Drumroll Please...

Life Lately In Pictures

Here's what we've been up to lately...

Eating gogurt...one of Bridget's few calcium sources.

Fighting over a baby.  Bridget did not understand that this little one is actually the sister of her friend and Genevieve happens to adore her baby sister.  Bridget was not about to relent.

A trip to the zoo in January.  Please excuse Marshall's full mouth.

Sunday night memory games.

Enjoying ponytails.

Indoor playgrounds.

A radiology dinner with these lovely friends.

Breakfast complete with Kyle Van Noy highlights.

Skipping naps and paying for it at 5:15.

Life Lately In Videos

Listing our friends.  Please excuse her messy oatmeal face.  :)



Enjoying the best DJ ever at a radiology party.



Doing puzzles.  I have been fascinated with Bridget and puzzles.  She had been trying them for weeks, but rarely, if ever, got a piece in its place.  Then one day, it just clicked.  So fun to watch.

Crazy Marshall

This kid cracks me up.  Here are some examples from just this last week...

Marshall:  "Looks like I'm good at telling people things they don't know."

On Friday Marshall and I were enjoying a great afternoon doing puzzles together.  We were both happy, content, it was bliss, at least for me.  All of a sudden Marshall informed me that I was not a nice mom and I need to be more nice like the moms his preschool friends have.  Awesome.  Let me note that he has only been in the home of one preschool friend; I guess that mom is pretty darn amazing.

On Saturday morning Marshall woke up and informed Richard and me that he has a fingernail collection on his bookshelf.  "You can't throw them away because you can't throw away collections!"  I blame "Curious George" for Marshall's longtime fascination with collections. 

Sunday Best

Richard got to Bridget before I did this morning.  Definitely not the festive winter dress I had planned for her.  Oh well.  Still adorable.

Visit From The Brothers

On Christmas night my brother Ben and his family drove up from Indiana to visit us for a few days.  The next day my youngest brother Jordan flew out from Utah.  We were packed in our house with nine people, but we sure had fun.  Our days consisted of entertaining the four kids and our evenings consisted of games and lots of laughter with the five adults.  Great memories were made; that's for sure.

Marshall adores Uncle Jordan.  Marshall was on his lap within minutes of him walking in the door.

We spent a morning at the downtown library.  It was a hit.

Santa gave this gift to Marshall.  I think everyone else has played with it more than him.  :)

Back at the library, Anna was not feeling well this trip so she was not herself, but still quite cute.

Lisa and Anna up in the lighthouse.

Richard and Marshall reading the over-sized books. 

Bridget and the lighthouse.

Benson and the beads.

All of the boys went bowling one afternoon leaving the girls home to sleep.  All four of us appreciated a quiet house.  :)

Our last day together we spent a day in Chicago.  Jordan, Bridget and I did the Skydeck at the Willis Tower.  We were 103 stories up standing in a glass box.  Unfortunately it was cloudy and snowing so obviously the view and the thrill was not so great, but still pretty cool.  I will definitely do this again.

We spent the rest of the day at the Museum of Science and Industry.  It was jam-packed, but we still had fun. 

Unfortunately the visits ended with the four of us and Jordan getting a stomach bug.  Our last two days were spent inside watching a lot of movies and playing video games.  The plus side was that the vacation ended in a very relaxing way.  :)  Thanks for the visits everyone!  We love you all!

Christmas Day

Marshall began our Christmas morning at 5:00 am.  Lucky us.  :)  We pulled him into bed with us which meant that all three of us dozed off and on between 5:00 and 7:00.  I told Richard we have now entered 15 years of early Christmas mornings.  By 7:00 Marshall couldn't wait any longer so we let him at it before Bridget woke up.

It didn't take Bridget too long to wake up and join in on the fun.  She seemed to be more captivated with Marshall's presents.  :)

After our breakfast of Christmas cereal from Santa we moved onto the presents under the tree.  

Marshall with his Christmas loot.

Bridget and her Christmas gifts.

Richard and his HUGE Christmas gift, plus a few other things.  :)

I spent the rest of my afternoon relaxing while Richard attempted his first ever completely homemade apple pie!  It was a definite success!

We ended our Christmas night with a delicious Christmas dinner of ham and potatoes at the McAllister's.  It was a great meal and even better company.  We sure are blessed with fantastic Milwaukee friends!

Photo courtesy of Benson McAllister.  Not bad for a four year old!