June/December 2009

I finally decided to finish up 2009 in one brief post. Here is a quick glimpse at what we have been up to for the past few months.

At the end of May, we went on our annual small group camping trip to Starved Rock. We had a great time hanging out, hiking and swimming.

In June, we started a garden in the backyard. We all enjoyed it even more than I thought we would. We are looking forward to doing it again next year!

We celebrated the fourth of July with the annual Hometown picnic and ended the evening with some good friends hanging out at our place.


The kids participated in T-ball for the third summer and they were each able to graduate to hitting the ball without the T.

We went camping in Wisconsin near Devil's Lake with our good friends the Bards. We did some serious rock climbing and hiking. I was extremely proud of the kids!

We did it!!

The kids wanted to go swimming in the lake even though it was a bit chilly!

The campground had tons of activities and we enjoyed quite a few of them.

Joe's brother Dan and his wife Maggie moved here for a job transfer and they were able to live in our house for a few months while trying decide where they would live. We had a great time spending time with them and we are thrilled that they are living so close!

The kids also attended a drama camp through the city of Aurora and they absolutely loved it!

The program was really impressive, they each did a fantastic job!

We took a spur of the moment family trip to Indiana for the weekend. We swam in Lake Michigan and had a wonderful family bonding time.

In August we went up to Minnesota to Joe's Aunt and Uncle's house for a little family reunion. We try to go every year and everyone has a great time swimming, tubing and jet skiing.

We also took a trip up to Canada to visit my brother Marty, his wife Patsy and their boys. We brought the trailer and camped at their house as well as at Niagara Falls. It was great time spend time together!

On our way home from Canada, while driving through Michigan, a huge chunk of cement came out of nowhere and hit our van. Thank the Lord, everyone was fine and we were able to get off the highway safely!
The day we got home from Canada, we found out the I am expecting a baby! Shocking and wonderful news for our family!

In September, we took our annual trip to Disney World. This was the first year that every member of Joe's family was able to make it! We also found out the his brother John and his new wife Nichole are expecting a baby as well! She is due 5 days before me! Joe also got to sing in the American Idol Experience! It was so fun, a real highlight of the trip!

We then continued our vacation down to Disney's oceanfront property in Vero Beach.

The kids thought it was exciting to see some jelly fish that washed ashore.

We went to the apple orchard and brought Uncle Paul, Uncle Dan and Aunt Maggie along.

In October we had a visit from Joe's parents, Bill and Sally Moberly and Joe's Brother John and his wife Nichole. We took the oportunity to take Nichole to Chicago for her first visit.

We also went to see Taylor Swift in concert.

I had an opportunity to meet my sister Rachel in Hawaii on the island of Oahu. We had an amazing time shopping, sight seeing, laying on the beach, eating out and snorkleing. It was definetly a trip of a lifetime!

After I got back from Hawaii, we celebrated Halloween.

In November we celebrated Thanksgiving with Paul, Dan, Maggie and The Moss Family. And, of course, we were out by 4:30AM the next day for some good black friday shopping!

On December 10th we had a level two ultra sound,to make sure that the baby is healthy and to find out the gender. We found out that we are having a GIRL! How exciting! We are amazed at all our blessings and this little blessing will be named Sophie Marie (Marie is my middle name and also was my mother's).

This year for Christmas, we decide to drive down to Albuquerque New Mexico to be with Joe's family.