Catching Up!

I have had some complaints that I have not been faithfully updating the last couple of months. I will do a not-so-quick catch up here and maybe you will understand why.

• October 22nd, my uncle died. After celebrating Kurt's birthday on the 25th I took off the next morning for Salt Lake and the funeral. After the funeral on the 29th I took a red eye to get home for Jacob's Birthday!
• October 30th, Happy birthday to my wonderful husband. I am sorry you were playing daddy and mommy on your week off, which included being my replacement at a preschool Halloween party. Thank you! I am also sorry that after having an allergy attack on our lunch date I then fell asleep for most of that day. I think both of us would like to forget our birthdays this year.
• October 31st, Happy Halloween. Here are a few Pictures of the kids.

At the Church's Trunk-or-Treat

Ready for Trick-or-Treating

The girls school had a Halloween parade.

Here is Elizabeth as a Steelers Cheerleeder. She loves this outfit!

Lexi as Elizabeth in "Pirates of the Carribean Dead Man's Chest"

Kurt in front of the "Biggest Pumpkin in Pittsburgh" winner. I wish I could remember how much it weighed.

• November rolled around and I can honestly say I don't remember the first two weeks other than I was doing some seriuosly deep cleaning in order to prepare for the company we were expecting. I also started making my girls Christmas dresses, not because I am awesome. I promised Jacob I would not buy dresses and I already had the fabric which worked out great.


• In a 6 weeks stretch we will have had company 6 times and have been company once. You do the math. I wish I had remebered to take pictures of each group but I failed, I can't imagine why. So here goes:
• My cousin Caroll came through twice with her 4 kids. We are about the halfway point between her home in Michigan and her parents in Maryland. We had not seen each other in about 6 years so we stayed up way too late playing catch up, but I wouldn't trade it. I hope she uses us as her resting place in the future.

• My brother Sean, his wife Kirsten, and their son Matthew came in between Carolls visits and were here for Thanksgiving. We had a blast and enjoyed lots of game playing, but failed to get a picture, how did that happen?



• We spent the first weekend in December attending the blessing of our niece Lucy Hannah in Philidelphia. We didn't tell the kids that Grandma and Grandpa would be there so they were shocked and thrilled when Grandma greeted them at the door. I did get pictures, here they are:

The boys love to hang with Grandpa, even if he is trying to sleep!

Playing games at the Franklin Institute.

Does this constitute cheating or is it simply team work?

Did you know that the first Museum of Natural History is in Philidelphia?

Baby Lucy's big day!

• Our friends the Runyans came to Pittsburgh for a residency interview and we had a wonderful time showing them the sights. Here are a few highlights:

The Rite Aid Celebration of Lights is a must see if you are in Pittsburgh at Christmas. This is an amazing drive through display. I have been through twice and I think it is amazing. It was rather magical to drive through while it was snowing.

The kids enjoyed the newly opened T-Rex vs. T-Rex exhibit at Carnegie Museum

The Chruch Christmas party included a little service, music, dancing, food, and a visit to Santa. Here is a tribute to service.

Meet Chief, the Runyans dog. This is a long story but I will try to sum it up quickly. Cheif ran away the week before the Runyans were to visit. They got him back but, not in time to take him to Deanna's mom before coming here. I suggested they bring him. He ran away here the night before the Runyans had to leave!! The Runyans went home minus Chief. Needless to say, everyone was traumatized by his disappearance. After hours of searching, praying, posting lost posters, talking with police departments and animal shelters, Chief was found.............

.........HERE. A picture speaks a thousand words.

It had been 4 full days of no Cheif and we celebrated despite a bad eye infection, dehydration, and malnutrition. Chris and Deanna returned the following weekend to pick him up and as much as we love Chief we were thrilled to see him back with his family.

We are grateful that the Runyans don't seem even slightly jaded towards Pittsburgh after the Chief incident. Thank goodness.

• Amongst all these visits we were able to squeeze in Christmas wich I will post seprately.
  
• After Christmas Jason, Cherie and kids came for a fun visit and once again we had a ball. I won't post a picture since we have one from Lucy's blessing. We also celebrated Elizabeth's 6th birthday, which I will also post seperately.


• We have one visit left and it has yet to happen. Our friends the Hagerdon's are coming on New Year's Day and we looking forward to that as well.


• I nearly forgot we are not yet finished..... My sister, Steffani is arriving sunday to stay for an undetermined amount of time. I guess until she is no longer needed, or we get sick of one another, or something else. We'll see the current plan is several months so I guess I consider that more of a move in rather than a visit. Sounds fun.

I think maybe now you can see why I haven't been blogging. There are still many things missing from this very long post and I will do my best to give them justice in the next week or so. I am trying, just be patient.