Jack Stafford Meets The Thornburgs

This weekend we drove down to Indianapolis to visit friends and new babies.  First stop, Kevin and Diane Stafford's house to see Jack.

Awww! What a sweetie! Travis and Katie also drove down so we got to see them for the second weekend in a row which was very cool.

The babies got to hang out.  They chillaxed.  They're best friends for life.

We also tried to make them hold hands.

This is Andrew holding Jack with happy dad Kevin in the background.

You may also notice drinks in the background.  The Kahlua signals the point of no return.  We started easily enough with beer.  Then switched to whiskey.  Then we finished the night off with White Russians.  There is no hope for me.  I will never learn.  Yes, I was sick all day on Saturday.  Almost ruined the Christmas party we went to that night.
BUT FIRST...

Andrew and Aaron went to the Purdue game at Conseco.  Boilers won.  Andrew got to sit in the lower level.  After the game, he ran down to the floor with the other 6-10 year old kids and gave hi-fives to the team.  He was very excited about touching the hands of Kramer, Hummel, Grant, Moore, etc.  The Boilers were a little taken aback to see a couple of drunk almost 30 year olds wanting to give hi-fives to the team but the slapped hands anyway.  Then they saw Gene Keady.  Gene responded how classy guys respond to two drunkards with, "Gentlemen" and shook their hands.  It was Purdue Heaven for Andrew this weekend.  He couldn't have been happier.

Saturday night we made our way to Glover's 3rd Annual Christmas Party.  It's fun to see the same people once a year, year after year, to catch up on their lives.  The only way we know these people is through this Christmas party and it's always so fun.  Andrew got eliminated in the first round of beer pong.  Bummer.  But I think after the Purdue game, it was probably a good thing!
Maria and Amanda were able to stop by so I got some time with quite a few Indy friends over the weekend.

Then there was the ring event.  Megan grabbed the rings of most of the girls at the party and modeled them for us.

If you look closely, you can see the shocker in the middle is a 2.5 carat diamond.  You have got to be kidding me! They make those??? I had no idea.
(Whenever I see huge diamonds like that, I always think of the comedian who said, "Yeah before girls get engaged they're like, Blood diamonds are so evil.  But when they're about to get engaged they say, Get me a blood diamond and make it extra bloody!" Yeah, I know it's terrible but it's the first thing that comes to my mind.)
Anyway, Megan is a hostess with the mostess.  She makes the most amazing food for her parties!  The sad thing is when it comes to late night at the Glover Christmas Party, we want hot dogs. Megan was kind enough to make them for us!

We laughed the entire time.  Here is all this great food on the table and we wanted hot dogs.  Jeez.

Great weekend once again.  One of these days I will learn, dang it! No more White Russians, EVER.

Merry Christmas, Gamers!

Wyatt Neal Meets the Thornburgs

Friday we went to Brookston to meet Wyatt and to see Travis and Katie and their new house.  We had a little trouble finding their house because it's a newer housing edition not listed in Garmin or Googlemaps or anything like that.  Mapquest said it found the location but the directions were wrong and we had to call.  It's amazing how much we forget when technology fails.

Anyway, we got to meet Wyatt, eat pizza and catch up.  It had been quite a while since we had seen the Neals.  For what little time we had together, we really had a great time.
Without further ado... here's Wyatt! 

I love it when babies are in this position with their bellies sticking out.  SO CUTE!

Look! He's smiling! Wyatt likes me!! (Or he's just taking a massive poo.)

Wyatt is already stylin' with cool clothes.  Look at his cute bear feet!

He looks a little like Notorious B.I.G. here.

Wyatt, Wyatt, Wyatt, Can't you see? Sometimes your diapers just hypnotize me.
And we just love your poopy ways.  Guess that's why they're broke and you're so paid.

Straight outta Brookston!

He was getting very hungry right before we left.  But he's still so cute even when he's pissed! :)

This is the hat we got for him.

He likes it a little better in this picture...

This is the Christmas bib we got for him too. 

We had a fantastic time with the Neals.  We talked about poop explosions, nursing, and wee-wee covers for pee squirts.  Great stuff!  Both Andrew and I felt the power of Wyatt's digestive system when we held him. WOW! He's quite the tooter too.  You can hear it across the room!

Ok one last picture of sweet lil' Wyatt... 
Awwwwww!

Silly Hill Billy

Tonight while my Handy Andy husband was out of town for work, I decided to take a relaxing bath.  Once I filled the tub, I realized when I turned the water off, the water kept pouring out of the faucet.  Great.  I was very uncomfortable leaving this water running all night long so I tried to fix it.

I screwed the bolts in tighter and water is still running.
I removed them and water is still running.
I screwed them back in again and water is still running.
I screwed the bolt in so tight that it eventually broke in half in the wall.
WATER IS STILL RUNNING!!

The sound of the running water was making me a little panicky because it's such a "Something is Wrong" sound.  So I start messing with it to see if there's a way to stop the water.  I found one.  It's called "Redneck."

***Under Construction***

As you can tell, there are many changes going on in the Thornburg Blogosphere.  I'm working on the html coding and BOY IS IT HARD!  Fartknockers!  I'm okay with images but the font coding is difficult with the way the blogger templates are set up (and of course I'm totally just editing their codes. No way am I going to start from scratch!)  Jeebus.  I know it's a little busy right now but I'm working on it.  I should have it done in time for Christmas 2010, hopefully. 

By the way, as someone who truly loves SNL (and to help you deal with the site changes), I will leave you with a few quotes from the character above, Aunt Linda.

"Ocean's 13! Coming out this summer. Did the first twelve do that well? If they're anything like the last two, I give this one thirteen gahs and a puh-lease."
"The only happy feet in that theatre were mine when I was leaving."
"And the Oscar does NOT go to: the war epic, "Letters From Iwo Jima"! Excuse me? Everyone's Asian and subtitled? I have two letters for you, Clark Eastwood: F. U.! Yeah, I give this tub o' lard a big, fat "Oh, Criiippes!"

Neighbors Whose Lights Are Better Than Ours

If these frigid temps are keeping you inside, why don't you stay inside and enjoy a tour of the lights in my neighborhood?

HERE WE GO!  We decided it would be fun to drive around the neighborhood and stalk our neighbors' Christmas lights like they had just wrecked into a tree and let their families down with multiple transgressions.

We drove very quickly because we felt incredibly awkward taking pictures of people's houses at night but I've gotten to the point where I would do anything for a blog post.  Yikes.  So quick driving and slow shutter speeds equal slightly blurry pictures but come on! You are staying inside your home to look at Christmas lights on the internet!
(But haven't we all??)
Anyway, on with the show...

Feel free to critique, by the way.  These snowflakes are a little sloppy but they have their ladder sitting outside their house like they might fix them.  Still waiting...

From my pictures, it's difficult to tell if that's Winnie the Pooh or a Snowman.  Pooh and Christmas usually go hand in hand!

I thought these were quite lovely.  Lots of hard work.  I don't know how people have the time... (Oh wait, weren't we just driving around the neighborhood for the blogpost? Hypocrite WIN!)

That deer is trying to escape. Almost got it, lil' buddy! 

I was impressed by these trees! Someone had to PAY someone else to put them up there! Wow!!

Yes, these lights are very pretty but seeing them in small pictures just doesn't do them justice. 

These too! These are so very nice!

These trees are on the side of someone's house.  Also very nice but we felt people might be calling the police so we had to Book 'em, Danno. 

The Griswalds moved in last week.

Actually that's not even close.  Now if only it looked like this....

The other thing I like about our neighborhood is that it's Equal Opportunity.  You can't really tell from the picture but this is an angel and two Stars of David. 

That just goes to show you that no matter what religion you are, the holiday season is all about........


COMPETITION!!!!!!
HA!
OUR LIGHTS ARE THE BESTEST!!!

Lights, Camera, CHRISTMAS!

It's December 1st! Time for the pretty Christmas lights!! The weather may not be frightful but the decorations and lights are delightful!

Here is our tree that is pre-lit that Andrew magically got the middle section of lights to come back on somehow! Yay Andrew!

Our deck lights

Front Porch Lights

Front Door Wreath

I can't wait to paint that door!! (Saving it for spring)

Yay for Christmas Time! I can't believe we've lived in South Bend for over a year now!
Happy December!

Baby baby baby...

Congrats to Diane and Kevin Stafford on the birth of their new baby boy Jack Charles Stafford weighing in at 7 pounds 3 oz and 19 inches long on November 30th.

Congrats Staffords! He's adorable!

Turkey Break

Oh what an eventful few days it has been...
Let's start with Wednesday night before Thanksgiving. I made a quick trip home to the 'lear for a night at the pub.  Good times.  Here are some pictures to prove it.

Brittany, Krissi and I

Little Bro and Friends

Brittany, KJ, Morgan, Krissi and a couple members of Suckerpunch (Greg was also our gymnastics teacher)

Brittany, Krissi, Pat and me

World's Rocking-est Dad and me

Dad rocking out with Suckerpunch (G-L-O-R-I-A!)

It was sooooo packed at the pub.  There was a FIGHT!! (I know! Crazy!)  But that didn't hold us back from still having a great time. 

Thursday morning I made the quick trip back to South Bend, picked up the hubster and we headed to Syracuse for the Thornburg Thanksgiving where I did not take any pictures.  :(  But we had a marvelous time with all the Thornburgs.  Erin and Cait were not there though... :( but they sent us this picture of them having a stellar time in South Lake Tahoe, California, where Cait lives. 

Yep, HUGE pinecones! Wow!! That place looks so beautiful!



Saturday we had the Keiper Thanksgiving.  I didn't get very many pictures of the family or of the actual Thanksgiving meal but I did get a picture of the dancing turkey...

And I got a picture of clean-up time....

Mmmmm-mmmmmm!!! Good meals.

Later that night the lil girls (Lilli and Izzy) and I had a fashion show.  They wanted to try on my shoes, clothes and jewelry.  Sooo funny!

She's a natural!

Gorgeous!

Matching outfits


And of course... the SHOES...

We also played a great game called Songburst which was a lot of fun.

It would have been more fun had I known more songs but it was 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s so I had some trouble with a few decades.  Plus I'm known for being terrible with lyrics when I do know the songs so there was no hope for me. 

All in all, I couldn't have asked for a more wonderful Thanksgiving with my family and friends.