Birthday fun

This little girl turned 3 last week!!!

She started off the day by opening presents, which mostly consisted of things pink and princess themed.

We then went bowling and to her favorite place, McDonald's. It was actually very nice at McDonald's. There were no other kids around so Nate and I sat and watched Dylan and Cassie play for almost 2 hours. I know, that is a bit extreme, but they were happy and being good and Nate and I didn't mind one bit just sitting and watching them play. (the first picture above is her in the slide at McDonald's, in case you were wondering)

The kids LOVED bowling!


We were then going to go see a movie, but since we were at McDonald's so long, we decided to rent a movie and take it home. We rented The Polar Express. I love that movie. We need to buy it. So while the kids watched the movie, Nate and I fixed the Christmas tree and re-decorated it. That is right, we re-decorated it. And why? Because during the night when Nate had fallen asleep on the couch after a late shift, he woke up to it falling down (almost landing on him). It was pretty funny. I woke up early the next morning and came into the living and there were Christmas decorations EVERYWHERE. And pine needles too. And water too. The lights had even fallen off, so we had to put everything back on again. This happened to us 2 years ago as well. We don't have good luck with real trees I guess.

So then we had cake which, as you can see in the next picture, Cassie was very excited for...

(she actually was really excited, just took a bad picture I guess)

And here she is trying to show me how old she is:

(please ignore the laundry room/garage entrance in the background)

And must we forget who else celebrated a birthday this month?...........

If I would have known the camera was going to be out I wouldn't have put my pj's on so early. I just love to be comfortable, that is all.

And what did we do for my birthday? I went shopping ALONE.....oh wait, the baby was with me. But that was okay. She was good. Then we went and found our Christmas tree (which was cold, but really fun) and went out to Applebees for dinner. I think my roommates started the Applebees tradition in college and we have kept it up ever since. I never even really liked the place at first, but we just kept on going and now I really do like it. That's all.

Oh, and then we had ice cream with cake that Nate made and then watched a movie. I think. I can't even remember.

It was a great day. And now I am officially 28. I say officially because for most of the year I have been telling people that I was 28. I don't know why, I just really thought I was 28 already. Dang it, there goes a whole year of my life. I think I will blame in on the fact that I was pregnant most the year.

And now, I think I will surprise Nate and shovel the drive way before he gets home from work tonight. There is so much snow out there right now! (or maybe I will just go to bed)

The Nativity and Breath of Heaven

I am sure most of you have heard this combination of The Nativity and the song Breath of Heaven, by Amy Grant. I watch this numerous amounts of time during the Christmas season because I like it so much! Make sure to turn your volume up because the song makes it extra special! Enjoy.

Winter

I think we are in for a long winter here in Michigan, considering the amount of snow that has already fallen and continues to sit on the ground. I really do love the snow and winter season, however, I am already tired of:

1. - Snotty noses

2. - Static hair

3. - Dry skin

4. - Wet pants and socks from the slushy sidewalks, and

5. - Bundling up and hauling 3 kids everywhere I go

We are all much happier if we just observe from inside. (and go out to play in it once in a while)

Bitter Sweet

Well, we're back from a week with family and what can I say, it was a bitter sweet week. It was so good to see everyone and spend time with them, considering the circumstances. My sister is doing amazingly well and her kids seem to be doing alright too. There will be tough times ahead and I wish I lived closer to be there for them. The funeral was in Las Vegas and it was really good (for a funeral). Lots of funny things were said about Casey. He was a great guy. Then we all caravaned up to Alberta and had a viewing and burial. The burial was the hardest, I think. He was buried next to his little boy, Reggie. I bet those two are having a ball up in heaven right now.

We had so many family members crammed into my parents home, and that is how we like it. All my siblings and their families, plus some of my uncles and all their kids. So much fun.

3 things always happen when we go home and spend time with family:

1.- We stay up WAY too late.

2. - We eat WAY too much food.

3. - We laugh WAY too hard.

Such good times. It is always hard to say goodbye and come back to Saginaw. I do like it here, but I am getting anxious to be closer to family. I feel so useless during times like this and wish I could be closer. But last week was the perfect dosage of family to get us through Christmas and the next few months.

And the only photos taken during the week...

Claire and her cute little cousin Morgan.

We managed to squeeze in a Thanksgiving dinner on Sunday before most people took off. Dylan must have been starving because he was guarding that ham like a hawk. (Yes, we had turkey too)

We took a red-eye flight home at midnight on Sunday and I couldn't sleep a wink. There were some Hutterites (like Amish people) sitting right behind me that had never flown before and they wouldn't stop yelling across the isle to each other. And the blasted guy that was snoring in front of us is another story.

Mixed emotions

I have a lot I could say right now, but I won't, because I don't know exactly how to express myself and I really don't have time right now. We are heading to Vegas tomorrow to be with my family. My sister's husband, who has been battling cancer for almost 5 years, passed away on Thursday. He was doing so well and with in the last few days things went down hill fast. He is no longer suffering and I am sure he is having a joyous reunion with his son! My sister is doing really well. She has been through this before so she knows. She is the strength for all of us and I can't wait to see her and her kids tomorrow (along with the rest of my family). Casey kept a blog, which you can access on my side bar, if you would like to know more about him.

On a lighter note, I went and saw Twilight last night and thought it was pretty good. I am still trying to decide if I liked Edward though. And you really can't compare it to the book, or you will be disappointed. The book is always better, I think.

Kiddie Tag

I was tagged by Jennifer to do a spotlight on Cassie. I have to write 5 things about her so here they are...

1. She loves EVERYTHING pink. Sometimes, when I go shopping, she will grab random pink things from the shelf and I end up at the check-out with the funniest things. Like this one time, she threw a pink lacy thong into the cart and had a tantrum when I tried taking it out. And then she kept running around with it trying to tell me that we needed it.



2. She isn't scared of anything. We have this big field behind our house with tall grass and weeds that the kids play in and Dylan always sends Cassie in first to make sure it is safe, then he proceeds after her. Also, the other day I saw a HUGE ugly furry spider in our house and freaked out. I tried to get it with a shoe and it crawled into a bag. I tried shaking the bag a little to get it out and it wouldn't come, so I told Cassie to open it and get it out (as a joke) but she went ahead and did it. She was determined to find that spider. Yuck!
   
   
3. She has crazy hair. I have learned not to do her hair until right before we go somewhere. I used to do it every morning and within the hour it would look like she just woke up.
   
   
4. She has the sweetest little singing voice and can stay almost on tune for a whole song. She sings in her room at night for sometimes an hour and sings to herself through out the day. I hope she keeps this up!
   
   
5. She loves Dora, wrestling with her daddy and Dylan, playing with Dylan's toys when he is at preschool, screaming really loud, and drinking lots and lots and lots of milk and juice.

We sure love our little Cassie:

Smiles

This little girl is just a smilin and jabberin all the time. She almost rolls over too.

We all just love giving her kisses and making her smile, especially Dylan. He says to me almost everyday, "Mommy, I just really love her" and he also says, "Mommy, I am so happy the baby decided to come out of your tummy". (I am too) He is a great little helper too. He can change her diaper all by himself (which I have to readjust when he isn't looking).

Daddy also loves baby Claire and tries to play with her in ways I would rather not see. He does this in front of me just to see me get worked up...

It looks worse in person. He is holding her only by her feet as he dances around signing. Lovely.

Snow

The kids experienced their first snow of the season yesterday and begged to go out and play in it...

They came in with more sand on their clothes than snow, but they loved it!

Things

I should be putting groceries away right now, but Nate's computer is just sitting here waiting for someone to give it attention. So here I am.

Just some things...

• Can Christmas really be this close? I am so excited for it and I already have lots of shopping done. My credit card can prove that. My only worry about getting so much done so early is that I will get bored right before Christmas and go buy more stuff.
• Did I really buy gas for $4.19 just a few weeks ago and today I got it for $1.91? CRAZY!! I guess this will save up some more money for Christmas. Keep going down prices!
• Last week it was 70 degrees here. Today it is 25 degrees. I didn't know that was possible and I don't like it.
• I have a man voice. Really. I lost my voice last week and then it came mostly back until my friends made me sing my heart out to some Nintendo karaoke thing and now it is gone again. And it hurts too. And I keep coughing and don't like that.

That's all. Claire needs my love and I must go to her.

Family time

Nate had an ER conference in Chicago last week so we all went along for the week and stayed at Tanya's house. It was really nice to see them again. Nate made the commute to Chicago in rush hour and decided that he NEVER wants to live in a big city like that. Fine by me. It took him over 2 hours in the morning and almost 1 1/2 hours in the evening. He said he got a lot of reading done in the car! Crazy guy!

So anyway, some highlights of the week included a trip to the Jelly Belly factory and making caramel apples. Yum yum.

Dylan and Jackson above. Cassie and the 2 boys below (trying to steal jelly beans).

Sure do love these hats!:

Mckenzie, Jackson, and Dylan above. Cassie below:

Tanya just happened to have these dog leashes lying around (even though they don't own a dog) and so Dylan and Cassie had fun pretending to be dogs. At least they haven't asked to get a dog yet.

It was a nice week. Our time with family is so limited here so I soak it up when I can. Nate enjoyed his conference, running into a lot of old Medical School friends. He even brought me home an Ipod Nano that he got for free! What a guy.

One scary thing that happened while I was there...I was at Target picking up some things when Tanya called and said to hurry home because someone locked the door to where the baby was sleeping and the key was on the key chain that I had (I was driving Tanya's van). So I rushed back to her house and try opening the door with the key and it didn't work. Great. It was actually on the key chain that Brian (her husband) had who was 3 hours away. Great again. So I try to card the door. Nope. I looked for screws to take off the handle. Nothing. So I called a few lock smiths and they cost about $80 to come and it would take them 20 minutes to get there. That would take too long. So then we got a hold of a friend and he came and pried the molding off the door and we got in fine. An hour later. I was pretty calm the whole time and kept myself from freaking out. She was sleeping the whole time, but she was on a big fluffy bed laying on her side and I was afraid she would roll on to her tummy and have a hard time breathing. I know, I am supposed to put her on her back, but she sleeps so much better on her side! But anyways, what a relief!

Halloween

What a nice night we had for Halloween. It was sort of a crazy day. We were in Chicago all week and didn't get back until Thursday night. Friday was a really busy day so I didn't have time to get food for dinner. Instead of the traditional chili and cornbread Halloween night, we had mac and cheese. I know, lame. Then we set out to get some goods.

Here is a very excited Spiderman and a cute little ladybug (who had been sick all day):

My mouth and a little cuddly cow:

Begging for candy:


Spiderman couldn't see out of his mask very well so off it came. And here is Nate........being himself. We were lame this year. No parties and no costumes.


We saw some pretty spooky and funny things, but I had to get a picture of this guy. See the man in the camouflage get-up laying in the rocks? He would jump up and scare all the kids. It was so funny to watch. I kind of want one of those costumes some day.



A very cute little cow:


And some smiles: (I love it!!!)




And one more just because I can:

I feel bad I didn't get into the whole Halloween thing this year. I have already been focusing on Christmas and getting gifts to family when I see them (because I am too cheap to mail them). It was kind of sad to think this will be our last Halloween here. But 2 things I won't miss about it is...#1 - getting offered "adult Halloween treats" or in other words "Jello Shots". And #2 - noticing that 80% of the parents/adults walking around with their children had a "drink" with them. It was weird to see. The adults would wait on the road and enjoy a drink or 2 while the kids ran up to the house to get candy. Couldn't they wait until they got home? I guess I am the outcast here.

Dentist fears

So we finally took Dylan to a pediatric dental specialist because he has been having the hardest time at dental visits. He HATES it. Just hates it (and so do I, actually). He hasn't had his teeth professionally cleaned or examined yet because there is no way he will let anyone look in his mouth. I knew his teeth were bad and so did his dentist (because of a couple little holes you can see just by glancing in his mouth), so we decided it would be best to pass him off to someone who specialized in special little people like Dylan. So I took him yesterday thinking he would scream his head off again and scare every other child out of the office, but that was not the case at all. I even took Cassie as back up in case Dylan wouldn't open his mouth for the dentist to count his teeth. You see, Cassie does what ever Dylan tells her to do (most of the time). If Dylan tells her to open her mouth so her teeth can be counted, she will do it. And Dylan, being the brave older brother that he is (sarcasm), always makes Cassie do things first and if she comes out safe, then he will usually follow in her footsteps. It is very funny to see how these two interact together. So anyway, I didn't have to use Cassie. The dental assistant was a little miracle worker. He layed so still and did everything she told him to do. I really couldn't believe it.

I new going in there that the results would be bad, considering I was awful at keeping his teeth brushed because he would kick and scream like crazy, until he turned 3. And when I potty trained him, his reward was a gumball every time he would go. And he is a sugaraholic. So in the end, I am very embarrassed to admit this, but he has...



Not one....



Not two....



Not three....



Not four....



Not five....



But SIX cavities!!!!

I know, I have learned a lesson here.

Pumpkin farm

We went to the pumpkin farm for a play group this week and I took a couple of pictures of the kids. They sure do love SpongeBob!!! (I know some parents won't admitt to that, but I am not afraid!) And if you know anything about SpongeBob then you'll know that he lives in a pineapple under the sea. Notice the sign on the pineapple...



Apparently Cassie didn't read that sign...


My kids aren't huge fans of Clifford, but I thought this was a cool display...

They had a lot of fun feeding the goats. Cassie kept getting mad at the big goat for eating all of the little goats food. She finally got closer to the little goat so that he could get his fair share. The big goat then decided that Cassie's hair looked delicious so he went in for a munch...

Cassie then screamed, backed away, and didn't want anything to do with the goats anymore. It was kind of funny, she had goat slobber all over the top of her head. Yuck!

Bumbo chair

I put Claire in this bumbo last week to see if she would like it:


2 minutes later she looked like this:

I think that means she liked it.

Apple farm

When Nate's parents were here last week we all went with Dylan on his field trip to the apple farm. It is a really fun place for the kids and since there isn't too many other options around here for entertaining guests, we went on pre-school field trip. Fun.

Cassie kept getting distracted by this cat. She was lagging behind a lot and it was fun to watch her try to catch it.

Dylan and Cassie eating apple donuts (soooo good) and sipping cider:

Making pumpkin crafts:

Dylan's class:......and Cassie

Going through the ABC maze:


The funniest part of the day was when Dylan ran to these pedal tractors. When he found out we were going here on a field trip, all he talked about was how excited he was to ride these. He just loves them. So anyway, after we finished the maze, the kids were set free to play and as he ran to jump on one of these tractors another kid beat him. So then he ran to the next one and the same thing happened. He was getting a little frustrated when he finally reached one and jumped on it for a ride:

Only problem was, the pedals didn't work. So he jumped off again and waited patiently for a different one:


But it didn't go very fast. Soon, all the other kids were leaving the bikes so Dylan jumped off and he found a big red tricycle with big tires on it. He was tired of the tractors that wouldn't work so he jumped on the red tricycle and took off really fast. He was having a blast showing off how fast he could go when this happened:

It was pretty funny. He was being a little too cocky.

Here are a bunch of apples on a tree. You can't tell in this picture, but there are a ton of apples on that branch. I was really surprised. And our little guide told us that they only have 2 apple pickers for their whole orchard and it can take one of them as little as 5 minutes to pick every apple off a tree. That is crazy! I learned quite a few things about apples that day so if you have any questions, just let me know. I am an apple genius now.


Dylan finding his perfect apple:


It was a fun day had by all. We also went on a very bumpy hayride.

They next day, we were going to make a bunch of apple pies, but decided to do pumpkin and banana cream instead. Both my favorite.

Baby Blessing

We blessed Claire last week and had a wonderful time with family. My mom came out a week early because Nate was gone interviewing for jobs out West. It was so nice to have her here again and to spend time with her. She helped me out a lot and I really appreciated it. Thanks mom!



Then my dad came, along with the Griffeths and then Nate's parents too. We had a house full for a couple of nights and it was fun.

Here is little Claire on her big day:

And a tired Claire:

Cute kids:

Jackson and Dylan (cousins):

Mackenzie and Claire:

And one of mommy and Claire (and no, I did not wear that bright green shirt to church):



It was fun to spend time with Tanya and her family, even though it was such a quick trip for them. We are looking forward to spending more time with them in a couple of weeks.

Nate's parents stayed a couple of extra days and I will post more about that later.