Christmas is Almost here!

Twas the night before Christmas when all through the house, not a creature was stirring - except our little mouse...

Christmas is coming the goose it getting fat...

Well, we broke out our Christmas music, went out and got a tree, and we even have half of our Christmas shopping done! Thanks to Kyle all the presents we have are even wrapped!

A little more Halloween

Well, Halloween has come and gone, and it's the second year I've spent it at a candy company. At Tootsie Roll the IT department takes it pretty seriously. This year I took a bit more of an active role than last, making my cubicle up to look like a crypt. Mary helped a ton with the coffin I made for the crypt. I don't think the picture shows the wood-grain look well enough. People were commenting about it for weeks at work. Anyway, here's the pictures.
Mary and Alexandra show up at my work, to see my desk, and the coffin we built....



..and the other side of my cubicle.



In the middle cube there was a torture chamber. The rack Dan built for last year is obviously the centerpiece.



But Dan outdid himself by building an organ for this year, they keys move up and down for full creepy effect. It turned out pretty well.


And the old staple, our graveyard




For Alexandra however, we thought the biggest treat was going to be getting her first (and so far only) taste of candy, but she didn't really take to it.


Happy Halloween until next year.

Halloween!

Well, we had a great halloween! Alexandra and I got to trick or treat at Tootsie Roll! How cool to trick or treat at a candy factory! The place was so well decorated - to me it looked better than most haunted houses. They even had the NBC and ABC new crews film some footage about it.

5K Race and Times

Well, Lesley and I did another 5K this year. We managed to improve on our times from the last one.



131 Lesley Behnke West Dundee IL 529 35 13 F 30-39 31:18.6 10:06/M
241 Mary Schmitt West Dundee IL 748 34 42 F 30-39 41:18.1 13:19/M

Out of 424 5K participants.
Cool huh?

Music Instruction

Alexandra gets so excited every time we get the Ukulele down to play.

It's awfully cute, so we encourage it, and even let her hold it, while trying to get her to strum and not bite it. She still gets pretty frustrated when it doesn't make noise for her like it does for us, usually because she's still holding the strings. Sometimes though, you could swear she has already figured out how we do it.

October

Well, it's October again. For us this year it means getting into things!
First off, we are getting into a house!!!! Yay! Finally.
We have been going back and forth with everyone involved, and now we are almost there.

Second, Alexandra is getting into things now. She is rolling here and there, on all 4's ready to crawl, and when we help on her feet. Interested by everything once she see's a target, she is headed for it one way or another.

Mary

NEW BABY!

Kaitlyn Gabrielle Eason
2:45 p.m., Friday, September 19, 2008
6 lb, 9 oz, 19 1/4 inches

Born to Josh and Kim (Held) Eason.
(Kim is Mary's first cousin)


She is the last of the babies expected to be born in our family this year.
We just had (in 2008):
Alexandra 2-12-08 born to Kyle and Mary
Corrina 4-14-08 born to Renee and Mike
Jolie 7-?-08 born to Graham and Krista
Darci 9-02-08 born to Jenni and Steve
Kaitlyn 9-19-08 born to Josh and Kim
*All Girls*

Quiz answer:

How many licks does it take... Mr. Owl never gets past 3, so "the world may never know". But click on the Picture for Kyle's answer.

Flood waters Receding

Well the Flood waters are receding slowly. Here is an updated pic of the pool - I mean cement pond.

Flooding

Well, here we are getting the remnants of some hurricane, and it looks like there was just too much rain. Over at Kyle's parents house, there was just a bit of extra water... in the yard, garage, and probably house by now. You see Kyle and Nat had to leave with the dogs, since the police came through the neighborhood with evacuation orders. On a lighter note, their pool is much much bigger. The creek in the back of their yard swelled up and swallowed the pool. From what I understand there was rushing water past the side of the house. It's a good thing that the boat that Kyle and Nat were building is almost done (enough to use at least). Unfortunately the Mustang didn't make it out of the driveway in time.

The Beginning

Well, here it is the beginning of our Blogging days. It is day number something or other of parenthood, and boy are we tired. She is truly the best thing in our lives, even with the odd sleep schedule.

Things we are getting into (and back into):
Running (Mary)
Grad School (Kyle)
Everything (Alexandra)
Kayaking
Photography
Hiking
Guitar

I am going to try keeping this thing updated - let's see where that takes us.
Catch ya on the Flipside,
Mary