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. 

Let's Party On.....

We had told Sawyer that from now on he can either choose to have a birthday party with his friends from school OR a large gift from us. We're not made of money!!! So this year he decided that he wanted to have a party and he wanted to do a bunch of sports. We decided on a soccer gym and Sawyer couldn't have been happier!

It was nice because they had two full hours of active play time in which Sawyer was able to pick what sports he wanted everyone to play! They started out with dodge ball and per Sawyer's request, it was boys against girls.....now we can all take a good guess which team won by a land slide.

Mr. Naughty Pants could barely be contained! He wanted to get in there with those big kids so badly!

Unfortunately we didn't get as big of a turn out as we would have liked because someone  (me) didn't take into account that the party was smack dab in the middle of a Nebraska Huskers Football game....but that just meant more turns for the kids that did show :) They played dodge ball, kickball., an obstacle course and soccer! 

Trying to keep Raylan and his little friend Hieth from interrupting the big kids games....

Time for cupcakes and ice cream!

They were such a sweet group of kids and got along SO well together!

This is apparently Sawyer's new 'cool' pose......I have no idea where it came from...

Boys being boys!

Then it was time for presents! He got some really fun stuff: lego sets, micro chargers, board games, puzzles...

The group looking somewhat normal.....

....and then not so normal! :)

Sawyer had a great afternoon with his buddies burning off some energy. Still can't believe he is seven already, before I know it we'll be handing over the car keys! Yikes!

Halloween 2013

Presenting: Oompa Loompa (Charlie & The Chocolate Factory) and Darth Maul (Star Wars)!

I put Raylan's Oompa Loompa costume together myself with girls stretchy leggings, a brown turtle neck, two long strips of elastic for the suspenders, a pair of men's brown socks that I cut in half and sewed to fit his little feet and lots of white duck tape! I always love getting a little crafty with Halloween costumes! 

Now Darth Maul on the the other had did NOT want me to make his costume! Amazon to the rescue once again :)

As usual, we headed over to Nana & Papa's house for a quick dinner and then hit the streets to round up the booty! Sawyer is definitely at the age where walking slowly with your little brother is out and running from one doorstep to the next is IN! 

After the first two houses, Raylan caught on really quickly to what was going on. He would march himself up the driveways, stumble up the front steps, bang on the door with his little orange fist and shake his bucket! Then they would drop a piece of candy in his bucket and he would plunge his hand into their candy bowl to help himself to about five more pieces and be on his way. And of course, at almost every house, he got compliments of, "He's the cutest one we've seen all night! Can I take a picture of him??"

After Sawyer had pretty much doubled his weight in candy, we headed back to the house to sort it. Raylan didn't like to sort candy. Every time Sawyer would start to get everything all laid out, Raylan would sit down in the middle of the pile and swipe it all over......oh the joys of little brothers....

Raylan's rascally or should I say naughty behavior continued as Sawyer and Uncle Alex tried to play Jenga. Raylan would just sit and wait till they had all the blocks set up, reach over and swat out the bottom of it. Papa was then put on Raylan patrol.  

The following evening, some friends hosted a little Halloween party 

and the green gecko, batman, oompa loompa and Darth Maul attended. 

What's scarier than an Oompa Loopma? An Oompa Loopma with a sword. 

I decided not to paint his face orange with the white eyebrows....considering the previous night we pretty much had to put him in a straight jacket in order to do it.

Tons of food, itchy costumes, Cards against Humanity and scary movies.....Happy Halloween Everyone!

Carve Em' Up!

I hate Walmart. Sorry for those of you who love it, but who in their right mind goes to Walmart when Target exists? The savvy shoppers, that's who. I'm not a savvy shopper, much to my husbands dismay. I don't go to Walamrt to price match and save $22 every time I shop.....but I did go there to save $0.99 on pumpkins the other night! Good for me!

Sawyer was just dying to get his hands on this pumpkin....we got out the tools, spread out the plastic,

turned on the movie, "Halloween" and got right to work!

Daddy had to help jam the knifey thing in every once in a while for Sawyer....ok, he helped me too. 

Sawyer's, Mine and Bill's!

Ta-Daaaaaaaaa!

We let Raylan take a nice long bath (his favorite activity ever) to keep him out of trouble during the pumpkin carving......so he decided to make some trouble in the bathroom instead. Lovely. 

And when in the world will I ever learn not to keep the baskets of diapers near the tub????

Then we put together these little baggies of cheese balls for Sawyer and Raylan to give out at school and Day Care. They said, "Pumpkin Poo.....just for YOU!" on them! 

After the kiddos were tucked in for the night, I tackled Raylan's Halloween costume.....it's just a sneak peek! 

You'll have to wait for the next blog post to see him in it! 

Spoiler Alert: He was ADORABLE.