Happy Turkey Day, bloggers

Today we wake up to bits of snow on the ground, dry roads for traveling, and gray skies (as usual in Michigan). We are thankful for many things in our life this year. We are all healthy (all 6 of us!) we are thankful for Taryn being home with us, we celebrate our families today and the stability of our life right now in times of economic turnmoil, and we celebrate knowing all of you! Yes, we are thankful for you! Your friendship and love is the best Thanksgiving gift of all.

The holiday today will start with the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade on tv, then quickly get around all 6 of us to load up in the car with Grandma Sue and travel to Muskegon to visit and enjoy Turkey with the McCormick side of the family this year. This is Julie's mom's side of the family. We look forward to seeing family we don't see often, playing with doggies at their house and gorging on delicious turkey while watching football. We hope to catch a small cat nap before coming back home tonight.

Friday will not be a shopping day in our family, as we have to head the car to the Chicago area for a family funeral. Rick's Grandpa Clem (mom's side) passed away on Tuesday, and the funeral is Saturday morning. We will be joined by more family on this occasion that we don't see often enough either, so that will be wonderful and sad at the same time. Clem was 62 years old and suffering from a few ailments for a while now, so we were prepared, but you are never really as prepared as you think you are. It still hurts when a loved one passes on to be with God and is no longer part of our world. Clem is survived by Rick's Grandma Helen and she is the toughest lady around! She has lived a long wonderful life with two husbands and so where she will go from here is unknown yet, but she will have to make some life altering decisions now and so that will be hard for her to accept also. She cannot live alone and so where she will go is not known yet. Please pray for her strength and guidance for her as she makes this decision.

You might be wondering how Taryn is doing. She is doing very well. If you ask me, no one would be the wiser that she has not been in our family for her whole life. She is funny, quite intelligent, and SASSY too! She has been home for 6 weeks today. We are all adjusting well and getting used to her language and she to ours.

Happy Turkey Day to all of you!

It has been awhile

Hi everyone, it has been a while since our last post. I apologize. The past two weeks have been crowded with household tasks... yes, nothing really exciting has taken me away from my blog... just busy being a mom!

The big kids (that's the new term in our house... big kids and little ones...) had a short week at school last week due to parent teacher conferences so we packed up on Thursday and headed North to Boyne Mountain. We joined Chuck, Jennifer and the girls in a room and 3 other families at the resort with Avalanche Bay Water Park. The kids had a great time for TWO days in the water park and arcade. We had fun visiting with the adults and a nice time away from the household duties at home. Taryn and Tyler LOVEd the water slides. Taryn showed no fear of the water, the noise and the multitude of people. She slept well all weekend, however, had a day of melt down on Sunday on our way home and at home all evening. Not sure where that came from; first time she has acted like that, maybe just one day too long... unsure, anyway, we did not get any quality pictures of her in the water; she moves to fast and our camera is too slow!

Mom got to see MADONNA, yes, MADONNA, in concert last night in Detroit at Ford Field. The show was amazing and she was worth the drive down, the wait outside in the cold and the long tiring drive home. Julie bought 10 tickets in August when they went on sale and we had two cars to drive down and enjoy the energy of this amazing music icon. Rick was gracious enough to stay home with the kids so Julie could take our wonderful babysitter, Whitney, to the concert. Dad said the night was nice; Tyler was able to enjoy and evening/night with his Grandma and Trevor went to school with Dad for a special family Reading Night event. Everyone was spread out, it felt like, but we were all safe and happy.

Tonight, Wednesday, November 19th, CMU plays Ball State in a very important MAC football game. The game will be televised on ESPN2, so if you can, watch it. I hope the cold weather will not keep the die-hard loyal fans away, so we can show our football team how much we support them. Go Chips!

So, the turkey holiday is almost here. Which means that Christmas trees and decorations are right around the corner. We are looking forward to showing Taryn our holiday traditions and maybe starting a new one with a Russian influence.

The big kids are taking a break from extra-curricular activities, for the next few months. The holidays prove to be such a busy time and our house feels very full of energy EVERY DAY, so the break from practices and games is much longed for. Both Tom and Trevor are making their sacraments this season at church, so Wednesday nights is religious education night.

Until the next post...

Taryn turns 2

Sunday, Taryn turned two. This day was pretty normal. We had family over to relax and enjoy the day, a turkey dinner, and cupcakes & ice cream. Taryn received some small presents... didn't really know what to do with them and once they were open, did not seem to show much interest in the gifts. She was not sure what to make of the crowd circled around her singing "Happy Birthday to You" and would not eat ice cream or cupcake. She however, loved the turkey and mashed potatoes (her favorites are plain potatoes and plain meat). So we had lots of pictures in her pretty birthday outfit and enjoyed a quiet day at home. Pretty low key compared to the birthday parties we usually have; and yet I believe, that when she figures out just how great birthday parties are... we will be making up for this one :-).

Taryn with cousin Paige and Taryn with Great Grandpa "LoLo" Jim; and mom too!