Thanksgiving

Shelley and I went over to Grandma's house to fix (and eat) our Thanksgiving dinner. It was nice to have a nice relaxing day and enjoy a good home cooked meal.
Since Shannon and Josh were in Texas visiting Mom and Dad no one was left to carve to turkey so I decided to take a stab at it. This is the before picture....

This is the during picture...

and this is the after picture. I think I did good for the first time. It wasn't as neat as Dad of Josh would have done, but it still tasted good!!!

After dinner we took a walk up to the new building at Wesley Willows to see where Grandma's new apartment. She is really looking forward to getting in there!

We also went to see a movie in the afternoon. We missed the rest of the family, but I think it was a good day. We have alot to be thankful for!!!

Another wedding

My good friends Melissa and Thomas are getting married in May. The girls that were in town went to David's Bridal on Friday night and got the dresses all picked out and ordered. It was alot of fun to just get together and have a few good laughs.

This is the 5th wedding I will get to be in! By the time I get married I will have things all figured out :)

Fun Weekend

My friend from high school came into town this weekend so I had a great time catching up with her. Sara went to ISU down in Bloomington and ended up getting married and living there. Even though it is hard to have her living a ways away, it is nice to have weekends like this! We got to go see the movie fireproof on Saturday. If you don't know anything about it, I would encourage you to look into it! It is a Christian film that has Kirk Cameron in it. It isn't in all theaters, but we are lucky to have it here in Rockford!

I also got Bella clipped this weekend. When I picked her up she had these cute little bows in her hair. I haven't seen her with bows since she was a little puppy. She looks adorable! It is so hard to get a good picture of a black dog...you can never see her eyes! :)

Trick-or-Treat

I got to go meet Shannon and the kids for trick-or-treating! It was so much fun to watch Lydia (and her little friend Morgan) get so excited about getting candy. I don't think either one of them ever really said "tick-or-treat" but they got the concept of ringing the door bell and getting candy. :)

Since the weather was so nice even Joshua got to get out and enjoy it! He was a little bumble bee.

Lydia was a beautiful princess! I think she enjoyed the dressing up as much as the candy.

Joshua in his 1st Halloween shirt. He is getting to be so much fun!

I am so glad I got to enjoy that with them. I even got stew for dinner! For those of you who don't know...that is a King tradition!

Halloween parties

Friday at work we celebrated Halloween all day! I was so much fun to see the kids so excited about their costumes. It was the first year I have gotten to participate with activities. They got to go trick-or-treating around the building to different rooms where some of our staff was handing out candy.

It was alot of kids roaming the halls, but they had so much fun!!

The three and four year olds went over the the hospital to sing and put a little show on so we decided to load up our babies (all dressed up) in a buggy and go watch. This was our little black cat. He had a banana costume cut it didn't work to put him in the buggy since it didn't have a place for the buckle. :)

After the walk and trick-or-treating the babies were so tired! I thought this was a perfect picture opportunity.

In the past, it has been the older kids that get to have all the fun, but this year they tried to get everyone involved!

Babysitting

Shannon had inventory to in the church library so I got the wonderful task of watching the kids. We made pancakes for breakfast and mac 'n cheese (Lydia's favorite) for lunch. It was just fun to play at home all morning!
Lydia was adorable with her baby. It went everywhere we did. She even put it down for a nap while she was watching Cinderella. She is taking after her Aunt Stacey in that way. :) Joshua loves to watch Lydia. As soon as she came into his eyesight he would light up!

I got him to laugh today while playing on his floor mat. It was so fun to hear him! It was hard to get a picture while he was laughing since I was the one he was laughing at.

Lydia played dress up with all her dress up clothes. I think she put on every combination she could. It was fun to see her imagination.

I loved having the morning with them! I know I am with kids all week, but being with them is completely different!

Ribbon Cutting

Today was the ribbon cutting for the Ryan Jury Center. It was so much fun! Even though it was at 10:30, which is right in the middle of the infants nap time, they all did very well during the ceremony. I am sorry I didn't get better or more pictures but I was a little busy trying to keep kids quiet. :) It was really nice to meet the family of Ryan Jury (the boy that the center is named after). He died of cancer at age 2 over 20 years ago. This is one of our toddle classes trying their hardest to sit quietly. They did a great job!
There were so many people there from the hospital, family, community and others that have been involved in the project in some way. Since it was a little chilly outside we had it in the activity room. By the time we fit all the kids and teachers, there wasn't much room for others. I still think everyone enjoyed it!

What was really funny is that as I was walking to the activity room trying to get the big buggy through all the people and I saw my friend, Michelle's, dad. It was a huge surprise! If you look closely he is standing behind the guy in the green shirt. He was there representing Kids Around the World.

So even though it was a long day of people touring the building and peaking their heads in our room, it was fun to celebrate the new building. I am so lucky to have a place like this to work! If you are interested in seeing the footage the news did on it go here and click on the click on the little video link about the picture. The baby sleeping in the buggy is a baby from my class. :)

Cookies and fun!

I got to go over to Shannon's house tonight and help/watch Lydia decorate pumpkin cookies. It was so much fun and she was wonderful at it. I thought she would only sit long enough to decorate one of two cookies, but I think she did 4!!

This is the shirt that Shannon and Josh got me for my birthday after Lydia was born. I had to get a picture with Joshua!

Working hard to make it just right. The funny part was when she dumped almost a half a bottle of green sugar on it! :)
Enjoying her good work
Learning from mommy

Even daddy got in on the fun
She enjoyed decorating and eating the cookies!
Joshua just watched
After a much needed bath she decided to sing us a song. Shannon and I couldn't figure out what the song was but she had fun anyway

Dinners with the Nordgrens

I know it has been a few weeks since I last posted, but there hasn't been to much to share. I have been going over to Shannon and Josh's house for dinner one night a week the last fer weeks for dinner and to spend some time with the kids. I love my time there! These are a few pictures I have taken.

Joshua with his favorite bib! Guess who got it for him :)

Lydia being a good big sister
We were trying to get him to laugh but all her would give us were some big smiles
I just thought this was really cute!

Trip to Ohio

This weekend Shelley, Grandma, Bella and I took and road trip to Piqua, OH to meet someone from the group that Shelley is planing on going to the UK with (if you would like to know more about that, check out her blog). It was about a 8 hour drive so Shelley and I took turns driving. Bella did great in the car. She loved being with all of us the whole weekend. I made her a little bed in the back seat and she snuggled right in. She also did great staying in her first hotel. She is such a spoiled little dog...but I can't help it!!

This was our hotel. It was great because it was connected to a little mall that was nice to go walk around in for awhile. It had a few places to eat around it so we never really left the parking lot.

We didn't have much time to do anything since we got there Sat. evening and left right after Shelley's meeting, but we sure did find a good place to eat. We went to BobEvens for dinner on Sat. night and had a great meal so Grandma and I decided to go back for breakfast this morning while Shelley was in her meeting. It was a good weekend, but I am glad to be home!!

Girls Night

My friend Melissa invited me to a girls night for a bunch of girls from church and it was so much fun! We decided to make s'mores over the gas stove. It was a interesting way to do it but it was great to laugh over. It was nice just to get out and be goofy for the night!
After we were done making s'mores, someone started a marshmallow fight. It was a nice way to keep clean but still have fun.

Bath Time

Sorry it has taken me a few weeks to update. I forgot I had these pictures on my camera until today when I went to take a picture. These are when I went over to Shannon and Josh's house and had a wonderful dinner and got to help with bath time. It was the first time I got to see Lydia help bath Joshua. Then I got to have a few cuddles from him while I got him ready for bed. I love these kids!!!

The last few weeks of work are going great! We are still getting used to the babies as well as them getting used to up, but so far there have been no problems that were a surprise. It feels so nice to have a full class and not have to worry about getting pulled to a different room like my old center!

Up and running

Monday was out first day with kids at work. So far it is going wonderful! It is a little strange to be left with babies you don't know, but it didn't take long before Amanda and I got a good routine going in the room. Here are a few pictures of our week. We did an "All about me" theme this week and let them paint with their hands and feet. Most of them loved it but you could tell the babys that had never gotten their hands in paint before.

This is lunch time. I think it is so cute they all have their little chairs.
Those are just a few of out adventures this week. We are able to have 8 babies in our room at one time but this week we have been having 5 or 6. I has been nice to have a smaller group to get used to things and starting next week we have a few more families starting.

A night of babysitting

Shannon and Josh got to go out on their first "date" since Joshua was born Saturday night! Since Joshua is now taking bottles it makes it much easier for Shannon to leave him. I got a few pictures for your enjoyment! :)



I had so much fun with both of them. Lydia and I played with all her Little People toys and when she went to bed, I got to enjoy some time with Joshua alone! It is so much fun to be an aunt!!