A little taste of our first Christmas

Ben and me at church on Christmas Eve. (Brian gave a very hopeful and inspiring sermon!)

Ben and I are quite the travelers for our first Christmas together. We will be gone a total of 12 days. We started off in Michigan celebrating Christmas with my family at Beth and Brian's house. It was a wonderful way to spend the holidays. We received lots of thoughtful and practical presents. Tomorrow we are off to visit Zack and Jenny down in Brookville, IN. We will be there for the much anticipated baby Drake homecoming! We will also spend New Years and celebrate the Brzezinski Family Christmas while we are in Brookville. Ben and I were very happy to spend the holidays together, and are looking forward to our visit with Ben's family.

Get a load of these twinkies!

Here are a few pictures of our Michigan Christmas. Kate was absolutely adorable! We loved being here to celebrate Kate's first Christmas. She certainly was a good girl this year, and Santa must have noticed! Kate received a ride on train (we included a picture of her enjoying the ride. Check out my sister's blog to see video of her riding it!) AND the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse! Kate is fascinated with Mickey Mouse, and her favorite treat is when her parents let her watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. It was so funny to see her react and dance whenever she saw Mickey. She got super excited when she opened her Clubhouse. She played with it the entire morning. Ben and I could probably sing you the Hot Dog Song now if you would like!

Kate enjoying her train ride!

Keep your eyes posted for more pictures from our Christmas vacation! We forgot our cord for our camera so we hijacked some pictures my sister and Brian took. We have some cute footage and hope to add some pictures of baby Drake!

We hope all our friends and family enjoyed their Christmas with their own families. We feel very blessed to have all of you in our lives! We wish you all a Merry Christmas and a safe and Happy New Year!

Proud Aunt and Uncle!

Ben and I love both our nieces and our new nephew! We do have an update on baby Drake. On Monday, Drake was taken off the ventilator. YAY! This allowed Jenny and Zack to finally hold their son. Drake is still on antibiotics, and hopefully will be able to come home around the 28th, but he gets stronger everyday. We are continuing to pray for Drake's full recovery. Ben and I are so proud of Jenny and Zack. We are amazed at how strong they both are. Zack and Jenny are two loving parents. Mackenzie and Drake are very lucky to have them.

Ben and I are truly fortunate to have two older siblings that set such a great example of parenting for us. My sister and Brian do such a wonderful job with baby Kate. She is such a precious child and a joy to be around. Ben and I hope we can be as good as Beth, Brian, Zack, and Jenny are as parents! (when the time comes of course!)

Check out my sister's blog. It has adorable pictures of baby Kate. Trust me it will bring a smile to your face!

Below is a slideshow of pictures we have of Kate and Mackenzie. We only have a few of Drake, and they are from the hospital. Hopefully soon we'll have better pictures of Drake to show off!

Please Pray for Drake

Ben and I ask all our friends and family to please keep Drake, Zack, Jenny, and our family in your thoughts and prayers. Our new nephew Drake was born on Saturday, but unfortunately has pnuemonia and spinal meningitis. He is currently in the neonatal intensive care unit. Drake is in stable but critical condition. He is getting stronger each day, but is not out of the woods yet. He's a fighter (in true Brzezinski fashion), but could use the positive thoughts and prayers. Ben and I would truly appreciate it! We are going down to visit our family this weekend. Hopefully we'll have some pictures to post, but until then here is a picture of Drake, his mom (Jenny), and his big sister Mackenzie.

Unwelcomed Company

Tonight Ben was a real sweetheart and decided to cook me dinner. He made steaks outside on the grill for us. It was a wonderful meal. Little did we know that at some point while Ben was cooking dinner, a furry little "critter" decided to join us. Ben discovered that a squirrel had snuck into the condo and had hid under the bed. Now being the city kids that we are, we had NO idea on how to catch this thing! Of course we call Ben's brother Zak to help us with our animal control problem. We ended up blocking the perimeter of the bed with clothes, and proceeded to corral the squirrel into Critter's (the cat's) sky kennel. Below are some pictures of our furry friend! What an interesting night!

Here is our furry friend hiding under Ben's bed.

After we had successfully "shooed" him into the kennel.

He's a curious little guy!

Ben was proud of his catch! Good job Ben! You're my hero ;)

The date has been set! 7/25/09

So Ben and I have set a date for our wedding. July 25th, 2009 will be the date that we become Mr. and Mrs. Brzezinski. We both are very excited. We've got a lot done already considering we got engaged 11 days ago! We've got the hall (Elmcrest Banquets in Elmwood Park), the church (Our Lady of Hope), and a DJ. The next big thing we have to get out of the way is of course the dress! My sister is coming in from Michigan for Thanksgiving and our goal is to hopefully find a dress before she heads back. So far Ben has been a real trooper. The day after we got engaged he went with me to look at some different halls. It was a LONG day for both of us. We are looking forward to planning the different parts of our wedding. We will be posting more information as the day gets closer. We can't wait. 244 days to go!

We're engaged!

Last night was Ben's 27th birthday and I took him out to Fogo de Choa, a Brazillian steak house. We had a wonderful dinner with plates and plates of Ben's favorite-meat. We then headed to the Signature Lounge on the 96th floor of the John Hancock building for after dinner drinks. While we were there I asked Ben how he birthday was turning out, and he responded with the best he's ever had. He then turned to me and said, "Katie the best birthday present you could ever give me is your undying love." I told him he already had that. That is when he said, "Then I guess there couldn't be a better time to ask this..." he got down on one knee and asked "Will you marry me?" I of course said YES! It was the most romantic moment of both of our lives. The whole night was just beautiful. He was successful in pulling one over on me because I had no idea! We'll be sure to keep everyone updated on our wedding plans. We both are just so excited. WE'RE ENGAGED! YAY!

Our First Blog Post....Happy Halloween!

So this is our first try at blogging. Wish us luck! So this past weekend Ben and I threw a Halloween Party with my brother Mike and his girlfriend Stefanie. Ben and I put a lot of thought into our costumes and went back and forth about what we should be. We couldn't decide if we should be a couples costume or not. There was even talk of going as Hans Solo and Princess Leia (not in the gold bikini by the way), but Ben and I finally settled on going as G.I. Joe and G.I. Jill. I initially wanted to be G.I. Jane, but everyone thought I was gonna shave my head like Demi Moore so I changed it to G.I. Jill.

It was a lot of fun decorating and getting ready for the party. As you can see we even carved a pumpkin. When I say "we" I really mean Ben. Well anyway the party was a hit. We had quite a few of our friends show up, and they were all good sports and dressed up. It really turned out to be a fun night. Below is a link of pictures from the party (hopefully). Be sure to check them out!
HalloweenPictures