Freezin' for a Reason!

Last night Sean participated in the Junior Achievement Freezin' for a Reason. Basically he paid money to jump into a frozen pond. He was on the Menards team thanks to Stefanie's Sean. They wore cut-off jean short, work boots, knee high socks, suspenders and a Menards hat. They painted the letters on their chest to spell Menards. Sean had MOD on his chest (which stands for Menards or Die!). It was 26 degrees out for the quick dip in the pond. Stefanie and I paid to go watch and hang out with the teams at the after party. We all got hooded sweatshirts, pizza, cookies, chips and drinks. There was quite a few teams jumping in the pond. Some had outfits like construction crew, smurfs, guys in dresses and then a lot just in swimsuits!
As you can tell from the video Sean took about 5 steps in the water and that was enough for him. He was the last one in and the first one out. I don't think I have seen him move that fast. He has said he will not be doing this next year!

Sean and Sean prior to the dive!

Team Menards

Last seconds before the jump.

Stefanie and I made them take another picture after they jumped in!

Pay it Forward

I have finally caved into the Pay if Forward blog. Kira got me with the something especially for little girls! I am very excited to see who will be participating in this and what kind of crafty/yummy gift I can come up to give them. I do have some really good ideas if you have a little one that might need a hat to keep warm!!!!!!!

Here are the rules:

1.Be one of the first THREE bloggers to leave a comment on this post, which then entitles you to a handmade item from me - something crafty or yummy, who knows?! (I have a few ideas, but I'll try to tailor the item to the posters who win.)

2. Winners must post this challenge on your blog, meaning that you will Pay It Forward by creating a handmade gift -anything!- for the first THREE bloggers who leave a comment on YOUR post about this giveaway!

3. The gift that you send to your 3 friends can be from any price range and you have 365 days to make/ship your item. This means you should be willing to maintain your blog at least until you receive your gift and have shipped your gifts. And, remember - It’s the spirit and the thought that count!

4. When you receive your gift, please feel free to blog about it, sharing appropriate Linky Love!

If you are not one of the top three to comment on this post, you can still play along. Go ahead and start your own Pay It Forward chain, and encourage your blogging friends to do the same!

100 Days...

Until Sean and I get MARRIED!

http://www.theknot.com/ourwedding/PaulaRosenthal&SeanGraff

A sweet carry me over the threshold picture turns into a headlock!

And Paula lost!

Confessions of a Slacker Mom

Yes, I have been slacking on our family blog. I promise I do have valid reasons...1. It has been above freezing for several days so who wants to be inside? 2. Apparently I have this wedding in May that I have to pay so much overdue attention to. 3. We have a 14 month old with a cold :( 4. I get to rebarcode and catalog 18,000+ items at work, and everyone thinks I should magically get that done in a day (ARGH!) 5. Working out to fit my booty back into the wedding dress (almost there) 6. Training for the 5K. 7. Life!!!

So judge me if you must. I will try much harder to update more often.

So on to the updates! Killian is sick right now with a cold. I think the entire family actual has this cold, but we all feel so badly for Killian. Sean said today he hates waking up his sick little girl in the morning. She still puts on a happy face for her daddy. It just has boogies all over it. We realized there was something wrong with her when she showed no interest in food one morning. In her 14 months of being with us, I can not ever remember a time she has not wanted to eat.

She is getting so big. It seems like every time I pick her up after work she has more teeth, more hair and has lots of new stuff to show me. Her current new task is shuffling her feet. She loves to hear her shoes on the hard surfaces. So grandma taught her to take quick little steps and shuffle. Killian just bends her knees really fast and laughs. She marches with one leg. She looks as if she has a leg brace on and can not bend her leg.

We are still working on teaching her all of her Aunts and Uncles names. She will say Katie, Wawa, Sarah, and Kira (the last 3 sound all the same but still they count). Uncle Dave and Uncle Dan are just dad. Ian, Colleen and Erin are causing her some problems. She justs says "Huh?" She loves to look at the picture of Daddy and all his brothers and sisters. She will point to Sean and say Daddy! Then for some crazy reason she will point to Ian and Lauren and say "I saw you Uncle Ian and Aunt Wawa holding other babies who were not me. Oh I am so sad!" Just kidding!!!

We are getting very very excited to finally come out to California and see/meet everyone! Only a couple months now! I will leave you with some beautiful pictures of Killian playing outside this weekend!

AH WARMTH!

Today was beautiful day! It got up to 60 degrees! I know, that's not really warm for some of our California and Florida family and friends. But for February in Illinois....break out the t-shirts and flip flops! Well not so much the flip flops, everything is so muddy!

A friend of ours went out with us today and her twin boys who are 7ish. We were taking pictures around town. Killian loved playing outside. She had a great time running around and the wind blowing her hair. I think Stefanie had fun chasing her too! We were at our last stop for the day...a baseball field. Well the boys made it into the infield. That is where the fun begins. They both managed to get ankle deep in mud, slush, dirt, snow, all around grossness. Teresa and I went out to help them. One fell flat on his tush while she helped, nearly taking her down with him! I was laughing so hard, sorry Teresa! But hey I don't have to clean them up. My daughter does not like the dirt (yet). The boys were covered in mud from the feet to their waist. Luckily they had on some long underwear and had to take off all their dirty clothes before getting in the truck. But they had fun! And if you can't get all muddy with your local Librarians, who can ya' get muddy with! Thank you Teresa, Nick, Jake and Stefanie for such an awesome day! Let's do it again!!!

As we left Sean turned to me and said "Man, we need to have some boys!"