Full House

Last weekend we hosted the family Christmas for my mom's side of the family. Despite the snow storm that came through on Saturday, everyone still managed to travel to our home safely. It had been a year since I had seen most of my aunts and uncles, and even two years for one aunt and uncle. So it was really great to see everyone and have us all together for our early White Christmas. Below are some pictures from the weekend...

My mom was a lifesaver in the kitchen. She worked really hard to prepare a feast for us, including our traditional Turkey and Dumplings... mmmm....

My step-dad, Greg, relaxing in the living room.

As always, Harli was especially nice to anyone who had food. Here she is cozying up to Aunt Shirley and her cookie.

Scot's mom, Michele, helping in the kitchen.

My step-son, Matt, graciously served as our photographer for the day.

Greg, Uncle Melvin, and Aunt Shirley watching the football games while the feast is prepared.

My youngest cousin, Claire, posing for the camera.

Aunt Cheri also posing for the camera. :)

Uncle Barry and his daughter, Claire.

My step-son, Andy, hanging out with Allie on the stairs. Andy was under the weather last weekend (and still is), so he wasn't feeling overly sociable.





Harli and her new best girlfriend, Scarlett, posing under the Christmas tree. Scarlett is my Uncle Ed and Aunt Cheri's little pup. I wasn't sure how Harli would do having another dog in her home (she can be very territorial.) However, Scarlett and Harli had a lot of fun together and loved taking turns chasing each other around the house.

Aunt Glenda and her daughter, Claire.

Scot's mom, Michele, and her "man," Rob. :)

The Hanstein Clan.

All of the Hansteins stayed the night at our house on Saturday, and then we all went for an enjoyable brunch on Sunday morning. By then the roads had cleared enough for everyone to have safe travels home. It was a great weekend, and we really enjoyed seeing everyone. Hope to see everyone again soon!

Oh, Christmas Tree(s)

I have been a little neglectful (busy) lately so I apologize for the lack of postings. Since Christmas is only 5, count 'em, 5 days away, I thought I would post some pictures that are Christmas in nature. As I mentioned in an earlier post, we put up 3, count 'em 3, Christmas trees this year. So here are some pictures of our forest...

Here is the newest addition to our family. We splurged and bought a new tree for the living room this year. Since the ceilings are so high in our living room, our old trees would have looked like dwarf trees! The best part about the tree? It's pre-lit! I know they have been around for quite a while, but this is the first pre-lit tree we've ever had. Boy, was it great not to have to mess with the lights!

Here is the tree in the kitchen/dining room area. It's kind of hard to tell from the picture, but it has (fake) sugared-fruits and grape bunches on it.

And here is the "girly glam" tree in the bar room. I got the idea from a Christmas tree I saw at a silent auction a few months ago (yes, the one that the lady cheated and outbid me after the time was up.) It is done in all purple, silver, and black. Not your traditional Christmas tree, but I love it (and as you can see, so does Harli!)

It has dragonfly ornaments. Most of you know that I love dragonflies, and that I always keep one very close to me. :)

And there are little black heels...

And sassy sparkly heels... These remind me of Dorothy's Ruby Slippers, but in purple!

Merry Christmas to you all!

A little more holiday fun...


http://www.jibjab.com/sendables/view/rnUljSqgDznH0EgcPI7dJTFi

We've been elfed!

I've had a few other friends "elf" themselves, so I thought I would give it a try, too!

Click on the link below for a little holiday fun!

http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1483256416

All Aboard!

In my last entry, I mentioned that Scot and I (and Andy) were banished to our bedroom last night (watching the depressing Mizzou loss). So I felt that I should provide some additional explanation of our banishment.

Well, Matt's girlfriend, Jenny, recently had a birthday. Since Matt cannot drive yet, they've never been able to go to dinner just the two of them. Therefore, for her birthday gift we planned out a fun little date night for just the two of them last night. The theme: A Night on the Orient Express. So Matt and I made up something to look like a train ticket. It had the Orient Express insignia, her name, the departure date and time (last night, 6:30), the name of the terminal (her street name), the track (her house number), and the train, car, and seat numbers (the month, date, and year of their anniversary). It turned out really cute. So Matt gave this to Jenny at her birthday party last weekend, but wouldn't tell her what it was for.

So we/the train picked Jenny up last night (the train arrived closer to 6:40 due to the ice storm we got yesterday). We then dropped Matt and Jenny off at Kobe's Japanese Steakhouse so they could have dinner on their own. This is one of those restaurants where you sit around the grill and the chef prepares your meal in front of you. It's very interactive, and they said they really liked it. Meanwhile, Scot, Andy, and I went to Old Chicago for our dinner and to watch the first part of the Missouri game. Matt texted us when they were finished, and we went to pick them up. Oh yeah- at dinner he gave her a necklace. It was the Chinese symbol for Love. OK- so our theme had a few inconsistencies- Japanese restaurant, Chinese symbol. Get over it. :)

After dinner, we all returned back to our house so they could watch the classic movie, Murder on the Orient Express. We let them watch it in the living room on the big TV, which brings us back to why Scot, Andy, and I were banished to our bedroom. Their opinions were mixed about the Orient Express movie, but overall they said they really enjoyed the evening. Matt did good to keep everything a surprise, so Jenny didn't know what was going on until it happened. This allowed us to have some fun with her. On the way home from dinner we were teasing about the next part of the night- anywhere from watching the Japanese version of Godzilla to a subtitled Kung-Fu movie.

There was another "fun," but unplanned part of the evening. Due to the aforementioned ice storm, our driveway was a sheet of ice (the roads were fine, but the driveway hadn't melted yet.) So when we pulled into the driveway after dinner, our car stopped about halfway up and then started turning and sliding backwards. We ended up turning 90 degrees across the driveway, and then slid back down. It was a little scary, for fear that we were going to go forward into our ditch. However, Scot maneuvered it beautifully, and we just ended up turning a complete 180 degrees and drove back out of our driveway. So we drove once more around the street (we live on a circle), and then pulled back into our driveway and successfully made it into our garage! We joked and said it was a planned part of the theme of the night. Ever heard of the movie, "The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift"...

So except for the Missouri loss, the evening seemed to be a success!

Happy December!

I know, you must be thinking... Wow, that was one hell of a long 6th day in Hawaii! Sorry, I've been out of the blogosphere for almost a month. This past month has been very hectic, and somehow updating the blog never made it to the top of my "to-do" list. I'll try to do better...I promise! Scot and I are banished to our bedroom tonight (more on that in another entry), so I thought it would be a good time to type up an entry. As I type, Scot, Andy, and I are sitting on our bed watching the Mizzou/Oklahoma game. Go Mizzou!

So, what "excuses" do I have for being so neglectful to my blogging duties? During the last month, I had to do some traveling to Mississippi for work. Taking the time to get ready to leave town, then being out of town, really put me behind on my normal tasks in life. Then, on top of that, I've been super busy at work when I've been in town, too. As most of you know, I received a promotion in October. Well, that's the "good news." I put "good" in quotes, because I accepted the position under the pretense that they would be hiring someone to take over my old position. Well, basically that has been put on hold until at least the first of the year. Not to mention that it will take a minimum of three months to get someone trained and functional once they are even hired. So, I've not only been trying to keep up with all of the responsibilities from my old position, but I've also been thrust into the responsibilities of my new position, including travel. And who doesn't love doing two jobs for an extended period of time with no definite end in sight? Well, I'll answer that question, "Not me!" Sorry to sound so disgruntled. But the truth is, I am! But I'll stay positive, and hope that things will get better soon before I'm 100% burned out.

We've also been in full-on Christmas mode. I say "we" as this means "me," but Scot has been willingly dragged along for the ride! This holiday season we've done two things we've never done before:

1) We put up our Christmas tree before Thanksgiving this year. This has always been a no-no in our opinions. Well, due to our schedule, it was the only practical time to do it. On top of that, we also put up 3 trees this year! I love it! We bought a new tree for the living room since we have such high ceilings in there. Then we put up the two trees that he and I each had, one in the kitchen and one in the bar room. Scot and the boys have given me a hard time for having so much "Christmas cheer" all over the house, but I know they secretly love it! There is one place by the kitchen table where you have a line of sight to all three trees. Scot will stand there and say he feels like he's in a forest. :) Maybe I'll post pictures of our "forest" soon.

2) We also went shopping the day after Thanksgiving this year. This is something I had never done and said I would never do. However, we happened to be back at my mom's in Mexico, so Scot and I decided to drive over to Columbia to get ahead on our Christmas shopping. No, we didn't do the doorbusters at 4am. We went for the afternoonbusters around 1pm. OK- so I think I just made that term up. Either way, we still got really good deals, and the crowds were no where near what I was expecting. Toys R Us was the most crowded place. And, I'm happy to report that except for finishing up Matt and Andy's shopping, we are ALL finished with our Christmas shopping. AND everything is wrapped and under the tree! Woo-hoo! Go me!

Well, those are the "hi-lights" of the past month's craziness. I have to travel for work again this week. The "fortunate" part, however, is that it is to Boonville, MO. So at least I can see family and friends in Mexico and Columbia while I'm there.

Wow- I just noticed I have an excessive amount of "quotes" in this entry. :)

Back to Hawaii: Day 6

Now that the weather is starting to cool off, I thought it would be a good time to finish posting pictures from our Hawaii trip... Ahh, the memories...

On Wednesday morning we headed to the airport early to catch our flight to Kauai. We sadly said goodbye to my brother and his family. They were such gracious hosts and tour-guides. It had been over two years since I had seen my brother and his family, so it was great to have five days to visit with them. However, I always hate saying goodbye as I never know how long it will be until our next visit.

One last picture of the mountains on Oahu. Kind of looks like Jurassic Park, don't you think?

After a quick 37 minute flight, we were off to explore Kauai!




Since we couldn't check into our hotel until later in the afternoon, we decided to drive to the north part of the island. Our first stop was in the small town of Hanalei. After some shopping, we stopped at this quaint little place called the Gourmet Deli for some lunch (and pina coladas!)




After lunch, we continued driving along the shoreline to Lumaha'i Beach. It was very secluded with only a couple other people there. It was absolutely beautiful. Here's Kim "striking a pose."

The waves crashing at Lumaha'i Beach... Looks like one of those motivational posters. :) By the way, this beach was the backdrop for the movie, South Pacific.

A few miles further to Wainiha Bay...

The entire drive around the north part of the island was on windy, rural roads. There were several one-lane bridges along the way.

There is not a road that goes entirely around the island. Once you get to the Na'pali Coast on the West side, the terrain is too mountainous for roads. You can only view that part of the island by water or air or hiking. Therefore, we had to "retrace" our route back. On the return trip through Hanalei, we took a picture of this beautiful church- the Wai'oli Hui'ia Church. I absolutely love the architecture of this building, as well as the colors.

Just outside of Hanalei was this National Wildlife Refuge.

These wetlands serve as a sanctuary for endangered Hawaiian waterbirds. From above, it looks like a field of assorted crops. However, those are all swampy areas filled with lily pads, etc to serve as a home for the waterbirds.

After our day of driving, shopping, and beach walking along the north shore, we headed to our resort to get checked in. The place was breath-taking! We were glad that we had seen so many sights that day, because after we got to the resort we didn't want to leave! Here is a picture of the main lobby.

The entire place had lagoons, small pools, and rivers going through it. After getting checked in, we headed to one of the bars for a cocktail. This was the view from our table. You can see all of the small swimming pools and hot tubs throughout the grounds. In the distance is the ocean. It was by far the most beautiful place either of us had ever been to. We were also pleasantly surprised by how uncrowded the place was. I'm not sure if it was due to the time of year or what. However, we never had any problem finding an empty swimming pool or hot tub. This was nice in comparison to some places we've been to in the past that were filled with screaming kids splashing around. Don't get me wrong- I love kids. However, there are definitely some places and times that it's nice to have some solitude.

Scot posing on one of the bridges at the hotel.

We ended the day going to dinner in a nearby town. The food was really good, but compared to the bill- nothing could taste that good! We had been spoiled by eating dinner at my brother's house for the rest of the trip. Everything is just so outrageously expensive in Hawaii. Scot and I had to suppress the tight-wads in both of us to just splurge and enjoy the experience. Afterall, who knows if we'll ever make it back to Hawaii again.

Happy Halloween!

What was on the menu for dinner? Why, witch hands, green witch brains, and blood sauce, of course! :)


Andy was invited to a boy/girl party on Halloween night, so for some reason he opted to go there instead of hanging out with Scot and me. So we let Matt invite his girlfriend over for dinner. She lives out in the country, so they don't get trick-or-treaters. She was happy to come help pass out candy at our house. Here they are humoring me and enjoying their creepy dinner.

If you can't tell from dinner, I got a little more into Halloween than I normally do. It has been a couple of years since I've had trick-or-treaters, so I was looking forward to it this year. Scot helped me to get the house decorated, too. We turned our plant bed into a little graveyard and our walk-way lights into pumpkin luminaries.

Here's a shot of the front door. It's kind of hard to tell from the picture, but there is "blood" coming out of the glass in the door, and there are spiderwebs all over. The neighborhood kids really seemed to enjoy the decorations. Well, all except for one little girl who wouldn't come to the door because she was scared of the spider hanging from the light!

Hope everyone had a safe and fun Halloween!

Quick catch-up

Sorry for the delay between blog entries. We have been busy the last couple of weekends, and last week I had events for work during several of the evenings. I still have pictures from Hawaii to post, but thought I would do a quick catch-up of what has been going on with us here in Peoria.

Two weekends ago, my dad was able to come stay a few nights with us. He has been doing some work in the Pennsylvania/New York area since May. His project wrapped up, and he was heading back to Las Vegas by way of Peoria. We were glad he was able to come spend some time with us. As you can see, Harli and him turned out to be good buddies on this trip, too!

Scot and I had a black tie event on Saturday night. It was a charity event for a local hospital. It was our weekend to have the boys, so Dad took them to dinner and the movies. They all seemed to have a good time. Here is a picture of Scot and me. This was Scot's first chance to wear his new tuxedo. He looked so handsome!

There was a silent auction as part of the fundraising events. During the first group of auction items, I set my sights on a goal. It was a Christmas tree with the theme "Out on the Town." It was fully decorated with the coolest ornaments- mini high heel shoes, little evening gowns, etc plus it had gift certificates for restaurants, spas, etc. It was decorated in purple and silver, and it would have gone perfectly in our bar room. After a strategically timed bid, the bell rang and I was the winning bidder! Well, until some trashy lady walked up well after the bell rang and outbid me! Needless to say, I was a little "peeved." Thanks to some liquid encouragement, I was all ready to give her a piece of my mind or to call the "auction cops" on her. However, Scot helped me to calm down. I remembered that it all goes to a good cause, and we moved on to the next room of bidding. I believe that everything happens for a reason, and decided that I just saved some money and got some cool ideas for Christmas tree decorating!

I did have a little more luck in the next room of bidding. Here I am with our "winnings" below. I would love to say that I immediately fell in love with it and feverishly bid until it was mine. The truth is, however, that it was really the only thing on the bidding tables that we could afford! Oh well, I still do really like it, and it matches our bar room perfectly. It's kind of hard to tell from the picture, but it's amber/yellow in the center and purple around the outside.

This past weekend Scot and I attended a neighbor's Halloween party. Unfortunately we didn't get any pictures of the event. Nothing too exciting. We decided to go with outfits that we could make out of stuff we already had... Voila! Rabbit and the Rabbit Hunter. I've had a bunny costume from years past, and Scot just wore his hunting gear. We thought about adding some blood to my rabbit costume to make it a little more "Halloweenish." However, I overruled it for fear of offending someone- like me!

Andy had his last football game of the season on Sunday. He had recently missed out on playing three games in a row due to a rib injury. They won their last game of the year 36-8, and finished with a 5-3 record. On a side note- they were 5-0 when Andy played. Coincidence? Scot certainly doesn't think so! :)

Scot's mom, Michele, was able to come to the game on Sunday. It had been awhile since we had seen her so it was great to visit with her. Here is Andy with Grandma Haines. Looks like Andy already has a few inches on her! :)

That's about it for the last couple of weeks. I have a couple more postings from Hawaii still. I hope to get those out soon as I think we still have the most beautiful pictures left to post.

Hawaii: Day 5

Tuesday was pretty uneventful in terms of the rest of the vacation. The kids returned to school after the Columbus Day holiday, and my brother returned to work. My sister-in-law spent the morning volunteering at the kids' school. It was pretty overcast, so it wasn't necessarily a good "beach-going" day. It was our last day on Oahu, so Scot and I spent most of the morning relaxing and then packing up our bags for our early morning flight to Kauai the next day.

After Nancy returned home, the three of us went out for some Mexican food for lunch, (yummm...), and then we did some shopping around their town. It was another successful shopping excursion (or unsuccessful from the pocket book's perspective!)

Before dinner, Scot and I went for an early evening walk through another part of the neighborhood to another beach. Here are some pics from our walk to Lanikai beach. It was a cloudy day and the sun was starting to set, but you can still see what a beautiful area it was.

There were some AMAZING houses along the beach and up in the hills. Check out the big white house set in the mountains in the left side of the picture. Every house seem to be bigger and more beautiful than the last. I'm sure Scot and I probably looked silly walking around with our mouths wide open.



Another view of the Lanikai beach coastline and its high-dollar real estate.

Here is Scot at the overlook that divides Kailua beach and Lanikai beach. That is "Flat Island" in the background, which serves as a bird sanctuary.

On the way back to Rob and Nancy's, we caught some glimpses of a beautiful sunset behind the mountains. This was taken as we were walking up their street. Except for the powerlines, I think it's a pretty cool picture.

Since we don't have too many pictures or stories to share from Day 5, I thought I would include a picture of Matt (Scot's oldest son) and his girlfriend, Jenny. Their homecoming dance was the weekend we arrived in Hawaii, so we missed out on the whole "pre-dance parent picture taking" event. Nonetheless, we were able to snag some pictures of the event, so here is the cute couple.

Hawaii: Day 4, Part 2

After spending the first part of the day at Pearl Harbor, we headed to get some lunch. We went to a great local chain called LoCo MoCo. It has traditional Hawaiian plate lunches, and it was quite yummy!



Here are some cheesy pics of Scot and me looking very entertained by our sodas from LoCo MoCo. :)


















Here is my brother, Rob, and his four kids at LoCo MoCo. From left: John, Jack, Elizabeth, Ellen, and, of course, Rob.

After lunch, we headed to the North Shore of Oahu. In contrast to Waikiki and Honolulu, the North Shore is more rural. Along the way, you drive by lots of pineapple plantations, sugar cane fields, and coffee bean fields. The North Shore is known for its beaches, and is a popular destination for a lot of surfers. We stopped by several beaches along the way, but I apologize that I don't remember the names of which towns and beaches go with each picture.


The first stop- notice the surfer in the water.

Thanks to Rob for serving as our private photographer! :)

This was a second beach. I loved the scenery here and the lava rocks in the surf.

This rock was in Waimea Bay, and as you can see, it serves as a popular place for cliff diving. No thank you!

Waimea Bay- talk about a house with a view!

The North Shore was truly amazing. The water is the prettiest blue, and the waves are hypnotic. I can see why everyone comes here to surf. Also along the way were lots of little quaint shops and restaurants. Of course we had to take some time to do some souvenir shopping here, and I'm happy to say that our trip was a success!