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

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

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!!!

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!!!

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

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

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

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!!!

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!!!

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

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!