Thanksgiving 2010

It has been a thanksgiving miracle....SNOW! How much fun! We had a couple inches Monday, and of course ran outside to play and take pictures right away in case it didn't stay too long. But thankfully it stayed and snowed more...or it snew...as Aiden says. We woke up this morning with a couple more inches and immediately grabbed our sleds, which have been sitting in waiting as last year we didnt really see as much as a flake.

We hopped in the big truck and drove to the nearest park with hills and proceed to sled until we were tired and soaked (we have yet to invest in "snow" clothes).

We came home had our fiftieth round of hot chocolate and started preparing the big turkey dinner. we kinda copped out as we didn't have any company and the little people just don't appreciate the hard work that can go into a real thanksgiving dinner. The turkey came halved and prepared from Costco as did the sweet potatoes. The kids had several helpings of whip cream fruit salad and dinner rolls.

We then sat upstairs in our room and watched ample amounts of movies. Why upstairs you ask? Because our old friends are back in town...the rats. One made its appearance at dinner last night. Boo. Steve spent several hours cutting out drywall, patching the only tiny hole it could have come through...that a year of ORKIN was supposed to fix, and rewiring (as long as he was back there) tv stuff. So needless to say the downstairs TV is yet to be reinstalled due to Lowes being closed on thanksgiving...but tomorrow it opens at 5 and Steve is psyched to get up that early.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Mrs. Megan Jones

Aiden and I were honored to be apart of my beautiful cousin, Megans wedding the end of October. Aiden was the ring bearer, and I know I am biased, but he was the cutest ring bearer in the history of ring bearers. Seriously.

He did a great job. I never know if he is going to cooperate or throw a fit, and this time he choose to be very responsible, listened to the coordinator and did a great job. During the ceremony he sat in the front row next to the father of the bride. I could hear him squirming and wiggling and looked down to give him the "YOU HAD BETTER SHAPE UP" mommy glare. Then I quickly decided I better not be caught on film making that face and decided not to look in his direction again. Apparently the person sitting behind him said at one point he looked to find Aiden's feet sticking up where his head should have been. Good thing I didn't see that or who knows what kind of face I would make. Anyhow, no major catastrophes.

Megan was beautiful, her brides maids were all so cute and nice. I gave a toast which nearly killed me.

All in all it was a fabulous wedding!

Love you Mrs. Jones.

Great Wolf Lodge

A couple weekends ago our friends from Portland met us half way at Great Wolf Lodge. It was AWESOME. The hotel has thought of pretty much everything to make it a great place to stay with noisy dirty wild kids. And they thought of me too and conveniently added an in lodge Starbucks.

The water park was pretty cool. You can walk from your room right into the park. Our kids were a little small to let them just go wild, but with constant head counting and rescuing we hit all the major attractions. Both Aiden and Nolen went down slides by themselves. And Aiden went on some big double slides with Steve and I.

"Did you like that"
"Yes!"
"Do you want to go again?"
"NO!"

Nolen added that "tummy like that!"

The best part was when our friends watched the boys for the last half hour the park was open and Steve and I went back by ourselves. We went down the "big" slides, and I screamed, a lot. I would have gone more but I was so exhausted from running up all the steps each time I was starting to get leg cramps.

Anyway, it was a hit with everyone. And it was so nice to get a few moments to chat with my friend.

Four stars.

Grandpa Sandes Visit

My dad drove all the way out from Billings MT, to spend a couple of days with us last month. We had so much fun with him! The boys and I took him to the park, we went on walks and we even made it to the Museum of Flight. So much fun!

Halloween 2010

So I am on the hunt for better ways to not celebrate Halloween, and celebrate something with a focus on Christ, and not death and goblins. But I started thinking about this too late this year and we already hyped up the costume thing. And I just couldn't disappoint two spidermen and a cute little duck. At least they still bought the idea that Halloween is just about handing out candy, and not collecting it.

Nolen ended up handing out most of the candy as Aiden ran around and got too sweaty and had to take his costume off. Coen did help out and waved at everyone.

They were cute. And it was fun. And I will try to do better next year!

The Zoo with Grandma

The Schneider's came for a weekend visit. And the boys, Grandma, and I went to the zoo. The zoo is always great, but this time we got to watch the Komodo Dragon eat giant white rats! Gulp! It was gross and the boys loved the slobber and gore of it. Now how come I cant get them to scoop the guts out of a pumpkin??

Pumpkin Picking

Hunting for pumpkins is fun. And each year our group is bigger and cuter. They hunted and hunted for just the right pumpkins. They got their faces painted, they looked at the farm animals and they ate junk food. And from the looks of it Steve got a work out hauling everyone around!