Happy Birthday Great Grandma Jane

Friday Brody and I headed to Bloomington for Great Grandma Jane's "BIG" Birthday. We did a little shopping, then met Tess, Taylor, Lori, Grandma, and Annie to go get mani's and pedi's. Then headed to Biaggi's for lunch and met my mom and my Grandma's best friend Patty. As you can see Brody got plenty of spoiling-it was a great afternoon with the ladies.

HOPE YOU HAD A WONDERFUL BIRTHDAY-WE LOVE YOU!!

Happy Boy!

Even though my little guy has a stuffy nose he is still such a happy little boy!! I just love that he is awake more and more and full of smiles. I can't believe he will be 8 weeks on Friday-Sniff Sniff:( I only have a little over 2 weeks of maternity leave left-which makes me so sad. I'm so excited for Christmas to be here but then I know it means I'm a few days closer to returning to work.

Decorating our 1st Gingerbread House

Ashlyn woke up yesterday with pink eye so she couldn't go to daycare. I was trying to come up with something fun we could do and remembered I had bought a gingerbread house so once Brody was down for his morning nap I told her we could decorate it. OH MY GOSH she was SOOOO EXCITED!! Once she saw the candy she couldn't keep her hands off it.

Mommy put it together and Ashlyn decorated it!

She was so proud of it she kept giving it kisses!
Finished Product-she is so proud of her gingerbread house and I think she did an awesome job!

Makes mommy sad that I only have a few more weeks off and then its back to work. I have LOVED my time off with my babies-Ashlyn is still going to daycare 3-4 days a week which I think has been good. We didn't want to get her out of her routine plus if we didn't send her we risked the chance of loosing her spot at the daycare we LOVE so much.

Santa comes to Mommy's Work

Saturday Santa came to my work and brought presents for all the little kids! Ashlyn was very excited to see him and wasn't scared to sit on his lap-mommy was so proud of her!

Ashlyn helping Brody open his gift from Santa -he didn't open his eyes once in the 2 hrs we were there!!

Ashlyn got color wonder stuff from Santa!! She would paint everyday if we let her.

Ashlyn told santa she wants 2 presents-a balloon and candy:)

I love this picture-when santa came she was the ONLY kid that would go up to him. She was so serious and just kept telling him HI! It was so cute.

Emily tried to get a picture of the 2 of us:)

Emily came with us because Ryan was home sick with a sinus infection!! What would we do w/out Emma and Katie-Ashlyn LOVES them to pieces!!

So happy to see my daddy!

Brody was all smiles when his daddy got home today!! Ryan was in Peru-S. America all week for work and we missed him lots. Brody had a virus that he had been fighting off all week so it made for a long week for mommy. The good news is he is all better and as you can see all smiles:)

Festival of Lights

Last saturday evening we decided to take the kids over to see the festival of lights. Ashlyn thought it was so neat-she is still talking about it every time we pass a house that has lights out.

Ashlyn's First Christmas Program

Not so sure about Santa!

Her usual "CHEESY" Self
she looks so grown up:(
Tuesday night Ashlyn had her very 1st Christmas Program for Daycare-I didn't get any pictures of the program-I video taped it so Ryan could watch it when he got back. She was adorable and loved singing Jingle Bells. My little girl is growing up way to fast!

Christmas Card Pictures

Here are the pics we used this year for our christmas cards-originally I was getting the kids pics taken with Laura K but the day we had scheduled didn't work out. So then Tess and I tried to get a few pictures of the kids at Thanksgiving but I didn't like any of them. Last resort-portrait innovations and actually they did a pretty good job the best part, they were ready in 20 minutes:)

Nap Time

Last weekend Emily was over and Ashlyn insisted on laying on her lap to take her nap-we were cracking up how could this be comfortable!

Brody was snuggling with his mommy-I can't get enough cuddle time with this little guy, I'm so lucky both my babies have been the best snugglers.

Thanksgiving 2010

Madi was so cute with Brody-she was so excited to hold him.

Ashlyn didn't leave E-maws side from the minute she walked thru our door. Later in the day her other cousins, Ty, Mya and Madi came for Welborn Thanksgiving and Ashlyn got a little jealous-she didn't want her E-maw to play with them only her.
Brody and his Great Grandma Aupperle-so sweet!!

Attempting to get a family picture for xmas cards-didn't go so well so we won't be using this one.

Brody meeting his 2nd Cousin Addie for the 1st time. I think Taylor is hoping she won't hold him too long cause she is what we call "the baby hog."

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving-Thursday we went to my Aunt Lori's house for lunch and then later in the afternoon headed to Pontiac to the Aupperle side. They were all so excited to meet our little guy-he got lots of lovin:)

Saturday we had Welborn Thanksgiving at our house. We decided since we had Turkey on thursday to do Steak and Shrimp and boy was it yummy. We were sad that Jason had to work all day so they didn't get to come. Just a few more weeks and we get to meet their little one-can't wait.

I can't believe that 2010 is almost over! I know they say that the older you get the years just fly bye but GEE WHIZ can't they slow down a little I'm not that old. I love this time of year and even more that we have kids to create wonderful memories with. I have decided it would be nice to be off work every year during the holidays-reason #1 having time to SHOP:) I love christmas shopping but the past couple years dreaded it b/c I never had time but this year I'm almost finished and there are still 3 weeks til christmas.

One Month Old

Well today our little guy is a month old! I can't get over how much he has changed in a month. He is starting to be awake a little more for us and continues to sleep very well at night he is such a content baby. The other day he gave me a smile and last night was all smiles for daddy-I forgot how exciting it was to see that first smile from your sweet baby. I weighed him and he is exactly 10pds and measuring 22 1/4 long. I would say our little man won't be little for long at this rate!!
Ashlyn is doing much better about staying in her bed at night and its been 2 weeks since "B" went bye bye and she hasn't asked for it since. I would say the past few days she has done soo much better with Brody too. She has become quite the daddy's girl-I kind of thought this might happen since more of my attention is on Brody right now but thats ok-Ryan is totally loving the fact that she is all about him. Saturday I went Christmas shopping with my mom and Rachel so I took Brody with me and Ryan took Ashlyn over to Peoria to the zoo. Thats all she has talked about for the past couple days. Made me sad that I missed out on it but it was good for just the 2 of them to do something together. Yes things are a little more stressful now that we are a family of 4 and yes there have been some adjustments we have had to learn how to deal with but I wouldn't change a thing I'm so in love with my WONDERFUL family!! Most of all THANKFUL for what god has blessed me and Ryan with and thats 2 beautiful and healthy children.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!!!

Just a few random photos

Our sweet neighbor girl Emily giving our kids lots of lovin!! I think Brody slept in that position on her for 2 hrs. So sweet!
DADDY'S GIRL!!!

My little Rocker!! So excited that his little jeans finally fit:)

Little Monkey