Year in Review

What a wonderful year this has been. I can truly say that my family has been blessed with many many wonderful gifts this year. Of course the biggest blessing of all is the birth our our daughter Julia. It was a big decision for Mark and I to start all over by having a baby. With Nina already 10 years old, I wasn't sure that i wanted to go thru all those sleepless nights, diapers, feedings again but it has been all WORTH IT!! Julia is just a wonderful and we couldn't be more excited for the years to come with her. Hard to believe that she was ever this small. Julia at 5 days old.

Nina has just grown so much this year as well. She is really maturing into a young lady (already talking about going to Middle school and wearing makeup, aaahhhhh). She has really adapted well into her new role as big sister and we couldn't more pleased with her progress at school and all her activities. Thank goodness she loves to be involved and active!

Nina at Rehoboth Beach, DE.

One of the best times we've had this year has to be our trip to Rehoboth Beach, DE for Pop's (Peter) 60th birthday. It was great to have a family vacation where we could relax and take it easy for the week. Plus it was fun for me to meet the rest of the Friedman clan. Mark is the oldest of the cousins and I really enjoyed meeting them and spending time with them this week. Of course anytime that I'm able to spend my vacation on a beach, I'm happy! Hoping in 2009 that Mark and I can enjoy another beach vacation for just the two of us. :) hint hint Grandmas and Pops.....

Sally at the beach

Mark and his first cousins

Also this year, we have been blessed with the birth of my little niece Marissa. My sister and i have shared similar paths the last couple of years with both of us getting remarried and having little girls. My nephew Andrew, who turned 16 years old this year, is still the only grandson but he's the oldest so he has that in his favor. ;) Marissa was born one week after Julia and it is amazing how different they are. She is a little peanut at 13 lbs while Julia is now 18 lbs. Plus she is quite the mover as she is already crawling around and pulling herself up. Julia is probably the most laid back baby ever and is content to sit and watch everyone else. She has no desire to move around just yet.

Monica, Kurt and Marissa at the Plaza Art Fair.

Also new to the family this year is Laura's boyfriend David. Although Mark and I haven't met him yet (we are both very eager to), we have heard great things and hope to meet him in 2009. David and Laura moved in together in October in an apt in Brooklyn.

My parents have had a quite a changing year as well. My dad retired from Union Pacific RR after 36 years of service. I am so happy that he now gets to enjoy life and not have to work those crazy schedules anymore. He has been busy with golfing, biking, sleeping in late and helping mom. (is that right Mom?? I'm sure Dad is a big help around the house) With Dad finally retired, Mom has been on the hunt for their dream lake house in the Ozarks. After several trips down to look at houses, I think she may have found one. One weekend in August, Mom, the girls and I went to my friend Rachel's lakehouse in the Ozarks (Mark was off doing boy stuff this weekend). While we were down there, Rachel took us to a friend of theirs house which they just happen to have for sale. Mom and I fell in love with this house. A few weeks later, Dad saw it and actually liked it as well. It does have its cons as well but I believe my folks are negotiating with the owners. So hopefully, we'll be having lots of trips to the lake in 2009.

I would have to say that this year has been a big BABY year not just for us but for our friends as well. This year we welcomed Brode Bradshaw (Dec 28th) (Brice and Laurie), Marjorie Hotop (Dec 31) (Chris and Coleen) (close enough to 2008), Colin Coryell (Jan 25th)(Scott and Laura), Jackie Kennedy (Feb 13th) (John and Jolyn), Taylor Ruemker (Mar 27th) (Jan and Matt), Skylar Vasko (Mar 31st) (Todd & Gigi), Calvin Hacke (June 4th)(Andy & Susan), Alexa Regas (June 22nd)(Matt & Jen), Madeline Etler (Sept. 18th) (Dan & Theresa) and Reese Miller (Nov. 10th) (Lance & Lisa). And I am so excited for 2009 as we await the arrival of baby boy Brown in April (Mike & Margie), another baby Hotop in May (Chris & Coleen), baby girl Sullivan in May (Jon & Sarah), baby Reid in June (Jeff and Cindy) and baby Mattoon in June (Kory and Teresa). I'm sure I've missed someone out there but as you can see, it's been wonderful year for us and our friends.

Now it is the best time of year as we celebrate Christmas. Mark's family is here with us this year. I'm looking forward to our visit with them and spending the holidays with family. There's just nothing better to me. :)

Hope you all had a wonderful 2008. 2009 shall be another great year for all of us.

Christmas Pictures

Anne and Julia

Nina's big gift: mini Razor scooter

Nina and Julia: Christmas morning


Julia's new floor blanket. She loves to look at herself in the mirror.

Sally making doughboy.



Julia and Laura

Mark and Peter cooking as usual.

Merry Christmas

Hope everyone had a fabulous Christmas!!

Santa

Tonight our neighbors Jeff and Tracie had a special visitor stop by at their house. Luckily, Mark, Julia and I were there for the arrival of Santa. There were probably 20 or so little kids there mostly from the neighborhood. This is Julia's second time seeing Santa. We took the girls to the mall on Thurs night to see him too. I'll have to scan that pic for everyone. Julia did great last Thurs but not as well tonight.

Tradition

Every first weekend in December, my mom, sister, aunt Linda and their friends come down to KC to shop. I can't remember how many years now they have been doing this but I do remember Nina being very little. So the tradition continued this year. In the past, we had met in the plaza, shopped, had a nice lunch with many drinks. The last couple of years we have moved to the Legends. Just has more to offer when it comes to xmas shopping and whole lot cheaper!! This year Julia, Nina and I met them at Cheeseburger in Paradise for lunch before some shopping.

Christmas party season has begun

Sat night we had my company xmas party at Bartle Hall in downtown KC. Mark and i started off the night by going to Maker's Mark in the P&L for a drink. Wasn't very impressed with the bartender there as he did a very good job ignoring us. Haven't had the food yet but i hear it is good so will give it shot sometime soon.

The party was the same old HNTB party that they have every year. Lots of people we don't know. Two drink tickets, sit down dinner, quick presentation with some door prizes and then everyone bolts. Nothing changed for this year's party so we all bolted and headed back to the P&L to Raglan Road. It was a nice evening with my good friends that i work with.

Rachel, Michelle and Me

Today was a nice relaxing day. With Julia feeling better, we are able to play, get things done and have fun. Mark and Nina went xmas shopping so Julia and I wrapped presents. Julia is very much taken with all the colors and the tree and gifts.

Over the hump..

A quick update on Julia. It was a rough weekend and first couple of days this week but she finally back to her normal self. It is very good to see the daughter we know and love again. We are still giving her the antibiotic but her runny nose/congestion is gone. The screaming, crying, whining episodes are gone too. Plus she is eating and sleeping normally again. Yeah!! Now we just have to keep Mark away from her as he found about yesterday that he has bronchitis and pink eye!!

What a weekend

Thanksgiving started out great with my parents here for dinner and the whole family enjoying the great day. The weekend quickly turned on us as Julia developed a fever of 102 degrees over night and it didn't break 'til today. She also has another ear infection (or the first one didn't ever go away) and a very very runny nose. Before and after pics....
Her fever really spiked Friday night, and along with her being completely miserable, we took her into the ER to have her checked out. This was about midnight and I got home around 2 AM. Needless to say, neither Mark nor I have gotten much sleep this weekend. Same for Julia. She is so stuffed up, she just can't breathe. So Julia is on antibiotics and infant ibuprofen. Hoping she is feeling better enough to go to Cindy's tomorrow but probably not.

On a brighter note, it snowed for the first time this season here. Nina was all excited to go out and play, sled, snowball fight, make a snow angel... She was feeling very cooped up in the house since we couldn't go anywhere with Julia being sick.

The Woo Girls....

For those of you who watch "How I met Your Mother", you know what the title of this post means. For the others, it is simply those girls who are out for the night at the bars and everything they say is followed by a Wooooo. Know what i mean?? Well, this past Friday night was Justin's bday so Kati surprised him with all of us meeting them out first at an ISU alum wine tasting and then to the Power & Light district. For most of us, this was our first nighttime P&L experience. Needless to say, we had a blast!! For the wooo girls including myself (Steph, Beth, Angie, Kati and me) spent most of the night on the dance floor of the Shark Bar. I do sort of remember the guys ditching us for the much tamer and quieter Raglan Road Irish Pub. But the woooo girls didn't care, we danced the night away to our favorite 80's tunes.

Beth and myself well into the night....... Nice fog machine.....

Getting ready for the holidays

Nina and i have been dragging all that xmas stuff from the storage room upstairs today so we can get a head start on decorating. Nina thought it would be more fun to decorate Julia with ribbons on her ears....

In this pic you can see Julia's two bottom teeth that have come in. She loves to feel them with her fingers and tongue all the time.

I have to say that i like Jolyn's bullet point weekend and decided that was a great idea!! So I'm following her lead....

• The weekend started early for me as i left work early to meet Nina after school. She and 11 other girls in her girl scout troop headed off to camp for the night. The best part (according to Nina) is that it is a horse riding camp!! How awesome is that. Any of you old girl scouts remember ever going to a horse riding camp?? I sure don't. Of course, my experience in girl scout was very limited. Not a big following at the old old old grammar school I went to from K-3. A quick little side note... my first 4 years of schooling was in one of those small farm type schools. We had about 50 kids from k-6 in the whole school. It closed as I was entering 4th grade. Okay, back on track.... So I left work early to meet Nina and her troop before they took off for camp. The girls were so excited about the horses and "camping" (they stayed in a lodge) for the night.
• Following that, i ran some quick errands before i headed home and got Julia from Cindy's. The rest of the evening, Mark and I vegged. It was nice and relaxing.
• Sat started early as Julia decided 5 AM would be a great time to wake up and eat. Thank goodness it was Mark's turn to get up. :) I slept 'til about 7 am. But had to get going early as i was having some friends over for a Mary Kay party. My good friend Diann (her daughter Nina and my Nina are great friends) was laid off a couple of months ago and has decided to try Mary Kay full time. So a few of my girlfriends came over and we all had facials and fun girl time. I'm sure the bloody marys and mimosas helped!! It was also fun that Jen brought her 5 month old Alexa and Gigi brought 7 month old Skylar over. With Julia there, the 3 infants had a good time staring at each other. ha ha
• Sat evening Mark and I watch or rather tried to watch the ISU fb game vs. MU. Not much of a game for the cyclones. It's been a painful season with one game left. Of course the season really hasn't differed from previous ones. Mark finally gave up and took off for Craig, MO so that he could hunt Sunday morning.
• Sunday was lazy day. I don't think i got out of my pj's 'til about 3 PM when Mark got home and I decided I should take a shower. It was a nice lay around the house, watch some football, play with Julia and the pups day.

That's about all for this weekend.

Julia laughing

our busy week

Been another crazy week around here. November is starting off like all the other months so far. Last weekend after Halloween our friends Kati & Justin and little Tyler came over to watch some football. It was a fun evening of friends, pizza and football. Duck season has opened and of course Mark is in full swing for that. He left Thurs this week up to Iowa to hunt with his buddies. He's gone 'til Tuesday so my mom came down this weekend to help me with the girls. Of course Nina is easy and also a big help but always nice to have an extra set of hands to hold Julia while i take care of important things like showering, feeding the dogs, napping... ha ha I wish but no naps for me this weekend.


The best part of the weekend was the grand opening of Von Maur. Most of my friends know that I love this store. There are Von Maur's in Iowa and Nebraska so used to always shop there. The reason i love this store so much is because it has a no interest credit card. So you can shop, put it on the card and then pay the min balance each month w/o interest or any other fees. Like layaway but you get to take it home. So my mom and the girls and i head there first thing Sat morning. Did some good damage for Julia and Nina but by the time I was ready to shop for myself, the girls were ready to head out. So i guess i'll just have to go back. :)

Julia is just growing so fast. She has cut not only one but two teeth now. I can feel the ridges of her second bottom tooth already. She is just chewing on everything she can get a hold of too. I'm sure it all feels good on her gums.

Nina started basketball practice last week. This will be her 3rd season playing and she is all excited. Games are on Friday nights again though so not so exciting for us. ha ha Would be nice to have our Fridays back now that volleyball is over. But no such luck.

More Halloween

We had a fun Halloween evening. Nina was off at her dad's trick or treating but Mark, Julia and I sat out on our driveway handing out candy and talking with our neighbors.

Julia and i also went to Nina's Halloween party at school. They had the kids parade in their costumes for everyone. Then they had their room parties. Very fun.

Happy Halloween

High School Musical 3

Yes, Nina and I along with thousands of others moms and daughters ventured to the theater this weekend to see High School Musical 3. Now I have seen the first two movies and honestly, they aren't' that bad. The music is fun and the young actors really do a good job playing their parts. The third movie is no exception. Although it has been mentioned that the craze that this movie brings is like the movie Grease when we were kids. The two movies are NOTHING alike!! HSM is about simple issues that of course are easily resolved in song. Grease on the other hand had drugs, teen pregnancy, car dragging, smoking and, lets see, oh yes, sexual conduct. In HSM 3, the two main characters, Troy and Gabriella, finally kiss. Not quite the same. And it took 3 movies to get there. Anyhoo, Nina and her good friends Jenna and her mom Janet; Nina and her mom Diann and I all went to the show. Another funny thing about the show, it reminded us moms of some other movies. The three that we saw within the HSM movie was Footloose, Thriller (okay, not a movie but we could still see it) and Grease (in the way they did the credits).

After the movie, we all went to Barleys for dinner. Cindy who was watching Julia for me, met us there. We had a very nice time.

Mark on the other hand, was off to Craig, MO for the opening weekend of duck hunting. Sounds like it was a good one since they got over 30 birds in two days. Mark was most proud of Kutter and the good job he did retrieving the ducks.

Julia is doing great at sitting up now and eating baby food. Hard to believe how fast they grow.

Volleyball

Nina's volleyball team had its last match on Friday. The girls had a great season and finished 4th out of 12 teams. This is remarkable considering this was their first year playing and they had competitive and intermediate teams in their league. WOW!! It was amazing how much all the girls improved thru out the season. Nina went from not knowing how to serve underhand to almost serving overhand. I'm just so proud.

Volleyball and Birthday/Baby parties

We had another busy weekend like every other weekend we have these days. On Friday night, Nina had her volleyball doubleheader. They won all 6 games and have really improved thru this season. Kudos to her coaches Gary and Janet who have just done a wonderful job with the girls this season.

Saturday was fun as Nina and I stopped by our friends Dan & Theresa's place to meet their new little girl Maddy. She is just adorable. Another little cyclone to add to our ever growing list of babies that have been born in the last few years. Later that day, the whole family headed over to Joe and Marie's to celebrate their son Kyle's first birthday. It was a great time to reconnect with my old neighborhood friends. Nina had a blast playing with Jordon who she hadn't seen in months. We had fun chatting with Ellie, Joe & Marie, Andy & Karen, John & Judy!!

Sunday Julia and I went to my friend Lisa's baby shower. She is due next month and is having a girl. Yet another little cyclone that is almost here. :) Julia seemed to be the life of the party. She was the only baby there and was all smiles and laughs for everyone. Straight from the baby shower, we headed to Nina's volleyball games. Yes, more volleyball. The team didn't quite play at the same level as they did on Friday and only won 1 out of 6 games they played. But to their credit, they played a competitive team that was switching, trying to bump,set,spike already. Our girls really did play with them but just couldn't pull out the win.

Also Sunday was my mom's birthday. Happy Birthday MOM!! She is young 58 yrs now. :)

Gearing up for another busy week for the Friedman's. Mark left for Chicago today, leaving us three girls for the evening. But with the school skating party, vball practice, that leaves us little time to have a girls night. I can't wait for Wed. night when I'll be out with my girls to celebrate Cindy and Coleen's bdays. Thurs evening Sally will be here so Nina is excited for that!! Friday night will be Nina's last volleyball games for the season. So it's another crazy time for us this week......

Almost sitting up

6 months old

Julia had her six month check up today. She weighed in at 16 lbs 3 oz (55%) and is 27 3/4" long (98%). She's still long and skinny. :) Another round of shots and Julia did great. Only cried when they gave her the shot but was all happy and smiling a minute later when i packed her up to head home.

The Crabby State

I have been in Baltimore, Maryland for the past 5 days for the Annual IBTTA conference (International Bridge Tunnel and Turnpike Association). It has been a fun filled, pack solid event for me. I flew in Sunday and barely had time to check into my room before we had the opening reception at the Baltimore aquarium. Very nice place and such a great event. I liked the aquarium better than the one in Boston. They had great food and of course open bar. :)

Monday officially started off the conference with the first keynote speaker Michael Beschloss, highly regarded presidential historian. His speech was very funny and very interesting. He is an independent so would not give us his preference for the election but he gave us some statistics as to why McCain or Obama could win. After his speech, he gave out signed copies of his latest book. Very cool.

Have you heard of the cake show on Food Network called Ace of Cakes? Well, the place that the show takes place at is called Charm City Cakes and it's in Baltimore. The conference had them make a cake for us.

Monday night was the HNTB client appreciation dinner. Every year this is a big event that fills up with all our tolling clients. This year's event was at the Museum of Visionary Art. What a neat venue. We had just the best food too. I've included some of the pictures that i took of the art. It was also great to get to spend sometime with the CEO of my firm and his wife who is just fabulous. Plus all the great time i had networking with the KS turnpike Board members.

The ball of bras....

Robot family

Tuesday was full of sessions and lots of presentations. Tuesday night we took clients to the Orioles baseball game. It was really fun to see Camden Yards and to collect another mini bat that i do when i go to baseball stadiums.


Wed was the final day of the conference. We had our second keynote speaker, Steven Covey. He is the well know CEO of Franklin Covey (planners, etc...) His talk was about trust which i found very interesting. His book is called the Speed of Trust and i am definitely going to read it. I spent the rest of the day sightseeing around Baltimore. I went to Fort McHenry where the famous battle occurred in 1814 that inspired the Star Spangled Banner poem/song. Very neat history. Also spent some time in Fell's point which is full of shops and lots of Bars. ;) A few of us spent our time in the bars. I liked One Eye Mikes the best. ha ha Its a Grand Mariner bar if you can believe that. Also tried some drinks at Max's Tavern, the Green Turtle, Todd Connor's and B....


Thurs i flew home. So happy to see Mark and Julia. i missed them both so much. Next year's conference is in Chicago. Hope Mark will come with me to this one!! Thanks to Sally for coming to KC to help Mark out and watch Julia for us. We are so appreciative!!

Weekly highlights

This week has just been beyond crazy. I honestly don't know how families with more kids keep up. We have two kids but with Nina being 10 yrs, she is pretty self sufficient. The craziness started on Sunday when i took Nina and her friend Lauren to Worlds of Fun. The girls had a great time at the park. It was the perfect day to go too because it was Sunday, cool, 60 degree weather. Chiefs were playing at home so that took some of the crowd away. Plus it was cloudy and threatened rain all day which also lent to less crowds. The girls were able to ride all the rides multiple times w/o waiting in line. Nina just loves roller coasters and I couldn't keep her off of them. Lauren was easily persuaded to ride the Timberwolf but consistently declined to ride any other coasters after that. :) The park is all ready for its Halloweenfest too so it was fun to see all the decorations throughout. It was also the last day for Oktoberfest but since i had the girls all by myself, i opted to skip out on the beerfest, darn.... Tuesday night, our friends Brice and Laurie had us and another couple Scott and Laura over for dinner. Between the three of us couples we've all had babies in the last few months. The babies seemed to have a great time playing and staring at each other!! Brode is almost 9 months old. Colin is almost 8 months old and we have Julia at almost 6 months.

Friday night was Nina's volleyball matches. Her team is really doing well for their first year playing. They have a record of 8-4 after 4 matches. Not too bad!!

Yesterday, Sally, Julia and I went to the plaza art fair. Even though i was sure tempted, i didn't go overboard and buy lots of items. I did get a couple of neat pieces of art that i need to get framed. Hopefully before xmas. I'm very slow when it comes to that. My sister and her family came down this weekend also. hard to believe but it's been a year already that Monica and Kurt have been married. Little Marissa is just the cutest little thing. She can't weigh more than a buck and half and she's only a week younger than Julia.