A member of the turbine family gets hitched and another turns Captain!

We attended a party this weekend to celebrate the marriage of one of my co-workers, Rich. (pictured above in the black shirt) Rich was married over the summer in Italy. We had a nice time at the party! Good food & good friends (in that order)! Click here for more photos.
Congratulations to Rich & Christine!

In other congratulatory news Ryan has been promoted to Captain of the United States Air Force! I was lucky enough (an honored) to assist in the pin on ceremony.
Pictured above are Ryan's parents who traveled from Louisiana for the ceremony, Capt and Mrs. Lemaire, myself & John who is taking the job as "pillow boy" to a whole new level. There are no pins on that pillow!

Grandma & Grumpa bring kittens!

Dad & Joni came to town for a visit this weekend and they brought their new kittens, Estelle and Scarlet. These babies are SO CUTE!!! It was fun to have kittens around the house and if it wasn't for lack of a basement to keep a litter box I would have another kitten! Estelle & Scarlet didn't know what to think of Lola or Bruce, we can only assume they were scared since anytime Lola or Bruce moved the cats took off. By the time they were leaving they had warmed up to Bruce but still bolted from Lola.
We had a nice relaxing weekend visiting with Dad & Joni. Thanks for coming to visit! We love you!
Click here for more photos from the weekend including a few photos of Lola wearing her leg warmers.

freakin weirdos

This time of year a photo like this wouldn't be so out of the ordinary BUT I drive by this house every single day on my way to and from work and this dummy is ALWAYS on the front porch, not just for Halloween (even though the pumpkin adds a festive touch). It doesn't matter what time of day or season, it's always there. Creepy. YES!
The first few times I drove past I thought there was a developmentally delayed person sitting there, you know, someone that likes to wear a ski mask because they are ever so comfortably warm. It didn't take me long to realize that it wasn't a real person.

Their mind set be must be as follows:
If a robber comes to the front door they are sure to run away when they see this realistic security guard!

I wonder if they will put a Santa hat on him during the holiday season.
WTF? Let me hear your thoughts...

BREAKING not so great NEWS

3 ER visits in 17 months

I got a call at work this morning and on the other end of the phone was Terry at the day care center calling to tell me that Lola fell, hit her head and threw up. WHAT! I rushed out the door to the day care center. Unfortunately I had to drive 25 mph because if I get another ticket on base I won't be able to drive on base. It took me 3 very long minutes to get there. Thank goodness Becky (Lola's old teacher and our emergency contact) was in Lola's room holding her. The day care director, Brenda, greeted me at the door (I was already a wreck but it got worse when I saw her) she told me that Lola was doing ok but since she threw up they were advising me to get her to the ER. She didn't hesitate to send Becky with us. In the meantime Joe had followed me to the day care center to make sure we were ok (even thought he doesn't look like Bruce Willis I think I found my new BFF) How nice was that?!
To make a long story short Lola is fine and acting normal. We have to monitor her behavior for 24 hours and wake her up in the middle of the night.

Oh Lola! That girl needs to settle down!
The above photo shows Becky snuggling Lola at the hospital.

the day the lights went out

This photo and video were taken over a week ago, the day of the hurricane. We were out of electricity so we had nothing to do. We couldn't watch our beloved tv (you will see Lola making an attempt to turn it on), the boys couldn't play video games and it was way too windy to go outside.
So... Lola entertained us.
As you can see she is way more entertaining than tv anyway!

fun at the farm

We took Lola and Rowan to the dairy farm last weekend and it's safe to say they had a fun time! Lola fed the goats, played on a tractor, checked out the pumpkins and had ice cream but her favorite part of the afternoon was riding on the train. She said "whee" the entire time and even raised her arms roller coaster style when she saw the big kids in front of her do it. We took plenty of photos. Jeff and I were just talking at work today about how lucky we both are to have such cute kids!!!

cutest jammies ever Phase II

Now that Lola has outgrown cutest jammies ever and they have been passed down to Rowan's baby sister we needed to move on to phase II of cutest jammies ever and success happened over the weekend! Phase II cutest jammies ever are so adorable on Lola! And bonus, they glow in the dark! What? For real!

Brody's Grandpa has a freakin awesome set up!

I've taken tours of many homes in my 35 years and seen a lot of awesome things but I have never seen this before...
A basement dedicated to small figures (most of them hand painted by Brody's Grandpa) all precisely set up in their appropriate scenes. I was amazed! I told Jackie to hang on so I could run upstairs and get my camera, this is for sure worthy of it's very own blog post. These photos don't even come close to doing it justice, make sure to click on the photos to make them bigger, then take it all in.
Totally awesome and if I was his daughter I would have been in that basement all the time playing with the circus! Don't tell but I secretly moved one army guy a centimeter to the left.. wonder if he will notice. sssshhhh....




Thanks to Brody's Grandma & Grandpa for the nice visit & lunch!

Lola visits Brody!!!

Lola got to visit her good friend Brody yesterday. She hasn't seen him since he moved to stupid Pennsylvania 2 months ago. We miss them terribly but were so happy to be able to squeeze in a visit! Brody is frickin huge, probably tipping the scales at 60 lbs by now and his hands are the size of a grown man, it's crazy. We were excited to find out that Brody will be getting a baby sister in January! yay, another girl!!!
It was so good to see you guys! Have a safe trip home.
Brody clearly exhausted takes a rest while Lola continues to play with all the awesome toys at his Grandmas house.

mini party

We had some friends over last night for a stress free mini party. Aaron built a campfire for our guests. There was beer, food and a dead cat. Unfortunately the kitty didn't have a collar so we didn't know what to do but bury it. Being a cat lover this put a little bit of a damper on my evening.
The children (clueless about the cat) had a great time. Lola showed Rowan her new table and they sat down for a tea party. Later in the evening while at the campfire Rowan learned how to say Bruce! So cute!
Our mini party gave us a chance to hang out with Ryan and Katie before they head to Texas. Bummer. We will miss you guys and wish you the best!!! And since my work BFF is moving away I am now taking applications for a new work BFF and the only requirement is that he look exactly like this:
There are a few more photos from the mini party here.


Let me set the record straight: It is purely a coincidence that my dog has the same name as Bruce Willis, I can assure you that we didn't name our Bruce after the above super tough and extremely hot Bruce. Aaron named our dog after the legendary Bruce Dickinson. Definitely another cool Bruce just not as foxy as Army Bruce Willis.

Merci Jenny

My BFF Jenny came to town this past weekend for a visit. We had a lovely time! Jen & Justin recently visited Europe and brought back all kinds of goodies for us one being a beret from Paris for Lola. Clearly she looks so cute as a little French girl. She will wear this all winter so you're sure to see more photos as the days go by.
Thanks Jenny - we had a great visit, see you in a couple more weeks, yay! Je suis tellement excitée pour le NV SV jeu!

Let there be light!

or better yet, let there be TV!
After approximately 31 hours without power we are finally back in full gear! A pretty nasty wind storm blew through town yesterday knocking out power lines (one in our neighbors yard) and trees and causing local businesses all over to close. We are lucky, we only lost two small trees and didn't have any damage to our house. Unfortunately my boss had some pretty major damage to his house and will probably be out of power for a week or longer.
Lola helped her Daddy clean up the yard this afternoon. They have a lot more work ahead of them...

Yearbook Yourself

Aaron and I have had so much fun yearbooking the family tonight.
This is what I would have looked like if I graduated in 1994 (thankfully I graduated in 1992 so I didn't look anything like this!):
I know what you're thinking... pretty hot stuff. Maybe so but definitely not as hot as this: Aaron if he graduated in 1952. What a smokin hot hottie! He would have had all the chicks knocking on his door (begging him to do their homework so they could go out with the football star)

Ian would have been the coolest dude in his high school if he graduated in 1982. Wow! It's possible that this style will come back by the time he actually graduates making him look exactly like this photo!

Then there's our sweet little Lola. What a love. Poor thing. Class of 1954


I am including more yearbook photos because they are frickin hilarious! I hope you crack up as much as we are. Please leave a comment and let us know which year you think is Aaron's best.

Ian 1962

1974 (nice!)


Emilee 1966


1968 - pretty cute


Lola 1966

1968

1996


Aaron 1960

1964
1970 (someone showed up drunk on class picture day)
1976 (I think I had a crush on a boy that looked like this)
1988
class fatty - 1998

Let the tea parties begin!

Aaron and I took Lola to IKEA on Tuesday to pick out a table & chairs set for her bedroom. If you haven't been IKEA is a pretty fantastic place. We spent about 2 1/2 hours there and even had dinner in the cafe. (I had the Swedish meatballs, yummm) It was kind of like eating dinner in a restaurant in space. During our 2 1/2 hour visit we didn't even make it through the entire store however this IKEA was so much more relaxed than the one in Chicago, that place was a madhouse. Anyway... I finished painting the table and chairs yesterday and she had her first tea party after her bath this evening.


I am now extra excited for her kitchen from GiGi & Grandma Joni to arrive however I can't give it to her until Christmas. It's going to be so hard to wait that long but I'm pretty sure I can do it!!!! Can I?
Is she too young for the Easy Bake Oven?

Lola says "DRINK THE TEA MOMMY!!!!"


P.S. It's 7:43. Lola is in bed because she goes to bed at 7:00 and Aaron is in bed because he has a headache form using some tool on concrete all day. The house is fairly clean so I'm going to curl up on the couch and watch a Lifetime movie or something on E! depends what's on. aaahhhh! Relaxing!

Darn it... kitty litter. I'll relax in a few.

lots of doors & a baby girl

We've got this old farm house with a lot of doors. Doors to everywhere and it's come in really handy with Lola because we can close them and keep her out of the kitchen or the hallway to the stairs (for her safety of course). When I cook dinner she normally stays with her Daddy in the tv room and we close the door.
Things have changed.
As of tonight Lola has figured out how to open them! Should I be happy she is figuring these things out or should I be like great... there's no stopping her now?
The first time she got it open she looked as shocked as we felt. By the third time she opened it she knew it was going to be great fun, so that's what she did tonight, opened and closed the same door over and over.


And in other frickin awesome news Rowan is going to have a baby sister! I told Lola this news and her reaction was as follows:
"yay, I'm getting a BFF!" Congrats to Angela, Jeff, Rowan, Grammie Donna & Marmie! Let the shopping (and knitting) begin! YAY A GIRL!!!!! Finally someone is having a girl besides me!

We're home!

We arrived home at about 6:45 this evening. We wold have been home sooner but we stopped at the Pottery Barn and West Elm outlet store. I'm looking for an area rug for Lola's room. I found one I really liked but it smelled funny so now I'm on a mission to find it online.
Outlet stores, hummm...

Even though we miss Julie, Ed, Ethan & Celia we are happy to be home and we are so happy to see Runner! He is glad to have his family home too. He's sitting on the chair with me now.

Thanks Prima & family for a super fun time!!!!! See you all soon! We love you guys!

I hung up the circles mobile and I am so happy I bought it, it is a PERFECT addition to Lola's room!!! I love it!


Lola's view:

Felicity's 3rd birthday party gets out of control...

...not


Click here for some photos.

We are headed back home today!