Happy Thanksgiving 2013!

We had a fantastic Thanksgiving weekend, hope you did too!  Sam has been doing some veterinarian surgery lately on his favorite black puppy.  Here he "delicately" uses a drill to fix his paw...

 No surprise, Fat Baby LOVES all food.  Here he tries out some beets from Aunt Philie, yum!

 We had two afternoon Thanksgiving celebrations this year, so that meant a calm, relaxed morning on Thursday.  It was nice to spend time as a family in PJs, not rushing to get ready or anything.  It was lovely!

 We got everyone cleaned up after lunchtime and prepared to head out...

 First stop was in Chicago Ridge with Mike's family, where our kids relished their cousin time!

 I'm pretty sure this guy got held for the entire afternoon.  Not bad!  After this, we went to my folks for an evening meal with the Hewes crew, it was a great day!

Then on Friday, my mom, Kjersten, Isaac and I went out for our annual trip out to Little Traveler in Geneva.  It's not the crazed black Friday shopping.  It's nice and calm and we have lunch with some ladies from the Benhart side.  Super fun!  My back was a bit tired afterwards.

 Meanwhile, the big boys had a GREAT day with daddy.  They went bowling in the morning, Tilted Kilt for lunch, and to Hawthorne Racetrack in the afternoon.  My cousin Deewee works there and showed them where he keeps the giant lightbulbs...

 They all came home tired out, but happy!

 On Saturday, we headed over to the Worsts for some fondue.  We haven't gotten the kids all together since August, so it was great to see them and play and EAT!

 Sam and Calvin perfect their plate licking form...

 After fondue, we couldn't resist going out in the 50 degree "heatwave."  I hadn't brought Ike's warm gear, so he had to borrow Hattie's.  At least he had his own hat!

Our long weekend of fun continued with ridiculous attempts at baby carrying...

 It's a little tough when you only out weigh your infant brother by 5 pounds...

We did our tree, this year Sam got the honor of topping the tree...

 Noah checks out an ornament from Mike's childhood.

 Sam finds his "Baby's First Christmas" one.

 One of Noah's faves, with a pic of Fred and him circa 2009.

 So, there you have it.  Our holiday season is officially off to a good start!

November is blowing by!

I can't quite believe that we're less than a week away from Thanksgiving.  It feels like November is blowing by faster than ever!  But that means we're getting close to Christmas, my FAVORITE.  We kicked off November by breaking out the matching reindeer jammies

 We also tried out another Pinterest find, sheets of press and seal on the windows with squares of tissues paper.  It was pretty neat looking and it kept the older two occupied for awhile.

 The boys have been all about pretend play lately, making symbols and crowns and lairs and fortresses with boxes and paper and tape.  Sam wore this on his forehead for literally 5-6 hours straight.

 Isaac's been SUPER cute and happy lately.  He just likes crawling around the floor, hanging with his dog in the sunshine.

 Master Facepainter Daddy struck again, this time it was Max Steel...

 and Wolverine!  Sam continues to be our family over-actor!

 I went to a baby shower for my high school friend Amy and got to spend time with Philie and Elizabeth.  It was crazy to realize that this picture represents (almost) 9 offspring.  And of our entire high school posse I believe we're at 11 now.  That's just crazy!

While I was at the shower and Mike was bowling, the boys got to hang with Auntie Faithy and Uncle Evan.  Shrek ears and intense training in use of the term "Bazinga" was on the schedule for the day.  They had a blast!

Isaac's hair continues to grow at an amazing rate.  The afternoon sun brings out his highlights!

Because I'm a slacker of a mom, this is the official 8 mos old picture.  Taken by our nanny to show us how much he loves the remote already.  Too funny!

 We had minor colds last week and Isaac snuggled up with Noah and before we knew it, he was OUT.  Noah didn't want me to move him, so he sat calmly with him for about 30 minutes while he caught up on sleep.

 For better or worse the boys have been together constantly.  And by together I mean, in the same room in the same space, ALL THE TIME.

 Bamma project of the week, cheerio/fruit loop turkeys.  Very cute!

 So off we go to Thanksgiving and all the fun family time this coming week has to bring!  We are thankful for a house full of funny, smart, healthy, active, loving boys!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN 2013!

Unlike last year when I felt as though Halloween was about 3 weeks long, this year it came upon much faster.  Probably had to do with us being busy with soccer, work, changing schedules, etc.  And with only one kiddo in school and only one party that actually happened on Halloween, it was a pretty calm ramp up to the big day.  Bamma has been doing all sorts of fun projects with the boys this month in preparation.  There were pipe cleaner pumpkins and spiders, construction paper/yarn hanging bats and ghosts, q-tip skeletons, frankenstein pudding, and silly eyeball cookies...

 Ike perfects his Michael Jordan impersonation.  The kid seriously has his tongue hanging out most days like this!

 Noah sustained his first soccer injury, cleats to the FACE!  Makes him look fairly tough...

We got our Waterbury Wildcats spiritwear.  I may have ordered a tad large to grow in to!

 We pulled out some costumes to see what we had in Leo size and look who still can put on an 18 month Dragon one!?

 The boys have been really in to card games lately, Mike taught them Uno, Laura taught them Go Fish, but I taught them important ones.  War and Indian!

 Pumpkin carving was the usual, Sam and Noah badgering Mike to start, then quickly losing interest and getting much to handsy with sharp knives, then some yelling some, some crying... Happy Halloween!

I only included one of Sam looking a bit psychotic, but we had a few... Mike says he's sleeping with one eye open now!

 The final product, Bat-pumpkin!

Another cute Bamma project, brave lady painted their feet to do this one!

The big day came and I took off the afternoon to be at Noah's school.  The principal shaved his full beard and donned a Waldo outfit.  No one knew who he was!

 Mrs. Stephan was a spooky skeleton!

 There's Iron Spiderman!

 Pudding at school, yes please!

 Some games and some fun, it was a blast of an afternoon!

 Noah with his best bud at school, Nico.

 Despite the rainy weather, we put on our costumes at home and geared up for some trick or treating!

 Blue Power Ranger, Iron Spider-Man, and Clark Kent!

 Clark tolerated his glasses for longer than expected.

 Iron-Spiderman: one of the 1200 spiderman variations

 Blue Power Ranger, he had the weapon (some noise making stick) for about 3 seconds before whacking it on a table and losing privileges.

We met up with our neighbors across the street, McKenna (Rapunzel) and Deven (Pink Power Ranger) to head out for some soggy trick or treating.  Isaac opted to stay home with daddy for treat distribution detail.

 Even with the rain, it was super cute to see our kids all traipsing down the road.  At least it wasn't freezing!

Hope everyone had a great Halloween!  Now to gear up for my FAVORITE....

CHRISTMAS!!!!!!