Making Brownies

Emma helped me clean up the brownie bowl the other night and had a great time doing it!

SNOW!!!

We had our first snow of the year...it was barely more than a heavy dusting but the most snow Emma has seen; and she LOVED it. That is until we were all dressed up and it was time to go into the snow. She didn't want to have anything to do with it. She wanted me to hold her (I think she was just unsure of what to expect), but I pushed her and made her walk to the back deck and then she was all about it. I had wanted to pull her in her sled, but I think it's in the basement and by the time I figured that out we were already outside and bundled up. I'm sure there will be plenty more times to use it :(

Chudzick Family Christmas Tree

Like always, we headed out on Friday (day after Thanksgiving) to cut down our Christmas tree. It was a little chilly and muddy so we got bundled up and put on our "dirty" shoes. We always go to Marmion Academy in Aurora (I've been going there since we moved here in 92) but this year we were a little disappointed. Most of their trees haven't matured yet, so they're still pretty small and not family room worthy. We dedicded we're going to try another place next year and give Marmion a rest for a few years. After hiking for some time (the most we've ever had to do) we found one that would work, there weren't any runner-up's either.

Emma seemed to enjoy being out there and she would probably have walked more if her "dirty" shoes weren't 4 sizes too small, oops! But as we were leaving she said "that was fun!", so I guess it couldn't have been too bad. We've also started to make a habit of stopping at Starbucks for a toasty drink before heading home. I always get the carmel apple cider (amazing!) and Andrew usually gets their holiday fru-fru drink. Next year I bet Emma will be hounding us for hot chocolate!

We decided to put up the tree while Emma was sleeping. We attempted to decorate the inside of the house while she was away and it was a little too much, the tree would have been soooooooooo much worse. She doesn't seem too obsessed with the tree and barely pays attention to it, yeah!

Dinner with Family

Last Friday The Weber's were in town for Thanksgiving so we had Andrew's family over for dinner. It's been about a year since we were all together, it's so nice to have everyone in one place, even if it's only for a little bit. I made crock pot baked ziti (yum) and we had leftover raspberry pie for dessert (double yum). The kids hung out and played with each other, Emma was in overdrive trying to impress the older boys while at her house. She was doing lots of laps around the house :)

The Grandparents and Grandkids

"Big Papa" and the Great-Grandkids

All the "kids"

The Webers Sarah, Dan, Tyler (6) and Jake (5)

Catching up with The Robinson's

Joe, Jill and baby Luke came over Saturday for dinner and visiting. We met The Robinson's about 4 years ago, shortly after Andrew moved Pulte's home office. Joe had just gotten a job with Pulte and they were moving here from Michigan. At the time we lived in North Aurora and they apartment they moved into was about 5 miles away. We got together quite a bit until we moved, since we were so close to each other. Things have changed a bit in those 4 years, but we still have a great time whenever we get together!

The adults sitting down to an excellent dinner

Emma and baby Luke

The boys passed out watching football...wimps!

Mommy's little helper

Emma is quite the little assistant these days, especially when it comes to cooking. She really likes helping me make dinner during the day for Daddy. Every time I start to cook she will drag her chair over to the counter and ask what she can do. Then if I'm using onions she will always ask to eat them! She will take down onions like it's nobody's business, too funny!

Halloween 2009

This year Graham and Kristy invited us to their house for trick or treating. We started the morning off with pumpkin carving, most of which Emma wasn't too interested in. She enjoyed drawing on the pumpkin with the magic marker more than anything. After a late nap we finally got to the Brown's around 4:45pm. We did a quick clothing change and then headed out the door. It was nice to be in a neighborhood where all the houses are close together, more candy! Payton and Emma did great asking for treats and making sure they said thank you. They held up for about an hour and a half and then we all went in for pizza. We had a great night!

Emma and the "Kitty" pumpkin

Kitty Cat and Batman

Waiting in line for candy

The loot

Letting the cat out of the bag.....

I'm giving you guys a sneak peak at Emma's Halloween costume! When we bought it she wasn't too happy about the head piece so I knew we would need to try it on a few times at home to get used to it. She is really digging the costume and even says "I'm cute". I will definitely put more pictures up from Halloween night. Oh and if you can't tell what she is, she's a kitty cat!

Fire Safety

Camping

Over Columbus Day weekend we went camping with Steve and Shannon. In the last 6 months or so we have re-established a great friendship with them after not having seen each other in 8 years! I affectionately refer to them as our "couple twin" because our relationships have followed very similar paths over the years and we didn't even know it.

So we decided to do a fall camping trip with them (we left Emma with Andrew's parents) down to Clinton Lake, about 40 minutes from Bloomington. We left Friday late morning to head over a pick up Steve and Shannon. At this time it was about 45 degrees and raining....yuck! Both Shannon and I were like "what are we doing?!" But Andrew promised that things were supposed to clear up later in the day. To prevent us from having to set up all our stuff in the rain we decided to try and wait it out a little bit with a stop at ISU for some cheese balls at The Pub II. As always the food and especially the cheese balls were extra tasty. We finally made it down to the campground and the rain had stopped (thankfully!). We didn't have reservations because all the reserved sites had already been taken previously, but because of the crappy weather all the reservations had been cancelled. So we got to pick our favorite site in a cul-de-sac where no one else was.

Shannon and I traded off making food and we all ate great! Pretty much everything we made was cooked over the camp fire, and it was all tasty. On Saturday the sun was out and we went for a ride on the lake for our last boat ride of the year. It was a little chilly and we were all bundled up, but as long as Andrew didn't go too fast it was very comfortable. We also went on a nice hike around part of the lake and looked at the beautiful trees as well as some other camp sites. Saturday night got pretty chilly but we had plenty of fire wood to keep us toasty and I even brought a space heater for the tent, which really helped.

Sunday we got up early and packed up to head home. Emma was sure happy to see us when we went to pick her up, but it sounded like she had a great time. Although on the first night she was there Sue slipped down a few stairs and broke her wrist so she was out of commission for the whole weekend!

Tent City

My favorite tree--so pretty!

Fall Colors

There were lots of deer eating berries in our cul-de-sac

Steve and Shannon

Me and my Boy

Huddled around the fire

Andrew and Steve

Shannon and me

Honey Hill Orchards

We headed out again this year to Honey Hill Orchards to pick some apples and pumpkins. Last year we had this beautiful day with sunny skies and high temps, this year was nothing like that. It was freaking cold, and rainy and cloudy, YUCK! But we made the most of it anyway. Emma really dug the horse they had there and the other animals as well, but mostly the horse. She even petted the horse, but when it came to giving it an apple she left that up to Dad. We took their tractor ride out to the pumpkin patch and picked out 4 pumpkins (one for Frank too!). Emma thought this was pretty cool and liked looking around at all the pumpkins. Then we headed over to the apple trees and started picking them. Once Emma got her hands on one apple she was pretty much focused on just eating it and didn't really care about getting any more. They had a nice selection of good apples to choose from, which was nice. We finished out the visit with apple cider donuts and hot apple cider....delish! With our apples I made carmel apples (super easy!) and apple crisp (super yummy) with Oberweis cinnamon ice cream. I love apples. We still have enough apples to make a pie, so if I get motivated enough to do that I will.

First Haircut

We finally decided that Emma needed a haircut. Her hair isn't that long, but it was very uneven and needed to be trimmed up. We took her to Cookie Cutters in the Geneva Commons and while the cut was fairly pricey I think it was worth it for a one time thing. We could sit in any chair that we wanted to so we picked the fire engine, however that didn't really change the way that Emma felt about the experience. She was very unsure of what was going on a only wanted to be held. At first we bribed her with promises of cookies if she was good, but that didn't work. So we moved onto a sucker. While that helped a bit, she still wasn't convinced, until the hair stylist asked if she had a favorite show and I asked if she had Barney. She popped in a Barney DVD and we were good to go. Emma's hair looks so much better and fuller with it trimmed up and it makes her look like a big girl!

Getting Started

Zoned into Barney (almost done!)

All Done!

Happy Birthday Baby Girl

Emma turned 2...yes I said 2 on September 7th. I can't believe that she is already 2! We had a very nice family party on the 6th for her. We kept things pretty low key this year. I didn't really have a theme or anything. I was going to do a theme but there didn't really seem to be any out there that really fit Emma. Last year I came up with the idea of getting a special birthday book and then having all the guests sign in on it. I did this again this year, the book I chose was Barney and BJ Go To The Fire Station, since Emma loves Barney and fire trucks. I am hoping to make this a tradition for every birthday.

We made her cake again this year and it looked and tasted fabulous. The party plates that we got had a butterfly on them so I wanted to decorate they cake that way too. I made the cake (from a box) and Andrew decorated it. I couldn't believe how good he did! I was pretty impressed, especially since I practiced for about 30 minutes and still couldn't produce anything that looked like a butterfly. Jim brought over some baseball gloves, baseballs and a mini bat to play with. Emma and Payton had a blast playing and I think the big boys did too. We had Lou Malnati's for dinner (yummy) and then cake and Oberweis Birthday Cake ice cream (double yummy). Emma really seemed to enjoy having everyone sing Happy Birthday To You and she did great blowing out her candle. I was surprised that she wasn't as into tearing into her presents as I thought she would be, but she LOVED getting new toys to play with.

The Birthday Girl

Emma and Payton

(I bribed them with a cookie for this shot)

Little Baseball Player

Daddy and Emma

Our Family

Yeah!

Opening Presents

This is me at 2....I thought it looks a lot like Emma