News, News, and More News!

Wow, talk about an eventful couple of weeks! So much has happened, I feel bad I haven't been keeping more on top of things.

~First off, how amazing was last night? Even though I didn't vote for Obama, I couldn't help but feel excited and proud to be an American and to have been able to take part in a major piece of history. I can't remember who said it, but on some show they said that there wasn't really a loser last night, everyone won.(Whoever it was said it a lot more eloquently than I did :) It was also really cool to be here in Illinois when it happened. Steve and I were so close to driving up to Chicago just to be part of the excitement! We didn't, but a little part of me wished we had. :)
~On to an equally important and exciting announcement, Auston started crawling for real yesterday! Break out the baby-proofing! I say for real, because he's been a professional army crawler for a long time now. Also, not to be left out, Audrey's our professional scooter. She'll sit and scoot around on the floor with her legs, or if she's on her tummy, she only goes in reverse, but with both, she's really fast!
~They both have also been teething almost constantly for the last month or so, and they both each have 8 teeth now, and I swear there could be more, with the way they're carrying on! (It's been a really rough time!)
~Also, our little family has a new addition! Last week, we got a dog. I know, we're crazy, but we always said if we found the perfect dog, we'd consider it. Well, we found him. :) He's a two-year-old Miniature Australian Shepherd named Maximus. He's out of the puppy stage, so he doesn't bark or whine a ton, he's already house-broken, he's trained, he's small, and he's so gentle and cute with the kids. We just love him!
~Also, Halloween was a ton of fun here, we had a big Halloween party with all the LDS law students, and our ward trunk-or-treat, so it was non-stop fun! Audrey was an adorable ladybug, Auston was a freakin' cute bumble bee, I was a witch, and Steve was,....Captain America! You know, because he really is Captain America, since Captain America's alias is Steve Rogers. :) At our Halloween party, we had dinner with "mashed brains and eyeballs" (spaghetti and meatballs), "bones" (breadsticks cut like bones), a skeleton veggie tray, spider cupcakes, cookies, and other treats! After dinner, we had a haunted ghost "walk" and story, (the kids walked up our stairs that we had covered in spider webs, and then we set up our little tent in our guest bedroom and had our friend, James, dress up like a ghost and tell a spooky story. It was totally cute! Then we decorated cookies and trick-or-treat bags, so all in all, it was pretty fun! Thanks so much to everyone who helped out and brought food!
~Another exciting bit of news, is that in the past couple of weeks, Steve and our friend James partnered up and took part in their school negotiation competition, of which they took FIRST! So exciting! As a result, they had to go to ST. Louis this past weekend and take part in the regional competition, which included other law schools from Nebraska, Missouri, Illinois, and Wisconsin. They did really well, and ended getting 8th! We're really proud of both of them! ~After Steve's competition, we drove up to Chicago and stayed with Steve's dad, who was in town for some meetings. It was so great to see him, and it's getting us more excited for Christmas break! We stayed over night with him and had breakfast with him in the morning, before his flight left. Afterwards, we drove and walked around Chicago, seeing the different sites. It was so fun, I really love that city.
~Steve's law school softball team was in the tournament, and out of 30 teams, they made it to the top 8, a little better than his last softball team. :) His team was made up of all the other LDS law students, so we were known as the Mormon team, known by the facts that we were pretty much the only sober team and the only team with kids! Our friend Zach made everyone on the team baseball cards, so I've included Steve's on here. His nickname is 'Captain', after Captain America. Well, that's about all the news of our family for the next little while. Hope you enjoy the pictures! Sorry so long!

Where to Mom?How cool am I?

My head's too big for my shirt!Our newest addition, Max!

Getting Ready for the donut eating contest at the trunk-or-treat

Chowing Down

The Avengers, led by Captain America (or something like it)

The kids lined up, once again, on our couch R-L: Ellis (John McCain), Auston (bumble bee), Grant (lion), Charlotte (kitty), Eliza (princess), Audrey (ladybug), Laney (skunk), Jack (eggs), Cadence (toast)The kids (and parents) decorating their Trick-or-Treat bags

Audrey chowing down on our friend Tanner's necklace (he and his wife Carli dressed up as each other for Halloween, hence the necklace)

Captain America and Laney showing off the cookie they decorated

Our Day in Chi-Town (pronounced shy-town, just in case you were wondering)

Wrigley Field

Bleachers on houses across from Wrigley

Navy Pier

Okay, there's a lot of pictures in this. Since the last post, we've done a few things. I put some really cute pictures of our times at the parks, and they're so cute! Auston and Audrey LOVED the swings! Then we had Steve's birthday, and I made him a Lemon Meringue Pie, his favorite. To celebrate, we went to the University of Illinois football game, Go Fighting Illini! (Pronounced ill-line-eye. I struggled with that at first) It was pretty fun, and the stadium was really neat, since it's pretty old and made out of brick. I also took the twins to Curtis Orchard with some friends and their kids. Curtis Orchard is a big apple orchard near our house that also has a big pumpkin patch and a petting zoo with ponies, goats, chickens, etc. It was pretty fun, but it really made me miss my parents' apple orchard and the apple chips, juice, the smell, and everything else that goes along with apples and fall at my parents' house. Anyway, We also went to Lake of the Woods, a forest preserve about 10 minutes from our house, and we tried to take some family pictures, but we ended up just taking a bunch of pictures of Auston and Audrey. They had this really cool old red covered bridge that a bunch of people were having professional pictures taken on, so we decided to have a little photo shoot ourselves. As soon as Audrey got out of the car, she couldn't stop shrieking, she was so excited. It was so funny! There's a couple of pictures where you can tell she's just screaming as loud as she can, which is how she expresses herself! Auston played it a little more cool, but he was completely enthralled with the leaves on the ground, since it was basically the first time he had seen them. We could hardly get him to look at the camera, it was so funny! Anyway, I hope you all enjoy the pictures!

Our day at Lake of the Woods

So excited!

Still so excited!

Mini me

Steve's birthday pie

Having fun at Curtis Orchard

The gray goat looked exactly like my old pygmy goat, Daisy, miss her too (never thought I'd say that, we had a love/hate relationship :) )

Auston is so happy

Having fun at the park

This past weekend was really fun, on Friday we went to our friends' little girl, Ellis', 1st birthday party, and it was too cute! It was at a park, and we could hardly get Audrey off the swings, she loved them so much! Then Saturday and Sunday was conference, which I always love. All of the talks were so great. In between sessions on Sunday, we invited all the other law students over for a potluck brunch. We had a great turn-out, and the food was awesome! It was a pretty tight squeeze, but that made it all the more fun! We had 18 adults and 10 kids running around, so I'm sure you can imagine! Anyway, thanks to everyone who came and brought stuff, it was a lot of fun! Here are some pictures, enjoy!

Packing everyone in

The cutest kids ever!
L-R: Eliza, Laney, Grant, Auston, Audrey, Jack, Cadence, Ellis, Eliza, and Paige

Hey everyone! I thought I'd do a little update, since it's been a while. Steve's mom, Gainell, came to visit and just left, and it was so much fun to have her here! We spent time in Chicago, did a lot of shopping, went to the Amish country, and made lots of strawberry and raspberry jam! It was a lot of fun, and we miss her already! It was my first time to actually spend a long time in Chicago, and I absolutely loved it! I can see why it's so easy to fall in love with it. It was clean, friendly, and beautiful, even downtown on Michigan Avenue, the "Magnificent Mile". It has parks, trees, the gorgeous lake, even beaches, right downtown. It was awesome. And Gainell was the best tour guide. :) Since she lived there for awhile, she knew where everything was, the history behind it, and the best shopping! If anyone goes to Chicago, they should go with her! So we really had a lot of fun. Also, since my last post, we went with some friends of ours and went paddleboating on one of the many ponds in our city, and I also had my birthday , the big 25, which Steve really made Awesome! We went to the movie "Ghostown" (our first movie in a long time) and we loved it! Anyway, so here are some fun pictures from our eventful last couple of weeks. Enjoy!