You're Not Alone

Do you ever feel like you are being watched???

(Grayson peeking down at me from the top of our kitchen cabinets. It's almost creepy)
The gerbils have been busy running around the house in their little ball and the cats love to watch. I'm not liking the look on Graysons' face right now. I also just noticed Jack on the left with his paw underneath the ball. It might have helped it I had edited these first. The lighting isn't really good, Jack just blended right in.

And I have to say, those gerbils are so stinkin' cute. I want to get a picture of them when they cuddle up together and sleep. And if you accidentally wake them, their little heads poke up and they look around all sleepy eyed. Yes, our zoo keeps us busy but they are so much fun. If only we could train Jack to stop eating everything he sees! He just ate through a package of rolls I had bought for dinner....two of them are missing their bottom half.

Leaf Dancing

All this cold and rain makes me want to have back the first two weeks of November when we actually had some nice fall weather. After one of the big storms, it actually dried out a bit AND was warm out. We had a ton more of raking to do. The boys had a blast dancing in the leaves. Todd was standing on our roof with the leaf blower blowing all of the leaves out of the gutters and the two younger boys had a blast running through it. When I tried it, I got hit in the head with acorns so I left that fun to them. (very crummy lighting....it gets dark way too early!)

Leaf Angels!

Aiden being his crazy self

This one makes me laugh out loud every time I see it.

My little fairies.

Drew worked so hard to rake up a big pile. I told him he got the first jump.

(what's so funny is that all these leaves and then some were in our front yard. We don't even have any trees in the front yard! LOL)
Noah and Aiden decided to bury Drew in the leaves.

POP! Goes The Drewdles!

I know Christmas is around the corner already but I just don't feel in the Christmas spirit yet. I was some more beautiful fall weather!!

Skating Lessons

Watching Drew play roller hockey last night (he scored another goal, by the way!!) made me think of a day this past summer when he tried to teach Aiden how to roller blade. Aiden had only gone roller skating a couple of times and when digging through the garage we found Drew's first pair of adjustable roller blades. Drew took Aiden out and taught him how to do it. Yes, Aiden is still wearing his PJ's but in his defense, it was like 8:30 in the morning!

Slow and steady.

Already a Pro!
Big brother goes off on his own.

Capturing A Perfect Moment

Sometimes you just walk into a room and see something that makes your heart melt. Halloween afternoon these 3 were cuddled up watching TV. I had no idea they had fallen asleep until I walked in the room.
Later after Todd had been up for a bit, I had to go in and wake Aiden to go trick or treating. I kissed him on the forehead, he woke up with a smile and asked me if he could get up now. I told him to look at who was sleeping on his arm. He smiled and rolled over and cuddled with Jack for awhile before getting up. I swear, how did we find the best 2 cats in the world??

School and Sport Pictures

The first 3 pictures are all scanned in so not the best of quality. We got Drew and Noah's school pictures back friday. I was happy with how they turned out. They just look too grown up though. My only question.......Couldn't have Noah's background been just a little bit greener?? I mean, it's just so faint. HA! Trust me, it's even worse in person, thank you scanner for toning that down a bit. But nothing can ruin my two handsome dudes smiles. Aiden gets his first school picture ever on the 13th so I'm anxious to see how his turn out too!

I had forgotten to scan Drew's soccer pictures in. The wet spot on his shirt??? From all of that white frost on the grass in the background!! It was so cold and the grass was covered in ice. When they kicked the ball, ice would go flying. Nuts! But I love the picture.

The team with Coach Dad....minus a few players. At least the sun had come out by this point! These were taken in the beginning of October too! Crazy weather. They have their last game this coming Saturday at 10:30 and then Sunday they start indoor soccer at 10am. No rest for the weary. Noah and Todd start up too. I didn't realize the women's league is only second session so I have until January to get in shape now. Woohee!

Drew decided he wanted to give roller hockey a try. Since it was only on Monday evenings for a half an hour for 8 weeks, we said he could do it. They provide all the equipment too which is really nice. Drew did bring his Dad's hockey stick though from back in the day when Todd played in high school. He thought that was pretty special. For having never played before, he's picking it up pretty well. He's gone to a few practices also so that has helped. These were from the first game so I want to take some more later in the season. Drew is in the black clothes. There are some girls in the league too and let me tell you, they can kick some butt! Watch out for them!

Halloween Festivities

Seems like Halloween lasted a week this year...actually it did I guess with all that was going on. We kicked it off with a Fall Harvest party at Matt and Beth's last Saturday night, a trip to the pumpkin patch on Sunday and then monday night we carved pumpkins.

Here are Noah and Drew's. Noah's is on the left and is supposed to be C3PO and Drew's is on the right. I'm so mad that I forgot to take pictures of them lit up last night. I'll have to do that tonight!

Aiden didn't want his carved, he wanted to paint it. Here he is with his masterpiece!

Tuesday night I dropped Drew, er, I mean Indiana Jones off at Notre Dame. The high schoolers put on a party for all of the 5th graders at the Catholic grade schools. He looked so handsome and grown up as I dropped him off. He had a great time.

Friday was a busy day. I started off the morning with Aiden's preschool party. Here, his teacher (witch costume) is reading them a Halloween story while us mom's got things set up for the party. This is such a good group of kids.....I hope they rub off on Aiden. ;)

Snack time! MJ brought mud and worms. Aiden had already eaten his worms and was now digging into his pudding!

They were all sitting there so calmly and eating. I have never seen anything like it. If only all the Halloween parties were this easy.

I didn't get any pictures after that because I was too busy with crafts and games but we did finally get them riled up a bit!

In the afternoon was Noah's party. Here's his class in costume at the end of the day. I always love his class, these kids are all so cute and fun. It was a little more rowdy though! :) But they were good. I popped in Drew's room for a bit too. They don't dress up in 5th grade but they were enjoying some yummy treats.

Friday night was our schools' first annual Trunk or Treat. The note said to plan enough candy for 100 trick or treaters which is awesome considering we only have 165 in our school!! Amazing turnout even though it was cold and the wind was insane. We had a blast. Here's what the back of our van looked like. If you put your hand in the pumpkin to get candy, one of the boys was underneath there to grab it. The tombstone in front also opened up to grab you. Todd had even gotten some dry ice to make it look smoky (silver bowls) but it was so cold out the water got too cold and it just bubbled.

It was so much fun seeing all of the other families from school and how they dressed up and decorated their car. Hopefully next year the weather will be just a tad warmer!!

Finally, Halloween night! We actually had some sunshine! It was wonderful although I wish it was a bit warmer. Thank goodness for layers! Here are the 3 boys posing at Uncle Joe and Aunt Cindy's house. Bumblebee Transformer, Indiana Jones, and Obi Wan Kenobi.My brother Matt, Beth and Blake, Ty, and Ellie. The kids were so adorable and I said Ellie would be the one Ladybug I wouldn't mind flying around my house.

Our family picture.

Here are the 6 grandkids at my parents house. It's always fun trying to get all 6 in the picture at once!

The boys had so much fun. After making a few rounds to some of the family, we came home to eat a quick supper. We had thought to hit a few more houses after going around the neighborhood but the boys had so much fun, we never left again. They usually don't get home in time to do our neighborhood and there were TONS of kids out and friends from school and some family. They just had a blast. I went through unbelievable amounts of candy. We finished off the evening with Uncle Scott stopping by and some Ghost Hunters and candy. I was so happy to gain the extra hour of sleep last night. The past week wore me out!

Oops!

Today is Grandparent's Day at Aiden's preschool and he was so excited for the Grandmas and Grandpa to come to see him there. Since it was a special day for him, I dressed him up in khaki's, a button down shirt, and what he calls his "fancy" shoes. As I was tying his shoes for him, I said "Aiden you are going to look so handsome for Grandma and Grandpa today."

Aiden gives me his sweetest smile and says..."Mom, I'm already handsome!"
Yes, sweet boy, you already are!

Fall Portraits

I had been anxious to take some fall portraits of the boys but it's been rare to have a nice beautiful fall day and have the free time to do it in. This weekend we finally had some nice weather, some beautiful fall colors, and some free time so I said, "Let's do it!". The boys weren't too thrilled but they humored me and gave me some good shots. In fact, I actually had a hard time deciding what I wanted to have developed. I was happy with the results although the perfectionist in me still wants to tweak some things with my editing software. I got a backwards compliment though....when Todd went to pick up my prints that I had developed, they wouldn't give them to him until he showed proof of copyright. Apparently they thought they were professional and I was trying to make illegal copies. It's kind of funny.

My Beautiful Boys.

My favorite of the three of them!!!

My sweet Noah.

Drew looks too grown up.

Aiden's mix of impishness and sweetness. Wanna guess which side he falls on more often?

It was starting to get overcast and rainy looking (imagine that!) when I took these. I thought this would be a beautiful spot too with the lake in the background. But by this time, I was getting the fake smiles and goofy looks. Noah's expression in both of these cracks me up! LOL

Field Trips & Pumpkin Patches

Second time was a charm. Our first attempt to take the 2nd graders on a field trip to the pumpkin patch got rained out. We had wonderful weather on Wednesday thank goodness! We got to take a hay rack ride, go through the corn maze, pick out a small pumpkin and a gourd, eat cookies and cider, and learn all about pumpkins and skeleton bones. It was a fun afternoon!

2nd grade class. I love this class, they are so cute and fun.

Princess Aiden

Aiden, Noah and classmates enjoying the presentation about pumpkins and skeleton bones.

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So this weekend I realize Halloween is a week away and we hadn't gotten any pumpkins to carve yet. It was a gorgeous day and we didn't have anywhere to be so we headed to Mill Creek Farm for pumpkins.

Noah's pumpkin had a bad case of the Fuglies. Have you ever seen such a thing?? That's what he wanted though.

Drew likes 'em big and beautiful.

We thought this was the one Aiden had picked and then he decided to get a fugly one like Noah's. I can't wait to carve into those tomorrow night.

Tomorrow night is pumpkin carving night.....after roller hockey that is! What's the best part about carving the pumpkins??? Roasting the yummy pumpkin seeds!!!

Six Flags 10-11-09

When we went to Six Flags this past summer it was cheaper to buy a 5 day pass than a 2 day pass...go figure! Since we only used 2 days of it during the summer we knew we couldn't let all of the other days go to waste. We thought we were being so smart by planning on going in the fall around the 2 younger boys birthdays....we'd have gorgeous fall weather and the lines would be shorter. Little did we know that October would bring the coldest, wettest, and grayest month we could remember. We decided to go anyway because a promise is a promise and we would do what we could. We definitely lucked out.....the sun shined all day, very little breeze, and it got up into the mid 50's. Yes, I would have been happy with 10-15 degrees warmer but we had a gorgeous day. The lines were shorter, the boys were angels, and the Halloween atmosphere at Six Flags was so fun!!

Noah and Aiden went on this about 15 times!

Todd, Drew, and Noah on the Tony Hawk roller coaster, you can barely see their car in the middle there. They didn't get to ride it during the summer b/c of the lines so they happily rode it twice this day!
Todd and Drew getting ready to ride the Superman ride. It was closed during the summer so they were excited to ride it. Noah backed out and I was soooo tempted, I just couldn't get my scared butt on it. (I thought it was funny that everyone was wearing red.)
Up they go!

Wheeeee! My heart drops just watching it. But how fun it looks!

I dig this chick. I think I look and feel like her some mornings. They had some really cool decorations.

Aiden wasn't too sure about this fake gorilla at first. He growls and shakes the cage. We finally convinced him it wasn't real and got their picture.

Captain Drew and Pirate Noah

We stood here for quite awhile watching them all dance. It was so much fun. Here they are dancing to the Monster Mash!

Hard to see, but Todd and Aiden are sitting in the very first row for the Mine Train roller coaster. He loved it!

Aiden trying to put on his mean scary face!

Noah, the birthday boy, waiting in line for the bumper cars.

Aiden by the waterfall.

Drew being forced to get his picture taken. I know, feel for him, he has a rough life.

The Halloween music show we watched. I can't remember the name now. There were 4 monsters and a scientist that sang a lot of fun songs. At the end, the kids got treat bags with lots of chocolate. Yummmy, not that I would know or anything.

We had a blast that day, topped off with a Subway dinner on the way home. It was agreed by all that we were glad that we made the trip and we wished we could fit in one more day there before they close for the winter.