Thanksgiving 2014

Happy Thanksgiving!!  We had a great time with our family and the holiday weekend went too fast as always.

Mom flew in from Phoenix last Friday.  After I picked her up at the airport, we picked Ryan up from daycare and headed to lunch.  Ryan was very excited to see Grandma (or very excited to get picked up right before nap time)!

Dad came on Wednesday and had to deal with some bad roads in Iowa, but arrived safely.  Matt was supposed to come on Wednesday as well, but stayed in Omaha until Thursday morning because of the roads in Iowa.

Kayley helped us prepare our Thanksgiving dinner.  She likes cooking more than her Mom!

Ryan took a special liking to Grandpa on this visit.  Grandpa changed diapers, put him down for naps, got his pajamas on him, played puzzles with him and watched you tube videos with him.  And Grandpa also gave Ryan lots of M&Ms.  Ryan thinks Grandpa is pretty great!

The kids haven't seen Matt since June so they were especially excited that he was coming.  He always plays hide and seek with them and they spend a lot of time on the Xbox with Matt.

Here are a few videos from the Xbox marathon.  Drew beat Andy and Matt in the sprint.  The other video is Kayley in the long jump.

Here are a few more random pictures from the weekend:

Eating breakfast and Ryan's lovely smile

All Ryan wants to do is play trains with Drew and Kayley

Grandma bought Kayley a new play doh toy

Ryan's smile

Ryan's smile after I told him to open his eyes

Birthday Party Fun

I went to Nashville for a girls weekend last weekend.  We had a great time and I confirmed I still love Nashville!  While last weekend was a little time for me, this weekend was all about the kids!

Andy had to work Saturday morning so I took all three kids with me.  We had Kayley's haircut Saturday morning followed by swim lessons for Drew and Kayley.  Ryan was pretty good while we sat by the pool...as long as he had books to read and snacks in his hand.

After swim lessons, we headed to Monkey Joe's for a birthday party for one of Kayley's friends.  To say Ryan likes that place would be an understatement.  Because Kayley was playing with her friends, Drew was "stuck" with helping Ryan on most of the bouncers.  He was pretty good about helping and didn't seem to mind too much, but he did ask if he would get extra chore money this week because he spent so much time helping Ryan.  Nice try.

After that birthday party, we came home for a little bit and then Kayley and I headed to Iowa for Amelia's birthday party.  The drive was fine until about 30 minutes outside of Davenport.  It was snowing and the roads were really bad.  There were no snow plows out and the interstate was like a skating rink.  I was white knuckling it behind the wheel and it wasn't helped by the fact that Kayley kept asking how much longer until we get there!  But, we made it!

Amelia had a swim party at the Y.  Kayley didn't know any of the other girls and hasn't seen Amelia in 6 months so she was a little shy at first but warmed up pretty quickly.  She had a blast swimming and was SO proud that she passed the swim test and got to go down the big slide!

Unfortunately, I didn't get any more pictures than this and I intended to get a picture of all of the girls and one of Amelia and Kayley.  Not long after these pictures were taken, a little girl puked in the pool.  Twice in the pool and then once more on the pool deck for good measure.  Ugh.  Poor girl!  Then another girl felt sick and had to go home so it was a rough night for the birthday party!  I am hoping the one that threw up just swallowed too much water and we aren't all in for a round of the stomach flu!  At least Amelia had a memorable 7th birthday party!

Halloween

Halloween was the coldest day we have had yet this fall.  Made worse by the strong winds.  I guess it is just a sign of what is to come later this fall and winter.  Yuck!!  Halloweens like this make me miss trick-or-treating in Phoenix!

Andy and I started out the afternoon at Drew and Kayley's school parade.  While I had my camera ready to go, their school is huge and I wasn't able to get a good picture of them in their costumes.  After their parade, we both worked from home for a couple of hours and then headed to the daycare for Ryan's party.  Superman was ready and waiting for us!

Superman Ryan

Where is my coat, Mom?!

Singing Halloween songs!

Once Ryan's party was over, we drove back to the elementary school and picked up Drew and Kayley.  When they got home, I got one quick picture before we put all the extra clothes on for trick-or-treating.

Larry Fitzgerald, Superman and Cinderella

We went over to our friends' house for trick-or-treating.  I didn't take any pictures because I had gloves one and refused to take them off.  And I might have been busy drinking my spiked hot apple cider (to try to stay warm).  :-)  But, Andy got a one.

Ryan loved it.  He wasn't shy at all.  He wanted us to hold his bucket most of the time, but had no problem saying "trick-or-treat" and always said "thank you" (well, after a prompt from me).

Despite the cold, we had a great time with Missy, Eric and their kids!  Of course, it helped that Missy and I brought Ryan and Jillian back early.  Since they are little and all.  Not because we were cold.