Crap-i-olies

The other night I made myself some dinner (different from what the kids were eating - kind of a leftover night). I made raviolis. Well, the girls really thought that was a funny name. Several nights later they started calling their food crap-i-olies!!!! They forgot how to say raviolis!!! That is the name all my food I make gets now is crap-i-olies! Just imagine slaving over a hot stove cooking a great meal and your kids get their plate and say, "oooh, crap-i-olies!!!" Luckily for me, I know they haven't heard that word and don't know the meaning, so I know it is pure innocent fun, but, boy, would that hurt my feelings if they meant it!!!!!!!!!!!!

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This is another post I forgot to put on the blog from a couple weeks ago. We were driving home from bed shopping and the girls broke out in song. It was so cute, so I had to crawl into the back and video these two nuts!!!

Fun times

Tonight Sarah and Preston came over to play. The girls love playing with Preston!! We played and ate dinner. Then the boys took a bath together and then the girls. I am sure Harper appreciated taking a bath with Preston rather than his sisters!! Then we cleaned up and made chocolate chip cookies - YUMMY!! Oh, and we read our bedtime story and got tucked into bed. We always have fun with Sarah and Preston!

Carly and Preston

Chloe and Harper

Messy, Messy, Messy

Some days, there is just no wining in this house with the mess!! Today after lunch I put the kids to bed, and just stared at the floor. How can 3 small kids make such a big mess?? It is absurd how disgusting the floor was!!! This was a picture of just one meal - lunch - can you believe it???


Sickening!!

Happy Thanksgiving

Sunday night we had Thanksgiving at my Mom and Dad's house. We had so much fun hanging out with everyone. I had some crafts for the kids to do after dinner. They enjoyed being Indians!

Chief Toots and Sacajawea

Pocahontas

Chief Cheese and Bug

Reagan did not enjoy her Indian garb, but lacing a turkey leg was fun!!

Fall time

I forgot to blog this a while back. We took the kids to Idlewild Rd. park with Reilly (she was out of school for the day). We had so much fun going on our hike. We found a beautiful stream - it was so peaceful. We went there with my dad a few days prior and did the hike too. The leaves were actually gorgeous this day and it was like 70 degrees out and the sun was so bright - it was my favorite fall day this year, but this day was fun too with Matt and Reilly. We really enjoyed relaxing and taking in the last few warmer days.
Pete and Repeat


These two are inseparable

Operation Christmas Child

This week we assembled our shoe boxes for Operation Christmas Child. The girls LOVED doing this. We went to the store and they picked out everything that was important to them and put the stuff in their little shopping baskets. They even picked out stuff that Harper loves and put them in the buggy for his box. He really liked the balls he purchased for his box. It was so cute to see what they wanted in them. They HAD to put in headbands. They wanted these sparking ones, but there wasn't enough room for them so they settled for some smaller ones. They both needed a cow stuffed animal (Carly wanted a dog, but they didn't have one so she settled for the cow). We did this on Wednesday, after shopping we came home and they were so upset because they wanted to deliver all their presents right then. Friday we went and bought the boxes and wrapped them. They love to wrap too. They just kept talking about the boy and girls that were getting these boxes. Saturday afternoon, they worked so hard packing their boxes. We took a picture of them and put it in the box and then they prayed for the kids that would get their boxes. I really hope they get the concept of giving. They were so excited to bring them to church today and put them in the stack. They stood in the hallway and we prayed that the box would go to some special kids who would love them lots. This was so special to watch them get so excited about giving these presents. Our church goes to Mexico in January and delivers shoe boxes - It would be so cool if they continued to do this trip and I could bring the kids when they get older and they could actually see the impact these boxes have on the kids lives.

Thanksgiving

Today I was reading my Bible, and I ended up reading about David's Psalm of Thanks. It made me think of all the things I am thankful for. David's Psalm of Thanks occurred when the Israelites were bringing the Ark of the Covenant back to Israel. They were all so excited to have it and a homeland since they had been "traveling" and having it back from the Philistines, that they had this huge party and just praised God for the Ark. All the Israelites were gathered together to witness this. The Psalm is located in 1 Chronicles 16: 8-36. This was the perfect thing to read right before Thanksgiving. I really liked this "Look to the Lord and his strength; seek his face always. Remember the wonders he has done, his miracles, and the judgments he pronounced,..." (verses 11 & 12). Isn't that great!! Think about your past year. There is so much to be thankful for. I am so thankful for my family. My 3 kids are amazing!! They are so sweet and they truly give me so much joy that it hurts!! My husband - man!!! There is so much I could say about him. He is my everything. He is so patient, loving, caring, fun, loyal, - I am just going to stop now, because there aren't enough words to describe him. This past year I have had my ups and my downs, but those downs don't last long, because God quickly shows me why I had those downs and how to get up from them. Losing the baby was hard, but God is working with me right now to do something I have been wanting to do for a while. I lost one of my best friends too, due to differences, but God is showing me why he did this. Sometimes we do things because they make us happy, and that is not God's will. I am really standing back and looking at what God wants for me - Godly friends. Those friends that pray for you, support your walk with the Lord, and those that put God first. My ups - of course there are way too many to list. I am so thankful for my family's health, wonderful friends, my extended family, staying home to raise our kids, ends always seeming to meet no matter what, and just the love of God - he is amazing!!! Anyways, I just was wanting to put down in words what I am thankful for - look at this Mom and Dad - I'm already for Thanksgiving Day - my speech is prepared!!! :)

Big Duck

I love the conversations my 3 1/2 yr. olds have with each other. They never ask me questions about too much. If they don't know what something is, they just pull something out of their little brains that they think it is, and then proceed to have full conversations about it. Today we were driving down the road and there is this fenced in pond area on the side of the road. Carly looks outside her window and the conversation goes like this: "Ooh, Chloe, Chloe did you see that big duck? That was a big duck by that water. It was a really big duck sissy." The big duck - it was an ostrich!!

Birthday Party

Today we went to Preston's 3rd birthday party (Preston is my friend Sarah's son). We had a great time. It was definately a party Harper really enjoyed. It was a fire truck theme, so a fire truck came and Harper LOVED it! He was the first to sit in the truck and the last to get off. I finally just had to take the kid off, because the girls were done and wanted to play!! Also, Chubby Checker (the hockey team's mascot) came. The girls cried their heads off so I had to stand in the gazebo holding them. Harper played ball with him and really liked him. Of course I couldn't get a picture him because my hands were tied, but maybe Sarah did. I didn't get a pic of the birthday boy either - he was too hard to catch and I only had my cell phone camera. Anyways, it was fun!!

Chloe with the jacket on - the helmet was so heavy she couldn't keep her head up!

Harper loved standing in front of these wheels. He would run to Ryan, get a tickle, then run to the wheel, when he was about 2 feet from it he would stop, turn around and slowly back up until he had his back to the wheel. He is so funny!!

Whose driving this rig?? Looks like little brother is going to do the majority of the driving when the teenage years come along!!!!!

COW TRAIN!

We made it to the real hayride and the cowtrain!! Saturday (the 1st) Matt and I went to a Fireproof my marriage conference. It was great - will share more later. Afterwards, we went and picked up the girls from my parent's house and we took them to the corn maze. They needed Grandma and Grandpa to come too!! So we got to ride the hayride - with real hay, and we rode the cow train. (I forgot my camera again - so these aren't the greatest pics)

Carly and Grandpa

Chloe and Grandma

Daddy and Chloe

Mommy and Harper

This is Carly riding Peanut -she picked the smallest horse to ride. Chloe rode Benny - the largest horse there was!!

Here I am riding the cow train with Chloe. These barrels were pulled by a 4 wheeler. My brain was rattling after this!! It was very bumpy but it was fun. Carly cried when it was her turn. But by the end of the night, she had gained the courage to ride it with me. She liked it too and was so proud of herself that she was brave enough to ride.

This is the corn box. Kind of like a sand box, but filled completely with corn. It kind of hurt my feet when I got in, but then it felt good. Harper did not like it one bit! He cried when I put him in it. The girls were burying each other and swimming in it!

Trick or Treat

For Halloween we decided to just walk the neighborhood. Nichole, Reilly, and Reagan came to go with us. I forgot my camera - of course, but I did take a pic of them with my phone while we were walking. I filled up their pumpkins with 100 calorie packs and we made some cookies (they don't eat candy). So they were excited to just walk and eat. Reilly and Reagan (power ranger and Dora) went to doors and trick or treated. I didn't take a pic of them! I am so slack with taking pictures!! I only took a pic of my kids because we were waiting for them so we were stopped. Matt came at the tail end of the evening, so we walked a little more and then got in his car and he drove us home. It was a fun night.

Hayride

On Wednesday we told the girls that we were going on a hayride and a cow train. Big mistake for opening my mouth before researching!! It was really cold in the morning, so we decided to feed them lunch and then go. We got to the place and it was closed!! Oh, we felt so bad!! The girls were so upset. So I remembered that there was another place not too far away, so we headed down 601. The whole time they kept singing, "we're going on a hayride, a hayride, a hayride. We're going on a hayride and it's closed!" So we finally got to the other one around 12:15 and guess what - it was closed!!! It closed at 12 and reopened at 3:30! So we had to break the news to them that were going to have to take a nap and then go on the hayride. We ended up going back and we had a fun time, but boy, did we feel bad getting them all excited and then not able to go. And they were not able to go on the cow train, because Riverbend didn't have that and the hayride didn't have hay on it!!! UGH!!

Harper waiting to go! He is such a cute boy!

Beep Beep

In the pumpkin patch - all the pumpkins were rotten, but we managed to find 2 for the girls potato head pieces to stick in.

Two cute pumpkins on the "hayride"

We climbed up these silo things and there was a huge slide at the end. It was really fast and the girls cried - go figure!