First Snow, and our trip home

We got to travel home for Thanksgiving last month. It was a great trip, despite the 12 hour drive to Josh's parents and then the 9 hour drive back home from my parent's house. We decided it would be smart to leave on Friday night, so that the kids would sleep most of the way, so we went to our church lifegroup as scheduled and ended up staying to visit until 11:00p.m. We loaded the kids in the car and drove all night. Liam slept the entire way, but London woke up at 1:15 and stayed awake until 5:30. Grrr. She didn't cry the whole time, I was just hoping she would get a good night's sleep! We spent a few days with Josh's parents and then went to my parent's house the day before Thanksgiving, stopping to vistit friends along the way. Josh's mom got food poisoning while we were there, so she spent a day in bed, and while we were at my mom's house, she got some sort of virus, so she also spent a day in bed...did we bring bad luck with us? Either way, none of us got it, and both moms are feeling better now!

If you'll notice in the photo below, there is now a VAN parked in our garage. My mom had payed hers off, and, rather than trading it in, she traded us for our car, which she will trade in a few months. THANK YOU MOM AND DAD! There is so much more space in the van, and if someone parks too close to you in the parking lot, you can still get your kids in the carseat. I love it!

Other than that, we've been sticking close to home. It snowed here last night, and it was the first accumulation we've had this year. Liam was SO excited when he woke up, but I knew it wouldn't last long, since it was supposed to be above freezing today. So we got all bundled up and went outside to build our first snowman of the year. Does London remind anyone else of the kid on the movie "A Christmas Story"? She could hardly move :) I do LOVE their snowsuits, which I got on end-of-the-season clearance racks for $5 each last year- keeps their clothes nice and dry, so you can just take them off and not have to change their clothes after coming inside.

More Cake!

Just wanted to share a cake that I made for a friend's little girl. She just turned 3, and had a cupcake/treat theme- she loves sweets! The cupcakes at the bottom are cookies that I made and decorated, the round candies between the two tiers are sixlets, and the dots all over the cake are candy dots. The ice cream cone on top is just a giant cake ball.

Sandbox Time!

This picture was taken a few weeks ago, and it was much warmer then :) It's now cold outside and rainy too, so we've spent a couple of days inside- boo! I am not ready for Michigan winter, but this picture still looks like fall. It also makes me happy because Liam is having so much fun he's sitting on his butt in the sand. He has to REALLY be enjoying himself to get sand all over him, because he hates to be dirty!

Halloween!

Who doesn't love Milk and Cookies?

Chicago!

Here is a photo of the kids on the train that I couldn't get to go to the bottom :) They all loved the train ride! When we left Iowa, a couple of girls and I said we would meet this spring in Chicago. One of them couldn't make it, but my friend Amanda and I ventured into the big city outnumbered by children 4-2. We stayed in an awesome Residence Inn (I highly recomment them if you're staying with friends or children!) in a two bedroom suite- so we were able to put the kids to bed at a decent time and visit in the living room of our suite. They also have full kitchens in the rooms, so mac and cheese for dinner for the kids it was! They offer full breakfast AND dinner included in your stay- we ate there one night but were not able to overcome the temptation of Five Guys Burgers and Fries across the street on the first night :) They also had a pool and hot tub, which we enjoyed one night with the kids. Now that I'm done advertising for Marriott, let me tell you about our trip :)

Amanda has two boys, Jack and Walker. Jack and Liam are very good friends and very close in age, and Walker stole my heart in Iowa...he's now two. The first night we just hung out in the hotel room and let the kids play- no rules except safety ones. They had a blast and we went to the pool before putting them to bed. So much fun. The next morning we were a little crazy and decided to take them to Downtown Chicago. Josh and I have done this with our kids before, but Josh was there and we each took one kid. Amanda and I had two kids and a double stroller each to manage. Crazy. We left the hotel to catch the Metra train and missed it, literally by two minutes, so we went to the mall playground until the next one came. We caught that one and managed to get on the train and seated, no thanks to a VERY grumpy conductor who was not very helpful at all. We walked from Union Station to the Field Museum, where we wanted to take the kids to see the dinosaurs. We made it to most of the pertinant parts of the museum before we decided to head home before we collapsed from exhaustion. We caught a bus (A very full bus with no seats and 4 children and two double strollers...just picture it!) We got to Union Station JUST in time to RUN to the next train and take it back to the car. This time, there were a lot of people willing to help us with our strollers and children, rather than just watching us. At the end of the train ride, I got up to get London, who had just spotted a seeing eye dog and was going to pet it. I grabbed her, and sat back down, only to realize that the seats fold up when you stand up. So here I was sitting on the floor of the train with a backpack on my back and London in my arms, and I can't get up because I'm so tired, and I'm laughing so hard. We decided that this was a good picture to represent our day :)

The following morning, we got up and let the kids play while we packed up to head home. The kids did GREAT in the car and I think they had a great time. It was SO good to see Amanda and her boys. We are planning to do it again in the spring, this time adding more moms and more kids, but THIS time, we learned our lesson. We are going to pick a suburb with a lot to offer and stay off of the public transportation with the children :)

Liam and Jack checking out the buttons at the museum: Amanda, exhausted on the museum bench:

All 4 kids in front of Sue, the T-Rex

Liam and London playing on a forest exhibit:

Liam, exhausted in the stoller on the way to the museum:

Daddy's Week Off

Josh had a week's vacation time a couple of weeks ago, and we decided to just stay home and do fun things around the house and city with the kids. We had So.Much.Fun! (after the short bout of stomach virus made it through both kids first!) I forgot the camera at most of our destinations, but here are a few things that we did:

Josh built this table out of an old cabinet that I picked up off of the side of the road. After he built it, he cut a hole in the center to place the bowl to hold chalk. I painted it with homemade chalkboard paint, and the kids LOVE it. This photo was taken in the garage, but it will be in the basement this winter. This photo was taken at Heritage park Petting Farm- the kids loved it. For some reason, when you tell Liam to smile now, he does this goofy cheese face:

Feeding the Donkey at the petting farm:

London feeding the donkey:

Liam saw this gorilla statue and said "Take my Picture!", but then when it came time to get close to it, it made him a little nervous! :)

Fall Fun

Ever since we moved to Michigan I have a new appreciation for fall. Growing up, I liked fall, but preferred Spring and Summer. Here, there is a sense of urgency about fall- a get-outside-while-you-can-because-it's-about-to-get-super-cold urgency. There are festivals, cider mills, apple orchards, parades, and TONS of other happenings. The scenery is beautiful with the leaves changing around the lake here, and the general fall-like appearance. We've been spending as much time outside as possible lately. These photos are of a trip to an Apple Orchard complete with petting farm, pumpkin picking, cider mill, apple cider donuts (which I had never had before Michigan...they are a fall staple here!), and playground. We went with a few friends from our mom's group. Here is one of all of the kids playing on a wooden train:
And of London on the hayride studying her apple before taking a bite:

And Liam enjoying his apple (he will eat as many apples as you give him- core and all!):

Liam and London with their friend Daylia:

Shelly!

I was so excited that my cousin Shelly and her family came to visit us for an afternoon. You see, Shelly grew up in two places...next door to me and in the Phillippines, where they were missionaries. I always looked forward to the year (every 4 years) that they would come home and I could see them again. Now Shelly and her family are missionaries in Indonesia (my aunt and uncle are still completing the work in the Phillippines!). I am lucky enough to be in Michigan, where BOTH my aunt Jeanie AND Shelly and her family are staying, and BOTH dropped by for an afternoon visit. Our kids had so much fun playing together, and it reminded me of playing with shelly and her sisters and brother when we were little. It was so much fun having them, even if it was short!

We were so busy visiting that this is the only photo I got. My aunt snapped a few more, so I'm hoping to see those :)

Some Things are Worth the Mess...

Like S'Mores fresh from the grill!

I've been bitten...

By the crafting bug! There is a website that I just joined called pinterest- there are TONS of great ideas for EVERYTHING on there! Lots of fun activities to do with the kids, easy home improvement ideas, sewing, crafts, etc. Thanks to that website, I've been very busy during the kids nap times! Here are a few things that I have made:

This greeting card is not from Pinterest, but my friend Kim taught our mom's group how to do some card making- this is hand stamped and colored :) So much fun! I'm pretty proud of this wreath that I made using only some burlap, a wreath form, and some fabric covered buttons (ignore the baby-poop green front door- that's why it always needs a wreath!):

This is some artwork that I did for Liam's walls of his new room using only scrapbook paper and some cheap ($1.99) frames from IKEA. I LOVED the way they looked using matted frames, but they were $19.99 each, and kind of blew the whole cheap concept :)

I made this headboard for our bed (in the pic it looks crooked- because it was- that has since been fixed!) Sorry about the poor lighting, at the time, our bedrooms didn't have overhead lighting...now they do thanks to some very affordable swag lamps from IKEA! (do you see a theme here?). This project was so inexpensive! All I used were 4 sheets of Foamboard, quilt batting and some fabric- and Josh's staple gun!

Here is the before picture from our bedroom:

I also made the bookshelves for Liam's room using IKEA spiceracks (see previous post). I have some things I am working on for London's room and also am starting on the kids Halloween costumes- I love making things!

New Room for a Bigger Boy!

Liam is getting bigger very fast. We have been talking about upgrading him to a twin bed for a while now, but when Josh's mom called and said that his uncle had a frame that she didn't need anymore, we knew we had to jump on it. We upgraded his bed and let him pick out his new bedding (he went with a transportation theme, which actually matched the vinyl decorations that we already had!), and did some more fun things to his room. My favorite part was when Josh and I were putting his new bed together, he said in a very excited tone of voice "This is going to be so scary!", but he had no trouble going to sleep in his new big bed. Here are the before and after pics:

Before- he was outgrowing his toddler bed quickly!
After- My favorite part of his room are the "bookshelves" next to his bed. They are really spice racks from IKEA that I painted to match his room- just $3.99 each! That way he has some of his favorites right next to his bed for easy access (since our "reading station" with most of our books is in the toy room in the basement)