Nothing Better

Sometimes there's nothing better than curling up on the couch with a good book....and a good cat.

Some Christmas Fun

I'm taking a break from gift wrapping to finally update my blog. I have a pain in my neck, a pain in my rear, and a pain in my back from sitting on the floor hunched over gifts. Seriously. I'd ask dear hubby for a back rub but he is snoring in the bedroom. Guess I'll do this all myself.

We've been having fun with our new camcorder that my inlaws gave us for Christmas. We have the software installed on the computer. Now I just need to figure out how to get the clips on the blog......because I have some cute stuff to share. Like Christmas programs, Noah singing in the shower, Drew scoring a hockey goal, so much fun!

One thing I've learned over the years is that it is impossible to get a good picture during the Christmas programs. The lighting stinks, there are a million people, and you can't get close enough to get one anyway. Some day the video will come. Until then, here is my sweet little Joseph. (center with gold halo). The funny part was that towards the end, he halo broke and he was sitting there with a confused look trying to put it back on his head. It was just hanging there. I was cracking up. I said that was God's joke for me. (but isn't he cute??)

We had Christmas parties and I got to attend both of them. Here Aiden and his friend Ethan are busy decorating their Christmas cookies.

Noah and friends are busy painting a Christmas ornament.

Drew's class just watched Elf and had snacks so I sent something to school with him and then popped in to say hi towards the end of the day.

Sunday was the annual Boat Club Christmas Party. Aiden and Noah were so excited to see Santa coming. We had been wondering about Noah's beliefs but he soooo believes. LOVE IT. My sweet gullible 8 year old. Hopefully we can pull it off one more year.

Drew's a smart kid, he knew if he wanted to get his gift from Santa, he had to sit on his lap. As you can see, he told him his wishes. Can't hurt...

I just about melted when Aiden climbed onto Santa's lap. He just snuggled in and rested his head against his beard. I think he was trying to butter him up.He had quite a list.

Noah almost seems taken aback by something Santa said. LOL

Santa must be telling him something good....

So much more, so little time. The cats are playing in the wrapping paper and with the plastic bags. I guess I need to get back to work so I can sleep sometime tonight. Hopefully tomorrow I can finally relax and begin to enjoy Christmas a little bit.

Aiden's First School Picture

His first official school picture is a keeper! I just look at that kid and melt. He may drive me to the brink of insanity more than once per day, but one look at those big brown eyes, dimpled smile, and blonde curls, is enough to melt my heart. LOVE him! My baby is growing up.

Catching Up

I've been meaning to blog for ages but life just gets in the way sometimes....and Facebook is just so quick and easy, and my Christmas shopping is so close to being done.....I can see the end!! The holidays, family activities, and the day to day hustle and bustle has been crazy, but fun. I'll try to catch you up.........

A couple of weekends ago, Aiden had his cousin Ty spend the night. Drew and Noah have been busy with playdates, sleepovers, etc with their friends and one day Aiden asked, "What about me?". Poor third child. So we told him he could have an evening of his own to have someone over. He chose Ty. The two of them had so much fun together and Tyler was such a joy to have. Todd snapped this picture at bedtime. Aiden is pretending to sleep and Ty was laughing at him.

Thanksgiving Day Todd, Drew, Noah and my SIL Beth ran the 5k Turkey Run. It was SOOO cold that day, but it didn't seem to slow them down one bit. It was Beth and Noah's first 5k so I was especially proud of them.

Here are Beth and Drew heading to the finish line.

Noah and Todd hitting the finish line.


My 4 favorite runners.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with both sides of the family afterwards.

I went in to check on the boys before bed the other night and this is what I found. I don't know how Noah was sleeping like that but he did. The cats both look comfy though, don't they?

We celebrated my Dad's 60th birthday with a party at their house. His actual birthday is December 7th, so he's not officially old for a few more days yet. ;) Love you Dad!

When I said I was ready to decorate the Christmas tree, I didn't mean decorate it with kitties.

The cats have been crazy with this tree. I'm thankful now that we are using a fake one this year because a real one would be naked now with pine needles strewn about my house. Tonight the ornaments go on....pray for me.

This could really scare the crap out of somebody........

Drew has been loving hockey and indoor soccer so he is keeping busy with that....and losing teeth of course. The tooth fairy has been busy. Noah had his First Reconciliation Tuesday night. He got to read one of the readings and did a super job. I was proud of him. He's also busy with indoor soccer with his friends. I just found out this morning when I dropped Aiden off at school, that he is going to be Joseph in the Christmas play in a couple of weeks. I laughed at that for a couple of hours. I'm hoping he can pull the holy look off. He'll make a darn cute Joseph though. I'm excited because this will be the first year that all 3 boys will be in the Christmas play together. Lots more to look forward to this month!!!

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!