Here are a few pictures….

We hosted Thanksgiving down in KC this year. Ryan, Dee, Jack, Nick, Renae, Micah, Kahle, Bodee, and Reid all come down for the holiday. It was so great having everyone here and it was such great weather, that we got to play at the park and outside. The kids even raced bikes and scooters at night!

My mom came down for a visit over the Halloween weekend!!! Noah knew about it about a month before, so it was a LONG wait before she got here. Almost every day he would ask if Silly Grandma was on her way. But when she finally did get here, we were busy pretty much the whole time!!! Let’s see if I can remember everything!

Mom got here on Thursday the 27th around noon. So we got caught up a little bit and played.

After supper, we headed out to the “Enchanted Forest”. We got a little candy there and there was little stations throughout the park that you could stop and watch a puppet show, magic show, kids singing, etc. There was even a bounce house at the end that the kids played in.

Friday morning we went to iHop for breakfast to have “Scary Face Pancakes”.

Then after breakfast, we headed out to the KC Pumpkin Patch.

Even did the Corn Maze while we were there. It was fun, but we definitely didn’t go in order. I think we hit number 7, 8, 3 and 2. Guess that’s what you get when you let a 3 year old and a Silly Grandma lead the way!!!

Friday night, Mom and I headed to the winery for their “Hallowine” party. I won some tickets on Facebook to attend, and we decided we should go!! Mom was dancing in the parking lot!!!

Saturday was spent more laid back. Mom watched the kids while Rick and I went to lunch and the movie “Courageous”. After the movie, Mom and I hit Costco for a little shopping, but I think that’s about it.

Sunday morning we went to the zoo for “Boo at the Zoo”. We left Rick and Faith at home and we ended up spending ALL day there!!!! We did see a few animals, but it was mainly about getting candy, riding the train, the tram, the sky safari, the carousal, and the playground!!

I babysit our neighbors baby about three times a week, and Monday was one of those days, so it was spent at home. I can’t remember what we all did, but I remember it being nice outside!

Monday night was trick or treating!!!!! We had a GREAT time!!!

Tuesday morning I had to do books, so I left before Mom. She stayed a little longer to watch the kids while Rick got a little work done. I’m glad that she stayed as long as she did, but I wish she could have stayed longer!!! It was very nice having her here!!! Thanks for everything Mom!!!! You’re the best!!!!

(If this post does’t make sense, it’s because I’ve been working on it for a couple of days!!! Hopefully you get the drift!)

We started the day out by sending “Angel Grandpa” some balloons to Heaven. We let five balloons go for the five years that he’s been gone. Noah had to watch the balloons the whole time until he couldn’t see them anymore. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky so we could see them for quite a while. Although the red balloon took a left turn and didn’t follow the other ones and the blue balloon blended into the sky, so we couldn’t see those two anymore.

After the balloons where gone, we went to DeAnna Rose Farmstead. This seems to be the tradition on this day. We got to see the cow getting milked and even got some ice cream (yes, at 9:30 in the morning!!).

I also had a friend bring me flowers…she picked out flowers that had sunflowers in it! I had told her before that whenever I see sunflowers, it reminds me of Dad…although he HATED sunflowers!!

Noah got to celebrate his 3rd birthday a little early with the family. We got together at my Mom’s house on Sunday to have a little party for the soon-to-be 3 year old! The boys, of course, loved digging in mom’s back yard and jumping in the bounce house.

It was time to open presents and Noah got lots of great gifts! A Cars scooter, Moon Dough, water gun, truck, tractor and wagon, sidewalk chalk and bubbles, money, a Cars 2 car and some clothes! Thank you to everyone!!!!

Then it was time to eat the train cake!!!

Driving/Chasing

Climbing

Digging

Chick Watching

Eating

But there wasn’t enough down time…these boys had so much to do in such a short amount of time!!!! We went to the park one day to have a picnic and play. The next day we went to the beach to swim. Renae and I need to remember to put sunscreen on ourselves!! But at least the kids were fine…I think Renae got burnt the worst!

I think my kids are still re-cooperating…they’ve been sleeping until about 9 am since we’ve been back!!!!

Thanks again for having us stay at your house Webers!!! We had such a great time!!!

Happy Father’s Day to my Dad in Heaven who taught me to be very resourceful! (Notice his duct-taped shoe!!)

Love you and miss you Dad!!!!

And a Happy Father’s Day to Rick!!! He’s gone for work right now, so we can’t celebrate with him, but we wish you a very Happy Father’s Day and we’ll do something special when you get back!!! Here’s a couple of pictures of the kids…these are things they HAD to have learned from you!!!

Early Tuesday morning, Rick and I left while everyone was still sleeping so we could go out for breakfast and then head to a seminar that Rick had to speak at. It was nice that I could go along and videotape for him. After we got back, we went to the park to play. When the kids were in bed….we painted the living room!!! Mom had actually started a little earlier while Renae and I were off shopping!

Wednesday morning we all headed to the zoo. I was thinking we would only be there for a couple of hours before the kids would start getting pretty restless, but we ended up closing the zoo down!!! The kids were great all day and Faith only took about a 15 minute nap!

Thursday morning we finished painting and put the living room back together before they left. It looks great!!!

The time always goes way to fast when they are here. I had more fun things to do that we didn’t get around too. Guess they just need to make another trip!!!

One of his friends owns a bowling alley, so we went to visit them before they opened one afternoon. Noah wanted to play with every color ball they had. The balls got to be pretty heavy, but they had a ramp that he could just push them down, so it worked out pretty good!

Noah and Izzy kept me pretty busy. They wanted to play outside a lot, go to the park and walk down to the train tracks. One of the parks was only about 3 blocks away, but it was at a school, so we had to do that one in the late afternoon and evening. The train tracks where about 6 blocks the other way, so we walked down there about every time a train went past – at least it seemed like it! Faith was a little crabby and very clingy while we were gone…I finally looked in her mouth and seen that she had some molars coming in…yeah, I guess that would make her crabby!

On May 5th, Rick and I celebrated our 10 year wedding anniversary. We didn’t actually do any celebrating, but we did help cut down a big tree…does that count??? Paul & Marie have a tree that is brushing up next to the garage, so it needed to come down.

Even the kids helped!

We also had to get a picture with Grandma – okay, so it was my idea to take pictures…the boys wouldn’t think of that!!

While we were gone, we headed up to Rochester to visit my aunt and uncle one night!!! I can’t remember the last time I was there, so it was great to get to see them!

After the boys were all cleaned up, it was coloring time! I had everyone color a picture for Faith that I will put in her scrapbook. I was pretty impressed with everyones coloring abilities!!! We have some pretty good talent in our family!

Then it was time for presents!!! Faith received many great presents! Toys, clothes, books, no-spill bowl, money – everything was great!!!!

CAKE TIME!!! As soon as she seen the cake, she was trying to get it. We couldn’t even get thru Happy Birthday before she had frosting in her mouth!

Now, it was time for the rest of us to have our cupcakes! I had everything ready so the kids could decorate their own cupcake if they wanted to.

It was a great day to celebrate with family and friends and we had a great time. Although we could have done without the kids getting car sick. At least we were a little more prepared for it on the way back to Kansas. Now I just need to do a little more research to see what we can do to prevent it all together!