JUGGLING MASTERS

Tay's school provides a special program called Juggling Masters...it's provided for 3rd-5th graders and they practice in the am before school. This is Tay's second year and she had a blast! She juggled scarves, did three spinning plates at once, did cup or "sport" stacking and did Mystix (one stick is controlled by two hand sticks and the jugglers manipulate the stick to do several manuevers (this is Tay's fav). Thank you to my cousin Susie, for all these great pics!

Saturday Spaghetti Dinner

It was an interesting day in the basketball world with Connecticut upsetting my Hoosiers and Purdue knocking off Wisconsin..IU is still #11...

4lbs of Spaghetti, 3lbs of sauce and a whole lot of happy people with full bellies!

Look at sweet Katie Kate feeding herself!

J and Uncle Andrew (wearing his shirt very proudly, today.)

Aunt Heather having her own little fun fixing Dora's hair :-)
i think this is the biggest smile i have ever seen on Nolan's cute face!
Dan and...look Tay got a good one of Kelli (well, sorta)
Ben and good pal Will(who doesn't know the band KISS but, it's dad Dan's Fav..before we know it William will be singing it to his girlfriend, too!).

GO GREEN!

Things we are learning and working on at our house:

**Did you know...
--For every ton of paper that is recycled, the following is saved: 7,000 gallons of water; 380 gallons of oil; and enough electricity to power an average house for six months.

---You can run a TV for six hours on the amount of electricity that is saved by recycling one aluminum can.

---By recycling just one glass bottle, you save enough electricity to power a 100-watt bulb for four hours.


Change a Light Bulb--
Installing a compact fluorescent bulb (CFL) is the quickest, easiest way to save energy -- and money. Unlike incandescents, CFLs convert most of the energy they use into light rather than heat.
Good for You: They consume about 75 percent less electricity and last up to 10 times longer (10,000 hours as opposed to 1,500). Replace one 75-watt incandescent bulb with a 25-watt CFL and save up to $83 over the life of the bulb. ***Make sure you buy the "soft white" so you don't have that blue glow...

Recycle Your Electronics--
Americans tossed out a whopping 5.5 billion pounds of electronics -- TVs, stereos, cell phones, and computers -- in 2005, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. The result? Millions of pounds of chemicals and heavy metals ended up in the ground even though it's easier than ever to recycle electronics. The Consumer Electronics Association created mygreenelectronics.org to help people find a recycling resource in their area. The site also provides a list of electronics, from laptops to baby monitors, that are easier on the environment and your energy bill.
Good for You: The average American household has three cell phones stashed in a drawer. Sell unused cell phones to greenphone.com or rbrc.com. You'll receive about $35, and the phones will be refurbished and resold. If 1 million people recycled one cathode-ray tube TV this year, we'd keep 4 million pounds of lead out of the ground.

Support local farms--eatwellguide.com
Tote your own grocery bags--reusablebags.com
Set your fridge temp to 37 F and your freezer to 0
Don't use papertowels--we aren't quite there yet!

Quick Capture of Ohio Cousins...

Sadie is ready for her adventure to Disney World in February...Princess boots and Pooh and friends shirt and don't forget the most important thing which Aunt Amy thinks is the cutest...her thumb :-)
We love and miss you soo much and we forgive your mommy, daddy and uncle for turning you into OSU fans.

Blue Sunday!

Well, our Colts didn't get it done..but Eli and the Giants sure did and so did my HOOSIERS :-) Thanks so much to Dan and Kelli for having us and suppling all the tasty treats!
Ben and Gracie get so excited to play at Dan and Kelli's.. they get their coats on and sit by the door until it's finally time to go!

Our Colts Charms--Danielle, Tay, Ben, William and Grace

Danielle striking a pose as our halftime entertainment
Tay and Nicholas

Nichlolas "our bookie" made a bundle off the Colts' disappointing loss today!

I just couldn't pass up sharing this video of Nicholas (20 months) demonstrating his apparent shoe fetish and signs of OCD! They can't take the boys shoes off and if they try he screams. Seriously, he wears them when he sleeps!

DOODLEBOPS LIVE!

We're the Dooddlebops, oh yeah....Come and join the fun cause we're laughin' and singing all Day! LIVE: Saturday, January 12, 2007! If you have never seen this band check out www.doodlebops.com! or your local Disney channel!

Gracie (3) and Hailey (2) all dressed up for their first "Rock Concert"!!

Gracie and I decided Moe is the best Doodlebop...He plays the drums, does all kinds of flips and breakdancing and is super funny!!! --pssst..check it out Aunt Lori he even has Orange hair!!!

Come on everybody...we're gonna take a busride!!!
What a fun day we had with such great friends...Melanie, Hailey, Amy and Gracie!

Gracie's favorite part of the show...it came at the end and she asked for Moe to "pull the rope" from the time we sat down!

Gracie was all about the "golden" cotton candy...Hailey had never had it before so she was okay with her dried mango..note to self..find out Melanie's healthy snacks secrets!

The Birthday Girl (well actually January 17th) was an Honorary DOODLEBOP with her pledge flag and all..but, she was not posing for anymore pictures!
5 minutes outta the car, onto daddy's lap and she was OUT!

Winter BBQ 2007

It appears the warmer weather brought out some rather affectionate boys. These Heiner Beauties don't stand a chance in this neighborhood! 60 degrees called for grilling, chips, chocolate chip cookies and great company!
Seriously. John always looks like that. Lucky for him, even when Mel feels her worst she looks like that!
Ben and Hailey....The Princess and her Politician! Who knew Nicholas' middle name was Casanova! He followed Kate everywhere.
William and Gracie are buds but, he would much rather play with Ben because he's a Boy! Ben just said "William is Gracie's boyfriend" and he said Dan (Will's dad) said it! haha.

Nicholas cruising around with his "softee" on his head and paci in mouth he was a happy boy..

THANK YOU HOME IMPROVEMENT FAIRIES!

So, just a little story behind this event. We don't make large purchases with out lots of thought and research...until this one. A few days before Christmas our microwave went out. Anyone who knows me..knows this is bad news. I was literally talking to Jason on the phone (the next morning) about replacing the broken microwave and was so into the habit of reheating my coffee that i stuck it in there forgetting...duh, doesn't work....so, we replaced it that night.

Well, our thoughtful family had came up with the great idea of getting us this lovely microwave for Christmas...until (our) Christmas morning when they learned...Umm..they already bought it themsleves...so, they went together on the kitchen improvement fund to help us toward the matching Stove purchase and this is how wonderful it looks!

I forgot to take a picture of our sad almond and black stove that the kids used as a trampoline, step stool and whatever else was needed at the time...but, they managed to break the hinges of the door, bend the drawer beyond repair and break the plastic molding off the top of the door..It wasn't pretty but, it worked... Thanks to our thoughtful family we now have one that works and looks great :-) The perfect gift that keeps on giving and we APPRECIATE soo much.

Happy New Year Family and Friends! We Love You!

Thanks to my brother, Andrew and Heather for an Awesome dinner.. How interesting to try HIROSAKI...a brand new Japanese Steakhouse that just opened in Avon...So, new that they forgot to tell us while making the reservation they didn't have a liquor license yet(the food and atmosphere were GREAT!)...Thanks Mom and Mike for watching all of the kids so we could get out and play "grown-ups" for a little while !! Here's to a Happy, Healthy and Less Stressed 2008!