'Tis the Season to be Thankful

This is the season of joy, snow, skating, special church services, breaks from school, trips to Santa, gift giving and receiving... all things that are fun and special - memories that last a lifetime. It's been during this time we've been harshly reminded of the preciousness of life and the importance of not taking it for granted. A little boy is fighting to recover in a pediatric ICU...we pray for him and his family as he works to recover and become a true Christmas miracle and are humbly reminded that each moment with one another is a gift.

It's in this mindset that I'm adding some of our holiday memories so far this season. Made more precious by being reminded that tragedy knows no bounds and can strike anyone at anytime...we are thankful for health, happiness and the times with our children. And we pray for that special little boy and his family as they travel the road of recovery.

Each year our local fire department does a food drive. They drive a decorated fire truck around the neighborhoods with Santa on top waving to all the kids, while other firefighters walk behind and collect food donations. We've always managed to miss it - last year they were really cruising and the kids were pretty sad. So, this year we 'tailgated' at the end of the cul-de-sac so we would be sure to see them. The boys were super excited when I told them what we were going to be doing and immediately started bagging up tons of groceries to share... which I did need to limit; after all, I need to make dinner too ;)

We took out the car seats, laid down the seats and loaded up the back of the SUV with blankets, books, snacks and hot chocolate. They were waiting for me in the car to drive them out - almost 30 minutes before it was time! (next year I'll wait a little longer to tell them!) We had a blast eating, reading and listening to music while waiting for Santa to drive by. Our neighbors joined us toward the end and the kids were so excited when the sirens and lights got closer. They gave the firemen the food, waved to Santa and then the older kids ran down the sidewalk for a few blocks after the truck - as some of us mommies froze!




I took the kids to Madagascar 2 as part of food bank drive last weekend too. They gave free admission with a food donation. It was a little harder this time as Aiden was ready to go about 45min into it and was saying it pretty loudly, "mom, I'm ready to go home!". The movie was cute though and we had a great time.

This past week we started decorating for Christmas. The boys loved putting up 'their trees' in the hall outside their rooms. They took decorating very serious and did an excellent job. They also helped me put up the big tree and get all the decorations on it. I have lights all over the house so they love running around in the morning and plugging everything in.





We also squeezed a visit to Santa in this week. Brendan had four pages of 'suggestions' for him ;) They were cute talking to him, although we really had to work to get Aiden to sit next to him when it came time for a photo! Of course, we were walking away and Aiden stopped and wanted to get his presents right then!

Turkey Day....Minus the Turkey ;)

We stayed in the cities this year for Thanksgiving. Four days with no places we had to go or things that had to be done... it was nice! We did manage to find things to do and there are always the basics that need to be done, but it was a good change of routine none the less. Thanksgiving Day we stayed around the house in the morning, Wellyn and Brendan cleaned the garage and Aiden helped me do some cooking and cleaning. After lunch it was nap time, and we ALL took naps! We woke up just in time to get ready to leave for the movie Bolt. It was the first time Aiden has gone to the theater to see a movie. They had a ton of fun and the movie was very entertaining. Given the movie showed at 5pm, we had some yogurt and muffins before we left, topped off by popcorn and mini-donuts at the theater, with pie and ice cream when we got home! Not the most nutritious Thanksgiving meal, but the kids sure loved it!

Friday morning I went shopping for Black Friday for the first time. I didn't leave until 7am so I'm not a crazy shopper yet ;) The stores were still busy at that time though, but I was able to get some pretty awesome deals. The worst part of the whole thing was waiting for an hour and a half at Toys R Us - just to check out! And that was at 9am... In the afternoon, a lady from Aiden's ECFE class came over with her daughter, 3, and son, 5, for a playdate. The older boys really hit it off and had so much fun running around wild...Aiden and his little friend were not too far behind! Poor Brendan was so sad when it was time for them to go he was sobbing... A clear sign that a nap was in order!

Saturday we did some more cleaning with Wellyn organizing the office closet - I do believe we will be able to find things now! I don't think we did much else on Saturday, just kind of hung out around the house.

Sunday we were up and ready to go by 10am for a family photo shoot at the Walker Art Center Sculpture Garden in Minneapolis. There was a dusting of snow so it was perfect to make the pictures look a little more festive. Brendan was just a ham and smiling and posing for the camera at every turn - it was so funny! Aiden, on the other hand, was glued to me and just not feeling it. I've seen a preview of a few shots and she was able to get some cute ones of him despite his attitude ;) I'll add a few here - we get the CD with all of them later this week:





If you're at all interested in getting some family photos done, we highly recomend Kelly - this is the second time she's done our family and we've gotten some really cute photos and it is so much nicer than going to a 15min studio session. Her site is: http://www.kellymariephotos.blogspot.com/

We went home to watch the Packer game and wait for Wellyn's brother, Ashley, and his friend, Ryan, to come over. Ashley has been stationed in Alaska for the past several years in the Air Force and is now going to be doing some training in DC before heading to the US Embassy in Pakistan. It's a long drive from Alaska to the UP so his friend Ryan went along for the ride - and was she ever a hit with the boys! Brendan instantly liked her since she was willing to put together his Mars Mission Lego ship with him (he takes it apart and puts it back together a couple times a day). The boys played foosball with Wellyn and Ashley and then went nuts wrestling with Ashley. Aiden pulled out his karate-type moves along with a few punches (I know!) and Brendan got out his new wrestling gear to try to take Ashley down. It was very entertaining to watch!




Ashley getting a leg workout!


After the boys went to bed (Brendan chose Uncle Ashley right away to take him!), Ashley hooked up his PS3 with a Blu Ray player and dazzled us with Planet Earth - awesome pictures! (Wellyn ordered one today...) Brendan was up very early on Monday morning and waited patiently for Ryan and Ashley to wake up. He was super excited that they stuck around to go to watch him at his swimming lessons. He had the biggest kicks ever and was so proud to have them to show off for.


On the way home Ashley rode in the back between the two boys (giving Ryan a break)and had them cracking up the whole way home. Here is a picture of them while I was at a stop light:

Pretty cozy back there!


Back home it was more wrestlmania before they took off for the last part of their trip to the UP. The boys going for a "swing" in blankets:



Aiden about to attack!


Ashley getting even more of a workout!


We all had a wonderful time visiting with them and are looking forward to Christmas when we get to see even more of our families from both sides! The boys are crossing off the days until Christmas and are looking forward to Santa riding by the house on a firetruck tomorrow night!

This afternoon was a little more low-key as Brendan was still sad after Ashley and Ryan left. We did make some Christmas cards to send to injured soldiers at Walter Reed Hospital. Brendan did an awesome job and really got into it, making smiley faces and stars; Aiden had an equally wonderful time putting stickers on them, of course, he kept thinking they were all for Santa ;) Brendan even asked if we could send some to Heaven for the soldiers that had died... the sweet things they say...

Kitty Tree

It seems I just get slower and slower at updating this! I must confess to spending time on facebook when I get a chance instead of on the blog. The boys are super excited about Christmas coming up - making lists, spending oodles of time on the laptop drooling over lego sets and screaming, "I want to get that!" at practically every commercial on TV... It can't come soon enough - for all of us! ;)

It's been nice to be done at the duplex - we've been back to "normal" evenings and weekends. Wellyn and Brendan have had some serious games of Steal the Pack and Aiden likes to help too.

We've made it church two weeks in a row...a new record for us lately! Here are me and the kids before heading out yesterday. Brendan did pretty good this week, Aiden had to leave for a little bit...




And, now that we've had some extra evening and weekend time, we're back to working on things around here. This weekend we finished up the cat tree we started building a while ago. It's a little bigger than I imagined it, but it turned out really great and the cats love it. Here's Brendan cleaning up the carpet:


Aiden supervising:


Diego checking it out:


And, the kids taking turns pretending to be "cats"... the only time we told them they would be allowed to climb on or in it:



The cats, relieved the boys went to bed so they could get a turn!


Wellyn surprised us this morning by going to swimming lessons so he could see Brendan in action. He is doing awesome - the coach has been having them do some things that are usually taught at the next level. Here he is waiting his turn to swim on his back:


And his new favorite part, standing on the edge in the deep end, while the coach says, "chop, chop, timber!" and they jump in feet first and turn and swim back to the edge.

A Week of Firsts!

Last week was a big week for Brendan - lots of "firsts" happened. Last Monday he swam with no flotation devices for the first time! He is doing awesome at lessons and will be moving to the next swimming level in January. Here he is waiting to start his lesson:


Here are some pics of the boys being cute together ;)



And, the biggest news for Brendan - he lost his first tooth! It had been loose for over a week and was really bothering him the day it finally came out. He was able to get it out on his own, something I'm very thankful for - I did not want anything to do with trying to pull it out! The next morning he was up bright and early to see the letter the Tooth Fairy left him and count his money. He was excited that the Tooth Fairy had signed the letter "Love, The Tooth Fairy"...funny! Then he came home from school saying that his friend Marilyn had told him the Tooth Fairy wasn't real, it was really just his parents... That Marilyn, she's been nothing but trouble for me! She is also the one who told him that Obama steals money from people...


On Tuesday I picked him up from school and he wanted to hurry and get home so he could have a Q-tip for his ear...which made me ask "why". Which led to the answer, "there is a rock in my ear"..."how did a rock get in your ear?"..."I don't know"..."Did you put it in your ear?"..."no"..."Did someone else put a rock in your ear?"..."no"..."Did a rock accidentally fall in your ear?"..."YES!"....Hmmmm... So home we went and it turned out it wasn't a rock but half of a bean he had found on the carpet in class and put in his ear "to see if it would fit". I had to take a picture once I determined it wasn't going to be necessary to run to the ER. He finally let me use tweezers to get it out, but it was a lot of work talking him into it. I do believe he will not try that again!


In other news, Wellyn finished up the duplex and we signed a lease with a couple who will be moving in next month. This is one of the bedrooms before, one of the other ones was navy blue:

And after, a "little" more neutral:


This was the color of the living room to start:

And this was it after we were done (notice the new floor Wellyn put in!):


The kitchen before:


The kitchen after a new floor, new paint and a touch-up of the cabinets:

Happy Halloween!!

I didn't think we would have a Halloween as warm as we did last year, but this year was even nicer! Temps were a mild 61 during the day with a low of 40 so trick-or-treating was really a treat this year! The boys were obviously excited to go out and get some CANDY...it was hard to get them to eat dinner, but they got enough down to call it a meal and then came the process of getting dressed. Even though it was warm, we did have the boys put a couple light layers under their costumes. Brendan's friend from kindergarten, Olivia, and her brother Hayden joined us for the big night. Wellyn dressed as a graduate and walked (with beer) around the neighborhood with their dad. I love handing out the candy to the kids and seeing all the neighborhood kids all dressed up - not to mention in between kids coming, I am able to clean up the house some.

Brendan picked out a Special Operations costume. He was very serious about the whole picture taking - wanting to get it done so he could go get some CANDY! Notice the pumpkin next to him. He picked out that design and he cut out the windows and painted it with just a little help from me. It's a craft pumpkin so we'll be using it every year!



Aiden went as a racecar driver - very appropriate since he loves the movie Cars and wants to buy every hot wheels type toy advertised.




Here is the whole crew waiting (patiently) for us to release them into the night to get some CANDY!



The boys holding the loot from the night.



And, the first pieces of CANDY they picked out to eat.


Saturday, Wellyn and Brendan went to the duplex for the morning and then Aiden and I joined them for a "picnic" lunch. We are almost done with the duplex, thanks largely to Wellyn's dad who spent a day there with him and did some work on it while we were vacationing in Vegas. We don't have renters yet, but have a likely candidate. It will be nice to get it done and have some free time as a family again. I'll have to post some before and afters another time.

Today was another beautiful day. The rain missed us and we made the most of it by trying out the playground at a nearby elementary school. The boys had tons of fun and were running the whole time. Here are a few pictures of the kids.