Birthday Boys!

November 25th was a very important date for two reasons...Baxter turned 21 (he's actually 3 in human years) and Herb turned the BIG 6-0! We tried to fill Herb's cake with that many candles, but Erin and I were not able to obtain the proper fire permits in time, so he had to settle for six candles instead. Baxter got to have his first adult beverage since he was of legal age...he wanted to go bar hopping, but I didn't want to be hung over for work the next day.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope all of our family and friends had a wonderful Thanksgiving...especially after a Packer victory! Here are a few pics of Claire's first Thanksgiving which we spent in Milwaukee at Erin's aunt and uncles house (Ed and CC's). We had a very interesting trip home...we decided to go deer hunting. While driving north on 43, and just a few miles south of Manitowoc, we hit 2 deer (yes, 2 of them at the same time). There wasn't any traffic, and by time we saw them in the head lights it was too late. No one was hurt, other than some damage to Herbs company car. But it sure did make for an exciting end to our day!

Someone is moving!

Last week Friday Claire decided that she was sick of only being able to roll around...so she started army crawling! At least we have Baxter to help keep tabs on her.

Basement update

Well, things are really starting to progress downstairs. After framing for the past two months (when I had time on the weekends), I've finally moved on to other stages of the building process...thank god. Last week we had the full bath installed, and last night we started running all of the electrical/cable/phone wires. So, from 6pm - 2am we (myself and two very helpful friends) worked on that...and we still have a few more hours to go. We do have working recessed lights though, which is great! As you can see from the pics, the drywall was delivered today...so sheetrocking will start on Monday (which means plastering should be done no later than Wednesday morning!). My goal is still to have it done (well, at least almost done) by Claire's 1st b-day party on the 15th...so the next few weeks will be busy! As frustrating as this process has been at times, I just keep thinking of the day I'll be able to sit down there with an adult beverage, and watch a Packer game on our new 46" LCD (which should be here in a few weeks!!). More pics to come next week after the plastering is complete...



The 12' sheets of drywall that were delivered today...thankfully they took it downstairs!



Work-out room



Bathroom



View from family room...we'll have a back bar under the stairs...steps to the right go to the garage.

Bath-time...but for who?

Claire isn't too sure if she's taking a bath...or if Baxter is going to jump in before her.

A lot has changed in 10 months!

Last night we had our friends Andy and Jennifer (along with their daughter Marren) over for dinner. Claire and Marren were born about a week apart and were in the NICU at the same time...so the six of us have a pretty special bond. As you can see from the pictures, they both have changed a lot in the past 10 months. The first pic is the day that they were both dischared from the hospital (yes, they both got to leave on the same day!), and the other two are from last night.

Claire's new buddy

Grover was a gift to her from one of our neighbors on Halloween...I think she likes him!

Claire has a twin?

Happy Halloween!

Claire and Baxter decided to dress alike for her first Halloween...so we had two cute skunks at our house. Claire did a little trick-or-treating with Erin by our house, then went to Great-Grandma McVey's to show off her costume. I got to stay home and hand out candy to a bunch of 15 year olds who thought "dressing up" meant wearing their street clothes with a mask on their head.

Picking out my first pumpkin

Erin took Claire to a pumpkin patch after work one night so she could find a pumpkin for her first Halloween.