Thanksgiving 2009

Apart from being super sick the night before, Thanksgiving turned out to be a wonderful party! Heidi, Bruce, Micaela, and Marissa came for the weekend of food, family and fun!

The night before, I developed a severe sinus infection. I seriously thought that I was going to die! Super dramatic, I know. But it's the truth. Luckily, Heidi was there to be my surrogate mommy and nurse me back to health. Thanks Heidi!

Thanksgiving consisted of lots of cooking and lots of baking, which I love to do (but I may or may not be the best at). All I have to say about the cooking part is THANK HEAVENS I have a double oven. Best. thing. Ever! The food turned out splendidly (if I'm allowed to toot my own horn). Besides the turkey, we made homemade rolls, stuffing, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, a big fruit tray and veggie tray, corn, cranberry dressing, and lots and lots of pies! Ben and Gina came over with their kids and brought the ham and brownies... super yummy!

Here's the only picture I took of the weekend:

Looks good huh?

The rest of the day consisted of playing Settlers and Ticket to Ride, while the kids played video games and heaven only knows what else. It was a perfect day!

And now I have a little secret to share with you, but you can't hold it against me, okay? Here goes: I have a slight addiction to shopping...especially when things are on sale. I find that I get all excited about the hunt and super excited about how much I save. I'm working on coming to terms with my addiction, just FYI. But for those of you who suffer the same affliction as myself, you know the excitement you feel in anticipation of Black Friday. And it seems that Don also shares my excitement. So, we decided to venture out into the wild (aka Toys-R-Us) at midnight to partake of the fun. In one word: Mayhem. The line was already curved around the parking lot nearly back to the front door. It was insane. Don took one look and decided that it wasn't work the 6 hours in line to save a few dollars and miss out on sleep. So our excitement was not to be, or so I thought. I guess that Don had issues with not getting the best deal, so after a few hours of sleep, he was back in the wild where he just walked right in and picked up all of the items we wanted and had no problems checking out. Interesting huh?

The rest of the day was spent playing and prepping for what I'm hoping will become a family tradition. Going to the theater! We had purchased tickets to Wicked a few months back and saw that the same company was going to put on "A Christmas Story", so we got tickets.

Can I tell you how much FUN it was!? I loved every minute of it. While it was a little difficult to get into at first (because all of the characters were being played by adults), they really sucked you into the story because of their phenomenal acting. Even Brennan and Gabe loved it, which is saying a lot!

*I have to give Don credit for the play~ it was his idea!

Need a Ride?

Catch a ride on the Ian Express. Coming soon to a house near you!

Bath Time

After some much needed haircuts (the boys were itching like crazy!), we plopped them in our tub to play. Even without the toys to entertain them, they LOVED being in the "big" tub with the bubbles.

Bet ya can't guess who loves bath time the most?!

Time to get out? NO!!

How can you help but LUV this little guy!

"I'm free!"

I don't know if you can see it in the picture or not, but Ian turned on the faucet again was turning around to tell me "uh-oh".

Houston We Have a Problem

Ian's found the stairs. Now what am I supposed to do!?!?

Trick or Treat

Happy Halloween!

Trick-or-Treating around the neighborhood

Since we spent the previous night having a Halloween Party, we decided to keep this year's Candy Getting to a minimum. Just around the neighborhood. No parties or carnivals. I think it worked out well for us.

Papa stayed home with Ian to pass out candy while Don and I took out Brennan and Nolan. At first, Nolan didn't want anything to do with going to the houses. All he cared about was running around outside, but once he saw what Brennan was getting, he was totally into it! He'd go up to the house with B, and wait until the person at home lowered the basket of candy to put some in his bag. He'd then "assist" them in filling up his bag by grabbing as much as he could, putting that in his bag, and going back for more. I actually think that Nolan got more candy than Brennan!

On a side note: I really enjoyed actually knowing every person's house we went to and didn't feel like I had to worry about the safety of the kids in the dark. It was such a nice, relaxing feeling.

Funny thing: We kept running into our neighbors who had gone to our house only to be met by Don's dad. I guess they were just a little surprised when he answered the door and they had no idea who he was! We had LOTS of candy-getter's this year (so much better than the 3 we had last year). Thank you Papa for coming out to visit and helping us with our Halloween Party and passing out candy :)

Sweet Ian

Time has flown by so fast with Ian. Knowing he's my last baby, I've really been trying to enjoy every stage. As hard as I've tried, I'm always forgetting to write down the cute and sweet things he's doing. No more. I'm not forgetting today!

So here are some fun facts about my sweet baby Ian:

* At 9 months, he weighs in at 23 lbs and is 29 in long, which puts him in between the 85th and 90th percentile for his age. He's my Linebacker!

* He wears 18 month clothes, though I do have to roll up the pants because they are too long, but they fit perfectly around his Buddha-belly.

* He refuses to take a pacifier. He likes it to chew on, but spits it out when I try to use it to calm him down.

* He pulls himself up on everything and can walk around the furniture.

* He LOVES watching Nolan and Brennan and tries to get them every chance he gets. One of his favorite games to play is to chase Nolan through the halls in his walker. Both of them are screaming and running and laughing. So cute!

* He has 2 teeth on the bottom and is currently cutting 4 on the top. Please, please, please come in soon~ the crying and fussiness just aren't my baby.

* He answers to his name. He also answers to Chuckles and Giggles.

* He said his first word this past weekend. "Uh-oh". Why is it that Nolan and Ian's had the same first word!? They have even gotten into an "uh-oh" match to see who could say it the most. Silly trouble makers!

* He loves his crib and knows that it means nap time. He's been sleeping through the night since he was 2 months old and still takes 2 naps a day. Did I mention that he's the best baby ever!?!

* He tries to eat everything in sight. Ian's been the only one of my kids who has put anything in his mouth. He's like a vacuum. If it's on the floor or anywhere he can reach, it will end up in his mouth. His favorite thing to chew on is plastic bags. Yes, I know. I'm a horrible mother. I don't let him chew on them, but somehow he finds them. When I bring in the groceries, I just put them on the floor in the kitchen and he crawls over and starts eating the handles. When I refill his diapers or wipes, he'll get the plastic bag out of the garbage cans. Heavens, he'll even crawl over to the garbage call just to chew on the liner. I can't seem to keep him away from it!! Any suggestions for that?

* He loves to follow me around. I'm constantly tripping over his chubby smiling face, but I wouldn't change it for anything.

* He'll watch the hockey and football games with Daddy. That boy loves him some fights!

* He cries when ever Nolan gets in trouble. That means I have to pick my battles with Nolan very carefully. I'm constantly thinking "Is this serious enough that I'll have to deal with 2 babies crying?". We went to the dentist yesterday for Nolan and he screamed the entire time, which meant that Ian screamed too. It was really funny because the second Nolan stopped, Ian stopped and smiled like nothing had happened. He's such a tender heart!

* He's figured out how to turn on the tub in my bathroom and is constantly getting into trouble for doing it. Maybe that's where he learned "uh-oh".

I'm sure there's lots I'm forgetting, but I hope that gives you an idea of who my precious boy is!