Halloween, Birthdays, and Thanksgiving.

Now that Christmas is quickly approaching, I guess it's time for another update.  Fall is a busy time for our family. S turned 1 on October 7.

The kids had lots of fun carving pumpkins for Halloween and Trick-or-Treating.

G turned 6 November 21.  She invited a few friends from school to get their nails painted with her, lots of fun and pink cupcakes!  We had a small cake at home on her birthday.

We visited family this year for Thanksgiving.  All my siblings except 2 of my brothers were home for Thanksgiving.  It was good to see everyone again.  We had a great meal and lots of fun cooking together, even if it was late when we finally ate.  Everything was delicious!

We went to visit more family too.  Dad really wanted to spend some time hunting.  He finally got his first deer too, two actually.  We will have a well stocked freezer this winter.  It's been a while since we've had a wagon ride on Grandpa's farm, but we had a great time, and some goofy kids.  Just wish I could take better pictures.

All my sibs but Zac and Sam

Cousin Pic

B turned 8 on November 28.  Once again he was sick on his birthday this year.  Poor guy almost never gets sick, but he's been sick on his birthday more times then he'd like to remember probably.  He skipped birthday lunch Grandma had made for him and we traveled home with a "party bucket" thankful we didn't need to use it.  When he was feeling better we had birthday cheesecake...so yummy!  He sure knows how to pick a good cake.  So funny to watch him eat it too, he savored every bite.  I've never seen him eat anything that slowly.  We are looking forward to his baptism after Christmas.

A collage I put together

Easter Fun!

Pictures we took on Easter!

A Funny Story

B asked me about bed bugs a few months ago.  So I told him what they were, and that you would know if you had them because you would wake up with red bumps from their bites on you.

I have a three year old who love pens and markers.  Her favorite thing to do with them is to sit in her bed, or closet, or anywhere she can if she thinks I can't see her.  So, she found a red marker and proceeded to polka dot her entire body with it.  The funniest thing was the next morning when she got up and her older brother looked at her, the he looked at me with the most serious face and said, "Mom, E has bed bugs."  I just said, no she just found a marker.

Summer Memory

The first time I have ever done a photo booth!

Since the weather has been absolutely frigid this week, I thought it was time for a summer memory. The kids got to spend a whole week with Nana and Grandpa last summer. Since they are 6 hours away, we met a park halfway between us to make the drive easier. While the kids were having fun, Mom and Dad were too. We made a trip to Detroit where we visited the Henry Ford Museum, very cool. We also had a chance to go to the Temple, and our hotel was very near a large Middle-Eastern community. We were fortunate enough to get to eat many yummy foods. Middle-East food is definitely some of our favorite. We've even gotten much better at making some of our own.

These pics are from a park that had some pretty cool statues, they look cement, but they weren't.

Barbies, Bionicles, and Boas...oh my

That more or less sums up Christmas. (Although the Boa was a gift from earlier, they just stayed at Grandma's house. She volunteered to keep the feathers there. I just liked the alliteration. E was very excited to get a pink guitar that she had been asking for since before here birthday in June.) We had a great time visiting with family over the holiday and the kids stayed up way past bedtime every day...but school started back yesterday and they are being forced back into routine. So, maybe by the end of the week we won't be so cranky from being sooo tired.

We hopefully started a new tradition this year... on Christmas Eve we made several MiddleEastern foods, I was a little concerned about how it would turn out because I had several brand new recipes, but it was fantastic! We had lots of leftovers, that my parents were able to finish off after we left.

The girls came home with new Barbies and new Barbie clothes, B got 3 Bionicles and a game (which has already lost some pieces) and S enjoyed his first Christmas about as well as a 2 and a half month old can.

Now that Christmas is over we realize how much money we could have saved since the kids are just as happy with the packaging materials as they are with the gifts. But, then again who doesn't love bubble wrap. Or there is always cool things you can build with the leftover cardbaord pieces from you uncles game. All you need is a little tape and some crayons....make that a lot of tape, she used an entire roll plus building this little "dollhouse."

What was I thinking?

I thought I would have so much more time to get things done once school started, especially with two kids in school. So here we are quickly approaching Christmas and I still don't see it. Maybe I forgot there would be a new baby involved. Actually, I think I was still in denial. I wouldn't have registered to run a 10K last summer if I was going to be pregnant. At least I got a T-shirt, my running partner picked it up for me. I can pretend I ran it.

My little guy is two months old now, there's no denying it anymore. Not that I don't try. My mom says I'm just out of practice. I have forgotten to bring the diaper bag several times (even when it's packed and ready to go). Other times I've left home without being completely stocked and had to pawn wipes from friends. My wonderful husband, who is not at all surprised says, "this is you we are talking about, remember." At least I was prepared when we had the blow-out during parent-teacher conference.

I thought that with E in preschool one day a week I would have time to run all my errands. In only two-and a half hours....ha, ha. It goes by too quickly.

I can't complain too much. S is a perfect baby. He sleeps well at night, and is generally happy when he's awake. He only fusses when he's hungry, tired, or wet, and screams when his sister gives him a nuggie...he really hates that. I'm still not sure where she learned it from. I usually end up doing things that have to be done instead of things I want to get done when he's sleeping. Or sometimes just snuggling, after all, I can't hardly resist holding a snuggly baby, my girls were not snugglers. He has the sweetest smile, and is just starting to laugh. He's growing fast, he's climbed up a whole percentile in height (75%-90th%) and weight (50th%-75%) in the last month. I'm learning, again, to enjoy it while I can. Before I know it he'll be 3 (which is by far worse than 2 in my opinion). Although 3-year olds do have their sweet moments too, most of them just occur when they are sleeping.

So for now, I will enjoy the time I have with my two babes at home, and one day I will be able to keep my house as clean I would like it to be...maybe, it's still me we're talking about.