Christmas 2011

We had a wonderful Christmas this year, celebrating from Christmas Eve through New Year's Day. Nate and I off were both off of work and we had company during our vacation which was awesome! Brenda, Cary and our friend Jimmy (who went to college with Nate) came to visit for the entire time we were off of work. With the amazing and generous help from Brenda, Cary and Jimmy, we painted Nate's garage (the inside) and hung signs to give it more of a finished look. It turned out awesome! Then, my Mom, her boyfriend Steve, our friends Doug, Amanda and Elyse and Joe, Kate and Zoe came to celebrate the New Year with us. We had a lot of fun! I will post pictures from my Mom's visit and New Year's later. Merry Christmas!

Stoney Creek Inn

We stayed at Stoney Creek Inn with Mema and Papa (aka Brenda and Cary) and Ben had lots of fun as always! We had a rough night in terms of sleep and had family photos the next day with my amazingly talented best friend Mandy of Mandy Marie Photography! Ben was not very cooperative due to lack of sleep so we will likely be doing another session for family photos sometime this spring or summer. Here are some photos from the hotel and pool:

Grandma Pat's Birthday

We traveled to Iowa to celebrate Grandma Pat's birthday! We had a lot of fun and enjoyed seeing family! Ben had tons of fun playing with the other kiddos!

Anniversary Weekend Photos

"Look, I'm stuck in the castle"

I wonder where he gets that expression from?

Anniversary Weekend

Cary and Brenda came over to help us out again! I'm starting to see a theme in our posts and that we really owe them big time! LOL Anyway, our 4 year anniversary was on August 18 and we still have never had a vacation since we got married; we didn't even have a honeymoon. So, we originally were planning a weekend trip to Chicago, but in an effort to save money (we are putting a ton of money into our home) and due to the uncertainty of whether we were going to have our mini vacation this weekend, we decided to just get a hotel room in Peoria for Friday and Saturday nights. Even though we didn't do much and didn't go very far away, I think that Nate and I got the R&R we were needing. Really, just a long weekend from work was what we were both needing.

We took Thursday and Friday off of work. On Thursday, we cleaned the house all day. Cary and Brenda got to our house on Thursday afternoon. We enjoyed time with them on Thursday evening and most of Friday. I think we checked into the hotel around 3:30pm. After we checked into the hotel, we took a nap (which neither of us had really done in forever), had a drink at the complimentary happy hour at the hotel, then went out to dinner at Jonah's, which is a nice seafood restaurant in Peoria, then we went out for a couple of drinks at a nearby bar after dinner. The bar was just across the river, so we walked over and back and it was really nice. Dinner was so, so yummy!!! I had marlin and Nate had a fried seafood platter. On Saturday, we went to the movies for the first time in 3 years and saw the final Harry Potter movie at 10:30am, which we both enjoyed. After the movie, we had lunch a Tequila's, a Mexican restaurant in Washington, which was super yummy. Then we had another nap (kinda pathetic, we know). We had dinner at Granite City Saturday evening, watched a movie in our room (The Switch-pretty funny) and called it an early night. We got up Sunday morning, enjoyed their excellent breakfast at the hotel and headed home. We were so excited to see Ben and we missed him so much, even though we were only gone for 2 days. He was pretty excited to see us too and in all, it was a great weekend!!!

Painting

Brenda and Cary came out to help us paint our living room and entryway at the beginning of August. It took a lot of work and climbing ladders, but we got it done and it looks fantastic. I don't think that the pictures do the colors justice. Ben helped a little too! He was all tuckered out by the end of the weekend. Nate and Cary dug also a trench around the detached garage to make a drainage system because water has been leaking into Nate's garage, which was an issue that needed to be resolved as soon as possible. It was a busy, but very productive weekend! We also barbequed for supper on Saturday night and had our friends Chris and Lesley over for suppper. They are expecting their little one very soon and we are super excited to meet him!

Davis Family Summer Fun

At the end of July, we headed to Iowa for a Davis Family Pool Party. We had so much fun! Yummy food, fun in the pool and even better company!!! They had a family slide show at the end of the evening which I missed due to Ben's bedtime but I hear it was awesome! Maybe I will be able to see it next time!

After watching his daddy and the older kids jump into the pool a few times, Ben was fearless and started jumping in too. He is a crazy kiddo! We had to keep a close watch on him and lock him out of the pool. He also tried to break free from us and "swim" on his own a few times.

Family photo time!

Ben playing with Riley and Elise. He had so much fun with the older kids!

Four Generations