see . . .

Very exciting news . . . .

or potential news . . . . for Dan's division 3 college reffing crew: if Mount Union (Ohio) defeats Wheaton College (Illinois) on Saturday, Dan's crew just found out they will be the officiating crew for the 2008 Amos Alonzo Stagg Bowl in Salem, Virginia on December 20, 2008. The Stagg Bowl is the national championship for the division 3 football!

It will be broadcast on ESPN2 at 10:00am CT.

I know nothing about either team, but GO MOUNT UNION!!!

Happy Birthday Emily!

It's hard to believe that 4 years ago, Emily was born . . . time flies!
Here's a recap of Emily on her birthday:
I look back at this picture from when she was born and can't believe that she was that little when she was born. She was born 6 weeks premature and still weighed in at 6lbs 13 ozs. She would have been a jumbo baby, just like her brother if she'd arrived on her due date!

These are a few of my favorite things. . .

With the Christmas season in full swing, I have to share a few of my favorite things. Candy cane Joe-Joe's are so delicious, if you have never had one get to Trader Joe's STAT and get yourself a box and maybe a separate box for your loved ones at home or sitting in the cart wondering what they are. Cranberry Lime Sierra Mist really needs no explanation. It isn't available in enough places and in cans in diet form. Ugh, but I'll take what I can get. Love it.
Chocolate crinkle cookies, delicious! and my beautiful vintage Rudolph cookie jar. The December that Emily was born our next door neighbor was nearing the end of his battle with cancer. He gave me that cookie jar as a thank you for taking him to the ER in the middle of the night and staying there with him (while I had a 3 week old newborn at home). I love this cookie jar and even though he was a crabby man, I have fond memories of him when I look at it.








We haven't put out tree up yet, but will sometime this weekend. But first, we've got a birthday party to throw for the birthday girl!!!

Thankful

We had a really great Thanksgiving weekend. On Thursday we drove up to Larsmont, a couple of miles south of Two Harbors.





We hit the road around 10am on Thanksgiving Day and got there a little after 1pm. We had to stop for lunch in Hinkley and there was NOTHING open. Louie was ready to get the heck out of dodge. He found these beach sunglasses and didn't take them off the whole way there. He loves wearing them.


We had a delicious Thanksgiving dinner with my mom, and all of the Tapio's. Elsie and Melvin were leaving on Saturday for Texas, it was nice to see them before they go. Emily was sitting down next to her Auntie M and learned the proper way to eat olives.

On Friday, the Tapio's went to El and Mel's place to celebrate Christmas. While they were gone, the cookie baking began. I think we baked a total of 125 dozen cookies on Friday and Saturday. CRAZY!

Before we left on Sunday afternoon, I walked down to the lake and took a few pictures. This picture is straight out of the camera. It was pretty cool.

We put up out Christmas lights before we left, it was nice to come home to them on, the house looked so nice.

Last night, "Shrek the Halls" was on. Our kids LOVE Shrek, we don't watch it too much because there was a lot of "shut up donkey" being yelled in our house . . . but Louie had to wear his glasses while he watched it.

We're getting ready for cookie decorating with my friends from St. Kate's on Saturday. It was so much fun last year.
Then we have Emily's birthday party at Grandma's house on Sunday. Another busy week!

Busy weekend . . .

My photography class is going great! I love it! We didn't even talk about anything technical last week, but there were some great questions by others on the Q&A board that prompted me to try some new things. . . . amazing!!! my indoor photos don't look like we live in a home of chain smokers anymore. I can't even believe that one little touch of a button could change the total appearance of a picture. I also figured out how to take a picture with our new lens and not need a flash, also make a huge difference.
We're starting on photo composition this week. Can't wait. My CF card reader isn't working so I don't have any pictures to post right now. Hopefully, tonight I'll have some.
Emily and I made cookie dough all day on Saturday. We made six different batches of dough. She stood on her chair and helped me. It was funny, she kept telling me that she needed to take a taste? I'm not big on cookie dough, wonder where she gets that from . . .
She is too funny with some of the stuff that she comes up with. Yesterday, Ted went outside while we were having breakfast. I said, it's so cold outside he's going to freeze out there. Emily said "Teddy is going to freeze his berries and they'll fall off, his nuts and berries will freeze."
I burst out laughing. Remembering that I had told Ted the day earlier (when I thought no one was listening) to hurry up outside or he'd freeze his heiny.
Also on the agenda yesterday, get the outside lights up! It wasn't really cold yesterday so it was tolerable. Dan and I got everything done. I took a picture and they look great! I'll try and post that later too.

Today is the day!

The Photographers' Workshop begins today!
I'm sure you figured that out, since the countdown timer is complete. Of course, Blogger won't cooperate and let me delete it from our blog, so you get to look at it until I can get that fixed.
I have been anxiously awaiting the start of the class. I'm certain that you'll notice an immediate improvement in the quality of my photos! (wink)

Yesterday, we celebrated Dan's birthday. Emily and Louie went upstairs and woke him up (he had a bad cold all weekend) and screamed "happy birthday" in his ear. They were very excited to celebrate. We had a Butter Braid for breakfast. I would have taken pix, but you don't need to see the bathrobe that I sort of regret giving to him for Christmas a few years back. Let's just say that he LOVES to wear it when he's not feeling well . . .
The kids and I spent a good part of the morning outside getting all the assorted winter greens in the urn on the front step and in the window boxes. They look so nice and ready for winter. I love getting ready for Christmas decorating. We'll put the lights out next weekend . . . can't wait!
Later in the afternoon, we went to the annual remembrance service at Assumption. It is held to remember all in the parish who have died in the last year. It was a lovely service. Of course, I got sad and emotional when my Dad's name was read. That moment was overshadowed by Louie's blabbering on and on. He got all worked up when the name "Thomas (blah blah)" was read. The kid has a one track mind and every track leads to Thomas the Tank Engine. He kept going on and on (loudly) "Thomas, he's a really useful engine. Where's my James??" You get the idea.
After that, we went to Fabulous Fern's and had dinner to celebrate Dan's birthday. The two Grandma's were there. It was really nice and the food was delicious, as usual. Dan had butternut squash ravioli with nutmeg and garlic cream sauce. That was truly heaven in a big bowl. I didn't order it, good thing. I probably would have licked out the bowl. It was so delicious!
Tune in later for updates on the photography class . . .

Happy 40th Uncle Paul!

We went to Uncle Paul's 40th birthday party tonight. It was a fun party. Here's Paul with his two girls and the beloved son, Lorenzo!
Emily and Louie loved playing with the other kids and with Mike. He played catch with Emmy and Louie and they talked about it all the way home and into bed.
Emily also gave a demonstration of her sommersaults. I don't know where she learned how to do that? but she was pretty proud of herself. Louie wants to learn how to do one tomorrow.