Sunday, November 26, 2006

This week in Pictures

Thanksgiving 2006

Jamie has started putting these slide shows on her blog and since I have completely redone my blog, I thought that maybe I would try something a little different with my pictures too.

It has been awhile since my last post, but that might have something to do with the fact that we haven't been home in over a week. Last Saturday (the 18th) was a playoff football game, we won 65-41. That meant that they survived another week. We took off for Carrollton on Sunday morning about 9:30am. We got there about 2:30, that was after a short stop in Ennis for lunch. Chad had the opening worship for the conference on Sunday, so the girls and I stayed home. Monday Maddie was in heaven with having other kids to play with. Kathy watches 4 kids, but only three of them were there, so Maddie had friends to play with the whole day. Emma and I did some errand running in the morning and then came home for a nap. I went to pick Chad up at Prince of Peace and we went out with some of the staff from CLHS. It was nice to be out without the girls. Tuesday was a short day for Chad, so the girls and I went and picked him up and we went to the mall for lunch. We then headed home and that night Adam (Chad's college roommate), Kimi-another CUWer, and her husband came over and had dinner with us. We then ended up playing 8-handed euchre. It was a lot of fun. Wednesday was a hang out day. We went to church in the evening and then came home and played more cards. Thursday-Turkey Day. The girls gave us a great Thanksgiving present and they both slept for about thre hours. Emma was in the pack-n-play all by herself. It was so nice to have my hands free to do other things. We got to play outside since it was 78degrees. We ate and of course played more cards. Friday we (the girls) did venture out to Michaels for a few things. The boys stayed home and watched the Texas/A&M game. A&M did come out the winner, but it was a good game. We took Eric and Christina out for pizza while Dave and Kathy celebrated their anniversary. We came back and watched The Incredibles and then when everyone got home, it was another round of cards. I have no idea who won how many games, but we will have to get the official scoring from Dave and make sure we let Grandma and Grandpa Bickel know. Saturday we headed out at about 9:30. After taking out time and stopping at Pizza Hut for the lunch buffet, we managed to pull in about 2:45pm. Last night was a try to get unpacked and get things together. Maddie was so happy to see all her toys, that she managed to take everyone out of her toybox, all the ones off the shelves, and even dump her bins in her room. It is like is was some sort of homecoming ritual for her. Today was church, grocery shopping and football. We still have some unpacking to do and some getting the house in order. We are going to get all the Christmas stuff out next weekend and start the decorating. This week should be pretty low key, nothing major going on. Chad has just 8 weeks until baseball, so planning is beginning. We have just three weeks until we leave for Christmas and so we still have shopping to get done (I have a feeling that some of that will be done once we get to Wisconsin), and plans to make for while we are home.

We hope that everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving. We can't wait to see everyone in just a few weeks for Christmas. I am hoping for some snow for Maddie to be able to play and sled in. I just have this feeling that she will love sledding.

Thursday, November 16, 2006

In a new weight class

Well Emma had her 4 month check-up today and I think that she now weighs more than her cousin Ella who will be a year old next month. She had to get shots again today, but she did great. Maddie didn't have to have a check up, her's is next month. We got some medicine to hopefully clear up both of their colds that have made their noses run constantly for the last 3 weeks. We go through about a box of kleenex every 2 days. Other than that, just still recovering from the trip home last weekend. We are getting ready to leave again on Sunday morning after church. Saturday is the football playoff game, I don't think we will be going, but Chad has to be there to supervise. At least the game starts at 6pm instead of 7:30, so he should get home semi-early. We hope that everyone has a great Thanksgiving and it may be awhile until we post again.

Tuesday, November 14, 2006

What a Weekend

We have been gone and back to Wisconsin and it seemed like such a whirlwind weekend, but it was a whole lot of fun. The flight up there was good. Emma had a little hard time adjusting and then finally fell asleep. At least there was another kid on the plane that screamed the whole flight. Then Friday we went to Martin Luther and got a chance to catch up with Mr. Wingfield and saw cousin Alex in class. We met Amy, Ben, and Sam at Grandma and Grandpa's and headed out to Chuck E Cheese for lunch. Ben and Maddie had lots of fun playing games and running around. The rest of the day was spent hanging out. Saturday was Eric and Jackie's wedding. It was a good time. We went to the hotel after the ceremony and just waited for the reception to start. By 6pm some of the Janetzke clan came to take Emma and watch her up in the room. Maddie then stayed and danced for awhile. She was having a ball, she was dancing and doing sommersaults everywhere, even on the dance floor. We hung out for awhile, but came to the conclusion that we are getting old as we all sat around a table and just talked. In the morning we got up and ate breakfast with everyone and then it was off to the Janetzke's for the day. It was awesome to meet Luke and to see everyone. Not too much to report from Sunday, just a lot of catching up and hanging out. The flight back was pretty uneventful. We got back to the house by about 3:30 and it was just getting things in order for the rest of the night. I have loads of laundry to do to get ready to pack to go up to Carrollton this weekend. I can hardly believe that next week is already Thanksgiving. Tonight we are going to the girls basketball game, since the next home game isn't until December 15th or something like that. We have about 5 weeks until Christmas. That isn't that far away either. We are looking forward to having a little bit more time to see everyone then. Here are pictures from this weekend.














Get outta my way- Stuart and I might just run you over














Here's how Emma spent her day at Chuck E Cheese















Almost everyone looking at the camera















Waiting for the party to start














Just can't get them all at the same time














Cousin Ella-boy does she have one heck of a scream














Dancing with dad














Luke and Emma just talking to each other














Luke might be wearing the wrong colors, but we still love him

Sunday, November 05, 2006

A warm up here, so I think we'll head up north

Yes, we had our fall weather. It did dip down into the 40's at night here, but this week it is suppose to be back to 80 by Thursday. So what a perfect time to fly to Wisconsin and feel the nice 20 degree weather. I have a feeling that the longer we are down here, the harder it is going to be to adjust to the cold when we go back to visit. I think that I will be able to tolerate the cold because we get to see everyone. I am getting so excited to head home. It seems like it has been forever since we have seen anyone, even though Grandma and Aunt Jana were just down here three weeks ago. I have started to try to get organized for the week, but I'm sure that on Wednesday evening and Thursday morning we will be getting everything together.

This weekend was Homecoming. We did manage to get to the game and stay for the entire thing. We won 42-14. Maddie loves going to the games, so she can just run around with all the other kids. It was a little cold. It actually felt like football weather. Saturday Chad had announcing duty at school. The TAPPS had regional play at school and so he announced all the games. We went up and when the games were down, Maddie did what she does best, ran around the gym. Today has been a pretty lazy day. We went to church and came home and I went grocery shopping, it has been watching football the rest of the day. I have managed to throw some laundry in and get some other cleaning done too. This week looks pretty low key, just getting ready to go on Thursday. Christian does have a basketball game on Tuesday and so we might go to that. We can't wait to see everyone and meet cousin Luke. Maddie has been practicing her dance moves, so she can dance with cousin Ben at the party where there will be cake (Ben told me that there was going to be cake at this party on the phone the other day).














Maddie never wants to leave her hair in ponytails, so this is what she normally looks like when she pulls them out.














Here are the girls waiting for the game to start on Friday, Maddie was trying to sit like Emma (since she was propped up on the couch)














Outside at school, just hanging out on the picnic tables



















Always wondering why the camera is always in her face














Isaac trying to give Maddie a kiss

Thursday, November 02, 2006

2 pumpkins, a duck, an A&M football player, and Superman

Here is the line up minus one pumpkin. The missing pumpkin is Faith, but she was there. Well we went trick or treating up in the Sommermeyer's neighborhood on Tuesday. It isn't like we don't like our neighborhood, but we just thought that it would be more fun to go with other people. Maddie had a great time. She just followed Isaac and Gabe's lead. We then went back to the Sommermeyer's house for pizza and to hang out just for a little while. Other than Halloween this week, we haven't had too much going on. This week is Homecoming and the big game is tomorrow. I think that we will be going, since this is the last home game anyways.

The weather has cooled down here, so that has been nice. The last few days it has been in the high 60's, which has just been wonderful. It actually feels like fall. We are hoping that when we get to Wisconsin next week, we will get to see some fall colors. Hopefully no snow, we can wait for Christmas for that.

Emma News: She is getting to be her own person more and more everyday. She definetly is the complete opposite of Maddie. She is going to be our high maintenence kid. She is growing more and more. She is getting the hang of sitting up for just a few seconds at a time. She has rolling over from her tummy to back down, now we just need to get her from her back to tummy.

Maddie News: She continues to amaze me that we haven't made a trip to the ER yet. She will no doubt have some broken bone in her life. She is learning new words. There is going to be a day where she just starts saying them all at once. She is also learning some signs for some words. We have please and thank you down and are working in a few more.

Us News: Pretty much the girls' lives are our lives. Chad is working hard on getting baseball together, since the first practice is January 23rd. It isn't that far away. We are all looking forward to our visit home next week. We will have then just 4 days after we get back from Wisconsin to get ready to head up to Dallas for Thanksgiving.

Here are a few pictures from the last week: