Wow, where has the last TWO years gone?? And he’s not even our child! Sean had a Thomas The Train birthday party with all of his friends (you know, the girlfriends in his life) and his family who loves him very much! What a spoiled little birthday boy! He received so many gifts on Thomas the Train and he LOVED them all.  The best part of the party was the Thomas cake that Emily made.  As soon as Sean saw it, he wanted to “eat Thomas”.  His eyes got so big when he saw that train cake.  Happy Birthday sweet boy, She-She and Uncle Brian love you!!

Sean and his Thomas cake:

hhmm Should I eat you?

Icing…..mmmmm

As I said in the previous post, my great-grandmother passed away on February 21st – Her 89th birthday.  She was a beautiful woman who loved her family and friends so much. She LOVED dancing and often went dancing on Saturday nights with her friends.  That’s where I got my love for dancing from, I’m sure!  She will always be missed by all of her family.  I’m sure she was rejoicing and having the time of her life on her birthday in Heaven!

Picture Courtesy of Steph Carson Photography

We are constantly staying busy it seems like but we finally got the chance last weekend to meet Cary and Jyll’s newest addition, Truett.  He is so cute! Big brother Caleb is growing up so fast and is a huge help with Truett.  It is always great seeing Cary and Jyll (and the kiddo’s!) even though we don’t see them nearly as much as we’d like to.  We had a great time playing with Caleb, holding Truett, catching up on our lives, enjoying a yummy dinner and playing cards after the kids went to bed.  (Incase you are wondering, the girls won both games!) Unfortunately our trip was cut short the following morning due to the passing of my grandmother. We are hoping to see Cary and Jyll soon!

Here are some pictures from the visit.

Caleb getting so big!

Brian and Truett:

Brian and the dogs have been enjoying some time together since Brian has been off work for 3 days.  This is what I came home to one day….What a rough life the 3 of them have!

It’s hard to believe that is comfortable for him!

It may look pretty but it’s getting old now.  We went sledding last week with Sean. It was so much fun. He loves his little red sled and kept wanting “She-She” and “Mommy” to go down on the sled with him! Sounds like we are getting more snow this weekend, again!

Here’s a cute picture of Emily and Sean:

Our street in the beginning stage of the snow fall last week:

We usually don’t do much for Valentine’s Day.  This year was different.  A friend of mine from work has been attending a benefit dinner for Alzheimer’s that her friends parents put on each year, for the last 5 years.  Her friend’s grandfather passed away from Alzheimer’s about 2 years ago after battling with this disease for nearly 10 years.  They have this huge event held at the Briarwood in Hebron, with a nice dinner, drinks, dancing and a silent auction.  All of the proceeds go to the Alzheimer’s Association.  We decided to attend this event this year and are hoping to attend every year from here on out.  We had so much fun!

Most of you know my own grandma passed away 2.5 years ago from Alzheimer’s.  She had it for 10 + years.  The two of us were always so close and to know that she didn’t get a chance to see me grow up is still very hard.  She was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s when I was around 11 years old so she “missed” me growing up. There were so many things that she was a part of but she didn’t realize it.  She didn’t remember me getting my driver’s license, graduating high school, moving out on my own, all of my birthdays, and most recently, meeting the man I was going to marry.  I think about how happy she would be for me that I met someone like Brian. The two of them would be trouble if they were around each other! And I’m pretty sure she would love him instantly because he is a red head   

There was a message on the programs they handed out last night. I couldn’t have said it any better:

For just a moment try to imagine….

All the memories you hold so dear to

your heart are gone forever….

That is what it is like when someone

you love has Alzheimer’s. 

We are so glad that we had a chance to attend this event last night. We both had such a great time with my friends from work and meeting all kinds of new people.  We even won from one of the packages we made a bid on. Well, I actually didn’t know Brian made a bid on this one but he knew I would love it.  He won 2 tickets to Shadowbox Cabaret, a nice gift certificate to Wertheim’s Restaurant (We aren’t really sure where this is but it’s a German restaurant, obviously) and (my favorite!!) a private dance lesson at Arthur Murray Dance Studio! How fun!

I cannot believe it is already almost the end of January. Where has this month gone?? 

Brian has been busy with school and has actually taken up a teaching job at Sinclair Community College in Dayton, teaching Aviation.  It’s great extra money that we are putting towards the remodeling of our house. Speaking of our house, we are going to be “Under Construction” starting in the next 2 months or so. We have been busy looking at floors, front doors, screen doors, entertainment centers,  cabinets for the bathroom, toilets and sinks for the downstairs bathroom.  It is crazy the construction we are going to do and our house will be a mess until it’s all finished. We are so excited though to see the final stage of the house and I am so excited we are able to remodel that side of the house. I’ll keep you posted on the stages of the rooms.

We don’t really have too much going on the next few months. We are going to a Alzheimer’s benefit dance in February, for Valentine’s Day, which will be a lot of fun.  Other than that, we have our birthdays, some of our siblings birthdays, Sean turns 2 in February, and Cate will be visiting in March as well.  It should be a nice few months ahead!

Brian and the dogs had a snow day today. Sydney and Savannah LOVE the snow. They dig their little black noses into the snow and run around like crazy. I can’t believe how big (and grey!) they are getting.

Savannah who will turn 6 in May!

Sydney, 3 years old.

Poor thing, she didn’t get gray hair until we got Sydney.

Look at that tongue!

One more just because they are so cute.

We had a great holiday and we hope your family did as well. With all the hustle and bustle going on in December we tried to fit everything in our crazy schedule. We went with the family to see the trains downtown Cincinnati and Sean LOVED it. He’s very into trains right now – Thomas the Train to be exact – so it was fun to see him get so excited over the big display. 

Brian has enjoyed having the last 2 weeks of from school. I, on the other hand, had to work but enjoyed taking a long weekend off to head to New York to spend Christmas evening. Since Brian and I have been together, we’ve never spent Christmas in New York. We were so excited to hang out, see all the snow they had, and enjoy the time with Heinz, Colleen and Cate (And her boyfriend Brian as well).  We went snow shoeing, played games, made gingerbread houses, and went shopping at the outlet mall! It was so relaxing and I didn’t want to come home.  I’m still trying to convince Brian to move up there. Don’t think I’m kidding either.

Sean in a daze with the train display

Instead of opening our gift, Sean sat on it…..

Our gingerbread houses (Cate’s is on the left, mine on the right)

Do I really have to leave????

More pictures here.

From our family to yours, we wish you a very, merry Christmas and a safe New Year!  We can’t wait to see what 2010 (woah!) has in store for us! See you in the New Year!!