Thursday, January 29, 2009

Chinese New Year



Since Stacy was taking off work Tuesday to work at church, he was uncertain how late he would get home. Plus, I have to admit I sometimes lose track of dates staying at home so Chinese New Year kinda snuck up on me. We made Chinese lantern and ate Pei Wei take-out. Hannah couldn't decide between her pink pants and the green dress, so we worn the pants during the day and the dress for dinner. The dress my also be making an appearance at church on Sunday so wish Hannah a Happy New Year if you see her.

Blessed






Hannah's first snow angel

It was snowing when we arrived in Milwaukee on Saturday. It was the only day it actually snowed while we were there, so in retrospect I'm glad we ventured out. April (born in raised in Minnesota) was the one who didn't want to go out and play. Her memory of the time it takes to bundle and un-bundle and dry all the clothes is fresher than mine. :-). Once all four of us were bundled up (me in some of Christian's hunting clothes) we headed to the park. We were the only ones there (surprise...surprise, as it was snowing and all of 20 degrees outside). Hannah got out of the car, walked two feet, laid down and started making a snow angel. It was hilarious!

Then she ran up a snow bank and made another angel. The problem with that is I couldn't reach her and she was right near a big hole where I could see darkness (probably about 2 feet deep). And did I mention that between the layers and the fact that my behind is bigger than Christian's I could not bend very well at the knees or the hips? Luckily, Hannah finally listened and came around the hole so the visions of that little girl in Texas that was stuck in the well subsided.

Hannah's first snow angel in the parking lot.
My little angel
Elijah, my "nother" angel
Hannah and me

April and Elijah

Hannah and Christian

Elijah, April and Christian






We made it about 30 minutes in the snow as Hannah and the rest of us played on the playground equipment. Hannah had a false sense of security that her padding would protect her on the very slippery play equipment so we had a time keeping up with her, especially with my limited mobility but we had a great time.

Hannah....we are not in Texas anymore

Due to the decline in the ecomony, Hannah and I were able to get (relatively) cheap tickets to fly to Milwaukee over MLK weekend. Technically, we flew to Chicago and Christian picked us up and drove us to Milwaukee. This was just a day or two after a plane had an emergency landing in the Hudson River. We apparently arrived early and spent about 20 minutes circling over Lake Michigan. Good thing for all those people they didn't have to land in that lake as it would have been much harder to survive.

Lake Michigan


"Sing sweet nightingale...la la la la laaaaa"

Hannah loves Cinderella (and her princess friends) and has really taken to acting out scenes from the movie. In particular, one day I heard her singing the "sing sweet nightingale" song for the foyer. You know the scene: the step-sisters are upstairs having their music lessons while Cinderella is on her hands and knees scrubbing the floor downstairs singing the same song. Anyway....when I went to check to see what Hannah was doing, she had gotten one of her hand wipes and was on her hands and knees "cleaning" the foyer floor. Too cute!

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

The Future Mr. and Mrs. Mark Wood


Mark proposed to Lauren today and she accepted. They sound very happy and we are happy for them. Welcome to the family, Lauren!

Happy New Year!

We had our 15th annual NYE party. It was a small but happy crowd and we had a great time eating, drinking and playing Taboo and Rock Band.

Some of the Schoppe's
Sylvia...queen of the jello shots

Toby, Mark and Stacy

Greta, Lauren and Michael

My sweetie and Me

Brothers

Taboo

Agnes and Tom

Greta and Lauren

Toby and Michael

Lauren and Mark

Happy New Year!

Rock Band

Mark, Lauren and Hannah


What do you do with the left over money in you FSA account?


Christmas morning at home

Christmas Day with the Cole's