A quick update...

I can't believe it's been almost a month since my last post. A lot has been going on in ours lives, and it's only about to get more hectic, so I thought I'd update now.

A couple of Saturday's ago, Ryan and I (O.K., mostly me) decided to build a gingerbread house with the kids. Ryan helped, which was awesome, cause I don't have much patience for this kind of thing. It turned out o.k.


Here are all the kids with the finished product.


This is Chloe's gingerbread girl. We did not promote the two pink gumdrops. Those are her "shirt!" :)

Here's the finished product ~ notice the windows on the roof. Yeah, I screwed up and thought those were the side pieces, only to find out that they were the roof. Oh well ~ we have skylights! :)


And this is basically what Brett wanted to do the whole time ~ he's got a sweet tooth.


These are my images of Owen lately...

He absolutley loves playing "peek-a-boo" between his legs. We do this about 100 times a day!

Let me preface this picture with ~ I allow my kids to jump on their beds. I know, some of you moms probably don't agree with this, but this is the only place they are allowed to jump (no couches, chairs, etc.) without being punished. I figure I'll let them be kids and have a little fun. Anyway, Owen has figured it out already, I took this picture from the stairs going up. Notice the mowhawk ~ Ryan thinks this is cute, and most nights after dinner, after he gets washed up Ryan gives him one. :)


Last, but not least, we took this kids downtown on Friday night to see the lights. We had an awesome time, and awesome weather! The kids LOVED it!!


The windows at Macy's were "Mary Poppins." Chloe just watched this movie with Grandma Betty, so she really got into them.


Here's where the boys were most of the night.


This was an attempt to get a picture of all the kids by the big tree ~ didn't work out so well.


And yet another "attempt" at a family picture...

Chloe LOVES nutcrackers, so when she saw this ~ she went nuts!!

That's all for now. We've got a busy week ahead of us. Christmas tomorrow, Tuesday, we're going to Wisconsin Dells ~ we'll come home Thursday, and then Friday morning, we head out to have Christmas with my dad in Pennsylvania. Lots of time in the car!! Uggggghhhhhh!!!! Have a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year everyone!!

Christmas with Brett ~ last year...

December 23rd last year, my dad, step-mom, and brother were coming in from Pennsylvania to have Christmas. It was at my house. I was nursing Owen, and Brett was running around the family room. Ryan and I were talking, and the kids were just playing. We had about and hour before people were showing up, so we just took that time to relax. Until ~ Brett fell into the brick hearth of our fireplace. Ryan and I both watched it happen, and he just kind of tripped over his own two feet. Ryan of course, jumped up as I was yelling ~ "Oh Jesus, please let his teeth be o.k." I know, it sounds silly, but the way he landed, it just looked like he punched out his front teeth. Ryan ran to the bathroom with him, and I follow ~ still nursing Owen (don't want to upset the baby too!) Ryan started to clean him up, and then said, "ummm, yeah, you might want to get out of here." It was just awful. To make a long story short, (I know ~ it's long enough already) his teeth were just fine. He banged up his nose and mouth pretty bad though. Let's just put it this way ~ everyone was saying "Hail Britler" to him for the rest of the holiday.


Here he is, just a couple of hours after it happened, opening presents with my dad.


And here he is the next day. Poor guy! It didn't even look like him. His face was pretty distorted.

Thank God the outcome was as good as it was though ~ it could've been alot worse.

What a busy last few days!!!

Well, I can honestly say that the last 4-5 days is just a big blur...A lot of time spent in the car traveling to different parties, cutting down the tree, decorating cookies at Grandma's, etc. Here's a quick glance into our lives the past few days. Enjoy!!

Thanksgiving was a wonderful day. We had a party with my mom's side of the family in Tinley Park, and then we had to travel to Ryan's mom's house in St. John. The kids did really well with all of the traveling around. Needless to say though, we were pretty tired by the time we got home.



Unfortunately this is the only picture of my kid(s) on Thanksgiving. The boys had cute matching sweaters, and the only one that I could get to pose for a picture was Chloe, of course. Thanks to Jen for making the adorable bows! I got tons of comments on them!

Chloe spent the night at Grandma and Grandpa's house, so we went there the next day to do our traditional decorating of Christmas cookies, and to decorate their tree. The kids had a blast!


As you can see, Brett did more eating than decorating...that's the fun of it though, right?!?


Chloe never misses an opportunity to model!:)



The finished product...


And all the kids after they decorated the tree ~ Chloe was pretty crabby by this point ~ lack of sleep, and she didn't want to go home.


The next morning, we got up pretty early to go to Michigan to cut down our tree. Why Michigan? you ask? Well, it's more for the fun of it than anything else. We make a day out of it. We start at Cracker Barrell for breakfast, get our tree, hit a Christmas store if we've got the time, and then go for dinner. The kids have an absolute blast, and that's why we do it.


Here's the group on the tractor, to bring us to the field to get our tree.

And here's the "Perfect Tree." (My husband's a dork!) :)


Here's "my boys" cutting down the tree.


Here's the kids pulling the thingy(?) that holds the tree.


Owen was awesome the entire day!!

And boy, do the trees look much smaller in the field, than when you get them into your family room. You'd think we'd learn to bring a measuring tape. Last year Ryan had to bring a skill saw into my family room because it was too big...see picture below.


Thank God no skill saw was required this year. We did have to cut a little off the top of this year's tree, but other than that, it was perfect!!

Once we got home, I put the lights on the tree, Chloe put the angel on top, and the two older ones got to work putting all of the decorations on the tree...






This year we went to a different tree farm, and I would have to say that this tree is the best tree we've ever had! I love it!!

Random picture time..

I've got so many stories to go along with my pictures, but I don't have the time to make a new post for each one ~ here's the short versions for you...



A couple of Saturdays ago, we had a bonfire at Ryan's mom & dad's house. This is Grandpa giving all of the kids a ride! :)


Chloe bobbing for apples at the bonfire.


This picture is hilarious. Here's Brett hitting the pinata. Notice Grandma in the left hand corner! :)


Here's Owen before his surgery. (Which went very well, by the way.)


And here he is after the "kiddie cocktail." He was hilarious!! He could barely hold his head up.



Here's Chloe at her first day at her new dance class ~ she LOVES it!


This is what it looks like when Ryan lights a fire ~ all of the kids have to be in on the action ~ especially Owen, while he yells hot, hot hot!!

That's all for now ~ hope I didn't bore you with all of the pictures.

Happy Halloween!!

So we finally decided what we were going to be for Halloween. Initially they all were going to be cowboys ~ well, cowgirl for Chloe. That way I could justify buying the cowboots for Owen's Birthday party. Anyway ~ Chloe decided that she wanted to be a ladybug, and we got that costume from Auntie Katie. Great, no big deal. Brett then wanted to be a lion ~ got that costume from Auntie Katie too, no problem. Then he wanted to be a cowboy, and then a lion, etc.....He ended up being a lion. Chloe then decided that she wanted to be a princess. Uggghhhhhh!! I told her to go find her Belle and Cinderella dress, from Auntie Katie, and that she needed to pick one. We figured it all out, and this is what we came up with...




Brett wasn't too comfortable in his costume.




Here's our little "shy" lion. I don't think he said "trick or treat" once.




And here's our pretty little princess. She had a blast!!!


Owen was Winnie the Pooh dressed as a pumpkin ~ make sense?!? We got this outfit from Auntie Katie too! :) Thanks Auntie!!!



I just love this picture!!

You might be a redneck if...

You take pictures of your husband with his dead ducks. Yep, that's what I did on Halloween morning. Ryan shot all of these birds by himself, and he was so excited.
Now, I myself can definitely say that I am not a redneck, my husbund, however, is questionable. Just joking...love you honey!! :)

Here's some pics if your interested. For those of you animal lovers, please look away...

Owen's Birthday Invitations...

I just had to post this up here. I think that these are the BEST invitations that my sister and I have made yet...







We paid alot of attention to the detail on these. Notice the star hole-punch, and the burning of the edges! :) Sorry, I'm patting my own back, but I just think their adorable!

MommyBrain: (or anyone else who might be interested) My sister and I can make these for you if your interested! You're little guy has to have a party, right?!:)

Poor little Owen & Sweet little Brett...

Something is not right with Owen. He's scheduled for surgery on Friday, to get tubes in his ears. (We just can't fight the infections anymore.) Anyway, he was up for THREE straight hours last night. Just screaming his little heart out. He'd start to calm down, and then arch his back again and scream. We're not sure if it's his ears or not. He finally found his sleep about 3:00 and slept till almost 7:00. Needless to say, I think Ryan and I are going to be walking zombies today.

Anyway ~ while I was up with Owen, I was watching this show on MSNBC. It was about this 5 month old who got stolen right out of her own bed. Well, I was a little spooked when I went to bed. It normally takes me awhile to get back to sleep once I get back to bed. About 3:15, I heard walking on the main level. I shook Ryan up, and told him what I heard. Normally, he would roll right over and go back to sleep, but I knew what I heard, and it was someone walking down there. I wasn't going to let him go back to sleep. Ryan sat up in bed, and my heart was racing like crazy. I whisper "he's coming up the stairs!" Indeed, someone was coming up the stairs ~ it was BRETT!! He must've been sleep walking again. He got to the top of the stairs, and went right back to his bed. This is about the 3rd or 4th time he's done this, so I should've know better than to panic, but after watching that show, I was a bit nervous.

Another quick story about Brett...I got Chloe ready for church yesterday, and as she was coming down the stairs, Brett was at the bottom of them, and said ~ "Dad, Chloe is beautiful!" If that wasn't sweet enough, he says "Chloe you look beautiful!" I started crying ~ ask Ryan, I really did. It was the sweetest thing ever, and when my kids have sweet moments, (they don't happen very often) I cry.

SIDE NOTE: I JUST CALLED OWEN'S PEDIATRICIAN, AND SHE'S NOT IN TODAY. THEY GIVE ME THE NUMBER FOR THE DOCTOR ON CALL. I CALL THAT DOCTOR, AND THEY PUT ME DIRECTLY ON THE PHONE WITH HIM. I PROCEED TO TELL HIM THAT HE HAS EAR INFECTIONS, AND THAT HE'S GOING TO HAVE TUBES PUT IN ON FRIDAY. I ASK HIM IF THEIR IS ANYTHING THAT I CAN DO TO COMFORT OWEN, CAUSE HE'S JUST NOT RIGHT. HE PROCEEDS TO TELL ME THAT MAYBE HE HAS AN INFECTION. DUH? DIDN'T YOU JUST HEAR ME? I SAID (IN A NOT SO NICE VOICE) "HE DOES!!!" HE TELLS ME THAT THEIRS NOTHING I CAN DO BESIDES TYLENOL AND MOTRIN. "CAN I PUT THE EAR DROPS IN?" HE SAYS "IT MIGHT MAKE THE MECHANICS OF THE EAR FEEL DIFFERENTLY, BUT IT WON'T HELP WITH THE FLUID." "THANK YOU." AND I HANG UP. WHY IS IT THAT ON DAYS LIKE THESE, THE DOCTOR ISN'T IN. ANYWAY ~ IF ANYONE HAS ANY IDEAS OR SUGGESTIONS, I'LL TAKE THEM! I NEED ALL THE HELP I CAN GET, BECAUSE I WOULD LIKE TO SLEEP TONIGHT!

Owen's Birthday party! PART TWO

I'm not a fan of Halloween, but this cake was so cute, I just had to get it.



And here's the rice krispie treats my mom made. For every "occassion" she puts a saying on there. Too cute!! :)



I think Owen's absolute favorite part of the day was THE CAKE!! He LOVED IT!!!



Here he is all cleaned up in his new cowboy p.j.'s from Auntie Jen, playing with his new toy from Auntie Tara!

We had a GREAT day!! My dad and Bette and Jake even came in for the party so that was alot of fun! (Thanks guys for coming ~ it meant alot! LOVE YOU!!)

Owen's Birthday party!

Saturday we had Owen's Birthday party! He's not "officially" one until the 30th of this month, but we decided to have it a little early so that the weather would be nicer. Well, the weather was nice, (sunny) but it was a bit cold. We had about 30 adults and 25 kids in our house. Phew! Most of the kids played outside the whole time, and Ryan had a bonfire out back, so some of the adults sat out there too ~ so it wasn't that bad.

It was a cowboy themed party. It was a lot of fun to plan, but also alot of work.





Here's the 25 treat bags that I made! They were little "ho-bo" bags! So cute!!


My little cowboy!!


He got bored pretty quick with opening the presents...

Here he is trying to get the gift receipt out of this bag. He preferred to play with that!