It's Beginning to Look...

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...at our house...

and Levi thinks it's all so wonderful!!

First Snow of the Season

Today was our first snow of the season and it is always so magical. It was fun that it was sticky snow so that snowballs and snowmen could be made, although sledding was a little challenging.

Andrew's Music Program

This past Thursday, Andrew was in a music program at school. The title of the program was American Music Through the Ages. It was a very well done program with fun songs, great dancing and impressive theatrics.
Andrew smiling....

Andrew singing.....

and Andrew square dancing.

Thanks for a great performance, Andrew! You sure know how to shine!

Turkey Trotters

On Saturday, our school had it's annual Turkey Trot. They have preschoolers run first and I told Benjamin just to run and follow Mr. Perotto (our PE teacher). I thought that I would just jog/walk right along side of him, but when he took off I never was able to catch him. He ran and never stopped until the finish and placed THIRD among all the preschoolers!!! He received a ribbon for running and is EXTREMELY proud of it!

Next, was the older kids and again I thought I would jog/walk with Spencer and Sarah (I knew I would never be able to keep up with Andrew.), but they started off and left me in the dust. I went back to the finish line and cheered for them all! Andrew came in FIRST. Yes, out of ALL of the kids, Andrew was FIRST!!!! Sarah and Spencer did a GREAT job running most of it! Wow! This was Spencer's first time receiving a ribbon and he was also very proud of himself!


Their parents are the MOST proud of their cute turkey trotters!!!!

These are Andrew's friends, Asa and Daniel, ran with him.

Benjamin's Birthday

On Saturday, Benjamin celebrated his birthday. We have been talking to Benjamin for days about his birthday and that he would soon be 4. But, he doesn't want to be 4....he is 3 1/2 and that is that! No amount of talking could persuade him to be 4....so, Happy 3 1/2 Birthday Benjamin!!

He opened presents with the family in the morning and chose donuts for breakfast.

His preschool teacher made his headband...I love it, but he's not too fond of the 4 on it.

In the afternoon we had his friends over for cake and ice cream. We sang to him and then told him to make a wish and blow out the candles. He closed his eyes (I think he made a wish) and then blew. We told him he better open his eyes if he really wants to blow out the candles.


Then we all went to Bounce which is a big warehouse full of bounce houses and obstacle courses! EVERYONE had fun!!







yep...that's nathan!!




We hardly saw the kids as they were so busy going from one bounce thing to another. It made me laugh that they were all SO sweaty, but they had a GREAT time!

Even Levi loved it!

Happy, Happy Birthday Benjamin! We love you so much and you add so much fun to our family!!!

Happy Halloween

Our FIVE CUTE KIDS hope you all had a Happy Halloween!!!

Andrew is Mario, Sarah is a witch, Spencer is a knight, Benjamin is Luigi and Levi is a cow...I think they all looked SO CUTE!!!!!


One of our favorite Halloween traditions is going to the Deka's home for Chili and other wonderful goodies! We were all having a wonderful time until...Benjamin got his hand stuck in the Deka's pool table and I mean STUCK!!!
They first poured dish soap down the hole to try to make it slippery enough to get it out...but, no luck.

Then they took the side boards off to try to pry it enough to get it out...nope...

so then they took the entire top off....still no luck....
(I think you can see from Benjamin's face that he was in a lot of pain. He screamed for most of the experience and has scratches and a bruise on his hand to show for it. We think it took at least 20 minutes to get him unstuck. I really thought we were going to have to call the fire station and have them cut it out. I'm so glad we didn't have to go that route.)
...then they poured MORE dish soap down the hole until finally his hand came out.

A picture of that darn hole!!

Afterwards, Benjamin got hot chocolate and all the ghost marshmellows he could eat.

It was a bit traumatic for everyone. These are our sad faces. (As you can see Benjamin recovered well after all the marshmellows!)

So sorry Deka Family for ruining your pool table and thank you to everyone who was SO kind to Benjamin.
We LOVE Halloween, but we're hoping next year won't be SO eventful!
(Thank you Dawna for taking pictures during the drama...we wouldn't want to forget this memory!)

Carving Pumpkins

The Wednesday before Halloween we carved pumpkins with the Ramey Family. We also had yummy soup in pumpkin shaped bread bowls from Great Harvest. I was especially impressed with the older kids carving their own pumpkins this year. It was a fun evening for all!!!

Fall Soccer

Both Sarah and Andrew had a great time playing soccer this Fall. We think they are pretty amazing players!









Just had to include some cute pictures of their biggest fan.