Papa Visit

The kids participated in the Awana Sparks-a-Rama today in Highland.
Since it is rare we make it to Highland these days, we took the opportunity to run to my dad's gravesite.
Ry and Julia thought it was very important to add some "flowers" (weeds) by his headstone.

Gram's Bears

Tonight we met Gram and Papa, Patrick and Crystal out for dinner at Bigelo's Bistro, one of our favorite local eateries.  Gram brought a surprise with her for the kids--these bears she crocheted. She had given Ryan his when he was a baby, and last night she gave him the sweater for his bear. She gave Julia her own bear with sweater and hairbow.  Can you tell they are excited?  

Princess Tea

It's been kinda crazy around here, and I've neglected the blog a bit...last week my mom and Julia had a fun little afternoon I didn't want to miss recording...

Our princesses pose on the red (and black and khaki) carpet before the tea party.

Julia was in princess heaven when my mom brought over her gown, tiara, slippers and wand for their grand tea.

Jeff's parents arrived home today from their L.O.N.G. trip west. The kids wasted no time before visiting, and Ryan wanted grandma to bring him to the library (he's learned Eville has more Batman DVDs than GCarbon), and he fell asleep there, so he's spending the night. Julia has been super-clingy lately and she hung with Jeff and I and we visited Peel for dinner. Thumbs up. Julia loved their ceasar salad, which makes me heart it that much more!

And tomorrow is kindgarten registration. I am in complete denial. Not. Happening.

Christmas Afternoon

Christmas afternoon after we'd opened all our gifts as a family, my parents stopped by for some more Christmas fun.

We had races in the basement on our wiggle racers.

It's a close race between Ry and Glammie. I'm not in the photo because I was so far in the lead. =)

Julia and Glammie round the corner...it's a close race!

Christmas lovin' and more presents!

Christmas Eve Fun

Happy Christmas Eve!

Cheers with Jim's home-brewed beer in chocolate flavor.

Uncle Patrick cuddles up with Ry.

Are we having fun yet?

We are! It's not a party til your hair is curled!

Dear Ryan, I'm asking in advance, for your forgiveness for posting this sweet photo of you and your sister dressing up as Princess Aurora and Cinderella.

Aunt Stacy helps an overwhelmed princess Julia into her many costume changes for the evening.

Snow White!

Telestrations evokes some great laughter!

Yippee! It's a Batman 'copter!

Bippety, Boppety, Boo!

Christmas With Granny Re

Uncle Jeff and Aunt Amy enjoy some snuggle time with Cole. Just for the record, Amy now has 7 nieces/nephews and has changed ZERO diapers...I'm just sayin'. =)

My cutie pie and Grandma's kitty.

Grammie slips Lucas an M&M. Shhh!!

Grammie, Amy, Krista and Cole ready to eat the feast Grandma prepared. I know we are a growing family, but she seemed to cook for an army this year!!

Mat presents Grandma Re with a collection of CDs he picked up on the way to the party from the Troy truck stop. Julia got a similiar gift for her birthday-a Tshirt that said, "I love Troy, Illinois"-humm..I wonder what Tyler will get at his party next week. For the record, that shirt will be regifted to the next girl born in the family. That lucky fashionova will get this heirloom!

Thank you, Granny Re. Our home seemed to be missing an air gun. The instructions "Do not aim for anyone!" went right out the window when Daddy picked it up and started a war with Uncle Jeff. Nice.

My turn to snuggle with the little man!

Mat and Beth show off their champagne. Granny Re always surprises us with the array of surprises she chooses for Christmas gifts--a few years ago we were all gifted thong underwear. No--seriously!!! I'm wondering if she's read some book, "How to keep family Christmas parties lively" or something like that!?!

Amy thought this one was photo worthy--Granny Re WHO is my husband again?!?!

New Blankies - For All!

Ry had a little case of jealousy when Grandma recently made replacement blankies for Julia. (Which since her old ones showed up...seriously, a miracle we still can't figure out!!!) He asked Grandma to make him a "blue, green and yellow" blankie for him too. This new blankie was delivered today. =)

I Heart My MIL!

I have somehow managed to lose BOTH of Julia's blankies in a 12 hour period. (This all happened between pickup at preschool and the pumpkin farm!?) Of course, this happens when Jeff is set to take off for New York and leave me to single parent this stressed out 2 year old!

My neighbor, Trina, crocheted these blankies for Julia when she was born...and out of all the blankets we bought/were gifted, this was the one which she fell in love.

Fortunately, Trina still had some of the yarn...and picked up some more for me today. (THANK YOU!)

Grandma is a big HERO here, whipping out a little substitute (which I am happy to report Julia is taking to quite well!) in one afternoon...while somehow also baking cookies with the kids. THANK YOU, GRANDMA!

Pecan Hunt

On our visit to the Schuette's house today, Grandma gave each child a bucket to "hunt" for pecans on the ground near their pecan tree.

Grandpa is always happy to see the kids.
Ryan and Grandma try to find more than Julia.

She's running to fill up her basket!

Camping

The kids were so excited to see Grandma and Grandpa Harriss (who have been gone for the entire summer in NY). They decided to drive up to Olney, IL and meet up with them on their journey home for a little weekend camping.

Grandma's Favorite Quote

My grandparents LOVE seeing the kids, and if a week goes by they miss them and are calling to see when we can get together. This morning we drove to their house, and the kids were entertained when Grandma gave them each a fly swatter to kill sweat bees in her backyard that continued landing on their lawn chairs.

Later in our visit, Ry had scratched a scab off his leg and it started to bleed. Grandma brought him inside to get him cleaned up and a band-aid. She tells me as she was wiping his leg off, he was looking intently at her and the following ensued:

Ry: Grandma, you are handsome!
Grandma: What?
Ry: Yeah, you are so cute!

She tells me this made her day, year, century...

Isn't it so sweet how Ry sees beauty at the age of 4? It's not as the world defines beauty. But she was serving him, and in that moment, he was stuck with her beauty-or handsomeness! =)

Goodbye Grumpy.

We got some sad news at the end of our Vegas trip...Grumpy (Great Grandpa Hettinger) passed away on August 1, 2009. Although we didn't get to visit with him too often, Grumpy was one of Ryan's favorite people. He talked about him often, and would ask me when he was going to get to see Grumpy again. (He lived in Chicago). Grumpy would make a growling sound that the kids loved, and he had "cool stuff" on his walker according to Ryan- blinking lights and a horn the kids loved to honk over and over and over.
In case you are wondering, I have no idea how Grumpy got his nickname...he had a great sense of humor and never seemed grumpy to me! =)

Here is a picture of the two buddies bonding over some M&Ms (thanks Kathy!) on a recent (and last) visit to Chicago on June 21.

This photo is from a visit in October 2008 when Kathy and Grumpy came down for a visit and we met at MacDonalds for breakfast.

Grumpy's funeral was held on Wednesday, August 5, 2009. His grandchildren were pallbearers, and Ryan wanted to help out as well, so he "held" up the rear of the casket helping out daddy and his cousins.

In preparation for the day, I'd gone to the library and checked out some books for Ry about death. So, he did have some understanding. He didn't seem afraid at all, and he didn't cry. At the wake, he told me he wanted to go see Grumpy, and he went right up to his casket (Ryan called this his treasure chest for some reason) and held his hand and then flew a toy airplane he had in his pocket all around Grumpy, letting it come to rest on his tie lapel.

A few days before the funeral, Ryan told me that he wanted to make a letter to put on top of Grumpy's casket so that they would not dig up Grumpy and take him. I have no idea where he got that idea from (church, where they thought maybe thieves had stolen Jesus' body?) but he seemed to forget about it later, and we never did this.

While I think Julia won't ever remember much of this day, she did have a little idea of what was going on. She told me she wanted to see Grumpy, so we walked up to the casket, and she said "Bye, bye Grumpy" while waving to him.

Grumpy will be missed!

Daddy Rocks!

We celebrated Daddy (and Papa!) today with a brunch at our house and then a competitive game of Uno Attack.

Aunt Stacy and her favorite little guy get cozy.

Julia busies herself during our game by pulling out her American Girl catalog and "shopping".

Ry helps Uncle Patrick by pressing the game button for him, and Aunt Crystal sports her sticker bling Julia gives her on her shirt.

Visit with Grumpy & Aunt Kathy

Today we drove up to Chicago to visit Grumpy and Aunt Kathy. Ryan continues his 3 year obsession with trains, so he was super excited when Aunt Kathy offered to bring us to see some up close! This particular train is the same type Grumpy used to work for!

I heart trains!

Grumpy spoils Ryan with a bag of M&Ms.

The kids enjoy a treat of peppers, which they like to eat like apples. Except the green ones, which Ry deems as "Yucky!"