Christmas Pictures

Here are some random picture from Christmas.....

This is my parent's 12ft tree. You can't really see just

how beautiful it was in this picture. Take my word for it

My parents fireplace. I just had to take a picture of it because

I thought my mom did such a great job decorating it.

My favorite moment of Christmas. My grandpa had 2 of my fingerpaintings framed when I was three. I have always walked past them in their halway and mentioned to him that I would like them to have in my home. He always told me that he couldn't part with them. So on Christmas day I unwrapped a small package of his two frames. It brought me to tears that he would part with them after 24 years just to make me happy. I couldn't have asked for a better gift.
My grandpa has always had one of my mother's shoes in his bedroom drawer. He also wrapped that up and gave it to her. He sure was on a sentimental kick. Great job Poppy Bill.

Christmas morning opening up some of Ryan's gifts

One of his favorite gifts. Rose Bowl '08 Illinois vs. USC

My parents

Ryan, Me, Kyle & Maggie
on Christmas Eve in our jamies

Dave & Angie on Christmas Eve

Tinley
Ryan & I on Christmas Day

Baby Deadmond For Christmas

We were expecting baby Alex to come around January 11th. But today at 3:15 he came as an early Christmas gift. Weighing in at 6lbs & 12oz and around 20 inches long. Jason was so kind enough to call us and update us every so often. What a wonderful Christmas surprise. Baby and mother are doing well. This is the first for the Deadmonds. Can't wait to meet him!!

A visit back to my old college town.....

I had a job interview in Peoria in the afternoon on Thursday. On my way back home I drove through Bloomington and met Renee for dinner. Renee and I met on our first day at ISU. We had been placed in supplementary housing together with 6 other girls. There weren't enough dorm rooms for all of us so many students were placed in lounges that were put together to act as a living space. Renee was one of those 6 girls along with our other good friend we made, Kelly. Renee and I clicked instantly and we became inseprable. It was so great to see her again on Thursday. You know you have a good friendship when you pick right up where you left off. We laughed until we cried exchanging stories. I had a great time lady friend! I miss you already. Hope to see you again soon. Renee's blog is linked to mine. It's The Kresl Family. Stop in and read her blog entries. They are hilarious!

A little Christmas gathering

Ryan, Beth, Ryan, Courtney, Jason, Cade, baby to be Madalyn & I got together last night and ate at Buffalo Wild Wings. Cade was as always was the main attraction. He just sat in his high chair contently smiling and laughing. He is such a wonderful child. Courtney has said that lately Madalyn has been kicking like crazy. Of course she wouldn't while we were all there! It was great seeing everyone. We so rarely do that anyone. Time gets away from us so quickly now!

More Family Pictures

My mom's side of the family got these pictures taken the week of my grandparents 60th anniversary party. We just now got them back. Thought I would share them with all of you. Happy Friday!!!!

Family Photos

At Thanksgiving Ryan's side had a huge family portrait done. About 27 of us gathered in Angie's yard for an amazing picture. Here are a few of them. I don't have the huge one yet. I think they turned out pretty nicely!

It's Begining To Look Alot Like Christmas......

We'll a week from today Christmas Day will be upon us. Hasn't this month flown by!? I don't have much to post so I thought I would upload a couple of my Christmas trees. I know, pretty boring! As always there are no balls or decor at the bottom of the trees. The cats have either broken all of them or I've just given up and taken them off. All my presents were so nicely arranged under my trees until little kitty decided to rearrange them to use as his personal step ladder to confiscate the ornaments.

I found Tiffany blue oranaments and thought a "Tiffany" tree would be really cute. I even found the Tiffany blue wrapping paper. I am adding bows to the packages today hopefully. It's really hard to see the color of the oranaments but they are the Tiffany blue and a pearl white.

Here is a quick shot of outside once it snowed.
Here is my fruit tree. The balls are purple and gold. The camera really changes the colors.

We'll thats all for now. Hopefully I will have something exciting to talk about soon! Hope everyone has a wonderful week!!

In my spare time........

I'm trying to become a little more domesticated. Don't ask me why. I don't cook all that much. I'm very blessed to have a husband that likes to cook and is good at it. So lately I have been looking online at all these cute cakes made with fondant. So I thought I would try it out myself. After 4 boxes of cake mix later I came out with this. It is a little lopsided. I needed to place dowels inside the bigger cake to create a stronger foundation but I just didn't seem to have them laying around. So this is my first creation. It was very time consuming, about 3 hours. But I really enjoyed it. I hate to cut into. I think it will just sit on my counter until it starts collecting dust. Then, I'll throw it away. Just wanted to share it with you guys!! Hope everyones holidays are safe, enjoyable, and blessed. - Love Melissa

Happy Birthday Ryan!

I know I haven't posted in a LONG time!!! I feel so horrible that I didn't post this on the 23rd of November. Ryan turned 27 during the Thanksgiving weekend. All of his family was home and we had a big party for him and Kyle. Kyle's 25th Birthday was on the 1st so we celebrated a little early for him. His Aunt Barb also turned 50 so we had a huge celebration for her another night.

The Birthday Boys with their Mom
Ryan and Grandpa Al
Getting ready to blow out the candles Maybe half of the family that was staying at Angie's during Thanksgiving. There were ALOT of family in.

Do you have a coat you don't use??????

Tis the season of Thanksgiving. I had talked to several of you about the coat drive at the Carbondale Mall but didn't have any details. Here they are. Bring your gently worn coats of all sizes that are collecting dust in your closets to the Carbondale Mall by the 15th of December. Hats, scarfs, & gloves are welcome too! There is a drop of box beside the Customer Service desk. They will be picked up and distributed to Coats for Kids this Christmas.

Turkey Trot

Today my husband ran in the Annual Turkey Trot that Herrin has every year. They have a 15k run, 5k run, and a 5k walk. He has been running most nights preparing for today and the future mini tri-athalon that he and 3 other guys are going to do in August. He did the 5k run and I did the walk. He finished in 32 mins. I finished in 42 mins. I cheated and jogged. The women in the "walk" catagory were NOT walking. Those women were speed walking demons. I had to jogg to keep up! I just have to say how PROUD I am of my husband. He did an amazing job today. I wish I could have seen him crossing the finish line. Thanks to Ryan's mom, grandma Phyllis, grandpa Al & grandma Mary for taking the pictures and cheering us on. The route took us into my parents neighborhood and my mom even ran out to take some pictures. I know that the other people in the race thought we were hilarious with our entarage with us. The 15k runners were amazing. I can't imagine having that much stamina to finish. They were great to watch. It was a great morning.

Before the Race

Taking off!

Ryan during the run

Ryan Finishing!!!!

Taking a Breather after the race

Me finishing

Baby Deadmond's Baby Shower

This weekend Ryan and I were invited to Jason and Jenna's Co-Ed Baby Shower. Jason's engineering firm threw them the shower at his bosses' house. It was the best baby shower Ryan said he had ever been to. Also the only one. They play several games and passed out awesome gifts. The food was great and we got to meet a lot of new people. Jason and Jenna as always were wonderful hosts. Thanks for the great weekend. You will see a lot of alcohol consumption in the following pictures. I can reasure you that the shower was very family friendly and classy. I just didn't take pictures of those moments for some reason!

The Proud ParentsThey are doing a vintage baseball themed nursery for the baby. The theme of the shower was sports. We were all asked to were our favorite baseball team gear. Well as you can tell, this isn't a baseball theme get up. Ryan refuses to recognize any other sports team other than the Bears. I went along with it.

Here is one of the games. Some of the guys had to drink beer out of a bottle. Most of them thought it would soooo easy! Much to their surprise it wasn't! Ryan did NOT win.

Another very touching moment. Ryan and Jason's boss bet eachother that they could shotgun a beer faster than the other. Of course they had to prove themselves. I swear Ryan drank it in 1 second. Yes, 1 second!!! He won. Surprisingly, I was so proud of him.
A congratulatory hand shake
We got home and Ry crashed on the floor. The cats followed right in.

Welcome Home Matt

Tonight we had a get together because one of our good friends was in town. This is Matt. We all went to school with him and currently he lives in Chicago where he is an amazing artist. Sadly, he was in town due to the passing of his grandfather. It was sooooooooo wonderful to see him dispite the circumstances. He is the funniest guy I know. We all have wonderful stories and memories of Matt.

Matt, hope this is worth you posting. I made sure

that my tooth was at a good angle. : )This would be a shot of the class of '99

Ryan, Matt, Tara, Nate, Katie, Miranda, and Kalin

Here's some big news.........

BRONSON & KATIE ARE EXPECTING!!!! She is due in the middle of July!!!

A HUGE CONGRATS to you both!Tobey swears that the pencil test can prove if it's a boy or girl.

So here we are testing it. If the pencil circles it will

be a girl, if it goes from side to side obviously it's boy. Bronson and Miranda patiently waiting. This test was also done on

Miranda by Tobey when she was pregnant with Preston.

To Tobey's calculations it's a BOY!!
Preston walked in the door and Sophia walked up to him and gave him a big HUG. Kids are so sweet.

Preston was amazed at Vance's walker.
INTRODUCING: James!!!!!

This beautiful baby boy is Tara and Joe's son.

He made himself right at home and fit in very nicely!

Here is James and his Mommy Vance, he always looks so alarmed by me and the camera attached to my hand at all times
Miss Sophia walks into my living room and goes "Tapee, look at Lala's (Melissa) tape". She managed to pull out only half of the roll. It was cute though. Nate was very amused!