My niece Addison!

Since I have been up in Bluffton helping my parents move I have been able to spend some time with Addison, my niece.  It takes her a little while for her to warm up to me, but by the end of the two weeks we were having a great time together.  Here are some of the pictures I took the other day when we were playing...

She has been eating regular food now, so we had a fun time trying different foods.  That is why she has the food around her face.

Here is another one..love her to pieces.

Chace and Addison are becoming very good friends.  They play really well together, although I see them causing a little bit of trouble when they get older.

Addison will be having a brother or sister in June of next year.  Can't wait to see what fun all the kids will have together.  I hope that my kids can have as many good with their cousins as I did with mine growing up. 

Chace's Birthday!

This past Wednesday, October 20th, my baby turned two.  Hard to believe how fast time has flown by.  With it being Chace's birthday we were able to have Erika come and spend a couple days with us to celebrate.  The kids adore her.

When Chace woke up we had to measure him to see how much he grew over night.  That was Erika's idea of course.  I remember when she turned about 3 or 4 and thought you really only grew on  your birthday night.  When Mom and I went to wake her up she said her legs had grown.  Kids are so cute.  Since we had been moving my parents out of their house these past few weeks Nate and I decided to take the kids out for a fun day.  We talked about what to do and decided Chucky Cheese's it was.  Although Nate and I don't really care for the pizza. 

This was after the pizza.  I am not sure what kind of face he is making here.  We were lucky enough to have Chucky himself come out and give the kids high fives.  The kids had such a fun time and there was only a couple other families there. 

This was his favorite ride.  He would just sit there and keep putting his tokens in and talking to Bob.

Here the kids are with Chucky, minus Chace.  He didn't want to get to close to him.

Eli and Parker riding in a car that went up and down.

Erika playing ski ball.  She ended up winning 99 tickets.  Although the toys you get with your tickets aren't that impressive.  So after our trip to Chucky Cheese's we stopped by the flower shop and got some balloons from Nate's dad.  Chace was so excited about his balloon.  When we got home we Erika and I made Chace a mint chocolate cake, that is what he picked out.

We had such a great day with all the kids.  I couldn't imagine my life without any of them.  Happy Birthday Chace, we love you.

Carving pumpkins

All week the boys have been patiently, well as much as they could, for Aunt Erika to get here.  They had made a list of all the things that that wanted to do during her stay.  The first thing they wanted was to take Erika to the apple orchard and pick some apples and get her a pumpkin of her own.  Our three boys had already got their pumpkins so we didn't have to walk around for them to find any...amazing how fast they expected her to pick one out when it took them a good 30 minutes to find one.  I had promised the boys while Erika was here we would carve our pumpkins.  I was able to find these carving knives that the kids could use but wouldn't be able to cut themselves while using them.  Before I go on anymore on this story I should tell what happened a couple nights ago at our supper table......

We were all sitting around the table like most night having an enjoyable supper of venison steaks, cottage cheese, and broccoli.  Eli was eating his cottage cheese and decided he was ready to eat his steak.  He asked for a new fork.  I asked him why he couldn't use his fork anymore....his reply "My steak will get dirty" with a serious face.  What your steak is going to get dirty from the cottage cheese.  When we refused to give him a new fork he took his napkin and wiped the fork clean.  I would love to say this is not normal, but it is for Eli.  He is a neat freak when it comes to keeping himself clean.

So back to carving pumpkins, I cut off the tops of the pumkins starting from oldest to youngest.  Usually works pretty well for us.  When I got all of the tops cut off I told the kids they could start digging into the pumpkins.  Erika dug right in, which was no surprise.  I look to the next face in line and this is what I saw

Yes, Eli was just sitting there.  I asked him why he wasn't digging into his pumpking like a "normal" boy would do (afraid to hear the answer).  "I don't want to get dirty Mommy can I have some gloves."  I couldn't believe it he wouldn't dig in the pumpkin.  He just stared at it, and stared, and stared.  I didn't make a big deal about it, just moved on to Parker.

Parker and Chace didn't waste much time on getting their "goop" out.  I was really impressed how well they both did.  When I turned back around to Eli I wasn't surprised at what I saw...

Yep, you guessed it.  Aunt Erika came to the rescue and started cleaning out Eli's pumpkin so his hands wouldn't get dirty.  What a good aunt she is.  So than Erika decided everyone needed a little of her help

Well we finally got the cleaning part of the pumpkins ready and it was time to start carving.  Parker was real excited that he got to do his by himself, I helped Chace out, Erika did her own, and Eli, well, he just looked at it still.  I asked him if he needed help starting his and what did he say to me.  "Mom your hands are dirty you need to wash them."  How I have raised such a neat freak I just don't understand.  Nate and I aren't this way, but oh well this is a battle not worth fighting.  Parker ended up spending over an hour carving his.  Erika was able to get the pumkin done pretty fast.  Chace I just played around on, while Eli's just sat there.  This is what Eli was doing while the carving was going on

He was having more fun playing on the swingset anyway.  We finally got all the pumpkins done, with me doing both Eli's and Chace's.  We have to go and get some fake candles to put in them tomorrow.  I wish I could have gotten a picture of them after we were done, but it was dark time so it will have to wait.  We had a great day doing all our adventures and is excited to see what tomorrow brings for us.  Have a great night.

Starting a blog!

Well, I have decided to start a blog.  I am not sure how many people will actually read this, but I thought it would be a good way to keep my memories of the things the boys and I do.  I also think it will be nice to keep family informed on what is going on in our lives (as most of you know it isn't boring).  So here goes. 

This summer we were able to go on a few vacations.  In June my Dad got a new job in Florida, so we went down there a few times to visit already this year.  The kids had a blast swimming in the pool and exploring Florida.  I think one of their favorite thing in Florida was that every Tuesday and Thursday McDonalds had $1.99 happy meals.  The bonus on these happy meals was they were actually handing out good toys again.  They ended up getting batman, robin, some fantastic four guys, and so on and so on. 

Parker age 3

Chace age 1.5 yrs



Eli age 4

One time we decided to fly down to Florida to surprise my Dad for a visit.  We all hid out in the pool and waited for him to go swimming.  I think it was one of the few times I have ever seen my Dad get tears in his eyes.  We have made a lot of good memories in Florida and plan on making more since Dad will be down there for awhile.  Here are some more pictures of what we did in Florida....

This is the first time we flew down to Florida.  Our pilots were so nice and let the boys go up and see all the "pieces" of the plane.  They thought this was pretty cool.  Just so you know the dates on the pictures aren't right, forgot to set it.

Eli jumping in with Mammie waiting



Nate

So another one of our family vacations was one that Nate and his family has gone to since he was 5 years old.  The first time I went was back in 2003 and I have been going every since.  Arcadia, Michigan is one of the most peaceful places I have ever been too.  It is a Lurtheran church camp that makes you feel for a week there are no worries in the world.  We go with about  firve other families that go to the same church as we do.  The kids really enjoyed camp this year.  They got to do alot of fun activites including swimming in Lake Michigan, playing in a gigantic sand box, tye-dying, finger painting and the list goes on.  We are already looking forward to our trip next July. 

Here is a picture of the boys making a sand castle

The finished product (Daddy helped a little)

Eli on top of the jungle gym

Parker with his mask he made.

Chace with Grandpa during the boys performance.

The boys during their morning program performance.  You have to really look to see them.  They were a little shy.

Well this is it, the beginning of my blog.  Hopefully some of you will get some enjoyment out of this and at least when the boys grow up they will have all these memories.  Hope everyone has a great night.  Time for bed.