Flashback to the 1980s

Stumbled across these pictures and they made me smile. I'm not sure what year they are from, but the picture on the left is my sister Amy (the leader), brother Tim in the middle and I'm in the rear. We played that bike train game for hours growing up. Amy was riding her green bike, appropriately named "green bean." Tim was riding "Little Blue" and I was on "Big Red." I think my kids should start naming their bikes. Did you name your bike growing up??? I know some people who name their cars. I've never done that :)

I was probably about 3 in the picture on the right. That's me in the white bonnet! That swing set is one of those memories that I'm not sure if I actually remember it or if I remember it because I've seen it in pictures.

Fun to remember....

Just the girls

Thanksgiving Day 2009

Thanksgiving always starts out early for Grammy Mary Ellen! The kitchen is usually smelling pretty good by the time we wake up! Then Aunt Angel arrives and seems to know just how to jump in and help with the cooking!

Aunt Angel with Gracey & Ella.

The siblings! Ryan's the middle child. Angel is the oldest and Robert is the youngest.A rare picture of Ryan and I.

Uncle Bob and Aunt Karen joined us for Thanksgiving dinner.

Aunt Ang and Uncle Beez

Aunt Lindsey and Aunt Angel with cousins Gracey and Ella.

Probably my favorite thing about our week in Illinois was watching these two play together. They love each other and have the best time together. And Gracey doesn't put up with Christian's moodiness for one second (I love that :) I heard her tell him at one point that Santa wasn't going to bring him many presents if he kept being so fussy!

Cousins Emma and Ella

Gracey, Christian and Zavier

Aunt Ang brought her laptop to show Grampy how high speed internet works.

Love this picture of Uncle Ryan and Gracey!

Just the girls! (Taken by Christian)

It was a wonderful Thanksgiving Day! It was actually rather relaxing (other than chasing McKenna around to make sure she wasn't getting into trouble). Grammy and Grampy work so hard to make our visits so fun and easy! Grammy is completely organized and has everything planned out. She had actually found one of Christian's gloves that he left there last year and remembered to give it to me, even with everything else going on! So anyway, it was a great day. We missed seeing Bill and Becky and their families, but we still had a wonderful day.

Just a sneak peek of the 279 pictures I took last week!

Can you believe it?? That really is me, with my toddler, driving a go-kart.

And we were racing these guys! There was lots of giggling and hollering and a certain little boy who yelled "faster, faster" the entire time! And just so you know...we love Illinois....we had a great week...and we were all sad to leave (especially since we knew exactly how long it was going to take to get home). And over the next couple of hours you are going to get to see our trip play by play. So get ready!!!

Mother's Day

Well, I accidentally published this post before I did all the journaling for it! OOPs!

Mother's Day morning was wonderful. I had breakfast in bed (with a baby and a preschooler joining me :) Christian gave me one of those recordable card - LOVE IT- and he also gave me flowers and an umbrella. Last week it rained for days and I could never find my umbrella, so my observant little boy told his daddy that I needed one. I love it that he knew the perfect gift to give me. I took the picture ABOVE^ while we were at church. Christian recorded a special message for me that they included in a video of during the service. And I took a picture of the video screen (don't worry I didn't use my flash, so no one knew I took a picture during church). Our church had a video camera set up this past week and you could come to church and record a message for your mom. It was a sweet idea.
After lunch at McDonalds (I know we really live it up for Mother's Day) we headed to the park. Christian is terrified about riding his bike. It's ridiculous, especially since his cousin Adam (who is younger than Christian) already took his training wheels off. Anyway, Christian has a genuine fear of his bike and we knew it was something we had to work on. So we packed up his bike and took it to the park hoping that a change of scenery would inspire him to want to ride. I guess I should also mention that we did bribe him with ice cream too! But he got his ice cream because he did a great job and when we got home he rode his bike all the way over to Aunt Amy's house.


The little boy who made me a mommy!

I love that look on her face!

I stuck this picture in here just to see if any of you know what these are?? I grew up playing in the woods with this particular plant and had fun teaching Christian about them.

My favorite picture from the day. Isn't that forest gorgeous behind them? Mother's Day was absolute perfection this year!!