CRAZINESS!!!

It's pure ciaos for us right now. If you didn't know, we have closed down our little cafe that we had in Nevada, IA, and are opening up a full restaurant in Story City, IA, and I start training on Thursday April 30th, and I hope we're ready! It's pure craziness, and I'm tired, and Brads tired, and we're both tired and just ready to be up and going to be bringing in some income. To be honest, once we're up and going, it will be like vacation. All the menus will be done, construction done, and planning done! We will actually just be working, doing the easy part, serving the customers and making the food! Piece of cake! I can't wait! Please pray for us..... pray that we get open quickly, pray that we get everything done and finished in a timely manner, pray that we don't get short tempered with one another, and pray that we always look for Gods wisdom, and guidance in all things. Take a look at all the work we've been doing; www.theoldoperacafe.com under 'our journey'. It's pix of our new building from start to now. Continue to check back often to see the new pix, and all the other fun stuff. A huge shout out of thanks to my brother-in-law and his employee Peter for coming all the way to Iowa, to run all the electrical in our building in 3 days! Talk about work horses!
THANK YOU JIM! THANK YOU PETER! We would not have been able to open without you guys!

Courtney on Helium....

Let me translate for you;
Hey guys, it's Courtney and um, I'm not quite sure what's wrong with my voice, but oh my gosh....
(inhale, inhale)
I don't know what's wrong with my voice, but I really like this song, let's start dancing, aaahhhhh.....

Hilarious. Though, she said the Helium made her sick. I don't know if she'll try that again!

Crystal Ball

Well, Brad & I finally let Courtney go to her first dance, It was called Crystal Ball (just a winter dance) and a friend asked her to go. She tells me he's only a friend, and that the boy she likes had already asked someone about a month prior (talk about being organized!). So, she went with Ryan just as friends. He came over before the dance for us to take pictures, and for Brad to clarify that if in fact he tried to make any moves on her, or his hands went further down on the slow dances than they should, he would suffer the consequences of Brad, the dad!! LOL
By looking at the pictures, Courtney could have taken him down herself!! (don't tell her I said that!) No, really, she is beautiful, and had a really fun time. She didn't know that her mom used to work for Glamour Shots...... hence all the pix. No, just kidding. I never worked there.

Awkward...

Should I have asked him to show me some muscle?

I told them to give me some attitude. Pure craziness don't you think?!?!

This would be her showing me how'd she fall on her face at some point in the evening.

She told me she looked Amish with the Daisies! I love it.

Big daddy, little date!!!









Cute hair, right??

Birthdays, Birthdays, Birthdays #3

Taylor's turn. 8 & growing. I think all of my kids have had a growth spurt this winter. Every ones pants are short!! Anyhow, as if our own 5 girls aren't enough, we invited over 6 more. PERFECT! Now we're up to 11 females (not including myself or my M.I.L. That would be 13). What a man I have! "What's a few more women in the house?" he says. The girls came home with Taylor right after school, and played hard all afternoon and night, until they finally went to bed (not sleep) at 10pm! I didn't hear them too much after that though. They had to be tired! You could have mistaken me for a Taco Bell worker with how fast and efficient I was whipping out those tacos on our assembly line! Thank goodness for bedtime!!!!!!!!!

Birthdays, Birthdays, Birthdays #2

Mommy's bday. As you can see by the candle, I turned one year older than I was last year! I received beautiful flowers from my hubby & a new perfume from my girls. The yummy chocolate cake was made by my lovely husband, who knows the way to my heart! It was delish.

Birthdays, Birthdays, Birthdays #1

Courtney's party. First sledding, then a basketball game, then the sleepover, which why do they call it a "sleep over" when there is little to no sleep?? Pizza, cake, ice cream, and the Wii was had by all and everyone had fun fun fun.

Christmas Day

What a wonderful day we had together rejoicing in our Saviors birth. I had thought that if the weather was good, we would all go sledding after opening presents. Well, I didn't even make it out of my pajamas nevertheless out of the house. Any opportunity the girls have to dress up in dresses and tights; their all over it (excluding Courtney of course!) They were already dressed before we were even out of bed! Aunt Bobbi gave us our beautiful dresses and shoes to match! THANK YOU AUNT BOBBI! WE LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (and our dresses!)

What a great time when your able to stay still with your loved ones, and not have to worry about life outside your home. We hope you all were able to spend time with your families and loved ones as well. And by the way.... Happy New Year! 2009, I'm getting old. Wasn't Stallone in a movie where he was a cop (with Sandra Bullock) in the future? Wasn't the year 2010? If so, be prepared for robocop next year & new police uniforms! Scary.
Well happy picture viewing.

The big family gift was the Wii. What a hit that was from the teenager all the way to a 3 year old! It was the perfect gift! I do believe that we all have been sore from playing the wii. How fun is that?

BTW, Ashley is the best boxer in our house! She is still #1!

Family.... if you'd like to see all of our pix from Christmas Eve & day, go here:

http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLanding.action?c=o7a5351.bgaeym21&x=0&h=1&y=myn5o1&localeid=en_US

If you have any problems, let me know. Love to you all!