Frosty...

The redneck snowman.....

We decided to spend the day outside on Saturday. For once we got above 20 and my son is 95% back to normal. So after a few weeks of cabin fever we ventured outside to build ourselves a snowman and do some sledding. We have some crazy/funky faces for our pumpkins at Halloween time, so I pulled those out and used them on our snowman. We named him Billy Bob and I think Gavin was a little scared of him. I kept asking him to stand next to him so I could take a picture of them together and he wouldn't do it. OH well! Overall he had a great time and I am glad that the weather is a little nicer now!

Sunday was our annual baking Christmas cookies day with my family. It is always a good time, until we realized we nixed out the only cookies Greg could eat. He was not a happy camper when he realized this, but oh well! I told him I would make him his very own batch. And that is asking a lot from me, since they are Peanut Butter balls and I don't like peanut butter! As always, the kids had a wonderful time decorating (yea right!) the cookies and I snapped some pics of them and of course the winners in the contest we have every year. (We pick one of every kids, then go around the room and vote.) This year, the big winner was Pyper, she got a $1. That is how we get them to decorate, BRIBE THEM!

(The winning cookie is the bottom left side Santa- Beautiful! It was a struggle from keeping some of the younger kids from eating every cookie they decorated!)

(This is my son, doing god knows what, while the rest of the kids were decorating.)

Unsure if I will post again before the holiday, we are celebrating Christmas this entire weekend with my side of the family. This will be the first year IN MY LIFE, that I will be leaving Colorado for Xmas. We will be heading to Nebraska next Wed. for 5 days! Should be a good time. Just a little hard for me....

Have a wonderful Holiday!

Tis The Season...

For colds, fevers, runny noses, cranky babies and even crankier (is that a word?) hubby's. FINALLY, the boys are feeling better. Last week was a blur. TOTAL BLUR FOR ME. I wasn't well, we had a sick boy in bed with us for 6 nights straight and my husband that sounded like an elephant every time he blew his nose. We found out Greg had an intense Sinus Infection and Gavin had Croup along with a lovely ear infection. Always a joy to have a munchkin with a 103 temp that wants nothing to do but lay on you and be miserable. My very own hot box. They are all finally on the mend with each having a little bit of a cough still.

Since they were better, we decorated the house and the tree this weekend. Well I should say trees, we have 3. I am very adamant that we have a real tree for our main tree, but decided to scale back this year because we will not be here for Xmas, so got a 10 footer. Yes, that is scaling back for us I guess! Greg had to bring in our big ladder to do some of the lights and star at the top. He set it up and immediately my son climbed his way to the very top. He just wanted to sit up there! Scared me to death! The boy has no fear! He also took a liking to the Santa hat we have and wore it the whole day, along with the dogs jingle bells. He was pretty comical! I am so glad he is feeling better.

Finally the finished project, he only broke one ornament and of course it was the one we gave him last year for Christmas! Little stinker. As always, he is on another ladder, this time, not one so high! Now onto Christmas cards and wrapping presents. I wonder if he will leave them alone?!

Shocker

There will be no blog this week, because I have a houseful of sickies. Seriously it is a joy. Hoping this weekend will be better, we are decorating the house and our trees. My boys better shape up, or else.....

Giving Thanks

The past 8 months have been a hard time for us. In that short time we have found out Greg had Celiac disease, I had an appendicitis, I suffered a miscarriage and we have lost several family members and a father figure for Greg. In that short time we have attended 5 funerals. It began with my uncle dying in March and ended with my cousin Roger losing his three year battle with brain cancer a few weeks ago. We also lost 2 family members to the same strain of leukemia, one who was in her 70's and one who just turned 40.

With everything that has happened in the past several months, it makes me realize what is important in our lives. So this year I will be giving thanks to our health, our wonderful families and our beautiful, but sometimes bratty, son. My heart goes out to my families that have lost someone this past year. They will be in our hearts and thoughts this upcoming holidays.

Have a wonderful and safe Thanksgiving!

Halloween-a little belated....

(Gavin in Mommy's boots)
Before we get to Halloween, last week we had a snow storm that pretty much locked us in for 2 days. It was great and Gavin LOVED putting on his boots this year. He actually still tries to grab them and make us put them on him. The only problem is, he doesn't get how you put them on and curls up his toes so it is a STRUGGLE for us. Here are some pics of our little monkey enjoying it. Of course I also added in some pics of the dogs enjoying it too.

Here are some wonderful pics of our lovely pumpkins this year (please note the little pumpkin, it makes a cameo later on):Friday night we adults rang in Halloween at a party at my sister's. We had absolutely no fun, and were asleep by 8. Ha. We actually had a blast and ended up having a slumber party with a bunch of family at the Alexander casa. I think we finally went to bed about 2:30 am. I don't remember the last time I have stayed up that late!!! This first picture is hilarious, because I was in charge of doing my sister's makeup and while putting on false eyelashes- I GLUED HER EYE SHUT. HILARIOUS. Please also note my wonderful spooky appetizers I made for the party! The puking pumpkin and spider web bean dip. Yummy!

Halloween day was beautiful and Gavin had a wonderful time Trick or Treating. We did our neighborhood hay ride again and all of the kids had such a good time. Gavin was usually the last one to get to the door (out of about 15) and he was the 2nd to the youngest. So he got a lot of raves about what a cute little "monkey" he was.

New Design

I finally broke down and did a new border, etc. I will hopefully change it every month to fit the season, holiday or my MOOD. Ha ha! I will post all the Halloween fun we had this week. Here is a teaser of my Little Monkey....

Finally

I wanted to do a more in depth post, but I have realized that my son HATES when I am on the computer and throws a fit or tries to sabotage anything I am working on. So I am trying to do this while he sleeps (thankfully) in between dusting and making spooky mini cupcakes for the Halloween party we are going to tonight.

Gavin has had a ball outside (before the blizzard came) and we have spent a lot of time playing in the leaves!

The following pictures are from our annual Pumpkin carving/decorating with Mom, Marv, Jen and the kids. We had a great time and the pumpkins turned out great.

As you can see we had a ball, Greg and I actually carved our pumpkins last night, look next week for pics of that and of course our wonderful snow fall and HALLOWEEN! We are all looking forward to it! Have a SPOOKY Halloween!

Once again...

I am a slacker. But here is a pic to hold you over until I write a full post this week. I PROMISE.

October is here!

I love this time of year, the weather gets a bit cooler and the leaves look beautiful in their orange and red hues. LOVE IT. Plus it is my birthday month. Nuff said! I finally just finished decorating the house and Gavin and I just had lunch on pumpkin plates and witch napkins. Fun!

We are a bit busy right now, I am leaving for Chicago in the morning with my Mom, sister, aunts and cousins for our annual girls trips. I am looking forward to it, but more importantly to see the family and celebrate the birthdays we have. Seven of us are going and 4 of us have birthdays within 10 days of each other!

Which brings me to my Mom, she just celebrated her 60th on Sunday. This is the only shot I got that day, all the grand kids eating. Whoopee! A huge Happy Birthday to her!

We had a great weekend, our nieces and nephew had a slumber party on Saturday and we were busy! We started off at Anderson Farms, picking some pumpkins, going on pony rides, running around, etc. We all had a blast and agreed that the hay ride was the best part. All the kids took a nap, so I think it was a hit!

A beautiful fall day! Enjoy!