Nolen Turns THREE!

Okay, so this post is late. Nolen turned three almost a month ago. Prehaps I did not want to write about his party and subconsciously put off posting.

His birthday party was awful. I was going to say disaster...but I am trying not to overly exaggerate things. It started three days before when Coen caught a tummy bug. Within 24 hours he was back to normal. Nolen spent the day before his party acting a little lethargic, but showed none of the symptoms Coen had.

The day of his party he was tired and grumpy, which is not entirely unsual for him. So we forged ahead. Our first party guests arrived. Ellie had yet to be locked up and barked ferociously at the little faces pearing in the window (one of the little faces happens to be rather shy of dogs and proceeded to shriek in fright).

More guests arrived, and I went to find the birthday boy. He was sound asleep on our bed. I woke him up and drug him down stairs to all the chaos. The bouncy house fan was noisily blowing, ellie running around, kids crying...

Things got underway and settled down a bit. We dished out the icecream. Nolen blew out his candle and we started opening presents. Nolen was uncharacteristically not into opening presents. Steve sat him on his lap and helped him get going. About three fourths of the way through the gifts Nolen threw up.

Steve quickly wisked him upstairs to fall back asleep watching cartoons. The party guests finished bouncing and playing and then went home.

I felt horrible. I should have called off the party. I am glad that he probably wont remember this. We did a second party with the family the next day when he was back to himself.

Happy third birthday!

Christmas 2010

We were once again blessed to have family come visit us this Christmas. Grandma and Grandpa Schneider, Uncle Chris, and Grandpa Schwark all made our 2010 Christmas a lot of fun.

We made it to Christmas eve service...with three little kids with colds in tow. It was so full they had to add seats for us. I love candlelight service, the part where we all light our candles one by one and when you look up the room is filled with the most beautiful light. I whispered to Aiden "this is my favorite part" then in true rebellious five year old style he turned up his nose and said "I dont want my candle, take it". The kid is perfecting his button pushing. But it was Christmas, and I was filled with an extra measure of grace and only responded with a smile and hug.

By the next evening however my extra grace was used up. Aiden and Nolen take full advantage of house guests to stay up way past their bedtimes. The adults were trying to watch a movie, and to just appease the kids we set them up with a movie in our room upstairs. Half way through our movie there was excessive thumping and bumping coming from upstairs and upon investigation I found wild sleep deprived hellions cutting Nolens hair. Nolen has the cutest blonde hair, but it takes forever to grow out. It was just getting to a nice length from the summer buzz cut I gave him...Steve fixed it by giving him a mohawk which he sported cutely for a week and then I had to shave it all off today.

Thanks for all the cards and gifts, and thank you for making our Christmas Merry.
sorry about the group photo...worst camera angle ever!

Happy 60th Birthday Dad!

We left last friday to fly to Billings MT, for my dad's surprise party. It has been nerve racking keeping this secret for months. But I did it, and I didnt even mess up the phone call to say happy birthday on his actual birthday from my aunt and uncles the day before the party.

The flight out, no bumps. Security was difficult as is to be expected in this age of flying. Aiden did have a hotwheel in his pocket that sent Steve back and forth three times. But all was well after 10 shoes, 5 jackets, 3 carseats, 2 suitcase, 2 little tents, and my purse made it through.

We had a lovely afternoon with some of my favorite people in the world, aunt and uncle Sande, and cousins Megan and Jeff. Then they were off to a Christmas party and some of my other favorite people in the world aunt and uncle Murray graciously had us over for dinner. (meatless lasagna - so YUM!)

Then back for a night of wrestless sleeping due to small ones being in a new place. The morning brought delicious breakfast caserole and lazily getting ready for the big party.

Twentysome of my dads friends waited quietly as he and my mom made their way down the hall, with Steve a few steps ahead giving us notice.

"SURPRISE!" And he was! My mom did such a great job planning the party and keeping it a secret and you could tell my dad felt really honored. It was fun to see friends and relatives of his that I havent seen in ages.

We spent the rest of the weekend chatting with family and sharing meals. Steve pitched in and hauled some hay, the kids sat on Sassy the horse and jumped in the haystack. Sometimes I forget how blessed I am to have parents that live in the country.

Our flight home was just short of awful. We arrived 12:45 for our flight, and it got cancelled then rescheduled for 6:30pm, and we didnt end up leaving until 7pm. The Billings airport is nice and all, but it doesnt have a starbucks. I can stand almost anything if there is a starbucks. We ate lots of vending machine food, and ate at the restaurant in the airport. The kids were beyond tired, but after the second time through security we just let them run wild. And wild they ran. I stopped caring if we were anyoying to the other flyers. Once on the airplane the combination of vending machine food and some of the worst turbulence made me almost barf. But I didnt throw up, so this still only qualifies as the second worse flight. :)

We made it home! And it was really wonderful to see my family. Thank you to all who housed, fed, and drove us around. We love you!

Aiden's Birthday Party

Thank you everyone who came to the party! You all made Aiden feel so special and he had a blast. I think the bouncy house has met its match! We are going to have to think of something else for next year...

Everything was great, except maybe the food coloring in the cupcakes...As you can see from the pictures...I hope it came out of all the clothes and off all the faces!

Nolen did have a minor melt down when he realized none of the presents were for him. But I am a softie and gave him several after everyone left.

Friends, good. Cupcakes, Good. Wild running and jumping, good.

Happy 5th birthday Aiden!

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.