Grand Rapids

Sledding with Kim and Caleb

Going down with Daddy

Racing with Caleb

Best buds

Caleb, Kim, me, Brady, and Breslin

It has become a yearly tradition heading out to Grand Rapids.  In the morning we hang out with Kim and family and in the evening we hang out with the Grand Rapids Burrill's.  I only got pictures of our morning though.  Caleb and Breslin became best buds on this visit.  Breslin LOVED Caleb, and we are pretty sure that Caleb is the only one with enough energy to keep up with Breslin.  It was great catching up with Kim (my former coach in gymnastics).  Since we both have been done with gymnastics, we both have gotten in to running.  So we were sharing running stories and different races we had done, etc.  Always a good time. I wish we could see each other more than a few times a year.

 

Once we left Kim's we headed over to Leesa and Dan's.  EVERYBODY was there.  Dan, Leesa, Nick, & Blake.  Julie, Eric, & Kyle.  Kristy and Blake.  Lindsey, Joe & Baby Harper.  Aunt Sandy and Uncle Claude.  Terry and Ron Zandbergen.  It was a bit chaotic at times, and Breslin was running on steam...  missing a nap in there, but everybody had so much fun catching up.  We have to plan a summer trip out to Michigan and hang out with them some more.  We love our time we get to spend with them.

Playtime with Teagan

Breslin getting some snuggles in with T

smoochin

They look like they were caught soing something...

2 peas in a pod

Anna, Breslin, Teagan, Me

Teagan pushing Brez around

Teagan and Breslin.  One can only hope (sorry Brian) that they get married someday so that these pictures can go on their wedding slide show (jk.... but seriously).

Five for Fridays

1.  Enjoyed a great first week of winter break.  I can't believe it has already been a week.
2.  Took Breslin on flight #17 of his short little life.  At 18 months old Breslin has flown 17 flights.  One could say he is a veteran traveler.
3.  This was a week of firsts.  Breslin went to his first Christmas Eve Service (last year we flew in on Christmas Eve and missed out), he saw his first real snow fall, and went sledding for the first time.
4.  We had a great Christmas.  My parents sure do spoil us.  They still treat us like we are little kids on Christmas morning.  The magic is still there.  The excitement is still there.  I absolutely love it.  I think sometimes Brady gets a little overwhelmed at the amount of presents that still go out, but it's how our family does Christmas and we all love spoiling everybody.
5.  I got my dad and sister addicted to "the Walking Dead."  Score!

Sledding!

At the end of an eventful sledding day!

Auntie enjoying a little sledding.

At the bottom of the hill

Brady had NO CONTROL over his sled

Love the workout that comes with sledding... there is no chair lift, we have to march all the way back up.

"WWWWWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE"

What do you think?

1-2-3 Go!

Oh the highs and lows of parenting!  Today, definitely a high!  There is nothing better than to be able to do kid things without people thinking you are a dork.  All of us "adults" were able to use Breslin as an excuse to act like little kids again when we took him sledding.  We tested out sledding on our driveway, and when Breslin seemed to like it we went over to a real sledding hill.  Now I know Breslin had a good time, BUT I think the adults had a little more fun than he did.  I can not even remember the last time I went sledding.  We had a blast.

SNOW!!!!!!!

Breslin's first "real" encounter with snow.

"Snnnnoooooooowwwww"

not too sure today...

Let me investigate it a little more...

Grandpa... what are you doing?

I want to help...

Breslin and daddy and grandpa snowblowing!

Five for Fridays (or Sunday)

1.  It's the hoooooommmmeee stretch.  We are now down to 8 school days left before a much needed winter break.
2.  The month of November had been a rough sleeping month for Breslin.  He hadn't been going down easy, he had been waking up in the middle of the night for hours at a time.  So this past week we decided to sleep train him again.  We started on Tuesday night.  He gave us a half hour of crying when he went to bed on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday night.  But by Friday night, no crying... and all of those nights he has slept through the night!  We needed to make sure that he could be back on schedule when we go back to Michigan.  So far so good!
3.  We had our annual Christmas party!  It was great :)  Good people, good food, good desserts, and good gifts :)
4.  I'm tutoring like crazy these last few weeks.  It is exhausting, but we can always use the extra $$.
5.  The kitchen is almost a go.  We need to sign a few last items, and then we just need to schedule a time for them to start.  (I'm hoping over Christmas break....)

Five for Fridays (or Sunday)

1.  We took our Christmas pics down by the lake on Saturday.  It felt like a beautiful Michigan fall day, not the first day of December!!!!  As always, Mitzi does an absolute fabulous job!  Thanks Mitz :)
2.  The countdown is on with school.  We have a total of 10 school days left and 3 days of finals.  It is bitter sweet, I have come attached to my classes, but I have been dealing with a few issues that I will be ready to get rid of!
3.  Breslin's new favorite thing is the McDonald's play place which is great, since it's been quite wet around here these last couple of days!!!!  He is used to going to the park almost every day, so he needs somewhere to run out his energy!
4.  Our Spartan basketball team is doing the same sort of thing our football team was doing....  breaking our hearts.  Christina (my sister) went to the game against Miami, and sadly, they lost... tore out mine and Christina's heart.  I felt uber bad for her, so I made sure to talk to her after the game, to make sure she didn't drive off a cliff!!!!  (JK... or am I?)
5.  Got most of our decorations up for Christmas this weekend.  The tree is up, the mantel is done, the pictures switched out, now I am just waiting on Brady to putting on the Christmas lights outside.  It is feeling a lot like Christmas, now if we could get some snow going out in the midwest, so we can have a white Christmas that would be awesome!
*On a side note, Brady and I are OBSESSED with the Walking Dead tv show... anyone else?

Five for Fridays

1.  Happy Thanksgiving!  As you can see by the above photos, my mom and sister came out to celebrate Thanksgiving with us!  As usual, we spent Thursday taking our annual family pictures (by far my favorite color scheme yet!!!!)  And then we mooched off of the Choate's Thanksgiving feast!
2.  I am currently in the process of cooking our Burrill Thanksgiving dinner right now.  We have turkey and sweet potato in the oven, the corn bread and corn casserole has been made.  All of the desserts are ready to go.  Rob is bringing over the salad and the green beans, and Kris has the traditional Kalua cake!  Still yet to be made is the stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy.
3.  Short weeks are always good weeks, however I can not believe that the semester is almost over!  In some ways I can not wait for this semester to be over, and in other ways I don't want it to end.  I have some great students this year that I don't want to give up!
4.  MSU basketball continues the tradition of all MSU sports....  they are keeping it stressful with a nail biter against Boise State.  But I guess, a win's a win.
5.  We are not Black Friday people, but our laptop has been on the fritz lately, so Brady thought maybe he should go to Office Depot and check it out.  (So when Breslin awoke....) at 5 a.m. I took care of the little man while Brady ventured off into the shopping crowds.... and he came home with in all in one computer that I am currently using to update this blog!  Go Brady!  I tell you what, I love shopping as much as the next person, but I would rather pay full price for something then venture out in the middle of the night to get a great deal... I cherish my sleep way to much!  However, I don't knock anybody who does!  To each his own!

I hope everybody had a fabulous Thanksgiving and will have a great Holiday season!

Five for Fridays (or Sunday)

1.  Well MSU football continues to disappoint :(  We now look ahead to next year I guess....  I like to look at the positive side of things (sometimes).  If we do win next week, the one good thing about getting the piece of crap bowl game... is they might play at Ford Field... which means I would be able to go to it...
2.  On the flip side, after a shaky start against UConn, the MSU basketball team pulled it together to hang with #7 ranked Kansas, and beat them in the end!
3.  This last month our book club read Rob Lowe's auto biography, I can't remember what it was called, something like, "Stories I Only Tell My Friends", but it was a really good book, considering I don't read auto biographies.
4.  All three of us have been battling some sort of nasty cold... I'm really hoping mine is at the tail end....
5.  Breslin continues to grow.  It amazes me how big he is getting, how vocal he is getting, and how mobile he is.  I am thinking we have one month tops left of the crib.  He is ssssssssssssooooooooo close to crawling out!!!

Five for Fridays (or Sunday)

1.  I know... I know... it's been awhile.  I've just had a few major crazy stressful weeks at school.  I am going to try (as always) to do a better job updating the blog.
2.  Well....  I guess I have resorted to counting on MSU hockey.  MSU hockey beat U of M last night, not only beat U of M... more like crushed them.  Any time MSU beats Michigan in anything it's a good day :)  On the flip side, its been a rough go of it with my other MSU sports.  Michigan State football lost another heartbreaker last Saturday to Nebraska, and MSU basketball lost it's opener against UConn.
3.  We were extremely excited about the re election of our President on Tuesday, not to mention the very important passage of Prop 30, and non passage of Prop 32.  California education had a great day on Tuesday, definitely a step in the right direction. 
4.  Breslin is saying more words than ever now.  His personality grows everyday.  And he is super active (with him being super active, our house looks it....  you can definitely tell as I look around this house that we have a crazy mobile, active toddler....  we are that house where if you step in the wrong spot you might break your ankle with the amount of toys that are all over).
5.  Valencia High School's football team won the league title last week and went undefeated in the league (they were supposed to place second or third), they won on Friday night for their first play off game.  I've been able to make a few games this year and they have been fun!
*And on a side note.... it has finally cooled down!!!!  Hopefully it stays like this for awhile.  But who knows!

Halloween Crime Fighters!

Then and now

Now...

Then....

Lombardi's Ranch

 Breslin's first legit trip to Lombardi's.  We went last year, but of course... he wasn't quite aware of what was going on around him at that point in time.  This year he was all over it.  He ran up and down, up and down, up and down the pumpkin aisles for about 20 minutes, having an absolute blast.  Then we went to the haystack maze where Breslin spent another good 20 minutes running around in there... the smile plastered on his face!  After we went for a tractor ride.  We finished off the morning by picking out the three most perfect pumpkins!

Maze time!

Waiting in line for the tractor pull

Getting ready to go!  Bye bye daddy!

I think this one is the perfect one...

Eh... maybe this one!

5 for Fridays (or Sunday)

1.  Had a great beautiful Fall Break weekend in Michigan.  The leaves started changing, the weather was upper 60s, low 70s and sunny, the company was great!
2.  Went to the Ohio State/ Michigan State game last weekend.  Unfortunately we lost, but nothing beats a beautiful day in a football stadium.  The weather was perfect, and our team looked better.  Hopefully we can continue to do better (and get a few W's along the way).
3.  FINALLY it cooled down.  (But it's still far from fall weather).  It is now sitting around the low 80s.  All I want is to be able to throw on some jeans and boots and maybe a sweater or sweatshirt...  We will revisit this in November. lol
4.  Breslin is currently cutting his second molar AND another front tooth.  Besides being super fussy at times and a slight fever, he is handling it pretty well.
5.  I went to my first Valencia football game of the season (It is the first time that they have been home and I have been home).  It was a blow out victory against Saugus.  I take it I am their good luck charm.  (JK).

Uncle John's Cider Mill

 

 Hannah, Breslin, and Teagan playing on the truck!  They look like a bunch of hooligans up to no good!!!

 

 Ummm.... Look at these two little lovebirds....  On Saturday they were kissing... today they were holding hands and snuggling up in each other's arms...  So cute!

 Auntie T and Oma went to the cider mill too!

 Well it seemes like a good idea to get a picture with all three of them in the pumpkins.... But I am actually not quite sure...  Breslin looks like he was thrown in there, Hannah wants nothing to do with and Teagan, well, Teagan is just chilling watching it all go down!

All of us before we had to leave:( John, Dana, Hannah, Brady, Breslin, me, Anna, and Teagan!  I love all of these guys and miss them everytime we are away from them.  Don't grow up too much Hannah and Teagan.  Til the next time...