Let's talk Turkey...

Yesterday was our third Thanksgiving away from our families...

It really isn't getting any easier, but we still had a nice day.

I really like cooking, especially big meals with lots of left overs!

Everything was delicious, although Kasey later told my Mom that my Turkey was dry????

It was NOT dry, it was perfect-JEEZ

I asked Avery what he was most thankful for...

His reply "MILK, I LOVE MILK!"
As a matter of fact, that's all he had for Thanksgiving dinner. I can't get him to eat anything?

Anyway, we have a lot to be thankful for. And even though the holidays

will be spent away from our families,

we are grateful for the Internet and phones and mail!

The baby that inspired two tattoos...

It's hard to believe that it's been 14 years since I had my first baby!!!

I'm still holding onto 20 lbs from that pregnancy!

Kasey Happy Birthday!
My beautiful baby girl was born 14 years ago today!
What a journey it has been for us! She was the most beautiful baby I had ever laid eyes on, and everyone else who saw her couldn't agree more!
We couldn't go anywhere without someone stopping us to look at this beautiful baby!


Kasey is definitely something special!
It was hard to decide which pics to use in this post. A lot of my pictures are still in UT. with my mom, so I just went with a few that I think best showcase Kas for who she is...


This might be my very favorite picture of Kasey. You never had to tell her how to pose, she would do it on her own... a natural



The future NEXT TOP MODEL... Move over Tyra...

And of course a darling pic with a darling dog... Kas loves animals. Every other picture I have of her is with an animal. This was my girlfriend Shannon's dog, his name is 'Tank'
So cute!

So anyway, we celebrated her birthday with 10 of her friends on Saturday...

She got lots of cute gifts, and a lot of money- thanks to Grandma and Grandpa

Last year for her birthday, we rented a couple rooms at a Hotel and she invited about 15 girls to come swim and spend the night there. It was a nightmare! They were so bad, I could not believe it! I don't know how we didn't get kicked out of there!

Anyway, we decided then and there that we would never again do anything like that!

So this year she had 10 friends over for dinner and a sleep over...innocent enough right?

WRONG! THEY WHERE EVEN MORE ROTTEN THAN LAST YEAR!

What is it with girls?

Why is it IMPOSSIBLE for them to get along when there's more than two of them! Instead
of just having a good time, there's DRAMA...

I don't know what were going to do next year?

Well, here's to you Kasey. You're an amazing girl with endless talents!

I am so proud of you and the young woman that you're becoming!

I am so thankful for you. We have been through a lot together, and I am so grateful for your strength and love!

Please continue to be a wonderful example to your little bro, he loves you to bits!

My only bit of 'Birthday' advice to you is this,

If you ever have a question about anything, or if you're wondering if you should do something or not, just think to yourself, 'Would I do this in front of my Grandma?' that should clear things right up for you!

I love you sweetie, always and forever...

I'm mad about you, you're mad about me babe...

Yesterday marked the fifth year of marriage for Troy and I... Yes five AmAzInG years of marital bliss!

So even though we no longer feed each other cake with our hands, we are still mad about each other!
So the day played out this way...
Lunch at Red Robin with Avery, then we did some shopping- blah blah

Picked up Kas from school...

Then we ordered some take out and came home for dinner and Dancing with the Stars/The Bachelor... Which Troy was NOT very happy about! He can't stand "My shows" so he did a little work until "My shows" were over!

Yes, a marriage made in HeAvEn...

So even though some things have changed, we are still madly in love with each other,

and quite honestly I wouldn't have it any other way!

Smiley- Mailee...

We just received very bad news about my niece Danya's doggie Mailee. She was hit and killed this past Saturday night. Danya, Mike and kids, we are so sorry for your loss. This post is deticated to the cuttest little pug ever! We loved Mailee very, very much!

We got to doggie-sit Mailee all the time and honestly I never wanted to give her back!
Here she is napping with Hallie. The bed was one of her very favorite places to be!

Mailee was always invited to our house for parties and different events! Here she is at Kasey's birthday party. She is so darling! Look at those skinny little legs trying to hold up that fat little body!

She loved to chew on balls! You can barely see her behind this one! This picture is of Chandler my nephew, Kasey and Chandler's dog Sadie, who wanted her ball back!

Again on the bed. She would sleep with us at night and it was such a crack up! She would snort so loudly and I just loved it! I loved her so much!

And last but not least here she is sleeping with Kain. Kain loved Mailee because she never bugged him! All she wanted to do was sleep and have people rub her fat tummy!

Mailee, we will miss you but we will never forget you!

Indiana, The crossroads of America...

When we first moved to Chicago, I had planned to go with my Dear Husband as often as possible on road trips. He covers about 10 states in the Midwest, and drives often. So we thought it would work out that we (Avery and I, possibly Kasey) could tag along and stay at the Hotel, and swim and shop etc. Well three years and ONE ROAD TRIP LATER we got to go with Troy to Indiana for a couple days...
I suppose when we first moved here we forgot?? that we have a D.O.G.??? We knew Kas could stay at a friends house or come with us if she wanted too, but the dog we forgot to calculate into this little equation? He has been the reason over and over that we could not go on these trips.
And quite honestly, after just returning from a (very long) 5 hour road trip, I am so thankful for the dog!
I just really don't like driving long distances in a car?
It's not that I didn't have a great time, because I did! But the drive just kills me! I'm sooo impatient! I'm like the 8 year old in the back seat asking "Are we there yet?" "How much longer?" "You mean three more HOURS???"
Seriously I don't know how my DH does it?


So anyway, we stopped in Indianapolis for dinner on the way to Richmond, ( which is about an hour away from Indianapolis.) We ate at Pf Chang's. It was delicious, as always. When we pulled up to the restaurant Avery said "Where's Papa?" I guess he associates eating out with Papa. And if you read this blog regularly, you know why...



When we got to the Hotel, we took our bags to the room and rushed down to the pool. Avery was SOOOO excited to go swimming!


Right when we got in, Avery swallowed a little water and started throwing up! Thank goodness we were the only ones in the pool! We spent the rest of the time in the Hot tub...

The next day, Troy had a show at the Hotel. So Avery and I hung out for a while in the room, got ready and went down to the show. It was fun! You definitely get A LOT of attention when you're the only woman among 180 men... I think I scored us a couple of stadium seats and a new Wilson woman's basketball! I guess we'll see if the stuff shows up in the mail!

Lunch break during the show, found us at Red Lobster. Avery loves the Lobsters and our waiter came over and got one out for him! It was cool. We got to touch is fuzzy tail and as you can see, took a couple pics. When we asked the guy what the Lobsters name was he said, "LUNCH!"

How sad, but how good...

After the show, we packed up and started home. We again stopped in Indianapolis but this time we ate at ST. ELMOS

If you ever find yourself in Indianapolis Indiana, go eat at St. Elmos!

It was great! Avery slept the entire time we were there, which was such a blessing! No one ever brings kids into St Elmos! I'm sure they about died when we walked in with him!

But you wouldn't know it! Everyone was so wonderful to us!

One thing about St. Elmos that differs from a lot of other restaurants, they have all male servers, or so we thought! A woman brought us over our dinners, and so we asked her a few questions. She is the 8th woman to ever work there, in over 100 years! She said Avery was about the 10th kid she's ever seen in the restaurant! She also said that on average she makes 500.oo dollars a night! ON AVERAGE! Holy crap! I made about 200.oo, a night on average at LaCaille, and I had to wear a corset! She was in a tux!

She said she made 800.00 the night before AND they get benefits AND they have it set up that they actually get taxes BACK! Servers NEVER get benefits let alone get taxes back!

Pretty cool! She said it's almost impossible to get a job there because nobody EVER leaves!

After dinner we were back on the road. It wasn't too bad... Well yes it was! Driving with all those huge trucks is so dang scary! It makes me even MORE worried about Troy doing it all the time! Avery slept another couple of hours, when he did wake up, he just snacked on chips and brownies, and watched Scooby-Doo DVD's

He was better in the car that I was!
All and all it was a very nice trip! But I will NOT be taking another road trip anytime soon!
And even though she doesn't read my blog (she's WAY TOO COOL FOR THAT!) thanks KAS for taking such good care of Kain! And thank you for having the house clean when we got home!

And thank you for NOT having a party while we were gone!
You didn't have a party while we were gone, right?

Don't forget to brush!

I can't believe it's come and gone... This was probably one of the strangest

Halloweens ever? It was warm and we had finished Trick or Treating before it was even dark? It just seemed to come and go too quickly for me...

As for Avery, he would NOT under and circumstances put on a costume??? It was almost as if he was afraid of them? We tried everything from a Spiderman costume to a skeleton sweatsuit but he would not budge! How could a child of mine NOT want to dress up for Halloween! INCONCEIVABLE!

He would, however, put on his cubs shirt and baseball pants? I guess these things really weren't considered " A Costume" to him?

So as you can see, he looked absolutely darling as a Cubbie baseball player! And as for all of our neighbors, they thought it was the greatest costume EVER!

He definitely got special treatment! People would say to him "Take a handful of candy, we have to support our own!" I was thinking one of our own??? These people think we LIKE the Cubs? They think we like anything about Illinois??? OH my HECK! We aren't Cubs fans were

RED SOX FANS!

Just kidding, we like the Cubs- a little...

Anyway, Avery had a great time and got a ton of candy!

Kasey was an Army girl. She had gone straight to her friends house after school so I didn't get to take a pic of her and her friends before they went out... I made her take a pic when she got home. She was a little reluctant to let me take one, but I made her!

Kas and Avery combined their candy...

Troy and I sadly not dressed up.

We hope you all had a spooky and safe Halloween...