Merry Christmas!

Our Christmas was absolutely wonderful.  Now, I am dealing with some yucky crud that has hit our house.  Chad and the kids are at the lake fishing, and I am trying to rest and recoup.  Hopefully I will be up and running with them again real soon!  Hope your Holiday was just as Merry!  Blessings to all, and have a Happy New Year!

Help, please!

I have a lot to say, and I have a lot to share.....but right now I need to figure out how to upload more photos.  I've maxed out my photo capacity.  Now what?  What have others done to fix this??

Pumpkin Patch...round 3.

One of our favorite family activities to do in the fall is head to the Pumpkin Patch.  We've done this for 3 years now, and our kids love it more and more each year.  We always meet up with our cabin friends there, which of course, make it that much more fun!  We make a day and an evening, and an over-night out of it.  Then get up the next morning and watch the Vikings play.  This year was just as great as always- (other than leaving my keys on the straw bales by the corn pit).  We were a little nervous for a second.  Luckily, some kind gentleman found them and turned them in at the front desk.  Oh, my- That could have turned out much worse!!!

I'm going to overload you pictures once again, cuz that's just what I do.  These shots were just too hard to pick through, I did my best:)

For the past 3 years we've gone to the Pumpkin Patch at 101 Market.  Each year we go there are new fun activities.  We haven't been disappointed yet, so we will continue to go back!

The corn pit is always a crowd favorite!

Our little gymnast ripped off her sweater and was doing summersaults into the corn.  I think the rules said that was not allowed.  We broke the rules a bit.

They put this little guy on the biggest go-kart they had.  Good thing the seat adjusts!

Eli and his friend, Reagan.  So cute!

"Mom, take my picture!"

Adi got to go for a 2nd ride with her friend, Jared.  All go-kart riders in this picture are the friends we met there.  We took over the track for a bit!

This time around he got a go-kart more his size!

This big bounce pillow was a new addition this year.  And, by far the favorite activity.  The rules said 5 minutes max.  We broke the rules again.  The were having way too much fun!!!

It was so cute how our little group always hung together.  They would move all over the pillow, but always stuck together.

Then we tried out the potato launcher:

Adi clung pretty tight to Rick.  She knew she was staying overnight at his house while all the Mommy's and Daddy's went out for a bit that night.  And, she missed him and Kathy- we hadn't seen them for a couple of weeks since the cabins had closed.

I wanted to get a quick family shot, but Eli had run off with the bigger boys to check out the petting zoo quick.  So, I got one of me and my girl!

After the pumpkin patch we all head out for dinner.  We make reservations for about 25 people, and fill up each spot.  We enjoyed our dinner, then put all of our kids in jammies at Rick and Kathy's, and the Mommy's and Daddy's got to enjoy a fun night out with each other!  We love this crowd....always so much fun!

Little birthday fun, and then some...

Wow- 3 posts in a week?!?!  I'm doing well!!!  Actually, I'm just trying to get myself caught up!  Is it too late to post Halloween pictures?  I hope not- those are coming soon yet, also!  Here's a run-down of most of our month.

October was kind of busy.  It started out with Adi's 3rd birthday.  Hard to believe this little princess is 3 already!!!  We celebrated the big party with her brother over Labor Day weekend, so we kept things pretty low-key for her actual birthday.  My Mom's is only 3 days before hers, so we invited my family over for dinner to celebrate for both of them.

Adi got a little chest of dress-up clothes, and it was a huge hit!

Even little Alivia got in on the action:)

I am loving these big, beautiful clip-on earrings!!!  Kinda makes me want to get her ears pierced.  Someone told me I need to wait until she's 5 though, because that's when ears stop growing and the holes will be lined up?  Anyone know any more about that?

Auntie Lori brought over some cupcakes:

The boys were just itching to get in on the action:

I love how these 2 have started to play so nicely together.  She is able to get him to dress up in her princess clothes, and he turns around and gets her in a Spiderman costume.  They love to play puppies, and attach leashes to each other's clothes, and they love to have wrestling matches on our bed.  Oh, we have the quarrels, and tears here and there, but for the most part, they like to be together!

Not even sure why we thought we needed another batch of cupcakes around here!

He is such a big helper:

And, of course- they need to sneak as much of the batter as they can before I make them stop:

And, the more frosting- the better!

The funny thing is- she will only lick the frosting off the top, and the rest will go in the  garbage anyways!  Needless to say, the tub of frosting didn't last long in our house.  It found the garbage real quick:-)

On Adi's actual birthday night we had a special little dinner for her.  She got to choose the menu- Mac-n-cheese, hot dogs, and frozen corn!  And, we celebrated with another cupcake!

We couldn't leave Eli out, so they both got to blow out candles.

We also spent a couple of quiet days at home when Mommy had MEA break.  It was wonderful to be at home and get caught up on some things that needed doing around here.

We packed lots of fun into each of those days.  Adi spent most of her time at the table painting every pumpkin she could find around here.

Right now I have 10 of them lined up and decorating my hutch!

They painted one for each of their friends.  But, I accidently (on purpose) forgot to bring them down when we met everyone at the pumpkin patch- You're welcome:-)

No- they are actually pretty cute, especially after we glued the eyes onto them!

We got out all kinds of games on that damp, chilly day.  One of our favorites is Whack-A-Mole.  Just like we are at the arcade!  He's getting harder to beat at this game, I need more practice:-)

And, when we are home all day like that, it's the perfect set-up for a big delicious dinner for Daddy filled with comfort foods:  Chicken, Au Gratin potatoes, and squash.  These 2 were loving it!

And, we capped the day off with some warm hot cocoa complete with chocolate mint marshmallows!

These are the kinds of cozy, fall days that I love at home.  I enjoy when we have no where to go, and nothing on the agenda.  Looking forward to many more of these kinds of days and weekends!