Grill pictures

Happy Feast Day, Elizabeth!

In the Catholic church, patron saints are holy people that have gone before us who give us an example of ways to live our lives and who can intercede for us. In Poland (as well as several countries in Europe), it is common to celebrate Name Day which typically aligns with the feast day celebration. November 17th is Elizabeth's feast day - the feast day of St. Elizabeth of Hungary. To make it a special day, we had a family outing to Ritter's for chocolate ice cream. Elizabeth had a wonderful time - we think she's going to be pretty into the feast day thing!

Sunday Night Football

Grandma and Grandpa Downing bought Elizabeth a Colts outfit for her birthday and she had to wear it to support the home team on the night of the Colts-Patriots game. AnnCatherine still prefers her in Green and Gold (Go Pack Go!), but I don't think there's much debate that she looks adorable regardless.

Look! I can walk!!!

Right around the time of her first birthday, Elizabeth started walking. Now, she is zooming around and challenging us to rearrange things already. Watch out, world!

Happy Halloween!!!

This year, we were indoctrinated into the Halloween festivities in our new neighborhood, Sylvan Ridge. Our friends, the Poulakidas's, joined us so Maria and Elizabeth could trick-or-treat together. We joined in the neighborhood picnic and then witnessed the craziest trick-or-treating ever. We had hundreds of kids at our house! 500 pieces of candy - gone. Our favorite parts included the neighbors who hand out jello shots and the man in the green pick up truck who drives around with beer for the adults walking the kids from house to house. No kidding! But the best part was Elizabeth in the adorable flapper costume her Grandma Ruth made for her having a blast! She and Maria had a great time playing even after the outdoor festivities had ended. We hope you all had a Happy Halloween, too!

A first birthday party

We enjoyed having friends and family over for Elizabeth's first birthday party on the day after her birthday. Elizabeth must have sensed the excitement and observed all of the preparations because she would not take a nap all day, even though the party didn't start until late in the afternoon. We were very afraid there would be a major meltdown, but our little party animal enjoyed being the center of attention too much to rest. We watched her first year memory video, ate dinner, opened presents and had chocolate cake. Thank you to those who were able to join us to celebrate this special day...

Happy First Birthday, Elizabeth!!!

HAPPY 1ST BIRTHDAY, ELIZABETH!

October 23rd, 2009. Elizabeth's first birthday. Its amazing to think of what we were doing a year ago... Thankfully, tonight we had a spaghetti dinner at home. Think Elizabeth enjoyed it?

We count our blessings for this amazing, healthy, special (and extremely active) little girl everyday.

Jarod & AnnCatherine take London

Jarod had a business trip to the UK, so we decided to make a mommy-daddy vacation out of it and we hung out in London for 5 days. We saw Billy Elliott on the West End, we went to Notting Hill to the Portobello Road market, walked the banks of and took a boatride on the Thames, took a double decker bus tour, visited St. Paul's and Westminster Abbey, went to the London Silver Vaults, shopped (of course) and toured the Tower of London. It was a whirlwind trip, but, as always, we fit in as much as we could.

Thanks to Grandma Ruth and Grandpa Dave for giving Elizabeth a vacation in WI while we were away! And thanks to Grandpa Doug and Grandma Mary for watching Roamy, too...

Libby's first year memory video - and an early birthday party!

While we were in Wisconsin for the Ludwig wedding, we had a little early first birthday party with AnnCatherine's family. Elizabeth loved the lemon cupcakes that Great Grandma Mary made and everyone enjoyed the Carl's pizza - a real Kenosha tradition. The highlight of the party, in addition to the fun toys of course!, was the video Uncle Mike and Aunt Lisa made of Elizabeth's first year. If you'd like to watch, please click on the link below. What a wonderful way to capture memories of our little girl.

Please click on the link below to see the video. For PC users, you may need to download the free quicktime plug in. Enjoy!


http://gallery.me.com/mltennis/100030

Wedding Fun!

AnnCatherine and Jarod were honored to stand up in her cousin Adrien's wedding to her high school friend, Toni Drissel. It was a beautiful affair - a very traditional ceremony followed by a big party. They even had fireworks! Elizabeth joined for the ceremony... what a wonderful family event!

Bath Time!!!

Jarod is the ultimate Daddy when it comes to bathtime. And no one loves bathtime (or any water for that matter) more than Elizabeth. We are convinced she thinks the whirlpool jets were added just for her amusement - more toys! And that there is a 'water god' that magically turns on the faucet. Who knew bathtime could be such fun...

Elizabeth's first high school football game

Our good friend Kyle is now the head coach of Anderson High School's varsity football team and we made a family outing to watch the Indians play. It was Elizabeth's first live high school football game and we all really enjoyed ourselves despite the home team losing. Jarod had a bit of difficulty cheering for Anderson since they are an old rival of Pendleton Heights, but friendship prevailed.

And yes - in case you weren't sure - Elizabeth is wearing her Packers jersey to commemorate the occasion. (Thanks, Grandma Ruth!)

I love my family!

I'm spoiled and loved! Can you tell?

We're finally back... The posts continue

Dear friends,
Well, I offer my sincere apologies that it has been so long since there has been a blog post. With moving to our new home, we've had quite a bit going on. But now the computer is hooked up, the boxes have at least been relegated to the basement and its starting to feel like home. So now its time to catch up on posts. I'll be backdating some updates from July onward, so please go back and check for new posts that might seem old! :)

Thanks for your patience - and please drop us a line when you can...

Love,
Jarod, AnnCatherine, Elizabeth and Roamy

Our first dinner in the new dining room

We were so excited that AnnCatherine's Great Grandma Mary made the trip to Indianapolis from Kenosha to see our new home and spend time with our family. We had a great visit! It was the perfect occasion for the first meal in our new dining room, on Great Grandma's heirloom china, of course!

Blessing of the House

Well, now that we've been in our new house for a few weeks, we wanted to take advantage of the wonderful Catholic custom of house blessings. Our pastor, Fr. Tony, kindly agreed to come and bless our home and we had some of our Catholic friends and family over to celebrate with us. Fr. Tony said a few beautiful prayers and blessed a bowl of Holy Water. Each guest then walked through the house and made the Sign of the Cross on a part of each room with the Holy Water. What a wonderful way to start making new memories here! Thank you so much to all who joined us for the celebration...

A special treat...

Grandma Ruth and Grandpa Dave said that a little girl needs a special treat after getting her ears pierced, so Elizabeth got to try her first popsicle. It was definitely a hit and made quite a mess. We had to finally take the stick away and just let her eat the icy part after it melted too far, but Libby didn't seem to mind too much. Looking at the picture, do you think she enjoyed it?

This Baby's Got Bling!

Being that she is AnnCatherine's daughter, jewelry is of course an important consideration for Elizabeth. So, since we love jewelry (and to reduce the number of people who think she is a boy even if she's wearing pink), we decided to have her ears pierced. We found a doctor in our network who would pierce them for us and - lickedy split - they were done. Elizabeth was a trooper! If she could talk, I'm sure she'd say it was easier than shots. So now her ears are ready to be accessorized! Diamond studs anyone? :)

SWING!!!

Thanks to Libby's cousin Connor, she has a spiffy swing in a tree outside our new house. While we have to wipe it down each time we use it since she loves to eat the front bar, it is great fun! Even our new neighbor friend Ellie comes over to push Elizabeth in her swing. Thanks, Connor! We love it...

My Grandpa's Car

We had heard it many times - kids don't need expensive toys to be happy. Well, we can guarantee that to be true. One of Elizabeth's true favorites stemmed from our recent move and her Grandpa Dave's ability to generate great noises. She seemed absolutely enamored by our empty boxes and Grandpa Dave started to play with her in it. This has now resulted in Elizabeth's "car". It is a copier box with a long string looped through it that Grandpa pulls her around the house in. Giggles abound!!! Of course it wouldn't be the same without the 'zoom zooms', screeching breaks and idling noises Grandpa Dave makes which would lead you to believe the 'car' needs new shocks. But - no matter if maintenance is needed - Elizabeth couldn't be happier in it.