Christmas Cheer!

I had a great Weekend! I love Christmas! With more joy than I have had in a long time, I unpacked all of the decorations and began adorning our house. I even contemplated buying additional lights for outside! This is not like me. I usually dread this part of the season.
As I contemplate why there seems to be a little more spring in my step, I find myself taking inventory of the blessing God has recently blessed me with. As my friends and family know, Missy and I had a tough couple of years not too long ago. In looking back, it is amazing to see how God has carried us through. We now have a gorgeous little girl, and a handsome rough and tumble boy. If you combine that with wonderful friends and wonderful new Christmas Carole I just learned, and it is no wonder I am more in the Christmas spirit than ever before!
If anyone has something that is making this seasons a little merrier than the rest, I would love to hear it!
I will post some pictures of some of our decorations soon.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

I will post soon.

Sorry for going AWOL!

Left the Zoo Behind & Went to the Zoo!

I took a day off from work on Thursday and the family headed off to the Brookfield Zoo. This was Caleb’s first trip to the zoo, and it couldn’t have been a better day! The thunderstorms on Wednesday night seemed to have discouraged people from going to the zoo on Thursday. We parked in the front spot and headed right in. Our first stop was the Sting Ray exhibit. We all had a chance to touch the sting rays as they seemingly flew by us under the water. Kaitlyn was frightened at first, but quickly grew brave when she thought her brother would touch them first. Shortly after that exhibit, we found ourselves at the dolphin show. This is always a treat. Both Kaitlyn and Caleb loved it. Leaving the dolphins, everyone agreed that it was time to eat. We found a shady spot next to the café and started enjoying our packed lunch when suddenly the sky grew dark and we felt a couple of discouraging drops of rain. We quickly ducked into the café and watched all of the patrons scurry about as the rain came pouring down and the lighting crackle across the sky. Everyone fled to their cars. After 15mins. The clouds disappeared and we enjoyed a sunny cool front that moved in, and an even emptier park. We ended the day by enjoying the children’s zoo, the family zoo adventure, the penguins, and the wolves. We missed the gorillas, and all of Africa. This gives a great excuse to head back very soon.

Click Here to see more pictures.

Caution! This post is not suitable for the Lactose Intolerant!

Well, there we were Saturday morning getting all dressed up with nowhere to go. Missy brought up the idea of going to Fair Oaks Farm. What a great idea, I thought. Fair Oaks is one of the largest dairy's in the country. Four million glasses of milk are produced by their 30,000 cows, everyday! This dairy created a venue where people could not only learn about the dairy industry, but experience it first hand.

We learned so much! We saw the milking carousel which holds 72 cows at a time. It was pretty neat how the cows learn to get on and off the carousel. I called it the "Cow-Go-Round." The cows wear a collar that lets the carousel know which cow is being milked, how much milk she produces, and how many steps she took since her last milking. Pretty cool stuff!

We also learned that the dairy is able to use everything the cow produces, including the poo. The entire complex is powered by the methane produced from the moo poo! Forget ComEd, they have CowEd!

It was very amazing to learn that the cows on the farm give birth to about 80 calf's everyday! They had a very cool maternity/nursery barn. Out front of the barn was a traffic signal that alerted visitors of baby calf being born. If the light was red, nothing was happening. If the light was yellow, there were hoofs visible. If the light was green, the calf's nose was showing, and that meant the baby cow would soon be born. They had a real neat observatory where we watched one of the babies being born. Kaitlyn was adorable as she softly coached the mommy cow, by saying things like "you can do it", "your almost there, just a little more." She is such a girl!

We ended our adventure with some homemade ice cream in the Fair Oaks Gift Shop. It was a great end to a great day!

Click here to enjoy more pictures.

Summer is certainly here! With the summer sun turning up the heat, Kaitlyn has a blast cooling off. An early birthday present from Grandpa and grandma has Kaitlyn praying an bedtime for hot weather the next day. She climbs up this monstrosity from every angle. As she starts down the slide she catches some serious air on the first bump in the slide and lands in the pool of cold water at the bottom. Missy and I have so much fun just watching her. Caleb seem to look on with a twinkle of jealousy in his eye. This Slide will be a fun addition to Kaitlyn's 4 th Birthday Party next Saturday, July 14th. Come enjoy the fun.

Happy Birthday Memé!!

Despite the heat, our family had a great day Saturday celebrating Grandma's birthday at Uncle Joe & Aunt Claire's house. This was my first visit to their Rockford Farm, and it proved to be a real treat. After a tour of the property aboard the John Deere Gator, we filed in for a delectable lunch catered by Main Street Meats in Rockford. I'm not a big corn fan, but their sweet corn was excellent! Following lunch, the kids had fun staying cool in the sprinkler. I saw some envious adults watching the little ones run back and forth through the cool water. We wrapped up the day with cake and presents. It was certainly a great day. You can click here to see additional pictures from the day.


Thank you again Uncle Joe & Aunt Claire!

A Memorable Memorial Day!

What an incredible day! Sunday night I called my friend Greg @ he suggested that we take a trip up to Millennium Park for lunch. What a Great Idea! Missy was wonderful. She packed everything we would need for our little excursion.

Early Monday morning we all caught the Metra from the New Lenox station around 10am, and we were off! With four adults, 5 children(2 babies), half a dozen bags and 3 strollers, we certainly had a presence on that train car.

After arriving at Union Station, we started our trek to the park. We spread out a blanket near some well guarded baby ducks and had a delicious lunch that was packed with love the night before.

After finishing lunch we headed over to Cloud Gate, or more commonly known as “The Bean”. That was certainly entertaining for a while. Next was the Crown Fountain. This was a highlight for the kids! They had a blast playing in the water. We hung out there for a while. After having a splash-tastic time there, we took a stroll(er) through the gardens, and finished off our trip with a walk along the lake and past Buckingham Fountain.
The trip home on the train seemed to be just as the journey there, just a little less energetic.

I have to say, rarely have I had as good of a time for only $10. I am sure the company had a lot to do with it. Thanks Sniders for a Great Day!

I have been slacking off! I haven't posted a thing in weeks! I apologize for my inactivity.

Here are some fun pictures from our my families trip to the Perry Farm here in Bourbonnais. It was a great day! As you can see, Kaitlyn was not timid at all. She wanted to pet every critter she could get her hands on. Caleb enjoyed the freash air, but wasn't super enthused about our live stock friends. All-in-all it we had a great time and I had a wonderful time with the family. It really got me excited about the summer. Please Click Here if you would like to see a couple more photos from our excursion.

Whats Next!!

Well, Friday night and Saturday I finished up project “Spring-Swing”.

As I approached the finish line last weekend, God decided to bless me with rain…a lot of rain! It turns out that because of the amount of clay in the ground, the pit I made for the playground mulch actually turned into a swimming pool. After I finished pouting I thanked God for revealing this to me prior to filling in the hole with mulch. Well, I decided to put drain tile in at the far North end. That was a muddy mess of a job! I feel better knowing that I won’t be raking mulch out of my grass every time it rains.

After my slight detour, I started hauling mulch into the hole, and kept hauling, and hauled some more… After the ribbon cutting ceremony, we had a reception with some hors d'oeuvres in the upper play deck of the swing set to celebrate the grand opening. It was an intimate gathering, friends, family, donors, public officials, etc.

It was very satisfying Saturday to see Kaitlyn and her friends Livi & Mikey having a great time playing on swing set and even more satisfying that it didn’t come tumbling to the ground!

Thank you everyone for your love and support, I couldn’t have done it without you.

Fun Filled Saturday

Today was a full day. We all woke up early and started chores. I headed out to Menard's to get a van load of landscape timbers for the swing set. (this project will never be done!) After a couple of hours of digging, I realized ....I dug too much :( I put the shovel away and headed into the house. I had an opportunity to take some pictures of a church we just completed in Minooka IL, Minooka Bible Church. They were having a banquet for everyone who volunteered during the last year. The theme was "The Amazing Race". As soon as I have pictures, I will post them.
The real fun started when I got home. We all played on the swing set. It was a blast. You have to check out the album. I posted called Summer Begins.

What a great helper!

I couldn't help but post this picture. She vacuumed the whole 1st floor I think. Now,....If she can keep that up for another 15 years, Missy & I will be very happy parents.

Very, Very Close!!

What a journey this Swing set has turned out to be. You would think I was constructing a 200 story skyscraper! Well anyhow, it is almost finished. This last weekend I received some help from friends and neighbors in carrying the tower into the backyard, and standing it in place. That was an accomplishment in its self. Then I needed to attach the actual swing set part. That had a whole different set of issues. Regardless of the problems, it is almost done. The last steps include installing the accessories, like rocks for climbing wall, steering wheel, Bronco Rider, and stuff, then I have to put down the weed guard , install landscape timbers around the perimeter, and then finally the mulch. Whew! I'm tired just typing it, I can't imagine how I feel after I do it. I need some input from experienced landscapers. Should I go to the effort of putting the weed barrier under the swing set and tower (lift it up), or will I be fine just getting it close to the wood? Well I have created a little picture album of the journey thus far. enjoy.

Geocaching

Well, It's time to introduce my blogging friends to Geocaching. I think Wikipedia gives a great explanation of the sport. "Geocaching game in which the participants use a is an outdoor treasure-hunting Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver or other navigational techniques to hide and seek containers (called "geocaches" or "caches") anywhere in the world. A typical cache is a small waterproof container containing a logbook and "treasure," usually toys or trinkets of little monetary value. Today, well over 350,000 geocaches are currently placed in 222 countries around the world." I was introduced to Geocaching by a close friend at work, code name BTM. This is one of those hobbies that only requires a small upfront investment to get started, after that you can enjoy the thrill of the hunt for nothing more than the cost of replacement batteries for you GPS. My Geo-Name is Noob, and as of today have found 105 caches. I am sure you will hear more about this topic in the futre, so I will keep this post a reasonable length. If you are intrested in getting started in this wonderful sport, just reply to this post and I will be happy to help.

Easter @ My Mom's

Just when I thought Easter couldn't get any better, I walked into my Mom's house and smelled Easter dinner! It was amazing! We had Chicken, ham, baby baked potatoes, artichoke casserole, cheesy hash-brown casserole, salads, cake, and much more. I was miserably full by the end of the day. While the food was tramendious, the company was even better. I was blessed to spend time with my whole family, including my sister's new man, Mike. After dinner was cleaned up, we all went outside to track down all of the eggs that the Easter Bunny left behind Grandma's house. What a blast!
Tomarrow I am taking a vacation day in hopes of nearly finishing a new playset for the kids. Wish me luck! I will keep you posted.

Easter Morning!

What a fantastic day!
We woke up, got ready for church and headed downstairs to check out what the Easter Bunny left the night before. Kaitlyn was on a mad dash to find all of the eggs spread throughout the house. As you can see, she looked high and low. Caleb seemed to enjoy his sister's frantic behavior. I think we almost got a giggle out of him. Shortly after our Eastersurprises, we left for Church. The worship was incredible!

It was a great morning!

Easter Eve!

Well it's Easter Eve, and I happen to go down stairs for a midnight snack and I was fortunate enough to be the first one in the house to see the spoils the Easter Bunny left at our house. Nothing like some sweets to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus. We will be heading out to church in the morning, then off to "Grandmother in the Meadow's" house. I am looking forward to blowing my diet! I will post some of the exciting pics fromtomorrow as soon as I can.
Have a blessed Easter!

Praise God! Christ has Risen!!!

Shiver me Timbers!!

I started assembling the swing-set. This thing is going to be huge! I started on it Saturday morning and called it quits around 4 o'clock. I managed to get the roof & most of the play deck frame built. Its going to take a small army to get this thing from my garage, to the backyard. Speaking of backyards, I had my friends from Jordan's Landscape stop over today and rip out ~$150 worth of sod from my back yard to make room for the swing-set. We needed an area 20' x 30' x 6" carved out. I will be filling it in with playground mulch this next week. This has become quite the project! Anyway...Don't be surprised if I ask for your assistance inphysically setting this thing up next week,....and don't think about hiding from me, I'll find you...!

Good Friday

Today is a very special day for me on a couple of fronts. The obvious significance of the day is recognizing ultimate sacrifice that Jesus Christ made for each of us on the cross 2000 years ago. If you have ever wondered what that truly means I would suggest visiting www.needhim.org . This is a very cool site.

The other reason that this day holds a special place in my heart is closely related to the first. On this day five years ago, I heard a message given by Adrian Rodgers, founder of Love Worth Finding Ministries, titled “Why the Cross”. I was driving through St. Louis on my way to my grandfather’s house. There is of course a story that leads up to this date, but on that day I truly understood what it means to be a Christian. I pulled my car to the side of the road, confessed that I was a sinner and truly submitted my life to Christ. From that point on my life was forever changed!

That’s that.

Have a Happy Easter.

Birthday Wishes!!

Today is a special day! On a beautiful spring day back in 1976, my wife made the day twice as beautiful. Happy Birthday Missy! You are truly my best friend and an incredible and continual blessing on my life.

The Date went Great

The date went great! It was quite an adventure! After we got the kids taken care of, we headed out for Brickstone restaurant. I forgot to make reservations, so we were looking at a 40min. wait to be seated. We left there and headed for an Italian place we had never been to. Talk about an adventure! If you want to hear a funny story, ask me about this interesting experience sometime. Right after dinner we stopped over at The Moon Monkey Coffee Shop. I highly recommend this fine establishment. The Moon Monkey really resonates the mood and atmosphere that Starbucks is trying to create. The building is an old farm house converted to café, with two stories of soft seating, study tables, fireplaces, and of course, free WIFI. After enjoying some great conversation and delicious coffee, we headed home.

It was truly one of the best evenings I have had in a very long time.
Thank you Miss.