hectic halloween

james' soccer game in the morning, wedding at nd midday, come home and dress up kids, go to windingbrook halloween party, go trick-or-treating, come home, redress up to go to wedding reception. smiling all day. priceless. enjoy the pix of our happy gnome, transformer, and ...thomas?

cheerio, old chaps!

SO grateful to mom and dad cressy for watching our chitlins whilst corey and i ran off to ye olde london towne to visit the romeros. we had an absolute blast, and while we were in fact anxious to get back and snog on our own kids, we were sad to bid farewell. please enjoy the pix!

Fall is here!

my favorite season is here again!! the ND alumni club hosted a fun evening complete with pumpkin picking, a hayride, feeding the animals, roasting marshmallows, making caramel apples, and more! it was out at bertrand farm (member we used to go out there for co-op, mom?) we've also hit up last year's favorite spot- amazing acres, with it's corn kernel pit, goat feeding up high, and, new this year- tractor races and sliding through the hill tunnel!

Mishawaka Riverwalk

Check out our little metropolis! What a great downtown walk to have. The kids are especially big fans.

Seanny boy turns 3!!!

three fingers is a hard number for a kid to hold up! Sean's getting some good practice though. He had a wonderful b-day complete with good friends and family and his favorite- a Thomas cake!

some more fun in september

there's some good videos in here, as well, so be sure to double click on the slideshows for your viewing pleasure!

james' first soccer game

those other cressys are always good for a laugh...

one great thing about windingbrook is being so close to the dr. erin and jim cressy clan. max and james are turning into quite the terrible twosome. once sean and jackson are older, there will be some serious concerns...

hesston steam museum

don't rightly know why this place is called a museum... it's like an old train yard that you can climb around on and explore but it also has three running trains- big, medium, and small. they are all actual scale replicas of different steam locomotives. we took a trip on the big and medium. next time is "little one or bust" as corey said!

we visited here a couple years ago with james and baby sean around halloween for the "haunted" train ride and had a blast, so we thought we'd try it again now that seanny is so into trains. i hope this doesn't mean he'll be hitting the transformer stage, too, in a couple more years...

we were lucky enough to have the other cressys in tow as well as big cousin, william, to help out!

choo choo.

shake it like a polaroid pict-shaw!

we had such a lovely day after so many bad ones that corey took an afternoon off and we all headed up to cherry beach. these pix were taken with corey's i-phone using an app called shake-it photo in which you actually shake the phone after snapping a pic to develop an old polaroid looking picture. i'm officially obsessed. thanks, arvin, for the tip!

first day of school!

the boys had their first day of school! they are now in the same class at montessori. it was an awful rainy start to such an exciting day, but things went off without a hitch! the sky cleared up, too, which made for fun times celebrating after their first day at knollwood pool!

curious kids

erin and i took the kids up to st. joe for a day's outing to curious kids museum. fun was had by all. we even got to learn a bit about pets you wouldn't want to hug... or was it pets that are hard to love? ironically enough the first one we saw was a cicada-killer! i explained to the guy that we had our own hummingbird size waspy things in our driveway back at home if he needed more samples...

august-us

here are some family pix from the month of august...

jeanners turns 1!

our little girl is no longer so little! jeanne just turned one and we celebrated it in style with lots of friends and family (including her pre-determined bff's: maura mccormick and lucy garvey who joined in her too-too and hairbow fun! thank goodness the girl's got extras!)

nearby niceities (?)

we've been touring the regional amenities of gorgeous parks, including our very own potawatomi park, the morton arboretum outside of chicago, and fernwood botanical gardens in niles. enjoy the pix and come play with us!

mccormick madness

the annual mccormick weekend up at the lake went down as usual. this year there were 8 kids (hannah brought a friend) and 4 adults between the 2 families with hannah rapidly approaching the adult side of the spectrum! we ended with a big hooplah of a dinner with laura and her crew coming up for the evening. james and will are becoming quite the inseperable duo.

this year we also headed up to the mccormick's lakehouse in ogden dunes for some reciprocal fun. we had mostly gray skies but that didn't stop us from having a blast. and, of course, the sun did shine bright later on... as we were leaving... there's always next year!

pymantuning

the annual summer trip to pymatuning didn't go exactly as planned, but for the time we were there, fun was definitely had by all. we headed out with clare and katie romero and her clan (minus michael... we miss you, bro!) we got a bit of a late start but still made it to toledo in time to do a whirlwind tour of the toledo zoo (a new ritual we really love.) once at the lake we had some crazy times with all our garvey loved ones (minus ALL the brothers as it turned out... poor corey!) 11 grandkids now 4 years old and under. nuff said.

and after 2 trips to po-dunk ER's we got the sense to visit a family friend ENT dr. who finally diagnosed me with shingles! seriously?! anyway, corey katie and her kids left me alone with the kids and it ended up being a bit much while diseased, so we had to cut our trip short. thank god for aunt clare who drove home while the rest of us slept (made for quite an easy trip back though!)

summertime special outings

taste of chicago in the rain with aunt katie on her lunch break, museum of science and industry (till we dropped! right, clare?!), walks around notre dame, and a trip to the dunes (we tried to find the ones of clare's memories but failed... i think... now they'll be the new memory indiana dunes!)

daddy's day

father's day was celebrated up at the diamond lake and carried over to a special trip to the fredrick meijer gardens with the cressy clan (aunt kimmers included!) it was HOT and sunny, but could we really complain about that?!

godmother/ grandmother comes to visit!

SO, it has been a while since i last posted. been working out a few kinks with picasa... anywho, aunt clare came out to stay for a month this summer ("godmother" to james, which sean then translated as "grandmother" oftentimes...) we had an absolute blast. we even taught art classes based out of our house in town and mom cressy's place at the lake.

double trouble

Claudia turned 2 and Bella was baptized... double trouble? or double the fun? either way, we were there... allelulia! (you, again, simply MUST double click the slideshow to view some amazing church footage. sean was clapping and dancing along with the rest of the congregation to the amazing 20 person gospel choir.) it was also corey's first visit to the romero's place. he seemed to particularly like claudia's room...

potawatomi pasttimes

Aunt Clare (aka "godmother" to james) is here!!! she'll be with us for 2 months and the good times are-a-rolling! on our list of things to check off was visiting the zoo. we headed out with quite the troop- erin, ava, max, jackson, lizz, luke, hugh, me, clare, james, sean and jeanne!!! the boys all got along swimingly. it was pretty cute. luke and max are the same age, and james and sean sandwich them. the butterfly exhibit was going on and though clare and i kept hoping one would land on us (it's supposed to be good luck) we had no such luck, but each of the kids did- jeanne included!

spring sing

ok. so, you simply MUST double click on the slideshow and watch the videos of this... at the end of the year, montessori always has a "spring sing" where all the kids sing songs and do hand movements for all their parents to eat up. and we did! it was SO cute and hysterical.

almost heaven

my 30th birthday was spent at "almost heaven." corey found a fantastic cottage in union pier for us to stay at. our little family unit headed up friday for an awesome day at the beach. the boys had a blast in the sand and then we all headed in the hot tub for a little relaxation afterwards (there was one on our screened porch!) the boys even shared a room! we had hoped they'd do alright in the bunkbeds, and james did manage the top bunk but sean got a little confused about being able to get out of bed whenever he wanted... so he ended up peacefully going down in the pak-n-play but still in the same room! trustme, this really was a milestone for us. we woke up and had an amazing fun breakfast of donuts and coffee (it's official- corey and i are hooked. good thing there was a cafe in our backyard that opened at 7am!) don and pat were kind enough to meet us for lunch and then took the kiddos home to windingbrook so we could be SANS all 3 kids (first time ever!!! jeanne had NEVER been away from me for more than 4 hours!) and were joined by laura, andrew and lil' lucy. another fun night and more beach time truly did make my birthday weekend feel like it was almost heaven...

Memorial Weekend

Memorial day weekend was a blast. We stayed up at Fairview and enjoyed some good cookin' thanks to mimi and some nice pool time (first of the season!) We even squeezed in a boat ride. AND, most importantly, I got my new camera!!!! So I can now SEE what it is I am shooting.

and more...

here's some family pix from the past couple weeks...

cinqo de mayo

in honor of our new taco, we decided to celebrate cinqo de mayo this year. we had great weather, good friends, and lots of fun. we broke into a mexican monster truck pinata, and we even broke out the 18 year old brunello! it was worth the wait.

naked jeanners!

so, we took jeanne to get mom cressy's 7 month naked baby pix (she's got 'em of all her grandkids!) they were pretty cute! scott, the photographer, even used her to show off some new props he'd just got in. if you happen to got to granger ob/gyn you may very well see a big photo of my lil girl in your exam room! may just make you wanna make more babies! here's a link to scott's proofs:

https://www.marathonweb2.com/shoppingcart/sessionproofing.php?action=login

or if that doesn't work go to http://www.valentinosphoto.com/home.html, click on "Session Proofing" and enter the ID "Cressy".

Don't worry, dad, it's really quite simple- and, no, you don't have to sign up for anything or enter any email addresses or credit card numbers- it's well worth it to see your electronical jeanners in all her fat delicious glory.

cherry beach

so we hit 80 degrees here quite early (global warming?) and had to take advantage of it by hitting the beach. we were so lucky to have it all to ourselves for the majority of the day and everyone had an amazing time. sean was wary of the sand sensation at first and it looked like the day might be over before it began, but we managed to warm him up to the idea of being barefoot. hooray!

easter etc.

we had such a lovely easter week, complete as always with the romeros. and this year we actually had some decent weather!!! no snowy easter egg hunt photos this time around!

scavenger hunt on campus

twas a bright sunny day in south bend, and the anzelc twins were upon us. what to do? head to campus for some homeade fun. lunch was had at reckers, yum yum. then off to hunt the lists each girl held in their hands. everyone had good eyes that day, and everyone checked items off, one by one till only "egg" was left. i guess i picked a word too prematurely for so early in spring. alas, we decided that if we found an "e", then a "g" and yet another, that would have to count for something and chose to call it a day! what a fun one it was.

good ol' fashioned family candids

enjoy.

fun with family and friends

spring has sprung us from our cabin fever. we've been taking advantage of our windows of good weather, heading outdoors for walks in the woods (even at night!!!) and trips to the park. we even had james' first "playdate" (though i hate the term.) isabel yoder (aka. james' girlfriend from his class at montessori- think katie conway's gabriel) came over to play on st. patty's day. i staged an easter egg hunt for the kids after picking them up from school in a neon green wig. isabel was the only one to find it funny. sean screamed "i want my mommy!" and refused to get in the car till i got out of the car and took off the wig. he then found it hilarious and kept asking me throughout the day to put on my "funny hat." wigs are hot, though, i came to find, and could not always oblige.

bath time

splish splash, my boys were taking a bath...

(video footage, too, if you double click on the slideshow above!)

Baby Bella

just past midnight on february 19th came isabella clare romero- 9lbs 5oz with THICK black hair, a dimple on her chin, and beautiful squinty eyes. katie did another fabulous delivery, and the whole family is doing well now (though my mom is off her feet, sick as a dog in their apartment... i guess michael is busier than he was expecting with the other 4 ladies in the place!!!) i was able to head up friday with jeanne to go meet the new wee one, and after many obstacles to finally get to the hospital, i was then told that i couldn't go upstairs to see bear with jeanne since she was under 12 months old and hadn't yet received all her immunizations! SAY WHAT?! so, after michael, my mom and i schemed a bit, we ended up all splitting up in an elaborate covert op where michael managed to smuggle her in incognito, and i followed in shortly thereafter. my mom got denied access to katie's floor from the elevator and someone suggested that might be because someone was trying to steal a baby... man did she have a guilty look on her face when we finally all met up in katie's room! to quote michael, "that was fun! being bad sure does feel good." we did manage to hang out in the room all day. bella was such a trooper, and though only 2 days old at the time, i was amazed at how good she seemed. after watching baby mama with my mama and the new mama and the girls that made her and me mamas, jeanne and i hit the road back home...

Let's see...

it's been a little while. we've been hanging in there. crazy weather as usual and we've been trying to take advantage of it all- sledding in the snow, playing in the mud in the sun, just trying to be sure to get out of the house. cabin fever is definitely setting in. the boys have also been taking swim lessons once a week with miss meg and thoroughly loving it AND improving (good combination!) there's some good (albeit foggy) video footage if you double click on the picasa slideshow link. hope you all have been staying well. we miss you all.

the cressy chicks take on the key west cocks

just got back from a wonderfully relaxing cressy girls' trip to key west. jeanne got to tag along on her first girls' get together by remaining only faithful to my boobies and not at all to the bottle. lauren, kiernan, jeanne and i left south bend late wednesday night to avoid weather and traffic in the morning on our way to chicago only to immediately get rear-ended before even leaving mishawaka! i had to get out of the car in my silly bright yellow canvas ballet flats, no socks, and a thin white jean jacket and scarf in -10 degree weather and about a foot of snow to talk to the other driver and swap info! what a way to start the trip! we then managed to get to the toll road where responsible lauren decides to call the state police to inquire about road conditions on the toll road... they told her to immediately get off the road due to many major slide-offs and white-out conditions... we naturally kept right on! we did indeed see many major slide-offs and definitely hit COMPLETE white-out conditions while driving 20 mph and having the ice build up on our wipers... BUT we made it safe and sound albeit late to our chicago hotel! i suppose that was a good way to manage having everything else about the trip seem SO relaxing and easy in comparison! we left the bend and it's record breaking -20 degree weather (that's WITHOUT windchill) for "cold" temps in the keys (60s!) we took it gladly. we all had an absolute blast (AND lauren reinvented herself with a beautiful star tattoo on her foot... don't you dare remove that bad boy, honey...), ate AMAZING seafood, drank loads of wine and other goodies, got Michael Kors' autograph at a drag cabaret, and jeanne was just an angel all the while. a big thanks to ALL the ladies (but especially mom) for helping out so much with my little one. can't wait till next year!!!!

Jeanne's First Christmas

2009, here we are! we had such a nice christmas here at home. aunt kimmy came home (we met her at the airport with a huge hand-made sign and got quite a few stares... i think people must have thought kim was home from iraq or something!) we had many family get togethers, baked and ate loads of cookies (the last batch of sandtarts was made yesterday...:( , and spent a lot of time in our pjs. JUST what christmas break should be. enjoy the pix to fill out the picture a bit more... hope you all stayed warm and happy this holiday season as well!