I love sleep

These 3 crazies slept ALL NIGHT LAST NIGHT!! This is only the 2nd full night of sleep I have gotten since June 3, 2009. Yep - it is true.

Fun day ahead of them today - Halloween party at pre-school and pumpkin carving tonite at home! This weekend we have lots of fun stuff to do - trick-or-treating of course, Erin coming home, moving bedrooms around (Ayden is very excited about this) Halloween party at Aunt Barb and Uncle Jeff's and a Halloween party at Aunt Kristi and Uncle Shelby's!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

Family Monster Mash

Ali made us this hilarious Family Monster Mash. It is sure to make you smile...it made us belly laugh!

Pumpkin patch & Hot Dog roast!

Saturday was a visit to a pumpkin patch! What a gorgeous day it was...and we spent as much time outside as possible! An attempt at a Fall family photo....

Pumpkin patches can be very serious business!

And then a spur of the moment hot dog roast/birthday party!

Alec and dinner

First - an apology for the lack of posting - this past month has truly been about the hardest we have endured since March 21, 2008 when our family first started growing. 3 sick kids for 5 full weeks is almost too much. And trying to keep two full time jobs under control - much less the utter chaos we call our home. And the worst part is that I think we have only gotten to hold Korbyn 3or 4 times since she was born because of all the sickness. I am so anxious to "babysit" for even a couple hours - just to give our kids a break and me a moment of bonding with my granddaughter. Soon - very soon.

But this post is really about Alec and his dinner etiquette. He really really enjoys his meals. We have gotten used to his very messiness - but it was brought to my attention the other day that he might be a little more extreme than most 20 month olds.

Oreo cookies anyone?

What a week. Sick kids......STILL!!! I think we have built up enough immunities in the last month to last the entire flu season now. Seriously. A couple fun moments to post pictures of in the midst of crying, sore throats, fever, and no sleep.....

And still trying to figure out photoshop and why when I crop it puts a white border. Oh well - maybe next week?

October birthdays

Today was a celebration of October birthday's - graciously hosted by Aunt Carol & Uncle Ron (Happy Birthday Mom-October 1...Me-October 6....Ron-October 7 and Dad October 25!) The balloon blaster was a total hit...and brought our three out of their shell completely!
Alec - looking a little worse for wear as usual - with a banged up nose....but those gorgeous eyes make you forget about the banged up nose....as usual.

Grandpa - holding his beautiful little grand daughter. Ava - giving us her gorgeous cheesy smile.

cutie cute little family...

and gorgeous Miss Ava again....just cause.

This was a very long week for all of us....still a bit on the sickly side....Daddy out of town....Daddy working this weekend....Mommy roadtripping to KC on Friday to start the wedding preparations for Erin & Aaron's big day (that was FUN!).....Trying to figure out better methods of discipline for three toddlers who are very "physical" ....not always in a mean way...but sometimes escalating everyone into loud behavior that ends up breaking things or hurting each other and getting a bit wild. So out came the stickers and the refrigerator magnets to begin a focus on positive....which so far is working wonderfully! (I do need better stickers I must admit...ours were pretty lame).....but they didn't seem to care.

Big news this week. Ayden can identify and recognize a bunch of numbers and letters! He is so proud! Ava is right behind him. They are such smart kiddos...and their preschool is so wonderful.

Korbyn...and Happy Harvest Moon!

Happy Harvest Moon! This weekend is a special holiday in most Asian countries - the celebration of the Harvest Moon. We sadly did not get to go celebrate as planned (hayride) with our kids so sick and the weather so cool....but in years to come this will be a special weekend in our home.

We finally got to go hold Korbyn......we have been keeping our distance these past two weeks because of this darn flu bug....but Saturday night Erin kicked us out and we got away for a couple much needed hours of no kid, no work, time together! We stopped by to hold sweet Korbyn...took some pictures of course (she has changed so much!) and then went and had a wonderful dinner at a local winery. Very fun and we got home in time to tuck the kiddos in bed! Ava still had a rough night with her cough - but no more fever. Now let's just hope we are truly on the mend since Daddy is working out of town for a couple days....

Goodness Mercy

One of Ayden's favorite phrases is "goodness Mercy"....a couple weeks ago it was "gracious Mercy"....both of which I find quite funny. And very descriptive of our quarantined home the past two weeks. Goodness Mercy this has been a long two weeks. First of all - people are freaking out about this flu bug - which I kind of understand - but then again I don't. If you eat out or go to a store and the person before you had some symptoms but they didn't know they had the flu (which is what Ayden did - low grade fever - small cough) then you are exposed. But we are trying to be good stewards of other people's well being and are staying home until our last one is fever free for 24 hours....hopefully that is tomorrow. Ava and Alec have struggled the most with this bug. High fevers - horrible cough. And still struggling yet today. Poor Ava seemed like she was better and is now her cough is worse than ever. Alec's cough is better today - but still not great. We are missing a hayride tonite that makes me very sad.....but Ava just is not well enough to go. If they are in between ibuprofen doses - they feel pretty good....so the pictures below are some moments of medication induced

"feeling better".

Trying on some Halloween costumes so when the real day arrives they are not terrified. Sam was so funny as a little kid at Halloween - I made him the cutest ghost costume. He took one look at himself in the mirror and immediately had to have it OFF!

So he was a "scary bunny rabbit" again for the 3rd year.

Reading lots of books. Alec is actually starting to sit still long enough to get through a few pages!

Taking a wagon ride.

Alec must have done something mean. Imagine that?

PS - Happy Birthday Grandma Pat! We will celebrate later at Uncle Ron's! Love you!