Home for the Holiday

Happy Thanksgiving to one and all. A time when we can all reflect on all of our many blessings and how very much we have to be thankful for. I know I have a long long list. I asked the boys what they are thankful for and the replies were; toys and people (Tyler), our home and my warm clothes (Adam). You can tell we discussed this today! We stayed home this year for Thanksgiving. A whole family feeling under the weather made it an easy decision. Adam is on antibiotics for an ear infection and came down with the stomach flu Wednesday morning. He hasn't eaten much since and is still having some vomiting tonight even! Tyler is also on antibiotics for an ear infection and complaining of a tummy ache, hasn't had an appetite but is acting fine so far. (so far, we are on guard though!) Grace is on antibiotics for an upper respiratory infection and we are finally starting to see some improvement from her. She still has a cough and runny nose left but her main symptom has been fussiness. You can just tell she hasn't felt well. Justin and I are battling sore throats and headaches although I feel way way better tonight. Can you imagine us showing up at any one's door step with 3 kids on antibiotics and one throwing up...Happy Thanksgiving, NOT! :) Justin's parents brought us a turkey dinner on their way through to Portland. It was the kind you buy frozen and pre cooked from Albertsons so you basically just heat it all up. It was good! Not like a traditional home cooked one but we were so tickled to get to actually eat turkey dinner today. They also left us pie and other yummy snacks. It was so very nice of them! There is something about food that makes it feel like a holiday. So, we had a very low key day. Played a lot of games and watched a lot of movies. We were thankful to be able to spend it as a family. There were so many holidays back when I was working at the hospital that I had to work I am just happy to be home for the holidays! Plus there were definite perks to being home, no packing, everyone slept great, kept on the same routine, etc. Tomorrow we will get out all the Christmas decorations...yahoo! I hope everyone had a very wonderful Thanksgiving...28 days until Christmas! :)

GO COUGS!!!!!!

Congratulations to the Cougs and all their die hard fans for
BEATING THE HUSKIES. YA-HOO!!!!!

Adam celebrating the Cougs victory...that's my boy!


Adam sporting the Pilgrim hat he made at school today. so handsome. They had a "Festive Feast" today, every child brought their favorite food to share, Adam chose cranberries.


Tyler being cute and sweet even though he didn't nap today the little stinker.



Grace pausing for a very brief moment while I snap a picture, notice the constant runny nose lately, that is accompanied by an awful cough. lucky her. She looks happy here, but she hasn't been all that happy lately. A terrible cold, she is working on 5 teeth and she is just getting over the stomach flu, talk about sucky!



and last but not least I thought I'd share a recipe for the most delicious snack mix ever!! This gets gobbled up (pun intended) everywhere I bring it and the best part is it is very easy to make!


White Chocolate Snack Mix
1 (10 ounce)package mini twist pretzels
5 cups toasted oat cereal
5 cups crispy corn cereal
2 cups salted nuts (i use cashews)
1 (14 ounce)package candy-coated chocolate pieces (I use Reeses pieces)
2 (11 ounce) packages white chocolate chips
3 tablespoons veg oil

Combine pretzels, cereals, nuts, candy pieces. In microwave-safe bowl, heat choc chips and oil on med-high heat 2 mins stirring once. microwave high for 10 sec; stir until smooth. pour over cereal mixture and mix well. spread onto wax paper. let cool. break apart. store in airtight container. ENJOY!! :)

Spokane Visit

Sunday, Monday and Tuesday we spent in Spokane. Justin had a conference for work and so the kids and I went along. We went over Sunday and our first stop was the Jones household. Our wonderful WONDERFUL husbands took all 6 kids while Sara and I had a mom's day out. I really think this should be at least a biannual event. We had such a great time. A quiet lunch, where we actually were able to carry on a conversation, chew and taste our food and then not have to apologize for the huge mess...it was unreal. Next it was pedicures and then a latte at Starbucks where we sat and talked. It was so relaxing. My idea of a perfect mom's day out. While we were gone the Dad's took all 6 little ones to the park! I wish I had a camera to capture them pushing double strollers and pulling a wagon!! I bet they got a few looks. Monday we took in the sites of North town mall and Riverfront park. The kids enjoyed the Carusel and I enjoyed shopping downtown, man that is GOOD shopping. Tuesday we spent the day with Sara and her kids. The evenings were spent swimming at the hotel. The kids really enjoyed that. Below are a few pictures of our fun time with the Jones family. Our kids play so well together you would have NO idea there were 6 kids there and the oldest was 4 1/2. I only wish we could do it way more often.




Big kids watching a movie- the best part about this is that Adam and Aubrey sat quietly through the whole show and Nathan and Tyler were up half way through destroying the room...typical. :)


Big kids having their lunch...yes that is Adam in the awesome hat that he wore almost the entire time we were there.




How cute is this, Sara and the kids waving good-bye...we were so sad to go! :)

Gracie's 1 year stats

Grace had her one year well child check up this morning. She did fairly well. She didn't appreciate the doctor doing his exam she mostly batted him away the entire time, to be expected from a one year old I guess. She checked out healthy! She weighs 22lb 5oz which is the 75% percentile and she is 31 inches tall which is the 95% percentile. She got 3 shots which she screamed for but quickly got over it all. She is currently keeping us busier than ever. She can now climb on the boys beds! It's her new very favorite place to be. While she can get down from them pretty well, I am still obviously very concerned she'll fall on her head so it is constant concern around here, "where's Grace?" "is the boys room door shut?" . She also continues to climb on everything and anything and unlucky for us she is quite good at it! She is working on 6 teeth, 4 molars and two front bottom ones...this makes her grumpy at times and I can't say that I blame her for that. She is starting to talk some which is so exciting. She says hot, mamma, dada, hi and baby...Tyler thinks that she says Tyler but I am not sure I can agree:)She is really starting to interact with the boys which is very fun to watch. Her and Adam have always sort of interacted but the new thing is that her and Tyler are starting to hit it off. Tyler can ALWAYS get a giggle from her and he is quite an awesome big brother...most of the time. In fact, this leads quite well into my precious moments story from yesterday afternoon. I could hear on the baby monitor that Grace had woken up from her nap but I was in the middle of dinner prep so I hadn't gotten right in there to get her yet. Well, a minute later Adam says, "mom do you hear that? Tyler is in Grace's room talking to her". So we listen and he is saying, "don't be scared Gracie, God is watching you". How precious is that? He got that from a Vegie Tales movie and it made my entire week! It's moments like this that make it all so very worth while! Have a great day everyone!

Funny Adam Story

Just thought I'd share the story that had me gut rolling this weekend. Adam was telling us all about how in school this week the firefighters came to teach them about fire safety. He got to see the firetruck and he learned all about what to do in case of a fire, etc. Well, apparently when the firefighters asked if anyone had ever heard a smoke alarm before, Mr. Adam the quiet kid in the class pipes up, "Yea, one morning my dad cooked breakfast and burned it and all our smoke alarms went off, they were really loud and my mom was waving her arms at them trying to get them to shut off!". LOL!!!!!! (to credit Adam, this is indeed a true story) Kids, you gotta love em!

Adam Update

A quick update on Adam and Preschool. Thursday he had a great day! He came home so excited and told me everything he did. His teacher called me again this morning to hear Adam's perception of how Thursday went! She wanted to make sure he had a great day as he indeed had. She told me that they had more time to work with him because he was obviously ready to do harder things. So, it looks like this switch will give them more time to challenge him. For example she said that yesterday she did a Math work with him that had him counting up to the 100's. She said he caught on so quickly. I am so very excited for Adam! :)I am also so thrilled with this school and his teachers. Considering that Adam has always just been home with me and now I send him off to school where I don't get to see what goes on, it's so nice to know that caring eyes are watching over him. They really want him to succeed and have the best possible experience, what more can you ask for!

A Call from the Teacher

So I got a call today from Adam's Pre School teacher. Gasp, a call from Adam's teacher...what did he do? Nothing! She was calling because she had a new idea for Adam. Adam's class is a rowdy one. She said that she feels bad for Adam because he is not at all rowdy and he listens and does what is supposed too and he is obviously feeling overwhelmed by the rowdy kids and she feels that is it hindering his experience. So she asked me to start bringing Adam on Tue, Wed, Thur instead of the Mon, Wed, Fri that he is doing currently. She said on Tue and Thur she has less kids and less of the rowdy boys. She said that today was a particularly out of hand day because it was library day and Adam asked when he got to go home and it broke her heart. So her and the other teachers brainstormed today and this is what they came up with. I am happy about it. I am happy that his teachers are looking out for his best interest and that they care enough to brainstorm on how to make his experience the best that they can. She complimented Adam left and right on his behavior and what a sweet, neat kid he is...she just thinks he gets overwhelmed by the mix of kids that they have this year...as does she! :) I observed this first hand last week when I helped with the field trip and the Halloween party. I saw the rather rambunctious boys in the class and thought to myself, "no wonder Adam isn't friends with them, he is just not that way". So, it was sort of the luck of the draw with this class, he happens to have a lot of young boys who are on the wild side. Adam only occasionally drags his feet about going to school so I do think he still enjoys going, his teacher just gave me the impression that she wants him to be able to get more out of it and she thinks he might be able to with a calmer group. Interesting huh? I suppose this is only the beginning of the school challenges we will face. So starting tomorrow we will try Tue, Wed, Thur and I'll keep you posted on how it all goes. :)

Gracie turns 1

Well on tuesday the 28th Grace turned one! I simply cannot believe it. The year absolutely flew by. We feel so fortunate to have our darling little Grace. She is such a joy. We celebrated her birthday on Saturday. It was a great party. Grace had a really good time. Here are some pictures to enjoy. We'll start with the BEAUTIFUL cake. The secretary for Justin's office bakes cakes as a hobby and she really outdid herself on this one. Check this out!








Here we are singing to her, as you can see she loved it! :)

Posing with her darling cake.

that top section of the cake was hers, the second layer was rice crispy treats and the third layer was strawberry cake...pink of course! :)

devouring her awesome strawberry cake!

she didn't even get all that messy! She was fun to watch.


She even enjoyed opening her gifts. I don't remember my other kids really opening their own gifts at this age, but she did as you can see!


Isn't she just darling! Thank you for my birthday dress Grandma Chrissy.

Uncle Joe and Aunt Carisa got her a dolly.

which she loves!

Grandpa Tim and Grammy got her this toy you can ride or push as a walker, also a big hit as you can see!



We made some more super special memories. Gracie's one...what will the next year bring? More smiles, laughter and great memories I hope! :)

Happy Halloween!!!!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Halloween, we certainly did! We had a large group at our house which made it all the more fun! Both sets of Grandparents along with my brother Joe and his family, my brother Alex and his wife Anna and Justin's brother Jason and his family. We had a total of 8 kids trick or treating together! It was so much fun. Our neighborhood was perfect for it, the houses are close together so they all quickly got a bucket full of candy without having to walk too far!



Tigger, Eeyore and Piglet

Our little Piglet


Best buds, Tigger and Eeyore





The boys posing for me on our front porch which I think looks quite festive! Thanks Justin, you impress me so!


This wasn't a slow moving, slow talking Eeyore! Most of the day he did this...!


Look at them all, we had such a blast! Isn't that the cutest little green dragon? (my niece Lola)

My nephew Tanner-he is Pooh dressed as a bumble bee...he fit in well with my family's theme.


My nephew Vincent was a Lobster! The cutest costume ever. Not pictured was Grant as a penguin and Eliza as a Sea star. I somehow missed getting their picture regretfully. We were quite a site trick or treating. Everyone opened their door and said, WOW...as we emptied their candy bowls! :)Happy Halloween to all!!!!!