Thanksgiving 2007

Thanksgiving was pretty great this year. We traveled over to Nik's family in Kendallville for lunch. I ended up taking all my pictures that day over there because when we got to my family's house in Butler for supper, there didn't end up being any kids there. My cousn's son was sick and in the hospital and her boyfriend's kids didn't come as a result of that. And my brother Lance's three sons were all in Pennslyvania visiting their grandparents. So anyways, the food was fabulous as always and it was great to visit with everyone. Shopping the next day was absolutely crazy. We ate at Cracker Barrel by 6am and there were several people there already. Next we hit Kohls and waited an hour in line. The mall was nuts. But it was fun day anyways. I hope you all had a great holiday.

Savannah and Hailey taking care of their "Webkins" online.

Daddy and Carter

Grandpa and Jordan

Grandma and "I'm too sweaty" Boy

I'm going to Pump You Up!!

Savannah and Hailey with their Webkins

Carter and Tye enjoying the trampoline

Party for Joel and Tara

I hosted a baby shower for my sister-in-law Tara on Saturday. We had a good turnout and I think everyone enjoyed themselves. The cake turned out awesome. Leslie did a great job!! My mom did a lot of work by helping me put things together and even doing a little house cleaning with me before everyone came. It was a good day, although poor Nik was stuck in the basement with the kiddos for a little while. He's a good sport. :) Love you honey!!

Here are a couple pics from the shower.

Momma Tara and her Cake

Baby Joel's Cake

This is from last night. Carter fell asleep during Toy Story 2. He didn't have his nap yesterday, so he was pretty tuckered out.

Making Memories

Saturday was a very successful day. My mom and dad came over and brought lunch. Then dad worked on several projects that I have wanted to get done. He enjoys accomplishing tasks like that.

*Closed a rusted vent that was freezing my bathroom out.

*Straightened a shelf on my fireplace that I couldn't move cuz it was jammed.

*Hung a huge picture on my wall that required a drill and some special nails.

*Showed me how to unhook my sink drains cuz they were attached underneath. I was only able to clean them with Draino and it was driving me crazy not being able to pull the stuff out from underneath them. Now I know how!!

*Put on new door knobs to our playroom.

*Fixed our loose door knob on our front door.

Then mom took me out for some early christmas present shopping for some things for my home. It was a great day. Nik was able to get all the leaves cleaned up off the yard, and there are a ton of leaves. It was a nice day out to do it. He and Carter took a break to enjoy jumping in the leaves.

Baby, it's Cold Outside

Carter's new Cars hat and mittens. He couldn't wait to wear them this morning.

The Potty Training Blues

So for the last few months we have been working on potty training Carter. At first he was excited to pee in the potty and would tell us pretty frequently that he had to go. But then he started slacking and really didn't show much interest after while, and basically didn't care if he peed and pooped in his diaper at all. So when I pick him up from the sitters after work every day, he either gets a cookie before we leave there or if he has gone in his diaper all day, he doesn't get one, and therefore, doesn't get a snack at home either.

That didn't have much affect. So next I tried sitting him on the naughty chair when we got home for 5 minutes. Nothing changed. He still would go in his diaper later that night. And yes, I do frequently ask him if he has to go potty, and he always says no. I guess maybe I should make him sit on the potty even if he doesn't have to, so that he gets used to it. Or maybe I should start a routine of right when we get home, after supper, and before bed. We have also taken away his drum playing, his favorite movie, and he doesn't get to open and close the garage door like usual. I feel like such a mean mommy, but nothing is working and I am sick of changing diapers blah... I have even bought new matchbox cars and showed him that he can have one for each time that he goes poopy. He has "yet" to do that. I am so discouraged. I know that eventually it will happen, but man, he is 3 now. And he is showing no sign of cooperation at all.

My friend Amy has a son 6 months younger than Carter, and he has been in underwear now for a month. I am soooooooooo jealous. We'll get there. Someday.

Soul Bridge

Some of the worship members of our church started an outreach band called Soul Bridge. We have been working on songs for a few months now and have done a couple outreaches. We also do songs for our 2nd service at church geared more towards a younger crowd. I am the only singer, so sometimes I get overwhelmed with all the practices, but it will all work out. We have fun together anyways... Jon is our electric guitarist on the left. Next is our bass player named Roger, then to your right is Chuck our drummer. Chuck's girlfriend does a lot of stuff in photography, so she graciously took several pics for us. We will prob get more done, cuz I don't know if any of these will be our final product for our band picture, but it's a start, and I think they look pretty good.

CHI TOWN

Friday my work took a charter bus to Chicago for the day. It was awesome because they had the bus stocked with breakfast foods and juice and pop. My friend Amy went with me for the day. We left at 7am and got home around 10:30pm. It was a great trip. I don't think I have ever walked so much in my life. Whew... But it felt great to get that much exercise. First we went to Crate and Barrell and then Pottery Barn. Amy had never gone shopping in Chicago, so this was extra fun for her. Next we went to the Water Tower Mall. I didn't remember that there were so many floors. Next we had lunch at a place called The Soup Box. Man, that was sooooo good. They had all these black kettles full of several different kinds of soups sitting on the counter. We had just beat the rush too. We both got the Lobster Bisque soup, which comes with dipping bread. It was so hot and creamy... Yum!!!

We went into the regular stores next like Gap, H&M, and Old Navy, etc. I must say, honestly, the way things are set up there, I think Fort Wayne does a better job!! We went into Bed Bath and Beyond and it was kind of disorganized. But we had a great day anyway. We went to a pizza place at the end of the night. They are known for their deep dish pizza, but we were low on cash and decided to just get the thin crust. It was okay. I am sure the deep dish was amazing, but we'll get that next time. We also stopped at FAO Shwartz. That is a giant toy store. It had all these huge stuffed animals, which I included some pictures of. By the way, who in their right mind would ever want a giant stuffed animal moose that was $1,200?

Half way through our day, we walked by a silver-painted man. He would just stand there very still at first and then if you put money in his bucket, he would "turn on" and start moving like a robot and making these weird noises. He was pretty rude though, if you started taking pictures or video of him, he would hold up a sign that read $$$$$$$ For Activation or Pictures. One girl kept taking pictures and hadn't paid, and he walked off of his bucket and put the sign right in her face. Glad that wasn't me!! How embarressing.

Water Tower Mall. So many levels.

Water Tower Mall

FAO Shwartz. This was the tallest animal we saw.

Would you like to buy a giant moose?
The Pizza Place. Good Times..

The Silver Painted Man

Glow Stick in the Dark