Still here!

To our loyal fans...so sorry! It's been nearly two months since we have posted, and after much insistence from all of you, I'm back. Here's a little window into our world over the past several weeks:

Russ and Evie~~taken just a few hours ago Evie is 6 1/2 months old. She has a fabulous toothy grin, is curious about everything, enjoys the great freedom that comes with mobility, and is excited about everything around her. Such a FUN baby, and always happy!

Despite the subzero temperatures, Russ is still biking everywhere. Kudos! But can I just say, "BRRRRR" !!

We celebrated Thanksgiving at our house. Sydney picked an enormous turkey, so we now have lots of leftover turkey in the freezer. It was a great dinner and I managed to pull it off without destroying anything. Sydney and Tara set the table, decorated, and helped me with all the cooking and baking.

While we were getting dinner ready I sent Russ out to have a little fun...and fun he had! He went mountain biking and even took some pictures for us. This one is great. (It's fake btw, but so awesome!)

Sydney and Tara got "bendaroos" from Grandma, and they really wanted me to post some of their artwork. Some of them fell down before I took the picture, but these were on the wall for days! They love them!

Tara's:

Sydney's:

One of the main reasons I haven't posted in a while--we all got sick. Tara got H1N1, then Sydney did. When Tara didn't get better for two weeks, I took her to the Dr, and she managed to get strep throat on top of the swine flu. Russ and I woke up with strep the next morning. It seemed it would never end! But we are all well now, and back to our usual mischief.

While Tara was home sick the school had an award assembly, so we took her in. Sydney received and award, and Tara got two. We were quite the proud parents! If you look closely at this picture, you can tell that Tara is VERY sick. We are so glad she has recovered!

And finally, Halloween. Here's another of Evie as a little piggy. The girls got to dress up two or three times for different parties and trick-or-treating. Evie was a pig every time, but Sydney and Tara picked a new costume for every event. Tara even switched costumes a few times on Halloween.

Here are the girls at the YMCA for a little Halloween fun. Syd and Tara love this little rock wall!

Syd playing miniature golf

We went trick-or-treating at the zoo and Tara found her soul-mate. :)

Tara on the zip line at the YMCA:

There's our much-anticipated update. Hopefully I don't let so much time lapse before posting again! We are all very busy getting ready for Christmas, trying to stay warm, and attempting to juggle all the fun that gets thrown our way. There are so many fun surprises in old houses. (a half-inch of ice on the windows--in the house, frozen pipes, cold cold rooms, we even had a huge bubble of water under the paint--it looked like a big zit on the wall. I could go on and on, but instead I must go work on correcting some of these lovely issues!)

Long story short: Keeping busy, tragedies are at a minimum, and all are well and happy!