Gingerbread Houses and Visiting Santa

Elias and Avery visiting with Santa


Eli creating his gingerbread house


Avery working on his gingerbread house


The finished products!!!

Halloween

We had a wonderful halloween this year! The boys quickly caught on to trick or treating this year and came home with a load of candy.

Avery my sweet Brown Bear



Elias the bear hunter


The hunter caught his bear early on:)

Preschool Pumpkin Patch Trip and Mr. Potato Pirate Pumpkins

Instead of carving pumpkins this year with the boys we came across these Mr. Potato Pirate pumpkins which were a big hit!!! Thanks Target :)

Eli's preschool class had a field trip to a pumpkin patch in Independence last week. The weather was beautiful and the kids had a fun time-- picking out their own pumpkin, going through the corn maze, eating a picnic lunch, playing in hay bales & slides, and a bonus was having their cousin Ashlynn ride with them in our truck.

Funny Faces

Elias and I being silly one afternoon.  Avery refused to put the glasses on :)

The boys just LOVE washing dishes and want to do it all the time.  Hope this lasts through through high school!!!

Family Memories of September '09

We took a family trip to Saint Louis a few weekends ago and it was a great time!  We took the Amtrak train, which the boys loved.  A few highlights of our trip included:  City Museum, Discovery Room @ Science City, Build A Dino @ Science City, The Gateway Arch, Ferry Boat Tour, Union Station, etc.  We hope to do it again some day.

Build A Dino @ Science City

Discovery Room @ Science City

Avery on the Train

Eli & Tony on the Train

On our way up to the top of the Gateway Arch

My baby turned "3" this month!  

You are such a loving, affectionate, happy, curious, smart, and wonderful little boy, luv you!!!

 

Weekend Camping Trip

We headed to Big Hill this weekend for a camping trip.  It was a perfect weekend for camping.  The boys had a wonderful time.  After setting up camp, I headed down to the dock to tell the boys to come up for supper.  The boys were throwing rocks into the lake and I was watching the fish jump all around.  Next thing I knew Avery had taken an extra step and fallen into the lake!!!  I immediately jumped in after him, needless to say the boys didn't go down to the dock without us close by.  Here is a clip from our flip after the accident.  Eli was pretty shakin' up and was so sweet to his little brother.

San Diego Vacation

Wow I can't believe how long it's been since I've posted!!!  Last week we had a wonderful vacation with Tony's family in San Diego.  The 19 of us all stayed in a beautiful beach house off of Mission Beach!  We enjoyed going to the beach and making sand castles, boggy boarding, and just relaxing.  A few highlights of the trip included the San Diego Zoo, Sea World, IKEA (for Tony and myself).  Also, the adults took turns staying home with the little ones so some couples could go out at night.  Tony and I  enjoyed visiting LaJolla and the Gas Lamp District on our nights. 

We plan to gradually start moving things to our new rental home in Humboldt over the holiday weekend, with hopes of being completely moved in by next weekend.  We are going to live in Humboldt over the next year or two while we work on building a house out in the country-- northwest of Humboldt.  We'll try to keep you updated on our process.  Right now we're in the early stages of house plans with our architects and probably won't have those finalized for another 3-4 months, it's so exciting!!! 

 

Future site for our house.

Future site for our house :)

Fall River Camping Trip

We took the boys on their first camping trip to Fall River this past weekend and it was a success.  We've gone before in a camper, but this was the first tent camping trip, which the boys loved.  We were lucky to enjoy this experience with Tony's brother and his family.  Below are some pics of a few of the many things we did.  Overall, we just relaxed, played, and heard some great campfire stories (thanks Cody :)  We hope to do it again some day!

Tony, Cousin Cody, and Eli fishing over the damn.  No luck catching any fish :(

Happy Baby Jack.

Uncle Josh, Jack, and silly Avery hanging out at the campfire.

Avery roasting marshmallows.

Cousin Cody and Eli roasting marshmallows (or "marshing" marshmallows as Eli put it :)

Just a pic of Avery "hangin" out around the campfire

Eli's Preschool Field Trip

Eli and I went to the Topeka Zoo last Thursday with his Preschool Class.  We spent the morning at the zoo, had lunch at the park, enjoyed riding the train and playing in the park all afternoon.  I think he enjoyed having "one on one" time with me, but commented several times about how much he missed Avery....

Eli and I on the train

Eli playing at the zoo

Eli looking at a baby deer "up close and personal"

My handsome boy!

Eli looking at the lions

Superman Prayer

Here's a clip of Eli singing a new prayer he learned at daycare to the theme song of Superman.  We tried to talk Avery into singing too, but he didn't want anything to do with it.

Below are a few pics from easter:

Avery our chocolate lover!

Batman duo in shades