Christmas & More

Sorry that all of these pictures are in opposite order.  I'll work on my posting in 2009 - I promise!

Today, Kyle took John out for his first hunting experience.  John got two roosters!  We'll be eating them for our New Year's celebration!

 We visited John, Suzanne, Clare & Kate for a long weekend and the Greening kids got their first taste of the famous "White Castle."  Actually, we had some on Saturday and then had to go back on Sunday for the Crave Case with 30 burgers.  John Greening had the most at 9!!! 

Clare found her calling in giving the Greening girls new 'dos.  Grandma C got one as well!

We celebrated Kate's 1st birthday a bit early on Saturday.  She hadn't felt good all day, but the cupcake seemed to cure whatever ailed her!  What a cutie!

Quite a few of us gathered at John & Suzanne's new house in Geneva, IL.  Mom, Maura & Heather, Sara & Greg, and all of us Greenings crashed their peaceful quiet Christmas time with the usual Cronley crazies!  Here we are all ready to head to Mass for the Feast of the Holy Family.  

Here, the Greening family is ready for Christmas Mass.  In typical fashion, we arrived 20 minutes early for the 8 PM Mass, but quickly realized that Mass began at 7:30 PM and so we were actually 10 minutes late!  

Back on December 12, Katie & Erin were in a local production of The Nutcracker.  Katie was an Angel and Erin was the lead Mouse.  

Here are Katie & Erin enjoying our first snow fall.  We had quite a bit of snow prior to this past weekend, then with the melting, we are back to facing flooding issues!  

Happy New Year to all - 2009!

Good Catholic Education...

We have been certainly getting our money's worth as far as Catholic Education goes.   First, we had John as St. John the Baptist for the 7th grade saint fair.  Then for the next 3 weeks in a row,  we had the 3 Greening girls participating in the School Mass.  Annie proclaimed the First Reading; the next week, Erin sang in the choir; and then, on Dad's birthday, Katie brought up the gifts!  

Some other big news for Erin is that her new favorite song is "All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth!"

Beggar's Night

 

Ok, Iowa is a bit different than the rest of the world.  The kids here go 'trick-or-treating' on October 30 for beggar's night and then Halloween itself is very anti-climatic.  Lucky for us, today's weather has been perfect - low 70s.  So anyway, for your Halloween pleasure, here are the Greening Goblins... John-the crazy clown; Annie-the annoying reporter; Katie-the sorceress; and Erin-Lucy Prevensie from The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe.  

Catch Up Blog

Sorry for the long absence from blogger world.  Here are pictures to catch everyone up on the lives of the Greening Family.  These are not in correct order, but my life is like that right now. 

Here is the first day of school - John-7th grade, Annie-5th grade, Katie-2nd grade & Erin-1st grade.

 

Our patio has had a makeover-stamped concrete overlay to be exact.  We love it and look forward to entertaining next Spring.

As you can see, the new look is considerably better!

Annie has been a wild quilting woman, finishing one for Patty's family and one for Joe & Kelly.  

Here is the Woods' family quilt - green and gold.  

And here is Joe & Kelly's quilt - blue & gold.

Early in September, I visited Park City.  Here we are with Kelly's family at Deer Valley Resort for a Dwight Youkam concert.  

On Sunday, Joe, Kelly and I climbed the PC mountain behind their house.  Joe & Kelly are standing on the top of the 'C' and then in the other picture you can see the PC behind Mom and me way up high.  It's amazing how huge those letters are.

Summer is winding down...

Well, John started football practice today.  We'll see how beat up he is when he gets home.  

Annie was busy learning a new skill today as well.  Here she is... "I went to a quilting class today!  You can see my masterpiece below.  I learned to use a sewing machine, poked myself with a lot of pins, and had a great time.  I plan to make many more quilts for relatives.  Let me know your color requests..."

      

Back to Brigid - I'm just excited for Annie to teach me how to quilt.  She also learned to knit last winter and has promised to teach me that as well.  

Katie & Erin are anxious to get back to school.  They can't wait to wake up early, sit in class all day and miss out on all their favorite TV shows.  Yeah, RIGHT!!!  Tomorrow is the first day of back to school life as far as bed times, wake up times, etc.  SCHOOL STARTS ON AUGUST 19th!!!!!  

   

The Rest of June and July

While John & Annie were having fun down South, Sally (Goethals) and Darren Smith and their family visited us in Des Moines on their way to Sturgis.  We adults stayed up way too late catching up both nights, but we did manage to squeeze in time at the Science Center of Iowa for the kids.  

         

For Independence Day, we visited Kyle's parents in Waubay, South Dakota.  The kids loved the relaxed, "go outside and find something to do" atmosphere of a small town.  They even asked if we could just move there.  The boys (Buzz, Kyle, & John) drove around and ran into a former classmate of Kyle's who happens to be an American Indian.  John was pretty amazed at that.  Kyle and John thrilled all of us with fireworks all day on the 4th of July.  We also visited Kyle's aunt & uncle, Audrey & Al Dutenhoffer on Saturday.  Kari came over with her 1 year old daughter, Ashlyn and John got to drive a big tractor.  

           

Back at home, the kids dived right in to swimming lessons - and everyone passed!  Every time we go to the pool now, Erin wants her height measured.  She's so close to the 48 inches required to go down the big slides.  We all hope she makes it before the end of the summer.  

    

  

Katie & Erin are spending this week at Living History Farms Day Camp - each for 1/2 days; Erin in the morning, Katie in the afternoon, Mom in the car driving all day.  Additionally, since Kyle has been gone for 4 days this week, I offered to take each kid on a date one per day.  I don't exactly know why I do this to myself because I then get nothing done for myself or the house, but I have really enjoyed the time alone with each of the kids and I know that it has been really special to each of them.  

This week also, Nancy, Kyle's sister, brought her three granddaughters over for Tuesday and Wednesday.  Sara's girls are Amaya-6 1/2, Ariana-almost 3, Hayden-5 months.  We enjoyed seeing all of them. 

  And we're all so glad that Kyle is home again, tonight.  

June is Long Gone!

Well, I don't know what happened to June or the 1st part of July, but they went past in a blink!  John & Annie visited Birmingham and Meridian for a week.  Here's John to tell you about it:

  We got off the plane and there was Aunt Sara.  After getting our luggage and finding her car, we headed to the grocery store.  We got food that we would never have gotten in Des Moines like juice boxes and chips.  At their house, Pele and Tina went crazy.  We all relaxed until Uncle Greg got home.  Then, we were off to the ballpark.  It was "quarter hot dog night" for Birmingham Barons Baseball team.  We bought like fourteen hot dogs.  I ate 2 3/4 hot dogs  and Annie ate 3.  She bugged me all night about it.

                        

The rest of the time Aunt Sara, Annie, and I went to the Science Center.  It was sooo much better than the one in Des Moines.  They had simulaters, a awesome kids land (sadly Annie and I were to big to play in it), and a bike that you could ride on a tight rope.

       

Their was a bed of nails that we all tried out.

       

A tank that makes it feel like your in a tornado.

Annie and I accidentally ran into a wall on our way out.

*** John'll get back on to post more soon.***