New Years Eve

We played HARD with the kids all day to ensure an 8 o'clock bedtime. The plan worked and Jen made a Low Country Boil. It was a bunch of seafood in a pot with sausage potatoes and lots of flavor. Jen made it past midnight for the first time in 4 years, New Year or otherwise. Good Job Honey!!

Lovely Luci Lou...our neice/cousin.

Behold our gorgeous neice Luci!! Apologies for the small gallery BUT you can get even more Luci by following the link on the front page on the right titled "Sister Nikki's Baby Blog". Enjoy!

Dinner with the Mom and Dad Doctor

We had Mom and Dad, Danny and GiGi Meg over for dinner from Famous India, the new Indian restaurant in town. Not many pictures this time.

After Christmas, Around the House

Breaking tradition with the usual holiday procrastination, we had the big tree out (although it was one of 3), the toys unwrapped and in place, the lights down and old toys slated for Goodwill by the 28th. It was either Jens embrace of Christmas the day after Thanksgiving or the fact that all the snow said bye-bye that made it so easy to let it go this year. Very small gallery of around the house linked in the title.

GR Children's Museum with Ben and Drew

If you want to entertain kids for a few hours and guarantee an early night to bed, take them to Grand Rapids Childrens Museum. This is another instance of us taking more video than pictures. We were lucky to be joined by the kid's friends Ben and Drew to make for a very interactive day. Check the link for more pictures.

Christmas at the Wisemans

Christmas at the Wiseman Compound. A fantastic lunch and a lot of playtime. We only got the kids to stay still for a second to get their outfits on film. Another small gallery.

Christmas Morning

CJ and Maddie got a visit from Santa after a last minute call to get them removed from the naughty list. heh. Very small gallery here. We did a lot of video and didn't pickup the camera much. CJ's knees just about buckled when he came up the steps to this.

Christmas at Wordens

Great Grandma and Grandpa Worden hosted Christmas at their house. Joined by the Doctor side and Aunt Deb, we had a great dinner and a fantastic time. Grandpa George and Grandma Doris made CJ and Maddie a wonderful wooden memory set you would have to see to believe. We also have a couple shots from our visit with Grandma Jimmie on her birthday. Follow the title link.

Lallo Side Christmas

Christmas out at Bumpa Rick and BeeBee's with the Damuth Family! Check out a pretty big gallery linked in the title.

Sledding

A hefty snowfall made it pretty easy to make a nice sledding hill off the back deck. Just for the kids, of course. :) Both kids are cold weather troopers! This is now the measuring point for future hills. Every year must be bigger! Another small gallery linked in the title.

Gingerbread Houses

Mess=memories is the formula for this new tradition. Jen's skills and patience outlasted the rest of us so she is to credit that the houses were finished. The manufacturers were smart enough to make most of the ingredients taste just OK. Click on the title for a small gallery.

Couple CJ Pictures

These are from the set for our Christmas card photo which I won't share because it will just ruin the surprise. He has a 2 1/2 year sitting coming up pretty soon though.

CJ's update is that he can read about 20 words on index cards, he is a laugh riot and a huge kid. People come up expecting to talk to a four year old and we sometimes have to explain that he is not even 3 yet. Stay tuned for more of CJ.

Maddies 1 year pictures

Here is our little girl. She is walking, running, climbing stairs, talking, laughing, wrestling, kissing and GROWING. She and her brother play constantly and you can hear them making each other laugh clear across the house. My day is not complete until I see both her "happy to see you" face and her "Yeah, I know I'm funny" face. Click on the title to see her 1 year photo shoot.

CJ and Maddie's Halloween Costumes

CJ and Maddie as Peter Pan and Tinkerbell. Click on the title to view the rest of the gallery.

More detailed updates to follow. Hold tight!

Maddie's 10 Month

A little late but here are Maddie's 10 month "bathing beauty pictures. Click the title link to view the rest.

Sesame Street Live

Elmo's Coloring Book!!

The last time Jen and I were at this venue we went to see Tenacious D with our friends Lori and Chad. This was a far different show but worth every penny. BOTH kids absolutely loved it! CJ met up with a girlfriend, our friend Dana and Corey's adorable little girl, Oakleigh. ALL the "big names" were there. Maddie was tickled by Grover, CJ saw his beloved Cookie Monster. Somewhere between Elmo and Professer Art tellling us to laugh as loud as we can to bring Oscar's colors back and the trip back to the dinosaurs, Jen and I realized that we had entered a MUCH different point in our lives. We wouldn't trade it for anything. Click on the title for a rather large picture gallery. Check back soon!

Maddie's 9 month pictures

Maddie just turned 10 months on the 23rd and I am just now getting her 9 month pictures out. Trust me...it is worth the wait! Our girl is a little supermodel. I hope she can model from home because she isn't leaving the house until she is 18.

Beach with Bumpa Rick and BeeBee

We went to Duck Lake with Bumpa Rick, Grandma BeeBee, Aunt Nikki and Uncle Rob. The kids had a blast in the shallow outlet. We were too busy having fun to take a lot of pictures but here are a few. Click on the title for an Ofoto gallery.

We decided to try Ofoto again. Hope this doesn't confuse anyone.

Golf Balls and magic

You know how it goes. Your kids have an entire play room full of the latest and greatest educational toys, stacks of DVD's of the Wiggles and what not, bedrooms full of stuffed characters and they go and have a blast with a 3 pack of golf balls. Small gallery of some cool black and whites and Bumpa Doctor showing CJ some magic.

Maddie's Baptism

Madeline Elizabeth Lallo. Baptised at Christ Community Church on Sunday, July 24th. Thank you to all of our family who could attend or were thinking of us. A very special thanks to Ryan and Sarah, Maddie's new Godparents. We love you guys.

Click on the title link to view 71 pictures from our little girls special day. She looked absolutely beautiful! Don't take my word for it though, check out the pictures.

Park and Sandbox

Click on the title link for a HUGE gallery (over 100 pics)

The whole crew out at the park. CJ, Ben and Drew DID NOT want to leave....EVER. We also had 3 yards of sand dumped at the house and filled our sandbox for the kids. A ton of really cute pictures in this one.

Busy Day

Click on the title link for a small album.

We took a family hike up the dune walk at Hoffmaster, went to the museum, went swimming. Not a lot of pictures this time.

Fricano's with Grandpa Moose

Grandpa Moose was leaving Wednesday morning, so we had a little pizza outing to bid farewell. Click on the title link to view a small gallery.

Fam and stuff

Another small gallery of some family fun.

Romanik's Ranch

Romanik's Ranch Official Site

On our way home from Canada, we stopped in to Romanik's Ranch in Levering, MI. The kids (and Jen and myself) were entertained for almost 4 hours! They had all kinds of animals to look at and pet. Jen almost left with a baby goat and a kitten. The kids were so tired that they slept most of the ride home. We will definately stop in again.