Pumpkin Carving/Halloween

The Annual Schuette Pumpkin Carving took place on October 31 (only 3 hours until Trick or Treating!) Here is the gang working out their designs.... Gabe playing with the "insides" of the pumpkin....

The carving has now begun......

My table....

Ali, Ben and Gabe show off Ali and Ben's finished pumpkins.....

Now on to Trick or Treating....Ben was a "scary" pizza delivery driver.....

Ben's Pizza "It's too die for!".....

Gabe was a hobo......And before anyone calls DCFS there was NO WINE in the bottle!

I love is face in this one.....

Trick or Treating.....

Here is Beau with his pumpkin....

I got Shakes a new costume this year.....A Witch! She was really good about wearing it.

Ali with Cheese also wearing Shakes witch hat...

And Abby....She went as a Verizon saleswoman!

We had a good time and the kids got a ton of candy....

Happy 17th Birthday Abby!!!!

Yep....today is Abby's 17th Birthday! Can't believe my baby girl is so old!

Have a Great day Abby.......We Love You, Mom and Dad

Want an Update????? OK....Here!

We have been sooo busy this month....we have had Homecoming (parade, game & Dance),
3 Pizza Fundraisers, Band Invitational (all day cookout stand), a wedding (another cousin), laundry, doctor appointments (everythings ok), migraines (well only me), field trips, homework, bowling, parent teacher conferences (one night = 3 different schools!), laundry, No school days, PSR classes, Abby band competitions, Abby had "the" flu for a week, our regular jobs and did I mention laundry?? I have been trying to get caught up since our washer died (RIP) last week. We did get a chance to have some fun. I still have a bunch of photos on my camera to download so I'll try to get that done soon......

Here is Ben making lunch for us.....pizza! Like his shirt? We had a pizza fundraiser that morning and he and Gabe like to wear their flag football shirts for advertisement for us! Love this one.....

Ben now putting on the cheese......

Dad supervising the process......"Make sure to put the cheese to the edge!"

Gabe was in charge of making my side of the pizza....green olives and bacon...I think he did great!

This month (October) is Life Month. As with most years Brian and has had his High School PSR class make a Life sign in our front yard.....here is the process.....

One Side.....

The other side......It was getting dark so we had to use headlights to light up the sign!

Team Work.....

Getting the message out there.......

Working as a group.......

Well the sign will come down this weekend but we always get many great comments on the message....

Ok....there is your update! I will try harder (ok...maybe). Tonight we have the 1st Playoff game for the football team. We will be doing our cookout stand for the Band Boosters. GO HEARTS!

Tommorrow is another fundraiser in the AM, carving pumpkins and then Trick or Treating!

EHS Homecoming......

Last week was EHS homecoming week. We had the parade on Thursday, Game on Friday and Abby went to the Dance on Saturday...

Here is Gabe saying "Give me Candy!"..... Beau got to help build the Spanish Club float and then walk in the parade....

Ben and Gabe enjoying the floats (and candy)....

Abby gett ready for the dance.....

Doesn't she look great??

She (and I) loved her dress......

Here is Abby and her boyfriend Jeff.....he plays on the Varsity Football Team and is a nice guy....

Abby and some of her girlfriends......

Of course we had to visit Ali at Walgreens.....Yeah...Abby is that much taller then Ali!

Abby and Her Color Guard.....

I thought I would show you some of Abby's Color Guard photos.....

Here she is with her rifle......

Isn't she cute??

Her Color Guard Team......don't they look serious?

Now crazy pose......with their coach Kate....

Last weekend the Band performed at the Eastern Illinois University Marching Competition....

Getting ready for the music to start....first one up front.....

Big smile for the judges......

Dancing......

Now with the flags....she's in the middle

The whole band looking great!!

Running with flag.......so fast she's blurry.....

The Band won all the individual awards and got 1st over all!! They have a great program this year and the kids really enjoy it. Abby really likes color guard and is planning on doing Winter guard later this year.

You can go to www.effinghamband.org to see their performances on YTube!

A Wedding Up North.......

The last weekend in August we attended the wedding of Brian's cousin Mark and his new wife Waynie in the Chicago area.

Of course we are supposed to be relaxing for the weekend and here is Brian......(atleast he is poolside!)..... Gabe enjoying the reception.....He was trying to be Mr. Fancy Pants with his wine glass....

Abby looked great in her dress.....They had all this neat furniture that she had to try out....

The Bride and Groom coming out of the church......It was a beautiful wedding....

Me with my boys.....They get cleaned up really nice.....And Yes...Beau is almost as tall as me!

It was a nice weekend to just get away.......

Are You Ready for Some (Flag) Football?

Last night was Ben and Gabe's (and Brian's) first flag football game. The B Team lost but the A Team won! Brian is coaching the Schuette Foodservice Cardinals this year.

Here is Gabe showing off his mouth piece....
Ben trying to smile with his mouth piece in....

Gabe getting set up for the ball....

Ben in action on the field.....

The boys were excited last night and looking forward to their next game....

First Day of School!!!

Today is the first day of school....I think everyone was ready to go.....

Beau...Freshman at EHS...... Abby.....Junior at EHS.....

Ben.....4th Grade at Central.....

Gabe......2nd Grade at Southside......

We are hoping for a great year!

Brian & Kenda's Las Vegas Getaway......

Last month Brian and I took a few days and headed to Las Vegas. Here are some photos of our trip. They are in no certain order for the trip..... Down on Freemont Street (the older/original part of Las Vegas)....

Ceasar's Palace....

Our hotel, the Belagio had these great fountain shows they put on each night....

Hoover Dam...This is the new bridge/roadway over the river. The traffic in the area is so bad at times it can back up for hours that this bridge should help.....

Looking down at the dam....

This is the roadway over the dam this is being replaced with the above bridge.....

Inside the Dam.....

Dam Water pipes.....

We went on a cruise of Lake Mead....the largest man made lake......

This is the other side of Hoover Dam from Lake Mead....(See the new bridge)...

Crusing down the Lake.....

It was a beautiful lake....very clean....

We stopped at a Visitor's Center and here is another view of Lake Mead....

When we were at Freemont Street I got my "cards read"....Looks like I have a long life and I apparently am still seeking my "soul mate!!!".....I had never had this done, it was fun....

Binions Casino.....Brian and I got our photo taken with a MILLION DOLLARS here....

This is the Freemont Street in the daytime.....

Here it is in the evening with all the lights....They would put on light shows in the ceiling and all the casino lights would turn off and everyone would just stop and watch....really cool.... One of the many things that has changed since we were in Las Vegas last is that you can now take photos in the casinos (just not in the high rollers area!)....I was loving this....

Brian even took a photo of me! Notice I was doing the 5cent machines....

Look at the size of this machine.......

Brian on the esculators near New York and Excalabur casinos.....

Here is Brian trying his luck.....

Paris hotel....very nice....

Besides seeing Elvis a few hundred times, our only other "celebrity sighting" was Dick Buckus....I I honestly did not know who he was!

The Venetian....They had gondala rides but since it was sprinkling they closed them down...that was on my list of stuff to do (oh well.....)

They had a M&M World on the strip.....of course I had to take my photo with M&M guy (Brian would not do it....I don't know why)....

Like the driving billboard behind him??? They were everywhere, I guess that's why they call it Sin City.....

This mall was attached to our hotel....it had Dior, Tiffany's, and every high end shop you could think of...needless to say...we did not do much (or any) shopping here....

Hand blown glass flowers in the lobby of our hotel.....

Our hotel lobby......BEAUTIFUL.....

The Flower area of our hotel......

They had all these animals made of flowers......

We have never stayed at a hotel that provided up with our own robes.....

Here is our room......it was soooooo nice....

The view outside our 26th floor room......We could watch all the beautiful people sun bathe!

Our hotel again at night.....

After a nice few days away we headed home when our van broke down in Greenville.....We stayed the night and tried to head out again the next day and ended up breaking down in Mulberry Grove where Ali picked us up and we had the van towed home.....Here is Brian looking at me thinking I can't believe you are taking photos of me right now!!!!

There are a few other things....but like the saying goes...what happens in Vegas...stays in Vegas!!

Summer Archery.....

It's been really crazy around here the last few weeks and the next couple don't seem to be any slower...Thought I would update while I do have a few free moments...The boys did some archery this summer with the Effingham Park District.....

The summer is almost over.....we had a good summer. School starts on August 19th. The boys did alot of things this summer and the fall looks to be fun too. They are going to do flag football and Brian is going to be their coach! We also have Abby's Band Marching season to look forward too.