Manning family

Our new basement!

2011-01-08T13:24:00.000-08:00

We finally finished our basement! Luke moved into his new room and we are getting settled. I think the boys adjusted better than I did! We still have to decorate, but here are a few pictures to give you an idea of what it looks like.

Home Stretch

2010-11-02T14:53:00.000-07:00

We are almost done with the basement - finally! I have posted some pictures of our progress. We are getting carpet on Friday and will spend the next week on building the bar and the finishing touches. Luke can't wait to get into his new room and I can't wait to have my house back in order.
The first door is the storage area, the second is the bathroom, and the french doors go into the future exercise room.

The bar area, minus the actual bar. I need to take pictures of the inside so you can see Ben's wonderful beer sign!

Progress on the Basement

2010-05-14T20:24:00.001-07:00

We are finishing our basement! Ben has been working on the basement over the past couple of months so I thought I would show you our progress...

Part of the project was to change the countertop on our kitchen island. It used to be 2 levels and we ended up not liking it or using it. We ordered a new countertop and switched the dishwasher and the sink around. We have used it so much in the short time that it has been changed.

Once the basement is finished we will have a bar area, a family room, Luke's room, bathroom, and a workout room. This picture looks into the bar area. There is a log beam at the top and will be stone along each side. There will be a bar sink and a fridge near the bar.

This picture looks into the work out area and the bathroom. Luke's room is to the left. We still have several things to pick out like the doors, trim, vanity, etc.

Ben installed a fireplace in the family room area. We will put a TV above the fireplace at some point.
I will try to do a better job posting updates. Hopefully the next time I show basement pictures there will be drywall!

Happy Mother's Day!!

2010-05-14T20:05:00.001-07:00

Ben, the boys and I decided to go for a hike at Castle Rock State Park for Mother's day. We tried to take a few pictures so I had something to put in my new digital picture frame that they gave me! Here are some of the pictures of us at the park.

Goodbye Sinnissippi :(

2009-12-06T18:43:00.001-08:00

Sinnissippi Tree Farm is closing after this season. It was our last Christmas tree from a place that Ben and I grew up going to. It was a tradition for us to go there, eat hot donuts, drink cider and hot cocoa and cut down our tree. We are sad to see it close. What will we do next year???

We always go to the main area to get the donuts and drink hot cocoa. Santa is there, but my non of my boys have ever sat on his lap!

We then drove over to another field to cut down our Frasier Fir. Its my favorite tree, although we had a hard time finding one that we liked this year.

We pulled a wagon to carry our tree, but the boys decided to take it for a ride down the hill first.

It was a little more difficult keeping up with Dylan this year. He loved running down the rows of trees. We all took turns watching him and trying to find the perfect tree. We always hope to see a big light shine down over the right tree like in the movie Christmas Vacation, but for some reason it never happens!

Happy Halloween!

2009-10-31T09:30:00.000-07:00

We held our annual pumpkin carving day last Sunday afternoon. We are very competitive about carving the best pumpkin! No one can see each other's masterpiece until we are all finished. This year seemed to be the year of the mean faced pumpkin. Caden was so helpful that he carved his own and also carved Dylan's.

Everyone hard at work on their pumpkins.

My dad and Debbie were here for the weekend so they helped get Dyl's pumpkin ready. Thanks guys!!

The finished product! Scary!

Do you think Ben is a die hard HUBS fan or what?

Dylan with a carving knife - scary! Do the boys realize he has the knife? Someone could lose an eye.

Good job guys - the pumpkins turned out great!

Homecoming and picking pumpkins

2009-10-18T19:59:00.000-07:00

Luke went to homecoming this year with Mackenzie Crandall who is a sophomore. They went with a group of 32 people to Lino's in Rockford. He had a great time at dinner and at the dance. It's hard to believe he is in high school already. He is really enjoying everything about high school and I am glad. Luke is doing really well in his classes and in football so I think he has adjusted to high school.

This is a portion of the group Luke went with. There were so many kids we couldn't get them all in the picture. The girls all had beautiful dresses, remember when we wore sweaters and skirts to homecoming???

We went to the pumpkin place over the weekend. We each picked a pumpkin to carve. It has become a tradition to outdo each other with our carvings. I must admit my pumpkin is usually spectacular :) Luke picked out his pumpkin in a record 30 seconds, while Caden took a little time trying to look for the perfect one. He ended up going with a small, fat, green pumpkin so I will be excited to see how it turns out. I went with a "Cinderella" pumpkin which is short, fat, and a reddish orange. Even Dyl picked out a pumpkin, which I think is as big as he is!

Caden wasn't feeling that well during the pumpkin adventure, but was excited to go anyway. Luke had other things he wanted to do so he tried to rush all of us. Doesn't he look thrilled to be there in the picture?

On a side note, Caden is also doing really well in school and did a great job in football. This seems to be his favorite sport, at least for now. We start basketball in a couple of months so we'll see how well he likes that.

On a final note, the Dyl has been growing and doing new things every day. This includes becoming very mischievious. He even has a laugh to go with his new personality and it is very sinister. I'm starting to worry what the terrible two's will bring, because he is a crazy man already! He has also started growling, really for no reason. He has little temper tantrums where he throws himself on the floor and does a little fake cry. Isn't he a little young for that? It couldn't be that he is a little spoiled?? He does have 2 brothers that will do anything for him and shower him with love and attention. He's got it made!

Too tired to title

2009-10-18T19:35:00.000-07:00

So this time of year we spend most of our time at football games. Luke is playing on the freshman and sophomore team so that covers Monday and Friday nights. Caden plays and Ben coaches the flag football team and they play on Wednesdays. Dylan has spend so much time at the games he now loves football too. He loves it so much he wants to hold a football even while he eats! You can imagine how messy that can be.

Grandpa Supler's 92nd birthday was in September. We celebrated with him at my aunt Karen's house for an outdoor breakfast. We had a good time hanging out with Joe, Laura and Julia, Papa and Nana, and my cousin Greg and his girlfriend Shaun. Caden and Dyl had fun playing with Aunt Karen's dog Holly. I think Holly was worn out by the time we left!

The boys also played a little football (don't they get enough of that already???) while we were there. Dylan kept running over the hill behind Ben down into a parking lot, so we had to take turns chasing after that little bugger.

Little miss Julia was having fun trying to crawl around and explore. Her and Dylan didn't really even notice each other. I think they were too busy checking everything else out. Look at those cheeks!

Nana and Julia were hanging out.

Baseball, Upnorth and Pictures

2009-07-11T22:00:00.000-07:00

Well, the summer has been very busy with baseball. We are finally winding down, Caden is officially done, travel for Luke is done, and all that's left is Rochelle All Stars. Just think, football starts in 2 weeks!! What will we do with ourselves until then????

At one of Caden's baseball games Dylan found a friend to play with, her name is Dylan too!

The baseball game wore them out! They didn't seem to mind taking a snooze during the 5th inning.

Luke's last tournament of the travel season was in Naperville. The boys did a great job! Oh, notice Luke's baseball hat - don't you think the bill looks weird?

Over the fourth of July we went upnorth to stay at Nana and Papa's cabin. It was a full house with my sisters DeAnna and Laura and their families and our nephew Zach. All together there was 8 adults and 7 kids, 4 of them were under the age of 2! We all had a good time swimming, fishing, sitting by the fire and hanging out. It was great to see Caden and Zach having so much fun, they never get to see each other but they hit it off right away. I bought some fake tatoos at the store so they spent an hour tatooing themselves and each other! They had a blast!

We finally had professional pictures taken of Dylan (little late on that one!) and of the 3 boys together. I have had a hard time catching the 3 of them in a picture so I was happy to get this done. They all cooperated so well and smiled in all the pictures. That made it very hard to decide on which ones to buy! Here are a couple of them to check out. I will hopefully have the real pictures in a week or so.

I don't know if you can tell, but Dyl has 2 teeth on the bottom. Isn't it funny how he doesn't look like the other two?

He just learned how to do "So Big" while he was getting pictures taken - what good timing! Well, that's all I have for you and its past my bedtime so goodnight!

What a weekend - confirmation on Sunday

2009-05-31T19:58:00.000-07:00

Okay so if graduation wasn't enough, Luke was also confirmed this weekend! Luke has been attending confirmation classes since January. Pastor Brett told the kids that if any of them could beat him wrestling he would confirm them on the spot. Let's just say they all were confirmed this morning!

This is the only picture I have of all three boys! It actually turned out pretty good.

Dylan decided to only want Luke to hold him all day! He even wanted Luke over me! Maybe he liked Luke's pink shirt????

We had Luke's graduation party on Sunday after the confirmation. We had a good time watching all the kids (16 of them!) and hanging out. All in all it was a great weekend.

We officially have a high schooler!

2009-05-31T19:46:00.000-07:00

On Friday night we celebrated Luke's graduation from 8th grade. I was excited and sad and proud all at the same time! He looked so handsome and OLD! We were excited to see him get an award for being on the high honor roll all 3 years. He also received the Presidential Academic Excellence Award, which only 18 students out of 190 received. He then went to a dance afterward and had a great time.

I noticed in this picture that someone is the same height as me. I am not liking this!

Luke looking cool!

Luke and the guys. Notice the pink theme.

A Birthday and a Fun Run

2009-05-31T19:33:00.000-07:00

On May 16th we all celebrated my nephew Noah's first birthday. It was fun seeing him open presents and eat his own birthday cake! He dove right in and had blue frosting from head to toe.

Ben and I were able to go to Caden's 2K Fun Run again at his school. We actually walked from

Tilton to Cooper Park and back. We have gone every year and really enjoyed this annual event.

Caden and Ben did run for awhile, but eventually Caden decided to stick to walking!

So its been awhile...

2009-05-15T20:04:00.000-07:00

Easter at Nana and Papa's house

Okay, so I know I haven't posted anything in awhile, but we've been busy. Luke is playing on 2 baseball teams, Ben coaches one of them. Luke is also going through confirmation at church so let's just say he is a busy boy. Caden is also playing baseball, he says he doesn't like it but he really does.

Dylan loves hanging out with his brothers and they give him lots of love!

Dylan is getting bigger and into everything! He isn't playing any sports, but he's at all of his brother's games cheering them on. He's crawling and standing and still only saying "da da da da da". What's up with that?

Family Traditions

2008-12-08T19:50:00.000-08:00

Well, we hosted Thanksgiving this year and it turned out great! I was a little nervous about cooking my first turkey, but with Aunt Karen's help, it all went smoothly. Everyone brought a dish which was great. We were able to catch up and spend time with family - DeAnna, Andy & the kids, Uncle Roger and Shirley, Aunt Karen, Mom and Randy, and Grandpa. We missed Laura and Joe, they went to Ohio this year.

Luke was a great help with Dylan while Ben and I were busy cooking in the kitchen.

We decided to pick out our Christmas tree the Saturday after Thanksgiving. We got up bright and early and headed off to Sinnissippi with Shawn, Jaime, Adam and Audyn Kemp. At 8:30am we were the 4th family there! We had hot apple doughnuts and cider and then headed off to the frasier fir field to cut down our tree. We didn't know how Dylan would do in the cold, but he was a champ. He hung out in the carrier and even took his morning nap there without complaint.

After picking out the perfect tree, Luke cut it down and Caden pulled it out of the field.

We were so glad we didn't wait until Sunday to get our tree. It snowed all day and night. Ben did end up hanging our lights on the house, but he and Caden did find time to build this cool snowman. Unfortunately, his head was bigger than his middle so it fell off shortly after everyone came inside! Oh well, at least we got some pictures of him before hand.

Halloween and more

2008-11-15T20:05:00.000-08:00

After going to every store under the sun we finally found a halloween costume for Caden at home! He went from dressing up as the Huskie mascot, Victor E. Huskie to an old man. We found the mask at nana & papa's house and an old corduroy blazer (that Ben wore!) in our closet. He was a hit! He sat on the porch and scared all the trick or treaters. It was fun to watch!

Dylan has finally figured out how to smile. It is so wonderful to see him respond to us. He has even laughed a couple of times. He is getting big in a hurry, which we hate to see, but he is also getting to be fun. We had to take Dylan to another doctor on Friday to get measured for a helmet. His head is a little flat on one side in the back and the helmet will help reshape it. We found out that he is a little too young to have the helmet so we have to go back in a month. Hopefully his head will start getting better so we can forget the helmet altogether!

Ben, Luke, Caden and I went to the HUBS football game last Saturday and froze our butts off! They ended up losing in overtime, but we had fun anyway. Ben still isn't over the loss. How is he going to handle it when our kids are on the team???? Can you see how red my nose is??? That was a good 20 minutes after being inside!

Papa and Nana babysat Dylan while the rest of us were at the game. They were excited to see how much he smiles now!

Caden loves holding baby Dylan. He loves it for about 5 minutes and then he is ready to pass him to the next person. He and Luke have been great big brothers and are so helpful. I don't know how I would get ready in the morning without them!

If you notice in the picture, Caden has decided that he doesn't want to smile for pictures anymore. Its become a real pain to get a good picture of him!

Football

2008-09-23T12:18:00.000-07:00

The boys have been busy playing football and its finally coming to a close. Caden plays his last game this week and Luke has 2 more games. Both teams have been doing well. Cade is #8 and Luke is #16.

As for Dylan, he is growing like a weed! He has been dragged to many football games and pretty much goes with the flow. He is still not sleeping much at night because he is always hungry. I am hoping to get some sleep soon so when I go back to work I won't be a complete zomby! I start Oct. 6th so he still has a couple of weeks.

2008-08-12T13:29:00.001-07:00

Here are a couple of pictures of Dylan with his guests at the hospital.

He's finally arrived!

2008-08-08T16:30:00.000-07:00

We officially have a new member in our family - Dylan Benjamin Manning. He was born on August 4th at 6:06am. He weighed in at 5lbs 15oz and 19 inches long. He actually has a little bit of brown hair! There is hope for a brown eyed/hair manning yet.

I am having a few issues with adding pictures, but hopefully I will have them loaded tomorrow. Check back soon!

Finally, we have a blog!!!!

2008-07-17T07:35:00.000-07:00

Well I thought I better get this going before the new baby arrived. We are counting down and trying to get our house ready for a new member! Luke and Cade are going to share a room for a little while until the basement can be finished. Cade is excited, Luke is less than thrilled.

6 more weeks to go!