What a great week!

This week was one of the most fun and busiest weeks we have had in a loooong time. This week we...

Played with our cousins and ran all over Grandma's house.

Spent time cleaning up little ones after long fun days!

Relaxed with cousin Mallory in her bed at Grandma's house.

Had a nice visit from my Dad, his wife Chris and her Mom Evelyn, we also celebrated Dad and Chris's birthdays while they were here.

Wanted to play outside but it was too cold.

Played trains and cars.

Went to All Star Sports.

Had fun driving go-carts.

Had Thanksgiving dinner at our house.

All the Grandkids with Grandma Sue. It is super hard to get them to all look at the same time!

Celebrated Christmas with Laura's family early since they will be in Germany at Christmas.

Snuggled with Grandma.

Played with friends and trains.

Loved on this little guy as much as Mick would let me! Mick has a little jealousy issue with Karl.

Baked and decorated sugar cookies with Grandma Sue!

Spent tons of time with my Sister and her family.

And when all the screaming and crying got to be too much, Mallory says thank goodness for the itouch!!

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. If you can't tell we have many people in our family to be thankful for!

Gingerbread Village

This past Saturday we went to Gingerbread Village with some great friends. This is a money making event for a local non-profit agency and such a wonderful idea. For $7.00 you get a kit and awesome helpers to teach you how to assemble your house. Mallory and I went alone last year and learned it was fun to take extra candy. Thanks so much to Melanie, Madi, Candace, Ashton and Joshua for going with us. We are hoping to turn this into a yearly tradition!

Joshua, Ashton, Mallory and Madi getting ready to go and build our gingerbread houses.

Mallory getting started.

Working on the roof.

Mal's finished product.

My final product.

The whole group.

Madi, Mallory and Ashton holding their finished pieces!

Responsibility

This past week Mallory's class had a lesson on responsibility, then she was supposed to write a letter to me saying how she was going to help be responsible for one item during the week. Here is the letter Mallory wrote to me, cracks me up!! You might have to click on the picture to enlarge it so you can actually read it. Love her work from school, to darn cute!!

Arizona

I am finally getting around to posting all of our pictures from our wonderful vacation!! We had such a great time and can't wait to go back!!

New Album 11/14/09 8:35 AM

Sneak Peek!

We just returned this evening from one of the best weekends ever! We stayed at The Biltmore Spa and Resort in Phoenix, AZ. if you have a moment you should check out their website. We traveled there for our cousin Matts wedding. The entire resort was amazing and so was the wedding. I will upload all of the pictures later but thought I would share a few favorites!!

Phoenix here we come!!

We were so lucky to get to take this wonderful plane to Arizona and back.

Mallory and Karl.

Many hours playing with cars and airplanes.

My super cute nephew Karl. I could only hold him when Mick wasn't looking.

We spent many hours at this amazing pool!

Mick loved every minute of pool time!

So did Mallory!

She even got to have lunch at the bar in the pool, how fun is that?

My Mom and Mallory.

My handsome boys!

My Grandpa and Mary Frances.

My Sister and her adorable family.

Mallory and Isabella (Her Dad is the one that got married.)

Mick is such a flirt, he loves getting kisses from Mommy!

45 Years In Banking

Last night we attended an event to honor my Grandfather, W.A. "Mick" Michaelis. This is his 45th year in banking and they had a huge celebration to honor him. He is such a wonderful giving man with so many wonderful stories to tell. I am so lucky to have him as my Grandpa!! The best part of the night was watching all of the different people come up to my Grandpa and talk about how they have been in business together in the past, he was really enjoying it. For those that don't know Stockyards National Bank was a part an oil and gas sale that my Grandpa wanted to purchase but he didn't want the bank, only the oil and gas. They said no bank, no deal so 45 years ago he purchased and oil and gas company along with Stockyards National Bank. Amazing how far they have come.

W.A. "Mick" Michaelis, Jr.

Neat ice sculpture.

Longhorns.

I couldn't believe these were still around!!

This large display talked about the history of Emprise and the family.

One side talked about my Grandpa and his life.

The middle was a timeline of the bank.

The other side was about my Uncle Mike who is now CEO of Emprise.

The different communities that have Emprise Banks.

Emprise is known for all of their original artwork and have won many awards for their collection. Hugh Greer a local artist was in attendance painting a new piece to give away.

This board was filled with information about the bank and it's start and they way it looks today.

All of the banks that they have purchased that have now turned into Emprise Bank.

Emprise Today!! They have come a long way in 45 years!!