Thursday, December 28, 2006

Merry Christmas!


Well, it was an insane couple of days, but we had a nice Christmas. I worked Christmas Eve and Shannon and the kids went to Mass with my parents and spent the night at their house. My brother Christopher and his wife Maggie also spent the night. I raced home in the morning (thankfully, there were no late transports) to have Christmas morning with my family. After dinner, we left for Belleville to have Christmas night with the extended Cerneka family. We spent the night with Shannon's mom and had a Christmas dinner and gift exchange with his immediate family last night. Then we loaded up and drove home this morning. Madeleine is experiencing her first cold, and we've been chasing her runny nose and cough all over creation, but it hasn't really seemed to slow her down much. She had fun Christmas morning until about halfway through opening presents, and then she said, "I done presents." and tried to run off. Here are a few pictures. I'll put more up later.








Sunday, December 24, 2006

Happy Christmas Eve!


I swear Madeleine was in a good mood. She climbed right up on Santa's lap and chatted away with him, until it came time to take the picture. Nothing Mom or I could do could get her to smile. We looked like idiots, "Madeleine! Smile Madeleine! Hi!" Sheesh. Here are some other photos from our Santa hat pictures for the Christmas cards:






Merry Christmas!

Saturday, December 23, 2006

Monday, December 18, 2006

Friday, December 15, 2006

I can't see a thing with this blast shield down!

I have a job where, among other things, I get to fly in a helicopter. I love it. It's pretty cool. Unfortunately, I don't really look all that when I do my job. I wear men's pants, because I couldn't find EMT pants in a women's cut, that are unflatteringly high-waisted. They are not terribly comfortable, but they have lots of neat pockets and they are warm in the wintertime and at 3500 feet. And a tucked-in polo shirt, also men's. And then there's this:



Word.

Monday, December 11, 2006

Friday, December 08, 2006

A New Friend

Many of you know our friends Jamie and Lesley, and that they had a baby due in January. Well, Jacob decided to come out to play early, and just to make it that much more interesting, he decided to come during that nasty storm last week. They are blogging about their new son and his progress here. Please keep this little family in your prayers.

Thursday, December 07, 2006

Vegas, Baby!

We're back, and we all survived. Evidently, we missed the storm of the decade. We left Wednesday morning, and the snowstorm arrived Thursday night. We did get to experience a little of it when we got into St. Louis at 10 o'clock at night on Sunday, as it took Shannon 45 minutes to chip clear the iced-over snow off the windshield of the Intrepid. My awesome parents had shoved out our driveway and a path to our front door, through the 18 inches of snow, so when we actually reached our home at 1 am, we were able to just walk right in. My mom also tidied our living room and kitchen, so it was a pleasant surprise to come home to.

Las Vegas and the travel to and from was certainly an adventure. We had a direct flight to Vegas on Wednesday, and the kids did great on the way there. The Sit N Stroll performed nicely (the wheels got stuck once or twice in the up position), and all our luggage, including the baby bucket and Shannon's guitar, which we had gate-checked, reached Las Vegas with the rest of us safely.

The conference was successful for Oddwalk, in spite of an attempt on Shannon's life by Quiznos' guacamole. On Friday, I left my ailing husband with Orin and my young children with strangers (Ladies and Gentlemen, Wife & Mother of the Year!) to run the Strip with Erin H. We hit the nickel and penny slots hard (you know how we roll), at least until we got a couple free drinks. Then we ate at the Aladdin and saw BNL at the Aladdin theater. Their show, as always, kicked booty. Afterwards, we made our way back down the Strip, stopping at the Paris and Bellagio to try their slots and free drinks. When we got back, everyone was sleeping. Shannon was starting to recover, and the kids had been good for the babysitters, who weren't really strangers.

Madeleine, inspite of her best efforts, did not destroy our room at the Riv. She did manage to scribble in crayon on the bottom drawer of the tv cabinet and flush a bar of soap down the toilet, however. She also got a ton of swag at the exhibit hall, including a backback, a kangaroo, three koalas, a deck of cards, two bendy man toys, a dvd, numerous pens and stickers, and a ton of candy.

The trip home was a little more difficult. We had to change planes in Salt Lake City and ended up hiking what felt like five miles with the guitar, the baby in the sling, the toddler in the stroller, the baby bucket, two diaper bags and my purse to our new concourse and new gate. The kids were crankier and fussier on the flight from SLC to STL, but we survived. I have found on this trip that people are generally very kind and sympathetic to those traveling with kids. It goes a long way, too, if you people see you making an effort to keep your kids calm and under control. It goes even farther, though, if your kids are exceptionally cute and charming - if, for instance your 3 month smiles at everybody and your two year old tells knock knock jokes without punchlines.

So here are some photos from our trip:

Madeleine on the plane, ready to go!




Hanging out at the booth



Dance with me Noah!

Noah-boy

Cheese! (she does this wierd thing with her face when she says cheese)


Oddwalk's performance on Saturday night:

I'm huge! (MST3K, anyone?)



Keytar hero? Erin must be so proud.