Who You Gonna Call?!?!?

Thanksgiving 2011

We drove to Wisconsin for Thanksgiving this year.  The drive time is about 8 hours, but that turns into about 10 with stops and the kids did a fantastic job both ways, I was so happy!  We had such a good time in Wisconsin visiting Andrew's family.  The girls spent lots of time cooking with Grampa Pete, William enjoyed exploring the house and chasing after Vinny the Cat, and Andrew and I enjoyed being around family and having help with the kiddos!  

William found Grammy's old pickle tub and was obsessed with it!

Lot's of cooking going on. 

William tried to get in on the action too.

The annual apple pie lesson!

Good thing she is wearing an apron!

Me and one my many blessings!

William's turkey and rice Thanksgiving dinner.

He did eat a lot of the table food as well, he can eat!!!

Andrew carving one of the turkey's, there were 2...

one in the over and one in the smoker, they were both delicious!

There was no "after dinner nap"

We had an after dinner dance party in the kitchen instead!

 The weather was pretty good while we were visiting so the kids were able to run off some energy at the park.

These 2 could be trouble in the future!

Playing in the leaves

We also had a little Christmas celebration.  Andrew's Aunt and Uncle and cousins spoiled the kids with some really cute new clothes, books and stuffed animals.  They were so excited and the bags were so cute!

Ok, I know I said the weather was good while we were there but that only lasted till Saturday.  I was supposed to go to the Wisconsin Badger football game with Andrew and his friend Derek but it was raining and windy and cold and I just didn't pack appropriate clothes so I wussed out and Josh went in my place.  It rained through the entire game so I would have been miserable, I was much more comfortable watching from the couch in my cozy pants!  The boys had lots of fun though!!

Derek, Andrew, Josh

I would not have been smiling like these guys!

Olivia's Birthday Party

Due to the nasty stomach virus that went around our house, we had to postpone Olivia's birthday party.  She was so sick the day we were supposed to have her party, she didn't even care!  We didn't let the stomach bug stop us a few weeks later than planned we had Olivia's 3rd birthday party at Build-a-Bear.  It actually worked out well because a few of her friends that weren't able to make it on the original date were able to come once we rescheduled.  The kids loved being able to pick out their own bear and some accessories.  After everyone got a bear we headed over to the mall food court for some cupcakes and some playtime.  It was a very nice birthday party, Olivia had a blast and we were so lucky to be surrounded by such good friends!

My 3 year old birthday girl!

Look who's 3!!

Listening to the rules

Waiting to pick out bears

Adrienne, Olivia, and Ella

Luke and William sharing a snack!

After getting stuffed, your bear needs a bath!

Group shot with finished bears

Silly face

...mmm, cupcakes!

Silly Boy

Raising a boy is a whole other beast.  I love my little fella, but he sure keeps me busy!  And it is busy in a way I wasn't with the girls.  Not good or bad, just different and I am loving every minute of it!

Wanna color with me?

I stole my sisters donut in the car....can you see the sprinkles on my face??

I love "helping" Mommy with the dishes!

Yummy beans at Chipotle!

He is a climber!

Halloween

I know....its almost Christmas, but here is our Halloween post!  We had lots of fun on Halloween and the days leading up to it.  

Here are the girls and Andrew carving pumpkins.  I spent the whole time trying to keep William away from the pumpkins, he was obsessed!  Sadly we only had one large pumpkin because upon cutting Abby's open we discovered it was rotten, talk about nasty!  Shortly after pumpkin carving I came down with the flu that had been going around our house that I was sure I had avoided.  And Andrew left the next morning at o'dark thirty.  Let's just say I spent the next day making sure the kids didn't die, but they were allowed to eat whatever they could reach....I think they liked that Mommy was sick, cheerios and cheez-its for breakfast, yum!

William didn't get the memo that you aren't supposed to eat the pumpkins!

Abby carved most of hers all by herself!

Olivia made a happy pumpkin

Yes, those are pumpkin guts on his face

The Friday before Halloween we went to Kirkmont (Abby's old preschool) for their annual Fall Festival.  The girls had fun playing games for candy and showing off their witch and fairy costumes.

William is not happy that I had him wearing Olivia's witch hat!

Olivia's school also had a fall festival which Andrew took all the kids too because I was having my pampered chef party!  They had a cake walk and both girls brought home some delicious baked goods.

...and finally Halloween night!  Our neighborhood goes all out for Halloween so we invited some of our friends over for chili and pizza and then we all headed out to go trick or treating.  The kids had so much fun.  Abby was about 4 houses ahead of me the whole time.  Andrew stayed home with William since he had run his marathon the day before and handed out candy.  We had so much fun with all of our friends, it might have to become an Ohio tradition!

The firefighters come hand out candy

All the kids minus William and Josie who stayed home with the Dads

Olivia got a ridiculous amount of candy.  Her bucket was so heavy she couldn't carry it by the time she got back to our house!

And here is a glimpse of Abby before she was off and running!