My Birthday in St Louis

Well this year my birthday celebrations just kept coming. My actual birthday was in the middle of the week, so later that weekend Brian flew us to Ohio as a birthday surprise... it was the perfect gift. Then after a long weekend in Ohio we celebrated my birthday at Nancy and Kevin's. Nancy made chili and Nana and Papa came over too.

Here I am blocking my mouth from Papa (he always sneaks in and covers your mouth so you can't blow out your candles... I was ready for him)

Me and Kevin

Opening my gifts

Well it was a long weekend in Ohio and I was super tired... so this is me after all of my birthday celebrations

More of my Birthday

On Sunday we went to my Grandparent's house to officially celebrate grandpa's and my birthday. My Uncle Jack cooked steaks for everyone... they were really good.

Us waiting for our food

Grandpa and Me opening our gifts
Cake time...

Jacki's Graduation and My Birthday

Last weekend, Brian and I flew home for my sister's graduation. We got to watch her walk across that big stage and get her diploma... later that night, I thought we were having a party for her. However after returning home from getting the pizza's (a plan to get me out of the house) I was surprised to find all my friends and family there for my 25th birthday. It was a great time, my mom planned the whole thing and my loving sister Jacki, shared the spot-light. It was great to see everyone, we had a wonderful time.

Missy and Jill (old friends from high school)

Heather and David drove up from Toledo too... it was such a great surprise
Jamie and Ken

Jacki opening her graduation gifts from us... the man next to her is her soon to be father-in-law, Tom (he reminds me of my father-in-law Kevin, such a funny man)

More gifts...

It was actually my grandpa's birthday too... we had lots to celebrate that night

Sisters and their boys

Brian, Me, Heather, and David

Jacki and Patrick at graduation

A post for my husband...

So my loving and wonderful husband put up all the Christmas lights and he did a fantastic job. Here are some of the pictures of our house.

Our front porch
Brian made me take a picture of his hard work that I destroyed. If you look close enough you can see some of the bulbs are broken... well I ran them over with my car (accidentally). Yes I know you are all laughing... that's Jeni's driving... but in my defense I was trying not to hit Brian's car that was in the driveway, so lights or car?? I picked the cheaper ones!!

Getting the Christmas Tree

Last week Brian and I went to get our Christmas tree... as usual we got it at Brian's Aunt and Uncle's Nursery. We took it home and Brian strung the lights and decorated it, while I started our Christmas wrapping.

Brian decorating the tree

Me wrapping the Christmas presents

Our Christmas tree with all the presents under it

The Holiday Weekend

Thanksgiving was pretty laid back this year, which was well needed. Brian was off of work all week and was able to enjoy some rest before he put all the Christmas lights up outside. I was off on Wednesday and made my first official pumpkin pie from scratch. I don't even like pumpkin pie, but Brian does and he loved it, so it was all worth it.

We spent Thanksgiving with Brian's family this year and then I went shopping at 4am on Black Friday. I was gone all day long with the girls and got a ton of shopping done. Brian and I spent Saturday decorating the house for Christmas and then we went to the Blue's game later that afternoon. We were going to get our tree today, but with the cold rainy weather, we decided to wait a few days. All in all it was a great holiday weekend. Can't believe tomorrow is December 1st, this year has just flown by. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. Enjoy the holiday season.

My first pumpkin pie

Brian and his dad playing wii on Thanksgiving

Brian and Kevin playing wii... it's a little dark

Brian and me at the Blue's game

Cute Kids...

So everyone knows that kids are cute, and since we don't have any of our own, we get to brag about our friends cute kids. Below is a video of Chase singing the "Days of the Week" song to baby Aiden.

Chase playing with baby Aiden Jason and his boys.. they are getting so big

Jeni's little sister is engaged

This post is a little different.... Last week my (Jeni) little sister got engaged and I wanted to share the exciting news. God is so good and I am so blessed to be able to share in this exciting time. Jacki and Patrick plan to wed sometime next summer and I couldn't be happier for them. Jacki- you are an amazing woman of God and I am so proud of you. Congratulations on the engagement and the new job. I love you more than anything.

The newly-engaged couple

Hockey...

Saturday night I drove to Peoria to meet up with Brian and then Sunday morning we headed up to Chicago for the end of his team's tournament. His team won in the quarter-finals but lost in overtime in the semi-finals. It was a tough lost, but they played very well. Below are a few pictures of my baby doing what he loves best. I am so proud... I LOVE THE COACH.

Watching the winning goal go into the net in the quarter-final game

Happy Halloween

Halloween was very relaxing this year. I had the day off from work as a comp day from conferences, so it was great to sleep in and do nothing. Brian was gone all week in Peoria for a work conference so I spent Halloween with some friends. The weather was great, lots of people outside trick-or-treating, we had a fun night. Hillary did a great job on Aiden and Blake's costumes, they looked so cute.

Thing 1 (Aiden) and Thing 2 (Blake)

Spiderman (Chase) and Uncle Jason enjoying some candy

Chase was so excited to go trick-or-treating and get some candy for the big people since the babies couldn't have any. I love free candy!!

Spiderman and his parents...

Jason and Chase making scary shadows on the garage door

Thing 1 and Thing 2 later that night...

A Trip to Eckert's

Last weekend Brian and I took a trip to Eckert's Pumpkin Patch and Apple Farm. Phil, Jill, Chase, Katie, Jason, Hillary, Aiden, and Blake all made the trip with us. We had a wonderful day, the sun was shining and the weather was beautiful. I posted a lot of pictures, too many good ones, I couldn't resist.

All of us at Eckert's

Brian being weird
Me and my hubby on the tractor

In the Corn-Maze

Chase protecting our perfect pumpkins

Me, Hillary, Jill (Oh and Aiden too)

This is what happens after a long day at the farm

After nap-time Hillary and Chase played memory

Soon it was time to carve pumpkins... Brian is cleaning out our pumpkin

Brian hard at work

The boys carving pumpkins while Chase played and we hung out with the babies

The finished product, they turned out well. Ours is the first, Jason and Hillary (the twins too) did the middle one, and Phil, Jill, and Chase did the last one.