That's pretty tall alright!

Here is my contribution, last week they gave us a paid day off to attend one of the worlds largest radiology conferences held in Chicago every December. While the conference was truly awe inspiring (literally - I have never seen a gathering of people even remotely approaching the size of this conference) I thought this was rather incredible as well - and more appealing to the masses than a bunch of CT,MRI,Plain film,PACS,ultrasound machines, etc.

Since I was a little kid I heard about this building as the tallest building in the world (having since been surpassed) and thought wow that's pretty tall, but then to stand at the base of it and look up was truly an amazing experience....

A couple more shots:

Well, the snow has finally come. We got a couple inches today and the kids couldn't stay away. Aaron was feeling left out so he got to watch out the window and thought that was pretty cool. Of course, after the cold they had to have hot cocoa!

It's late now but looking out the window, the snow is still coming down - we'll see how much we have in the morning!

O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree

We all bundled up yesterday and drove out to a Riehle's Tree farm to purchase our very first Wisconsin Christmas Tree. Sam and Seth were very excited to play in the snow... since we have yet to get any of our own (not that I'm complaining... soon enough!). They soon realized, however, that they should have waited until after we had picked our tree to play in it and get all wet and cold. Aaron loved being out in the fresh air. It was a really good time, and we brought home a very beautiful tree.

We decorated our tree this evening, and the boys did a really good job. At first I thought the tree might fall over with all the weight on just one branch, but we were eventually able to convince Seth to put some ornaments elsewhere. We even hung some candy canes and are eager to find out just how quickly they disappear. I think Adam counted them first, so we shall see... It's fun to get out all the ornaments and remember where they came from or who made them. I just love Christmas!

My version of a Man Cave and a Sleeping Kid

Well, since I have started posting to this blog thing you may have noticed a paucity of words, cuz that is how I roll. However, this one probably requires a little explanation.

This is my current project... Since I hear from everyone here that the winters are long and cold, I figured that I needed to have a workbench in the basement. With no budget for such things, I began looking for wood in dumpsters and such and this is what I have come up with and the bench part is made of desk tops I got at the local JCPenney outlet for 20 bucks. I still have some work to do, like build shelves for the cabinet on the right (actually, eventual plans include drawers on that one), screw the top down, and mount my vise...

This is just a picture of the youngest kid in the best mode (Sleep mode)
Note: Thumb is fully engaged.

Sams new skills

Fall Fun

Well, I guess it's time to blog... especially since I've received several not-so-subtle hints lately. I really like Daniela's and Christa's collages so I thought I'd try it out myself. I downloaded Picasa from Google so hopefully it works. We'll see if it passes Adam's scrutiny.

It has been a such crazy time for us recently. We've all been sick for so many weeks that I find myself wondering if we'll ever be healthy again. It just keeps circling around and around, but I am really hoping we've gotten it all under control and can now move on. Other than being sick, we've been just hanging out at home. Kindergarten is going super well. Sam is already reading many, many words - he can read basically anything with the short vowel sounds. He's such a smart kid! He's also mastered the Pledge of Allegiance and the Lord's Prayer. It's just incredible how their minds just soak it all up.

It's so amazing that Fall is ALREADY here... and almost winter!!! It doesn't seem like we've been in Milwaukee long enough. But, the fall is definitely beautiful here... and lots of work. We've spent several days out raking up leaves, a chore that I can't remember ever doing. Every year we've gotten pumpkins at a Pumpkin Patch and done the hayrides, mazes, and all the fun stuff, but this year we weren't able to do that for health reasons. So, we got Pumpkins at Walmart. Yeah, not quite as fun, but they made the boys happy. I also had the brilliant (or crazy!) idea to make the boys costumes for Halloween this year. Bob and Larry from the Veggie Tales. They turned out amazing!!! The boys had so much fun with them today. We came home loaded with a bucket full of candy and three very tired little boys. Wonderful day!

And, tomorrow will be another.... church, raking leaves, and planting tulip and daffodils.

Have you ever seen so many leaves???