Santa Visits

Storm and Rana Savage had us all over for fun and games... and a visit from Santa!!! Here is Tori asking for stuff for her brother, oh and a hundred dolls for herself. See that mark on her nose? She swam into the side of the Lawerence indoor pool where the Pater's and the Savages joined in on the "Santa Swim"! Life is good.

Visit from Santa

Nicholas testing Santa with a request for a hairless rat for Christmas. What!!!!

Mom Surprises Eric!

Eric came home from a short trip to Iraq to find his Mom sitting on our sofa! I am so proud of Mom for getting on a plane and flying out to KS to see us. Something we didn't think we were going to get her to do since Dad's passing. We had such a nice visit and throughly enjoyed Mom getting to be part of our Thanksgiving celebration.

Halloween

Tori kept with the Kansas theme and was Glinda the Good Witch. Sometimes she's a good witch, but sometimes... !

Halloween

Nick LOVED being Optimus Prime (A Transformer for those of you without an 8 year old boy!) Thank you for the costume Marmie!

Nicholas is 8!

Nicholas asked for a Legos party at home which turned out to be a lot of fun! You wouldn't know it by looking at Nick's face though... my persNICKety son decided he does not like icing and is disappointed in all that color on the lego cake I made. Well! Expect next year's cake to look a lot different!!!

Nicholas' 8th Birthday

I feel compelled to add another picture to show he did smile on his birthday. LOL!!! :-)

Tori sang with her classmates at the church Bazaar. She is such a performer.

Tori is 6!

Tori picked a Cat in the Hat birthday this year. Such a great theme!

Greenawalts come to town

Conor, Campbell, and Aunt Eileen visit us in KS via the train! Here are the kids at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Fine Art. Thanks for the fun visit Greenawalts!!!

Nature walk

Huntin' for frogs

I could just eat these two up!

First Day of School at Xavier Catholic. Nicholas is now big man on campus as a second grader and Tori rules the school as a kindergartener.

American Girl Restaurant

Eileen, Marmie, Pat (Paul's Mom), Melissa, Tori, and Campbell after dining at American Girl in Chicago. What a wonderful event! Tori and Campbell just LOVE their "Just Like Me" dolls from Marmie. Thank you Marmie for a wonderful day!!! And also thank you to Aunt Eileen for all the special details!!

A good Mama

Tori feeding "Tori"

Bookends

Campbell and Tori ready to take on the world

Bible Camp with Greenawalts

Nicholas, Tori and I head back up to Frankfort, IL to spend some more time with the Greenawalts. Campbell, Tori, Conor, and Nicholas heading in to Bible Camp at Paul and Eileen's church.

Chicago Vaca'

The BEST part of the trip was having down time with family and great friends. Here are Morgan, Conor, Nicholas, Campbell, Tori, and Cody hangin' at the park. Landon will be in that shot next time!!!

Wicked Chicago Trip!

Eileen, Paul, and family were so kind to allow the Savages and Paters to crash at thier place while we took in the sights of the windy city. Eileen is an amazing hostess! These shirts were a gift from her so we could all find each other amongst the gobs of people at the Taste of Chicago and other 4th of July activites. We are so blessed to have gotten a chance to ride the train up, see the sights of the city including the fireworks, see Wicked on Broadway (girls), a baseball game (guys), and on and on...! Thank you Greenawalts!!!!

I passed my exam!

I have no pictures to share with this news but I passed the Masters level licensing exam through the National Association of Social Workers today! I've been studying for months so I'm glad to have it behind me now. This makes me a LMSW and opens more options for work when I start looking into one of them job thingys. :-)

Aunt Sandy and Uncle Tom

Eric's Aunt Sandy and Uncle Tom visit us on thier way from CA to PA via motor home. AND they took us out to such a nice dinner too!

Roca

Sadly our much loved chocolate lab, Roca, died. Her body just did not want to keep up with her puppy-at-heart ways. Her hips were giving her too much pain. She was going to be 13 in August and led a very good life I dare say. This was the last picture taken of Roca. We will miss this important part of our family very much. If you meet her in heaven before we get there please give her a rub on the belly from us!

Eric's Graduation

What a wonderful role model my kids have in thier Daddy!!!!

Eric's Graduation

Eric participated in his graduation celebrating his MBA! The kids especially grasped the importance of Eric's accomplishment when seeing all the regalia.Yeah Eric!!!

The Ballerina

Tori's first ballet class... she was SO in her element! You would have smiled and laughed with me the whole time. After the class I told her "I could not be more proud of you. You obviously worked hard and listened well." Her reply, in true 'Toria Princess fashion... "Mom, you don't have to say that... I'm already a genius". Well!

Click on this picture to get a better view of her sassy smirk!

Gymnastics class

Nicholas and Tori loved monkeyin' 'round in Gymnastics class!

Nicholas Soccer 07

Go Green Lightening Racers!

Nicholas Soccer 07

Nicholas in action!

Nicholas at the Piano

Nicholas plays wonderfully at his piano recital. This was his second year with Mrs. Fehlauer and we are all looking forward to his thrid!

Some day my prince will come...

Tori dreams of Aunt Karen gliding down the aisle looking like a fairy Princess.

Mixin' up the powder to a birthday cake...

Marmie and Grandpa blow out their candles!

Campbell Cousins

Mom (AKA Marmie) had a bunch of us over Sunday night so I could see family and friends I don't get to see often. It was wonderful to catch up with everyone!!!
Here are the cousins minus a few (can you believe Eileen did not come home even though she knew a party was going on!!!!????)

Amara, Victoria, Abby, Emma, Zachary, Averie, and Nicholas

karen and George's Wedding

Don and Susan. What a gorgeous couple if I do say so myself!

Karen and George's Wedding

Radhika and Ed snuggle up!

karen and George's Wedding

Let the party begin!!!

karen and George's Wedding

Radhika and Melissa after the wedding smiling on Mr. and Mrs. George Paterson!

Karen and George's Wedding

Karen shines as a bride-to-be

Karen and George's Wedding

Mr. Bogdan walks Karen down the aisle of Saint Ambrose Church.

Karen and George's Rehearsal Dinner

Here we are at Karen and George's Rehearsal Dinner looking forward to their big day!!

Karen and George look ready to tie the knot!!!

Mommie and Tori heading out to tori's program.

'Toria Princess

Tori after her end-of-year program at Xavier Catholic 5 day Pre-K, Saint Casimir Church. She rocked the house with her vocals and animation!

Mom and her girls

Everyone loves a Catholic Girl!

Celebrating Karen.

Scrappers

My sisters Laura, Eileen, and Susan (Don - AKA Chip's wife)

My Army Guys

Nicholas lookin' like his Daddy!

Tori and Nicholas at play

May I introduce you to Dr. Pater and Dr. Pater

Tori at Play

Mirror Mirror on the wall...

Sock Hop

We went to the 6th annual Xavier Sock Hop this past weekend!
Nick is too cool for school.
We actually lost him at the dance. It turns out he has a lot of staying power while playing hide-and-seek with his friends. He was under a table for at least 15 minutes. Add to it every other little boy running around had a slicked-back military cut, white t-shirt, and jeans on as well.
I think Eric earned a few more gray hairs between that and the kissing going on on the dance floor!

Sock Hop

Where does she get these poses!!!!!