1 week left

Okay, so today Katie and I went Christmas shopping. We dropped off Amelia at school and then went to Peoria. We then dropped of the boys at my mom's house so we could shop. We first went to the mall to look at a couple of stores. We then went to Panera's afterward and had lunch. After we ate we ran to a couple of more stores and then had to get back to my mom's house to pick up the boys so we could then be back in time to pick up Amelia. We made it in time and also got a large portion of our shopping done, YEAH! When we arrived home Amelia and I played two games of Bingo before I left for work. She won both games of Bingo. Then I went to work and waited for the ice storm. It started raining or sleeting around 7:00, when I noticed it. About 10 minutes before I got off work I went and started my car. There was a layer of ice covering my car. I could not get into the driver side of the car so I went around and was able to get into the car to start it. I then went back in to wait until it was time to go. When it was time to go I walked out to my car which was still covered in ice. I got out my scraper and began to work on my windshield. I think that ther was about a quarter of an inch of ice on my windshield. Once I got the ice off my windows, I drove home carefully and am now writing this post.

Blizzard like Conditions?

Well I hope that everyone enjoyed the weather we had yesterday. I like the snow so I really did not mind it. Although I did not have to travel very far so it was not that bad. Anyway just wanted to say that I went and ate with Amelia during her lunch yesterday. It was very interesting to sit with first and second grade as they ate lunch. It seemed like a very loud group. It was very strange to have all these kids looking at me and wondering who I was and what I was doing there. I enjoyed the chef salad that is offered by the school. It did not entirely fill me up but that was okay. Prior to me going to eat with Amelia, Gardner brought over pizza for lunch for his girls and us. Thanks Gardner, I still think you should have just gotten two pizzas and not three. Oh well. After lunch I ran a few errands around Morton that involved Christmas shopping and also grocery shopping. Then it was off to work for me. I would share with you my work day but I do not think you would enjoy hearing about. Hope to see everyone soon.

Catching Up

Okay, so it has been a while since we last wrote. I believe that it has been about 5 months, since July, when we went up to Milwaukee to see the Shouses and the Brewers. So at the end of July we went with my parents and sister and her family to Tan Tara. It is located in Osage Beach Missouri. After that school started back up for Amelia, in first grade, Elijah and Orlando, in preschool, and this should be my final year. Amelia is loving school and the friends she is making. Elijah and Orlando are in preschool together with each other and some of their friends. Their preschool is run at the High School and the High Schoolers are the teachers. At the beginning of September, Katie and I went back to Milwaukee with some of our friends to watch the Brewers play the last series of the regular season against the Cubs. We went up for the Friday game to celebrate Brian's birthday. After the game on Saturday, the guys went out to eat and then went mini golfing. Brian sure is competitive, but we let him win since it was his birthday. HAHA. Katie and thengot to stay for the final game when the Brewers got the wild card into the playoffs. It was awesome. After the game was over, they put the Mets game up on the big screen. During this time they ushered family and friends down onto the field. So there Katie and I were standing on the field watching the game with all the Brewers players and their families. The place went nuts when the Mets lost. After the mets game Katie and I drove to Chicago to watch the Bears and the Eagles play football. The Bears beat the Eagles. It was an awesome sports weekend for Katie and I. Our next big event was Uan's birthday, he is getting to be such a big boy, then we celebrated Katie's birthday. A week later we celebrated Elijah's birthday. We took him to see a movie and then to McDonald's with some of his friends. Our next big event was Thanksgiving. I went out shopping the following day, Black Friday, for the first time. The lines were just crazy. I went to Toys R Us and Target and left because of the length of the lines. Well I just finished my finals at Eureka College and ICC, this semester was rough taking six classes, but I only have one semester left. The boys finish preschool tomorrow and Amelia is done this Friday. I hope that catches everyone up. Christmas is just around the corner. I hope that everyone has a blessed Christmas and safe travels. Merry Christmas to everyone.

Big B and da Brewers

Sorry it has been so long since a post, but between my summer school and keeping up with the nicholson 7 blog it has been busy. So this past weekend Katie and I along with Uan went on a little trip to Milwaukee. We had planned to go on the trip since mid June, but at the beginning of last week Trish was not feeling well and did not know if we should come. So we canceled our plans to go to Milwaukee for the weekend. Then on Saturday we got a phone call from Trish wanting to know if we were still interested in coming up. So we started to see if it would all work out in order for us to go up. My parents said they would watch our other three kids, so the plan was on. The kids had some friends over so we told Trish we would not be leaving for a little while. She said that was fine and to just call when we get on the road. So we got on the road around 3:30 and we were making great time until we got to mile marker 30 on highway 43(which is an extremely bumpy highway and only thirty some miles from the ballpark). It was at mile marker 30 that I heard a loud rumbling sound. I asked Katie a rhetorical question of what the noise was. She was not sure. My gut said we had a flat tire. I pulled over and found out that my gut instinct was right. We had a flat tire. So I quickly opened the trunk and got out the spare tire which was in a pool of water(not exactly sure why). I then became nervous that our spare tire did not have any air. There was enough to keep our journey going. We then got to the game around 6:45 and Emmy met us at the players entrance. We then got to park in the player's parking area. We then walked into the player's entrance and experienced what the players do when they go to the ballpark. So we watched the game with the Shouses excluding Brian, who was in the bullpen. After the game we met up with some other people from central Illinois and went back downstairs to the players locker room and waited for Brian to come out. While waitng for Brian we got to see other players come out. Once Brian came out he took us to the field so we could see the stadium from the ground. It was amazing to be at the center of the ballpark and just looking around at how big it is. Once we left the stadium,we went and ate at Fuddruckers and back to the Shouses to hang out for a little while. The next day I took the car to Firestone and had them fix the flat tire. So the ford taurus is now ready to rock-n-roll again. The Shouses excluding Brian(already at the ballpark) came and got us and we followed them to the ballpark for Sunday's game. It was another enjoyable game. We got some Brewers apparell and even got to watch Brian pitch in the Ninth inning to end the game. It was really neat to see someone you know personally out on the field pitching against the Pirates. I know Trish does not enjoy seeing her husband out there pitching but I really enjoyed it and he did real well out there. So after the game we went to Cheesecake Factory where we had some real funny stories. If you come up to any of us and say nitecruzer we will tell you some of the stories that occurred at the Factory. We then separated with the Shouses and headed back home. We had a very enjoyable and memorable weekend. Thanks once again to the Shouses for a great weekend and everything that you guys did for us. Go Shouse!!! "Shouse", "Shouse", let it all out............

Birthdays

So over this past month, we have been very busy. Not only have we been busy working on the roof, but we have also celebrated to birthdays. Amelia has turned seven and Orlando is now three. We celebrated Amelia's over Mother's Day weekend with a friends party on Saturday and a family party on Sunday. Here are a couple pictures of her. The first one is of her with a few of her gifts and the other one is a picture of her and I standing in front of Culvers. The Culvers sign read Happy 7th Birthday Amelia.( It is nice to have connections--Thank you Dawn)

Then the following week we celebrated Orlando's birthday. His theme for the party was Cars. We had Andrea make an awesome cake. Thank you Andrea. I would recommend her to you but she is in Arizona for the summer and I am not sure if the cake would make it all the way her. Anyway here is a picture of the cake.

Enjoying Times with Family & Friends?

NOT! Do not get me wrong I enjoy hanging out with people and I am very thankful for the people that wanted to come over and hang out while I removed my roof and put a new one on but it took a lot longer than anticipated. What I thought would be a long weekend project turned into a couple weeks project. The old roof was much more difficult to get off (as can be testified by many individuals that helped) than I thought. But it was great getting to hang out with a variety of different people. I would also like to give a shout out to those of you who just drove by and honked your horn, just to say Hi. Here are a couple of action shots of people enjoying themselves.

In the top picture we have Greg and Gardner on the roof and Jeff Doing clean-up on the ground.In this picture we have Dave, Gardner, and Jeremy helping me tear off the front portion of the house.In this picture we have Mike and Jeff in the dumpster and my dad, Gardner, Greg and myself on the roof.

Here is a picture of the roof being put back together. In this pictures we have Adam, Maxwell, Amelia, Elijah, Orlando, and me. Here is a picture of the dads working together

Here is a picture of Pastor Tim helping move shingles from one side of house to the other.

Thank you to all who helped, Adam, Gardner, Mike, Jeff, Greg, Jeremy, Marc, Jon, Neil, my dad, Pastor Tim, and Dan. Also thanks to my wife and mother for helping to watch the kids, so some men could be on the roof and also helping with clean up on the ground. Katie wants me to mention that she was up on the roof pulling staples and within ten minutes had already developed a blister. Sorry two blisters and she says she still has scars to prove it.

Last Weekend in April

Sorry, I have not been on this in a while. It has been a very busy week. I had finals last week, so I have attempted to study for those tests and I also needed to write a paper. Thankfully all that is done and over with and I passed all my classes. Now comes summer school, when I will be taking two classes in June. This last weekend in April, we celebrated my birthday and my sister's. My birtday was Friday but with work and studying postponed it until Sunday. My sister's birthday was on Saturday so we went to her house for a celebration. On Sunday my family came over to my house for a party. Everyone seemed to have a good time. One of the presents I received was Mario Kart, it is a blast.

And now for the main thing that was celebrated over that weekend. WEBKINZ DAY (or weekend) EXTRAVAGANZA. Webkinz people people termed it one day, I believe, but it went the whole weekend, Fri, Sat, & Sun. We did not anywhere on Friday, but were busy on Saturday. We went to a tea room on Saturday with Grandma, Aunt, and some cousins of the kids that was doing webkinz games for the kids to play. The kids enjoyed the games but it was windy outside so we did not stay long. The kids all got animals there. If you bought an animal we would get one free from the selection of free ones they were giving away, it varied from store to store. It was crazy with all the kids there and the place was not that large on the inside for for all the people that were there. You had kids trrying to figure out what webkinz they wanted to buy (which took time) and then they waited in line only to get to register to have to pick another one. The line did not seem to be moving that quickly. Afterwards we went back to Grandma's house and had lunch and let the kids plat and show off webkinz. We then went home and got a call from another cousin who wanted to go downtown Morton with Amelia and Elijah to look at Webkinz. They got some more webkinz (Surprise, Surprise). I had to distract Orlando, so he and I went to look at some flower stores and then went to Dairy Queen. I hope he enjoyed hanging out with dad. Anyway this all happened the last weekend in April. I will be writing back soon because I have been working on a project this weekend. Here are some pictures of the kids with there webkinz.

Finals

Okay so this is my last week of school for the semester. I have finals on Friday and Monday. So I probably should be studying but decided to take a break from schoolwork and give an update as to things that have been going on. A couple of weeks back Katie went to Nashville for an extended weekend with some family and friends for a birthday. She had a blast. The kids, all of them, stayed back her in Morton, including Uan. It went better than I thought. Uan did awesome taking formula and the other kids helped me out. My mom got to hang out with the kids on Monday while I went to school. I think she enjoyed it. Anyway kids were great and Katie had a great time. As I stated earlier I have finals this week in three of my four classes. I am not to worried but would like to keep the good grades that I am getting in my classes. It has been busy for all of us, but thankfully the semester is winding down. One more year and I should be done, hopefully. Also this weekend is my birthday so Katie and I have been tgrying to figure out when to celebrate since I work on Friday nights and my sister's birthday is Saturday. Anyway enough for now I should probably get back to homework. Here is a couple pictures of the family in front of a bush on the side of our house that blossoms around now and then loses all of its flowers.

High School Musical Ice Tour

Okay, I am trying to keep up with this. Last night Katie, Amelia, and Elijah went to see High School Musical Ice tour with the Nicholsons. I was a little nervous about Elijah going because I took him to see the Wiggles and he got nervous and wanted me to hold him the entire time. But according to Katie he loved it. So did Amelia but I was not worried about her. They were singing the songs and dancing to the music. Katie said that they were in the second row and that her feet were on the ice. Amelia told me that Zeke, one of the characters, was "cleaning up" and threw ice shavings on them. So according to the way they were acting when I saw them tells me that they loved it, since that is all they were talking about and singing of their songs. Here is some pictures of them at the show.

Okay, so the next day I took a quick trip to Chicago with my friend Adam to pick up some friends coming back from England. Adam and I had a good time reconnecting on the way up to Chicago. It has been a long time since I have gotten to hang out with him, between my work and school and his work and work. We had a good time. We ate at a place called pockets for lunch, which was extrememly good. If you see his wife do not tell here we ate there because she loves to eat there. So from there we got back on the highway to head to O'hare. Adam missed our exit so we had to get off at next exit to turn around. The only problem was there was no exit for O'hare coming back on 94s. So after we had gone past the point of where we knew we should have gone we turned around again. We finally made it there. We picked up the Gardners around 2:30 and headed back to Morton. Once again, Adam went past our exit so we had to turn around again. We finally got on 55s and made it home. The Gardners did not fall asleep on us at all. They told us all about their time in England and how much they enjoyed London and hanging out with the Kiesers.

Okay so I got blog set up and figured I needed to post something. I really have nothing to share right now, except the fact that I have alot of studying to do the rest of this semester. I have a couple of tests to study for tomorrow though. This weekend Adam and i are going up to Chicago to pick up Matt and Karen from the airport. I hope they are not to tired to talk to us and share some stories of England with us. Who am I kidding. Gardner can fall asleep anywhere and Karen will be wiped out from the jet lag. Oh well, I guess I will be able to talk to Adam some more. that is all I have right now. I will try to keep up with this and also figure out how to add pictures, video slides and music to this. Maybe I can get Katie started in on this also.