Car Trips

Well now that we are home, thinking back about car trips I have no clue what it must have been like for my parents since we didn't have DVD players back then. I will tell you those things are the greatest car trip life savers in the world. On the latest trip to Illinois I drove the whole 9 hours by myself and I will tell you the kids were great. But just to make the trip more exciting it snowed both on the way down and the way home. On the way home I just happened to have the camera with me just in case something happened.

Here are the photos from the trip home:
Brendan hanging out watching his DVD screen....Madelyn watching her DVD screen...Nice snow covered farm land...Snow in the middle of Illinois...

Magic House

While we were in Illinois we took the kids over to St. Louis to visit the Magic House. This place is crazy! It looks like a large house but once you go inside there are kids running around everywhere and hallways leading every which way to a billion different areas. They had a toddler area, a village with a grocery store, bank, library, pizza restaurant, tree house, fishing hole, construction site and I am sure more. Down stairs they had a Lois & Clark adventure that you had to swing on a rope, walk on a rope, go down slides, crawl in and under things. Madelyn wasn't old enough to go in here so I took Brendan through it. Upstairs they had even more. This place was like I said crazy.
Here are some photos that I was able to get while chasing Madelyn around:
Madelyn & part of Brendan's arm at the sand table....Madelyn going down a slide...Madelyn going down another slide.....Brendan crawling in and out of a hiding spot...Brendan at the fishing hole....Brendan trying to make himself inside a bubble....Grandma with have to send me one of the one where Madelyn & my hair is standing straight up while touching the metal static ball. (My hair was in a pony-tail but my bangs went straight up).

Dinner with the Girls

While we were in Illinois, we had dinner on Sunday with my Aunt Gayle & cousins Wendy & Jamie.
Here is the photo of all of us that Grandma took.....Brendan being the joker about taking a photo of us too, he backed up as far as he could go for this....Miss Jamie....And just because I said I would Miss Wendy....Miss Madelyn & Mister Brendan eating their pizza....
The kids were great for our two & half hour dinner. I was smart and brought in one of the new toys that Grandma had just bought for each of them to play with while we were there for our long dinner. Finally at about 3:55 our waitress come over to tell us the place was hosting a private fundraiser at 4pm. So we basically had to leave. It was kind of funny.

Visit with Baby Violet

Here are some of the photos from our visit to Ill. On Saturday Ashley & Violet came over and the kids got get some play time in. Madelyn liked Baby Violet, and of course Brendan was an old pro at the whole baby thing.
Here are the photos:
Violet & Madelyn helping Papa Gary with the floor mats........Miss Violet was posing for the camera so I couldn't help but get this one of her big blue eyes......Madelyn & Violet posing for some photos.....Madelyn being all "Little Miss Drama Queen" I have no clue as to where she gets it from......Madelyn helping to take the mats apart.......Me holding the two girls, Madelyn wasn't quite sure about sharing her Mommy.....Brendan with the two girls......Violet checking out the crazy Brendan.......

Valentine's Day Photos

Okay I am a bit late in posting but hey I have been on vacation so I am allowed.
Here are all the Valentine's that Brendan brought home from his school friends.For our special Valentine's Day Dinner we went out to eat at only the best - Chuck E Cheese!
Of course both Brendan and Madelyn had a little something special to open.
Brendan got....a Transformers tee shirt & a new Transformer too.Madelyn got a Turtle for her littlest pet shop.Here is what Brendan gave to Brian and me....so cuteAfter pizza it was time to spend those tokens.
Madelyn is getting pretty good at the ski-ball game but their were alot of kids there so she didn't get to play for very long (she sometimes has a wild pitch).We even ran into one of Brendan's friend's from his soccer team.

New Lou Lou Trick

Maddie did this one day coming down the stairs and it scared the crap out of me. I had no idea how she was going to stop when she got to the bottom :) So, we had to get it on video.

I Pledge Allegiance.......

This is so cute. Brendan's school has a morning news program that is aired in the classrooms. They have their own studio in the library. Brendan was one of the lucky kids that got to represent the "Young 5's" and say the Pledge of Allegiance to the whole school.

So, here he is doing it again for us. The songs afterward are just for your entertainment.

Jacob's 3rd Birthday Party

This past Sunday was our nephew Jacob's 3rd birthday. We went out to Dan & Nancy's house to have a party.
Jacob was having a really fun time opening his presents.All the kids waiting patiently for the cake to be ready.Jacob blowing out all of his birthday candles.While we were there the kids also got their Valentine's Day gifts from Papa & Grandma Andrews. And Madelyn got a Pink Fishing Pole!Brendan playing in Zachary & Jacob's play room.The boys playing with Jacob's new Cars toys.

Madelyn's New Pj's

Miss Madelyn got some new pajama's this past week. I was on-line at Disney.com and I found a pair of pants that I wanted to get but paying shipping for a pair of pants was kind of silly. So of course I got the kids some things too. They didn't have too much in Brendan's size that he wanted so he got some Power Ranger pj's & Madelyn got a dress and these really cute pj's.

Here she is modeling her new duds.

Hotel Waterpark

This past weekend we went to Zehnders Slash Village in Frankenmuth with Papa & Grandma Andrews. The kids had a blast. The water park was so much fun, both kids did all the the water slides even Lulu. The hotel room even had a fire place, so Brendan felt right at home.
It was hard to take photos inside due to low lighting in the humid air but I got some good ones and some that will have to do.
Here is the hotel (well part of it)...The hotel had the greatest feel to it. This was on one of the walls in the lobby.Here are Lulu & Daddy by the huge fire place Tree in the lobby.Brendan feeling right at home in our room with the tv above a fire place. Even had his flip flops still on.Lulu with Grandma & Papa in the hot tub getting warm.Brendan going down the body slide. Lulu went down this one in Mommy or Daddy's lap.Of course when I took this picture the life guard happened to be right in the way but just the same this is Brendan with Papa coming out of the 4 story tube slide. Lulu did go on this twice with mommy (mommy's mean).Riding on the lazy river.Lulu proving she has a bit of the South in her genies, she is always taking both her shoes & socks off in the car lately.

Snow Day

Today Brendan had a snow day so we stayed home, watched some movies, played inside & kept warm by the fire. But of course we didn't take pictures of that. Darn

But now the boys are our sledding while the girls are getting ready for our Hotel/Waterpark (as Brendan calls it) weekend with Papa & Grandma Andrews. We will have pictures of that on monday.
Mojo will be going to the puppy hotel (again what Brendan calls it) to play so he won't be lonely at home. He will probably sleep for two days once he gets home since he will have other dogs to play with for two whole days.