Trick or Treat

We have had a wonderful couple of days of festivies around here to celebrate Halloween...The kids have been having tons of fun, and it has been fun for us parents too:)

On Thursday night, we carved a pumpkin....it was our first attempt at this, last year they were too young to even understand, so this year we thought would be fun, and boy was it...Ashley didn't get into it too much, but Ayden & Especially Elliott got right in there and were digging out all the seeds...Elliott really got into it and got most of the seeds out, he was really having fun...of course no knives for them, so mom did the carving, but they got to decide the shapes and then got to watch me light it up with a candle:) It was a very fun night...

Then of course, tonight we donned our costumes and headed out into the neighborhood to get some good treats...no tricks for us!!! The boys were Chicago Cubs players, and Ashley was the Cubs Cheerleader:) it was too cute....all the neighbors thought they were too cute, and some even took pictures...I know kind of weird huh, random neighbor people taking pics, but whatever, they are cute, so ya know!!! We racked in a fair amount of candy and even got to pick out one piece to have before they brushed their teeth and went to bed!!! Ayden picked a sucker, Elliott a laffy taffy and Ashley had some M's....to every one else this is M & M's but our kids like to just call them M's:)

Very yummy, so now they are off to Dream world, and soon we will be too!!!

Hope everyone enjoyed their Halloween as much as we did:)

Happy Birthday Chris:)

Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday dear Chris...Happy Birthday to you:)

Have a great day HONEY:) WE LOVE YOU!!! What a great husband and daddy you are:) You are wonderful!!!

Picasso????

No, not Picasso, just Ayden being naughty....he colored on the basement walls yesterday when I was in changing laundry loads...he found a permanent red marker and decided our walls needed a little something....Don't worry, he got in trouble...good thing is we needed to paint that wall anyway....

Enjoy his art!!! Funny, I appreciate it more when it is on paper and not on my WALLS!

Chili....BRRRRR

It has been soooo cold this week, kind of depressing already if I do say so myself, but of course it is the perfect weather to break out the chili pot and make a big old batch with some yummy cinnamon rolls....soooooo that is exactly what we did the other night....I have been meaning to show you these pics for a couple of days, but with 8 or 9 kids running/crawling around here everyday, my life gets kinda hectic so I don't always have time to post during the week!!! So anyway...here is our pics from the wonderful chili night, even if it is too early to be this cold we can enjoy by being inside all warm and cozy with a big bowl of chili:)

Nothing much is new from the rest of the week...I made a chicken the other night (not the same night as chili) so I have some leftovers from that to use tonight for a chicken casserole...and I think tomorrow we will be making a birthday cake for our soon to be birthday boy....Daddy will be having a birthday on Monday:) I won't tell you how old, you all can guesstimate, because if I did tell, this would probably be my last post!! haha:) but of course it is time for the favorite German Chocolate cake to come out of the oven...Chris LOVES this cake and gets it for his b-day each year...yummy!!!

As for the munchkins....busy as ever....Ashley has started coming up to me when somebody is being naught to her, she of course is crying and then she tells me "no no" and points to who ever the culprit is....it is toooooo funny!!! of course not funny to her, but to me it is pretty darn cute:) poor little sister!!!

Ayden & Elliott have been busy coloring and learning all week....I have decided that instead of having bored children, we are going to have "school time" each day for the 4 "big" boys...they actually are loving it...we do numbers and letters and colors and shapes...so far everyone is doing well on the sitting still and listening, still could have some improvement in that area, but they are only 2 1/2 so I will forgive them for their short attention spans....but if I can reduce the bickering even for just 45 minutes a day, my life will be better:)

So that is what is new in our neighborhood!!! Hope you all had a great week...stay tuned next week for birthday fun, and for Halloween fun...we hve been practicing "trick or treat" so this year should be fun...and you will just have to stay tuned to see what they are this year...very cute if I do say so myself:) but I am the mom!!!

A farming weekend...

This weekend, we got our carpets cleaned, so we opted to head to Grandpa and Grandma Lansink's on Saturday to let the carpets dry and so we could get in some much desired tractor and combine rides....The boys LOVED it, of course...they rode pretty much all afternoon and had to be dragged in for supper and a bath!!! we had tons of fun too, because Ellie and Malia were staying with G & G for the night...Adam & Jodi were off to a wedding so we got to hang out with them...which was tons of fun, especially for Ashley and Malia...they had so much fun playing together and singing songs...it was really too cute:) After a long day riding...the boys & Ashley crashed on the way home....they had soooo much fun:) Thanks for the rides Grandpa:)

Then on Sunday, we just hung out....got some stuff cleaned up outside...I guess preparing for the "S" word....I don't even want to think about snow yet, but I am sure it is inevitable, so better be prepared, huh????

SO that was pretty much it...just a lot of fun on the farm & not so much fun cleaning, but doing what needed to be done:) Hope you all had a great weekend too and enjoy your week:)

Lazy weekend

Hello all...Not much going on this weekend, for a change!!!! Chris worked this weekend, so the kids and I are just hanging out, doing some cleaning, and trying to get them over some colds...they all have a runny nose and cough!!! we thought maybe we would get to go ride in the combine today, but it is raining so that will have to wait, even though they are DYING to ride in it!!!!! That is all they talk about...tractors, combines, riding...it is the thing to do ya know!!!!

So that is all that we know around here this weekend...pretty boring to report...I do have some pics to post...here are how we found the boys laying the other night when we were getting ready to go to bed...somehow they always end up right next to each other...must be a twin thing!!! and poor Ashley Jo's hair...oh the price of beauty....her hair was standing straight up when I went to give them a bath last night, due to her cute pony tail that she had in yesterday...

Enjoy:)

Minneapolis weekend

We had another fabulous adventure this past weekend...we went to Minneapolis to visit our friends Trent, Sue, Brayden & Adam...It was Trent's birthday...I won't mention the number because I might have a target on my back if I did....!!! But we had a fun fun fun time....minus the throwup and sickness that occured while we were there...Poor Ashley Jo got sick on the ride up there and then acted completely fine...then she got sick again on Sunday while we were at the Mall of America...of course it was ALL OVER ME!!! Loads of fun there:) but she didn't act sick, so that is the weird thing, no fever, and a very good attitude...strange...I called the dr today and they said something is going around like this and it should be getting better...so far she was good today, just some yucky diapers...hopefully it is getting better...but the boys are fine and we all had a fun trip playing with our friends...

We went up with Mike, Melissa, Nick & Ben...got a hotel suite close to the mall of America so we could share and hang out...went to Trent and Sue's house for the party, where the boys & Ashley got to play with all the other little ones...We are soooo lucky that our friends all have kids right at the same age, they all get along really well and had soooo much fun!!!! THen Saturday night we hung out in our hotel room while the kids slept in the rooms, the guys played poker and Melissa & I got to relax by the hot tub...

Sunday Sue brought Brayden & Adam over to the hotel, we did breakfast at the hotel, then got ready to go SWIMMING!!! tons of fun...the kids LOVED IT...then we got all packed up and took off for the MOA to do some fun rides for the kids...(the big kids even got to ride one...) then we ate at the food court, Ashley got sick, so we went back to Trent & Sue's and did some more laundry and hung out until the drive home...the kids were sleeping with in five minutes of Trent and Sue's...slept the whole drive home, then woke up to come in the house, then went back to sleep and slept until 7 am this morning~~~ they were TIRED!!!

So that was our VERY FUN adventure...thanks so much for Trent for having a birthday, and for Sue for hosing a fun party and for all of the stuff this weekend...the laundry and treats and everything...we had such a fun time....makes us realize how much we miss you guys since you are so far away:( but it is always so much fun to get together....we will have to do it again soon!!!


Here are our pics from the weekend:) if you want to check out more, check out Trent and Sue's blog at http://www.ourlangefamily.blogspot.com

I don't know if they have updated their blog yet, but I am sure they will soon so you can check out more pics from the fun weekend there:)