Happy New Year!

Once again I pay more attention to Facebook than my blog - so here is the wrap up from November and December! I hope you and yours had a very Merry Christmas and wish you all blessings in the New Year!

November 4th was Blake's 5th Birthday - we had a small celebration at Chuck E. Cheese (his choice) with a few of his friends! He was thrilled When Chuck stopped by to say Happy Birthday to him!

His Birthday cupcake that mommy made for him and his friends - not as decorative as some of my crafty friends' - but he picked yellow cake with chocolate icing and blue sprinkles! As long as the birthday boy is happy - we all are!

Our friends, the Combs, have an awesome costume halloween party every year. This year it came in November since halloween actually fell on a weekend, but it worked out great! Shawn had a lot of fun with his costume as usual - always gotta be a "joker"!

My birthday fell on Thanksgiving this year which actually worked out great! Shawn left our boys with my parents and took me out to a movie and dinner and then we stayed across the river at the Embassy Suites overlooking our beloved hometown! The best surprise was when our best friends came to meet up with us! I had no idea - but we had a great time with Linda and Kevin . . . not sure why I don't have any photos of us from that night, but here are a few of Cincy from our hotel window. This one shows the Great American Ballpark where the Reds play along with the building I used to work in when we lived there.

Cool shot of Paul Brown Stadium where the Bengals play and the Carew Tower (the tallest building in Cincy) where Shawn proposed to me and where we renewed our vows on our 10 year wedding anniversary (both occurred on top of the tower on the observation deck).

The beginning of December started with a Christmas concert at our church. I've done 4 of these over the years now with my good friend Steve (pictured here singing with me) and it's always a blessing!

My good friend Dena took me to a REAL Colts game. I have never been to a "real" game. I took Shawn to a preseason game last August for his 40th bday, but this was the first time I've actually seen Peyton, Dallas, Austin, etc... play in person! Very cool - we had a great time!!!

I hadn't sent out Christmas cards in over 3 years, so I felt it was time. Getting the boys to cooperate was sure to be a challenge, but it actually went really well. This was the best one of the 3 kids - I love it. I would've loved to have sent them to ALL our friends, but to keep cost down, only mailed to out of town friends and a few people here we don't see that often.

We spent the weekend of the 19th with my family in Cincy. My brother flew in from CA and my sister and her family came up from Atlanta. This is a picture of all 5 cousins - together at last! Grant, Blake, Kyle, Riley and Evan.

We even got a good picture of the whole Elmlinger family!

The boys got Rock Band from my parents for Christmas - this is the 3 of them on Christmas morning as we got them the Lego Rockband disc - let's just say they've been playing it non-stop! And I don't want to brag - but these 3 have some serious talent!!! ;o)

We got our first good snowfall the last few days, so the boys couldn't wait to get out in it! This was their "funny" pose as Grant, Blake and their friend Tommy were horsing around.