Happy 4th Birthday Josh and Ryan!!

This year we celebrated Josh and Ryan's birthday by having a party here at home with both sides of our family. We had a big sleepover for whoever wanted to stay, and it was really fun. Poor Eric and Sarah and family had to leave early because of sicky kiddos, but they made it home safely. There were thirteen of us spending the night.

This year, Ryan wanted a Thomas the Train theme and Joshy wanted Iron Man so I made Ryan some Thomas cupcakes, and Josh an Iron Man cake. It was a lot of work, but they liked them so much it was worth it :) We ordered Portillo's for dinner, some Italian beef sandwiches, and some Chicken Giambotta, yummmm...After dinner, the boys opened their presents and had such a fun time playing with all their cousins and family. Ryan barely left his Aunt Debbie alone, he kept telling her, "It's time to cuddle," while dragging her over to the couch.

This morning we got up and had some pancakes and everyone went their separate ways home. Makin' memories!

"Oh, Christmas Tree"

Decorating...decorating...

We've been busy here Christmas shopping and decorating. I can't believe Thanksgiving and November are over, and there's not much time to contemplate that with Christmas coming up so quickly! The kids are so excited this year about everything Christmas related. We got our tree last night and put it up, then after I put water in the stand, it all started leaking out the bottom! So, today, Pat had to go get a new tree stand and we had to switch out our almost 10' tree into it! Needless to say it's not decorated yet, but it does have its lights and garland on so far. I did redo my wreath and get it on the front door and some greens put around, so that was some progress. We also made our gingerbread dough and got it in the fridge so we can bake our gingerbread house pieces, assemble, and decorate it soon. The boys are happy that they can be in on it this year, but I'm not so sure that Hannah is happy to share the honors of decorating the gingerbread house! They did all enjoy tasting the batter though...pics to come!

Painting

I've been busy painting the kids' rooms lately ridding the house of all that builder's flat white paint. I still have to go back and do some details like some racing stripes in Ryan's room, and maybe some more details in Hannah's, but here's what I have for now...

Hannah's Room...

Josh's Room...

and Ryan's Room...

Beth's Visit

Halloween Cookies

Catching Up...

Hmmm...it seems like I'm always trying to catch up on my blog...oh well, doesn't it make you treasure these entries even more? Ha ha!

Halloween

We had a really fun Halloween. Hannah dressed up as Princess Tiana from the Princess & the Frog, Ryan as a race car driver, and Josh as Buzz Lightyear. On the Friday before Halloween, Hannah's school had a Halloween Parade that families could attend, so I dressed up the boys and we drove over to school to surprise Hannah. The whole school paraded outside since it was nice out in their costumes. It was cute.

On Halloween, we went over to Jim and Rach's to see them and Lily and trick-or-treated with them for a little bit. After that we drove back home to go trick-or-treating around our neighborhood. The kids were running from house to house, really into it all. Ryan did that for a little bit, but then retreated to the wagon for most of the night. They all got waaay too much candy, but had a great time.

We also went to Konow's Corn Maze this Fall for some pumpkin farm fun. It was a beautiful day, and the kids rode a cow train, hay ride, and more! They jumped in a bin full of corn kernels, climbed around a hay playground, and jumped their hearts out on the jumpy pillow. It was a great day topped off with a campfire in the evening.