Do you have an ugly sweater?!?!?

We enjoyed going to a holiday ugly sweater party last weekend. Let me tell you there were some pretty ugly sweaters there. The party started at 6:00 on Saturday and around 3:00 saturday you could have found me over at Mindi's house adding a little bling to our sweaters that she picked up from Goodwill. Thanks to Mindi for helping me look so ugly that night!! However, I didn't top her kitty sweater and leather boots!! (ha! ha!) Oh, and I love Jenners santa outfit. It's only appropriate that the white part of the outfit are Hanes socks! Would you expect any less from her?!?!? (they have accepted a job at Hanes)

They had fun activities for the kids. Here is Ethan decorating his tree

Nice sweater John!! And would you call that a sweater friend?!

And here is cat woman with her husband....ummmm what is his name? Oh yeah, it's Bryan. Good thing his name is stenciled on the front of his very cool sweater!!

Thanksgiving

We had lots of fun going back and visiting friends in Michigan for Thanksgiving. In fact, we had so much fun I didn't take the time to get out my camera very often. We love our friends in Michigan and miss them a lot. Thanks to the "C"family for letting us hang out with them all weekend!!

Jane with her surrogate grandparents! They've been nothing but good to our family since the day we moved to Michigan 7 years ago!
And here's the kids with their other surrogate grandparents (our neighbors, Vern and Denise). We miss them!
Erin and Lucy enjoyed playing with the Easy Bake oven but don't be fooled.....Lisa ended up finishing the baking!! he! he!

Twilight

This little bottle of lotion was given to me yesterday from my friend Jennifer....a die hard twilight fan with a note attached reading "Just 3 more days" It made me laugh. Who knew there was twilight lotion!! We are all excited to go see new moon on Friday night. Not sure if I am more excited to see the movie or just get out of the house after a long week of case competition stuff!!!! Can't wait!

To nurse or not to nurse....

When it comes to nursing I've heard some crazy things. I have had someone go as far as telling me if you hold your head a certain way and give a few special shakes (and it was demonstrated to me) you can keep your milk and get more to come in. There is NEVER EVER reason enough to switch to formula. About a month ago I was going to switch Jane to formula because she was waking up every couple of hours to eat and I just didn't think she was eating enough. However, I was guilted into continuing to breast feed. "Certainly a child with those cheeks is getting plenty from you" I was told. However, last Tuesday I woke up after getting little sleep and declared Jane was done breastfeeding. Well, easier said than done. She was MAD at me. She wanted nothing to do with a bottle. I felt awful and maybe a tiny part of me wondered if I should do the special body shake to bring in more milk. But, it was a fleeting thought and Jane would take a bottle or starve. I mean she will take a bottle if she gets really hungry right? It was a long day but finally by 2:30 in the afternoon and 3 different brands of bottles she gave in and took a bottle. She wouldn't allow me to hold her for the first two days which made me feel bad but at least I knew she wasn't starving. And surprise surprise she has been sleeping through the night. I guess those cheeks were misleading after all!! I am a fan of nursing and part of me is sad to give it up but I am also a fan of bottles and have found many benefits already to switching over.

Love this kid

Good thing Lucas is so darn cute because lately he has been going through a whining stage....it better be a stage that is outgrown SOON!! Anyway, he really is a cute fun boy and when he isn't going through his "terrible two" stuff we have a lot of fun together.

I'd say right now his two favorite things to do are:
1) ride Lucy and Ethan's scooters (which are too big for him but he is getting pretty good at it)

2) andhe loves to help me cook. Whenever I am in the kitchen he wants to "help". He's my little side kick who sits on the counter and loves to pour things in the bowl, have total control of the beaters, crack eggs (leaving lots of shells for me to pull out) and of course is always willing to lick the beaters. Life is good when you are two!!

Can anyone else do this?

On Thursday we were at the Zoo and my friend Sara showed us one of her MANY hidden talents - keeping a sixlette candy suspended in mid-air. She claims it's easy and anyone can do it. For the record - I tried and I couldn't do it.

All Partied Out!

We participated in a lot of Halloween activities this year. Seemed the kids were in their costume everyday over a 4 day span. Candy is spilling out of our house and I'm worried I will be the one to eat it all! Yikes! We've partied hard and I think I've had my fill of Halloween this year. The kids had Halloween parties at school on Wednesday. Given there was no school on Thursday and Friday, a BIG group of us took our kids to Indy to the Zoo where they went in costume and trick-or-treated there. We then put on cosutmes again on Friday night for a church party and again on Saturday for a Halloween BBQ at our house (thanks to the party planner - Mindi) and then off the kids went for some trick-or-treating with the dads while the moms handed out candy at the end of our driveway.


I guess the festivities really started at the beginning of the week when we carved pumpkins as a family. The girls carved a pumpkin with heart eyes(designed by Lucy) and the boys carved a pumpkin with 4 eyes(hmmmm I wonder who designed that?!??!!Ethan!)Ethan didn't mind the middles so much this year. He was good at scooping out the pumpkin. Lucas on the otherhand just wanted to watch.
It was fun to be in the school for a little while and get in on a little bit of the fun. Here is Ethan with his Kindergarten teacher. She dressed up as her granny. It was really cute.
We had fun at the zoo. Here is Lucas sporting his costume there and Lucy and Libby in front of the penguins.

There just wasn't too much creativity in our costumes this year. Lucy chose to be the same thing she was last year....a good witch
Lucas was going to be a turtle up until the last minute and then he chose to wear this dog costume which is very cute but so small it pretty much came up to his knees.
Ethan was the incredible hulk. He thought he was really cool and strong!!
And here is cute Jane as a pumpkin just as I think all of our babies have been at this age!!

"Fast Eddy" cooking up hot dogs for everyone at our Halloween BBQ
All of the kids had fun trick-or-treating.

We pulled all of the pumpkins to the end of the driveway and a bunch of us girls sat and handed out candy together.
The kids had fun to counting and sorting their loot

Poop in my ear!

This kid cracks me up. He is so cute and says the funniest things. Today he seemed concerned as he asked in his oh so serious voice "Mommy, why do I have poop in my ear?"
What in the world....we've had a lot of crazy things happen involving kids and poop but never have I seen poop in their ears.
It took just a few moments to realize he thought the wax in his ear was poop. Made me laugh!!

Girls night out

These girls make the next two years manageable! We were all ready for a girls night out and a big splurge after all completing K-Lead. The long hours in front of the computer listening to the same thing over and over paid off Saturday night when we went to the Cheesecake Factory and ate great food, had good conversation, and didn't have kids pulling on us. Thanks ladies for a great night. I guess I can do K-lead again in the spring if I know this is what follows!

Sweet Jane

I am always amazed at how much a baby grows and changes in their first year of life. Jane is growing way too fast!! She is a sweetie and makes us all smile. Here are some pictures from the last couple of months.

Jane is really strong. If you look close you can see she is lifting her head up pretty far off the ground. It's kind of funny. It's like she doesn't want to lay but doesn't know how to sit up!

Here's Jane showing her support for her daddy!!

Lucy loves her little sister!

Happy Birthday Lucy!!

Lucy was really excited about her birthday this year. It was very cute! She'd keep saying things like "Ummm mom, are you remembering you usually hang balloons up the night before my birthday?"
"Yes Lucy, I do remember that"
Long pause.... "Do you think you'll remember this year?"
This was just one of the may times she reminded me. Glad to know she looks forward to some of the things I do.

I feel bad to be posting this almost a month after her birthday. Life has just been way too busy!! Lucy is such a sweetie and is such a good girl. We love you Lucy!

We took her out to McDonalds (her choice) and then headed to the mall where she got to go to Build a Bear which was really fun.



We didn't have a birthday party for Lucy this year. We decided we'd just do a family party. However, the day after her birthday her friends knocked on my door and asked if they could have a party for Lucy "since Lucy didn't get a party" (which suddenly made me feel like a bad mom!!ha! ha!) Anyway, cupcakes were made, signs were hung, and games were planned and before Jennifer (Eliza's mom) knew it, she had a party going on at her house!!! I popped in for the festivities. Unfortunately Libby and Jenna aren't in this picture but they were there too. Anyway, I thought it was so nice of all these girls to do this for Lucy. She definitely felt loved! Thanks everyone!

Field Trip to the Fire Station

We took our pre-school group to the fire station. Lucas LOVED it....after we were gone. He was so nervous while we were actually there and to top it all off the fireman put on all of his gear which really scared Lucas. He wanted nothing to do with the man and certainly didn't want to climb in the fire truck. At least the other kids seemed to enjoy the time we spent there. I think the highlight was watching the fireman slide down the poll.
(Lucas really didn't want to be in the picture next to the scary man!!)
After pre school at Mindi's house, Lucas wore his fire hat everywhere and when I asked him what he learnd he'd say "Stop, drop, roll" and throw himself on the floor. Too funny!

K-Lead is OVER!!!

To anyone who knows what K-lead is (Camie, Jenner, Mindi, Jennifer, Sara) you will understand when I say I am happy to have my life back again. I took on a very temporary but time consuming job grading undergrads work. It only lasted 3 weeks but I have been doing it whenever the kids are napping or sleeping. I am happy to say I finished this weekend and I can now get my house back in order and catch up on a lot of things that have been pushed a side temporarily (blogging being one of them!) Good bye K-Lead....until the spring!!