It's about 10 minutes till midnight so I ran downstairs real fast to wish everyone a happy new year!
It has been a very hectic week. I've been working the swing shift which makes it hard to get anything accomplished. I'm off for the next couple of days so hopefully I'll catch up on everything, including the blog.
In the mean time...I was looking through my favorite website and came across a thread that posed the question "what was the most memorable moment of 2008?" It ended up being a great exercise in remembering what has happened the last year. I went back and looked at every post on our blog for the last year and remembered some great moments.
What it boiled down to were three moments. 1) taking our vacation to Ohio, Indiana, and Texas and letting most of our family and friends meet the girls for the first time. 2) watching the girls grow up this year but specifically....watching them learn how to walk. What a treat it has been to see them make that huge milestone in their lives. 3) finally...and to end on a solemn note, having to deal with Madison very suddenly dying this year. Lisa and I still miss her daily. I honestly don't think a day has gone by where we didn't think about her and wish she was still around.
So sorry to bring everyone down a little bit there. It really has been a great year. We laughed and cried...but we laughed a lot more.
Makes us wonder what 2009 has in store for us. I hope everyone else had as much fun last year and celebrates the new year with as much anticipation as we do.
I can't post without a picture so here's another teaser of the Christmas pictures. This is actually my favorite picture from that morning. It's Katy being...beautiful.
if that doesn't make you want to go out and buy a D90, I don't know what will!
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Sunday, December 28, 2008
sorry you have to wait a little longer...
I've been going through the Christmas photos and there are just too many to choose from. So I'm going to put it off a little longer.
We had an amazing Christmas. Here's a sneak peak at some of the shots.
You can almost hear them say..."WWWooooooowwwwww"
...and Shaun will like this last one. Katy LOVES the octopus!
We had an amazing Christmas. Here's a sneak peak at some of the shots.
You can almost hear them say..."WWWooooooowwwwww"
...and Shaun will like this last one. Katy LOVES the octopus!
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Friday, December 19, 2008
Christmas Cards are ready to go
...or they will be tomorrow. If there's anyone that would like to receive one that didn't get one last year, let me know. You can comment here or email me at agsinak@gmail.com
Update on Kevin, evidently the initial diagnosis was wrong. We were shocked to hear the pathology came back very different from the doctor's initial thoughts. We don't know all the details but it isn't nearly as positive as before. So continue to pray for Kevin and his family. This is a very difficult time for everyone involved.
We do have lots of pictures we need to share from this past week. I'll sit down over the weekend and catch up with the blog. Some exciting upcoming dates besides Christmas (which we are nowhere CLOSE to being ready for) is that Lisa and I will celebrate our 9th anniversary on Tuesday. Our anniversary was actually on Thursday but my schedule didn't allow us to go out and celebrate. Sam and Cindy are going to watch the girls so we can go out and have a nice romantic dinner on Tuesday.
Also, I'll be going snowboarding for the first time on Monday!! Looking forward to that. Pictures to come. Merry Christmas everyone and please pray for Kevin.
Update on Kevin, evidently the initial diagnosis was wrong. We were shocked to hear the pathology came back very different from the doctor's initial thoughts. We don't know all the details but it isn't nearly as positive as before. So continue to pray for Kevin and his family. This is a very difficult time for everyone involved.
We do have lots of pictures we need to share from this past week. I'll sit down over the weekend and catch up with the blog. Some exciting upcoming dates besides Christmas (which we are nowhere CLOSE to being ready for) is that Lisa and I will celebrate our 9th anniversary on Tuesday. Our anniversary was actually on Thursday but my schedule didn't allow us to go out and celebrate. Sam and Cindy are going to watch the girls so we can go out and have a nice romantic dinner on Tuesday.
Also, I'll be going snowboarding for the first time on Monday!! Looking forward to that. Pictures to come. Merry Christmas everyone and please pray for Kevin.
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
GREAT DIAGNOSIS!!!
Tonight, I went to the hospital and waited with Kevin's parents, Ben and Lisa, and two other close friends while he was in surgery. All in all, I was there for about 4 hours but it had been a very long day for everyone else involved. At about 11:30pm, the doctor came out and told us the great news. Kevin had the absolute best diagnosis possible for a brain tumor. The doctor removed everything he could and believes Kevin will recover fully and only need to be monitored for regrowth of the tumor!
I have never been in a situation like this where I was in a waiting room, trying to ignore the fact that you are about to hear a life changing diagnosis for this family. I did my best to not think about all the different scenarios...but it was hard not to.
But when the doctor came in and gave us the news, we erupted in excitement. His parents asked for a group hug and he got a good one! It was an AMAZING feeling being apart of his family. Of all the people there, I probably know Kevin the least but I felt very close to his family tonight. I'm so glad I could have been there to show our support for him and his parents. It was an honor.
On a side note, I've had a good feeling about this all day. Today was the first sunny day we've had in weeks! I honestly can't remember the last time we saw so much sunshiine in one day. I really did think on several occasions that it was God telling everyone that it was going to be okay. Just like the morning I rushed home from work at 4am to take Lisa to the hospital and the Northern Lights appeared. It isn't coincidence, someone up there is really looking after us and giving us signs that we are all in His hands.
I have never been in a situation like this where I was in a waiting room, trying to ignore the fact that you are about to hear a life changing diagnosis for this family. I did my best to not think about all the different scenarios...but it was hard not to.
But when the doctor came in and gave us the news, we erupted in excitement. His parents asked for a group hug and he got a good one! It was an AMAZING feeling being apart of his family. Of all the people there, I probably know Kevin the least but I felt very close to his family tonight. I'm so glad I could have been there to show our support for him and his parents. It was an honor.
On a side note, I've had a good feeling about this all day. Today was the first sunny day we've had in weeks! I honestly can't remember the last time we saw so much sunshiine in one day. I really did think on several occasions that it was God telling everyone that it was going to be okay. Just like the morning I rushed home from work at 4am to take Lisa to the hospital and the Northern Lights appeared. It isn't coincidence, someone up there is really looking after us and giving us signs that we are all in His hands.
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Please pray for our friend
We don't know too many details but a friend of ours through Ben and Lisa suffered a seizure a couple of days ago. They found a mass on his brain that they will be removing and testing. He's going into surgery in a couple of hours. I'm going to go up there and show our support. Ben and Lisa flew up late last night from Boulder to be with him.
Please keep him in your prayers.
Here's Kevin and Ben at the engagement party this summer.
Please keep him in your prayers.
Here's Kevin and Ben at the engagement party this summer.
Sunday, December 14, 2008
OH...winter is back
Winter has returned and decorating for Christmas continues. We have the fake Christmas tree up where we want it. We're still deciding if we're going to put ornaments on it or not because it looks GREAT with just light and tinsel.
Lots of cute pictures and funny stories to share but I am exhausted tonight. I hope to make it out early in the morning and take some photos of the bright moon. I'm pretty tired already cause I got up this morning at 5am...so I'm going to call it a night without any additional photos or videos. Sorry.
I hope everyone is having a wonderful Monday morning. I'll catch up soon.
Lots of cute pictures and funny stories to share but I am exhausted tonight. I hope to make it out early in the morning and take some photos of the bright moon. I'm pretty tired already cause I got up this morning at 5am...so I'm going to call it a night without any additional photos or videos. Sorry.
I hope everyone is having a wonderful Monday morning. I'll catch up soon.
Thursday, December 11, 2008
a quick late night Christmas fix
Well, everything is up. Well, almost. Lowe's has decided that the new carpet will not be installed until after Christmas so after setting up our fake tree downstairs last night, we have moved it all upstairs. Great fun....thanks Lowe's.
So tonight officially marked the beginning of Christmas spirit for us. It hit me like a wave. We've had snow on the ground for the better part of the last 2 months so the weather really doesn't dictate the holiday spirit for me. We shopped for a Christmas tree for the first time in our lives INDOORS!! That hurt. It's a bit sacrilegious but we had to get our first fake tree of our lives this year. Last year's tree was just way too dry after only a week...we couldn't imagine doing that again, especially how curious the girls are going to be. The needles falling off...ahhh, no thanks. So we went for the big fat fake tree this year. We looked at a couple places but if you're going to buy a fake tree, you gotta buy it from the ultimate fake tree provider....Sears!!!
So we went to Sears and found our dream fake Christmas tree lined up in the middle of a field of other fake Christmas trees. Our 500 pound Sears associate helped us choose the perfect one and rung me up in the comfort of 72 degrees with secular Christmas music blaring over the loudspeakers.
The whole experience was a little odd to both of us...so thank goodness, I brought the camera with us so we could share it with everyone!
I mentioned that the temperatures have been a little on the "warm" side the last couple of days. Well mix that with a nice solid pack of snow on the roads and some wind...and you get a perfectly polished ice covered road. It looks like a zamboni drove down our streets and smoothed everything out. Without studded tires, it would be nearly impossible to drive on.
And yes I took those pictures while driving. This last one is on my driveway. We got home and I wanted to show how slickery it is.
Here is our fake tree on top of the car.
Okay, we really didn't drive home with a fake tree on top of the car. But we really wanted to! I couldn't resist putting the tree up there and "faking" the picture once we got home.
More pictures of the actual decorating tomorrow. I hope all of you have gotten into the spirit because I certainly have!!!
So tonight officially marked the beginning of Christmas spirit for us. It hit me like a wave. We've had snow on the ground for the better part of the last 2 months so the weather really doesn't dictate the holiday spirit for me. We shopped for a Christmas tree for the first time in our lives INDOORS!! That hurt. It's a bit sacrilegious but we had to get our first fake tree of our lives this year. Last year's tree was just way too dry after only a week...we couldn't imagine doing that again, especially how curious the girls are going to be. The needles falling off...ahhh, no thanks. So we went for the big fat fake tree this year. We looked at a couple places but if you're going to buy a fake tree, you gotta buy it from the ultimate fake tree provider....Sears!!!
So we went to Sears and found our dream fake Christmas tree lined up in the middle of a field of other fake Christmas trees. Our 500 pound Sears associate helped us choose the perfect one and rung me up in the comfort of 72 degrees with secular Christmas music blaring over the loudspeakers.
The whole experience was a little odd to both of us...so thank goodness, I brought the camera with us so we could share it with everyone!
I mentioned that the temperatures have been a little on the "warm" side the last couple of days. Well mix that with a nice solid pack of snow on the roads and some wind...and you get a perfectly polished ice covered road. It looks like a zamboni drove down our streets and smoothed everything out. Without studded tires, it would be nearly impossible to drive on.
And yes I took those pictures while driving. This last one is on my driveway. We got home and I wanted to show how slickery it is.
Here is our fake tree on top of the car.
Okay, we really didn't drive home with a fake tree on top of the car. But we really wanted to! I couldn't resist putting the tree up there and "faking" the picture once we got home.
More pictures of the actual decorating tomorrow. I hope all of you have gotten into the spirit because I certainly have!!!
Monday, December 08, 2008
Warm days are here again
...well, warm is a relative term. I'll define warm for my purposes as being above freezing. Above freezing in December = YUCK! What a mess! Roads thawed out and are approaching undrivable in the neighborhood. So far, the major roads are still okay but with colder air coming soon, it's going to be EXTRA slickery (that is Lisa's word) soon.
So what else have we been up to this week? Not too much. The girls are very active and itching to get outside. Before it got "warm", we took them out for a walk. We were a couple houses down the street when I turned around to see a moose walking through our yard. The girls were SO excited. We got lots of "wows" and "whoahs". We stayed there and watched the moose for 10 minutes or so until she walked away. The girls couldn't understand why we couldn't get closer. They got a little upset toward the end but now they are constantly going to the balcony window and signing moose and looking. It's too bad cause last night and tonight after they went to bed, there was a big bull that has been walking around.
This first picture is from last night when Lisa and I stayed up way too late to watch a movie and after the movie was over, this guy walks through our driveway and down the street to the neighbors house.
Tonight on my way home, the same bull and a cow were hanging out about a block from the house. I grabbed the camera and got these couple of pictures of the bull. The last one you can see how big he is. Not nearly as big as the one I saw by the office but definitely a stud for the area.
Bored with the moose photos/stories? Too bad! We love'em! But you probably want to hear more about the girls. I know I'm missing something but I can't remember anything exciting that's happened this week. These next photos were the girls looking through our photo albums. We have 10 photo albums...from back in the day before digital cameras...that the girls have access to and LOVE to look through. They usually are on the ground when they're flipping through but this day, we gave them the albums on the couch and....photo-op. I was going to narrow down which photos I shared but they are all great so you get to see them all.
Here's a quick photo that I took when the lights were out. I know it looks pretty bright in the picture, it's the camera. It's just too good!
And a pic from our bedroom window of the snow in our backyard. I think I took this picture at about 3:30pm if you're wondering.
And for those of you lucky fans that are still with me. I have a couple videos to share. The first is the girls goofing off one morning. They love their music and LOVE to dance. Unfortunately, they lose interest as soon as they see the camera is out but in those first couple of seconds, you can see them shake their thing.
The second video is non-girl related...but still funny. I have to set it up a little. We were watching the Texans-Packers game (my favorite two teams) and not really listening to the game, the announcer caught my attention with some high-pitched screaching. I had to rewind to figure out what he was talking about. Ends up it's pretty hilarious.
The punter for the Texans on the play before thought he was going to get his punt blocked so he tucked the ball and started running upfield. Surprisinly, he was able to get a first down. The announcer is reliving that moment when he decided to tuck the ball and run. Hilarious. The video isn't really necessary, just listen to what the announcer is saying.
Later in the game, the same announcer said after a fumble "the devil lives at the bottom of that pile". If you know football, you'll understand that comment. I don't know who that guy was but he was pretty funny.
So happy Monday everyone. Christmas decorations will be going up on Tuesday so stay tuned!
So what else have we been up to this week? Not too much. The girls are very active and itching to get outside. Before it got "warm", we took them out for a walk. We were a couple houses down the street when I turned around to see a moose walking through our yard. The girls were SO excited. We got lots of "wows" and "whoahs". We stayed there and watched the moose for 10 minutes or so until she walked away. The girls couldn't understand why we couldn't get closer. They got a little upset toward the end but now they are constantly going to the balcony window and signing moose and looking. It's too bad cause last night and tonight after they went to bed, there was a big bull that has been walking around.
This first picture is from last night when Lisa and I stayed up way too late to watch a movie and after the movie was over, this guy walks through our driveway and down the street to the neighbors house.
Tonight on my way home, the same bull and a cow were hanging out about a block from the house. I grabbed the camera and got these couple of pictures of the bull. The last one you can see how big he is. Not nearly as big as the one I saw by the office but definitely a stud for the area.
Bored with the moose photos/stories? Too bad! We love'em! But you probably want to hear more about the girls. I know I'm missing something but I can't remember anything exciting that's happened this week. These next photos were the girls looking through our photo albums. We have 10 photo albums...from back in the day before digital cameras...that the girls have access to and LOVE to look through. They usually are on the ground when they're flipping through but this day, we gave them the albums on the couch and....photo-op. I was going to narrow down which photos I shared but they are all great so you get to see them all.
Here's a quick photo that I took when the lights were out. I know it looks pretty bright in the picture, it's the camera. It's just too good!
And a pic from our bedroom window of the snow in our backyard. I think I took this picture at about 3:30pm if you're wondering.
And for those of you lucky fans that are still with me. I have a couple videos to share. The first is the girls goofing off one morning. They love their music and LOVE to dance. Unfortunately, they lose interest as soon as they see the camera is out but in those first couple of seconds, you can see them shake their thing.
The second video is non-girl related...but still funny. I have to set it up a little. We were watching the Texans-Packers game (my favorite two teams) and not really listening to the game, the announcer caught my attention with some high-pitched screaching. I had to rewind to figure out what he was talking about. Ends up it's pretty hilarious.
The punter for the Texans on the play before thought he was going to get his punt blocked so he tucked the ball and started running upfield. Surprisinly, he was able to get a first down. The announcer is reliving that moment when he decided to tuck the ball and run. Hilarious. The video isn't really necessary, just listen to what the announcer is saying.
Later in the game, the same announcer said after a fumble "the devil lives at the bottom of that pile". If you know football, you'll understand that comment. I don't know who that guy was but he was pretty funny.
So happy Monday everyone. Christmas decorations will be going up on Tuesday so stay tuned!
Friday, December 05, 2008
....and an earthquake
I forgot that we had an earthquake last week too. It was our first in a while. I was at work when we started feeling the room shake, I had time to pick up the phone, call Lisa, and her answer and we could both still feel it going on. It was a 5.2 that was pretty far away from us but that's a pretty significant size earthquake so no wonder it lasted so long. No worries, it didn't wake up the girls.
I promised some videos and funny stories. Well, sorry on the funny stories. I am currently having trouble getting my new camera to copy pictures over...SAM!!! I need help!!!
In the mean time if you need a laugh, read Sam and Cindy's latest entry in their blog. If you are on the fence...it will explain why these two are our best friends. Well written Cindy. This is GOLD!!!
And now for some recent videos. The first is the night that it was snowing pretty good. The girls were amazed and kept going to the window and looking outsides and saying "Moh?" and "Woooow". Unfortunately I didn't get any of the mohs on video but I finally did get a wow from Alyssa.
The second one...well it's just Alyssa being funny. I have NO idea where they learned this from. I'm sure it was Lisa. Be sure to turn up the volume on this one....LOUD!!
I promised some videos and funny stories. Well, sorry on the funny stories. I am currently having trouble getting my new camera to copy pictures over...SAM!!! I need help!!!
In the mean time if you need a laugh, read Sam and Cindy's latest entry in their blog. If you are on the fence...it will explain why these two are our best friends. Well written Cindy. This is GOLD!!!
And now for some recent videos. The first is the night that it was snowing pretty good. The girls were amazed and kept going to the window and looking outsides and saying "Moh?" and "Woooow". Unfortunately I didn't get any of the mohs on video but I finally did get a wow from Alyssa.
The second one...well it's just Alyssa being funny. I have NO idea where they learned this from. I'm sure it was Lisa. Be sure to turn up the volume on this one....LOUD!!
Tuesday, December 02, 2008
POWER OUTAGE!!!
Tonight we learned a lesson in the importance of a generator. We lost power at 6:45pm on the eve of the coldest night of the season. When we lost power, it was 6.7 degrees above zero. 8 HOURS LATER!!!! the power just came back on and it's 1.7 degrees outside. Inside, the temperature has dropped to 60.8 degrees.
The girls did pretty good initially but woke up about an hour and a half ago. We're still trying to get Alyssa back to sleep. At least it won't be as cold anymore.
The girls did pretty good initially but woke up about an hour and a half ago. We're still trying to get Alyssa back to sleep. At least it won't be as cold anymore.
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