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.