Christmas in a Bathroom

This years winter break was not one I'll look back on with a smile...from Sadie starting break by hurting her back two knees (which took about 3-4 weeks of recovery time), to me getting the flu on Christmas day, to spending 3 days at school working on things, to getting sick New Year's Eve after the ball dropped from "too flavorful of food" too quick on my still recovering flu-stomach.

On a positive note...my mom and I made our 1st homemade gingerbread house, I loved all the gifts Jack & I gave our family this year, Kailey & Maggie & Joe came in for Christmas, and Jack & I shared NYE with our very best of friends!!

Kailey came over for a visit before we all went bowling at Pinstripes for our traditional family bowling!

This is also where Sadie & Kailey met for the first time...they were really checking each other out...not to sure of the other! Cute though!!



Christmas Eve

It's fun to be Kailey's Aunt and I love feeding her!! :)





Sadie's First Christmas - opening her gifts at Grandma's


The day after Christmas...all recovered (for the most part)

Kisses from Uncle Jack are the bestest!!!

All 4 of us!



New Year's Eve - had dinner @ Ruth's Chris & then had our friends over for a night of many cheers!!! :)
Cheers to 2011!!
Sadie's 1st NYE with us!

Christmas Card Photo Shoot

This year we wanted to have a nice little family picture with Sadie, as her entrance into our lives made our 2010 so very special!! Our good friends Andrew & Courtney spent time with us and Sadie...who was not as cooperative this day...typical child behavior on picture day I guess, haha...she really does help in preparing us for kids!

We even had the "help" of some children at the grade school by our house in the after school program. They didn't seem to understand that we were trying to take a picture of just us, nor did their supervisors...which added a humorous/test of patience element!

Snow Pup

Sadie thinks she's an Alaskan husky I'm pretty sure...the snow is the only place she wants to be!!! The first day it snowed we feared that Sadie wouldn't want to go out, wouldn't go to the bathroom outside, and that those things would make for a very, very long winter on our part! Instead...it's going to make for a long, long winter because Sadie LOVES being outside in the snow running and eating all of it! Now we have a hard time telling she has to go potty because she normally paces around the door when she's gotta go...well now, she just paces around the door because she wants to go out in the snow. Jack also had to shovel out different path routes in our backyard because just 2 inches of snow means that Sadie is up to her arm pits in snow!!
As frustrating as it can be going out with her...it has given us many laughs and she is quite adorable in the snow, so happy!!

Sadie's 1st Birthday

Our little Sadie turned 1 on December 11th! We also had our 2nd annual holiday party that evening, but Sadie's birthday was celebrated a few hours before with our parents and Spenser (Jack's parents dog, Uncle Spenser to Sadie).
We got Sadie a dog cake from a little dog boutique in the area, as well as a birthday hat and a new toy, which was a birthday candle guy. We sang and she blew out her candle...well, I blew it out and she watched. She enjoyed the cake, and so did Spenser. Sadie's grandparents were very generous by bringing over some gifts for the little birthday girl. Overall, it was such a fun time celebrating Sadie's day she came into the world - she's made our lives so much happier and brings smiles & laughs to us every day. Love you lots Sadie lady!!!

Wine Trailing

Last November our good friends Jackie & Russ took us friends up to Southwestern & Central Michigan for a wine trail. They'd done this before, knew where to go, and I must say...are quite the trip planners (they have brought my crazy agendas to a whole new level!!). It was a wonderful time & we came home with 2 cases of wine. We loved it so much we did another trip in August to the same general area, re-visiting many of our favorites from before and trying out some new ones.
It has kind of become our "thing" now to go on a wine trail, mainly in November. So we went this time up to Traverse City, MI area for two days of wine trailing = 14 wineries and 2 breweries. We also added to our group, making it a total of 5 married couples, wine trailing in true suburbanite style!! We laughed at ourselves on many occasions for how "suburban" we really are!! And this year Jack & I came home with 3 cases of wine!!!

We had the most wonderful (much needed) weekend away with wonderful friends & marvelous wines & scenery!! We are truly blessed to have such great friends in our lives!!

Kappa Delta Sisters








FCS Couples

Fighting Irish

Ever since I was very little and my dad had me watch the movie Rudy, I have been a fan of Notre Dame & inspired by their history, traditions, and stories. It has always been a dream of mine to go to a Notre Dame football game...and 13th of November my dream came true! Now that I write that...I realized it was the 13th...a lucky number in my family and how fitting for my dream to come true on the 13th!! Love when that happens!!!



It was nearly a perfect "Rudy" day on campus...and Notre Dame's campus is the most beautiful campus I have ever seen/imagined ever seeing. The buildings were of a historic architecture, the trees were so mature & beautiful in their fall color, and the paths throughout the expansive campus made you feel alive! In my next life, I want to come back as a Notre Dame student...but for now I pray maybe I'll get to be a Notre Dame parent!! (Dream big...why not?!) The bookstore, as Mr. Fontana describes it, "It's the Marshall Fields of college bookstores!" and boy was he right!!
Being inside the stadium was everything I imagined, and the band....ohhh, the band!!! Amazing is an understatement! True entertainers full of talent, talent, talent!!!
Even though the the Irish God's poured rain down on us for the 1st half, I survived & still enjoyed it all!! The Fighting Irish beat Utah in a 28-3 finish & the students stormed the field like they had just won the National Championship!! It was really quite neat to see!!!

All in all - all-time favorite dream come true for me & I can't wait to go back again!!! GO IRISH!!

Meeting Kailey

Early this fall we went out to Boston to meet our new niece Kailey Angela. We are both a first time aunt and uncle, so we were beyond excited to meet and spoil the little princess!! It was so wonderful to have three days with Maggie, Joe, and Kailey enjoying each other, celebrating Jack's 25th Birthday, enjoying wineries, going to Rhode Island, seeing Harvard's campus/Harvard Square, and ending in downtown Boston!! It was a teary-eyed goodbye, but we now just look forward to the next time = Christmas!! We can't wait to see how much she's grown from when we saw her at only 3.5 weeks old! **Love you K-Wow!!**

Apple Picking

The highly anticipated apple picking day finally arrived and this year we were lucky enough to find a place where Sadie was welcome too!! Ever since last year when we went, Jack would ask about once a month..."Do we get to go apple picking soon?!" Well, the day finally came and he was in heaven, picking the best apples for us - and I must say he did a great job!! Sadie and I watched, picked a few, but mostly sniffed around and ran through the orchard.

After apple picking we went to their shop, got some pumpkins, delicious apple cider & apple donuts, and walked around a little more. It was a great morning of fall festivities!