Happy New Year!!

Wow, 2009! Can you believe it? I know I sure can't!! The beginning of 2009 means that it's almost one whole year since Madeline was born. Where has that time gone? It also means that we're all one year older and one year wiser, hopefully! :)

We had a great New Year's Eve. It started in the afternoon when we went out to the Duch's house for Claire's FIFTH birthday party! She can't really be FIVE, can she? If you ask her that she'll tell you that she is, indeed, five! We had a "Melting Pot" party for her, since that is her favorite restaurant. We started with some awesome cheese fondue and then on to the meat. After the meat we of course had chocolate fondue, along with some birthday cake!

Before dinner the kids were having lots of fun playing. I somehow became a train for Claire and Mads to ride on:


Nick was busy playing with his Emergency Room cart that he had gotten for Christmas.

Mads came by to see what was going on. First she got "shocked" and then she joined in the fun!



Claire opened her presents between dinner and cake, and got some pretty sweet stuff. A learning clock from Grandma Mary and Cootie and Don't Break the Ice from us. She also got a sweet bike from Jill and Eric.



Check out this sweet cake that Grandma Mary made! The first picture is during the singing of Happy Birthday. Why is it that kids are always shy when you're singing the birthday song to them?



We left the Duch's house around 10 and drove back to Oshkosh where we went to Barby and Ryan's house. They were having their traditional New Year's Eve party. Mads slept into the new year while the rest of us counted down to 2009. We stayed after everyone else had gone home and chatted for a bit. I think it was about 2:45 when we finally got to bed. We're such party animals!!

Thursday, New Years Day, was a day of rest and relaxation. Andrew had the day off and we just stayed at home and spent the day together. Mads took this opportunity to pull every toy out of her toy box.



Friday afternoon we went back over to the Ames' for board game night. We played some Balderdash, Cranium and Trivial Pursuit. Barby's brother, Danny, joined us for some Balderdash fun too. Ryan and Andrew were looking very spiffy that night in their matching argyle sweaters!


Saturday and Sunday were both more days spent at home. It was so nice to have a weekend off that we could spend together at home. On Sunday I was even able to sit down and get some scrapping done! It's been over a year since I scrapped last and I've got a lot to catch up on, but the time on Sunday really helped put a dent in my list to scrap!! I think I've got about 3 or 4 occasions left to scrap for 2007, then I just have Maddie's book to do. That will definitely take some time since I have SO many pictures of her!!

That's the recap of our week. I still have more pictures to share, of course!
Always climbing on things (Look closely, she's on top of her Clipo box):

Riding her "car":

Passing out giant burgers:

Helping with the dishes (notice her sippy cup):


Find the baby:

Fixing the TV:


Saturday is Maddie's big birthday party, so make sure to come by next week for pictures from the big day. Also, make sure to swing by Barby & Ryan's blog as it's Barby's New Year's resolution to keep it updated!! :)

Thanks for stopping by!