2009

I went ahead and just put the whole year in review. I guess that's what you do when you're this far behind. I will try do another one for the first six months of 2010 and then, that's it!!! I WILL UPDATE TWO TIMES A MONTH!!!!

It's my first time doing a slideshow. Be forgiving.

I thought the comments would show up, but they don't. Here's the condensed version.

Starved Rock State Park
Mom's and Girls and Little Boys trip to Key Lime Cove
My kids are crazy.
Adam does the Buffalo Wild Wings Blazin Challenge in one minute fifty five seconds.
Lara and Hunter getting along, rare moment.
Adam, Homewood Flossmoor High School Baseball
Lara and Hunter Baseball/Softball
Lara NJHS Induction
Lara advances to Illinois State Track Meet
Lara plays spring soccer
ADAM TURNS SIXTEEN!!!
Hunter loves the self portrait.
Lara's end of the year party
Fourth of July
Jonas Brothers Concert
Crazy Hair, Hunter can lick his elbow.
VACATION - SMOKY MOUNTAINS AND HILTON HEAD ISLAND
Phill runs the CHICAGO TRIATHALON!!!
September night out with my nieces - SO MUCH FUN!!!
First Day of School.
Labor Day Shrimp Boil (New Tradition)
Birthday Celebrations/Bat Mitzvahs
Halloween
Zafiro's - Our day after Thanksgiving tradition
Christmas Eve
Christmas Morning
Adam's Formal

That about covers it. It's long. Sorry.

Sooooo long!!!

Okay, so I started this update in January.

And it's now July.

I'm going to go ahead now and post this update and then I'll try to recap 2009 in another post.

I suck at blogging. Here goes.

January 31, 2010
It has been so long since I posted. I can't believe how good my intentions are and how I can't seem to carry them out.

Well...almost a year. I feel like so much has happened and at the same time I feel like everything is still the same. We're all a year older...exciting for some, not so much for others (me!!!)

Adam has turned sixteen and is DRIVING. He loves it. Mostly because Phill takes the train downtown everyday and Adam gets to drive his super cool car. He's a junior and is tolerating school.


Lara is still crazy busy. She's involved in everything. It's cheer competition season so that keeps us busy enough, if only it didn't come at the same time as volleyball season and indoor soccer season. She's in eighth grade and very excited for high school.

I went with Lara's BFF's and their Moms (my good buddies) to the South Side Irish Parade. SO MUCH FUN!!!




Phill and I with our baby girl on vacation!!




LARA TURNS 14!!!

Hunter keeps us all entertained. He is eight now and in second grade. He is so different than Adam was in second grade, but I guess that's what happens when you get to hang out with 16 year olds. He is currently working on a project for African American History. He has picked Bob Marley to do his project on. He plans on wearing his Bob t-shirt and making a cd for everyone in the class. This should be interesting.

Our favorite Christmas movie is Christmas Story. The one liners can be heard all year long in our house. There is a display from the movie near our home and we took the kids this year. They all had a quick trip to see santa and Hunter went down the slide at the end.


That should catch you up a little on the kids.

I really am going to try and post regularly. Really I am.

FOUR MONTHS!!!

I can't believe it's been four months since I've updated this blog.
I had great plans for updates, especially through Christmas.

Unfortunately, very shortly after the holiday's my laptop was dropped (details to follow) and we have suffered yet another hard drive crash.
I lost about six months worth of pictures.
All I have left is what hadn't yet been deleted on my memory cards.

I can actually type this without crying now.

I have now learned that it is unlikely that I will EVER learn my lesson about data backup.

Anyway, it's been a fun filled four months. The kids have kept up crazy busy. The following pictures are a quick glimpse at what's left of the last four months :)

Leaving for Turkey Feast at Julie's House. Adam's debut as a "highway driver".

Mason has us all participating in thee "Kitty Cup Chant"

Lara and her buddy Francesca

Lara and her new buddy Hanley.

LOADING UP!!! Lara, Melissa, and Ashley

Cousins and buddies - Daniel and Hunter

Julia - Fully Loaded ;)

Leah and Tommy bring us baby Dennis - He's sooo cute.

While new mom and dad spend time in the hospital, we get to watch Frankie :)

My only saved photo from Christmas. Fitting that it's of Lara. She's the one that dropped my laptop. I'm still angry. She was grounded from the computer for a month.

LARA TURNS 13!!!!! better known as "can I survive two teenagers in one house?"

New Year's Eve. We had a great dinner with the Purcell's and the Santschi's, then over to the Donahue's for the Midnight Countdown. Matt and Adam challenge each other at Wii Boxing.

Nora and Lara

Our village has a 12:00 NOON balloon drop for all the kids....they love it.

After the new year, we got to puppysit Hanley for almost two weeks.
THAT was interesting :) We LOVE LOVE LOVE Hanley, but have decided against getting a dog :)

These next few shots are of Lara. She kept us very busy during what is a typical down time for our family. As if cheerleading wasn't enough, she also tried out for volleyball.

I can't believe how strong she is, especially since she really is so small for her age. Here she is doing a "one man", holding Stacie all by herself.

Lara and Mary - Cheer competition

Kassie, Kimmie and Lara 6 am, ready for cheer competition. FIRST PLACE!!!!! WOOT WOOT!!!!

Lara sleeping at BW3 after a long day of competition.JAMES HART LARGE JUNIOR HIGH FIRST PLACE!!!!!!!!!!
Lara - Front row girl
JAMES HART 7TH GRADE GIRLS VOLLEYBALL - FIRST PLACE
80's Day at James Hart, Lara and her cheer coach Cathryne...yes, that's my bommer jacket circa 1987.
It's not all about the kids, Phill and I get out alone too :) Hanging with good friends listening to live music, our favorite :)
Midwinter Dental Convention with my work girlies Suzie, Nichole and me and Grand Luxe Cafe
Jonas Brothers 3D for Kristy's Birthday. Birthday girl, Brigid, Lauren and Lara.
TGI Friday's for dinner and fun in the car.

We are getting ready for baseball season and outdoor soccer.
I am going to be more dilligent with this darn blog too.

Ya know what's scary?

Ahh, Halloween. That's scary.

Hunter has had us watching Goosebumps almost every night before bedtime. Some of those were a tiny bit scary.

The Spooky houses on Page Avenue are scary. I only got a shot of the Licata's house and am so sad I didn't get one of the Garcias.
Hunter's costume this year wasn't so scary...but...after I put the makeup on him I couldn't get it off my hands!!! Luckily, with a little dish soap it came off my hands and later, came off his face :::whew::: If his face stayed that nasty yellowey-green color THAT would have been scary.

It was scary listening to Lara and her two girlfriends deciding their Halloween costumes. After searching for costumes for triplets, they decided on the sun, moon and stars. They never even talked about who would be what, they know each other so well, they knew who would be each part.

I "branded" them on the bootie in case people had trouble figuring out what they were.

Scariest of all was the night before Halloween.

Phill is crazy, not scary crazy, just crazy crazy. He planned for us to go to the AC/DC concert with some good friends. Those of you who know me well, know why this is scary. I really don't come off as the AC/DC kind of girl. I do concerts, really I do. I have tons of fun at concerts. But AC/DC, come on.

The scary part is how much fun we had. It ended up being so so so much fun. Our seats were scary close. My hearing will never be the same, and yes, I was one of the dorks who work ear plugs for the first half. We were in the sixth row thanks to our good friend Lisa.


Scary how bad I am at taking the "self-portrait".

The truly scary part will be the payback for me agreeing to go to this concert. I'm thinking Phill would just L-O-V-E to go to the Harry Connick Jr. Christmas concert. Might be scary how much he enjoys THAT. Stay tuned :)

FALL, Hayes-A-Palooza, Hockey, Stitches and more, oh so much more :)

I'm so happy fall is here. I love decorating the outside of the house. I love our annual party, Hayes-A-Palooza, well actually, I have a love/hate relationship with that party. It's fresh in my mind, so it's still hate LOL Here's a picture of the pig right after Phill took it off.


I didn't do a pinata this year and went for a non-traditional jumpy tent instead. It was HUGE!!! The inflatable boxing gloves were so big that the little kids had a hard time lifting them. Luckily we were successful at keeping the adults out so there weren't any real injuries.

Speaking of injuries.....

Hunter has decided that there's too much running in soccer so he wants to play hockey. I know, I know. But when we have an ice rink five minutes from our house with a great hockey club, how can I say no? We took Lara and Hunter for some ice time at open skate. Good thing I got one picture in because we were only there for 15 minutes and Lara fell. Of course it's Lara that has to get hurt. After a crazy long urgent care visit we left with a very sad pre-teen and 7 stitches. These are her first stitches, after those all broken bones, she's branching out to give other injuries equal opportunity.
>





I am excited about planning Halloween costumes for the kids and this year Phill and I have a costume party to attend, where we are going to actually have to show up in costumes. That should be interesting. That's it for now, until something else less than exciting happens.

BLOGJACKING!!!

I blogjacked this from Shannon, who blogjacked it from Kerri. By the way, blogjacking must be a real word because Shannon teaches high school English and she would NEVER EVER use a made up word :)

It is simply HILARIOUS. If SNL is bringing this kind of entertainment they may be back to where they were in the early '90's.

HILTON HEAD!!!

So many people can tell my mini-van coming from blocks away. Theres a green Boston Red Sox plate on the front, but if you look around back you'll see a very small white decal on the back window that looks like this.

It's the state flag for South Carolina.

Every time I see it I smile a little thinking of all the fun we've had there.

This year was especially fun for a few reasons.

LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION!!! We stayed ocean front just two complexes down from the Tiki Hut. No more farting around with getting to the beach, we were already there!!

We stayed for a full two weeks this year. The first week was just the five of us and we had so much fun hanging on the beach together, spendy lazy afternoons shopping and reading, the big boys golfing and having some really great dinners out.

The second week we were joined by so many family members and friends that it made it truly a memorable vacation.

The weather was perfect...NUFF SAID!

Phill and I on our first trip to the Tiki Hut.

Lara and Hunter, happy to be back at the Tiki Hut.

Our favorite restaurant is Wild Wing Cafe. We like it so much that I've looked into franchise possibilities in Chicago. We must have eaten there four times and had carry-out once (Adam will babysit for wings).

During our first week after dinner we would come home and hang out with the kids. We were typically pretty tired after our long fun-filled days. One evening in particular, Phill, Lara and Hunter had just enough energy after dinner to play with the webcam on our computer. Before leaving on vacation Lara had been teaching Hunter a dance to the "Crank dat" song. Their intention was to show Daddy the cool dance and I'm sure even they wouldn't have predicted what the evening ahead held.

Watch and learn.

(you may need to scroll to pause my playlist so you can hear the music on the video)

Vacation: Day One.
Kyle and Erky.

Their expressions hardly change throughout the week.

Hunter loves the beach.

Cara is ditching JP Morgan after seeing an ad seeking a new coppertone girl.

Lara and Hunter. He wanted to keep going. At least long enough to bury her mouth.

Melissa, Mary, Lisa and Ashley.
Day one of week two we spent some time with all the newcomers at the Tiki Hut. Our good friends the Purcell's joined us for the week as well. Everyone had a ball listening to Emmett and Lisa tell the story of how they met :) Sure we believe you, family party, that's right, good ole' family party. Emmett will tell us the real story when Lisa isn't around.

Tyler getting in his kind of fun on day one at the Tiki Hut.


Imagine our surprise after a late night out, to learn the next morning that Kyle and Erky came into our condo and made Bagel Bites, ate Bagel Bites, and managed to photograph themselves all without waking us up. When we woke up in the morning we saw the pan and boxes on the stove and the thank you note on the counter (those boys are so polite) it wasn't until I was downloading pictures later did I notice the photographic evidence of their Breaking and Entering (and Eating) Escapade.

Don't they look like sisters.

Kyle, Melissa and Erky.

Don't ask.

I have no idea what they're doing.

Julia and Cara having fun in the water.

Phill catching a gnarly wave.

Hunter on the beach.
He wanted a "surf shirt" so badly. Once I actually got him one, he wouldn't take it off.

Adam and the skim board. He was more successful than Lara. Her skim boarding attempt resulted in a trip to urgent care for an x-ray. ::::sigh:::: only Lara.

All the girls.
Remember that sketch from Sesame Street where you had to determine
"One of these things was not like the other, One of these things just doesn't belong...."

Hey, wait, just because I'm not tall, thin and blond...and I'm old....doesn't mean I don't belong. Auntie Mary fits in just fine with her nieces.

Besides, have you ever seen so many FABULOUS teeth???(Ashley, Cara, Mary, Melissa, Julia)

We would not be complete without our support staff. The boys dealt with lots of crazy laughing, singing, and just general loudness (we really missed our Leah) and were great sports about it. They secretly have formed their own "Dealing with the Ashley Women" support group.

(Kyle, Bryan, Erky, and Phill)


Are they sisters?

Phill and I have been coming to Hilton Head for five years now and we owe it all to the Donahue's for planning that first trip with them. They were also in Hilton Head while we were and they brought along more Donahue's, the Schlaffer's and the Ford's. All in all there were 44 people from our two groups. Here we are the one night that some of the other mom's got out, Sandy, Ginny and me.


Lara laying out in the sun. Phill and I, the nieces and their boys, and the Purcells had taken a "quick walk" to the Tiki Hut and Lara graciously volunteered to stay by all our stuff and wait. We were gone for quite some time, but don't let her fool you, she LOVES laying in the sun. We both say that we just want to feel the sun warm our bones.

Cara, sans beach chair, used her keen sand skills and Hunter's shovel to dig herself a cozy beach area that we were all jealous of. She credits her beach-hole-digin'-skills to her mother, saying that "she never brought chairs for us kids".

Phill and the kids underwater. My new little camera has a great underwater feature on it. It was fun to play around with it. I can sure tell the difference with the two cameras, but it's nice to have something that is almost indestructible. Salt, sand, and waterproof. It can be dropped from 33 feet and is crushproof. Now, if I just can keep track of it, everything will be fine.

Hunter
Adam
Lara
Ashley, Julia and Kyle...warming up to vacation.
There's no way they are sisters.

(even though we shared a bedroom for most of my high school years)

Melissa and Mary.

Hunter loved the lobster float.

Melissa, Cara and Ashley hanging out on the beach.

I know what you're thinking, and nope, they're not sisters either.

The beginning of the sandcastle.
Diggers....ready!

Castle COMPLETE!!!

Julia and Lara share a dessert. I can't remember what it's called but the description stated that it had a chocolate moat. That's all those two needed to hear.

Looks like they enjoyed it.

Adam and his surf and Turf. He loved it.

Adam ordered the War Dog at a restaurant in Coligny Plaza. It was a 1/2 pound all beef hot dog, deep fried in beer batter, covered with chili and cheese in a roll. Good thing he's so young and can eat that stuff.

Here are the sisters!!! Julia and Ashley.

The whole family in the "GUM TREE".
Adam, Kyle, Melissa, Julia, Mary, Hunter, Lara, Phill, Bryan, Erky, Cara, Ashley.

We are so glad that all the girlies and their boys came with us on our fun family trip. We loved having the Purcell's along for the crazy ride too. We have loved our family vacations to Hilton Head and it was great to share it with everyone.

Our family at the Old Oyster Factory.

Goodbye until next year Hilton Head Island.