Busy, busy, busy!

Its that time of year!  I feel like we don't have any time to relax because we are always on the go. 

Drew started basketball a couple of weeks ago.  He loves it!  It is funny to watch 5 year olds try to play basketball though.  Not a lot of passing, but there is a lot of shooting!  Drew is the tallest on his team too.  Yeah, you read that right.  Shocking for anyone that knows Andy's family!  Drew gets all of his height from my side!  :-)

Warming up

Drew is #13

Throwing the ball in

 

Ryan loves going to Drew's games!

Kayley was only happy if she was watching
Disney Junior on my phone

 

We drove to Davenport last weekend for Amelia's 5th birthday party!  The kids had the best time and of course their favorite part was swimming!  I didn't take many other pictures because I was trying to entertain Ryan too.  Three kids by yourself at a swimming birthday party is a lot of work! 

 

We hosted my family for Thanksgiving this year.  Mom went out to Phoenix before Dad this year so she flew in on Monday afternoon.  I picked Ryan and Kayley up early from daycare and they surprised her at the airport.  My dad drove here on Tuesday and Matt arrived on Wednesday.  The kids have been playing nonstop with Grandma, Grandpa and Uncle Matt.  They are going to be exhausted (and possibly very bored) when everyone leaves later today.  But, just a few weeks until Christmas! 

The kids on Thanksgiving morning

Andy and I went to the Iowa/Nebraska game on Friday.  We got up at 4am and drove to Iowa City to meet his brothers for the game.  The Hawks lost.  While not unexpected, it is still disappointing and especially hard to lose to Nebraska! 

March of Dimes

Awhile ago, we were asked to be the ambassador family for the March of Dimes' Signature Chef's Auction.  We were truly honored to be asked, but I was definitely nervous about sharing our story in front of so many people.  I am used to speaking in front of large groups of people at work, but I was afraid I would get emotional and forget everything I wanted to say.  Thankfully, I kept my composure and it went fine. 

Thank you to our friends who came out and supported us!  We had a great time and enjoyed the entire night.  The event raised $50,000 for the March of Dimes!  The March of Dimes is an amazing organization that is doing wonderful things to help prevent premature births.  As I said in my closing, advances made by research funded by the March of Dimes helped give Kayley the best possible outcome for a 27 weeker and helped me stay pregnant for 37 weeks with Ryan.  While our story has a happy ending, we know more work needs to be done. 

My perinatalogist said it best when he said doctors and nurses do amazing things in the NICU, but we need to do everything we can to avoid a stay there!  No baby should have to start out their life this way:

Happy Halloween!

We had a football player, a princess and a giraffe for Halloween and I didn't spend any money on costumes this year!  My brother gave Drew a Chicago Bears (his favorite team, not ours!) uniform last year for his birthday so Drew wanted to wear that.  I talked Kayley into being a princess again.  It didn't take much convincing because I think she forgot she wore it last year and acted like it was the best costume ever when I pulled it out of her closet!  And, poor Ryan, wasn't going to be anything.  We didn't have a costume small enough for him so I was just going to forget it (we didn't even have a Halloween onesie for him).  My co-worker heard me say he wasn't going to be anything and she brought in a baby giraffe costume that her daughter used when she was a baby so Ryan got to dress up too! 

Andy went to Drew's Halloween party while I went to Kayley's at the daycare.  I picked up Ryan from his room and we went to Kayley's room and watched her class sing some Halloween songs and have their party.  Kayley enjoyed some yummy food at her party while I got soaked by Ryan's spit up.  Nothing says professional quite like spit up stained clothes!

Halloween was a little chilly so I was more than willing to stay home with Ryan and hand out candy while Andy and Sox took Drew and Kayley trick or treating.  They weren't gone long though.  Kayley still tires out pretty quickly and they wanted to come back to help hand out candy.  When Drew answered the door, I would hear him say, "You can take two pieces."  When Kayley answered the door, I would hear, "You can take a handful."  :-) 

Ryan trying on his costume the night before.

Kayley at her parade

Getting ready to go trick or treating!

Ryan isn't so sure about his costume

Excited to hand out candy!

Waiting for trick or treaters

All done!