Family

We were able to take some family pictures this year while in Texas. Most of these were taken Sunday morning before church, but there are a few that were taken later. Again, we really enjoyed being with everyone. Hopefully we'll all be able to get together again soon!

My mom and dad. Married for 33 years and still in love!

The Rader family. It's hard to get everyone smiling all at the same time.

My brother, Dan, his wife, Melissa, Alex and Kate. Baby #3 on the way!!

My brother, Brett, his wife, Emily and Jack.

My nephew, Alex, and I.

My nephew, Jack.


Alex and Kate. Aren't they so cute? You can definitely tell they're brother and sister.

Emma in her Christmas outfit.

Maggie in her Christmas dress.

Lily in her Christmas dress.

The cousins. They have had such a good time together.

We have had a wonderful time together this year. Unfortunately, it always go by so fast. I love my family and will miss them all so much!

Christmas in Texas

We headed down to Texas this year for Christmas Day. We flew out of Chicago on the 22nd and will return tomorrow, the 28th. We've had a great time here. It's been wonderful to spend time with family again. Christmas is the only time that we can get together as a family and we look forward to it all year.

My brother Brett with his son Jack. Jack is 11 months old and this was his first Christmas. He really enjoyed the paper.

My nephew Alex. He just turned 3 a few weeks ago. He is all boy and is very busy. But so, so cute!

We bought this for Alex for Christmas. It was so funny because as soon as he saw it, he jumped right on and took off as if he had been driving it for awhile now. He loves it! The look on his face was priceless!

Emma opening one of her gifts. I think it was from Uncle Dan and Aunt Missy.

My sister-in-law Melissa and my niece Kate. Melissa and my brother, Dan, are expecting their third child! We are so excited for them!

My brother, Dan, and Alex.

My sister-in-law Emily and Jack.

Lily opening one of her gifts!

We had a great time and are so thankful that we could come down to visit! We'll miss everyone but we're walking away with some great memories!

Merry Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas this year with the girls. Christmas is becoming more fun the older they get. They enjoy opening the gifts and aren't just interested in the boxes and paper. We started off our day reading the Christmas story. The girls really listened well. Maggie gets a little antsy, but it's not too bad. And then we commenced to the gift opening process. We always do one gift at a time. That way this time seems to take longer and everyone gets to ooh and aah over the presents. Here are just a few pictures of our family day together.

Emma LOVES music. So we bought her her very own personal CD player headset. She's used it quite a bit already.

This gift for Lily was a huge hit. She got a huge floor puzzle of the nativity scene. Lily loves puzzles and puts them together very quickly and very well. As soon as all the gifts were opened, she had me help her put it together the first time and then she did it a few more times by herself.

Maggie got a Mr. Potato Head family. It was a last minute gift idea and she loved it! We opened it right away to play with it. In fact, I think Marc and I had more fun with it!

I think Maggie is trying to package herself up to sell. I would definitely buy this gift!

Present anyone?

Maggie decided that she was going to wrap herself up for Christmas. Notice the bubble wrap in there with her.

Any takers?

Snow Fun

We took the girls outside last night to play in the snow. This is the first time they've been out to play in it since the snow fell last week. They had such a great time. Being from New York, I have always loved the snow. Not necessarily the cold, but the snow is great! I'm so glad that my children love the snow, too!!!

'Tis the Season...

We are heading into my most favorite time of year. And not because of the gifts and the getting, but because I love the decorations and the general spirit of this particular holiday. We love going out and cutting down our own tree. Well, I better clarify that...I love going out and getting the tree. Marc hates the cold weather and would just rather us put up an artificial one. And this is no slam against those that have and enjoy their artificial tree, but I think Christmas needs a real tree. The smell that it has is fantastic and just adds to the excitement of this holiday. Marc and I went out yesterday and cut down our tree. It took us awhile to find just the perfect one. And you know, it always looks perfect outside when the snow is falling on its branches, but then you get it home and didn't notice that one (or five) bare spot. But no tree is perfect. And that thought reminds me of something that I try to remind myself every year while we're tree hunting. We search and hunt for the perfect tree. And there standing tall in front of you is exactly what your looking for. And it looks so beautiful in the gently falling snow. And then you bring it home and get it all set up and you see the bare spots, the crooked branches and the saggy ones, too. And even though you put on the beautiful decorations, you still know all the imperfections are there. And that reminds me of us. On the outside everything looks perfect and beautiful, but then you look a little deeper and notice all of the imperfections. How thankful I am that God sent His perfect Son to die for me. I can't imagine the heartache He must have felt when He turned His back on His only Son. But I am so thankful that He did that for me.

We decided to start a new tradition in our family. And for some families, they've done this for some time now, but for us it's something new. Every year we are going to go out and the girls will choose their very own ornament to hang on the tree. And then when they get older and head out on their own, they will have their very own set of ornaments. Of course, when they are older and see some of the ones they've picked, they'll probably just die! But I'll remember the great times we had together when we went to get them. Below are pictures of their own ornaments and then a picture of the finished tree. I don't like a ton of decorations on a tree. I like it simple. But to us it's beautiful.

Here's Emma's ornament. It didn't really surprise us that she liked this one. She always tells us that she's going to be a princess when she grows up.

Here's Lily's ornament. She fell in love with this bird as soon as she saw it! I think it's great!

And then there's Maggie. She wanted the blue fish in the worst way. Hopefully she'll still love it when she's older.

We wish everyone who reads this blog a very Merry Christmas!

Happy Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year. It seems like you work so hard for one day and then it's over, but it's so worth it! My parents came in from New York for a few days. We had such a great time with them. They brought their two dogs, Dixie and Sadie. Mom and I went out and did some shopping on Wednesday since they weren't going to be around for black Friday. Emma went with us. We always enjoy going out together. It's something that we don't get to do very often anymore so we take full advantage of it when we can. Anyway, back to Thanksgiving Day. We had everything...turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, green bean casserole, corn casserole, cranberry sauce, jello, rolls and spinich-artichoke dip. Everything was so good! And then pumpkin and pecan pie for dessert. Marc's parents came over for the meal as did AJ, Jen, Jonas and Luci. The girls loved having their cousins around. They enjoyed playing together. Jonas found all the balls that he could and Luci just sat and looked around. Lily loved sitting and playing with Luci. And then after all was said and done, everyone crashed. Marc's family left and my family started to wind down, as you can see by the picture below. We had so much to be thankful for this year. We're looking forward to seeing what the next year will bring.

Trick or Treat

We had a great time going trick-or-treating with the girls this year! We couldn't have asked for any better weather. In years past it's usually dark, cold and rainy. But this year it was in the mid to high 60's and no rain. It was gorgeous! The girls had so much fun! Actually, we were able to go out twice this year. Since we're members of our zoo, they had a special thing there where the kids could go through in their costumes and get candy. And then we went again when they had trick-or-treating in Bremen. The girls all dressed up as their favorite princess (well, almost favorite. Lily wanted to be Ariel, but that costume isn't conducive for October weather in Bremen.). So, we now have three little princesses in our family. As if we didn't know that already! :) We told them that once Halloween was over, they could use their costumes to play dress-up in. And they've done exactly that, every day, since then. I hope you enjoy the next few pictures of the girls.

Our little Cinderella.

Here comes Snow White with her trusty cat, Nemo, by her side.

Say hello to Princess Belle.

(On a side note, if you ask Emma what she wants to be when she grows up, she'll tell you,

"A Princess.")

The three little princesses.

Daddy and his youngest princess. They're all princesses in daddy's eyes!

It's Been So Long

It's been so long since I last blogged. But when you still have dial-up internet, it takes forever to upload just a few pictures. We are seriously considering switching to wireless. It's pretty expensive since we live in the country, but sometimes it's just not worth the hassle. Anyway, I have new pictures of the girls. A few weeks ago we went over to spend some time with Great Grandpa and Grandma Rader. We had a really good time. They have this really great marble game that's very simplistic compared to today's toys, but all the kids seem to love it! So the girls spent most of the time playing with that while Marc and I played dominoes with grandpa and grandma.

We've had some big changes in weather the last few days. It's been beautiful here up until yesterday where the rain and cooler weather came in. We're usually dressed in warmer clothes by now, but we've been in shorts and t-shirts. We couldn't have asked for a more beautiful fall. We were hoping that our indian summer would come during Halloween so that way we would be a little warmer this year than in past years. But I think that has come and gone. Oh well. We're taking the girls to the zoo for trick-or-treating this year. But I'll blog more on that after we've gone. Here are a few pics of the girls.

Well, the girls are growing up so fast as you can see. We are enjoying every minute of them. Emma started school and is doing fantastic. In a short amount of time she's learned how to add small numbers and also started reading two and three letter words. We have thrown in a few four and five letter words and she does well. I know that in no time, she'll be doing what she loves me to do best -- read stories. She also tells me on a daily basis that math is her favorite subject! I'm so glad to hear that. She's a girl after my own heart!! Lily is learning from Emma. She knows how to count to 20 and knows all her abc's. She is my mommy's girl and I am soaking it up while I can. We had a day together, just the two of us, a few weeks ago and had a fantastic time. Maggie is also learning from Emma. She's in the process of learning her abc's and knows how to count to 10. She's also potty-training herself pretty well. She goes to the potty about 30 times a day, but hey, it's progress. She is definitely a girl in the fact that she loves to talk. Anyone that's talked to her on the phone knows exactly what I mean! It's great. I love being a mom. But I especially love being a mom to these three gifts from God!!! It's fantastic and I wouldn't trade it for anything.