Here is the beautiful river - I could not edit those pix once i picked them! Sorry! :)

Also - beautiful mom and dad! :)

Christmas Day: Pt I in Minnesota

We got up today and went to Mom and Dad's. We had brunch with Weddles, Ang and Maia and our dear friends, Maisa, Gabriella and Jeanie! These ladies ( I still would call the girls "kids") have been a part of our family since before Gabriella was born - 19 years! We had a wonderful morning with everyone - BEAUTIFUL snow!! The river looked amazing - I had to include a shot of this! Note the reflections! :) Then we were off to the airport for Florida's version of Christmas in the SUN! :)

Christmas Eve - Part II -

We got to open our gifts Christmas Eve since christmas day was set to be a busy one...including flying out to Florida to see mark's family.....

Here is our brief Christmas at home :)

Christmas Eve - at our house!

We had a great Christmas Eve - beginning the day at work for both of us - then off to church (where our Cali sang her solo). Then Our family (minus the Bairds in Chicago) came to our house for a fondu dinner! Dinner featuring mark's deer as well :)

We ate, played the dice game for fabuloius prizes :) and laughed! A fun night had by all...I also had to toss in there Mark and Cali making LOVELY faces! :)

WILD TIMES!!!!!!!

We had a GREAT time at the Wild Hockey Game last night! Thanks, Lisa and Dave for the tickets! We took our neices Maia & Lauren! Maia's first time to a game and Lauren is the FAN of FANS! :) Lauren has created a monster in Maia though! On the way home she was saying it was the best time and how she wants to start watching them all the time- tracking stats online ect... We all had a great time! Those games are the most fun to go to! Again, thanks Lis and Dave! WE WON! It was sketchy there for a bit, but we pulled it out in the 3rd!

Here are a couple of pics from our night out!

Love,

Mark, Joy, Maia & Lauren

WE"RE DREAMING OF A LYMES - FREE CHRISTMAS!

WE ARE LYME'S FREE!!!!!!!! :)

We are happy to say that it looks like Joy is done with the Lymes at this point! :) We are excited to get on with life - "post Lymes". Joy has been off the "drugs" since last Thursday and is still feeling great today (Wednesday). I was told that is the biggest test right there - how you feel (imagine that?) :) But it is good and it feels good to feel good again! :)

We are very anxious to return to life as normal again and be back to "ourselves"!

Thanks for the prayers from all of you - and always asking how I feel and things. I wouldn't wish this on anybody, and I know I have been so fortunate - having caught it early and things.......God is GOOD!!!! :)

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!

Love,

Joy and Mark

Thanksgiving is also a day of rest......

Janie Baird (5) did not feel so well for much of the Thanksgiving Day......She took a little napper on the couch - what a sweetie pie! She was later feeling better and was asking Uncle Mark to flip her up side down! After seeing her lunch in reverse earlier in the day, he was inclined to have her take a rain check - he would do that "later" :)

She did sit up and read Zach a book! :)

Angela Lauren Maia and Jane - digesting and ready for PIE! :)

Thanks much for having us, Lisa - a fun day!

Love ya!

"I've got a pie in the oven!!!!!" :)

Dinner Time!

Lauren and Maia DISAH UP! We all wait our turn in line.......

Zachy (20 months) waits for everyone to be ready to Thank Jesus for everything we are blessed with! He is such a good boy! Here is he and Colin (8 1/2) gives him a smile :)

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

We had a great Thanksgiving at Lisa and Dave's house with some very dear (old) friends of theirs, the Wilds, from Indiana. They are great friends from their college days, so I have known them since I was like 11... A very fun day at the Bairds! The kids had fun - here is Lauren (12) and Maia (13) razzing Mark while watching football! :) Hope everyone's Thanksgiving was as relaxing and great as ours! Now we are all getting ready for the next event - Christmas shopping started already Friday morning for me! :)

DEER MARK!!!!!!

Mark shot his first deer with a bow Sunday afternoon! I was so excited when he called & said "Dead Deer" i literally cried! :) I am so happy for him - he has been a faithful hunter all fall long! :) Bow hunting season is from Sept 15 to the end of the year up here! We are just so happy he got ths one! Its pretty good size too! (Although I said I would have been happy / PROUD of anything!) My dad was with him, and his bow had broken, so he was not even able to hunt, but was hanging out waiting for Mark - waiting for the call to come to help gut it and drag it out! Thanks, DAD! We are very excited and here are a couple of shots of my baby with his Bambi! Congratulations, MARKUS! :)

A Tribute to the KIDS!!!!!! :)

A tribute to the 7 greatest kids in the world!!!! :)

We love these kids and can't imagine our world without any one of them! Get to know our favorite little people........

Zachary Grant

ZACHARY GRANT. is the newest member of our clan - though its hard to believe he is already almost 2!!!!! He is one you can't imagine not having around..Zach is bright, charming and just so much fun! He looks up to his 3 siblings and thinks they are hillarious (as they all are!) He is so sweet and so boy! He has funny timing and a sense of humor already - and is adorable! I take so many pix of him - as he is hte "baby", and he is a good sport and lets me :) We don't know what we would do without him in our lives - thanks to Lisa and Dave foring bringing him to the party! (and for bridging the gap) :) We love little Zachy!!!

Gymanst Jane!

Janie!!!!! (or Janer Lynn Flynn as I call her..)

Janie is just a light in our lives! Her eyes have a light in them that is unmatched! Janie loves life and just enjoys being her! She loves to swim (just try to get her out of the lake!!), crafts - of any kind and her gymnatics! She is 5 and in Kindergarten at Calvin. She loves her friends and is likely smarter than any 5 year old you know! She loves being big sister to Zach sho i thin she would take with her to school if they would let her. She is great with him and loved by all who know her! We all adore our little Janie!

HOCKEY MAN!

COLIN SAMUEL - or as I call him SAM! :) Colin is about the best by you could ask for in your life! He is sweet and yet he will just walk up to you and sock ya in the arm rather than give you a hug! We love it! He is a great big brother - the leader of the pack to jane and zach... teaching them hillarious things is top on his list! He is 8 and in 2nd grade at Calvin. Colin is our hockey boy! He loves it and is quite good! In the winter, he can often be found on his rink on the lake until long after the sun has gone to bed.....The same lake he fishes, jet skis and lives in all summer! Colin is a great kid who can beat Mark at many video games, but also lets him win some too! We are definately better off having Colin in as part of our world!!!!!

A J !

Lexi's Life - Our buddy Lexi is 10 and is as active as ever! She is playing traveling basketball this winter and has already had 2 tourneys - with 2 tropheys to show for it! She loves basketball and softball too! (see the softball pic). Lexi is so sweet and so strong all at the same time. We always laugh - (or get hurt together - falling down or something stupid like that). Like her other cousins, she's a good shopping partner and also loves to tube on the lake!! Lexi has had alot on her plate this past year and has just been amazing - taking it all n stride...

Miss Maia

Maia's Play! Maia was in a play at a local theather in Feb of this year. Here she is "on the set"... I alsohad to add a more updated pic of her - with Mark and I taken last weekend...... She is in 8th grade this year! (those of you who were in college with us when she was born - you can feel old along with us) :) She is doing great in school - loves her friends, volleyball, acting and of course - Aunt Joy and Uncle Mark! They all do - cuz we're FUN!!!!! :) We are very proud of the young lady she is growing up to be!!!!
She just called and asked if Mark & /or I could play in a parent / team volleyball game tomorrow night! Stay tuned for pix from that event!!!! :)

Lo Lo......

Lauren's basketball - winter 2007. She is ready to play again this winter - GO CALVIN!!!

She held this girl - much taller - to less than nothing that night :)

Lauren is 12 & a 6th grader at Calvin Christan School. She is a great girl - a social butterfly just like her aunt joy (and her mother Lisa too!) She loves crafts and artsy things, shopping (esp with aunt joy) :) , and is about hte best big sister to the 3 luckiest kids on earth! Lauren is really one who lights up your life!

Cali Grace draws fans to the big game!

We all had fun seeing CALI play Saturday - and by then end we were rooting for the other team to score! It was 44-0! (poor little kids - 8 year old girls!) Cali played great! :)

THat fire in Cali's eye is there often - on and off the court! She is a great basketball player (and there is a dancer / gymanst in there too! She just basically loves to be moving and entertaining you in some way. A sweet heart of gold and about as funny as it gets! We love every second we get with OUR Cali Grace!

the kids happenings....

We try to get to each of the kids' games as much as we can - we are not perfect, but we do pretty well...... Right now Cali is playing backsetball (GO, PINK FEVER!), Lexi is playing basketball, Lauren will start bball soon after just finishing up volleyball, Maia just finished volleyball (and stil is rarely seen without one in her hands!), COlin is ever playing hockey and Jane is in gymnastics. Sach(20 months) is just everywhere.......so the kids wanted to see pix of their stuff on the site -so here are each of them - in some way! Enjoy our beauties! :) Group shot taken March 2007 :)

A Day in the woods....

As many of you know - Mark has been seer hunting this fall - its been a busy fall - we have been up to the cabin alot where he and my dad lease some land and hunt. He is ONLY BOW hunting - which takes time and patience. Well, in mid Sept - he shot one! Late in the day, close to dark and she darted!!! So the next morning, we got up really early to track her down. We had blood and everything 0 - just expecting to find she laid down someplace to die..... well, she was a tough one, because after 3 1/2 hours we did not find her....... me, mark, mom and dad all searched and followed the trail of blood - to no avail! A fun morning, just not with the ending we wer hoping for - sorry for Mark!

This is likely where i picked up this pesky Lyme Disease I am so blessed with now - still a fun day!!!! :)

NEW YORK CITY!!!!!!!!!

The top of the ROCK! Rockefeller Center - 70th (plus) floor! A great view of the city - and we got there at sunset! IT is just gorgeous and you really feel lke you can see forever!

Thanks, dear friends for a great time! I really feel blessed to have these 3 women in my life! :)

PS - those are some nice purses! :)

The coolest thing of course we saw was Ground Zero and the things related to there - the fire station next door and the tributes they have in a loval church - just really cool stuff. I am going to try to post the fire station wall pics, but it says - Dedicated to those who fell and to thoise who Carry On! Pretty cool tributes and reminder of how real that all still is today!!!!! The pic of the construction site struck us - still twisted metal and rubble they are clearing away! The one pic (if it saved on here) is of all the fire fighters that lost their lives that morning......pretty amazing.

PURSES PURSES PURSES!!! I think it is important to point out that only a small percentage of these are mine!!!! :) This is actaully just after day one - the pile got bigger!!! :) We all went crazy - running into old warehouses - following strangers into black hallways and locked doors - almost getting friends arrested - but just look at the rewards for a little GUTSY SHOPPING!!!!!! :) Bless New York! :)

Wall Street Walkers.... We had to go to WallStreet - since that is how I make my living! Amy and I had to get a picture to frame for our office - and for Dad! :) It too is amazing - just huge buildings, one on top of another.seemingly endless.......

The Ladies of Liberty! This was a favorite stop -

Took the ferry out to eh island and had a perfect sunny day to go on! We did not get out at Ellis Island, as we were all opposed to any kind of education on the trip - but we had a great time! :)

Legally BLONDE! One of my favorite movies - made into a Broadway show! We all loved it - has a blast! This was our first night in NYC. We saw Joely Fischer (Til Death, Ellen) at the show - just hung out and chatted with her :) It was a great night! :)