Quiet weekend?

Have a great week!!

Okay so what I'm about to list may not exactly be someone's definition of a quiet weekend but for us it sure seemed like it since we seem to not really be able to stay at home very much on the weekends!! We actually stayed in Columbus the whole weekend. Slept in our own beds all weekend!! We had a great time with friends, Roger, Mandy, and Reece Friday night. We let the kids tear the house apart while we contemplated parents, family, and being parents. We also watched the season premiere of "Grey's Anatomy". We realized that maybe we were not paying much attention to how much the kids were into when Reece came out all jammied up in matching pajamas with Madeline and Lillian, brushing her teeth with one of Lillian's tooth brushes. Hmmmm. Oops. They had a great time.

Saturday, Grandpa Mark and Grandma Pat joined us to watch Madeline's soccer game and help construct the climbing wall to add to the swing set. The girls are very excited about the wall. They are both very good at mastering the wall. Lilly surprised us with her determination to get to the top! She did it with just a little instruction from Dad.
We decorated for fall, started laundry, found bedding that had been lost for a few years (this was exciting since the guest bedroom downstairs was desperately needing new sheets). We watched the Husker game that night and called it a day.
Sunday we went to church, hung a bigger bulletin board to display preschool and school work, finished the climbing wall, mowed, finished laundry, fertilized, made pesto for the freezer and made cake and cookies in the "Easy Bake Oven". It was great!!! I know I have a warped sense of what a weekend at home looks like. TTFN
Delanie

Madeline reading "Madeline"

This is not the best quality video in terms of lighting but she was doing so well with her reading that I took the opportunity to record it and share it. TTFN
Delanie

Thanks Great Grandpa Charlie and Great Grandma Vi

Lillian's Birthday Fun

"I can do it!" She's finally big enough!!

Birthday Girl

Yummy! Is he making eyes at her?

Best Buds. She's laying claim.

All tuckered out from fishing.

We need a bigger garage!! Is this wrong that our cars aren't in here?

SHE'S THREE!!! Lillian had her day (or should I say second day if you count the zoo) in the sun. She had a great day and she loved to see her friends and family (especially Eli). It seems that Eli might be her favorite friend of all!! I can tell we are going to have to keep a close eye on this one. They were glued to each other. They had not seen each other for a while so the squeels of delight were deafening. Eli couldn't seem to eat his cake without touching Lilly and Lilly couldn't seem to open her presents without placing her hand on Eli's leg whenever possible!! This was before they took off in the car.

Her fishing pole was probably one of the gifts that she was most excited about. This choice was slightly surprising since we all anticipated that her pink Mustang would be the top pick. Not to say that the princess fishing pole doesn't look nice in the pink Mustang. Saturday evening she was driving across the yard with her fishing pole so it's a close tie.

She got to test the fishing pole out when we went to the lake on Sunday. She constantly reminds us that she caught three fish and "Reese too!". I'm not sure who was actually doing most the fishing the girls or the dads. Enjoy the pics! TTFN

Delanie

A little serious

As this week has gone on I have been trying to figure out what about this week made it more difficult than last. Yes, I'm sure it has to do with taking part in the walk but as I was trying to go to sleep and put my thoughts to rest I realized what part of it was. I realized that ever since April everytime we leave the company of family and friends I spend the next few days a little blue. I immediately try to figure out ways to see somebody, anybody as soon as possible so that I can tell myself it won't be long before we get see to somebody that means more to us than anything. Not to say that we don't have wonderful friends right here in Columbus but they aren't my brothers and sisters. I find myself afraid that someday I will lose another chance to see one of your faces and dread when we all have to say good-bye at the end of a visit,. So to Janelle, Coyde, Melissa, Shelly, Angie, Dan, Duane, John, Bud, Whitney, Julie, Chris, Jenn, Roger, Mandy, Kyle, Dana, Matt, Sadie and last but certainly not least Amy I want you all to know that I love each and every one of you. I know that I don't get all of you seen or talked to enough but know that I carry you with me everyday, think of you often, and will always be there for no matter what it is that you need. I look forward to watching our children grow and one day at their weddings we can remember a time that we were the life of the party (Let's face it we still try to be but we are getting a little calmer at times!!). Enough gushy, mushy. TTFN
DJ

A Day at the Zoo!!

Some time between 12:00 and 2:00 a.m.


The famous cake. Mader, Lightning, and Barbie all together



Yep!!! She ate ALL of it. Every last bite!! WOW!!

Exhausted after the zoo, ......resting for the cake.

Lillian, Reagan Mac Kenzie, Reese, and Madeline. Dylan and Emery were not interested in posing!!


Some of the group waiting for the rest of the group.


Kyle the "picture hog"!

As the day began. Rested, waiting for the sun, and excited.

Lillian, almost 3

Wow!! What a weekend. Lillian, along with two of our other friends kiddos are celebrating birthdays within weeks of each other. Lillian will be 3, Dylan will be 3, and Reagan will be 6. What does mean? This means we get the crazy idea of getting everyone together for a day at Henry Doorly Zoo. This happens to be one of the world's best zoos and it's right in out "backyard"! So about twenty of us accumulated and spent the day with each other. Needless to say it was alot of fun. After the we were all exhausted from the zoo we all gathered at Kyle and Dana's house to celebrate the birthdays and watch the Husker game. This is pretty typical of this group. Fun, rest, eat, fun, rest, eat, fun,.........you get the idea.

Kyle makes their daughters cakes every year so this was no different. He just had to figure out how to incorporate two themes into one. Not hard right? Lillian and Dylan wanted Lightning McQueen and Mader from the movie "Cars" and Reagan wanted Barbie. He spent 5 hours creating his masterpiece. THANKS KYLE!! It was awesome. The day started at 7:00 a.m. and ended at 2 a.m. with Eric, Duane, Kyle, and Coyde pretending to be a rock band by trying to figure out how to play some songs with Kyle's Rock Band game.

The next day, Sunday, started much the same way with four little girls giddy with excitement playing with each other while the very tired adults in the house tried to pull themelves together for today's events. We got the cars loaded and eveyone again packed into their vehicles and headed across Omaha to the Suicide Prevention Community Walk in honor of Chad. The weather was windy and chilly but it could have been worse and after all it was Chads kind of weather. It was kind of fitting. There were over 60 of Chads family and friends that walked in his memory. It was a great event. It was quiet and kind. There was a certain graciousness and kindness among all the participants. We all miss him deeply.

The girls slept all the way home and went straight to bed. We'll see how they bounce back in the morning. All-in-all it was, in Lillian's words, an awesome weekend.

TTFN

Delanie

P.S. Sorry for the spacing and spelling errors. I'm tired!!!

Labor Day at the Lake

"WEEE!!!! Uncle Roger ThatWas FUN!!!! Do It Again!!!"

Madeline and Whitney

One of the favorite "spots" at the lake.

Best Friends

Lillian and Grandpa enjoying the game.

John, Madeline, Hannah and their fish.

The gang watching the game.

All the kids in the "newest" addition to the lake.

These were just some highlights of our Labor Day weekend. It was an awesome weekend with our friends and famiy. This was also a practice run for me trying to figure out how to save pictures off of shutterfly to my computer and then get them posted on the blog. Like I said, this stuff has always been Eric's domain. TTFN

Delanie

Who we are in "short".

The "dad". Eric works at ADM corn processors as a QA Chemist. He is looking forward to a busy year as he prepares for moving the labs into new facilities. On the home front he is a busy guy. Yes, he does 95% of the cooking. This is awesome and greatly appreciated. He keeps his little girs happy and loves spending time with us, friends, and family. He is also a huge Huskers fan and becoming a cheering soccer dad.
The "mom". I am a speech/language pathologist at Wiggles & Giggles Therapy for Kids. I also do some contract work with one of the nursing homes in town. I desperately want to be extremely organized and efficient but this often eludes me!! Being called "mom" by Madeline and Lillian is the greatest honor I have ever had. We enjoy being together and making each other laugh.
Madeline, our oldest daughter is six years old, a first grader, a dancer, a soccer player, a gymnast, and a giggle box until she's tired. When she's tired watch out!! Then it quickly becomes all about the DRAMA!! She looks like her father and has her mother's attitude.
Lillian, our youngest daughter is three years old and looks like she's 18 months old. We have recently been referring to her as our Chineese gymnast as we watch people at play group try to figure out how old she is. She is sweet, lovable, and silly, until she draws the line in the sand and decides to stand her ground. Yes, she gets that from....her mother!

Explanation of Blog Name

As I contemplated possible names I wanted to somehow catch the personalities and fun that are knows as "us". This didthe job. This was a nickname that one of our closest friends tagged Eric with about 10 years ago. Since that time Eric became "Hubcap", I was tagged as "Mrs. Cap". When our daughter Madeline was born she was tagged as "bottlecap" and when Lillian came into the scene both girls became knows as "bottlecaps". So there we are Hubcap, Mrs. Cap and the Bottlcaps.
I wanted to create this blog so that family and friends could see what we were up to from time to time. There will probably not be new entries every day but I hope to add on a regular basis. This will also be the jumping off point for me in terms of being responsible for downloading pictures as this has typically been Hudcaps job. Yikes!
I hope to get pictures and biographies posted soon. Till then take care.