Christmas Card Bloopers

Enjoy these Christmas card bloopers...........



I was a tired mommy after running back and forth to set the timer, I mean how do you tell a 11 month old to stare at a camera set on table with no one holding it!  In the end we picked one of just the kids! haha =)

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all my blog readers!  I hope you all have a wonderful holiday with your families and friends!  Remember the real reason for Christmas is our savior Jesus Christ!  God bless you all! 
Love,
Kimberly

Happy Birthday Melissa and Adam!

We had a great time celebrating Melissa and Adam's birthday's Saturday night.  Melissa's birthday was December 9th, and Adam's was the 11th!  We had a great meal, yummy cake, and I chowed down on puppy chow (love that stuf, haha).  Luke had been SO excited all day to go over and play with his cousins, he had a blast!  We took some pictures of all of the cousins together on the couch, which was pretty entertaining.  I need to get some copies of those!  Happy Birthday to Melissa and Adam!  Love you guys!

Luke coloring with Ellen and Lauryn

Baby girls!

Melissa and Adam

Melissa opening gifts!

Adam and Autumn

Thanksgiving 2010- Gabrielle's 1st Thanksgiving!

About to eat!

Sleeping on Aunt Donna

Luke and Kayla

Helping with dishes!

Sick kiddos

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving at Rob's parent's house!  It was great we didn't have to travel this year!  Unfourtantley Gabby and Luke were a little under the weather that day with colds, which Gabby's ended up in a double ear infection, while also finally getting her first tooth!  We had a great time though, ate too much, and had fun visiting with family.  Luke and I were able to stop by my parent's and say hi later that night!

Halloween 2010--Gabby's 1st Halloween!

This year Luke was Mr. Incredible for Halloween, of course!  The Incredibles is Luke's favorite movie of all time.  I can't even begin to count how many times he has watched that movie, it kept him entertained many a day while Mommy was on bed rest this time last year! ;)  Luke wanted me to go as Mrs. Incredible, and Gabby to go as Baby Jack Jack.  haha.  The only baby Jack Jack costumes on the Internet were considered vintage I guess by now and were 95 dollars!  So needless to say we didn't go that route!  He wanted Daddy to go as a guy from Pawn Stars. haha.  We love that show! 
We ended up picking out a Baby Tinkerbell costume for Gabrielle as Luke loves Tinkerbell, so we thought this was a great compromise to Baby Jack Jack. haha.  She looked adorable! 
We went Trick or Treating with my sister Melissa and bro in law John and Ellen and Lauryn.  Ellen was Lightning McQueen and Lauryn was Alice and Wonderland!  We got TONS of candy, and had a great night!!  It was a lot more fun than last year when I was on strict bed rest, and did not get to go with Luke and Rob!

The Baby girls Gabrielle and Lauryn



My kiddos in their costumes, being silly!



The Big kids in the wagon Luke and Ellen

Gabby and her Grandma Mindy

The Gang

Luke the Fireman

Rob's Uncle Jeff promised Luke earlier this summer a tour of the fire house in Springfield.  He is now a fire investigator with the Springfield fire department, he was a fire fighter for many years there.  Well this past weekend we asked if Luke could come down to see the fire house!  He was SO excited!  We ended up touring the Chatham fire house where Rob's cousin Lance is an EMT and a volunteer fire fighter first.  Luke loved being able to get in the fire trucks and ambulances, and he loved trying on Lance's fire gear.  We then went out to the Springfield fireman's club out at Lake Springfield, Luke and Gabby had a lot of fun swinging and Luke loved the playground!  Then Rob's Aunt Donna and Lance left to go try to get us a table at D'arcy's Pint, they called us back and said it would be an hour and a half wait!!!  We decided not to do that, we will have to try to go there for lunch next time.  So we went to Cheddar's and then to a Springfield fire house where Luke got to turn on the sirens and sit inside the truck.  He says he is going to be a fireman when he grows up now.  I may have to talk him out of that! haha!  Thanks again to the Miller's for the awesome day for Luke! 

Trying on the headphones!

The tires are bigger than Luke!

Chillin on the fire truck with Lance!

Lance's fire gear

Posin by all the gear!

running the sirens at the Springfield department!

Gabrielle Susan is 9 months old!

Being a sweetie!

Gabrielle turned 9 months old today!  She is such a sweetie!!!  She had her 9 month appointment today, and was 19 pounds 6 ounces and 26 1/4 inches tall!  I can't remember what her head was, but it was in the 75th percentile!  haha.  She is a healthy, happy little girl!  She brightens every day with her big still toothless grin!  She loves to say Dada and baba.  Her fave person is Daddy.  She loves to smile at him, talk to him, and even waves hi and bye to him!!  She has yet to say Mama or wave at me, haha!  I think we have a major Daddy's Girl on our hands!   She does not crawl yet, but believe me she gets where she wants to be!  She either rolls, scoots forward, pivots, or crawls backwards to things!  She is definitely on the move!!  Especially if she wants one of Luke's toys!!  She still loves to eat, she is eating some finger foods and all of the stage 3 baby foods.  She is a such a joy, and i couldn't be more proud of her!!!

Cutie playing while Mommy baked the other day!

Wisconsin 2010

We had a great trip to Wisconsin the week before Labor Day!  We left that Friday afternoon to get up to my Mom and Dad's place up in Wisconsin.  We got there in time to hang out and visit that night.  Then we woke up the next morning, and went into Janesville to shop and got to go to Red Robin for lunch which Luke loved.  When we came back we went boating on the river and lake.  Luke had been looking forward to driving the boat!  Boy did he have a blast!  He drove the boat until he got so tired he stumbled off of Papa Steve and over to Grandma Kay where he slept the rest of the ride on her lap.  Gabby even got a turn driving the boat!  That night we had a wonderful steak dinner on the grill.  The next morning we ate breakfast and then Mom and Dad headed home, and we headed up to Wisconsin Dells!!
We started our trip in Wisconsin Dells by eating lunch at Moose Jaw.  That place was pretty cool!  Then we found our hotel, and went around exploring that night.
Monday morning we woke up early went out for breakfast, and went for a ride on the Army Duck rides.  We had ridden something similar at Washington D.C. and thought it was fun so we did that.  It was really fun, and Gabby got a great nap in while riding the duck! haha. 
Tuesday we went to Noah's Ark Water Park.  We rode quite a few fun rides, and Luke got to see the Sponge Bob 4D theatre which was cool.  Then the heavens opened up and dropped buckets of HUGE rain drops on our heads.  I hadn't seen it rain that hard in years.  The funny part was watching everyone scurry for shelter.  Rob and I got a big kick out of this, I mean we did go there and PAY to get wet didn't we?  So Luke and I jumped in puddles and played in the rain.  Once it started to lightning Rob went and got the car and we left.  It was disappointing that it rained, but that is the chance you take. 
Wednesday we had a great time playing in the hotel pool, and going to downtown dells that evening.  I think that is also the night we ate at the Paul Bunyan Cook Shanty.  That was cool.  You just eat what they are serving and they bring it out family style which is pretty cool!  We also had an Old West photo taken of Luke and Gabby to match the one we had taken of Luke in Gatlinburg two years ago!  It turned out so cute!
We had such a fun time that we decided to stay another night, and moved hotels to the Hotel Rome at Mt. Olympus theme park.  It was an awesome hotel, and when you stay there you get to play at the indoor/outdoor theme parks the day you check in and the day after for free!  The day was beautiful and we had so much fun on the kiddie rides, and all of the water park stuff.  That made up for our rainy day at Noah's Ark.  The hotel was beautiful and even had two bedrooms.  We will definitely go back there someday! 
The last day we woke up and headed back for home, because overnight it had gotten SO cold and windy! 
It was a great vacation, and we made lots of wonderful memories with our family!  Next year we are going to go to Disney World most likely, so it was nice to only have a short car ride this year!! 

I might post more pics later!!!

Summer so far!

We've had a fun and busy summer so far!  I have tried to keep Luke entertained this summer with plenty of activities.  He's been keeping busy with Sunday school, acting class, and all of the library activities.  He has been doing really well at acting class.  He is the youngest child in the class, but in some ways I think that is good for him!  He has been doing really well with listening, and we are looking forward to signing him up for more activities in the fall.  He also got his first big boy bike, now if he could just get the hang of pedaling, that would be great! ha!
Gabrielle turned 6 months old on the 11th, she is quite the cutie!!  Still a big Daddy's girl, and adores her big brother!  She is rolling all over the house as her means of transportation for right now, but I think crawling is right around the corner!  She is also sitting up pretty well by herself too!  Boy they grow so fast! 
I have been enjoying my part time job at Country I work Mon-Thurs.  4 hours in the evening.  It is really nice having Friday, Saturday and Sunday off, and still having every day all day with my kids!  We plan lots of family fun into my weekends off!
At the end of this month we are going to St. Louis with Rob's family, in August we are planning a trip to my parent's place in Wisconsin.  At then end of August or early September we are planning a week's vacation to Wisconsin Dells, and Lake Michigan.  We thought a vacation with a shorter car trip would be nice for this year, as we are planning to go to Disney World next year.  Hope everyone is having a great summer!!

It's been a while!

Well it has been a while since I have last posted!  Things are going great with our family. We took a little family day trip a couple of weeks ago, we went to New Salem, Springfield and then all the way back to Gibson City to see Shrek Forever After.  It was a lot of fun for all of us.  The next weekend Rob's sister Elaine came from Cape Cod, MA with her baby William!!  It was the first time most of us ever got to meet him!  It was wonderful to see them both, and he sure is a cutie!!

Luke is quite the little ham, and we have signed him up for Wee Act acting classes with the town of Normal!  They start next Tuesday, and he is very excited!  He will also be starting Sunday school at church this coming Sunday!  He is very excited about both to say the least!! 

Gabrielle is doing awesome, she will already be 5 months old on the 11th!  Time is going by so fast these days!  She is a happy little girl, that absolutely adores her Daddy and big brother!  She saves her biggest smiles for them!  She is now eating baby food and loves it!  

Rob and I are both doing well, we are wanting to do plenty of projects around the house this summer!  I hope that we will get most of them done.  Hopefully we will take a family vacation, and a few trips up to my parent's vacation home in Wisconsin to ride the boat and relax!  

 Rob just wishes Luke's mower mowed too!!

Who am I smiling at?  Daddy of course!!!

Cotton Candy at the drive in!!

Mommy and Luke with Honest Abe!

Rob's Grandma and Grandpa Oakley, with all three of their Great Grandchildren!

Rob with his nephew William!