Ho.....Ho......Ho.......

That was for all of your that watched "A Christmas Story" this year. Our two Christmases have gone very well so far. Friday Chris and Lara came to visit with us (or mostly Makenna, haha) before we headed over to Cayuga on Sunday for Christmas numero uno, Monday Mom, David, and Chris came over for Christmas numero dos and then Mom and Chris came back over on Tuesday for some Chinese, movie watching and video game playing...hehe! Like I mentioned our Christmases have been going great so far, we had a pork roast for the first and a glazed ham for the second, we are thinking pot roast for the finale! Makenna has TONS of new toys now and some very cute new clothes!

Today we ventured out for a day of shopping and running errands. Ok, so we finally left the house at 2....we were being lazy. We exchanged some pants that I bought Brent (in the wrong size, geez married 5 years, I should know better!), then we headed over to Tuscola to do the last of our Christmas shopping and then to Walmart AND THEN to dinner AND THEN to the library (which was closed when we got there) and then returned a movie at the rental place. Since then we have been bumming around the house, tried to fix the tube to the ice maker (need a part), then I tried to install a new light fixture (need two parts), then I gave up. To Lowes we will go.....tomorrow. Geez it sure is nice that we have gift card to use there, haha. So we posted some new pictures, included is one of the Christmas gifts...I asked for a cordless drill, Brent calls me a dork.

I'm Dreaming Of A White Christmas......

I would really love it if all the snow we have now would still be around for Christmas, but I would also like it to snow on Christmas and Christmas Eve as well. Haha, if someone could arrange that for me, that would be great. Ummm, Christmas update, almost done buying gifts, not quite done but ALMOST. We've been in an extra Christmas-y mood this year, lots of listening to music while doing house chores or cooking, going around humming to ourselves. I think Makenna is really going to enjoy Christmas this year, she enjoys at least ripping the bows off the presents that are sitting under the tree.

Yesterday Brent's aunt came over to drop off some gifts. We had a nice time chatting, showed them some updates to the house that we've done and then went out to lunch. They were suppose to be here at 2 but showed up at 11:00, needless to say the house was a mess! Actually I had just finished vacuuming Makenna's room after picking it up. So everyone saw the horrific toy hurricane and ground in cereal. I really should time her some time to see exactly how long it takes her to destroy the living room! I'm not sure my reflexes are that fast, start/done!

Last weekend we sat at home while it snowed and then played in the snow a few times. After we figured the plows had taken a few passes we ventured out to Lowes. I was still looking for curtains that went with the feel of the front room but had noticed that roman shades were on sale. So we went with measurements for the french doors to buy some. I also needed some curtain rods and those happened to be on sale too, soooooo, we bought four (hey, I have a lot of windows!). We also bought some light fixtures to install in the guest room, we will be replacing the oh so lovely florescent ballasts, Brent will tell you I hate florescent lights with a passion. Ok, so I didn't find curtains I liked but found some on ebay, wooohoo. We also got a new slipcover for the loveseat (the one I had was faux corduroy, and it was a cat hair death trap, really even after you washed it in the washing machine, still hairy!). Oh and it had some weird hard spots on it after putting it in the dryer, and I know it was just Makenna mushing (insert food item here) into it because it was like that because she was born, hmmm. Anyyyyyway, new slipcover, surefit this time and loveseat size, muuuuch better fit, and it was on sale. I liked it so much that I looked on ebay to see if I could find one for the couch. See we have a super comfy couch, somehow we ripped one of the arms, so I sewed it back together and then Brent put allll his weight on it and re-ripped it (4 inches wide this time), and with the way the fabric and the nap is, uhhh it is just easier to buy a slipcover. Anyway so for cheap we bought one on ebay too.

So like I said we are excited about Christmas, we are doing ham this year and it is non-catholic year. Every other year we go to a new church for a Christmas service, this year Mom and Chris picked a church. Next year will be Catholic church year. We are really excited that we are hosting Brent's family's Christmas this year! We'll see everyone in a little over a week!

Today Makenna and I are venturing out, we joined a local playgroup online. We are going to meet up with some locals at an indoor playground here in town. This way Makenna can get her play on with some kids about her age and maybe I can meet some mom's with similar interests! Honestly Makenna likes just putting on her coat and mittens to go anywhere, so I'm sure she'll be happy. Actually sometimes she just makes me put them on for no reason...she walks around the house with them on...she's weird. And for all those wayyyy toooo interested Makenna pooped in her training potty yesterday without a diaper on. I resisted taking a picture of it with her, is that not funny, lol. Yeah.... we are in the mist of potty training, she signs with sign language when she feels the urge to do either #1 or #2, will grab her diaper and sometimes tries to take her pants off. So I figured she was ready, lol. Uhhh, she is growing up tooo fast!

Ok, the great and powerful Oz has spoken! Get back to work people!

Just for the holidays...

Click to watch us shake our money makers!

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1258554623

More snow!

Yay we were dusted with more snow last night! Love it!

Anyway the real reason I was posting...Makenna went for her 15 month check-up yesterday and the stats are in...32 inches, 23 pounds. For height she is in the 75th percentile and weight was the 55th percentile, I think. Makenna only had to get two shots yesterday, they were still out of one that she needs, so she'll get that next time. She did really well and didn't even cry with the first shot, it was the second one that she didn't like, lol.

Let it snow, let it snow....

So we got a little dusting of snow this morning and last night, yay! This morning I bundled Makenna up and we took an excursion outside! She didn't really like playing in it but she liked walking because the leaves were crunchy! I grabbed my big honking faux slr that takes great pictures (although with super slow shutter speed) before we went out so I could get some wintery pics of Makenna. Do notice in the pictures she has a red mark on her forehead, yeah I accidentally smacked her in the head with the huge camera when I went to take her outside (it's on a neck strap). Doh!

This weekend we are going over to Indiana to bake some Christmas cookies with Grandma Helen! Yay! I'm sure Makenna won't mind as cookies are a love of hers.

Last night Grandma Vicki was nice enough to babysit Makenna for us while Brent and I went out for date night. We went to one of our once most favorite restaurants, Great Impasta, we just hadn't been in forever! The food was wonderful as well as the atmosphere! We had the steamed mussels, nicoise pasta salad, a bowl of clam chowder (so good!), and an Italian cream carrot blueberry cake (yeah it was as weird as it sounds)! Anyway it was lovely and we enjoyed it all so much we missed our movie that we were going to go to! Ahhh, c'est la vie! We ended up going to Walmart instead, yeah I know reallllly romantic but we needed milk, lol.

Last weekend we....didn't do a lot! Really, I don't think we left the house. We did however put up the Christmas lights on Sunday because it was freaking 60 degrees! I took Makenna to her swingset for the last swing of the season because it was so warm! Now the lights are up along with all the Christmas decor outside and we decorated the tree last week. This year the tree is in the guest room (at the moment), I'm thinking about maybe moving it into the front room after I clean it up and do a few touch ups (shhh, don't tell Brent)!

So I've slowly been working on finishing the front room, the woodwork needs to be polyed but I am going to wait until the spring to do that (I think I've killed enough brain cells this season)! I'm still looking for the perfect curtains, nothing has jumped out at me. But the chairrail is up!

Lots of new photos are up at Shutterfly!

Just letting you know new photos are up at Shutterfly!

And That's The Show....

Brent had yesterday off soooo he took the day off from house-ly duties and watched the baby. Mom and I decided to paint the front room, previously known as the wood room because it had wood floors....buuuuut since we now have the two rooms with wood floors it is now being called the front room. Did everyone follow that?

Anyway so we decided to paint the room like I said, Brent and I had already picked out the design we wanted as well as the paint colors. So we prepped the wall and stained the naked pine trim, mom also patched the fist sized hole in one of the walls (we bought it that way). Then we ran to Lowes and gazed at the PACKED parking lots and people shopping, luckily not a whole lot of people were Christmas shopping at the hardware store. We picked up our paint, Spackle, nails, and chair rail..and some other things, cause I managed to spend over 100 bucks. I'm like a kid in a candy store. Anyway I'm putting the second coat of paint on today and we are putting up the chair rail tomorrow. After all that home improvement-ny-ness we went out for some Mexican!



CiderToddy & Fragrant Cloves>>>





The colors look a little different in person, it was hard to get a really nice picture in person.

Gobble Gobble.....

Ok so it isn't turkey day yet....but who isn't excited already and looking forward to it!? Hopefully everyone had a nice weekend! We did especially with Illinois winning the football Saturday against Northwestern.

Saturday we visited a little with Grandma Vicki before heading over to Rental City (when you need it now, not eternally, just rent it, yeah that is the song.) to pick up our floor sanding kit. It came with the drum sander and an edger and PAPER, three grits. We started sanding the guest room at about 5:30 or 6-ish and finished for the night at 2am. At that point we had our first coat of poly on. Don't EVER EVER EVER glue carpet to hardwood floor, please. It took us forever to get it off, we just sanded it off because we didn't want to do it by hand, 6 coarse grit papers later, it was almost off. We did find out however that mineral spirits did a pretty good job of getting it off. I managed to accidentally drop the can of it, leaking about 1/3rd of it on the floor. Sunday we put two more coats of poly on the guest room floor and started on the wood room floor, we started about 11am and finished the wood room at 6pm. So we have two coats left to put on the wood room floor.
Grandma Vicki and Chris came over and babysat Makenna for a little bit while we polyed (haha, new word) the floor and then we went and had some pizza to celebrate the sore bodies we have today.

Here are some before and afters:



The Guest Room







The Wood Room



I've posted new photos on Shutterfly, just follow the link like usual. We have more photos of floors on there too if you are interested!

These boots were made for walk'n......

Ok, so she isn't wearing any boots, but doing some walking none the less!

Soooo, I've been messing with the look of the blog. What does everyone think? It is it easy enough to read? Let me know I can change the font color if it isn't. You will also notice to the right there is a little message board where you can post a little message for us!

Tonight we went to dinner with Grandma and Grandpa Taylor. Of coarse we had to have some Famous Daves because it is just sooooo goood! Sweet and sassy is running through these vains! Sunday we were able to meet up with Aunt JoAnn, Caleb and Colleen for some mexican, to make a long story short...Makenna ate a whole bowl of quacamole...seriously. Last weekend we also went to Danville for EmmaLee's birthday party! We got to see Jon and Aubrey's house for the first time and were able to catch up with a few friends that we hadn't seen in quite a long time! Makenna had fun playing with EmmaLee and we had fun visiting with Jon and Aubrey! Beforehand we had went to have some dinner at O'Leary's and afterwards visited with Jan and Pete! Yes Makenna met a lot of people these past few days that had met before but didn't remember!

Does anyone else think it is CRAZY that all the Christmas stuff is out, I mean I feel bad that I don't have the tree up yet. Really. Actually it is up..shhhh..it's in the chapel..cause we never took it apart following last Christmas, lol. Maybe that is what is next...Christmas crap all year long, they will stop putting it away all together!

Uhhhh...sorry I don't have any new pictures posted yet, because...I don't have any...I know don't hit me! I'll make it a priority to take some.

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween!

Hope everyone had a nice one! Last night we went to Grandma Vicki's for some dinner and then some trick or treating! Luckily we didn't have to trick anyone! Makenna was a little kangaroo this year, the costume even had a little pouch with a joey!

I'm still recovering from my wisdom teeth extraction, still taking some advil but other than that I am doing pretty well. The extraction didn't take long at all..I was in and out in 45 minutes. I went with the local anesthetic but also indulged in a little nitrous oxide, ie-laughing gas, to calm my nerves.

It is so hard to believe that it is November already! The year has really flown by! The weather is finally a bit more fall like and I finished planting all my bulbs! Hopefully the squirrels keep their little mitts off!

Last week we tore the carpet out of the guest room! Yay, unfortunately we now have some holes to patch or find bigger more original floor registers, booo AND the previous owners decided to GLUE the carpet to the hardwood. THANK YOU! Luckily the floor looks to be in really nice condition under the glue. We are hoping to have both the guest room and wood rooms floors refinished by Christmas, but we'll see how motivated we are. Last weekend we made our way down to PACA (the old house store) and found a screen door for the front door. Old wooden screen door, it was really nice, the screen can be swapped out for a glass panel portion, and it was only $15 bucks! Haha, love it!

Makenna had fun trick or treating and mostly eating her candy. Favorites would be peanut butter cups and anything sour. She got the peanut butter fixation from Brent and the sour fixation from me, lol. She isn't quite walking yet and must hold your hand even though she doesn't really need it. In fact now Makenna will come up to you if you are sitting on the couch, grab your hand and start walking, so now you have to walk around with her, hehe.

New pictures are up at Shutterfly!

We're BACKKKK!

Hey everyone! We are home...actually we got home Tuesday but we are just getting back into the swing of things. Brent took yesterday off as well to end vacation on a relaxing one. It included raking some leaves, planting some bulbs, getting some rubens, going to the orchard and then to Chinese! So today is his first day back! Tonight we are going to dinner with Grandpa Pat!

So as I said earlier we went to Curtis Orchard yesterday to go roam the pumpkin fields...though we already bought our pumpkin Tuesday at Walmart. Sorry you just can't beat 2.99 no matter what size. But we wanted to use to the pumpkin field as a background for some photos!

Vacation was fun, we stayed at the Disney Hilton for a few days before heading to the rental house in Kissimmee. Though we wish we would have went to the rental a few days earlier. Cause the Hilton SUCKED. Moving on...the rental was wonderful! While down in Florida we rode some horses, took a helicopter ride, mini-golfed, went to Seaworld and Busch Gardens. And we ate out at a few different places. All in all we had a really nice time! We even got to meet up with the Florida native relatives! We flew out of and into Bloomington which is really nice b/c of the free parking and it is only a 45 min drive from here!

New photos are up on Shutterfly!

We're ALIVE

Update: So we are all recovering from the stomach flu we had. Yeah the thing Makenna was sick from and then the cat was sick from, then we got Grandpa Darrell sick from, then Brent got sick from and then I got sick from....yeah. So I cancelled my surgery which was suppose to be today b/c I was really sick yesterday. It will be a few weeks from now. And Brent has been ordered to stay home from work for the rest of the week, as to not get anyone else sick. He gave a mild case of it to one co-worker Monday while he was there for a few hours. So just a quick update to let everyone know we are still alive.

And Makenna is getting one of her top teeth!

Illini wins!

We attended the Illini football game yesterday which we won! Makenna came with us and enjoyed her first football game Illini win. We rode our bikes down to the stadium, yeah there is a really interesting HILL. I managed to get our tickets off Craigslist last weekend for $11 bucks a tickets, sweetness I know!

Yesterday I also went to Heather bachlorette party. Yes she got drunk and the left THEEEEE bar before MIDNIGHT. As most of the party left Heather was on the bathroom floor crying, we are really sorry about that.

Moving on...Makenna woke this morning at 5:30 in VOMIT...I thought I might be cleaning up vomit but not from her. So she puked like 6 times between 5:30 and 9. She has since stopped after a short spell of diarrhea as well. THEN the cat started puking....uhhhhh.

Grandpa Darrell stopped in town today and we went to the Texas Road House for dinner. It was good though the steak was over cooked, yes I like it with a little moo left in.

Wednesday I am having my wisdom teeth removed. By the grace of god I only have 2 instead of 4. Unfortunately my two are partially erupted and caught under some bone. So Wednesday I am having them cut/pulled/torn or whatever other measures they must take to get them out. I am opting for local anesthesia instead of being knocked out so I don't have to recover from the general anesthesia. Yeah I went to school, I've seen the difference.

I've started packing as Brent will be taking off part of week to watch the baby while I recover and this way I can just recover. We leave on Saturday from Bloomington to Orlando.

New Pictures are up from the game and the Bachlorette Party (yeah cause you are that interested.) but they are up none the less for all who watch this page like a group (gaggle?) of hawks. Ok I know a group of geese is a gaggle so BACK OFF! HAHA

Makenna TV!

Some videos for your enjoyment!

Makenna putting a ball in her ball shooting toy thingy:



Makenna running with Brent's help:

For Your Viewing Pleasure....

Makenna having fun with a balloon on her birthday


Makenna using her walk-a-long thingy, you'll have to watch it sideways b/c apparently I can't rotate it and save it, sorry! And I apologize in advance for the messy house....

Boo yeah

Hiiiideeeehooooooeeee!

Makenna is doing well getting bigger every day and learning new words at a super fast pace. Yesterday she said leave it and sign. So now she can say: bye, hi, cat, kitty, mama, dada, daddy, sign and leave it. Geez...she's growing up too fast. She isn't walking yet but cruises like nobody's business and uses her walk along toy now!

Yesterday Brent got off work a little early! So we went and got some haircuts by the wonderful and talented JILL! We love her! Afterwards we had a delightful dinner at Famous Daves, oh yes the awesomeness of their bbq is unsurpassed.

Brent and I have been researching refinishing wood floors as the house has wood floors throughout the downstairs. Soooo, we are going to make them look pretty! That's right tearing up all the carpet downstairs and then after refinishing them putting down a few rugs we buy or have made.

I've been busy this week putting up some auctions on ebay. I made a few lots of Makenna's clothes, all of the clothes she has outgrown are taking up a ton of space! The closet room had a pile from the top of a table to the ceiling! Holy crap. So I needed to make some room.

The city was out this week trimming the trees in the parkway, in front of the house. The trees do look a lot better! The roof is still doing wonderful and the second floor stays a lot cooler now b/c of adaquate ventilation! Last weekend I was crawling around above Makenna's room b/c I had to patch a hole in a decorative vent under the gable. We think a squirrel may have become trapped when the roof was done so he ripped back some screen and bent the vent to es-cap-e.

Let's see, let's see...count down to Florida has begun!

Edit: New photos are up!

Ok for real...I'm posting!

Dahhhh, I know it has been forever since I posted! The week before last we had Makenna's first first birthday party at Grandpa Pat's house! We had lots of fun visiting with everyone and Makenna loved digging into her very own cake!

See below!






The Friday before Grandma Bonnie came into town and has been our lovely house guest ever since. We took her to the airport Friday morning as she flew out of Willard! We miss her and really enjoyed her coming and staying with us!




After we dropped off Grandma Bonnie, we came home to shower and then.....went to the one week boutique! Yay, lots of baby stuff...clothes...shoes...rain slicker, haha.

Last weekend we had Makenna's second first birthday party! We had lots of people attend! The cake was wonderful that we bought from the cake artist studio. There was only one tiny slice left! She had tons of fun!


The roof is done! All done!




Sunday we are suppose to get together with some friends and their daughter for lunch!
Not much else is going in this month thank goodness. Early next month we go to Orlando for vacation!

Sorry for the delay the desktop was having problems with the router! Buttttt....new pictures are up at Shutterfly! Follow the link on the right hand side! Enjoy

Time Flies When Your Having Fun

Let me see if I do this right.....

This should be Makenna and I waving in Chicago...a video...I think you have to click it.



And this should be Grandpa Darrell and Makenna swinging.....

Hey there!

Hi! Not much has happened since the last entry. But I'll entertain you anyway.

The roof is still being worked on because the massive amount of days that it has been raining! They have 3/4 of the roof torn off, sheathed and tar papered. The nice thing is that they have covered all the spots that were actively leaking! No more drips on the attic door in our bedroom late at night and no tupperware to catch the drips in the closet room! Yay! The roofer dudes are really awesome, working with us on lots of items. They will be putting up new fascia and are even going to paint it for us. We are replacing some of the crown moulding that is missing and they had some helpful opinions there. So the new crown moulding is all primed and painted just waiting to be put up! We are also thinking about replacing the gingerbread shingles and some of the tin with new gingerbread shingles instead of using just regular shingles.

We are also looking into having the house repainted and by house I mean trim, ha. We had one person come out to give us a quote, he is a student at the university and had to talk to his other guy and never called us back, so I think we scared him away. Probably for the better! I am going to give Uncle Tom a call and see what he thinks about doing the job.

Friday Grandma Bonnie is flying in to Willard, she wanted to come and spend some more time with Makenna and thought around her birthday would be a great time to do it. She also had a voucher that she recieved the last time she flew because she took a bump so whoooo hoooo! She will be staying for about two weeks and will get to do all kinds of fun stuff! Like.....

The Sweetcorn festival is this weekend! Yay, yummy sweet corn lovelyness! We've gone for the past couple of years, they always have good food and great music.

This weekend we are also going to Indiana to have Makenna's "first" first birthday party at Grandpa Pat's! We should have fun! Earlier in the week we stopped by the party store and bought Makenna's second first birthday party decorations! We also stopped by the Cake Artist Studio to order her cake! Yay!

Well that's it....I will try to upload pictures later today!

Our Travels

We are back from our travels! This past weekend we went to Chicago via the train, and stayed downtown on Michigan Ave. We had a nice time visiting Millennium park, Shed aquarium and Navy pier. After all that excitement we took the the train back down to Champaign, where life moves just a little bit slower, which is a good thing!

After we arrived back from Chicago Brent had a surprise arranged for our anniversary. He had arranged a local cake artist to create what our wedding cake was suppose to look like! The decorations we used for our wedding were on the table and he even brought my bouquet out. It was a wonderful sneaky surprise! We now have five years under our belt and a beautiful daughter to show for it.

Sunday we drove with Chris and Lara to Gailesburg to attend the West reunion. We had a good time and hadn't been to one since Brent and I were married. It had been a while! Makenna had fun though it was really hot, something like 98 degrees!

This morning the roofers started on our roof! Yay! It has begun.....

New pictures are up at shutterfly.

Howdy Howdy everybody! I feel like we have been going at a hundred miles a minute but....here is what has happened lately. The city finished the sidewalk and fixed our driveway...though they have yet to come pick up their signs. This past weekend we went to Curtis Orchard b/c they are OPEN! Oh yes the apple doughnut, pie and slushy goooodneeessss! We did some more landscaping! Bought another butterfly bush, some eenie weenie lilies, more sage, cat mint, two kinds of lavender, and a purple thing. I think that is it, and again Brent helped plant some of it! My glads are just now starting to bloom, and they are preetty! This weekend we also went to dinner with Grandma Vicki and Uncle Chris, Texas Roadhouse, it had been a while since we had been. We also got Makenna a swing set this weekend, it was free, someone was trying to get rid of it. I haven't taken a picture of it yet.

We are getting excited about next week, as the roof should be started! Thursday we are going to Chicago to celebrate our fifth anniversary, we are taking the train up. Then Friday we return and Brent's parents are coming into town. Actually I'm not sure whether one or both are but anyhow...and I think Chris and his wife are staying here too....then Sunday we are going to the West reunion. Whew.

New pictures are up at Shutterfly (follow the link to the right) AND as a treat new videos are up on the video page too! (Also follow the video page link)

Yay Yay Yay

Yesterday we got a call from Country Carpentry about the roof! So we now have a start date! Actually they wanted to start this morning BUT the city poured new sidewalks yesterday in front of the house, thous blocking the driveway. So August 6th is our start date! The week after next! We've felt like we have accomplished a lot this summer and still plan on resealing the driveway and doing some more exterior painting (once it starts cooling down a little bit)! And I probably do more landscaping....hahhahhaha. Then this winter we are planning on working on the laundry room. Insulating, drywalling, running water, 220, drain, vent and all that. We may also also carpet the house this winter as well, we've been looking at samples and such. If that doesn't keep us busy, haha, there is the woodwork to stain in the wood room, the paper plique treatment to do on the walls and the wood floors to finish, not to mention the popcorn ceiling (don't get me started!). So all is going well!

Knot Cute

We are back! We had a really nice time on our trip to Niagara Falls and Ottawa.

On the way up there we stayed the night after arriving at Niagara Falls. On the way to the falls we stopped at Lake Eerie, actually we had breakfast the Bob Evans there and decided why not. Makenna really enjoyed seeing the lake. At Niagara Falls, we stayed at a hotel built in the 1920's, it was really nice. We checked out the falls, took lots of pictures and got a little bit wet. After walking around the down town area for a while we went back to our hotel and had to ride the crazy elevator that had a mind of its own. Once in our room we checked out the view, that was wonderful and of coarse ordered pizza, haha, and it was GOOOOD! The fireworks started at about 9:30 and was a show to see, and free! The next morning we were out searching for some breakfast and decided to go to some Alien cafe, shaped like a flying saucer. It seemed interesting.... After breakfast we thought about going to the aquarium or going back to the falls but Makenna was about to take a nap and it was starting to rain so....

On to Ottawa! We started towards Ottawa and came back into the US b/c gas is cheaper here and Ontario drivers are plain CRAZY! After a few stops and food we arrived in Ottawa at the Novotel hotel. I can't remember what we had that night for dinner....the next morning though we went to the huge farmers market they had and stopped at a market cafe. By that time it was like 11 so Brent had a sandwich and I got the special of the day. Spinach quiche with Beef Vegetable soup (the best soup I have ever had!), it was really good. After that we had a tarte and Brent had white chocolate chip cookie. We did lots of swimming at the hotel pool and Makenna liked the hot tub. We had many meals at the hotels restaurant Cafe Nicole, they had wonderful food and an excellent breakfast buffet every morning. We also went to a restaurant called the foundation, because it is in a basement, and had some fondue for two, extremely good! After all was said and done we came home a little earlier than we thought but it was because the last two days we were there it rain, a lot. On those days we would just mosey to the mall, less than a block away. We never managed to walk to bridge over to Quebec b/c of the rain but before we left we did drive over it. Oh, and it was FREEZING. On to home....

We left Ottawa at 11am on Friday and arrived home at 6am on Saturday, driving straight through, I'll tell ya not a drive I care to do again. It was better on the way there b/c we stopped part way. On the way home we passed a little boat and I mentioned to Brent that awww, that was a cute boat...we start to pass it and read the name of the boat KNOT CUTE....haha, we got a kick out of it. Also while waiting in line for customs we pulled up to a lady traveling with two cats, one laying on the dash and the other hanging part way out her window, a sight to see. Anyway, we arrived home and then went to breakfast with lots of family b/c they were at our house visiting. We met mom and Chris at the Pancake house and then everyone came back here for some more social time. Luckily we did a little bit of picking up before we left (as far as we knew our company was arriving on Sunday, but plans changed while we were in Canada and everyone arrived Thursday)! So Sunday we had a family get together and more family came into town to have some burgers and more grub. Makenna got to play with the twins who are 19 months, they were more interested in her than vice versa. Today all the company has left and everything is back to normal, we had a wonderful time with everyone that came!

New pictures are posted at Shutterfly...the link is to the right on this page. Enjoy, we took lots of pictures!

Oh, I almost forgot! At one of the rest stops....Makenna learned to crawl! So she is now very mobile, she's still a little slow at it but also now likes to pulls herself up on things and cruise!

Aren't you lucky.....

You get two posts in one week! I totally forgot to mention that we leave for Ottawa on Saturday! We are scrambling to get stuff done before we go! Today we are going to get our passports out of the safe deposit box. We are mostly packed and have been picking up the house so we won't have to do it the day we get home. We will have family in town and gathering here the day after we get back, so better to do it now. We've book a room in Niagara Falls with floor to ceiling windows and a balcony with a hot tub...yep we went all out, we should have a great view of the fireworks! In Ottawa we are staying at a "European" hotel called the novotel. We'll take lots of pictures while we are gone!

This concrete smells like a fart!

Greetings everyone! This past weekend we did some do it yourselfing!

Friday Brent took the afternoon off work and we drove to Tuscola to do some outlet shopping! We were looking for a new pair of tennis shoes for Brent, and we found a pair! I found a cute pair of jeans and then we went to the local Monicals for dinner.

I think we may have also gone to Lowes this day to buy a replacement phlox b/c one of mine never started to grow. 4 Lilies, 1 phlox, 1 salvia, 1 russian sage and a balloon flower later...we left Lowes. Yeah I know I'm bad, hahahha. Brent even helped me plant them all, digging all the holes for me!

Sunday morning we went to church and then headed over to Grandma Vicki's to see what they were doing for lunch! We decided to go to Chili's!

Makenna is doing great, this week we lowered her crib and her pack and play. Brent taught her how to jump up and down standing up in her crib....and then she found out how to get to standing position by herself in the crib, not good. So we lowered everything!

Happy 4th!

Hope everyone had a nice 4th of July holiday! We really enjoyed ours here in Champaign! We got all cleaned up and then went to homer de po to get a new hedge trimmer b/c they were on sale and the one we have is from the 50s. After Home Depot we went and fed the geese at the Lowe's pond! In the afternoon we went to the parade with Mom and Chris. We had some lovely lemon shake-ups and funnel cake! Yummmm, afterwards we picked up some fried chicken (yeah I know I cheated)! After eating everyone took a nap b/c...we could! Around 7:30 we headed out to Parkland to get all set up to see the fireworks!

Makenna is doing great, she has her two teeth and can now say ma ma, as well as high five. She did surprisingly well yesterday..usually she goes to bed at 8 but stayed up til 10 to see the fireworks. No crying or anything from the fireworks she just watched them!

Next weekend we leave for Ottawa! It will be nice to get a vacation...seems like we haven't taken one in a while. We'll be stopping part way to see the Niagra Falls, since I've never been and Brent has been once before. We found a nice older hotel with a great view so hopefully we will enjoy that! It will also be Makenna's first trip out of the country!

Well, Happy Thursday!

New pictures are up at Shutterfly!

It's Tuuuuessday

UPDATE: Makenna now has TWO teeth that have broken through the gumline!

This weekend was an exciting one. We had a nice time at Mandy's wedding, it was like a mini high school reunion, lots of fun! Brent wanted to get some Wendy's in Danville before the festivities started so we were in town a little early buuuuut ran in to Megan who was at Custard Cup while we were eating at Wendy's. So we got to waste some time at her parents house cause we didn't really have anything else to do.....cause it's Danville.

Friday we celebrated Chris' 21st birthday. We ate at Ko Fusion, it was REALLLLLY good. Who knew deep fried sushi could be so tasty! We also had some regular sushi, kobe beef, seaweed salad (very good), a Go Go Mango (alcoholic beverage), and some dumpling things (3 different kinds). It was good like I said and my go go mango was catching up with me, I could only drink half b/c we were going to BOLTINI afterwards. I could be drunk before we got to the bar! So we walked down to Boltini were we had a cheese plate (of course) and I had a Strawberry gimlet (they make it themselves!), mom had a vanilla sex, and Chris had a BEER. Brent just drank a little of everyone elses.

Sunday we went to the Taste of CU and ate A LOT of food, famous daves, slushies, pie, doughnuts, popcorn, curly fries, gyros, icecream, pizza, lemon shakeups, ribs, and some veggie pastry thing Brent got. Oh and that rice breadstick? Makenna was the only one with a palette to enjoy that one. Ha! Makenna got to sample all the food, she especially liked the lemon shakeup and decided to eat the lemons out of it.


Just a short note for everyone- I am in the process of migrating my photos over to shutterfly at the moment. I am not sure if you will be able to access the photos on yahoo during this process. This was something I had to do as yahoo photos is shutting down in September, so I'm sorry about having to learn a new site but it isn't something that will happen often. Shutterfly should work the same as yahoo did. I'll update my link on this page (the one to the right) with the new photo page link. The new link is http://www.brentamandamakenna.shutterfly.com Thanks!

By the way you don't have to sign up to view the pictures!

Busy weekend coming up

Yep, we have a busy one coming up! Tonight we are celebrating Chris' birthday at Ko Fusion. No one has been there yet, so we are in for a surprise! Tomorrow we are going to Mandy's wedding in Danville! Then on Sunday we are taking it a little slower and planning on attending the Taste of Champaign, hopefully it doesn't rain!

We've done some more planting of flowers in the yard. We buy them from Lowes, in the back of the garden center they put "distressed plants" and mark them 50% off. So you just pick the best looking ones and plant them when you get home, cause they generally just need to be planted. We've bought some salvia, lilies, a butterfly bush, clemantis, and chocolate chip ajuga. Yesterday we also had the rest of the juniper bushes mulched down, our side back yard looks huge now!

Earlier this week Grandma Helen and Grandpa Lee stopped by to see Makenna since they were in town! She had lots of fun playing and visiting!

Off to do some laundry and pick up after the baaaaabbbbbyyyy!

C is for Cookie, that's good enough for me

What up? Summer seems like a very busy time! Last weekend Brent and I worked on painting the house trim, we didn't get it finished but that's life. This weekend we are going to try and put up new fascia and the last piece of gutters, maybe more painting, and cut down some volunteer trees.

Yesterday Grandma Vicki, Makenna and I went to the pool! We had lots of fun and water felt really good since it was warm out! I also planted a yellow cala lily, some columbine and a malva along with some day lilies to add to my ever growing landscaping project!

Recently I got in touch with a woman who is the daughter of a boy that grew up here in the 30's. She has been a wonderful help in learning about some of the history of her family as previous owners. She is also telling me stories her father told her about the house and has pictures that she is willing to look through for me (she inherited them from her aunt, who also grew up here). So I am just tickled to death with all the information!

The hotel is book for Ottawa next month! So it is official! Canada here we come.

I can't remember if I posted Makenna's stats so I'll do it again. 19lbs, 29 inches! Whooo hoooo! She is getting the hang of babbling and is starting to say daaa daaa. No mama yet and I'm not sure she associates dada with Brent. We've been trying to teach her sign language for dada but she has yet to use that sign.

New videos are currently uploading.

New pictures have been posted and I apologize in advance for looking so dirty in some of them. We had been outside working on painting and hadn't showered yet, did our hair or had any makeup on. Well, I was talking about makeup on me...you get the point.

Chao! Ps- Happy Birthday to Grandpa Pat!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Lala

This morning we signed the contract for the roof, whooooohooo! We can't believe that it is already June! Makenna is OFFICIALLY 9 months! Yay! This past weekend was a slower one, well, one with less guests. Yesterday we kinda took it slow til the afternoon when we went to Grandma Vicki's for some yummy chicken pitas and then went to get some custard at Cozy's! Saturday, Amanda went to Mandy's bachlorette party! We had a nice time, appetizers and gifts at Heather's, Olive Garden for dinner, then Boltini and afterwards Cowboy Monkey! I was the DD, everyone got back to Heather's around 2:30, by the time everyone was turning in it was 5 and getting light outside...so I decided to just drive home to sleep in my own bed, haha! Anyway we had a nice time out!

We really didn't take many pictures this week. Tuesday Brent took the day off and we lounged around, went to the store and then visited the pool! Makenna had lots of fun, even though the water was fairly cold. She even got to go around the lazy river! I believe we do have pics of the pool!



Anyone want a piece of prime real estate? Apparently the house next door to us, on the corner, will soon be up for sale. We noticed our neighboors packing and moving (the uhaul gave it away) yesterday.

Annnnnyway....I will try posting the new pictures we have later today! Love ya!


UPDATE: NEW PICS ARE UP!

Hey baby!

Hopefully everyone enjoyed the Memorial Day weekend! It was definitely a busy one here! Friday, Grandma and Grandpa West came into town for the weekend. Saturday we had a cook IN, haha, cause we didn't feel like grilling, italian beef was the on the menu. Sunday Uncle Chris and Aunt Lara came over and we had some PEEP before heading over to Peoria for a wedding reception. After getting back to Champaign on Sunday Chris, Lara, Brent and I went to DOS for some yummy mexican and then we headed to putt putt for some serious putt putt competition! I ended up winning, apparently I play better in wedge heels after a daiquiri! Moving on to Monday! Monday Makenna had an appointment to get her 9 month photos taken, afterwards we went to eat some Chinese! Grandma Cathy went to the airport around the same time Mom and Chris came over to grill up some yummy Cuban burgers! After dinner was over Brent took Grandpa Darrell to his truck so he could get on the road. Whewwwww.

Friday afternoon we found out our application for the roof was approved! Yay!

What else? I can't think of anything else right now sooooooo-----

NEW PICTURES ON YAHOO!

I am going to try to update the video page here in the next couple of days...yeah I know I am not good at updating it!

Hellllloooo

Hi!

Last weekend the gang went to Cayuga to a graduation party! It was a nice drive with lots of food, we even got to play some frisbee, though no one was really good at it, haha. Amanda painted more of the trim on the front porch, b/c the city says we are "poor" we got 4 gallons of exterior paint, primer and lots of caulk for free. We also replaced a good portion of fascia board on the front porch and put the gutter back up in front of that. The yard was also tended to a little, trying to weed out the flower beds and cut down the volunteer trees. We also went with Grandma Vicki garage sale-ing, some of the subdivisions were having neighborhood sales. We picked up some cute clothes for Makenna and some toys for her as well.

We got our second quote for the roof this week, it came in a $9,600! That is 10 grand less than about 4 other quotes we have from other places! Brent called the company back to make sure they knew that the roof has three layers of singles and the original tin roof, they said yep. We are waiting for our application to go through with the city b/c remember they say we are poor, so they will give us $8000 to help pay for the new roof.

Not much has been going on this week, just some cleaning, laundry, mowing the yard, yada yada yada. This weekend Grandma Cathy and Grandpa Darrell are coming for the holiday weekend. Sunday we are to go to a reception, which I still need to buy a gift for! I believe mom said David was coming down this weekend as well, ha, yeah I have nothing planned so far so go easy on me. The pool opens this weekend in all its glory and lazy riverness, I am excited can you tell! Who doesn't like to float in the lazy river all day without paying for a tube or getting off every time! And I can ride the slides without being pregnant, yeah I wasn't suppose to ride them pregnant but hey.

Amanda has been doing some gardening, since last summer she couldn't! We have some hostas in the front by the walkway and by a tree next to the driveway. Planted two clemantis in front of one of the trellises in the front. Menards had a good deal on gladioli so we have a bunch of those planted, though they won't survive the winter without being pulled and stored, boo hiss! So I have a ton of those left, but I am trading them on gardenweb with other gardeners to get other plants. I have 4 mums and 6 naked ladies coming my way right now! Haha, it's like recycling plants.

Makenna is doing wonderful, getting bigger everyday. She is currently beating the crap out of her spider alphabet toy, which she plays with 75% of the day. In fact Brent was caught by a co-worker the other day whistling the itsy bitsy spider! Anyway, she isn't crawling yet but will scoot backwards into another room. She understands the foot action and the hand action but doesn't utilize them at the same time.

We posted some new pics on yahoo!

UPDATE: Makenna learned how to drink through a straw today at the Mexican restaurant! Go Makenna!

In the mean time....

Well, Mother's Day came and went! We hope everyone had a nice one! For Mother's Day Mom, Chris, Brent, Makenna and me went to Timbers. A restaurant run by the people that use to own the possum trot, they have taken over the old Ned Kelly's building. The food and service was less than pleasant...they won't last very long if that is what they are planning on doing. Not to mention the child hex on the place. Makenna rarely misbehaves in public, yet at Timbers she could sit still to save her life! And as we were walking out of the restaurant we noticed EVERY child was having the same problem! Anyway so we decided dinner wasn't that great we would go and get some ICECREAM! We tried the new Marble Slab Creamery in Savory, we prefer the Cold Stone on green st but thought we should try it. Afterwards we went to play some mini golf since it was so nice outside! The first place was closed so we went to Putt Putt instead.

This is us at Putt Putt! Brent and Mom got hole in ones!

And of coarse Brent won the game....because he always does.

We got our memory in for the desktop, it runs faster but I noticed it was only coming up as 512mg instead of 1g. Looked at the memory and they mis-listed the item as 4 256mg modules instead of what they really were 4 128mg modules. Grrr, so they let us keep them and refunded our money but we only have 512 instead of 1g but at least that is double what we had. We finally backed up all our pictures, all 8 GIG of them! Ha, they barely fit on a duel layer dvd....geez.

Yesterday


Makenna and I were swinging on the front porch since it was nice out and you would never guess what we saw running down the sidewalk across the street. A bird, a plane, superman? Nope, an adult DEER! Now if you have every been to our house....you know we live in the city...really in the city. Yeah I was running down the sidewalk, we asked it where it was going... but it was in a hurry apparently.

Towards the end of last week we took Makenna to the park for a nice walk with the stroller. She had fun swinging in the infant swings and I helped her down the slide a few times. We took some pictures and they are posted on yahoo!

Looks like come July we will be taking a vacation to Ottawa, Canada. Brent has a conference, originally it was going to be in San Fransisco buuuuut they changed it. Now I would rather go to San Fransisco but for a basically free vacation I'll go to Canada. Makenna will have left the county when she was only 10 months!

Like I mentioned before, new yahoo photos posted! Enjoy!

YoYo

The week is halfway over! This weekend will be my first Mother's Day, we are planning something but aren't totally sure what we are going to do yet! I am thinking Dos though, must be something in the water that has been making me want Mexican food a lot.

Monday was our 7 year anniversary of dating! Brent sent an e-card, came home early with some flowers from Ginza and then we went out to eat! It was a nice night!

Brent gave me my Mother's Day gift today! It is a new to me digital camera! Yay, we already have one, yes, but this one is a digital slr camera, oh yeah 8x zoom! Someone was selling it on craigslist for a reasonable price, so we jumped on it! This is a picture of it below. It takes some really nice pictures with field of depth that takes lots of work when using my kodak!

Here is one of pictures I took

with the new camera:

Brent and I also bought some memory this week for the desktop computer because it is slllllooww, it hasn't been upgraded in about 5 years, poor thing. So we got a super deal on ebay 1gb for $31.00 shipped, I guess everyone forgot about it right before the auction ended. Other 1gb auctions were going for about $100! So we are waiting for that to arrive in the mail!

Last weekend Brent and I watched some movies and play a game of putt putt, which Brent won by one stoke. Sunday we were brave (and Menards was having a sale), so we bought an electric chain saws to do away with the horrid 7 foot juniper trees...uhhh bushes that were in front of the house! All FOUR of them! The front yard looks so much nicer now, and house looks huge! I also mowed the lawn and we bought a new weed wacker, I broke the one we had! We also bought some flowers to plant (bulbs) so that it will look a bit less barren than the front yard does right now!

Tomorrow will be a busy day! We have a meeting a 8am with someone from the city about a painting grant we were approved for! The city basically pays up to $500 for exterior paint for your house and garage, score! Then around 10am Brent and I have dentist appointments for a cleaning , just regular maintenance stuff. Everyone at the office likes to oogle over Makenna, so I am sure she likes that.

Makenna is getting bigger! She can use her sippy cup, and she can roll over now! When on her stomach she pulls her legs up to her chest so I am sure it will be only a matter of time before I will be chasing after her all around the house!

Makenna eating egg drop soup! Yum!

New photos on yahoo! Enjoy!

It's FRRRRIIIDDAAYYYY!

Yes it is Friday again! Yay!









This week Brent and I worked on arrangements for the vacation we are taking in October to Orlando. Brent has a conference down there so the University pays for his plane ticket down and back as well as the Disney Hilton for about five days. After the Hilton we have rented a vacation house in Kissimmee to share with Grandma Cathy, Grandpa Darrell, Uncle Chris and Aunt Lara. So we have been making plane reservations, looking into rental cars, booking the vacation house and trying to get an idea of what we want to do while we are down there!










I would like to thank Grandma Bonnie and Grandma Cathy and Darrell for buying us haunted toys. Haha, they aren't haunted all the time but this past weekend while Makenna was napping Brent and I were watching the tv and the boombox turned on by itself. It was face up not touching anything else, it was weird. I mentioned to Brent that it was weird because that week I had a dream about my Grandma Vivian (I don't usually dream about her), the day after the dream the picture of her on the coffee table was face down. So I am telling Brent about the picture turn and point to it and it is face down AGAIN (the day before I strateeegeryly place it with other items around it make sure the cat hadn't knocked it over). So ok weird, Makenna did use to play in front of one of our couches and would turn and smile at it like someone was sitting on it, Brent points out that couch is my Grandma Vivian's. So we decided ok something was touching a contact or the batteries are dying or something sane like that. Fast forward two hours, we are sitting in bed talking and the baby tad toy turns on by itself, face not touching a thing. Tad says Hi, I'm baby tad, peeka boo I see you, I love you and then bye bye. Call me crazy but you would've been freaking out too, two toys same day, different rooms. A quick shoutout to Grandma Vivian.


Earlier this week we had Chinese buffet with Grandpa Darrell, yummy sushi! Makenna likes Chinese, she like the rice and crab rangoon! We had a nice time visiting with him and Makenna had fun playing.









Last night we went to Dos with Grandma Vicki and Uncle Chris, it was REALLY good. Makenna had some chicken taco, guacamole, cheese dip and sweet potatoes (these came from home) AND of coarse she had to have ice cream since everyone else was eating it (she really likes ice cream)!








Makenna is doing great, it is nice to see her personality forming. She is learning to sign more words. She signs for hungry and diaper change right now. The only other words I have taught are kitty and bottle. She is babbling, no mama or dada yet but she can say baba when she wants to.








This weekend we are going to see Ryan and Heather on Monticello, they are suppose to have a farmers market flower market show thingy. Hopefully the weather will hold up for us! We also really need to mow the yard, it's a jungle out there!






New pics on Yahoo, sorry not a ton though!

That's MISSES cupcake to you!

Sorry it has been some time since I have last posted!

The weekend before last we went and visited with Grandpa Pat, Patty, Grandma Helen & Grandpa Lee. Uncle Chris drove over to Cayuga with us! We had a nice time over there, thank you to Baby Jesus! Haha!

Last weekend it was really nice out so we tried taking Makenna to the park again, hoping she wouldn't sleep through it! She decided to stay lucid this time and even did a little bit of swinging, she enjoyed that for about 90 seconds. We also had Peep, you know your jealous! We also had the oil changed for the first time in the Mountaineer, then had some Chinese food (yummy sushi), passing a burning Cadillac on the way (we have no idea). Sunday we went and visited with Grandma Vicki at her house!

Well, I think that is about it! New pics are posted on yahoo, though not many were taken recently.

Easter and All!

This past week was a busy one! Grandma Cathy and Grandpa Darrell came to visit in Champaign for Makenna's first Easter! Uncle Chris and Aunt Lara came to breakfast with us on Easter Sunday and had some very tasty Peep! They had to get up very early to get here but it was well worth it! Grandma Vicki, David, & Uncle Chris also joined us for a lovely and yummy Easter dinner!

Makenna got a few Easter presents but fell asleep before she could help color some Easter eggs!

This weekend is going to be an exciting one! Tomorrow we are going to get together with Ryan, Heather and Keely! We were going to have a picnic in Allerton but seeing as how the high for tomorrow is 39 degrees, we are going to come up with another plan! Our original plan was made when it was in the 70s! Then Sunday we are going to Cayuga to Grandpa Pat's!

This week Brent has been taking a training class for server maintenance..his last class is today! Amanda got her nails done this week and soooommmeetiimme when she catches her stylist we'll get her hair cut! Not much else has been going on just the usual go to the gym every other day. I've fallen in LOVE with the elliptical machine at the gym.....it's sooo nice and doesn't hurt my knees!

New yahoo pics posted today!

Park fun!

We are excited that Makenna's first Easter is coming! We took her to the park Saturday so she could ride in her little red wagon for the first time.....she slept almost the whole time we were there.

We finally just arranged her blankets so that she could use it as a bed, before she was sleeping while sitting.

I tried to take some pictures next to a tree in the park but unfortunately she had NUK FACE!

Sunday Brent finished the front porch roof (we still have to replace some of the fascia and put the gutters back up)! Not long after we went to Chilli's and had dinner with Grandpa Darrell! We had a nice time though Makenna was a little cranky because she was tired.

The yard is looking a little more pretty everyday now! All the flower are starting to blossom and the trees are budding! Last weekend I planted some flowers that I had started from seeds but some of them have bit the dust (hahahahha), not my fault, the terrorists...I mean squirrels find it fun to dig them up OR TAKE THEM ENTIRELY! What they do with them I have no idea!

New Yahoo Photos Posted!

A Birthday, Roofing and Sitting

A lot went on this past week! Brent turned the big 25, celebrating with some Peep for breakfast and then homemade pot roast for dinner! All of this followed up by a surprise ice cream cake from Coldstone! I think a pretty good birthday in all!

This past weekend we tackled the first part of the roof! We did the porch in a brownish color, it took a few days considering we had to tear off three layers of shingles AND the original tin roof. After that we had to lay some plywood, felt, drip edge....and so on. It really wasn't that difficult as most things aren't, it just takes time and patience.

The weather was quite nice this weekend, though a little warmer than we like at this time of the year....where did spring go? It is suppose to get cooler in a few days. We planted some flowers in the yard and did a little bit of painting to some of the house trim.

Makenna is doing lovely! She is still growing more hair, so much that we put a barrette in it this week (just to see if we could)!

She is sitting up really well now, she didn't really have any option. We sit her in highchairs at restaurants, she sits and plays when not in her exersaucer and when we go out to stores she goes in a cart or her stroller. Makenna has also discovered that she can chew and suck her toes...it makes for an interesting photo. Her face is orange because she had just had some spaghetti!

New photos posted on yahoo! Enjoy.

This week

This week was a busy one as family came into town for Grandpa Bill's funeral. Grandma Bonnie and Aunt Debbie came up from Florida and have had great fun spending time with Makenna. Last weekend we went over to Grandpa Bill's house to gather with family and have dinner. We ended up sorting out and looking over some old photos of the family which was really neat. Tuesday was the funeral and visitation in Danville at the Sunset Funeral Home. After the burial in Urbana the family went to eat at The Great Impasta, Brent arranged for a tour of the Art Theater which was nice. The Alger family use to own this theater along with a few others in the Champaign Urbana area.







These are just a few of the photos we looked through!








Wednesday Uncle Tom & Cathy came over to the Urbana library to look at the family folder they had. They also had some information on the theaters that the family owned but it turned out we had more info (as we should). So Cathy and Thom talked to some guy that had been researching the theaters for like three years and gave him a bunch of infomation. Afterwards Cathy told us all of some stories she remembered about the family. Hopefully we will be able to beef up the family folder a little more than it is right now for future generations.



Friday we had lunch with Grandpa Darrell! He got to see Makenna and how much hair she has grown! Grandpa Darrell also told us that he and Grandma Cathy would be coming to Easter!




The Friday before last Makenna had a doctor's appointment and along with that a couple of vaccinations (4)! She wieghed close to 17 pounds and was 28 inches! She smiles all the time and giggles without you having to entertain her. She absolutely loves bathtime, as soon as you set her in her bathseat and she just starts kicking the water and laughing. It is too cute.

She has started eating some finger foods and is getting the hang of it!




New pictures have been posted on the Yahoo Photo site! Enjoy!