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...