Our Thanksgiving Week

It has been a very busy couple of weeks. Skip completed another term of school and did great. Go, Skip!! We were both looking so forward to finals being over and vacations starting.

On Friday of finals week, however, our vacation plans changed. We learned that Jace would need to have his tonsils and adenoids out on Tuesday (2 days before Thanksgiving). It was good timing in that Skip would be off from school to be there and help out, but also bad timing in that we did not want to spend our Thanksgiving vacation in this way.

Tuesday rolled around and Jace had his surgery. Everything went well. We even had a friend in on the operation to take extra good care of Jace, Thanks Levi. The surgery went well and now it was on to recovery. Jace was every bit as crazy, coming out of anesthesia, as his brother has been. He was thrashing around not understanding what was happening. This is so hard to watch as a mom. I felt so bad for him. After being in the recovery room for a couple of hours we were able to take Jace home.

Jace's surgery has been a lot harder of a recovery, than I remember of Casen's. Jace has just been extremely moody. He also absolutely hates taking his medications....it takes both Skip and I to hold him down and give them to him, even then sometimes he spits them right back out. That part has been really frustrating.

So, this week was spent mostly relaxing, watching movies, holding Jace, etc. etc. We did have a nice Thanksgiving dinner with all of the fixings. Yummy. We were also able to get all of our Christmas stuff set up (at least as much as we are willing to do for this year). Here are some pictures.

Here are the boys hanging Christmas lights outside. Skip really did not want to hang lights this year but Casen was so excited to do it that it was a must.

Dad basically did all of the work.....while the boys played


Here is the final product. Not a lot of lights......but enough that the kids were impressed.

The boys were so proud of the Christmas tree they helped to decorate.

Erie Winter is Here!

So yesterday we woke up to snow everywhere. My boys were very excited by this, me not so much. Skip was excited because this meant he could finally try out his new snow blower machine. Casen was dying to make a snow man, or at least go drive trucks through the snow. Jace just looked out the window in amazement.

When Skip got home from school he bundled the little boys and himself up. They went outside and snowplowed the drive way and the side walks. Casen and Jace just loved playing in the snow.

*I would have gotten pictures outside but it was already pretty dark out, that is the problem with the sun setting so early.

Happy Halloween!!!

Our family had a great Halloween. As you can see Casen had to be a Transformer. This was very fitting for him because he is pretty much obsessed with Transformers. Jace got to be a bat for Halloween. I picked his costume out and was mostly looking for something warm for him, so he would not freeze during trick or treating.
Halloween started out in the morning by us going to Casen's costume parade at school. It was a lot of fun to see all of the kids dressed up. They were so excited for the parade, class parties, and then the trick or treating that would be that night. I am sure the teachers needed a lot of energy that day to control all of the excitement.
On the night of Halloween we had a bunch of friends come over for dinner and trick or treating. The girls all stayed at my house and visited, handed out candy, etc. Well all of the dads took the kids out trick or treating......Did we plan that good or what? Halloween was a ton of fun!

Halloween Activities

We have been having so much fun with all of the Halloween activities we have been doing. Here are some pictures of a couple of the things we did. I must admit I do not have a lot of pictures because I have not been taking pictures like I should (self note: Be Better).

Here are a couple of pictures of the kids trick or treating at the mall. They had a lot of fun here because this was the first trick or treating they got to do (about a week before Halloween).....Lets just say they are NATURALS!!

We also had a ward Halloween party two days before Halloween. This was so much fun. At this party there were a ton of activities for the kids to do. One of which was a doughnut eating contest....as you can see we could not watch for long before we had to join in on the fun as well. I actually did not have my camera with me at the party (horrible) so I do not have any pictures of the kids, I had to steel these pictures from a friend, thanks Laura.

More from Port Farm

My friend sent me a few more pictures from Port Farm. I thought I would share these pictures as well. As you can see.....Everyone had fun on the slides.

Port Farm

Erie is such a blast this time of year. The leaves are full of colors and Halloween is on its way. We have taken our kids to Port Farm a couple of times this season. This is such a great place, there is a ton for the kids to do. There are slides, corn mazes, pumpkin sling shots, sand box full of corn, animals to feed, hay rides, etc. I have included a few pictures of all of the fun.

I love this video

Trying to Catch UP!!!

I know I have not been keeping my blog up at all. It has been a crazy couple of months. First of all this pregnancy has been really rough. I have been pretty sick and have only done those things absolutely necessary. You are able to see this in every aspect of my life (my house for example...not organized, blog not updated, etc.). I am now 12 weeks pregnant and still do not feel great but I think I am on my way to getting better instead of worse, or so I can hope.

I am going to try and do a quick catch up of the last couple of months!

My Dad and Laura were able to come out and visit for a week the end of August. We did so much.

We were able to go to the beach a couple of times. Jace loves playing in the sand and the water. He especially loves to mix the two of them.

Casen loved driving his remote control boat around.

We were also able to go to Niagara Falls, Splash Lagoon, and to a professional baseball game (Cleveland vs. Seattle). Below are a few pictures from the game......It was great.

My Mom and Thad were also able to come visit for a long weekend (last weekend). We also had a lot of fun with them. DO NOT ASK ME WHAT OUR PROBLEM WAS BUT WE DID NOT TAKE ONE PICTURE THE ENTIRE TIME THEY WERE HERE. DAH!!!

I will just have to sum their visit up with words. We did a lot of fun things while they were here.

Friday: We started the morning off by going to Krispy Kreme, which turned into a daily routine during their visit. We then took a scenic drive through Erie. When we arrived home I was tired/ not feeling that great so Thad decided he would take Casen, Jace, and Ciara to Chuck E. Cheese. The kids loved this plan. My Mom and I then stayed home and watched a chick flick and took a nap.

After they arrived back home we decided we should have a date night that night. I called and got a baby sitter for the boys (they would rather have a babysitter than go anyway, they are weird.) That meant freedom for us. We went to Aoyama, which is a Japanese Hibachi restaurant. The food was so yummy! Then we decided to go out to a movie because we never really get to do that. We went and saw Eagle Eye (yes, I got out voted on seeing a chick flick. Thad, Skip, and Ciara (what is her problem) would not have anything to do with that). The movie was good in a very interesting way.

Saturday: Thad took Casen and Ciara to Splash Lagoon. Casen was so excited. He absolutely loves this place. They all had a lot of fun. Casen told me that Grandpa was kind of a wimp on the rides but he told him to be brave. Well these guys went to splash, my mom and I went shopping. We got Jace some much needed clothes and shoes. It was a great day.

Sunday: We did the normal Krispy Kreme for breakfast and then we went out to brunch. Lets just say I am sure I gained 20lbs. in the time these guys visited from eating all the yummy food. After brunch it was time for them to head to the airport. We were sad to see them leave.

Ok....From here on out I am going to try and be much better at blogging our lives.

Casen's first day of Kindergarten

Today was Casen's first day of Kindergarten, oh my how time flies. Casen was excited, and maybe a little bit nervous about starting school. He was very thrilled that he would be riding the school bus to school.

When Casen arrived home he said school was fun. However, he did not give me the play by play of the day, as I had hoped. He just told be about the important stuff like lunch and recess. He eventually told me he also learned the numbers and letters...I asked him what letters he learned, and he stated that he learned all of them. I had to laugh.

Ok....so I cant get over how little Casen looks walking up to that big bus. I am pretty sure he is way to small/young to be heading off to school by himself.

Waldameer

Skip's work, CVS Pharmacy, had their work party this weekend at Waldameer. It was a lot of fun. We got passes into the park and they also had a BBQ and prizes. It was great.

So this day was so much fun, I would almost say perfect....almost. The weather did not want to cooperate with us in the slightest. I can pretty much sum it up with rain, rain, rain. This picture gives everyone a good idea of what it was like. GOOD THING WE DID NOT LET IT STOP THE FUN.

Girls Camp

I made it through my first girls camp. I was so surprised by how much planning and time goes into preparing for girls camp. I am just so grateful I had such a fabulous camp director (Thanks for everything Alesha). Camp was a total success...I think the girls had a lot of fun.

One of my favorite things up at camp was the canoe trip we went on. We had a lot of canoes that everyone was able to take out on the river. A few of us decided that it would be much more fun to ride the current down stream...swimming rather than canoeing.

Happy 2nd Birthday Jace

I cant believe my baby is 2 years old. Wow how fast time goes. We celebrated Jaces birthday yesterday (Saturday) with our great friends. We decided it would be fun to have a water party. I think the kids and the adults had a lot of fun. Here are a couple of pictures from the great B Day Party!

The Lagoons

This evening we decided to go out to the lagoons and go canoeing with our friends, the Bairds. It was soooo much fun. The Bairds have a canoe and we were able to go to a place and rent one. We then headed out. I was so surprised how beautiful and peaceful these lagoons were. We are so lucky to have so many neat places, within 15 minutes of our house.





Mom and Casen

Dad and Jace

The Bairds

The perfect mormon family (we had a few borrowed kids)

Brothers......Best Friends!!

Just Cruisin Around

Here are the kids with their motorized vehicles. They have a lot of fun riding them together. A lot of times, I think that they think they are bumper cars. Casen has definitely got a lot of use out of his jeep, it is three years old (he seriously barely fits in it now).

Roastin Marshmallows...Makin Smores!!

Saturday night we decided to have a little get together with some friends. We started off by roasting marshmallows and making smores. The plan was then to go in and play some games....the games never quite happened.....but we had a ton of fun anyhow. Here are some pictures of the evening.

Skip's Birthday

Monday was Skips Birthday.....I know I am a little late on this post. Life seems to be so crazy right now.

Skips birthday started first thing in the morning. On Sunday he saw that guitar hero for the wii was a really good deal at circuit city. So first thing Monday morning he had to take his birthday money and go and get it. He then spent some time playing the game (a waste of time if you ask me, but he seemed to enjoy it).

We then used one of our birthday gift cards and went to Olive Garden for lunch. YUMMY!! The kids even ate really good there.

For dinner we ended up running to Moes and each getting a burrito. We totally scored on this deal. They have a deal where you get a free burrito for your birthday, you can use it on your birthday or up to three days later. Skip and I totally worked the system and got both of our birthday burritos on the same day. Free dinner you cant beat that.

Skip was then off to work for the night.....sad, but he didn't want to ask for it off. No one at his work even knew it was his birthday.

Skip's Birthday was a lot of fun. NEXT YEAR IS THE BIG 30!!!!!!!