Thanksgiving

I know I'm WAAAAY behind on the blog... it's been a busy couple of weeks with finals and papers and projects as well as activities, parties and shopping. Brian is finally finished with this semester and today we got lots of snow again so it makes it feel especially like Christmas is less than a week away! More tree trimming and gingerbread-house-making pictures later... but for now, travel back to last month's holiday: Thanksgiving! We went to Ohio to Brian's aunt and uncle's house. We drove up with his parents and sister. Stopped at McDonald's for lunch. Blake loved Poppa feeding him ice cream! :)

Cute cousins: Natalie and Allie
Grandma D made us yummy pot pie for dinner.

Evan loved it!

Matching PJs.... guess their mommies have good taste!

Adam, Natalie, Blake and Allie

Getting the tables ready for the big meal!

Most of Brian's mom's family live in the same area so a lot of people were able to come. I think it was around 25 and more stopped by at night so it was over 30 people total! :) It was good to spend time with relatives that we don't see too often. And Natalie and Allie got their own special table.

Ev devoured the squash!

Look at all those desserts!!

Relaxing after the big meal

Linda's mom, brother and sisters, minus two others that couldn't come.

Playing Catchphrase

Cousins eating PBJs....thought their faces were funny.

Michelle and I went to Walmart to print some pictures and I just had to get a picture of the horse and buggies. It's a very Amish area and they actually have hitches outside all the stores. Pretty neat.

Watching VeggieTales. Thanks Pete and Liz for letting our kids invade your house!

We had a great time with everyone and I'm very thankful for both of our families!

Happy Anniversary!

Dec 18th is our Anniversary and today we're celebrating 5 years of marriage! I love you Brian and I'm so happy to be your wife. It's been a wonderful adventure so far and I can't wait for many, many more years together! :)

Friends and Grandma's visit

She already loves to talk on the phone. :) We had new friends from church over for dinner... the kids put on a talent show for the adults. Very cute. :)

Fun Unleashed-- Cindy and I took the kids one day. It has slides and tubes and balls and things to play on as well as games. They had a great time!

Trying out the jumper. He loves it but we don't really have anywhere to leave it up permanently. He likes crawling around too much now anyway! :)

Playing "jump over Daddy" :)

My mom sent the kids Zingo-they love it. Thanks!

Natalie is really into letters and writing them and trying to sound out words. She finally learned that there's things she can do on the computer too and wants to get on it all the time now. This was starfall.com and it's a great site for kiddos learning letters/reading.

Evan loves babyfood much more than Nat or Blake did. They were ready to eat by themselves quickly. He can pick up food and he does but I think he likes the attention of me feeding him... maybe because he's the third kid. :)

My mom came for a weekend... the kids alwasys love it when Grandma comes to visit!

At the playground.

My mom bought the kids each a toy and sunglasses at Target while she was here... Blake LOVES Toy Story got a Buzz and Woody. This was before Thanksgiving and he still carries them everywhere and even has them sleep outside his room.

We had fun with you as always Mom. See you soon for Christmas!

I know I'm way behind.... Thanksgiving up next!

Quote Time

Pictures coming soon I promise--and yes, those ARE scissors! Natalie took this picture and I just saw it as I was taking them off our camera. Yikes!

Here's the latest out of the mouths of my babes...

Blake brought me a ripped piece of paper apparently wanting me to fix it. When I didn't respond, he thought a minute and said, "new batteries please!"

In the car the other day, Natalie said, "I want to be a steam eater when I get bigger." I kept asking questions trying to figure it out she was talking about. Finally she said, "You know, a steam eater, at Penn State, in the stadium." "Oh, a cheerleader?" "Yeah, that's what I said."

I pulled a carton of ice cream out of the freezer and Blake exclaimed, "Cake!!" Guess he doesn't get much ice cream at home and has gone to a lot of birthday parties lately! :)

Natalie and Blake were poking each other's eyes with their fingers (no idea why....) and I explained they could really hurt their eyes, they could even go blind! Natalie, not phased at all said, "That's okay, we'll just yell out 'Jesus! Jesus! Come save us!' and he'll come heal our eyes for us." Guess she's getting the Bible stories we read. :)

"Cindy's making clues!" (our neighbor making tracks in the snow in the driveway--from Blue's Clues)

Blake: "mash mato head" (Mr. Potato Head)

"cuh-wocs" (Crocs)

"bees yightyar" (buzz lightyear)

"Here not, here me come!" (playing hide and seek)

"This good Mom! This good!" (when we were trick or treating)

"Love you!" (he says this out of blue... and often... I love it. :)

Me: What were you doing upstairs?

Natalie: Oh, just putting my kids to bed.

Natalie: "Hallelujah, thine the glory. Hallelujah, AW MAN!"

We cleaned out some closets today and I was going to see if my neighbor had any use for some of the things before I gave them to the thrift shop. Natalie saw a potpourri candle thing and asked what it was for. I told her it makes your house smell good. "Does Cindy's house smell bad?"

Trick or Treat

We saw some pumpkins painted with faces and the kids wanted to paint theirs... so I got out paints and brushes thinking they'd turn out really cute... but there were no eyes, no ears, no mouths... just lots of paint everywhere and lots of kid creativity, I guess! :) We went to Moms and More Halloween Party. It was fun but there were a ton of kids and a ton of treats and candy so it was a little crazy!Natalie was Minnie Mouse, Blake a regular mouse and Evan was a spider. It was really cute-had little legs coming out but I never got a good picture of it. He got hot so I had to take the gray body part off right after this picture.

Pin the face on the pumpkin.

Evan playing blocks with Dracula (who is 1 day older! :)

Our budding pianist- my mom bought this for Natalie and all three kids have loved it!

Practicing standing (I put him like that...he isn't pulling up yet)

Trick or Treat time!

Brian was gone for the weekend so we went our neighbors, Jake and Cindy. Their son Nathan is Darth Vader.

Cindy stayed home to pass out candy with her younger son Ben so she kept Evan too. The older kids went out to trick or treat.

Poor Blake, it was hard to keep up with the big kids... he made it halfway and then I took him back home while Natalie and Nathan kept going with Jake. It was lots of fun and they got plenty of candy that Brian is enjoying. They forgot about it after the first day which I'm not complaining about! :)

Little Evan at the hospital... we met with an ENT doctor and he recommended PE tubes to help keep his eardrum from rupturing. So I drove about an hour away for him to have them put in. It was a short procedure but he did have to be put under, and wear that little mask to protect him from swine flu while we waited. He did great and all the nurses loved him and hopefully his ears will be a little better from now on.