6 months later...

Ashley's entire softball season went by & we're starting up again.

Alex's football season went by & he is ready to play again.

We moved.

Drew is working in South Dakota for two weeks.

Wait, we moved... we should have done this long ago. Who'd have thought our plan last year would prepare us for moving.

Skipping all the stories and fast forwarding to today...

This house has two times of everything what we have had...

2 complete floors, 2 more bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 2 car garage and 2 kitchens

- Grammy keeps a tight ship in the "main galley".

My mom is living with us - did I mention that? She potted the pretty pots for the front.

Leo, the cement lion has made himself at home at his post.

Some landscaping came with us.

The Japanese Maple, burning bush, lilac and forsethia all seem very happy in their new spots as well. The old house was plentiful with shade. This house is very plentiful with sun. Everything has had to adapt.

My mom bought two of these tomato plants, Drew brought home the rest of these plants.

The ones Drew brought home were wild tomatoes -we weren't sure what kind they would be but they are plum tomatoes - yum! We can make some great salsa!

This is taken from the very back of the back yard. The lot is narrower than the old house but much deeper. The dogs have adapted really well to not having a fenced in yard. Daisy got picked up one of our first nights here - the house is so big, we didn't notice she was gone until we went to let her out the next morning. YIKES! She has since been micro chipped. Both dogs have (since) been really great off leash and are fine when they do get put out on the yard leash.

When Alex was little, Grandma gave Alex these reptiles. For some reason, they have always lived outside in the flowerbeds - sort of the plastic security guards.

This is the dining room taken from the main kitchen. From views like this, most people say - oh this is so like your parent's house in Libertyville. Yes and no. Many similar features.

This house was built in 1928. The old house was built in 1950.

This is the "grown up" living room.

The house has hardwood floors throughout and nice high ceilings.

I love it that we still have a fireplace!

Oh and did I mention that we have radiators instead of forced air? I am excited about it. Not because I grew up with them but because there won't be yucky stuff blowing around. I am looking forward to continuing the experiment to keep Daisy from itching in the winter.

I think it was because of the forced air. We shall see in a few months.

Speaking of Daisy - Grammy is going to be lit when she finds you on the couch! She just got a bath and trimmed up today so I say leave her be. Both dogs are enjoying all the windows to look out and keep track of our kids and the neighborhood. Drew & I have our bedroom upstairs. Boy when Daisy barks out the front windows, she sounds scary. The sound goes out the front window, back in the front windows upstairs and up the staircase all at the same time while going back out the window in the staircase. It's loud (in a cool way)!

This is the upstairs kitchen - also known as Alex's snack shack.

It will be super useful when Grammy is busy in her kitchen, everybody can stay out of her hair.

The kids are still working on their rooms. Glad to see Ashley has a constant reminder of the pot of gold hanging on her door. Inside, she is living by herself for the first time since she was 11 months old. She texts us from her room. She now has plenty of room for her brass bed which was my bed when I was her age and much before that, it was my Grandma Jording's bed when she was little. So she is sleeping on an over 100 year old bed. She took her old bed and has made it the dogs couch/friend sleepover bed.

This is Alex's room. It is under development also. He has a snapping turtle named Martin. The sign on his door pretty much sums things up. You would think that for a kid, moving would not be fun. For our kids, it has been great. The Hathorns live just down the street. Kids come and go all day. It is awesome for the kids to have friends on the street. Alex, Conor and Ian play video games at each others houses. Ashley and Paige are perfecting their nail salon services. Outside of video games and nail polish, the kids are riding their bikes more than they have ever and swimming constantly thanks to Mrs "C", Joanne's mom. It was a great treat to house sit for them when they went up north a few weeks ago - we got to swim whenever we wanted.

In this house, there are even 2 staircases from the main floor to upstairs. This is the "front staircase" that leads from the front door and living room to the family room upstairs. This is the window Maddie loves to look out on her security detail aka - when she is crazy running laps around the house. Up one staircase, down the other...

had to make this a part two - technical issues.

The deck on the back of the house is awesome. It seems like the entire size of our old house. There is a brick fireplace in the center and lots of room for "seating" as my mom says.

Super warm dog days of summer leads Daisy strait to the dog pool.

Maddie will walk through the water if it is warm but cold - forget it!

This doesn't have anything to do with our move but it is a picture I came across since the blog has been updated. The first time the kids & I have ever seen a game at the legendary Dawg Pound, the Dawgs won to go onto the State championship games.

Remember when...

Well I've finally decided it's time to try and record-archive-transfer (or whatever they want to call it at this point) our old 8mm videos. I started out just finding and rewinding the tapes so they were all ready to go, but of course that only lasted about 2 tapes. That would be the point when I hear "what are you watching?........ I WANT TO SEEEEEE!!!!!" the next thing I know we are watching the kids first Christmas, college stuff, vacation highlights and a miriad of other forgotten memories all huddled around the massive 2" screen on the video camera.
After i finish this task I'm going to try and figure out how to do the same thing for all of the REEL 8mm movies from Big Grandpa's collection as well as the miles of cellulose from the Jording files.
If anyone has any suggestions or recommendations, don't be shy.

Ashley Sucks again!!

Well she did it to us again. Showed up kicked @$$ and took no prisoners.

The boy that played before her performed the same (well it was the same sheet music) piece but after hearing them both the judge even comments at the end of the video what a nice job she did.

DUHHH!!!

by the way, the whole "you suck thing" started when Ash was in pitching lessons at Northwestern. A few nights she had a rough go and was down and out and mad at the world.
The more mad she got the better she would throw, so as usual we would push the envelope and keep tickin her off.
After a while it became a good release and grounding point,and a good head turner.
when she is doing bad or good we would yell out "Ash you SUCK"! People would look in shock, we would laugh and do even better.
It's really become a kind of twisted family praise that we have fun with and noone around us is the wiser.

So next time you see a good hit or a stellar performance at school remember

ASHLEY...........YOU SUCK!!!!!

;)we luv ya rock star!!!!

We have a bunch of pictures that we have not shared so let's catch up...

Maddie & Daisy are good for each other. Maddie keeps Daisy young & Daisy provides a warm comfy pillow for Maddie.

For some reason Drew & Ashley have not shared their pictures from when they went to the Bears game in December so here they are...

Tailgating before the game.

A month later...

Thanks mom & dad for the 'Day of Beauty' - a manicure, pedicure, facial & new haircut! I went in for a trim & came out with about 7" shorter hair. I like it more each day. I had to purchase a flat iron & learn how to use it.

The kids music concerts were delayed because of the cold weather in January. I was preoccupied the day of Alex's band concert & didn't pick up the camera - sorry buddy. We did discover a family from Cooke who had their camera rolling for the band concert but for the orchestra concert at Abbott last Friday night, we had the camera & they didn't so we will swap pictures & video.

The concert was Friday night. Then early Saturday morning we drove to Shipshewana, Indiana for a fun weekend with the "Volleyball Group". We all met at Splash Universe and had a good visit with the group. Being in a hotel is much different for this group than camping - everyone was kind of spread out all over & got in at different times. Thanks again mom & dad. I hope everyone had a good time, we did. The group plans to get together again in May.

Splash Universe is set in the great Amish town.

Ashley on the lazy river.

Ashley, Cora & Grandma in the zero-depth kiddie pool. Cora was not too sure about water in her face.

Up above, looking out at the water park was an area that was filled with corrugated boxes, tape & scissors. The idea was to see what the kids would do with the materials. Alex decided to make a "box store" where he would trade boxes for tape.

April & Spencer's son Sam helped Alex.

Being out of town Saturday & Sunday, Ashley missed softball practice & playing in an indoor softball tournament. On our way home from Indiana we went to the site where the girls were playing.

Washing 2008 Outta My Hair

I know I'm not the only one that 2008 did a number on for the worse. Thank goodness for Logan's arrival, finding Ashley's beautiful cello on Ebay and discovering Facebook to make the year happier.

Today I have taken several steps to close the books for 2008.

• I began our income tax return on Turbo Tax.
• First I extra conditioned my hair.
• While my hair continued to hydrate by being wrapped up in my towel, I cleaned the hardwood floor.
• It made me sick to not really be into Christmas so much so that I only watered the tree once a week. The tree looked horrible, was drooping and was very dry so I carefully put all the ornaments away. Ashley helped my take out the tree. I am usually sad to see the Christmas tree go but this year, I felt relieved when it was out at last.
• With the tree out, I swept up the needles and was thrilled to mop the floor.
• Sharing the last of the pictures I took for 2008 here is the last page to turn of my task list today. I feel relieved and am ready to get on with 2009

Ashley & Spencer at the Rainbow Christmas Party. They are both very competitive and do not tolerate losing. It is good that they are best friends.

Alex & Ashley peeking out of the snow fort they made with all the snow we had before Christmas.

We certainly had a white Christmas!

The week of Christmas we spent a bunch of time at Grammy's. Alex & I ran a bunch of errands while Ashley helped Grammy make yummy food for Christmas Eve.

Our niece Cora is so pretty in her red dress on Christsmas Eve.

While I wasn't full of my normal spirit & wasn't convinced that Christmas was really going to happen, it turned out to be a great Christmas. This is our Christmas tree on Christmas Eve.

Ashley & Alex don't sleep on Christmas Eve. It is tradition that they watch ballets and Christmas movies in the middle of the night until they finally can't stand it to wake us up that it is Christmas! We taught them good to not ask for things for Christmas or you get crap. The less you ask for, the more you get. We also taught them that it is critical to Believe. They have both strategies down. Ashley came in & woke us up at 5am. I told Drew they won't be waking us up on Christmas morning forever so we should get up. We were up by 5:30am. It worked out good. The kids got Guitar Hero World Tour band game so we had time to play before going to Grandma & Grandpa's by 1pm. This picture is Drew rocking out on Christmas morning.

Ashley is excited they both got DS.

I love Webkinz. Fortunately the kids are still amuzed by them.

Our niece Logan with Elmo Live. Here Elmo asks for help getting up. I was happy that both Logan & Cora were amused by Elmo. Doesn't everyone love Elmo?

Our cat Sundae rarely gets recognition but she an amazing cat. She will be 16 in June. I think our younger dog Maddie has mellowed Sundae out and kept her young. I had this basket sitting on the bench in the kitchen empty. Sundae has learned to tolerate both of the dogs so much that she has made herself at home in this basket. I guess she is done with her days of living in the basement alone. Personally, I think she has come around so much because I rarely buy cat food anymore. Months ago, I had run out of her food & found her eatting dog food. She doesn't bark, she isn't sick and is much more friendly so I only buy cat food as a "treat".

New Years Eve day Ashley, Alex & I went down to visit Julie & Cora. Julie & I got to visit a little, the kids played, we had lunch & came home. It was a fun little playdate.

The Lambert Band Rocks! We had a marathon on New Years Eve. Alex & I are a little annoyed that Drew & Ashley are so good but we are catching on & getting better.

Good grief those are some good kids! Here they are for their traditional PopIts after midnight. for years they have thrown them on the sidewalk. This year they are old enough to 'play in the quiet, dark street'. They took an entire box & spread them out across our street so that when people drove by, the PopIts went off. It was fun & it was better than the real gun shots we could hear in the far away distance.

So there it is. 2008 is over. I love the cleanliness and simplicity of white in January. All that is missing is the bunches of white tulips I love to put in a vase on the mantle above a roaring fire with a glass of wine!

Happy New Year!

It's been a long time since I have updated this blog!

The cute kids in the picture below ~ Ashley & her only cousins at the time ~ Clint Goldsboro, Kaitlyn Gatton, Wyatt Jackson & Ashley Lambert.
This was taken at Grandma & Grandpa's house just a couple weeks after Ashley was born.
They have all grown up into great kids!