My little chef!

Here is my little chef cooking in her "kitchen" with her new apron...

Chalk drawings...

A few months back Jason and I made a chalk board for Jillian in her playroom. Just the other day Jillian was finally interested in it...here is her art work.


Well she started to get a little carried away and drawing on the frame...that was the end of our artistic fun for the day!

Cookie Day Weekend, 2010

Every year my mother's side of the family gets together to bake Christmas cookies. Only the girls...and we have a blast! We make enough cookies for 7 families and we make roughly 8 different kinds of cookies. So its not like we get together and just hang out...we really work hard baking hundreds of cookies. Each year we rent a different house and all travel to the location and stay a night or two. We have been in search of the perfect house for years. When this began 30 or so years ago my mom and her sisters would go to my Grandparents house to do the baking. When we all were old enough (and the moms were ready to share the holiday tradition) the cousins and I joined in. When my grandparents passed away and the house was sold we started going to different rental places (Galena IL, Delavan WI, Lake Geneva WI) but found a place near Burlington, WI that we all really liked. This is a great time to spend with family and get a break from our everyday lives (teaching, working, being mothers or wives) and just have some girly fun! This year we all got there on Friday night and had a Margarita or two. Then we got to work on Saturday and baked all day. We typically go out for a nice dinner on Saturday night (who wants to cook dinner after baking all day?!) but the weather was pretty bad so we stayed in. That might have been the most fun I have had in a long time. We had some yummy vodka cocktails and played dominoes and catch phrase...kicking back and having fun! It truly was one of those nights where we laughed until we cried=) Here are some pictures of my family tradition...we hope you have happy holiday season.

Missing friends...

After the long Thanksgiving break and not having any friends over for a few days (well Nolan or Cole), Jillian was very excited to see Nolan and Cole...


Tuesday when Cole was here it was pretty chilly and icky out, so we had a popcorn movie picnic...

Thanksgiving 2010

This year for Thanksgiving we headed to Portage, WI and celebrated with Jason's dad and Kathy. We had a fantastic "northern" Thanksgiving. Jason's brothers Todd and his wife Meg with their 4 kids (Anna, Leah, Isaac and James), Troy and his wife Dena and their 2 kids (Elsa and Sam) along with Kathy's son Pete and his wife Dawn and their daughter (hailey) were all there to celebrate with us. Jillian just had a fantastic time running around with her cousins. We had a wonderful meal prepared by Kathy and lots of visiting with family. We stayed over to Friday and spent time with Todd, Meg and the kids. Kathy's birthday is on the 28th (Happy Belated Birthday!) and so Meg and I took her to see Burlesque (so good!). A nice girls afternoon=) Then we headed home on Saturday morning. Here are some fun photos of our Gobble Gobble weekend.

Our Little Turkey!



We had a little craft planned for the kids and here is Hailey and Jillian showing theirs off.


Jillian found Grandpa's big boots and decided to try them on!


A little "pajama" cousin love!


Thanks for the fun holiday weekend!

Dear Hunters Widow Weekend 2010

This year as Jason was up North hunting Jillian and I ventured down south (not too far south unfortunately, just Dekalb). Friday we did a little Christmas shopping with my grandma, Jillian's Great Grandma. Afterwards we stayed in Elburn and had dinner with both grandma and grandpa. Then we headed to Dekalb to spend the weekend with my parents. Saturday Jillian hung out with Grandma and cousin Zach while I was able to escape to see the new Harry Potter movie (SO good by the way). We hung out there Saturday night and headed home Sunday afternoon after a yummy ham lunch (mom spoils us everytime we go!). Here are some fun pictures of our weekend in Dekalb.

In the words of Grandpa "I'm a rockstar"!


These two were so cute. Jillian is very into giving hugs and Zach was a good sport giving them back. He also did a nice job sharing his toys with Jillian.


Look at these two cheese balls!


Of course we couldn't leave the Murray house without tormenting poor Mowkie!


Even mommy jumped into the fun!


Thanks for giving us a place to go Grandpa and Grandma Murray! We love you=)

Betty Brinn with Bode (and Cole of course)

A few weeks ago my cousin Meghan and her son Bode came up to visit and we took them to the children's museum here in Milwaukee. Of course Jillian was just thrilled to be there and went from place to place! Bode on the other hand found a few fun things and stuck to them. So there aren't many pictures of the Bode-man, but Cole was a good "big boy helper" to both kids. Here are some pictures of our fun time at Betty Brinn=)

Cole and Jillian took turns driving the bus!


They made delicious pizza!


They even fixed the car! Jillian wasn't too sure about getting underneath...she might have to marry a man who can change a tire for her (much like her mother!).



Bode and Cole checking out some flying bugs!


Cole is thinking about going on a safari and Jillian is channeling daddies fish!


Thanks for visiting Meghan and Bode, we hope you come back soon=)