Deck The Halls and a Photo Dump...

Off to Costco we went to get a tree because they had them on sale for like $27! Got there and you guessed it, they had sold out an hour before we got there.....back in the car and zip over to Menards. Costco and Menards for a tree....yeah we're classy like that. 

Found a 10 ft. tree that looked as good as it could all wrapped up!

Bill and our friend Ben tied it to the roof of the SUV and we were on our way! 

I was praying that it wasn't going to go flying off somewhere on the interstate....

Bill and Ben getting it all set up (it looks terrible here, but once it aired out a bit and relaxed, it looked so full and beautiful!)

Of course if no one is on 'Raylan Patrol' he will find something to occupy himself with....and emptying out an entire box of outside light hooks was on the agenda!

He was so surprised when I plugged in this string of lights! 

Decorating the tree with our roommate, Cheyenne. 

Sawyer LOVES decorating the tree! He likes to try and put on as many ornaments as he can so then the bottom half of the tree is a lot more decorated than the top half! 

We always put all the musical ornaments towards the bottom so that the kids can go and turn them on themselves. Raylan thinks this is pretty much the best thing ever. I'm just waiting for the day when he pulls the whole thing down on top of himself though. Sawyer keeps trying to teach him to only touch the ornaments and not touch the actual branches....yeah that's not working out too well.....we can always tell when Raylan has been touching the tree because his fingers smell like a Fraser Fir! lol

Time for the iPhone Photo Dump! (Random pictures that were on my phone.)

Caught in the act!

.......or maybe Papa Steve was the one unrolling the entire roll of toilet paper and just pretended it was Raylan.......hhhmmmmmm.....

The two handsomes and Cheyenne.

Raylan sitting in Mommy & Daddy's bed watching HGTV.

 A moment of calm....sharing the Wii U nicely together.....the very next minute Raylan;s patience was all used up and snatching and whining ensued. You've gotta take the quiet moments when you can get em! 

Thanksgiving 2013

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with  family and friends! As always, the food was D-lish! Turkey and ham and all the trimmings! 

We also had a little addition this year-Janice is a friend of Kathy and Steve's from their Sunday school group. Her Thanksgiving plans fell through so she was able to join us this year!

Kathy had this little 'Thankfulness Tree' and we took leaves and wrote things that we were especially thankful for....

....and with no prompting, Sawyer did one that said 'My mom and Dad' and one that said 'Raylan'..... :)

The fork just wasn't fast enough! Shoveling it in with his hands!

This picture CRACKS me UP!!! I told Sawyer, "Smile nice for a picture!" and he gives me this!!!!! LOL

Nana Kathy got out like the best toys ever! Headlights!!!!

All the kids were running around with them on playing hide and go seek in the basement! They were just squealing with delight!

Raylan and Macie taking a ride....

Dessert time!!! Sawyer was waiting all day for it!

Raylan 'helping' Papa with some LEGOS.

Sawyer conned everyone into a few rounds of Rummikub and Picturereaka......

Raylan climbed up on a chair and decided to give Papa a few good hair pulls.

Papa Rick and Raylan.

We have so much to be thankful for but the ones that are nearest and dearest to me are right here on this couch* 

"Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, his love endures forever!" Psalm 107:1

Finally!

 Ever since Bill and I were engaged we have had some very special friends, John & Ashton. Bill and John have been friends ever since they were little and then Ashton and I joined the mix! We were in each other's weddings, they were there the night Sawyer was born and then Raylan and their son Jackson were born a week apart! A few years ago John's job had them relocate to Wisconsin and then to Fargo and then to South Dakota. We (Bill & I) will be the first to admit that we get the 'bad friends' award because we never went to visit them! They came back to Omaha to see friends and family numerous times but we just couldn't get ourselves up to see them! But now that they were only like two hours away, we knew we just had to go!

We sped up there for a quick weekend away and had such a good time! Of course the two rascals had a blast running around, making a mess, getting into little squabbles and talking to each other in their little made up language!

Ever since we had Sawyer, John and Ashton have so annoyingly taken it upon themselves to always pick out the most loud and obnoxious toys for Christmas and birthdays....and this year they didn't disappoint. They gave him this HUGE nerf gun bazooka thing that has like 30 darts and 10 DD batteries.....Thanks a lot guys (eye roll)

John and Sawyer playing Battle ship, Connect Four and Chess (Sawyer was in heaven)

Like I said, the two little guys are just a week apart in age so they are TOTALLY into the same things right now. One of the main things being: How can I annoy you and still get away with it? This particular moment Jackson just really wanted to stick his fingers in Raylan's ears....and Raylan was not a fan.

Still trying to grab the ears but mommy getting in the way!

Jackson: 1 Raylan: 0

What a little ham!

Sawyer always tries to race through the kid's sheets at restaurants but then ends up with nothing to do! 

Having brunch at this super duper cute diner right before we headed home.

Thank goodness that 'No Shave November' is over so John can shave that thing off his face! LOL

We had a great time catching up and just hanging out! Sorry it took us this long to come see you guys! 

We love you loads!

Turning 80 But Partying like She's 21!

A few weekends ago we had the great privilege of celebrating Grandma Joan's 80th Birthday!!! Uncle Jeff and Aunt Lin did such a tremendous job of planning this weekend extravaganza, with family flying in from out of town, coordinating everyone's schedules and all the while keeping it a SURPRISE!  

The party day started out with going to Saturday morning Mass (we did not attend because the thought of sitting through Mass with our two boys could send everyone to an early grave!) where they had a special blessing for Grandma Joan. Afterwards we all met for a wonderful lunch at Vincenzos!

All this delicious Italian food and all Raylan wanted to do was eat crayons....

After lunch, the gang headed over to root for the Nebraska Huskers! Being as how Bill and I are not huge football fans at all, we took Raylan home to take a nap and let Sawyer go with Nana & Papa for an afternoon of footbally fun :)

That evening we ordered pizza and gorged ourselves on cake and ice cream! 

Here is the birthday girl making her wishes and blowing out her candles :)

Now you would think that getting all the siblings and their wives together for a picture would be quick and simple. Guess again! Not quite sure how it started (maybe Mike blowing softly into Jeff's ear?!) but something struck Kristi's giggle button and she just could not get it together! Every time she tried to regain her composure to take this picture, she would erupt into hysterics! LOL

We had a great evening of family time, drinking strawberry daiquiris, playing games and just celebrating Grandma Joan! Her party had started at about nine in the morning and she partied all day until about ten thirty that night! Yup, 80 years old and she's still got it!

Right as the pizza was arriving though, Sawyer said he didn't feel well so he spent all evening sleeping up in Aunt Lin's guest room! 

Poor thing, missed the whole evening! 

Then on the way home, we had just gotten on the interstate when Sawyer throws up all over the back seat. And I'm talking like AAAAALLLLLLL over. I swear he had like a week's  worth of food stored up. It was so bad. Bill rolled all the windows down and sped home and it smelled to high heaven. When we got home, I threw the kids in the bath and Bill tackled the inside of the Durango. He wiped, he used the wet vac, he used the carpet shampooer, he vacuumed.....but there is just something about puke in the car that just doesn't come out unless you have it professionally cleaned....which we did the next day.