LET-IT-SNOW!

The first snowfall of the season arrived last Friday night. Perfect timing because that meant no crazy rush hour commute!!

The past two years I waited until after it snowed to look for a sled. The stores had nothing! But this year I was smarter. I picked one up Friday night and Saturday a.m. we had lots of snow to play in!

It was so cute to see Ryan do a double take when he looked out the window that morning. "Mom, look outside!" I pulled him down the alley to the front of our house and he "helped" me shovel the front sidewalk.

When the walk was clean, we brought Brandon out for a quick picture with his very first snow.

Roly-Poly Baby

Brandon is now 4 months old! At his check-up, he weighed 16 lbs. And just in time for Thanksgiving, he started munching on some baby cereal. He was not a fan of the rice cereal, but seems to like oatmeal better. He is consistently sleeping 8-10 hours at night (whew!) He likes to watch TV -- seems to be interested in almost anything we watch, even the Blackhawks. And he's still my little snuggler. Last Saturday I was home to see him roll over for the first time. Yippee! Here's some recent shots of the "B Man."

Welcome Home Uncle Chris!

We're very excited that Uncle Chris is back in Illinois! Although we really enjoyed our visits to Pure Michigan, it'll be nice to have him at a much closer proximity.
He's living in East Peoria and has a position at Caterpillar working on before-market testing and analysis for a big bulldozer. Pretty cool!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Our Black Wednesday family activity was to "make turkeys out of food," at least that's what Ryan called it. My Mom made something similiar for the very first Springborn Thankgiving that my family attended (at least 10 years ago). They were very cute, and Ryan's at the perfect age to make them. Although, typical 3-year-old just wanted to eat the supplies!

Here's a finished one.....Oreos, candy corn, Reeses peanut butter cup, Whopper, white & orange icing. Notice the small red piece of twizzler that's the gobbler! Definitely a new Thanksgiving tradition!

Thank you so much to Uncle Jerry & Aunt Gail for hosting Thanksgiving. Aunt Gail loved our Oreo turkeys, so she wanted a picture of Ryan with them. Here's RC being goofy.

And here's Brandon on his first Thanksgiving. He;s definitely a very cute little turkey!

Shaken or Stirred?

At the last minute, Doug & Angie organized a martini party! So, the moms & dads went for a night out. Everyone brought a bottle of liquor to pass and we had enough supplies to make 5 or 6 different kinds of martinis.

Angie's friend, Jen, and Angie sporting their martini shirts. Jen was one of our bartenders. Great job....the drinks were good!


Angie's sister Ashley also poured some drinks for us. She too did a great job. You can see all the bottles on the right side of the picture.....good grief, you'd think we were alcoholics!


The cousins with their drinks Mike, Jason, Angie, Aynn, Katie, Kim, Doug & Dave.


This one was my favorite....blue curaco with pineapple juice and some other stuff. Yum!

Thanksgiving Feast at Preschool

Ryan's Preschool celebrated Thanksgiving with a big feast. Jason was off work and I was able to take a loong lunch so we both celebrated with the kids. It was lots of fun and I was glad I could go.

They prepared the week before by making their decorations....
*Place cards made from an upside down cup with feathers looked like a turkey
*Table runners painted by rolling corn cobs back 'n forth, back 'n forth. Ryan's demonstration of this is soo cute!
*Headbands with a big feather. Also painted by rolling corn cobs.

For their feast, they made Friendship Mix (teddy grahms, marshmellows, pretzels & raisins)! All the kids brought an ingredient to contribute and they mixed it up during class. Here's Ryan getting seconds from Mrs. Cecola. He ate all the marshmellows first, of course!