Welcoming Elizabeth Jade!

Please join us in welcoming the newest member of the family: Miss Elizabeth Jade Sparks! (Lily for short!) Our Lily Bug was born on Friday June 8th at 7:50 AM via c-section. She weighed 6 lbs, 3 oz. and was 19 1/2 inches long. She's a tiny thing, but so adorable we can hardly stand it!

Look at those big blue eyes! She's the most alert baby I've ever seen - seems like she's always awake! But she's a quiet thing. Just sitting back and observing everything.


Here's a photo with her big sister Korinne:


And here's a photo of Kory, the proud father!


Tandy was in labor most of the afternoon and evening of June 7th, and was admitted to the hospital just after midnight, so neither Tandy nor Kory got much sleep. Too excited to meet the wee one. So once she was here, they were more than happy to let the family fuss over the baby while they got a little shut-eye. In this photo you can also see the huge bruise on Tandy's arm. They had a hard time finding a vein for her IV, and stuck her 5 different times!


Another one of Lily Bug. Just taking it all in...


And, of course, I have to include a photo of Lily with her proud auntie! Hooray for babies!

Blogger MIA

Well...it's been a whole year since I last posted on this blog. Time really gets away from me! My dearest Joseph has been asking when I was going to post an update. I think he just likes seeing his photo on the internet. But, how can I say no to that guy?

It's been quite some time and there's no way I can catch up, But I can give you a quick recap of 2011. Matt started the year off with a horrible bout of kidney stones that kept him out of work for over a month. He eventually needed surgery to remove them. Once that was done, he headed back to work only to get laid off on his first day back. He was unemployed until September, when he landed a great new job in Healthcare IT. It was a really tough year for us financially, of course, but Matt really stepped up to the plate at home. He cooked, he cleaned, he took the kids to school. It was pretty nice having "Mr. Mom" at home. Just the same, we're so happy that he found his new job!

As for me (Nikol), I've been really busy at work taking on some new responsibilities as far as Residency recruitment. It's been stressful and challenging, but ultimately really interesting and rewarding. I'm still working with Cub Scouts. This year I've been the room parent for Kristin's class. At home, I'm still enjoying my attempts at gardening and keeping chaos at bay.

Joseph completed all his requirements for Cub Scouts and received his Arrow of Light Award before crossing over into Boy Scouts. He's doing great in school, and recently starting learning to play the clarinet. He's actually using the same clarinet that belonged to my mom in high school - which is the same one I learned to play when I was Joey's age!

Kristin is also doing great in school. She really loves to draw, and enjoys making up stories and illustrations to go with them. She's also very excited about helping in the garden. She's planted flowers in the yard and tends to them lovingly. She also loves to help in the kitchen. She will start taking flute lessons in the near future.

Simon has made amazing strides with his speech therapy and preschool program. A year ago, he only had a handful of words he'd say - now he's a veritable chatterbox. He's very bright and imaginative, and has more energy than anyone I know. He's always moving, always into something. He has a great sense of humor and loves to laugh.

Here's a recent photo of the three wee ones (Kristin's crazy eyes crack me up). I'll try to post once a week or so to keep everyone upraised of our adventures. Sorry to have been such a stranger around here! Hope everyone's 2012 is off to a good start!

Joey's glasses

We recently noticed that Joey would sometimes squint while watching TV, so we took him in to get his vision tested. Turns out he's a bit nearsighted (just like I was before the laser surgery!). So, Joey picked out some frames and we ordered his glasses. They came in last week. He's still getting used to wearing them, but he seems really happy with how much clearer everything is when he has them on. I told him that he looked really mature and smart with his glasses on. He said, "You mean smarter." Stinker.

Chinese New Year

Every year at the kids' school they have a Chinese New Year celebration. It's always a lot of fun. The kids work on decorating the auditorium with all kinds of fun arts and crafts relating to the holiday. 2011 will be The Year of the Rabbit, so a lot of the decorations were bunny themed!
The school set up a bunch of different activities. There was face painting, where the kids could get a little rabbit face on their cheek. They had an area in the gym where the kids could learn and practice using chopsticks. They also had a room where you could learn how to make Chinese dumplings and paper lanterns. In this photo Kristin shows off the stuff she made. We were all really impressed with her dumpling. She folded the edge like a pro!
Joey's friend J gave him a red envelope, which is a traditional for New Year's, symbolizing good luck and prosperity. Inside the envelope, Joey found some candy. Good luck indeed!
Here, Joey and Kristin pose with the Chinese dragon. At one point during the night there was a song and a performance where the dragon danced through the crowd. Gorgeous! I don't know which class made this dragon, but it looked very impressive when it was in action.Xīn Nián Kuài Lè. Nián Nián Yǒu Yú. (Happy New Year! Wishing you prosperity every year!)

Another Night of Mystery & Murder!

Our family just can't get enough of Murder Mystery parties. So, we had yet another one for my and Tandy's combined birthdays. This one was entitled The Chicago Caper, or "You Dirty Rat-a-Tat-Tat." It was set in the roaring 20's in Chicago, where the infamous gangster Hal Coppone was recently released from prison.

We met for dinner (a fancy Italian spread!) at my mom's house and then got started on the game!First there's Joey who played Billy "The Kid" Thrower - pitcher for the Chicago Stock Kings baseball team. We had his hat embroidered with the team name for his costume!
Here's Alicia, playing Silky M. Adam, who runs the local house of ill repute. Ooh la la!
Sean's character was Eddie "Socks" R. Gyle, a professional golfer and gambling addict. Wendy played Molly M. Awbster. Wendy always goes all out with her costumes. I love it. She looked amazing in her flapper outfit!
Next, there's Matt who was playing S. Treighton Harrow, the District Attorney. Got to love that moustache!
Kory played Ernest G. Ambler, and Tandy played Anna Sassine. Kory looked great in his three-piece suit! They made quite the flashy couple!
My mom's character was Malissa F. Orthott, a journalist who went by the nickname "Scoop." She liked this wig so much she said she might try this style with her real hair.
Even Simon was in disguise!
You might notice that I'm not in any of these photos. I dressed up as the bartender: S.P. Keasy. I wasn't an official character. There were only parts for 8 people, and I decide to sit out this one to give others a chance to play (namely Joey). But it was still fun listening to the clues and trying to guess the murderer.

And...we have another Murder Mystery party coming up in a few weeks! Stay tuned!

Joey's Bear Badge

This month, Joey earned his Bear badge in Cub Scouts. This involved working on several projects over the course of the last year. He learned about American folklore, how to plant a garden, the basics of woodworking, and how to be prepared for an emergency. It's quite an accomplishment and we were so proud of him!Joey was pretty proud of himself, too. Look at that grin!Now that Joey has completed his Bear badge, he moves up into the Webelos group. He's already well on his way to earning various merit badges and pins. He learned about first aid, and most recently he'd been learning about fitness and nutrition. I'm the assistant Webelos leader, and it's great being able to work with Joey on his projects!

Joey's 10th Birthday

Hard to believe that Joey is 10 years old already! Since he was finally reaching "double digits" we thought he'd like to have a special party. But what Joey said he really wanted was to go to the Science Center with a friend and then have a family birthday party & dinner later. Sounds good to me! I love that he wanted to keep things simple.

So, we began the birthday extravaganza with a trip to the Science Center. Joey invited his friend J to come along with him.
While the boys went off to do their own thing, Kristin had lots of fun showing me around the Science Center. Here she shows how light and shadow work together. Fancy!
And here Kristin shows off the "bowl of clouds." it was a big circular disc that had a tube in the center that piped in water vapor. Soon the "bowl" would fill with "clouds." It was fun to swirl the vapor around with our hands. But what Kristin liked to do best was to blow the vapor into my face, pretending like it was smoke. After our trip to the Science Center we had lunch at a place called The Studio Diner, which is a restaurant built on the lot of a local TV Production company. The food is great and the kids love it there.

Going to the Science Center was on Saturday, and then Sunday (Joey's actual birthday) we had the family party at our house. We had Mexican food for dinner. Tacos, burritos, enchiladas, Spanish rice, refried beans. Delicious! And since Joey is obsessed with Pac Man lately, he asked for a Pac Man birthday cake. I have to say, of all the designs he could have asked for, this one was pretty simple! We made a chocolate layer cake with homemade yellow buttercream frosting - then we just cut a slice out for Pac Man's mouth. Voila!

Joey got lots of great presents as well - including a really cool marble run that was galaxy themed. And we got the Michael Jackson Experience game for the Wii. Joey has been perfecting his moonwalk ever since!

Happy, happy birthday, Joseph Alexander! Now, maybe stop growing up so fast, ok?