My World In Black and White

Happy Inauguration day! Today sure does mark a monumental day in American history. I am very optimistic that our country will now move forward and upward with a new burst of energy. It is also amazing to me just how big of an impression Obama's election has had on the younger generation...and when I say younger, you gotta hear this. Tonight after dinner Duke and Grant were playing cars and out of the blue, I asked Grant if he knew who our new President was and without the bat of an eye he replied, "Rock Obama" Hey, that is pretty darn good for an almost 4 year old!
I thought tonight I would share some pictures I took a couple of weeks ago. I was playing with the settings on my camera and found how to shoot in black & white. As a side note: I truly didn't intentionally title my post in reference to today's inauguration...purely coincidence, but fitting all the same!
After one of our many snows this year, Duke and Grant went outside to do some shoveling and playing in the snow. And don't let this photo fool you. Duke didn't shovel the whole driveway...we have a snow blower on out lawn tractor. He was just doing a little anal-retentive clean-up.

While they were outside, Tootie and I had a little photo shoot party of our own. Isn't she just the cutest little dumplin'?

Her toy of the day was a balloon filled with water. Her and Grant drug those things around for over a week. Another great example of children picking the most simple and cheapest toys over the ones that cost $20 in batteries to operate!

What a little snuggle bunny...

No, honey...socks go on your feet, not in your mouth!

Meanwhile, the boys were out cleaning off the back patio.

And after all of their hard work, they got to play a little. Duke was tossing Grant off the end of the patio, into a snow pile. I have more pictures of this to share in a full color post. Super cool ones, I might add.

Getting a hand from Daddy-O.

After a while, Little Sissy spotted the boys outside having fun. These pictures speak for themselves...

Daddy noticed that his little sweetie was watching intently so he came over to say hi to her.

Check out the look on her face...I think she was a little shocked and confused about that big furry thing that was sleeping on her Daddy's head! He says it's warm. I say its uuuuuugly!

I suppose I had better finish this thing up and get my biscuits to bed so I am not tired tomorrow.

Nighty-night!

Christmas 2008

I know, I know...it is mid January and I am just now getting my Christmas post done! That just tells you how busy our household has been lately! The past two weeks have been filled with adjustments for all since I now get up a little earlier and take the kids to daycare. They have to get up about an hour earlier than they are used to but I think Duke is going through the biggest adjustment because he used to be able to sleep in until 7-7:30 some days and now he has to get up by 4:15! Yikes...I'll take my 5;30 over that any day!

I already had most of the Christmas pictures uploaded so I might as well add some text and call it a post! Here we go, and hang on, this is gonna be a looongggggg one!
Christmas Eve we met up at Duke's parents house and were able to capture this family picture. I'll introduce everyone throughout the post.

Of course, this is our little Grant. He was lovin' all of the presents this year.

He especially loved his Tub-O-Lincoln Logs. Let me tell you, we all had to take a break and play these for a while since everyone in the family seemed love this gift!

Audrey wasn't much into opening the gifts, she was having more fun being held and being the center of attention. Here she is with her Aunt Julie...she loves her some Auntie Julie!

And this is Duke's sister Brenda and her husband Jody along with my hubby, Duke.

This is Austin (Brenda and Jody's oldest) and Emily who is Grant's partner in crime. She looks a little stoic in this picture which is very unusual for her! Austin was being goofy showing off one of her MANY Target gift cards...you know the age, very difficult to buy for. She is now 16, has her license and a whole bunch of attitude to go with it. Actually that brings me to a funny story...Austin LOVES fashion and is now a big fan of The Buckle. I told her I should give her my punch card from there since I don't really shop there much anymore. And then to my surprise, she said "You mean you actually used to shop there...I never knew you were so cool." SAY WHAT little girly!?! Did I just hear you right? After she said it I could tell came out different than she intended, but STILL!!!

Okay, onward we go... This is Bailey, Austin's younger brother. Bailey is such a good kid. He is the most polite tween you'll ever meet and he always takes pride and does a wonderful job saying the prayer before dinner.

Now, onto Jody and Brenda's youngest...Carter. He is a sweetie too. He reminds me a lot of what I think Duke would have been like as a young-un. He is also very generous because every time he comes to visit he makes sure to bring Grant one of his Hot Wheels. How many kids do you know that give away their own toys? And right behind Carter is Karl, Duke's younger brother (hubby to Julie and Dad to Emily) Sorry, I didn't get a better pic of him.

Here is miss Tootie and her buddy Em, just hanging out on the hearth, eatin' crackers.

How 'bout some CHEESE with them crackers?!

Austin thought Audrey was being so sweet and innocent so she reached down and tickled her chin.

...then she picked her up to play with her...that is until she notices that little Tootie had crapped her diaper right through her tights! HA HA! Can you see the look on her face? And Audrey is like, "Hey, what's goin' on? I just got up here!" Needless to say, Mommy got diaper duty once again!

It got to be a long night of opening MANY MANY presents so we headed home and set the stage for the big night. Here is the note that "Santa" left after he ate all of the cookies and drank the milk that was set out for him. Santa is so neat, he even wiped his beard with a napkin! he he!

Christmas morning the kids awoke (actually we had to wake Grant up at 8:30 because he was a sleepy head!) to find the presents from Santa.

Grant got a Patriots football uniform...

Here he is modeling it!

Grandpa "O" (Oscar - Duke's dad) and Grandma Sue stopped by on their way up to the cabin. Audrey is enamoured with her Grandpa O. She gets so excited when he gets home...even more excited than she is to see her own Mom! She was pullin' a little attitude in this picture but Grandpa looks happy as can be anyway!

After opening gifts at home we headed up north to my parents home in Grand Rapids. They were pretty excited to see us since we really hadn't been up there since summer. This is my Mom, Bonnie, with her only granddaughter.

And this is her with the bopsy twins...Aiden and Grant. These two are two peas in a pod, let me tell you! They just love getting together to play. Aiden is 5 and Grant will be 4 in March, but they are practically the same size!

This is Aunt Brenda...she's a closet Pats fan (she thinks she will be lynched if she admits to it now that they live in MN) so she loved Grants new football uni! And check out Tootie in the little blue chair. That was her prop for the entire weekend. She was infatuated with the little chairs that were just her size.

Here are the kids ripping into their gifts. That is my sister-in-law, Susan and she is holding her youngest, Logan. Can you see that red hair? What a cutie pie :) And I'm thinkin' Sam was digging his new hat since he was already sporting it in this pic!

This pricture CRACKS me up! The boys were enjoying some shirtless dessert and I caught Aiden making this funny face. I think he was telling me about the book he was going to wright. It was going to be a spin-off of Ice Age, but he was going to title it "Mice Age". Cooky kid!

Here is Duke sportin' a silky pink blankie and that is my Mom's brother, Gary (Brenda's hubby)

Ooop...Tootie in the blue chair AGAIN!

Here is the Three Stooges watching a movie on the portable DVD player all packed into one chair like a bunch of sardines. Funny story here too. As I was taking this pic, I said "everyone smile" and Sam (in the middle) said, "Shhh, quit talking, I can't hear the show." And to my surprise, Grant replied, "Well, stop talking then!"

The funniest part of the whole weekend was the wrestling match and pillow fight that ensued when Sam challenged Duke to a duel. They started out wrestling and within seconds, the Bopsy Twins had to join in. There were so many of them ganging up on him, he didn't know what hit him! And look, Tootie couldn't resist getting in on a little of the action too!

I love this one because you can just see the anticipation on Aiden's face. And then Grant is in the background "reloading."

It is hard to tell, but that pillow is mid-air headed straight towards Duke's face. Pretty good aim, Punk!

And this pillow was sailing through the air too. Aiden played it cool and stood back a ways and battled from a distance.

Sadly, I don't think I got any good pictures of my Dad, but there is his foot to the left, all propped up on a pillow. He shattered it this summer falling off the garage roof and now has 12 bolts holding it together. He's one tough cookie. It makes me cringe to even think about it! It's been a long recovery, but he is doing great, and is now able to walk on it.

The boys got a little "bored" on Fri afternoon so I suggested playing cards and Sam said, "I don't like playing cards" He loves to draw and "invent" things so I asked him if he had ever built a card house. He hadn't so I showed him the jest of it and he was hooked.

He got the first layer down, but the little kids kept bumping the table so he had to go downstairs in isolation to work on it. I think he actually got a little addicted to it. Hey, it cured the "I'm boreds" for a couple of hours!

Grandma Bonnie saved the day and took the kids outside sledding down the driveway. They had a blast but I was too much of a wuss to go out so I just took this pic from inside the nice warm house!

Sorry that this was such a long post, but I just had to at least document Christmas 2008. I'll move on to bigger and better this soon, I promise!

Duke's new job is going great! I am so proud of him. The kids and I got a tour of his building and office on Sat. Grant thought is was very cool and has to tell everyone about it. The first thing he says is, "My daddy's new offices has stairs!"

Tootie is really starting to try to talk now and humms and blabbs in the car all of the time. Her new thing is to throw everythign away. I have to watch her because she has thown full bags of fruit snacks away and then pretty much anything that is laying on the kitchen floor. I like that she picks up after herself, but she is gonna put me in the poor house if she keeps throwing everything away!

I better hit the hay. It's almost 10 and I have to watch the ending of Mama's Boys! Hey, it is Monday-Trash TV night...my favorite!

p.s. I love Stephanie and Melissa on the Bachelor. Anyone else watching? Who is your favorite?

The Bachelor...WHAT THE @#*%!

Okay...did anyone watch The Bachelor tonight???? WHAT THE!!! I CAN NOT believe that DiAnna is coming back!!!! I guess you had to have watched last season to know what I am talking about, but for those of you who do watch will understand. How could they do that to Jason? He was all ready for a fresh start and determined to find love again and SHE thinks she can just waltz back into his life and take him back!!! Arrrrhhhh!!

Okay, so I kind of like Jason and DiAnna together and really like the drama...or what my hubby calls Smut TV, but I was also excited to see what happens with the girls that are new to the show. I am not sure who I like yet though...I think I will have a better idea next week. Thinkin' maybe the Dallas Cowboys cheerleader or maybe the widow (I can't remember all of their names and I wonder how in the world he remembers them after all of that wine!) ohh, and I liked the sort of blond one from Michigan...can't remember her name either. I guess I will just have to wait until next week to what happens. Good thing Greys is new this week so I have another show to look forward to.

Sweet Dreams!