Liller Family

Happy New Year!

2009-12-29T09:46:00.007-05:00

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.

Busy, Busy, Busy

2009-11-02T17:37:00.003-05:00

Wow - I can't believe it's been 6 weeks since I've posted a blog - guess I've been slipping (which is probably due more to Facebook than anything else), so for those of you not on Facebook, I apologize!

Here are just a few things we've been up to since the last post... and I'll try and keep y'all caught up!

After my niece Riley was born on 9/17, my mom & dad and Blake and I took off on an airplane the first weekend in October to visit the newest addition. Here is a pic of Blake holding Riley - aren't they cute!!!

Blake also got some good quality cousin time in with his only boy cousin Kyle.

Grant finally became of Cub Scout - he's pretty proud of this uniform and has already memorized more than I ever thought he was capable of, I see an Eagle Scout in his future...

I went on my annual Girls Cruise with some of my best girlfriends - Linda, me, Gina & Eloisa. We went to the Turks and Caicos Islands and the Bahamas. Unfortunately I didn't have a very good time as I came down with the H1N1 flu on day 2 - let's just say I'll have a lot to make up for on next year's cruise!!!

The kids went to a Halloween party the night before Trick or Treating at our friend Sandra & Travis' house - they had a blast!

My 3 goblins on Halloween - ready to take off for the loads of candy waiting for them . . .

We hosted a life group for our church's Reset Spiritual Campaign for 6 weeks. When the 6 weeks was up last week, we had the option of continuing on with our group or leaving, well, with this group there was NO QUESTION - they're the best, and we can't wait to continue on with all of them and see where God and life take us... Not the best picture, Betty took the original and framed them all for us, so I actually took a picture of her picture! From top left clockwise: Jeff Shepherd, Wes Page, Shawn, Barb Kaminski, Dena Page, Betty Shepherd, me, Andrea Bruick, Mike Kaminski and Jason Bruick - Love you guys!!!

My New Baby NIECE is here!!!

2009-09-17T19:24:00.003-04:00

WELCOME RILEY ELIZABETH SANDERS!!!

Born today at 2:36 pm

8 lbs. 10 ozs.

21 1/2 inches long

We're so excited to add a GIRL to our family! She's got a great big brother in Kyle, and 3 boy cousins to protect her! (And Aunt Bethie is just a little excited too!) I've been ready to shop for a girl FOREVER now! Yep, she's gonna be just a little bit spoiled! My sister is doing great, and as you can see in the picture below, she LOOKS phenomenal too! Dang, wish I could've looked that good right after giving birth!

Hoping to go see her soon - sucks living so far away! Welcome to the family Riley - we love you so much already!!!

My Sister/Mommy Melissa, Big Brother Kyle and Baby Riley! Guess Daddy Mark was taking this picture!

Isn't she the cutest!!!

Labor Day Weekend

2009-09-08T09:31:00.003-04:00

It's been a great Labor Day weekend for us. I wish I had more pictures to document the weekend, but I only got some from our afternoon on our friend Bruce's boat below.

We grilled out with friends, got free Chick-Fil-A sandwiches, watched the Buckeye game (I LOVE FOOTBALL!!!), went for a 28 mile bike ride with Shawn on our friend Sandra & Travis' tandem bicycle, had a great brunch at John's house after, and took the kids on their first boating trip out on Geist Reservoir. It was a busy but really fun weekend!

So check out the boat pics - probably the most amazing thing for me was watching my 4 year old water ski!!! Yes you heard me right - he WATER SKIIED! Our friend Juli and her 6 year old daughter went on Bruce's boat with us, and Addison is quite the little skier. Blake was so mesmerized that he wanted to try it (and Evan and Grant wanted NO PART of something that "dangerous"). Well Addie's ski board was pretty cool - it lets them water ski without actually using the tether to help keep them up out of the water. They hold onto the tether, which is connected to the ski, but the boat pulls the board. They just have to balance - very cool, so if you have young kids who like the water, I would highly suggest this! Blake can't wait to do it again - even after wiping out twice! Yep, he's definitely my "no-fear daredevil"!

Hope you all had a great Labor Day as well!!!

After his first wipeout, he was a trooper and got right back on the skis. Bruce (clapping in the background) helped him get stabilized, and then he took off!

Even Evan had a great time, mainly b/c they let him drive the boat!

Near the end of our 4 hour tour, Grant finally decided to brave the water and went tubing with daddy!

Princeton High School Class of 1989 20 Year Reunion

2009-08-31T11:24:00.006-04:00

Shawn & I at the reunion dinner.

Wow - somebody tell me where the time goes!!!

This past Saturday night was my 20 year high school reunion. Now if I'm being honest, I should tell you that up until about a year ago, I never would have considered going, and I haven't been to the others we've had in the past - but a little thing called Facebook literally changed my mind.

If you don't know what Facebook is, it's a social networking website that lets you find and reconnect with friends old and new. Now obviously there are people for and against these sites, but for me personally, it has brought me back in touch with people I really thought I would never see or hear from again. In my younger years, this probably would've pleased me - but I hope that I've "grown up" over time, and it's true that the things that were significant in high school don't mean jack squat nowadays. Life is too short and too important to waste on the petty stuff - and that has been reaffirmed through Facebook and my Reunion.

We had a pretty huge graduating class (800ish), and a good number of them showed up Saturday night. I was nervous at first, but it quickly dissipated. I think everybody had a wonderful time, and through Facebook and the Reunion, I found that I know/remember a lot more people from high school (my class in particular) than I thought I did.

So, if you're on Facebook - look me up and request me as a friend. I wish I could post all the pics on here (all of them are posted on Facebook), but here are a few from the evening for the blog!

Some of us pre-partying before the doors opened.
Maybe I'm biased (or just refuse to believe we've really aged), but all the girls I knew in high school have become beautiful women!
My good childhood friend Shelly.
My best friends from school & St. Gabe's: Lori, Denise & I
More great friends of mine - partying on the dance floor!

Ben & Ari's and Daddy's Birthday

2009-08-24T23:05:00.001-04:00

Shawn turned 41 today, and the poor boy had to go to Vegas today for a week for work (yeah I know, let's all give a big "awwwwwwwwwwwww" as we REALLY feel sorry for him - NOT!)

So we decided to do something fun with the family on Sunday for his birthday instead. I would've thought he would pick the new Dave & Busters that just opened near us (he's been a HUGE D&B fan since I've known him - there's been one in Cincy forever and he and his buddy Jon used to go there almost every day for their lunch breaks years and years ago). Anyway, the young ones wanted to go to Ben & Ari's (a smaller version of D&B's for kids) so Shawn didn't even hesitate. So off to video game madness and putt putt golf we went!

Jammin' on the guitar one of the kids got with their game tickets. Doesn't look 41 does he? ;o)

Blake riding the waverunner game - he actually did really well!

Blake might be a future Tiger Woods - this was 1 of 2 Hole In One's! My iPhone doesn't have video like Shawn's or I could've captured one of them - he was so excited!!!

Grant wasn't quite as lucky - he fished a few of his balls out of the water!

Evan was in concentration mode - he didn't even know I was taking pictures of him!

2009-07-27T11:02:00.004-04:00

We spent about 10 days with family in Atlanta and Hilton Head! It was a great vacation - I don't think any of us wanted to come back to "reality"!!!

It was hard to choose which pictures to post - I have about 200! So here is 10% of them! Enjoy - we certainly did!!! Can't wait to go back next year!!!

Grant lost his very first tooth right before we left - so here is a picture of him on the plane before we took off for Atlanta.

Friday night we went to a baby shower for my sister Melissa. She is due with her 2nd child (sex & name still unknown) in September. Her friend Karla made this awesome cake all by herself - I was impressed!

We drove into HHI on Saturday. I always love stepping onto the deck of the beach house and taking in this view!!!

The whole Elmlinger family (my immediate family) together again - in the pool even!

Tried to capture this awesome pink and blue sky at dusk one night - doesn't really do it justice, but beautiful all the same.

Usually I am the Queen Packer - but for the first time ever I forgot to pack PJ's and underwear for Blake. So it was off to Wal-Mart to pick some up - and we got his cousin Kyle a matching PJ set. They LOVED them!

Blake checkin' out the waves one dusky early evening . . . I think he's trying to decide if he should go in there or not.

Until he decides, he and Grant begin building some sand castles instead.

There was this really neat out-of-the-way beach bar called Coco's. The guys all went one night and then took Melissa and I the next night. It was really cool! Check out the monster "fat" straws!

Me, my brother Greg, and my sister Melissa at Coco's.

My boys in Harbourtown. Going to the lighthouse is always a must for them!

Hard to see them all up there, but that's Shawn and the boys up on top of the lighthouse.

Another favorite - the toy shop (although the ones in Coligny are better).

My surfin' boys - Shawn with Evan on the boogie board.

Me and Blake in the pool - he was quite the little fish this year!

One of my favorite pictures! Shawn and I at the beach. He has long arms, so he took it with my new iPhone.

As you can see, it took no time at all for Blake to brave the waves! He was almost too adventurous for my liking!!!

I think I see the purchase of a surfboard in our future - Evan was awesome riding the waves, and they were probably the biggest waves I've ever seen in HH.

Another favorite adventure is taking the boys into Savannah, GA - more specifically, the Savannah Candy Kitchen on the waterfront.

On our last night we ordered in from Steamers - this was the platter Shawn got and yes, he ATE IT ALL!

NEW CARPET, PAINT - it's like a new house!!!

2009-07-08T18:12:00.004-04:00

Well, after a painstaking 2 months of putting our dog down, researching carpet pricing and getting an interior decorator to help us pull all our colors together - we finally headed into the homestretch 10 days ago by painting EVERY room on our main floor including the 2-story entryway and upstairs hallway (except the kitchen - that was already done professionally and is probably my favorite room in the house), and the carpet was installed today! I'm so happy to be almost done. We still have some trim painting to do (the doors mainly, I already painted the entryway wainscotting, staircase & spindles, and baseboards), and we'll have some accessorizing to do as a lot of our old picture frames and such don't go with the new colors we've painted. We also sold our living room furniture that you see in the pictures - so we'll be looking for furniture sometime in the future that will fit better and be more usable, but overall - I'm really happy to be practically finished!

I hope you enjoy the pictures - I'm not trying to be boastful at all, but I'm really proud at how it's all turning out . . . and have I mentioned that I LOVE THE SMELL OF NEW CARPET!!! Ahhhhhh, miss my doggie - God rest his soul, but I don't miss the smell. If you want to come visit in person - feel free, but leave your shoes at the entrance! haha!!!

Also, if you live in the Indy area and need carpet, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND CUSTOM FLOORS OF CARMEL. Phenomenal pricing, first class installation and installers - NOT ONE NICK OR SCRATCH on any of my new painted walls! Call and ask for Jerry Urick - I think they'll beat anyone's price (and we got several quotes)!!!

If you need someone to paint - DON'T CALL ME!!! I WON'T DO IT EVER AGAIN!!! ;o)

Our installers were AMAZING!!! Here they are putting down our new 8 lb. pad - it's a lovely green don't ya think?

Still working hard in the dining room and living room.

I think I would've hated this part - the stairs did NOT look fun to carpet!

The finished family room - I think the kids liked it!!!

Finished with furniture! Did I mention that these guys from Custom Floors moved all the furniture for us too, AND put it all back EXACTLY the way it was - I was totally impressed!

Finished Dining Room and Living Room.

Office carpet and color! Shawn LOVES his new office color (same as the family room color) - not the greatest picture as we have to re-wire all the computer stuff, but we'll get it done soon.

The entryway - definitely needs some accessories, but we're working on that too.

4th of July Fun

2009-07-07T09:19:00.006-04:00

Our 4th of July was a little more low-key than in years past! We weren't able to financially support our big annual 4th of July party (because my husband is a closet pyro and loves to blow stuff up). But we still had a great weekend and good times anyway - despite the horrible rain on the actual 4th! Luckily the rain held off literally until the celebration in our community park was over!

Friday night we hung out with our good friends (the Combs') for a cookout then headed to another friends house for her 40th birthday party, then came back for more happy hour fun at our neighbor's house. On the 4th, we got up early to start the day off with the annual Party in the Park. Our neighborhood homeowners association puts on a 4th of July party for all the residents. We had a parade, a llama course (Yes, I said LLAMA), food, games, prizes and good music/entertainment by Grasshopper Entertainment (that's a plug for you babe)! It was actually sweet of him to do it as he had to DJ a wedding downtown later in the afternoon. While he was gone at the wedding, I decided to paint some more (I'll post pictures of that later this week when it's all done) since it was raining non-stop! We went down to our neighbor's on the cul-de-sac later that evening as the men were insistent on putting up some "firepower" despite the rainy conditions! Sunday was a veg day, and another neighbor of ours wanted Shawn to set off his fireworks for him, so they came over and we had a very miniature show-version of our usual event which you can see by clicking here

All in all, a very good weekend!!!

Blake wasn't too sure about checking out the llama...

Shawn with his hatchback outdoor mini-equipment Grasshopper Entertainment set-up! Works well when rain is expected - makes for a quick & easy pack-up!

The parade gets started - I got to ride in my cop friend's car so I got some good shots of the kids riding their decorated bikes around the neighborhood.

Grant and Blake - right up front and behind the firetruck!

Games and prizes - yep, that's what it's all about!!!

Grant did all the games at least 2 or 3 times! His goodie bag was loaded!

Sunday night sparkler action.

Fun on the pond...

2009-06-29T08:41:00.004-04:00

It was a beautiful evening last night. We had just gotten home from the Fishers Freedom Festival and were hanging out on the back deck when Shawn got a wild hair and decided to put his kayak in our pond. Now granted, he's done this before - but technically you're not "allowed" to do stuff like this. Sometimes, you just have to defy the rules I guess... ;o)

"Ummmm, is it okay to paddle here?"
Paddling up to our neighbors house - also the former president of our homeowners association!!!
Blake was dying to go, so we dug out his lifevest and hoisted him in!
As you can see, he absolutely loved it!
Grant was next to follow suit - at first he was like "okay, but dad - don't go past Mrs. Pam's house" (our next door neighbor), but once he got going, they ended going all the way around the pond, and he didn't want to stop.
Here's to the FKA - Future Kayakers of America!

Tour de Cure for Diabetes

2009-06-13T16:09:00.007-04:00

Today we went down to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway to watch Shawn ride in the Tour de Cure. Shawn rode the longest amount of miles possible for this ride - 100 MILES, which all took place going round and round the famous racetrack.

Several months ago, Shawn decided to go after this disease I live with by helping raise money in hopes that someday, we find a cure for Diabetes. I've had Type 1 Diabetes (insulin-dependent, I wear an insulin pump 24/7) for over 16 years. Soooo, in my honor, he did one bang up job at reaching out to friends and family and helping the American Diabetes Association raise funds to find a cure. It's something I really hope I see in my lifetime - a cure would be a dream come true!!!

Thanks to all of you who supported both Shawn and myself - I'll have to check the totals, but between personal sponsors and the Chick-fil-A Spirit Night we had at the restaurant in Noblesville, I think the total was around $1,500! AWESOME!!!

Below are some pics from today's Tour de Cure.

The boys in the "Winner's Circle" at the track.

Here comes Shawn (front right) - I think he had gone about 60 miles or so when we took this picture.

Daddy stopped off to refill his water bottles, so we got a cute shot of him with his boys.

We also got a friendly observer to take a picture of all of us.

The boys all gave daddy a big hug before heading back out to finish up his 100 miles.

While daddy rode, we went out to the Fun Zone where the boys got their faces painted: Blake got the Spiderman face, Grant got the Indy Colts mask, and Evan opted for the cool snake!

Here are the boys making a present for daddy for Father's Day (gotta love Blake's safety glasses huh?) I can't tell you what it is yet, but they were pretty excited about making them.

Hanging out on the wall by the finish line (and famous bricks).

This is daddy signaling to us that he has 2 laps to go (5 miles), and the boys were waving their checkered flags and ringing the cowbells as he (and other riders) went by.

Daddy crossing the famous brick finish line!!!

The long held tradition of kissing the bricks rings true even for cyclists! Evan joined in too!

The victory celebration of holding his bike over his head!

They had a huge banner they encouraged all the riders to sign...

What Shawn wrote on the banner for me.

Random Shots

2009-06-01T08:18:00.007-04:00

I haven't been taking pictures too much lately - mainly b/c my camera sucks! But here are a few random pics from the past month. They're mostly of Blake, but I'm sure that will change now that all the boys are home for the summer break! The first 2 are from Blake's preschool promotion program - one more year of preschool and then he'll be a kindergartner! The last few are funny b/c the red couches we have in our family room have become the "sleep" couches. Blake naps on them several times a week (and occassionally his brothers join him.

Hope you all have a wonderful summer - I'm sure I'll have pool/splash park/outdoor pics up the weather heats up!

Blake getting ready to sing with his class.

Blake getting his congrats from his teacher Mrs. Debbie.

Isn't my wig cool?

This is a pic I'll probably never get again! We were going to drop the boys off to my parents for Memorial Day Weekend so Shawn and I could work the Indy 500 race, and all 3 of them were sacked out in the car on the ride to Cincinnati.

Now for a few of the "red couch sleep series". This is Evan and Blake.

Blake with the comfy brown blanket we all love.

Blake with his loved blue blankie.Even superheroes need a little "red couch" rest.

Tanner: January 20, 1996 - May 11, 2009

2009-05-11T21:32:00.003-04:00

Today we had to say goodbye to our dog of 13 1/2 years. It was an easy yet extremely hard decision. He has been suffering for quite some time now, but I still hate that "we" had to decide when his time was up - it's not fair. He was our first "baby", and watching him die was difficult. I don't regret that we stayed with him as he went, and although it was quick and painless for him, it was still one of the hardest things we've ever had to do.

I, in particular, had not become fond of cleaning up his messes the past year or two. I think part of me felt it would be easier to just be done with it all - but I miss him, and feel bad to have been the one pushing this decision. I guess I'll live with the guilt for awhile, but I truly believe we made the best decision for HIM. He won't be in pain from his arthritus, he won't have to throw up or constantly urinate in our house, maybe he can hear now that his soul is in Heaven, and jump around with little effort. He was the best dog anyone could ever ask for, and he can never be replaced.

Tanner, thanks for giving us the best years of your life. We'll treasure the memories you gave us and you'll forever be in our hearts!

Anniversary and Muffins with Mom

2009-05-07T17:15:00.003-04:00

Today I went to Blake's preschool for their annual "Muffins With Mom". Last week they had Donuts With Dad (and honestly, I would've much preferred donuts over muffins, but hey - beggars can't be choosers)! Anyway, it was really cute - especially all the things Blake made for me.

Last week - April 29th to be exact, Shawn and I celebrated our 14th wedding anniversary. We went to this place downtown called Fogo De Chao. Not very impressed with the restaurant, and it kinda stunk that Shawn was sick, but we still had a nice time. It's always good to reflect upon your marriage - and a night out without kids is always a bonus no matter what the occasion! ;o)

My baby and me.

Luckily they had donuts too (smart teachers they are!) Blake was loving the powdered donuts!
The cute table setup - a placemat Blake made along with a key chaing that says mom, a flowered pen, a notepad and a book of cute sayings from all the kids.

Shawn and I last week before dinner on our anniversary. Poor guy, you can tell he doesn't feel well, but he was insistent on taking me out.

Our anniversary dessert from Fogo's

Blake rides his bike with NO training wheels!

2009-04-19T15:12:00.004-04:00

So while I was at a birthday party with Grant today, Blake decided he wanted to ride his bike without his training wheels. He's been asking for awhile now, but I didn't really think he WANTED to do it. So after bugging daddy a few times today, he finally decided to do it - check out the short video clips below! WAY TO GO BLAKE!!!

Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge 2009

2009-04-10T17:35:00.006-04:00

It's been a beautiful and awesome vacation the past 8 days. As I sit here looking out at the view from our cabin's living room - I'm eternally grateful and in awe of God's goodness. I really don't want to leave here tomorrow, but I guess back to reality we must go...

We look forward to many more vacations with our best friends (the Cassidy's) and their girls - another life long friendship totally orchestrated and built by God! We love you guys!!!

The majestic mountain view from our cabin - yep, this is the one I'm looking at right now!

We have 2 hot tubs here at the cabin, this one was deemed the "kiddie pool" - they loved it!

Just like last year, the kids were dying to go to the Nascar Speedpark. Not sure who had more fun - the kids, or Shawn and Kevin!!!

Me and my BFF Linda in our matching Tommy Hilfiger sweatshirts!

A few days after arriving (and after having 70+ degree weather, it snowed for 2 days. I'm actually glad it did, because it was beautiful!!! The hot tub was awesome during this time too! Here are a few view shots from the cabin after the snow had fallen.

Another cool snow shot.

The kids in downtown Gatlinburg.

Our cabin is situated on a cul-de-sac, which is GREAT for the kids to play. They ran around endlessly, played with bubbles and loved playing with the landscaping rocks right in front of our cabin.

The front of our cabin provided a great photo spot - this one is of Grant and Blake.

Here's one of all the kids (minus Megan, who was taking a nap).

We went on a hike to Laural Falls in the Great Smokey Mountain Nat'l Park, and on the 1.3 mile trek, we ran across this sign - pretty funny if you saw our Christmas card from a few years ago!

Also along the hike, there were cool picture opportunities like this one.

At the end of the trail, there was this beautiful waterfall, so we had to get a family shot of it.

We have a cool firepit area by our cabin too - so one night after the kids went to bed, it was cigars for the boys and some yummy drinks for us girls!

The 4 BFF's! Thank goodness we figured out how to use the timer on our camera!

Shawn and I by the fire.

Exterior House Painting

2009-04-02T17:11:00.004-04:00

So we bit the bullet and paid the big bucks to finally get the trim, gutters, moldings and garage doors painted. We decided to go darker to try and set the house apart from the others on the street and I'm pretty pleased with the color we chose. See if you agree...

The before shot (actually taken when we moved into the house back in 2000)
The after shot, taken today.

2009-03-19T07:42:00.002-04:00

Just some random pics from the past few weeks - I haven't had the chance to download everything off my camera until recently, so I finally did that and organized them into their respective folders! Enjoy & have a fabulous weekend!

We love hanging out with the Combs' - and the kids have now formed their very own "Rock Band". They really are precious to watch! Look out Hannah Montana and the Jonas Brothers, this group is the next big thing!!!

After a very rough day of playing, Evan and Blake take a snooze - so cute!

Blake is armed and ready for attack. Playing gun wars is a favorite around here.
A few weeks ago, Blake and I went on a field trip with his school to bowl. Not quite as easy as the Wii, but Blake actually got very good at it.

Just a family Sunday...

2009-03-08T18:06:00.004-04:00

Today was just a day to spend with the family. Shawn had heard of this indoor amusement type place in Lafayette Square's mall - so we decided to head over and see what it was like.

Now let me tell you - if you want a fairly inexpensive place (and I mean cheaper than a day at Kings Island or Carribbean Cove or Dave & Buster's) to have a ton of fun for hours and hours - this is the place. It's called XScape and for $4.99/child and only $8.49/adult - it was worth it.

Now granted, you can spend a lot more b/c the attractions (mini-bowling, putt putt golf, rides, 4-D theatre, go-karts, bumper cars, etc... are all extra (yet still not bad - go-karts were $5 and bumper cars, mini bowling and putt putt $3), as are the arcade games. But included in the price is an all-you-can-eat buffet, drink and dessert station - and it was good - pizza, pastas, salad bar, cookies, cakes and ice cream sundae station, soda, etc... They also have 3 places to eat. You can choose from a Sports Bar, Cartoonland and Movie Theatre (yes, both playing either cartoons or movies with HUGE screens like in the cinemas - we watched part of Journey to the Center of the Earth). You can also play in one of those jumpy things and a climbing thing which is included. We got a card and loaded it up with some cash and it lasted us hours. Oh - and check their specials - if you go on Sunday when they open at 11am, they have 1/2 price attractions until 2pm - so we really made out by riding the rides and stuff before going on to the arcade.

So, as you can see below - it made for a great, rainy Sunday afternoon!

This kinda reminded me a little bit of duckpin bowling - the boys (and even myself) had a good time playing this. We probably played 5-6 games. The boys did really well.

Evan and Daddy wanted to go onto bigger and better things (go-karts), so Grant, Blake and I stayed to play a few more rounds.

Playing on the Pirates of the Carribbean Adventure. Kind-of like a McDonald's Playland type thing.

Blake loved the bouncy house - he spent quite a bit of time jumping around in here!

Daddy, Grant and Evan were lovin' the bumper cars. Here you can see Daddy and Evan pretty good, but I only got Grant's leg in between the two of them as he was turning his around as I took this shot.

The older boys in their element - the go-karts!

Grant's 7th Birthday - Valentine's Day

2009-02-20T08:35:00.004-05:00

I'm a little behind on posting these pics - but this past Saturday (Valentine's Day) was Grant's 7th Birthday. I was a little worried about having his party on his actual birthday - fearing that many of his friends might not be able to come due to the "holiday", but he had 15 friends show up to his laser tag party, so he couldn't have been more excited! Here are a few shots from the day...

Getting his VIP armband at the laser tag counter.

Grant with some of his party guests in the party area.

What little boy doesn't like opening presents?!?!

After the laser tag party we headed to church, then went to the RAM for dinner (if you're interested, kids eat for $1 the entire month of February!!!). We've known the manager there for years, so she gave Grant this huge dessert called the Mile High Pie for his birthday - all 5 of us ate it and we still couldn't finish it!!!

Friday the 13th Cycle-A-Thon at the YMCA

2009-02-13T23:45:00.001-05:00

Every year the YMCA hosts a fundraising campaign to raise money for kids who can't afford their programs. It's called the Strong Kids Campaign - because the YMCA will NEVER turn away someone because of their inability to pay.

Part of this campaign is the Cycle-A-Thon. Shawn has been a Spinning instructor practically since the day I met him. He's been working as an instructor at the Y for about 7 or 8 years now, and since it's tough economically for everyone this year - he wanted to step up the sponsorship goals of those who take his classes. He said that IF the people who took his classes raised $2000 by the time his session took place on Friday the 13th at 5:30 pm, he would shave his head immediately following the class. Well, we did it (thanks Bruce and John - they definitely upped the stakes and pushed us all to make it happen)! The Strong Kids have everyone who contributed to thank!!! And honey - you look really cute bald!!!

Bruce, Shawn and John - the "before" look!

Denise thanking everyone before Shawn's session started.

Yep, we love you and taking your class Shawn - and we can't wait to see you get your head shaved!!!

The crowd begins to gather - and our kids get a front row seat to see daddy lose his hair!

Our friend Travis gets to do the honors - he's a baldy by choice too, so he had all the proper tools! Evan doesn't look too sure in the background - but he thought dad did a good thing! Blake was just enjoying the free pizza!

First line going, going, gone...

We figure this is what Shawn will look like in 20 years when just the top part of his head is without hair! hahaha!

The finished product!!!

Sandra made this awesome cookie cake - we both came up with the concept of making the cookie the shape of his head (with his blond highlights) and having it say "No More Hair 'Cuz You Care!" It was all for the Y kids!!!

You look great babe!!! Everyone at the Y appreciates what you did for them!!!

Valentine's Day Party at Preschool

2009-02-12T14:00:00.003-05:00

Today I went in to help out at Blake's preschool - he was pretty excited about their Valentine's Day party - so here are a few shots of him and his classmates having a good time!

Blake - ready to party!
"Fishing" for hearts.
Look at those cute little hands folded in prayer before he ate his cupcake!!!
Blake's table of friends.
Gotta love the games!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY EVAN!!!

2009-01-24T15:30:00.003-05:00

In addition to my "old lady" aches and sprains - I have one more reason to feel quite old today! My very first baby is 11!!!

It's been a busy day so far - we've been to laser tag, had a pizza party when we came back, a little tag and guns, then Evan's requested chocolate chip cookie cake! I think I'm holding up pretty well for 4 hours of chaos (and some of them are still going strong as I type). But overall, it's been a pretty good day for Evan.

As for me, I'm taking it all in pretty slow. I wasn't even in labor with him yet this time 11 years ago (well, I kinda was, I just didn't know it at the time). So, until 10:46pm, he's still 10 to me (and even that is too old for my liking)!!!

So how did he go from this cute little baby . . .

To this giant human being???

Evan and his friends in the briefing room at Xsite Laser Tag.

Evan's friends raise a toast to him - it was pretty cute actually. Some said "to the best friend ever" and another said "to the best party ever".

Opening gifts. Bakugan and gift cards, he couldn't have been any happier!!!

The group from L to R: Justin, Evan, Ryan, Max, Joe & Ben

As if they weren't jacked up enough from sugar soda and pizza - it was time to actually eat the frosted giant cookie!

Need A Vacation NOW!!!

2009-01-21T09:16:00.006-05:00

Okay, this cold snowy weather is for the birds - literally!

Lately we've had nothing but freezing cold temperatures, little to no sunshine, and most recently - a flock of black birds hanging in and around the yards in our neighborhood. Seriously, it looks like I'm in that old Alfred Hitchcock movie "The Birds" - a little freaky!

So, here are the places we'll be going in the next 6 months - and it seriously can't come soon enough! I was hoping to copy and paste pictures, but the websites won't let you do that, so you'll have to click on the red links below!

For Spring Break, we'll be heading down to Gatlinburg once again with our best friends, the Cassidy's. Last year we had an amazing time, so this year we're going for a longer period of time (a whole week instead of just 4 days) and we got a bigger cabin. We almost got one with an indoor pool - which would've totally rocked - but we decided to wait until the kids are just a little older. I'm sure they'll have plenty to do with the pool table, air hockey, games, Wii, firepit, etc... and we plan to do a lot more hiking this year. Linda and I are most looking forward to the outlet shopping again - we got some awesome stuff last year! So if you want to see where we're staying this time around - click here The picture below is where we stayed last year! If you've never used Majestic Mountain Vacations - we HIGHLY recommend them! The cabins are amazing, clean and look JUST LIKE the pictures!

In July, we'll be heading back to Hilton Head for our annual family trip. My parents rent a beachhouse (and I mean - RIGHT on the beach) for the whole family. We're staying at this house again! It's perfect for all 11 of us and is so close to the beach. The picture below (and the title picture at the top of my blog) was one we took on the deck of this house the last time we went - so you can see how close we are. It's so nice to lay in the pool (I'm not much of a "lie on the beach in a bunch of sand" type person) and listen to the waves! Again, I gotta put a plug in for our friends at The Vacation Company in HHI- they are always such a help - anything you need, theyll come running!

So here's to warmer weather and vacationing away from the "blahs" of normal, everyday life! I'M READY!!!

The Road of Frustration

2009-01-17T20:07:00.004-05:00

This picture of Blake showing me his "muscles" is perfect for this post! It clearly describes how I've been feeling this past week . . . FRUSTRATED!

Don't get me wrong - I'm blessed by a lot of things, but when things aren't going the way you want them to, it's - well, frustrating!

I had been doing really well with my new diet and workout routines: running, spinning, elyptical, weight training. It was halted quite suddenly this past Sunday afternoon after injuring my ankle after a long run (well, long for me anyway, 4 miles). As the days passed, I still couldn't walk very well. The pain got so bad on Thurday that I finally bit the proverbial bullet and went to a foot/ankle doc at Ortho Indy (very cool doc by the way - how could he not be, he's a Buckeye fan!!!).

They found nothing seriously wrong in the xrays - so they put me in an air cast for "the next 1-2 weeks" and sent me for an MRI this morning. I hope to have results early this week, but I have to admit this has bummed me out huge! I mean who wants to have "possible" chipped cartilege and "possible" surgery if that's what it is? Not me, I've had enough "bone" surgeries to last me a lifetime (if you haven't heard about my arm story after trying to catch Blake when he was 1 from falling down our stairs, you probably DON'T want to hear about it . . . long nasty story).

So anyway. Guess I'm just trying to decide what I'm supposed to be learning from this experience. There are so many other bigger things to worry about - or maybe that's the problem, maybe I shouldn't be "worrying" about them at all and just trying to listen to what God is trying to tell me through this. I've been so busy lately, that maybe I'm being slowed down for a reason.

I'm still bummed - I'd like to look good for my trips to Gatlinburg and Hilton Head, and for my 20th High School Reunion coming up this fall, and I've actually re-grown to love working out - but I'm trying to be open to the other "reasons" this has happened, and hopefully I'll learn something from it. Just another valley to go through - maybe by next week, I'll be climbing that road to the mountain top - with a new and fresh perspective!!!

Have a great week & thanks for listening to me get this off my ankle - I mean chest! Hahaha!!!

Happy New Year & Ice Skating

2009-01-03T19:17:00.005-05:00

Happy New Year everyone!!! Here's to hoping for a great 2009!!!

We started off the new year with our best friends in Cincinnati - the Cassidy's, and invited our former neighbors - the Sluder's, to join us. It's awesome to keep in touch with all our old buddies! We had a great time as our kids had fun playing together while the girls kicked some boy bootie in Euchre and Cranium.

Today we were invited to the Smith Annual Skating Party down at the Pan Am Plaza in downtown Indy. Their extended family rent out the entire rink for about 400 friends. They serve up cookies and hot chocolate, and we skate until we can't skate any more! It was a ton of fun as it is every year.

The New Year's gang: Kevin & Linda Cassidy; me & Shawn; Jaime and Barb Sluder

Evan didn't want to skate, but he thoroughly enjoyed the hot chocolate with Blake!

Blake couldn't wait to get on the ice - mommy was a little wobbly though!

He caught on quick though!

Grant practiced with the cones, but was a pro in no time. He went around the entire rink by himself while daddy helped Blake.

Grant wants to take skating lessons to play hockey - might have to look into that!

More Christmas 2008

2008-12-29T09:31:00.004-05:00

A rarity that the whole Elmlinger family is actually all together in the same room!!! Usually there is at least another city, state or country inbetween us all! Clockwise from Left: My mom, brother-in-law Mark, sister Melissa, brother Greg, hubby Shawn, me, Grant, cousin Kyle, Blake, Evan, & my dad.
The 4 and only cousins - together again!!!

Santa's little helpers!
2 peas in a pod - Kyle and Blake watching Wall E.

My cousins (so that would be my kids' 2nd cousins I think) from the Phillipines and London: Evan, Kristen, Morgan and JP
We have always said that Blake looks just like JP - if you put a picture of when JP was 4 next to Blake, you can't tell them apart - here is partial proof, that even though there is a 10 year age gap between them, they still look alike - guess those Lafferty genes run strong!
The girls! Morgan just turned 21 and is studying at Middlesex University in London and Kristen just turned 18 and will graduate soon from Brent International in the Phillipines. She's awaiting word on several universities here in the States to attend for college.
My Uncle Jim (top left on the couch with my brother Greg) has worked for P&G forever overseas - just in case you're wondering why my cousins have lived all over the world. The newest addition to the Lafferty clan is Kenji - he is the sweetest, most adorable little boy ever. He fit right in with Blake and Kyle too, playing cars!!!

Merry Christmas!!!

2008-12-25T14:39:00.003-05:00

Merry Christmas!!!

We've had a great few days, and more good ones coming up over the next week.

Shawn's mom, sister and brother-in-law came up on the 23rd and stayed til' the 24th. It was nice to spend some quality time with them.

I think this is the first year ever that we've spent Christmas Eve evening and Christmas day by ourselves - very different, yet very nice too! The kids had a blast as you'll see in the pics below.

We're excited to travel to Cincinnati on Sat. morning to have Christmas with my parents, my brother, and my sister and brother-in-law and little nephew. Should be a really fun weekend with all of us "kids" back together!

Then we'll cap the year off with our best friends, the Cassidy's, in Cincy - as we do every year! They don't call us the Lil'Cass crew for nothin - haha!

Once again, we failed to produce a Christmas Card this year, so hopefully you've been keeping up with the blog for updates. At any rate, we wanted to wish you and yours a very blessed Christmas and wish you much love, joy and peace in 2009!

Love,
Beth, Shawn, Evan, Grant and Blake Liller

Can't even believe I got a picture of this - this would NEVER happen on a normal day!!!

Grant putting out the cookies, milk and a little thank-you note to Santa.

Twas' the night before Christmas...

If you have boys, then I don't even need to tell you why they all got some "coal" in their stockings!

The "most wanted" on Evan and Grant's Christmas lists - Club Penguin games for their DS's.

Evan loves his Bakugan - so he got the official Battle Arena along with about 10 Bakugan figures.

Grant has been wanting an official Peyton Manning jersey for a long time - he's still wearing it now, but at least he finally put on some jeans with it (the pic below shows how he wore it all morning)! He really wanted it autographed, but I certainly don't have those kind of connections. He's convinced he's going to meet Peyton "in a few weeks" and "I'll just get it signed then" - ahhhhh, I love the optimism kids have!!!

Blake still loves Hot Wheels and race cars - so he got this great play rug and finally convinced Grant to play with him.

Yep, more race cars - he sat mesmerized watching them go up the track and spin down the track over and over and over and over and over - well you get the point!

Another hit was the Animal Crossing City Folk game for our Wii - I might even learn how to play this one, looks pretty cute!

FINALLY!!!

2008-12-22T09:17:00.002-05:00

Well, after 2+ years of trying to "update" my blog, I finally found this site from this friend's blog and decided to give it a try once again.

AND GUESS WHAT???

IT WORKED!!!

So, I hope you enjoy the look of our new blog - this might become a common occurance now that it's been made easier (meaning, I don't lose a lot of my page elements whenever I try to change colors or whatever!!!)

Happy blogging!!!

Indiana Ice

2008-12-18T09:12:00.003-05:00

So the first thing Grant says this morning after getting ready for school is "Come on Blake - let's go outside and we can play 'Don't Break The Ice' before my bus comes". Ahhhh, the imaginations of our kids! Actually, I thought that was pretty brilliant (they have the game and play it often). So they go outside and start chipping away at the ice on our front stoop and walkway. After a few minutes, Grant rings the doorbell and has a big chunk of ice in his hands. I'm thinking what the heck is he doing with that, and he tells me "look at this piece of ice mom" and I'm like "yeah, cool honey" and he says "but don't you know what it is?" and I obviously have no clue - so he goes on to say "look harder mom, it's kinda shaped like the state of Indiana!!!"

Yep, kids - I wish I could still see things through their eyes, with a little more innocence, imagination and belief. Kinda like the Polar Express where the kids can hear the bell ringing but the adults can't.

May you all have a very blessed Christmas and New Year - and may we all be able to believe, not necessarily in the things we can see, but in the things we can't see!

Bongo Boys Community Drum Circle

2008-12-12T08:57:00.005-05:00

Last night we went to this awesome, FREE drum exhibition! Every Thursday night from 7:15 to 8:30 pm, the Bongo Boys Music School puts on a free community drum circle. Basically that means you get to go, take your kids if you want, hang out and bang out some frustration on a bunch of drums! We went after spinning last night with some friends (thanks for finding this Sandra!!!) and took the kids - they had a BLAST!!! I'm sure we'll probably go every Thursday now - the kids can't wait to go back! They're located in Castleton off Bash Rd. If you want more information, you can copy and paste this link:
http://www.bongoboymusic.com/news_events.asp

The instructor had a great time with the kids - and the kids really responded to his spunk and love for the drums. This video is truly a drum "circle"!!!

Blake, Max (Evan's friend), Evan and Sierra banging away.

Evan and Max - having a great time!

Daddy, joining in with Trasan, Grant, Evan and Max

The kids' drum circle: L to R: Laura, Grant, Blake, Max, Evan and Trasan

Blake doing a little solo action.

Grant was loving the set of 3 drums.

Daddy was just tryin' to keep up.

I was shocked at how much rhythm the younger kids had! Maybe this will be the instrument of choice for Blake - he was so serious and "into" it!

Max, Evan and Trasan had some game of their own!

Merry Christmas Cookies

2008-12-12T08:56:00.000-05:00

Every year, the boys LOVE to make - well, maybe not make, but they love to EAT the homemade Christmas cookies I make (my great-grandma's recipe I believe, I just know them as my mom's cutout cookies).

They always start out doing a great job helping me, but by the time the first batch is done baking, they're MUCH happier eating them!!! Here are a few shots...

My "baby"

2008-12-12T08:52:00.002-05:00

Well, I just had to put this one on here b/c it clearly shows how my "baby" really isn't a baby anymore. He fell asleep on the couch when we got home from working out (which is why I look so hideous), so I picked him up and he fell back asleep on me - how could I resist the chance to snuggle with him while he slept! I just wish they wouldn't grow up so fast!!!

First snowfall of 2008!

2008-12-08T15:48:00.003-05:00

Nothing like some good packing snow for the kidlins! They had a blast during our first real snowfall of 2008. Creative little munchkins they are!!!

Rollin', rollin', rollin'

"Look what we're making"!!!

All 3 boys and one of their friends jump in to make more stuff in the front yard.

The finished products: According to Grant, they are as follows from L to R: A very large bird, a frog, a jack-o-lantern and a snow ghost. Ahhh, straight from the imagination of babes!

The end of November

2008-11-30T14:52:00.004-05:00

Today, I have a lot of things on my mind as we come to a close on the month of November. A lot has happened this month - good and bad. Today I finished reading the book The Shack. Honestly, I never had much intention on reading it, even though most of my church had read it a few months back. I guess I don't have a lot of time lately to do much of anything other than doing the "mom" thing - I've also been in a spiritual rut for awhile now. Anyway, I was at my parents house for Thanksgiving and I saw this book on my mom's desk. I started reading it the night before we left and really couldn't put it down. I can only encourage you all to read it if you haven't already - it has totally changed my outlook on my relationship with God/Jesus/Sarayu - you'll understand it and come to your own revelations should you choose to read it.

Anyway, a lot has happened this month. My baby turned 4 on the 4th which was also election day. I pray that Obama turns out to be a great leader - whether he was your choice or not is irrelevant now - but we can all pray that he makes good choices in leading this nation of ours. Prayer can be powerful, even in the face of adversity.

We have faced more obstacles than I ever thought fathomable with Evan this month. I won't go into detail, but parenting a child with any kind of special need is beyond comprehension sometimes - I just ask that if you are a believer, that you pray for us if we ever come to mind as we tread through life with him. I believe there is a purpose in what we are going through - although I don't know when or if we will ever understand it in this lifetime.

I turned 38 just a few days ago. Guess that's not too old by most standards, but I feel like I've aged a lot recently. In the past few days - especially with Thanksgiving the day after my birthday, I've thought a lot about where I want my life to go (and yes, The Shack has opened my mind and heart to this task). I'm also extremely appreciative of the family and friends around me - the people who I know are TRULY in this walk of life with me - the people who are really there for me NO MATTER WHAT (you know who you are!!!) I thank each and every one of you from the bottom of my heart - I can be pretty hard to love sometimes. To my parents and my husband especially, there aren't enough words of gratitude.

This morning, as I left early to sing at church, it was snowing. There was about an inch already on the ground and it was so peaceful to drive in. For me, it was a time of reflection. Maybe the snow was a visual cue, the cue I needed to wipe the slate clean and start again on my outlook on life - to stop seeing so many things as negatives and try to focus on the positives (those who know me well know I'm a "the glass is half-empty" type person).

Maybe this post is too sappy for most of you, but I just want you all to know that I'm thankful for each and every one of you. A new month begins tomorrow!!! Every ounce of pain and joy builds our character, the scars are reminders. December is usually a month of hope, so I hope you have a wonderful Christmas season.

I promise the normal and "funnier" posts will come soon! ;o)

Girls Cruise Week Nov. 8-13, 2008

2008-11-14T08:11:00.008-05:00

This year, my girlfriends and I all met up for a Carnival Cruise to Grand Cayman Island and Cozumel, Mexico out of Tampa, FL. It was a full 5 day cruise and it was AWESOME!!! We had a great time - I have a gazillion pics from all of our adventures, but kept it to about 15 or so for this post.

Believe me, I have some great blackmail photos - but I'll just stick with the "what happens on the cruise stays on the cruise" motto! hahaha!

I'm looking forward to going back next year and I know that whatever we decide, it will be a great time with great memories! Thanks girls, it was just what I needed!!! Love you all!

From one of our dinner pics, this is the whole group of us! Back row from L to R: Me, Eloisa & Linda. Bottom row from L to R: Jill, Cathy, Cheryl & Gina

The Lido Deck Pool where we hung out during the day. Sometimes we laid out right in front of the pool on the upper deck, but mostly we laid out near the railings on the water side - it was a GORGEOUS view!!!

Guess we could've brought our kids. This was an amazing little splash park with a huge water slide for the kids - I almost went down the slide, maybe next year!

Gina and Jill (who are the organizers of the trip) gave each of us these awesome coozies that said "Mexico Girls Week 2008" and a cute little tote bag for all our sunscreen!

A pic of us from the formal dinner night.

My best friend Linda and I after dinner at the club.

This guy was such a cheesball, but Gina wanted his hat - so he had to get in the picture too.

And now he's everywhere. Here he is with Linda and Cathy.

Due to the Hurricane hitting Grand Cayman a few days before our arrival, we had to dock in a different port. So since the water was more shallow, they had us get on these tender boats that would drive us to the docks. Despite the water being a little rocky, you couldn't really see any damage anywhere. The taxi driver who drove us into town said it wasn't a bad hurricane at all.

And here is the proof - the beach we laid out at was absolutely beautiful - and the water was so clear and blue and amazing!

I had to get in the water - not only because it was so unbelievable hot, but because I love the surf!

This was just a cool pic of the water I took before we got back on the tender boat to take us back out to the cruise ship - I might frame this one.

I took this at the port in Cozumel. Now I haven't been to Cozumel in 9 years, and let me say is is a massively huge difference from the last time we were there! Just beautiful!!! I didn't have fond memories of the last time we cruised here, but I do now!

Two of the guys we met were engineer officers on our cruise ship, we saw them as we were getting off the boat to go into Cozumel and Antonio was wearing a Michigan shirt, so of course we had to get a picture of it - I mean come on, we're OHIO STATE FANS for cryin' out loud. Should've known they were no good from that moment!!!

The Cozumel girls! The mexicans weren't wanting to barter much, but I still got my tanzanite ring at the last moment - guess they wanted to sell us something after all before our ship set sail!

One of the bars we visited was Senor Frogs, we also went to Carlos and Charlie's - 2 of the more notable mexican hot spots.

This was a great sunset picture right by our ship outside Fat Tuesdays bar.

"Say hello to my little friends" - the towel-made animals our cabin steward made for us nightly, along with the coconut monkey bank I got for Blake (don't worry, I drank all of the pina colada first before transporting it back!!!)

Me & Linda at dinner on the last night.

My baby is 4 on the 4th!!!

2008-11-04T15:27:00.002-05:00

HAPPY 4TH BIRTHDAY BLAKEY - WE LOVE YOU!!!

Happy (early) Birthday Blake!!!

2008-11-02T17:50:00.004-05:00

Well, it's been a VERY busy weekend as you can see from the posts below, but we topped it off today in style!

Since Blake's 4th birthday falls on election day (I think it's cool he turns 4 on the 4th), we decided to celebrate it a couple of days early with our families since they all live in Cincinnati. So both Grandma's and Grandpa came up along with Aunt Stacy and Uncle David. We had pizza and my "new favorite" kind of cake . . . cakes that are made with cupcakes! Very low key, but very nice. I think I finally figured out after my firstborn that you don't need to have an elaborate birthday party for every year a child has a birthday . . . plus, I'd go broke if I did!!! ;o)

Blake and his cake made of cupcakes - The Backyardigans of course!

All my boys - and we even included the giant Pablo balloon.
"Can I open 'em now, PLEASSSSEEEE"

He's following in his older brothers' footsteps - he fell in love with this Pikachu pillow at Toys R Us, so Grandma Dear had to get it for him.

Would you like a chocolate or vanilla cupcake???

Don't worry, I have enough hot air to blow this candle out!

Blake also got a keyboard for his birthday, complete with microphone. "Let me sing you a song Grandma Dear..."

Mommy and me!

Comb's Halloween Bash

2008-11-01T23:59:00.000-04:00

So tonight we went to an adult-only Halloween party given by our good friends Sandra and Travis Combs. We all had a bloody good time!!! Can't wait til' next year - wonder what we'll be, might have to start planning now! hahaha!

Shawn and I before we left. This was Sandra's wedding dress, she trashed it at her own wedding so she thought it would be great as a "dead corpse" outfit. Shawn was some gruesome creature - I don't even know what you would call it!

Party people (in great costumes) in the house!

Leave it to Shawn to climb in the coffin and scare people as they walk by.

Time to sing "It's a nice day for a WHITE WEDDING" - not really, I let Shawn sing that one!

Dancin' in the fog!

Halloween Evening

2008-10-31T23:14:00.001-04:00

A few pics of the boys before trick or treating began...

Looks vaguely familiar . . . oh yeah, that's because they looked exactly the same at Halloweekend 2 weeks ago!

The whole crew including friends Max and Ben before heading out.

With the cute decorations on the Rock's front porch.

Halloween Party/Playdate at the Barn

2008-10-31T15:24:00.005-04:00

Since I'm sure this is going to be a weekend of pictures and posts with all the parties (Halloween and Blake's birthday), I decided to start early or I'll be on here for hours creating posts. Here is the first of at least 4 posts coming your way this weekend...

This morning we were invited to go to the McCord Barn for a Halloween playdate party. Blake and one of his best buds Jake had an awesome time with all their friends.

Thank you Jac & Izy for letting us come play - we had a fantastic time!!!

True friends are "superheroes" to each other!

A little fun on the tire swing

Story time in the barn

Costume parade - the superheroes got to lead it out of the barn.

A "web" of sugar-rush fun - eating bites of their cookies inbetween bites of their sandwiches and grapes!

Lake Rudolph Halloweekend 2008

2008-10-19T17:34:00.004-04:00

This was our 4th year going down to Santa Clause, IN to Holiday World's campground (Lake Rudolph) for Halloweekend. We always have a great time with our best friends from Cincinnati, the Cassidy's. We're each a family of 5, except we have 3 boys and they have 3 girls. It's been a long running joke that we'll just marry off our boys to their girls and we'll live happily ever after! ;o)

I wish these weekends lasted longer - the kids have a blast, and so do we. Maybe it's the fact that we don't have any media distractions that makes it so appealing. No TV, video games, computers, etc... just good ole' fashioned fun - the way it was when I was growing up for the most part. I love seeing the kids playing football, or riding their bikes, or playing at the playground, make-believe play with other kids near our campsite - it's refreshing I guess. So here are a lot of pictures from this past weekend's adventure. Until next year...

This is what you call "roughin' it" - Shawn and I's "all natural" look. No makeup etc... pure camping baby!!!

It's not a true Lil'Cass Reunion without a little euchre!

The kids organizing their plan of attack.

We used to go all out in decorating for Halloween - but our cabin here is affectionately referred to as the Bates Motel. Now we sit and watch the other campers spend hours and hours putting theirs together, then having to take it down less than 48 hours later.

We took along Evan's friend Max (back middle) - so squeezing these 4 boys up in the loft was cozy - but they all loved it!

There is a Halloween Carnival on Saturday morning with games, inflatable slides and jumpy things, food and prizes. Blake loved this slide - we almost couldn't get him off it.
Grant liked it too.
Even Evan got in on the fun (cuz' the Teen Carnival didn't start for another hour - they have stuff for ALL AGES).
Another highlight is the golf carts you rent to get around the campground. People decorate these too - some are quite elaborate. Ours just had some skulls and the all-important Ohio State Buckeye Flag!
Looking for prizes in a haystack.

Blake doing a little pumpkin decorating.
Grant doing the same.
When it came time for the teen carnival (8-17 year olds), they got to look for more than prizes - this was looking for money in a haystack. Evan was so sweet - he bought me a Vitamin Water (my favorite) with the money he found!
Blake won a new set of fangs - lovely huh?
This was just a cute shot of Grant in the golfcart in daddy's hat.

We didn't get a whole lot of pictures of little Megan, so we took this one while we had the opportunity.
Evan and Max in their Ninja and Army costumes.
All the kids ready for trick or treat!
The Lil'Cass Crew
The drive home - definitely worn out from a weekend of fun!

Just a funny pic

2008-10-15T08:42:00.004-04:00

Okay, so if you've known my husband for a long period of time, chances are you've seen him attempt this trick. He does something weird with his arms and either grabs onto a pole or tree and lifts himself so he's parallel to the floor. It's actually pretty hilarious to watch.

This photo was particularly funny b/c our employer took this while we were working the Moto GP race last month (you know, when we were having all that terrible wind and rain and it felt like a hurricane had taken up residence in good ole' Indiana). I think it was taken right before the big motorcycle tent across from our tent collapsed from the wind - kinda scary!

But what's funnier (okay, maybe not funny for him) is that Shawn was sore for weeks after this. Sucks getting old! LOL

Help!!! Everyone grab onto something - look how strong the winds are today! You're diggin' my trash bag raincoat though aren't ya?

First Field Trip to Russell Farms

2008-10-09T15:21:00.005-04:00

Today was Blake's first field trip at his new preschool. All the classes went to Russell Farms for some pumpkin picking, storytelling, animal gazing, exploration and playing! Blake was excited because Jake goes to his school. Luckily their 2 classes were teamed up to travel the farm together - so they had a blast!

I took over 60 pictures and it was hard not to post a lot more - so here's 15 of the cutest.

Jake and Blake waiting somewhat patiently in the parking lot when we first got there.

They were so cute holding hands on the way in - we can use this for blackmail someday at each of their weddings (haha).

Checkin' out the animals (pregnant pigs here).

Blake on the hunt for the great pumpkin.

Success!

The hayride back from the pumpkin patch with his friend Caleb (on the left)

Listening to a story.

Jake and Blake playing with tractors in the sand.

Pitchforking the hay - yeah, Blake was lovin' this!

Collecting eggs.

All these little learning stations (including the 2 above) were good teaching tools. Here are Blake and Jake (and Jake's mommy Shannon) putting the bales of hay in the tractor trailers, then unloading them onto the lift and sending them up, up and away.

And of course Blake had to do it by himself too.

These were really cute horse swings made out of tires - Blake loved swinging on it.

Then it was on to the wooden horse - not as much fun as the one that you could swing on though.

And finally a ride around the track on the John Deere.

Nebulizers, Halloween, Starbucks & Skyline Chili!!!

2008-10-04T09:31:00.007-04:00

If you're a member of Facebook - you've seen my status comments about the whole nebulizer crisis. In a nutshell, Blake has been on an inhaler for over a month and his cough wasn't getting any better. Grant came home Monday from school saying he was "suffocating" - so we rushed him over to the Dr's office. Long story short - they both need nebulizer treatments until they stop coughing. I think we're almost there. They've been taking their breathing treatments 3-4 times a day and I can see the light at the end of their lung-tunnel! Since this was a new experience for us - I had to take a picture of them doing the treatments - they were actually really good about it and now they can put the medicine in all by themselves and start and stop it (the big, independent boys they are!)

We also took the boys costume shopping since in two weeks we'll be down at Lake Rudolph for the Halloweekend! Blake wanted to wear his all day, we borrowed it from our friend's son which ironically was what he wanted to be anyway! Thanks Trasan!!!

Friday morning I met my friend Betty and her youngest daughter for coffee at Starbucks. Blake and Isabel were shy with each other at first but gradually warmed up - along with the weather!

Friday night we went to Skyline with my friend from high school and her family! If you're a Cincinnati native, this is a must!!! I love that we have Skyline restaurants here in Indy . . . now if we could only get a Graeter's, UDF and LaRosa's we would be all set!!!

Grant on the nebulizer.
Blake on the nebulizer.
"I'm Spiderman"!!!
I think Blake was wanting to push Isabel in this, but she was having none of that!
On opposite sides of the fence - lol!
Christy (Brown) and I at our hometown haunt Skyline Chili - I should find our senior pictures and put them next to this one, but I already put those on Facebook! (well, I put hers on there anyway, hehehe).
Clockwise from left: Shawn, Christy's huband Steve, Marley (who would NOT look at the camera for anything) and Reese.
Reese and Blake nibbling on their crackers.
Grant and one of his many funny poses. Once the food came, we stopped taking pictures - there was no sense in showing all of us stuffing our faces!!! And if you're asking why we go on Friday nights??? Because KIDS EAT FREE!!!

Busy & Fun Weekend!

2008-09-29T08:26:00.003-04:00

Sometimes I have to ask myself . . . Where did the weekend go???

We had a busy yet fun weekend full of food, parties, excursions, and motorcycles! We started off on Friday by going to the 2nd Annual Dad's Club Grillin' and Chillin' event at Grant's school followed by Emily's 1st Birthday Party at a nearby park.

Saturday morning I got up and drove to Cincinnati to the new Ikea store there. I picked up my mom and we were off to buy Evan some new furniture for his room. After shopping for over 3 HOURS at Ikea (that store is super addicting) I met up with my best friend Linda for dinner. On my way home I found out that my sister-in-law Stacy and her husband David had driven their Harley Davidson's to our house. So we all hung out by the firepit with our neighbor Pam until the wee hours of the morning.

By Sunday it was time to unload my car and start putting together Evan's bed, nightstand and bookcase - but before we could finish, we decided to go to the Harley Davidson store. So, Shawn took the kids in his car and I rode with David on the back of his Harley. Now I've never been much of a motorcycle fan, but I have to say that after this ride (and seeing my sister-in-law ride her own) I'm officially hooked. Someday, Shawn and I will have our own - but until then, I shall live vicariously through my Stacy and David . . . as will my children!!! When we got home, we finished putting together Evan's room, then it was off to life group for the remainder of the evening!

Shawn's DJ/Karaoke company (Grasshopper Entertainment) provided the music for Grillin' & Chillin' - he's also a Dad's Club member, so this was a perfect event for him and all the kids loved it!

Here are some of the Dad's Club members "Grillin'"

Our favorite principal Mr. Miller is the one waving while serving up the food.

An early shot of some of the kids on the playground (Grant and Blake have on the striped shirts on the left). I had to take most of these pictures early on because we couldn't stay the whole time, we definitely didn't want to miss . . .

Little Miss Emily's 1st birthday party which was going on at the same time as the above-mentioned event. This picture cracks me up, it's like she's telling Lauren "give me that cupcake - NOW"
Emily was sharing her birthday party with her sweet twin cousins Lauren and Jillian who also just celebrated their 2nd birthdays.
Jake (Emily's big brother) and Blake are joined at the hip lately. They both attend the same school, and I also watch Jake and Emily on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons after school - so prying them away from each other when they get together can sometimes be a difficult task! ;o)
This was also a funny night because Blake has always called the sweet little princess you see here his "wife" - but now I think he believes girls have cooties or something because every time he saw her, he would tell Jake that they had to run and hide because his "wife was here". Guess in this instance, his ice cream was more important than running from her!
Aunt Stacy on her Harley Sportster
The boys decided they wanted to start riding motorcycles too - but Harley doesn't make kid-sized bikes, so I guess these Honda's will have to do!
If my kids were younger, I probably would've bought one of these Rocking Cycles. They rode these for quite some time while chowing down on the free popcorn, soda and monster-sized gumballs (which are currently in their mouths in this shot) the Harley Davidson store provides.
I guess Grant and Blake figured that if I got to ride on Uncle David's Harley Electra Glide for real, they could at least sit on it before we left the store!
The finished product of my labor - literally! Evan's new bedroom. Here is his new bed and nightstand . . .
and here is the bookcase! Next time I'm either paying someone to put it all together or I'll wait until Shawn is around to make him do it all! He put this bookshelf together in minutes while it took me - well, we'll just say it took me a loooonnnnnggggg time to do the nightstand (the bed actually wasn't that hard).

It's been a VERY good day!!!

2008-09-22T20:49:00.003-04:00

Well, despite a fairly "blah" weekend - it's been a great Monday! The pictures below tell the story, so feel free to follow along...

This is Evan's bed/desk. He's been asking for a "floor bed" for some time though - not because he doesn't like this bedroom set, but because he happens to have the warmest room in the house, so he's been pretty hot all summer sleeping that close to the ceiling. We put this set on Craig's List and Lilly Classifieds and it sold this morning!!! We disassembled it this afternoon and they picked it up just a few hours ago. Evan is currently sleeping on his mattress on the floor until we get . . .

This bed from Ikea in Cincinnati this weekend. It's a really cool platform bed in black - which will coordinate with the black accents in his room and his dresser/mirror we kept from the set we just sold.

It was also a "thumbs up" day for Blake b/c he finally got a new battery for his Gravedigger Monster Truck. When Blake is happy, mommy's happy!!!

I personally don't understand why people spend a ton of money on bikes and such - guess you have to be a true die-hard cyclist/fanatic to want the creme de la creme. For example, the bike trailer you see here is called a Burley D'lite and they cost around $550 brand new (no, we didn't pay that much for it). So when we put it on Craigs List yesterday, I never thought we would actually sell it, much less get the $ we were asking for it - but we got a call today and as of 90 minutes ago, it is also SOLD! However, when the guy buying it came to pick it up - we had about 15 people come running to our house to see what was wrong. Why you ask?????.....

Because this is what showed up at our house! Who needs a trip to the firestation, just sell a bike trailer and they'll come to you! Grant was pretty excited! Blake was too - but he refused to get close enough to check it out - pretty funny actually.

Grant asking one of the firemen "what happens if I push this button..."

Grant, our neighbor Ian and one of the firemen. Not the greatest picture - those reflective stripes on the firetruck REALLY reflect with or without the flash!!!

All the neighborhood kids who came out were getting a personal inside tour of the firetruck, and Grant just wanted this fireman to buckle him into the back part of the truck.

"That's a wrap folks, I'm outta here!"

Throwback Thursday

2008-09-18T12:22:00.002-04:00

Have you ever just been browsing through all your pictures, and all of a sudden it just hits you that your kids are growing up???

Well, since I really don't have any new pictures or news to post about, I decided to post just a few pics from when the kids were small-er!

Enjoy your day/weekend!!!

November of 2002, Evan and Grant loved getting baths in our jetted bathtub - they called it their "hot tub".

February of 2003. Millions and millions of dollars spent on the toy industry and Grant plays with coasters - guess they taste good too!

Halloween of 2003 - Tigger and the race car driver!

July of 2005 - Sometimes it's just easier to bathe them (Blake in this picture) in the kitchen sink.

Still one of my favorite Christmas card option pictures - this was December of 2005.

Random Monday Thoughts and Pictures

2008-09-08T10:16:00.002-04:00

RANDOM THOUGHT:
I've been "sick" for about 1 1/2 weeks. It was bad at first with the flu, but I've gotten gradually better - which is a good thing! I'm usually a VERY SLOW healer. For example, if I get a mosquito bite and I scratch it, I'll have the bite and eventually the scar to show for it. They say scars show character - but I hate my scars! It's one of the downfalls of being a Type 1 Diabetic - we just don't heal as quickly as the normal person. Whether it's sickness, injuries, insect bites, etc... I hang onto it longer than the average person.

So why this preface you ask? Well because I've been so tired lately that I finally decided to pony up to my Endocrinologist - I was WAY behind on seeing her and decided it was time to fess up to all the things I haven't been doing lately and find out if anything else was wrong with me (cuz' I knew something else was wrong - I just wasn't sure I wanted to know what). But the fatigue won out and I just needed to know why I was so tired all the time. I thought it was because my 3 boys are just hard to keep up with! So I called Dr. Ayers and they told me they didn't have any appointments until February. I thought, "whew, good - don't have to listen to her yell at me for 5 more months", but after I left a message with her medical assistant, they called me right back and said "you need to come in in the next few days"! Darn, I thought - oh well, had to deal with it sooner or later - and I wasn't really sure I could deal with the fatigue that much longer anyway. So I went to the lab the day before my appointment to get all the bloodwork done that they wanted, and that was all it took to tell us the real story of what's been going on. Now granted, I have NOT taken very good care of myself lately, but I don't think I realized (or more truthfully, wanted to admit) how quickly things can go downhill if you're not careful. I'm sure other people with chronic illnesses can relate to wanting to "ignore" the illness - it's almost a quest to at least "appear" normal and act like the illness just doesn't exist. I won't bore you with all the details, but I was shocked (as was my Dr.) to see how low my Thyroid function is, and that that is what has been causing my extreme fatique the last few months. So, I guess it's no biggie that I'll be on the Thyroid medication for the rest of my life - I'll just add it to the list with my insulin. I've also been instructed to take a "kidney protection" medication so I'm not asking for a kidney donation from any of you in the near future - haha. I guess this is my wake up call, so it's back to testing my blood sugar 4 times a day (cuz' I'll admit I've been REALLY bad about that lately) and eventually I'll be able to get my energy back up in about 2-3 weeks with the medication according to my doc, and be able to get back into my exercise routine. Most people say exercise rejuvenates you, but for the past 6 months, it would completely wear me out - I would just want to sleep after a spinning class, so I'm hopeful I get back to "normal" as quickly as possible and won't need 2 naps a day just to get through the day!!! Bottom line? We don't always get the "wake up" calls we want, but at least we get a second chance at making it better - no matter how big a pain it is to get it done!

RANDOM PICTURES:
So below are some pics I've been meaning to post, but just never got around to doing it. I hope you all enjoyed the Summer, but honestly I'm really looking forward to the Fall - it's always been my favorite season!!! And since I'm a huge college football fan - I have to give a shoutout to my team here! GO BUCKS!!!

Evan washing Shawn's 4Runner - I just can't wait until he can cut the grass!!!

Blake would rather wash his bike . . . or me and the camera anyway!

This cracked me up the other day. Grant comes downstairs in his unbuttoned dress shirt and with his hands in his jean shorts pockets and says "Look Mom - I look just like Dad" - I was laughing so hard! If you've seen my husband, you know where Grant gets it from!!!

Being sick, I missed the big labor day weekend in Cincy for both our best friends' party and my nephew's birthday party - so I'm REALLY looking forward to going here in 5 1/2 weeks with...

Our best friends! Lake Rudolph Halloweekend 08' baby!!!

Blake's First Day of Pre-Preschool!

2008-09-02T10:46:00.004-04:00

Today was Blake's first day of pre-preschool. I call it "pre" preschool because he still has 2 more years before he'll start kindergarten at his brother's elementary school. Either way, it was a new experience for us because we decided to switch schools on him this year from our home church to a different church closer to our house.

Blake was really excited this morning, he kept telling his older brothers that he was going to his new school (I think they got tired of hearing that by the 50th time he told them). We also thought this was a good move because now he can differentiate between school and Sunday school - as his MMO (Moms Morning Out) classes and Sunday school classes were always in the same room, and that tended to irritate him a little that he didn't see his school friends during church services.

Anyway, some of his really good friends go here too - so that was really enticing and exciting for Blake. He couldn't get out of the car quickly enough this morning. I decided to walk him in on his first day so I could take these pictures, but the one thing I'm really looking forward to is their drop off policy. You literally drive up to the door, and the teachers' aides all come out and get them out of your car and take them to their classrooms - that's gonna be really nice on cold, snowy or rainy days!!!

So here's to my Tuesday/Thursday 4 hour kid-free mornings!

Blake was so excited to be in his friend Caleb's class. Here they are with their teacher Mrs. Debbie.

The early birds catch the worm! Blake and Caleb were the first ones to arrive - they got "write" to work practicing writing their names.

The class!

Scissor's anyone?

We even got a picture of Blake's buddy Jake. Jake is in the class 2 doors down from Blake's.

The Birthday Celebration Continues...

2008-08-28T21:02:00.004-04:00

Wow - I hope my 40th Birthday is a party that lasts as long as Shawn's has!!! I think this is day 8 - but you gotta love our spinning group at the YMCA. Shawn's been teaching there forever and he has a ton of "regulars" - so they wanted to do something fun for him at his class tonight.

The room was decorated all in Over The Hill stuff, all our bikes had a balloon, and Shawn's instructor bike had a lovely "Behold The Ageless Wonder" necklace and "40" button for him to wear. Then, after class, we celebrated with ice cream cake! I know, I know - totally killed the workout we just went through, but it was sooooo good!!!

Now they're all partying at the RAM restaurant! I'm guessing this very long birthday party will finally end at our best friends Labor Day party in Cincy this weekend - we're really looking forward to that too!

Spinning room decor

Shawn on his instructor bike in all his glory! ;o)

I don't spin and take pics much - so this is the last pic you'll see of us in the actual class!

The DQ ice cream cake.
A little cake shot with some of the gang.
Yummmmmy cake family picture (plus Max, a friend of Evan's).

Happy 40th Birthday Shawn!

2008-08-24T23:56:00.003-04:00

In celebration of Shawn's 4th decade of being on this earth, I wanted to do something to surprise him. It's virtually impossible to surprise Shawn with anything - but I managed to do it on his 30th birthday - so why not for his 40th too.

We've always wanted to go to a Colts game - just to say we've experienced it at least once in our Indy lifetime. Well, tonights game would've been really cool for 2 reasons: 1) it was the inaugural game in the brand new Lucas Oil Stadium and 2) it was happening on his actual birthday.

A friend of mine scored me an awesome deal on a pair of tickets (and they were AMAZING seats as you'll see in the pics below). So Shawn comes home from spending a few days in Cincy with his buddies doing normal party stuff (yeah right - don't think I'll be shooting guns at a target range, riding a hundred miles on my bike or kayaking for 6 hours on my 40th birthday - nope, just doesn't sound like fun to me), and we just decide to do dinner like we usually do on our birthdays. So I say "hey, let's go downtown for dinner" and he agrees of course cuz' there are lots of cool places to eat downtown. When we get there, he sees the stadium and asks me if I've seen it yet. I say no, and he says, well, let me drive you by it (like putty in my hands I tell ya). As we drive up to it, I pull the gift bag out from behind my seat and hand it to him. Inside is a card - and not just ANY card, but one of those cool yet sometimes corny musical cards. However this one fit perfectly because it says 'Happy 40th Birthday' and it shows a 40 yard line on a football field. When you open it, it plays the ESPN sports theme and says 'Just think of it as 4 touchdowns, 2 extra points, 3 field goals and a safety'. Again, perfect for the occasion and the tickets were inside the card. Then he unwraps the Colts t-shirt I got him to put on for the game. The look on his face was just like the commercial: PRICELESS!

So now we can say we've been to the inaugural Colts game and we spent a lot of time before the game checking the whole place out. It is so cool - if you haven't seen it, I would highly suggest you pay the ticket prices and go. We had the best time (even though the Colts lost - but we won't talk about that - it's still pre-season after all)!

Happy Birthday baby - I love you!!!

Shawn's 40 pose.

The Colts doing a little pre-game stretching.

We had awesome "seatmates" - Lori and Brian. Brian's brother was the replay camera guy and they were a blast to hang out with - we had a really good time with them.
We also got to see the roof open up. This is a picture of Blue the mascot getting ready to push the button to open it.
A picture of the roof (and the big picture window) once it was fully open. It takes 9 minutes to open completely.
Kickoff!!!
Shawn and I and the field from our seats.

Billy Idol "Rocks" On!

2008-08-16T22:24:00.002-04:00

Some friends of ours through the YMCA threw a huge "rocker" party to celebrate both their birthdays and wedding anniversary (all 3 are within days of each other).

For those of you who know my husband - he's never one to hold back when it comes to dressing up. I think once we stopped doing our huge Halloween bashes in favor of the 4th of July party, he had some withdrawal issues as he LOVES to dress up and go all out (I'm sure it has nothing at all to do with the fact that he turns 40 next Sunday). So, when Sandra and Travis told people to dress up as their favorite rock star - Shawn seized the opportunity.

See below...

Billy Idol in the house.

Our awesome hosts Travis and Sandra!

Unfortunately I threw away all my 80's Madonna gear, but Billy still took me home!

A "shot" of the triathlon group from the Y. Hmmmmmm, not sure what alcohol and triathlon's have in common, but cheers anyway!

Hey Billy, you "pale" in comparison here! haha!

NVCL's Kids Worship Weekend

2008-08-10T12:43:00.003-04:00

Most of you know that I sing on our church's (Northview Christian Life) vocal team. It's one of my passions, and has been for a very long time. I've also had the pleasure of teaching 1st-5th graders in previous years in our children's ministry. This weekend was really special - especially for me. Apparently when the vocal schedule was made, Matt (our awesome worship pastor) had no idea that this would be the weekend the kids would be singing with us in the main church services. So, as fate (and God) would have it, I was scheduled to sing as well!

Even more awesome was that my middle son Grant got to sing with me! We had quite a few kids from Studio 6.7 singing with us throughout the services and they did an AMAZING job!!! We did 5 songs - 4 of which the kids also do down in their services. The difference is that the kids add movements/motions to their songs. I have to tell all the kids who sang this weekend (and their parents) how proud I am of them! Whether they sang 1 service or all 4, they were so much fun and full of love for the Lord!!! Even more inspiring was looking out into the crowd and seeing adults joining in and doing the motions with us! Wouldn't it be great if we (as adults) could always worship God with the childlike abandon we poured out this weekend??? I know I wish I could, and it's given me a renewed spirit to try!

A friend of mine attended the 9:00 Sunday service, so she took a few pictures for me. Our lighting is pretty crazy during worship as you can tell from some of the pics, but I think they turned out pretty well! Thanks Lesle!

The kids and I during rehearsal Sunday morning (Grant is next to me on the bottom row in the red, white and blue shirt).

Friend of God

Tell The World

One Way

Your Love Is Deep

We Belong - for all you Pat Benetar fans out there!

Forest Park Aquatic Center

2008-08-07T17:21:00.002-04:00

Today was my last day watching the girls for the summer - and we've been trying to do a "field trip" every other week. Since this is the end of summer technically for the kids (they start school Monday), we decided to take a trip up to the Forest Park Pool with Jill and her boys (poor Sophie and Delaney - they were outnumbered 9 to 2)!

Anyway, I've never been to Forest Park before - and now I wish I had found this place sooner. We all had a lot of fun, even Jill and I (oh yeah, we rode the big slide too during adult swim - but you WON'T see any pics of us doing it!!!). The kids had an awesome time, it was just a perfect day!!!

If you've never been here, I highly suggest it!!! Only $5 per person and the concessions were extremely reasonable too!

Evan found one of his good friends in the splash park, his aunt brought him unexpectedly, so they had a great time hitting each other with the splash guns.

This waterfall was really cool, Sophie and Delaney loved it - and we even spotted another familiar face - the woman in blue was Grant's preschool teacher at Northview 2 years ago!

At one point a lot of the kids dispersed, so Grant, Sophie and Delaney had the waterfall to themselves.

Blake loved the blue wheel to the left, it didn't put out a whole lot of water, but he ran as far from it as he could after he turned it - I don't think he ever did get wet from it!

I was pretty surprised Evan went off the diving board, he never would've attempted that last year!

Grant about to go down the turtle slide - and if you look to the left, the way the picture is angled makes it look like Blake is about to be eaten by the turtle's mouth!
Jill's son Brad is about to go down the big slide, and Evan was right behind him - happily waving to anyone who would watch them!
Evan near the bottom of the slide.
Blake frolicking in the toddler pool area.
What trip isn't complete without at least one sacked out kid??? This one is particularly funny b/c Blake fell asleep in the car almost immediately pulling out of the parking lot with a blue raspberry ring pop in his mouth, this is what he looked like after the 15 minutes it took us to get home - blue raspberry residue all over his mouth, shirt and arms!!!

Indiana State Fair 2008

2008-08-06T23:52:00.000-04:00

We go to the State Fair every year - I never thought I would be one to enjoy it, but I think we love going just as much as the boys! We try to go when they have the Midway Specials (a wristband for one set price so the kids can go on as many rides as they want). Today was opening day - so we went when Shawn got home from work. It was actually a great time to go as it wasn't too crowded. We got into the fairgrounds and the kids were riding rides by 6:30pm. We were home by 11:00, the boys were showered and in bed by 11:30 - they're still sleeping now as I write this post!!! Guess they had fun too!

Grant and Blake thought they were pretty cool driving the cars in their sunglasses.

Grant leading the way on the bouncy bridge on the "Indiana Jones" maze - Blake was pretty brave - he was 2 inches shorter than the required height, but the nice guy working it said he could try it anyway (Blake kept insisting he could do it - guess he was persuasive enough, and he did it better than some of the older kids)!
Evan and Grant enjoying the bumper cars.
Driving the big rig trucks - it's always nice to see the 3 of them actually enjoying each other instead of fighting all the time!!!
Getting ready to take off in the Hot Air Balloon ride.
And no state fair is complete without a funnel cake - made by our good friends and employer for the races we work, Urick Concessions. They also won the State Fair Food Contest again this year for their Deep Fried Bananas Foster Cheescake on a Stick - can I just say DELICIOUS! Stop by one of their booths if you go - the food is always awesome!!!

A little slide fun - you'll notice Grant is a little upset that he didn't beat Evan and Blake on the way down! So cute though!

Who Needs Pinheads!

2008-07-30T17:42:00.004-04:00

Seriously, who needs a bowling alley when you have life size bowling pins and balls (plastic of course) right in your own driveway!!! My parents kept the kids this weekend while Shawn and I worked the Brickyard race, and this is one of the "presents" they came home with. They've been a big hit - no pun intended!!!

Grant and Blake insisted Daddy help them set the pins up. You can watch the short videos below of their strikes, they were just a teeny bit excited about it - guess it's a different experience from their Wii Bowling!

Tragic Tuesday

2008-07-22T20:14:00.004-04:00

Some people define "tragic" as catastrophic, terribly horrendous, monumentally shaking . . . and this might not be defined as one of those moments to you all, but it more than SUCKS for me!

Sorry for the rant here, but I'm so tired of the mounting dental bills due to the hereditary mouth problems I've inherited & have unfortunately passed on to my sons as well (sorry dad - no digs at you personally I hope you know, but the family history on oral upkeep isn't so great on the Elmlinger side of the family!!!). ;o)

Anyway, we're still paying off my root canal that was finished up last week - and the dentist and I even talked about this front tooth of mine as it's had a hairline crack for awhile now. The story is this: When I was 11 or 12, my friend Kelly and I were playing at her house on their swingset. Now you all remember those monkey bar swings right??? You know, the METAL ones that we used to use as a trapeze of sorts? Well, I happened to be standing behind it when Kelly let go, and it came back and smacked me right in the center of my mouth chipping my tooth. Back then, we had reasonable dentists who charged a REASONABLE amount of money for a cap - and let me also say that the dental work performed back then was (in my opinion) high quality b/c this particular cap is the same cap I got from Dr. Latta (God rest his soul) more than 25 years ago! In more recent years, a few dentists have argued that my cap is "thick", not greatly aligned with the rest of my mouth, that my gum lines don't match up, blah blah blah - but seriously, what do you expect from MORE THAN 25 YEARS AGO!!! Hello, I was a CHILD when this happened! If we had the cosmetic dentistry field figured out back then or knew what it would be today - do you really think my teeth would look the way they do now??? It's advanced just like the rest of the medical field has - which is great for the celebrities and the rest of the wealthy. But as much as I've dreamed about having beautiful bright white shiny perfectly aligned veneers, I certainly don't have the tens of thousands of dollars needed for that perfect smile!

Sooooooooooooooo here I shall poke fun at myself. I have taken a picture for your entertainment of my cracked cap/crown, or whatever they call it nowadays. I'm going to the tooth robber . . . I mean dentist, tomorrow morning to see if we can "quick fix" it so I don't look like a complete dork working the Brickyard Race this weekend! Any money we had hoped to make to pay off the last root canal and put the rest into savings will now have to be used for this issue. Or maybe I should just keep this look for posterity - what do you think???

Okay, I'm done now and I even feel a little bit better after venting my frustration. Thanks for listening!

No, my teeth aren't quite this yellow - but do you know how hard it is to take a picture of yourself of just your mouth in the bathroom (the kids bathroom too I might add, that has neon lime green walls)? Let's just say it took more than a few takes!

Sleep - no we never get enough!

2008-07-14T09:29:00.003-04:00

So here is my random post for this Monday morning!

I don't know about the rest of you, but I haven't been sleeping all that well lately - so I wake up after a fitful night of sleep and am usually pooped out the rest of the day.

I noticed I have lots of pictures of my boys sleeping - some are just plain cute and others are hysterically funny in how they manage to sleep in certain situations or positions.

So I decided to post a few of them. Enjoy - and if you have any remedies for sleeping peacefully, let me know that too!!!

Daddy likes to catnap on occasion, this was a picture where Grant and the dog decided to join him in Napquest.

I still go into "food coma's" - looks like this starts at an early age . . . Blake: "But no, don't take my stuff, I'll keep my hands on all of it until I wake up - really, I got it."

What more could you want from a nap??? Earphones, paci, blanket and car ride = perfection in Blake's eyes!

Grant and Blake were so cute sleeping on the same aerobed while we were in Atlanta last month. Even though it was a queen sized aerobed, they were sleeping right next to each other.

This is the picture that inspired this post! I took this just a few days ago. Essentially, Blake has given up naps, but sometimes he just gets so tired that he will literally fall asleep anywhere. In this case, it was the office chair while watching iCarly on the computer!

Ahhhh, life before the other 2 kids joined the family. Shawn and I used to nap with Evan a lot when he was little, this was taken shortly after moving up here to Indy.
Sometimes you don't even get to wait until that "food coma" sets in, Evan (age 3 1/2) just fell asleep before dinner was even served!
Another when Evan was almost 4. He had such a good time on the Disney Cruise that he fell asleep as soon as we got on the Disney Bus to go back to the airport - just him, the seat and his Mickey Mouse car.
Another high chair nap - this one is of Grant though. "Can someone please take this ball out of my hand while I sleep?"
More food = more sleep, or was it the car ride that did Grant in??? Gotta love the ice cream goatee!!!

Liller Fireworks Finale video taken by our next door neighbor!

2008-07-04T23:34:00.000-04:00

My neighbor Karl took this video of the finale and posted it on YouTube. Check it out if you want below. You'll have to fast forward about 90 seconds to get to the start of the finale!

5th Annual Liller Fireworks Extravaganza

2008-07-04T11:45:00.006-04:00

This year was even bigger than the last - which we kind-of thought it would be based on the Evite responses. We had 188 people respond yes to the Evite - but we weren't really sure how many would actually show up. I tried to count twice during the evening, my first count got lost after about 220 people, the 2nd time I tried to count it was close to 300 before I lost count again. Regardless of the actual numbers, we were thrilled with all the people who came this year!

It's always a ton of work - but we really love doing this for our friends and neighbors! Thanks to everyone who came (from as far as Maryland, Chicago, & Cincinnati - to our locals), who helped us with prayers (yay to the rain staying away) and with financial blessings! We almost can't wait to do it again next year - so put it on your calendars now - it's always on July 3rd!!!

Have a great 4th and enjoy the pictures. We have the entire show recorded (thanks to Brian Lingle for recording it and to David Paul for loaning us his video recorder) and we will put the whole thing - or at least the grand finale on YouTube later. I'll get that posted here on the blog once we get it downloaded.

Love ya all!

Fireworks Central (or our garage anyway).

Kevin and Tim doing a little prepwork before the party began.

Our wonderful keg sponsors!!! Burhenn Irrigation and Circle City Planners - they totally ROCK!!!
The Preliminary Pryo Team Meeting/Assembly
This picture was taken near the beginning of the party - just the beginning of the soon to be huge crowd!!!
Getting a little busier...
I always try to get a picture with as many kids as possible on the fenceline. Aren't they adorable?!?!
More Pyro Team prep near the pond behind the fence.
The Pryo Crew - ready for action!
The crowd - about an hour from the start of the show.
More of the crowd!
The 2 homeboys (Shawn and Kenny D) - you gotta love the hat right? It had lights too, what can you do when you have a crazy hubby!!!
Our best friends Linda and Kevin, with crazy hat boy Shawn!
Me, Linda and the girls Taylor and Alexis
The fountains at the start of the show.
Sky shot
Another sky shot

Atlanta Trip

2008-06-30T22:31:00.005-04:00

We just got back from an awesome trip to Atlanta. My sister and her family moved there from NYC back in January, so we were finally able to make the LONG 590 mile trek down there to visit them.

Although it was a long weekend - it certainly didn't seem very long! We can't wait to go back!!! The boys had a great time with their cousin, and we had a great time learning more about the city and all it has to offer.

When we arrived on Friday, the boys went to tour a brewery, and we hung out at the house and made papaw's birthday cake (we ended up celebrating it last night).

Saturday we went to the pool and toured the city. Later that night, my sister took my mom and I to the brand new Verizon Wireless outdoor amphitheatre (which looks A LOT like our Verizon outdoor amphitheatre here in Indy). Anyway, my sister is now the Director of Media and Public Relations for the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra - and this amphitheatre was built by the ASO. Not only do they book the big rock band types that we're used to seeing here, but the coolest thing is that the orchestra uses it too for outdoor concerts. Saturday night, the ASO presented all Beethoven pieces and it was AMAZING!!! Most of you probably don't know my "classical" side - but I played violin from 4th grade through high school, so it's always really cool to get back to that. My sister played in the orchestra with me when we were in high school - she played flute though. Anyway, since she's a big wig with the ASO, we got to tour the facility and go back stage after the show.

Sunday we all went to the Georgia Aquarium. It's the largest aquarium in the world and it was pretty amazing! I'm probably going to do another post on that later - I took way too many pictures there, so it deserves it's own post!!! After that, we went back to the pool for awhile before heading out to dinner with some of our extended family. My cousin Mike and his wife and family live near Atlanta too - and his parents (my aunt and uncle) were there visiting at the same time, so we all met for dinner. When we got home, we celebrated my dad's birthday (which was on the 25th). Then we had to pack up all our junk to head back home the next morning.

Here are a few pics from the weekend. Thanks Melissa, Mark and Kyle for being such awesome hosts - we can't wait to come back to see you!!!

The boys outside the aquarium near Centennial Park where the Olympics were held.

Preparing to bake the birthday cake and cupcakes. Who knew my kids would be into the whole baking thing? Aunt Melissa supervised while the boys "helped".

Now this was funny! This is called the Georgia White House. It is a real house that is 3/4ths scale of the real White House. Apparently some guy from Iran built this when he became an American citizen as a tribute to living the american dream - or something like that. It's literally a mile from my sister's place. I thought it was cool looking, but I guess the majority of GA thinks it's gaudy! I should've tried to get a better pic of it, b/c off to the right is another "guest" house (which is probably 3 times the size of my house) and a gate house at the entrance to the driveway.

Melissa, Mom and I at the brand new Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre at Encore Park.

It pays to know someone on the inside. My sister got us FANTASTIC seats to see the show!

Okay, call me cheesy, but after the show backstage, my sister introduced us to the orchestra's conductor (Robert Spano on the left) and the special pianist who performed with them on Beethoven's Emperor Concerto (Dejan Lazic on the right). Dejan was just here in Indy 2 weeks ago performing with our orchestra - now that I've seen him play, I'm going to take him up on his offer to come see him in Indy next year!!! The whole concert was unbelievable, but even more than that - the entire staff and orchestra members were so personable! The ASO all seem to love having Melissa on their staff - and of course I agree! I'm proud of you sis!!!

The bigger family at dinner Sunday night.

I guess these would be cousins and 2nd cousins. From the left is my sister's little boy Kyle, Blake, Grant, Evan, Ava, and Alex (Ava and Alex are my cousin Mike's kids).

The "original" cousins: Melissa, Mike and me.

The ending to the weekend - we finally got to sing Happy Birthday - and the kids helped Papaw blow out the candles.

Georgia Aquarium Excursion

2008-06-30T21:56:00.001-04:00

Here is the post I promised on the "World's Largest Aquarium"

Really, these pictures don't do this place justice. I have never seen so many HUGE tanks of fish, whales, sharks, etc... it was just an awesome place - I don't think we'll ever be able to go back home to the Newport Aquarium, this place just RULES - there is no comparison!!!

We always call Grant "G" - so we got this picture of him in front of the aquarium with the G fish behind him (you can't see it too well, but the fins are to the left of the letter G - pretty cute marketing).

The aquarium had all kinds of fish floating above you in just about every exhibit. This one was a long tunnel that had whales and sharks among other fish swimming overhead. It even had a slow moving walkway you could just stand on and you could look as it moved you down the corridor.

Some of the glass encasements had "caves" around them to make it seem more like you were underwater with the fish. The boys loved climbing up onto them to see everything.

One of the HUGE WALLS of glass - seriously, these pictures don't do this justice - it was absolutely gigantic, you almost felt like you were underwater (the boys are in the striped shirts by the glass).

These seals were crazy! You could view them from inside, or you cold go outside (where I was to take these pictures). Anyway, they were funny b/c they were playing "King (or seal) of the Mountain". One of the seals would get up on the rocks, and the other would try to take over until one of them ended up back in the water. We were crackin' up!

In addition to all the glass, they also had these tubes scattered throughout the exhibits. The kids could literally climb under one of the exhibits (penguins in this case) and pop up in a tube so it looks like you're in the exhibit with the penguins. The boys LOVED this!
One of the balconies overlooking part of the main floor - again, doesn't do the place justice - but kind of shows you how big and cool the place is.
The alligator exhibit - even with the glass, these things were a little too close to comfort for me!
Weird lighting, but it was designed this way to get a better picture of the jellyfish. Grant and Evan loved trying to "touch" them.
They had a 3D show called Deepo (who looked just like Nemo without the stripes). Blake loved him - he was giving him a hug here, and later we got him a stuffed one to take home as a souvenir.

Evan & Kyle in the penguin tube. You can actually see the penguins to the right in this picture.

Today, Tomorrow & Yesterday

2008-06-25T11:52:00.004-04:00

Today is my dad's birthday - HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!!

Tomorrow we leave for Atlanta to visit my sister and her family - be sure to look for a post on that next week, along with a post for the BIG LIL'S FIREWORKS EXTRAVAGANZA which is happening on July 3rd - you AREN'T going to want to miss it!!! You can view a little You Tube clip HERE if you want a little taste of what you'll be missing. But I'm sure I'll post some more clips after this year's party as well.

But this post is from yesterday. This summer, I'm watching our friends' kids a few days during the week, and we decided to go on "field trips" every other week. This week, they all decided on the Zoo. Well, I haven't been to the zoo in forever, but we all had a lot of fun. Evan took a friend of his as well, so I was totally outnumbered at 6 to 1!

The group hanging out by the sharks.

Blake loved petting the little sharks, I could barely drag him away from them until he heard the word...

PENGUINS! They all loved watching the penguins swim and play.

This was a cute shot by the Polar Bear.

They all loved the little outdoor gift shops, here they are posing and playing with these little clapper things. You squeeze the handle and their mouths open and close. Yeah, who were the marketing geniuses who invented these crazy things?!?!

This was my favorite - The Koalas!!! Unfortunately, they were both sleeping, so this was the best shot I could get through the glass.

This was the next best shot - Blake liked the little Koala mask at the gift shop outside the exhibit.

A little Dippin' Dots for the kiddos.

The Dolphin Show - this was really cool, but a VERY SHORT SHOW!

4 of the 6 decided to sit in the "Splash Zone", you can see the water spots on some of their clothing - they definitely got WET!

A Weekend With Friends

2008-06-22T20:04:00.002-04:00

What a great weekend for us! Our good friends Patrick & Christy came for a visit (yep, it only took them 8 years to get their backsides up here for a visit - hahaha).

We've known Pat & Christy forever. They were in our wedding, we were in theirs - despite the distance, we've seen them on occasion when we've been back home in Cincy and have kept in touch more recently this past year. So they finally came for a visit with their 2 boys. Nate is close to Grant's age and Ethan is close to Blake's age, they were like 4 peas in a pod. Evan hung out with them off and on too, so all in all, it was just a great weekend!

We even did a little backwards travel via video. When Shawn proposed to me, we got the whole thing on video. After the actual proposal, Pat and Christy joined us for the rest of the evening for dinner. We all stayed at the hotel and had a blast - and we had some of that on video too. Talk about hilarious - not to mention how young we looked 15 years ago!!!

So thanks friends for an awesome weekend - we can't wait to do it agin . . . SOON!

Christy & Patrick - who will celebrate 12 years of marriage on the 29th!!!

A little cookout on the deck.

Grant, Blake and Nate on the playset.

Ethan was really cute playing pretend bad guys with the bigger boys. He loved the way Grant would play dead when he "shot" him.
Put 2 pyros together with their boys and it's pure heaven!
Ethan is scared to death of fireworks, but he loved throwing the poppers.
Grant and Nate had fun with the sparklers.
When they all left late Sunday afternoon, Evan and Blake crashed hard! Too funny!

Today's Fun!

2008-06-20T21:54:00.003-04:00

Today was a "rest, relax and catch-up" kind of day. We started out by going downtown to have lunch with Daddy at Lilly's Corporate Center. His office will only be here a few more days before he moves on to another Lilly Campus. We'll miss the massive cafe they have at the Corporate Center - so the boys wanted to go one last time.

Then we went swimming at my good friend Shannon's pool. Since I mostly work at the pool in our community, this was a great way for me to escape and actually be able to relax! We and the kids had a great time!!! Thanks Shan!

My 4 wonderful boys!!!

Lilly has this really huge "empty" picture frame where you can stand in it and see yourself across the hall via a live camera feed. The boys love this - they can be quite expressive as you can see.

Evan and Grant in the frame (this is what it looks like from the other side).

One last look at Daddy's cube.

Grant and Jake enjoying the water.

3 little monkeys splashing on the steps.

Blake goes it alone - this pool was great b/c all the boys could stand unassisted in a good portion of the entire pool!

Grant just loves Emily! She's such a doll!!!

Girls Night Out!!!

2008-06-20T21:16:00.000-04:00

My friend Christine was celebrating her birthday. They asked me to join them so I said "sure, why not"!

Boy am I glad I did. I had a fabulous time - and even though I don't get out much, I have to say that these ladies were a blast to hang out with. The really cool thing is almost all of them live in our neighborhood association. I feel like I have a whole new group of great girlfriends!!!

So, Happy Birthday Christine - and thanks for an amazing time! I seriously can't wait until we do it again!!!

The girls! Back Row: Suzanne, Lisa, Me & Jill. Front Row: Mary, Christine & Jess

We went to this awesome restaurant on the Morse Reservoir called Wolfie's - we're definitely going back there, it felt like we were on vacation at some beach! This was a cool picture I got of the sunset.

2008-06-17T09:22:00.004-04:00

Well, what can you do when someone gets the idea to create a slip n slide in the backyard. My hubby got out the hose for the boys and one of their friends. He then attached it to the top of the slide on our playset, and let the boys have at it!

The first video clip is a funny one of Blake. He was going so fast that his bottom skidded on the grass. This prompted the 2nd video when Shawn added a tarp so they could "slide longer". The 3rd video is the kids getting creative and trying to form a train.

Ahhhhh, summer!!! You gotta love it!!!

Weekend Pics

2008-06-15T15:06:00.003-04:00

It's been a busy but fun weekend! Yesterday, we traveled to Cincinnati for an awesome party! I've known my friend Lori (or LL as I call her) since we were kids. We grew up in the same neighborhood, went to Jr. High and High School together, and even ended up living one house away when we were both married. Several years ago, Lori got Leukemia. Like so many other things in her life - Lori has come through this trial with flying colors, and I'm so proud of her!!! Today's celebration was called Lori's Re-Birth Party - it was the celebration of being cancer-free for 5 years!!! It's inspiring to see how faith in God, good friends and family, and perseverance can get you through whatever life hands you. I love ya LL!!!

I also included a few pics from Grant's last baseball game (which was against one of his best friends' teams) and a pic I took today of Grant and Daddy at the pool!

Hope you're all enjoying your summer!

Me and LL

Evan and Grant posing at the party

Patrick and Grant after their game

Daddy shielding Grant's eyes from the sun

Playdate!!!

2008-06-02T11:49:00.002-04:00

Today, we spent the morning at our friend Tara's house. We had been talking about getting all us girls together with the kids for a playdate for awhile now - it just took Tara's good organization skills to put it together!!!

The kids had a great time making a craft, while we girls chatted and ate some delicious food Tara made: French Toast Casserole (thanks Tara, I think I gained like 5 lbs. off that stuff); sausage pinwheels, blueberry muffins - ahhhh yes, it was yummy, my treadmill is gonna be working overtime on this today!!!

Let's do this again soon girls!

Shannon showed me something I didn't know my camera even had - a timer!!! Thanks to her, we got this great shot of the 4 of us: From L to R, Shannon, Tara, me and Shan Shan.

The boys playing together.

The girls playing together.

Craft time! Tara had the kids make cute pillowcases for their dads for Father's Day! This will be the only pic of Caleb's pillowcase - he was done so fast and before I could get my camera out, he was back to the playroom!!!
Blake's pillowcase!
Princess P's pillowcase!
Jake and Emily's pillowcase!
Our fearless craft leader Tara, setting the fabric crayon designs on the pillowcases.

2008-06-01T13:53:00.002-04:00

Ahhhhh, summer is here and it's about TIME!!! I love the month of June - it's still warm, but not too hot yet to be miserable.

Haven't taken a lot of pictures yet, but I'm sure with Summer break coming - we'll have more to share later. Here are just a few taken this past weekend.

Oh yeah, and here's an update on the job situation: drum roll please...

Although we really thought God was going to take us back home to Cincinnati - He decided otherwise. We asked God to show us a clear sign of His will, and after an interview mid-week, Shawn was offered a "perfect match position" within Lilly Friday afternoon. He'll be moving out of the Corporate offices downtown to another location, but this new Demand IT position was literally made for him - it's almost scary how much the job description fits him to a T. We still miss our family and best friends back home, but God always has a plan - and we're content to follow it!

Okay, no - we don't serve our children beer, they just thought it would be funny to take a picture with it. The weather was so nice, and we were so excited to finally be able to eat out on the deck!
Blake and his friend Katie. They love playing "picnic" in the backyard!

So what have YOU been doing lately...

2008-05-22T13:01:00.004-04:00

Well just let me fill you in on what I've been doing lately.

DISCLAIMER:
Don't EVER run for your homeowner's association board unless you REALLY want to do the work! hahaha!

So, being a board member for our HOA, I'm the Chair for the pool committee. Should be easy, right? NOT!

Here is how I've spent just about every waking non-child interrupted minute the past week or so.

1) Trying to pull teeth from the homeowners in our association to help check people in at the pool. We have 750 homes - how hard should that be??? And yet we only have a small handful of people . . . I'm not bitter though!

2) Pressure washing just about every square inch of the pool - restrooms, entry/breezeway, office, tables, chairs, walls - you name it, it's been power washed.

3) Repainting ALL the floors and a good majority of the walls.

4) Cleaning out all the crap that our lazy lifeguards and pool management company failed to do last year!

5) Making new signs and bulletin boards.

Okay, so the list could go on - I'm just griping because it bothers me that people don't really want to truly "belong" to a neighborhood.

So how about you? Do you belong to an HOA and if so, are you involved???
I'd love to hear your stories!!!

Despite all the pain, blood, sweat & tears, I have to say I'm pretty happy with the way the pool and poolhouse areas are going to look when it opens on Saturday! Check out my before and after pictures below!!! Warning - graphic pictures and content, "before" pictures may totally gross you out!!! ;o)

We purchased 5 huge petunia planters to help beautify the pool deck area - I love them!!!

Our entrance/breezeway before the wall and floor painting, new bulletin board and new vending machines.

Our entrance/breezeway after

One of the bathrooms before

One of the bathrooms after

Shower area before

Shower area after

Restroom stalls before

Restroom stalls after

Braces & Gardening

2008-05-14T22:46:00.002-04:00

Well, we finally bit the bullet and got the braces Evan so desperately needed a week ago today. The orthodontist told us we would see results fairly quickly, and although my pictures aren't great - you can really tell the difference 7 days makes. He has to wear a headgear from the time he gets home from school until the following morning, but he's doing great with that as well. This is Phase I, and should only last roughly 10 months. Phase II won't happen until he gets all his permanent teeth in, so we'll have a few years to recover from the sticker shock of Orthodontia before the next bill is due!!!

I also threw in a picture of Grant. Ever since I made my attempt at floral landscaping (2 posts below), he has really been into helping me take care of the flowers (including "HIS" flower that he picked out and told me where to plant down by the mailbox). So, my mom got him his very own watering can in his favorite color (green) so that he could continue helping me. He proudly had me take a picture of him using it the other day! This will be great for me, cuz' it would take me forever to water everything by myself. Hopefully he'll continue his interst in it!!!

May 7th, the day he got them put on. He chose the red in tribute to his Pokemon fascination - "Fire Red" is the proper name he told me. Anyway, hopefully you can see how crooked those 4 front teeth are - he rarely smiles in a wide grin because he says his teeth embarrass him, so hopefully that will go away when they start straightening out.

Today, May 14th. One week later and we already see them starting to straighten out. He's pretty excited by that, and doesn't even mind that he can't have gum and the like anymore - I think he's truly excited to be getting the straighter teeth he's wanted for awhile now.

"Gardener Grant", with his watering can and handy, dandy "special forces" vest - he's ready to water away!!!