..... the dining room is covered with cheese. Emily was a little more than enthusiastic when shaking the Parmesan cheese. Sadly she didn't realize that the lid was not securely closed. She had it in her milk, on everyones plate, in the flowers, on the floor, on the server and the piano.
These pictures are for Jill. Who has never seen my house a mess. To some this is nothing, but to me it is hard to look at. This is the kitchen, dirty dishes and all.
Dining room table that we couldn't eat at for 4 days.
Living room. This is after the 7 loads of laundry was folded and most of it put away. Christmas bins just waiting to be emptied.
More bins waiting to be gone through. But, hey the tree is up & has the lights and garland on it!
Jeremy caught in the act of putting the star on the tree. It's a start.
On December 2, the kids and I attended an awards dinner for JDRF. Emily received an award for being a youth ambassador this year.
Over the Thanksgiving holiday we went to Traverse City. It was a great break with lots of rest and family time. We just missed the tree lighting but had a nice lady take a family picture of us.
Jeremy earned his second stripe on his purple belt.
Emily earned her red belt. Her goal is to earn her black belt by her 16th birthday.
Emily took way to much enjoyment in carving her pumpkin. She had the evil laugh to go with it.
This is obviously Emily's pumpkin. Twilight was on her mind. 
Jeremy took his time carving his pumpkin. He wanted a rocker look. and I think he acheived a drunk rocker look.
This is Emily and Jon. They are both on the drum line and have known each other since kindergarten. It irks Jon just a little that Emily keeps getting 1st chair over him every year and this year will be no different. She of course thinks it's awesome. Any way Jon wanted to go to the homecoming dance but didn't have any one to go with so Emily asked him to join her and some of the other band kids who were going.
This is Hannah, Tessa and Emily. All dolled up for the homecoming dance.
Emily and Erin had their faces painted with our team logo before we started the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation's Walk for a Cure.
Team Emily's Hope. Erin, Jake, Rob, Mom, Jeremy, Emily, Joe, Michelle, Dan, Jan. Front row Sydnie and Yvonne. It was in the low 50's when we started so we were cold. Sydnie was really bundled up and probably the warmest one in our bunch. 
Walking to find a cure. 
Along the way they had a sign for each of this years ambassador's. Emily thought that was cool. We now proudly display the sign in our front yard.
Sydnie, Erin and Emily at the Coney Island after the walk. We had lunch and celebrated Jacob's 12th birthday. It was a fun morning.
This is a close up of our team shirts. Emily designed them with the help of a local t-shirt design guy. The front has a smaller butterfly on the left chest pocket. Of course they are orange. Thank you to all of our friends and family who took the time to donate. If you would still like to donate you can go to www.jdrf.org and follow the steps under the "Donate now" tab. Be sure to donate to Emily Wharton or Team Emily's hope so Emily gets credit for your donation. If you have any questions please feel free to contact me.
This isn't marching band but Emily ready to go to a quad stake dance with a western theme.
This is half of the band. I couldn't get them all in my view. Since it was Hallow-weekends at Cedar Point they played Thriller and one member dressed as Michael Jackson and did the whole dance.
All of the kids made up their faces and ratted their hair to look ghoulish and these are just a few pictures of them marching down the mid way.
Doesn't she look scary? OK, the sun was in her eyes.
This is Emily and her friend Matt on Sky hawk. It's a huge swing type thing that has you horizontal, looking down at people on the ground below you.
You can't tell but this is Jeremy and Rob on Magnum. I think it is the 2ND largest roller coaster in the park. They are so brave.
This is after the big Kettering/Mott football game. The cymbalist are doing cymbal flips.
This is the Kettering Marching Captains coming off the field at the end of the big game. We won!
We started this month with performing at the Michigan state fair. Here they are standing at attention while they are being introduced.
Marching to the flag pole to retire the flag.
Just before marching in full uniform. I love the plume!
I forgot to tell you that Emily was selected to be a youth ambassador for JDRF. She is excited to tell people about her diabetes and trying to get people to help with funds for research.
My husband is awesome and put down laminate flooring in our hall, 1/2 bath, kitchen and dining room. I told him before he started that I didn't want the house torn up for weeks and that once he started he had to give it the same attention as if he were doing work for one of his customers. He knows me well enough to know that I hate clutter so Saturday morning he started and worked 10 hours. Then he worked 10 hours on Sunday. It looks great and I love my new floor. I had grown to hate the linoleum that had seen better days. I show the floor to anyone who comes to our door. The above picture is the front entry way.
This is our 1/2 bath.
Kitchen. This looks much smaller than our kitchen really is.
Kitchen from the dining room.
Dining room from the living room. I love the floor and my husband for being so talented!
