Good Times at Grammy's

I don't know about the rest of you, but I had a blast at Grammy's for her party last Saturday. I think she did too. it was great to see her having so much fun with the family all there with her.Grammy is such a good sport!! Check her out in this party hat!!!!Look at that beautiful face.....I hope we are all lucky enough to get those non-aging genes from Grammy. Can you believe she's 90 years old and still looks this good?!?!?!?Sissy joined the fun with some of Rich's little party favors. Rich always makes our family get togethers so much fun!!
Isn't his picture absolutely precious? I think it's one of very few that I got of Ari without his little tongue haning out :-)
OH!!!!! There's that tongue again!!!

Jen and Ari.....and Ian crying in the background....poor little guy..........

Grammy was grinning from ear to ear all day long. I do think we probably all drove her crazy playing paparazzi all day. I got some great pictures of her though!!!Look at that giant pile of money in front of Grammy.....she kept saying she was wealthy. In my opinion, we are all wealthy because we have eachother!!!
I was so glad to see Rosie, Livi, and Amanda. We don't get to see eachother often enough!! Maybe we just need to plan more family parties so we can all see eachother as much as we want to..............
AWWWW.....what a great picture of Rosie and Grammy both. Grammy was still smiling, and this had to be at least photo number 1133445789 for the day :-)

I love this camera of Ari's. It looked a little too complicated for me, but if Ari can figure it out, then I guess maybe I should have tried harder. Apparently Livi got it figured out.
Beautiful blue eyes......slimy but cute little tongue :-)

I was so happy that Ari let me take a picture with him. I think he's starting to get more comfortable around me. I gotta get over to Grammy's more often on Fridays so he won't be so shy around me.
That cake was delicious!!! Check out that smily face in Grammy's hand......we all had fun with that crazy little thing.........Thanks Rich!!!!!
Sweet baby Ari all squeezed into Grammy's chair with Aunt Jill. Isn't that so cute?!?!?

TA DA!!!!!

I hope everyone had as much fun as I did. Love you all!!!!!

Potato Soup, Anyone????

Hello all!!!! I have a favor to ask.....

I need a good recipe for potato soup. I know it's easy. I know someone out there has a good recipe to share. I have never even tried to make it. I have a basic idea in my head, but I need someone's help. For some reason, I've been on a soup kick here lately. I think it's nice in the winter to sit down with a hot bowl of soup, a blanket, and maybe a weiner dog or two cuddled next to me. I'm craving some good potato soup, so help me out here!!!!!

Christmas Fun at Aunt Jill's

Well, I don't know about the rest of ya, but I thought Christmas at Aunt Jill's was wonderful this year!!!!! It's always so great for the whole family to get together. I wish there was a major holiday once a month just so we could all see eachother more often.
I thought this was a really good picture of Uncle Dale and the guys...........

Rosie, it kinda looks like you're praying....this is the only picture I got of you....were you hiding from me??????
Little Mr. Ari joined the fun sticking some bows on his cute little cheeks!!!!! Andrea and Aunt Jan look like they're both in a trance.......I'm blaming that blanket!!!!
Oh YEAH!!!! Jen....THE GUITAR HERO!!!!!!!
Liz was pretty rockin' too!!!!!

Just a small portion of the gang......Ari's definitely checking something out in the other room.....

??????????????????? Where's Sarah?????????????????????
Baby Ian was Grammy's helper when she was opening her presents.
HOLY COW............that tree was HUGE!!!!!Oh!!! There's Rosie again!!! I guess you weren't hiding from me after all!!

I still can't get over how freaking HUGE that Christmas tree is!!!! We grow 'em big in West Middleton ya know........................
Ian Baby showin' off some hot dance moves...........little cutie pie!!!!!AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!! Rich just flung some flying squirrel or something across the room.....what was that thing anyway...help me out here!?!?!?!?Our beautiful Grammy........

I think Baby Ian was getting pretty tuckered out by the time we did re-gifts...........Check out that green ring Sarah's wearin'................THAT'S HOT!!!!!!!Rich looks a little evil if you look into his eyes....be careful......that's what happened to Ryan here.

I knew this one was a keeper as soon as I saw it. Livie.....you ROCK!!!!!!!!



Looks like Uncle Dale's having fun with his re-gifts....and Sissy must have something pretty good too. She looks like she's concentrating really hard. Livie looks like she might want to say something....Jill....is she reading directions for a re-gift????? I'm pretty sure Cliff walked out as fast as he walked in!!!!!

And, hey, clean up from re-giftswas no sweat. Rich and I hopped on it as soon as we could and got things picked up. Everyone was a huge help in cleaning up after themselves this year. I'm not sure how much trash we ended up having.....sorry if I should have taken some of that with me....didn't even think of it at the time. I have to say, I got some pretty good re-gifts this year.....so ON WITH THE TRADITION!!!!!!

Thanks to the whole family for making Christmas so special, and a HUGE thank you to Aunt Jilll and Uncle Roy for letting us all trash their house....we had a blst doing it!!!!!

And "B".........we missed you....I think you could've kicked some butt back there in the guitar hero room!!!! Maybe next year!!!!!

I love you all!!!!!!!!!

Happy Happy New Year!!!!!!

Christmas Eve at Mom's

Ryan and I went to Mom's to celebrate and have our gift exchange on Christmas Eve this year. It was great to spend time with Mom for the holiday. Mom had several snacks, and Ryan and I took a bottle of wine and a few of Ryan's home brewed beers. She had fun opening all her presents. It's cute....she's like watching a child on Christmas morning. She tears through everything so fast that she doesn't even have time to look at what she got before she's tearing into the next gift......I love watching her.
Will and Mom have two cats, Fuzzy and Moonshadow, so Ryan and I hooked them up with a big "cat basket" for Christmas this year. We put a couple bags of litter, some food, and lots of toys in a big box for them to open together. I know it saves them a little money each month if I can help with little things like cat food. Plus it gave them a giant gift to open:-)
Will is so sweet to Mom. He always says he's the luckiest man alive to be with my mom......it doesn't get much sweeter than that.
Mom got a little playful after her glass of wine. I even got her to sit on my lap :-) Will got drunk off of Ryan's beer, but at least he didn't get drunk enough to sit on my lap...he he he.
And last but not least......................Santa's little helpers.....................

Hangin' with Friends for the Holidays

It was great to have a few days off around Christmas this year. Ryan and I managed to catch up with several friends over the past week. It has been lots of fun.

This is Greggie and Bo and Mandy at Buffalo Wild Wings last Sunday after the Colts game.
My friend Mandy.....don't you just love her cute little dimples?!?!?!?

Ryan and Greg with their designated driver :-)

OK I just realized these are out of chronological order, but I have had a hard time with these pictures, so you'll just have to deal with it...............

Anyway, this is Nick, Ryan and Jamie in Indy Saturday night. We went down there to spend some time with a bunch of people, and stayed at Nick and Ashley's.

Ryan and I both thought the other one brought the bottle of wine for me, so TeShannah, Ashley and me all had to take a quick trip to the liquor store. I was definitely taking advantage of not having to be the DD for anyone, and not being on call for a change.....so I HAD to get my bottle of wine!!!!!!

I'm pretty sure the guys in the liquor store were ticked when we walked in at about 11:57. They closed at midnight. TeShannah had to buy "Sunday beer" for Matt, so she's trying to scoop up two thirty packs of Busch and a bottle of something for herself, and out go the lights. I took that as our queue to get up to the cash register. They weren't exactly friendly....and didn't find it humerous at all that TeShannah had just broken one of the packs of beer she was carrying. Give the poor girl a break....I mean, she WAS carrying 60 Busches!!!!!!! We all thought it was really funny.

Back at Nick and Ashley's, TeShannah and Ryan posed for a quick photo.

This is our good friend, Jamie. He works at the prison at Grissom, and is considering a job in Afghanistan to help train their guards at their prisons. I am really worried about him taking this job, but he is pretty pumped about it. Saturday was the first I've heard of any of this, so hopefully he won't be leaving any time soon, if he even goes at all. It was fun hanging out with him. It seems like we hardly ever see him, and he lives closer than most of our friends!!!

On Christmas Eve,Ryan and I partook in our annual tradition of opening one gift. After that, a few friends came over to play some games. We played the Mexican Train Game and Apples to Apples. Here's Cindy with her stocking right before she opened it. I LOVE making stockings.....I think I gave away at least ten this year.This is Remmy. He belongs to our neighbor, Marcus. He is a big fat English bulldog. Looks mean as hell, but he's actually just a big pussy cat. He came over to get some Christmas goodies too.

Remmy was thrilled to wear these reindeer antlers for our entertainment on Christmas Eve.

This is Marcus, Cindy, Ryan and me. Marcus lives right next door to us, and Cindy used to live across the street. Now, she lives just down the road from Ryan's parents. We really miss having her in West Middleton with us, but we have amnaged to keep in touch pretty well.


After spending a little time at home, Clint called us and asked if we would come meet him at The Kozy. By that time, Cousin Aaron had come over, so we all hopped in the car and drove up to the bar to see Clint. I was really surprised by how many people were out partying on Christmas Eve. It was a lot of fun seeing everyone. I ran into several people I hadn't seen in a long time, so that made for a wonderful start to Christmas.

next blog entry: family photos from Christmas.....but not today. The computers here at work have gremlins :-)