Message from Santa

Santa Claus has heard how hard the boys have been working to behave since Santa is coming soon. He left them both a message to keep them motivated!

Chase's message:
http://www.portablenorthpole.tv/watch/c3ZfhnvaE89fm4vinOHng

Luke's message:
http://portablenorthpole.tv/watch/SjFWXuevnh6zm6OPRz_7Ew

A great day

Today I took a half day off of work and spent the morning in Chase's classroom. I've been so curious and excited to see what a 4 year-old preschool classroom does and let me tell you, they do a lot! It happened to be "J" week so I was Chase's letter J, his Jessica. He was so thrilled that I was there with him and he could show me certain things that I didn't know about his school.

His teachers are so wonderful, they make his first school experience so rewarding, I can't believe how lucky Chase is to have them. They are so down to Earth and truly funny, although the kids don't "get" much of their humor. I was so proud of Chase's behavior. He was a great listener, respectful friend and a great help at clean-up time.

I also started our Christmas sing-a-longs class with Luke tonight. Taking the class with just the 2 of us is great. He is such a musical kid, he loves all things music, including singing, playing with sticks, bells or any instrument really! He keeps telling us that he wants Santa to bring him a guitar...I tell him only if he makes the "nice" list and some days that is questionable!

Overall, it was a day with my kids, I'm so grateful for them!

Family Pictures

Although this one is really bright, I love Chase's eyes and smile, a real one!!

The sneaky grin that I know so well!

Being silly

I'm really late in posting these pictures since they were taken in October. I don't really love any of them except for the one of Chase. I'm glad that we took them but I'm not sure any of them are display pictures!

Fall stuff

The raking lasted for all of about 1 minute and then it was onto something else!

Chase really was a good "raker". Can you see his weapon sticking out

of his coat? That is our vacuum attachment that he carries in his

back pocket everywhere with him. He even took it to school

once without Blake knowing...the only parents that have to search their

son before school for vacuum attachments!

Mid jump






This is Chase's Thanksgiving Feast at school. They always sing their Sunny Days Preschool song before snack each day and today was no exception. A lot of times Chase wants us to sing it with him before we eat dinner, so cute!

Grand Bear Lodge

So excited!

On the carousel at the indoor amusement park

Luke being "brave" on the toddler water slide

The kids playing in the wave pool

The Tuesday before Thanksgiving we packed up the kids, the cousins, & my sister-in-law and headed down to Starved Rock to the Grand Bear Lodge. It was a mini-vacation for all of us. The kids had so much fun playing in the water and waves were a huge hit! Luke was pretty much done with the pool after the first night so we spent some time in the arcade and at the indoor amusement park. We might just make this event a tradition before Thanksgiving every year. The water park was virtually empty so we didn't have to fight any crowds at the pool and since it's only an hour away, we were able to make it to Blake's parents' house for Thanksgiving dinner.

Luke ended up sleeping in a big-boy bed while we were there and although he got out a lot the first night, I do think he's ready to move up to a new bed. We've been talking to him about that a lot lately so he's excited to get a new bed and start being a big boy by going on the potty...we'll see about that since he has virtually no interest at all. We're going to try over winter break with both changes, hopefully it will go well.

The Howard's US visit

Liz, me, Josi (holding baby Max), Maria & Jackie

Dinner-you can just see the craziness!

The girls dancing

(Payton, Mia, Logan & Breena)

Video of Luke singing Usher's-DJ's Got Us Falling In Love Again

(one of Chase's friends from preschool gave us a CD with this song

on it and the boys can't get enough of it, we sing it all of the time, so fun!)

So our friends Kris & Liz that live in Toronto came into town last Saturday. We invited a bunch of friends and their kids over for pizza and playing. Although the night was very loud, everyone got along and there was barely any fighting, amazing with 16 kids that are 6 and under! It was so nice to see friends that we haven't seen in awhile and catch up a little bit.

The Greatest Show on Earth

Posing with the funny hat that the popcorn came in!

During the show-look at that smile, ugh!

Trampoline jumpers

The elephants performing

The motorcycle riders, truly amazing!

We recently ventured to the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus for the first time with the kids. The show was very entertaining and the kids loved the animals the best. The circus is really neat but also kind of strange, some of the acts are very odd from an adults perspective! The kids liked enough to go again next year!