Emily sure likes her doll from Seanie! She has a ton of presents to open, but wants to play dolls with Andrew.


Santa was good to the Devingers!

Grandma helps Emily with all her presents and toys!
Emily loves her horse at Grandma's. For Christmas it has antlers.


Christmas Eve with the Palys' Family. Presents...Presents...Presents....Presents!

Decorating the tree...nothing like waiting until the last minute. When we went to Boston for Thanksgiving we lost a week for Christmas due to Thanksgiving being late. When we brought in our Christmas stuff the tree we had was soooo sad. It was 19 years old and you could tell so we debated on a real tree or another fake one. The weather pushed us towards the fake one. Emily had a great time decorating!

Merry Chrsitmas from Santa...Ho Ho Ho...Emily was too scared to sit on his lap even if Sean went with and mom was right there. She was picked to go first so that was part of the issue. As other kids jumped up there she eventually gave Santa a "high five" but would not sit on his lap.

Go Packers! I am the Fairy Princess who will grant your wishes so that you can win!

Brandon & Ryan met us for lunch. They are only 1 month older than Emily.
YUMMMMMY CUPCAKES!!!

HAPPY 2nd Birthday!!!!


Cake was from the Bakery down the street from Auntie Sherie's - Chocoale and yellow. The book was from Auntie Sherie. It has superimposed pictures of Emily. It is very cute!!!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!! Grandma Linda arrived with all the matching outfits for the grandkids. I can't believe she found all the right sizes and all! Emily - size 12mos. Elliot - size 3T. and Samantha - size 18mos. Sean size 10. Alex size 14-16 and Andrew size 20!!! Amazing.

Thank you Grandma Devinger for the cute outfit. Elliot has a matching Patriots outfit and Sammi will soon have the Bears! We have such a variety in our family! Who can resist her?

Emily at Cheers replica in Quincy Square...Downtown Boston MA
Elliot and Emily are enjoying Pizza at Pizzaria Regina in the Northend of Boston. Lobster Tails from the bakery were next as we passed by on the trek to the car.
We arrived!!!! Only 2.5 hours to drive from here....this is the NY State/MA border on the thruway (which by the way the I-Pass works on). Thanks to Kassi for finding out.
Niagra falls...the date is not correct it was sooo cold out there we did not stay long. This is the Canadian side.

Miss Emily found her birthday hat from Auntie Kassi in the winter box and she loves to wear it. It is soo cute. Last year she wanted nothing to do with hats even in the hot sun. Alex calls this the Emily-stein photo - he took it. We are trying to lose the Binkies, but as you can see in the next photo - they multiply instead of disappear.

Happy Halloween!!! Emily the Angel, Sean the faceless Phantom and Alex wanted to be Andrew for Halloween. It was a great night of trick or treating around the square first then up Jefferson St. to Burbank and back down Jefferson St. to the car on the Square in Woodstock. Lots and Lots of Candy was collected and disposed of.


This photo was taken of Emily at Church waiting for Alex's confirmation ceremony to start.

Isn't she Cute?

The teachers at school do such a nice job with Emily's hair...half the time she pulls it out by the time we get in the car. Here she and Alex are having a Kodak moment....

Girls Day out in Chicago

Monday, Sept. 16th we headed to the City of Chicago to meet up with Auntie Kassi. She drove us around the city for sightseeing. We stopped at the Cubs field then headed to a place called Flattop for lunch. It was make your own stir fry. Even though I put stuff in it for Emily she kept pushing her bowl over to Auntie Sherie for flat noodles. It was very cute, but she did look kinda funny to strangers begging for more noodles with her sign language and broken vocabulary that only a mom can understand.
While auntie Sherie was getting ready for her big promotional dinner Kassi and I took the girls to the Lincoln Park Zoo. It was 5pm and the zoo was closing. We did manage to see some birds, a vulture, black bears (puppies according to Emily) and some Lions. Kassi thought the zoo closed at 6pm but she was mistaken. The hotel room that Sherie reserved was in an old ornate building. It was very nice and HUGE. She reserved the Presidential Suite which overlooked the zoo. It had a full kitchen and dining area and living room. A huge whirlpool bath and separate shower were in the sleeping suite. In the afternoon we walked and walked and walked down Clark street in the Lincoln Park area. It was nice. They have some neat shops and a cupcake store and a cute bakery...hey sher...post that cake of suitcases...
Auntie Kassi wears Samantha around the zoo and then to dinner. We walked back to Clark St. from the zoo to a place called Dunley's (???) and met Auntie Jessie for dinner there. It was really good! Afterwards we stopped for dessert at the cupcake store . The stools to the counter were chain swings so Emily wanted out of the stroller to "swing". When we got back to the hotel Aunt Jessie gave Emily a whirlpool bath. It was funny. The water was pretty deep to cover the jets - thank goodness for swimming lessons. After Samantha was asleep Auntie Kassi and Auntie Jessie went home. Emily and I played then went to sleep to wait for Sherie to come home. We had to get up at 4am the next day so that Sherie and Sammi could catch the ir flight back to Boston and hurry up to meet grandma Linda as she got off the cruise ship which ported in Boston for the day.
Isn't she the Cutest Thing????? It was picture day at daycare and her teacher Miss Jennie put her hair up. I can't do it cuz I keep breaking the baby rubberbands. She won't wear barretts anymore because she pulls them out and eats them. Lately though, she has been walking around wearing my headbands so maybe she will start to wear her again.

Rebekkah, Ryan and Brandon's Birthday Party

So on Sunday Emily and I went back to O'Hare airport to pick up Auntie Sherie and Samantha Jane ! From the airport we were on our way to a birthday party at Bounces R Us in Richmond, IL for some celebration, cake and fun! Emily liked to drive the video games more than bouncing around.
Auntie Sherie, Emily and Samantha were playing in the ball pit until cousin Seanie came diving in and threw a ball at Sami. She did not want to be in there anymore so that was the end of that fun for the girls.
This was a huge Spiderman obstacle course and Emily was terrified. She did not want to go so Seanie was saving her. It was supposed to be a group picture, but Emily wanted no part of it.
Emily and Sami J are "just chillin'" while the other kids are running around like wild animals. After jumpy time we headed to the party room for cake and company. They deflate all the bouncy things while you are eating cake.
This was called Barrel of Monkies and even though Samantha would not go inside...she would sit at the door with Seanie.

Cubscouts Family Camp Weekend!!!

We are getting ready for Family Camping for the weekend with Cubscouts! We borrowed a camper and BIG diesel truck from our friends because it is supposed to rain all weekend...and let me tell you...it rained all weekend! Thank goodness for the trailer or Emily would have been sick and muddy all weekend. Despite of camping we had other obligations too. I took my mom and her friends to the airport at 6am then Sean had soccer pictures at 8am and then a game at 11am - good thing it rained to cancel the game. So we went back to camp and got in some scouting activities. Below Emily found Seanie's hat and loves to wear it. So she will probably be a Tony Stewart fan.
This was our set-up from the back side...
This is Sean and Emily watching the rain from the camper and wondering if it is ever going to stop so they can go out and play. Well...Sean went out to play, but Emily had to stay in.
And this is typicall Alex. He chose to sleep in the car at night time, but he needed a nap during the day so he slept in the raised air-matress -so it is like having your queen sized bed with you while camping....

Emily and Alex and Sean went up North to visit Nathan, Morgan & Christian Devinger. Look how small Emily is sitting on the clock table.
Grandpa Smoke & Emily at Uncle Robby's Baby Shower. What is so enticing?
Emily and Devin patiently await cake at the shower. Devin is 7 yrs old here.
Grandpa Smoke and Emily are excited that Molly the wonder dog can catch the ball!
Cousins: Emily & Jake & Devin & Mia