Updated Pictures 3 out of 5

Wyatt's First Birthday pictures-Our Little Man

Sami at 6 months. Look how well she sits and she DOES have red hair. Maybe not as bright as her sister's but definately red. Speaking of sisters look who has one now!
her family blog

John Robert's sister, Lily Jean, at 20 weeks gestation

her family blog

The Vacation from Hell- ALMOST

The kids sharing Sami's rice cereal

Tom's back up birthday party

Our Entertainment

Wyatt's first steps

Sami

Notice the adults in their matching jammies

Ella wore my T-shirt for jammies until we could shop for her

game room

Ella & Jack playing ping pong

Grandma Joyce came to visit

Jack, Ella & Sami swimming at the "resort"

game room at the "resort"

Grandkids stockings from Grams & Pops

dentist Ella

Ohio roads

Uncle Shawn bonded with Wyatt

Jack loved to run around the table and yell "run, run run"

We weren't far from the Hall of Fame

I'd like to say Ella played alone with her video game but I can't

Ella getting things ready for PaPa's birthday

The kids got together and got me an external hard drive AND had it loaded with all their pictures

Uncle Tim came to visit and Ella took a shining to him

We really enjoyed spending so much time with Wyatt

Tom and I have been hosting a Christmas get away every other year since Thomas was in college. We have had his brother & his family and even his mother & step father join us but with our family getting so big with 8 adults, one child, 1 toddler and 2 babies we decided to just stick with the immediates.

We've tried a few different locations and this year we had some obstacles to overcome in the selection. Charlie had to work (in Ohio), Jen & her family would be getting back from a week in Chicago and I wanted to be close enough to Ohio family to give Tom a surprise 50th birthday party. I found a web sight for a "resort" close to Charlie, sent it to everyone and we agreed, Lake Atwood here we come!
After packing the cars with everything we could think of (and somehow Ella had no suitcase when we got there)to take we spent an hour longer than mapquest driving through stomach churning back roads to get to a cottage that looked nothing like the web sight. Even though it had 4 bedrooms, a kitchen( if you consider a fridge a tiny stove and 2' of counter space a kitchen)and a bath and a half (if you consider a shower stall in a powder room to be a full bath) it just wasn't going to work. We tried to call the "kids" to ask their opinion and realized there was no cell phone reception. It had advertised WiFi (which of course we didn't get, THAT was the resort) so it nevered occured to me we wouldn't get reception. Darn you AT & T!

The manager at the resort (which was just a hotel with a seldomly opened restraunt and a pool) offered us a second cottage for half price. We took it and Tom and I offered to share a cottage with the grandchildren so the adults could have their own. It seemed like it could work.

In the morning I woke up to mouse chewed bread. Natalie HATES rodents so she called the resort and they offered to let us move cottages and a free breakfast buffet. Aint that generous! Then Wyatt got sick, then Jack threw up, then Ella threw up and Grams threw up, then Jen threw up and Tom's birthday party got cancelled.

In Ohio Our Vacation Gave to Us

No cell or Internet Reception

2 Rustic cottages, one with a mouse

3 puking children

4 snow storms with a closed road

A cancelled 50th birthday party!

a closed bowling alley

7 hour drive on snow covered roads

8 miles to civilization
9 stomach aches
10 presents each
an 11" stove

12 family members

and a forgotten suitcase

This could have been the vacation from hell but I am so proud of my famil;y. They worked together, solved problems and even managed to have a great time. I love you guys, let's stay home next year.

It's Been a Whole Year!

I can't believe it was just a year ago that we were living this and now we are living this,

Happy Birthday Wyatt Thomas!

Let it Snow Let it Snow Let it Snow

It does not snow in Maryland. Maybe flurries a couple of times a year so when they were predicting a major storm coming through the whole state paniced. They even cancelled Jennifer & Shawn's flight to Chicago a full day before the snow was even expected but that's a story for another blog. Anyway in the eight winters we have lived here we've only had one real storm so we didn't take the threat seriously. I guess we were wrong. Gratefully we had plenty of milk and bread, Jen made it to Chicago ahead of the storm via car and cash from Mom & Dad and Natalie's parents & brother made it here from Kentucky just in time for the excitement. Thomas & Natalie's house at the very beginning

I sent this picture to my brother and asked if he was ready for a picnic.

He wanted to know if we were serving "cold cuts"

Our sidewalk after shoveling. The spiral trees lining it are totally covered and the lights shine through the snow.

The crisis is over now. The sun is out and the snow is already melting.

Maybe tomorrow we'll go sledding.

Not Me Monday

Oh my Goodness, I have been been having such a hard time finding the time and energy to post! I Did Not just spend the whole day sitting on the couch with my computer, the tree downstairs needing the last of the ornaments hung. NOT ME I Do Not Let Ella pick out Sami's clothes in the morning, even when it means pink tights, pink capris and pink slippers with a T-shirt. NOT ME
I Did Not complain so much about missing my grandson that Charlie now sends me multiple pictures of him from his phone every day. NOT ME


I Did Not let Jack have the whole box of Cheerios to snack on
to have him feed them to the dogs. NOT ME

I Did Not spend $17 on a dinner for Ella
just because she wanted "pink steak" NOT ME

I Did Not spend the entire week working on Sami's sitting skills just to make sure she could sit for her six month pictures at the end of the month. NOT ME

I Did Not just add this picture because she is so darn cute! NOT ME

A Christmas Memory

No, the house is not on fire This was how my mother "decorated" the house where I spent most of my childhood. It was over a hundred years old and was beautiful with hardwood floors and high ceilings (my brothers used to have contests to see who could jump up and touch the ceiling, leaving dirty fingerprints where they couldn,t be cleaned). The part that sold my mother on it was that it had 13 rooms and six of them were bedrooms. With five children and her mother moving in it was a dream for her. Of course the fact that it was the coldest house in the world (in MY opinion) with NO heat in the bedrooms and only 1 and 3/4 baths for eight people didn,t matter that much to her. They got it for a steal in 1969 for $20,000 and sold it for $80,000 in 1984. She really wanted to sell it to another large family but it really was a lot of house for one family. It ended up being split up into offices and I get sad when we drive past it now and remember what it used to be.