Christmas Celebrations!

We had a great time this holiday weekend.  We went to the zoo, spent time with our families, and as usual, made a trip to urgent care.  Everyone is doing much better and we are recovering from all the fun!

The Big Day!

We recently celebrated a big day in the Sand family...the marriage of Michael and Brittany.  It was a family affair as Ryan and Connor were the ring bearers and Matthew was the best man.  After much worrying, the boys and Kate ended up doing great at the wedding (even sitting nicely through the ceremony).  Everyone had a great time and we couldn't be happier to welcome Brittany to the family!

Rehearsal dinner cuties 

Stealing the show

 Someone didn't want to pose for pictures

Getting to be a little man 

 What a ham!!

The cutest ring bearers ever!!

A selfie for Carol

Meeting the Big Guy...

Winter Happenings

We've been busy getting ready for the holidays, celebrating Thanksgiving, welcoming a new family member, etc.  

Doing some shopping 

Being sassy 

"Back where I come from" 

Take my picture Mom!! 

Welcome to the family Isaac!!

Illumination time... 

S'more time...

Blame Apple...

A few weeks ago our computer stopped working.  After a trip to our friendly (and crowded) Apple store, we were up one brand new hard drive and minus all our data and pictures.  Luckily, almost everything was backed up and we didn't lose too much.  The stuff we did lose I'm trying not to think about because it makes me crazy.  Even while all this was going on, we've managed to have some fun...Halloween, pumpkin patch, family pictures...

His father's son 

 What a character!!

How can I get these boots off?

Connor the Horse and Kylo Ren 

Quinn the Baby Chick 

Hayrack ride 

Looking cool!

Connor's school picture...this sums him up perfectly :)

Just hanging out...

We've been getting in as much outside time as possible before winter comes!!

Carnivals, reunions and birthday parties...oh my!!

I am so behind on blogging.  I blame work, the kids and the Cubs...not necessarily in that order.  Here's a little of what we've been up to the last month or so.

We went to a carnival in La Grange and thanks to Drew's skill (??) at winning carnival goldfish, we became the proud owners of two fish.

Meet Mr. Grouper and Gil

Unfortunately, Mr. Grouper did not survive our night in Dwight (see below).  Gil lived another week or so but soon joined his friend in toilet bowl heaven.  We now have a new fish named Rainbow...here's to hoping this one lasts longer.

Since the carnival in La Grange was such a big hit, we headed to Dwight for Harvest Days and enjoyed the home run derby and the carnival.  Both my dad and Erik participated in the derby and Erik ended up in second place.  

Watching Papa and Uncle E 

Playing with Elsa 

Roller coaster time 

After the carnival, we headed to Oglesby for the Popurella family reunion.

Connor and Elsa hanging out 

Connor helping Papa 

Nolan  

The Family

We also celebrated Quinn's first birthday with the family.  It was a great day but Quinn was a little under the weather.  Turns out she had both a double ear infection and mouth ulcers.  Very painful but she is doing much better now.

 Q was not interested in her cake at all

Oh boy 

Happy 1st birthday Quinn!

Q also had her one year old pictures taken.  While we think Quinn is adorable, we don't think modeling is in her future.  She really wanted nothing to do with the pictures but they turned out cute anyways.