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.