Thanksgiving Fun

We had so much fun this last week. We went to MN for five days. We spent those days with Grandma and Grandpa Thomas, Aunt Ellen, Uncle Ryan, Aunt Janet, Uncle Nicholas, Grandma Wallace, Aunt Lori, Uncle Andrew, and all nine cousins! We went swimming, made Christmas tree candy advent calendars, made cookies, played with lots of toys, and watched some movies together.
This picture was difficult to get everyone in but the outcome was great. Poor Abigail was crying in every picture!
This is Thomas, the only boy out of nine cousins! He sure is cute!

Making cookies in the kitchen.
Alexis and Lily dressing up together.
Making the candy advent calendar.
Alexis, Lily, Meredith, and Allison waiting to swim.

Adelyn stuffing her mouth with cookie dough.
Alexis making her cookies.
Allison spent almost the whole time with her cookie dough. Mostly using the cookie cutters to cut up the cookie dough.
Audrey and I working on her cookies.
Audrey loves to cook. She spent a lot of time making her cookies. She ended up with flour all over herself.

Lori, my sister-in-law, and I also spent some quality time shopping. I really needed to find a dress for Ben's black tie Christmas work party. We spent a total of eight hours shopping to find a dress that was just right. The tricky part was finding a short jacket to put over the dress, since it's sleeveless. That was the biggest challenge. We did it though. I owe it all to Lori because I would have given up after an hour.

We had such a wonderful time and we are so grateful to have family close by. Thank you to Drew and Carolyn (my in-laws) for their food and hospitality. I know it gets a little crazy with everyone over but we sure do have a wonderful time.

Although I didn't get to see my family I thought about them all. I miss and love you all.

Long Night

Audrey gave me quite a scare last night. She woke up around 10:15pm crying and screaming that her tummy hurt. She cried for 30 minutes and then threw up. Then she proceeded to throw up every thirty minutes until 1:30am. Then again at 3:30, 5:30, 7:30, and 8:30. I got maybe three hours total of sleep. So I took her to urgent care this morning because she couldn't even keep a sip of water down without immediately throwing it up. Anyway, four hours later and blood drawn, x-rays, and lab tests, nothing serious is wrong with her. She even perked up a little bit at the office and then as soon as we got home puked up everything she drank over the last four hours. Now she is resting but not falling asleep. She is eating a cracker at a time and asking for chocolate chips! There is no curing her sweet tooth! Ben had to go in to work so I am here hoping that Audrey falls asleep so I can too. Poor Alexis has to find something to do for herself. Daddy played with her all morning and I've got absolutely nothing left in me right now. I could probably fall asleep on a cold, hard floor right now. Well, off to try to have naps all around.

Audrey's 4th Birthday Party

We had Audrey's birthday party on Saturday. It was lots of fun. Ben and I wore crowns and robes and addressed everyone as prince, princess, queen, or king so and so. The kids arrived and decorated their own crowns. Once everyone had a crown we had them walk down the hallway as Ben played royal music and I officially announced them. They had the biggest smiles on their faces. It was really cute.
This is Audrey's castle cake. It is a four layer cake with a quarter of a cake on top. It was supposed to have more of a second layer but frosting was hard and it took awhile so I ditched it and made it simpler. Ben tried to help me too (which he does every year!) but I just opted for a smaller top. I think it turned out great.

This is how Audrey spent the morning before her party: staring at her cake and telling me how much she loved it. It was worth all the time it took to decorate it just to see how pleased she was.
After the kids were formally announced Ben told them the story of The Princess and the Pea. Then we tested each kid to see if they were really a prince or princess. I put all our blankets on top of Alexis' bed and some shoes underneath them. The kids had to lay on the bed and tell us if it was comfortable or not and then they all guessed what it was. Most of them thought it was a pea! :) After this test the girls got necklaces and the boys got shields.
The next story Ben told was The Frog Prince. After the story they were blindfolded and had to put lips on a frog picture. The kids laughed hysterically when Audrey put this blindfold on so of course she hammed it up. After this test the boys got swords and the girls got wands.
After a little snack (because getting tested as a true Prince or Princess works up an appetite) Ben told the kids that there was a dragon in our kingdom that was trying to destroy us! His nest (our huge pile of leaves) is outside of our castle and there is an egg (a balloon) in it that each prince or princess must run and pop. The kids had to run as fast as they could, jump in the pile of leaves, pop the balloon, and run back inside. Ben piled up the leaves high for each kid. They loved this! After this last test they got a cape. The boys got a black and silver cape and the girls got red shimmery ones. Audrey picked these out herself.



Next, Audrey opened her presents (with her cape on). The kids really enjoyed watching this. I have found that every year it never fails to bring pleasure to the giver to see the receiver smile and looked happy as they open their gift. After present opening we had cake and ice-cream.
And the following pictures show you how the party ended. All the children ran outside and played in the leaves for 20 minutes. The parents had a hard time getting their kids to go home.

We had a wonderful time at the party and everyone left happy and smiling. Alexis was a big help during the party. She helped the younger kids with their crowns and waited to be the last one tested for each game. I love celebrating birthdays!

Halloween Pictures

This is from Alexis' parade at school. She had a great time walking around the school.
Halloween night---right before we left for trick-or-treating.
The last house!! Look how full my bag is.
My bag is so heavy I can't carry it!

At the school parade again.
How appropriate that this picture came out this way.
Trick-or-treating with Daddy! He had the scariest costume of all! He's dressed as an attorney. (His own joke)

Pumpkin Carving

Ben wanted to create the image of HALO3 this year. He designed it himself to make all the letters the same size. You can see the various stages of his project in the next pictures. I think it took him three hours to complete but I believe the end result is awesome! Great job babe!

Doesn't this look great? ALL of Ben's Halo friends should immediately agree! :)

This is the pumpkin that I carved for Audrey. She told me exactly how to make it and had no reservations about correcting my work! Ben thinks hers is the scariest one!
Alexis carved her own pumpking this year. She even helped scoop out the seeds. Both Audrey and Alexis have major issues with pumpkin seeds. They won't touch them and have never helped scoop out until this year. I am surprised that Audrey still won't touch it because she is the girl who picks up dead and live worms all summer long and makes them houses.
This is my wonderful artistry. I used one of those stencils that you tape onto the pumpkin, poke some holes, and then carve. This one was hard because this wasn't a tall pumpkin so I had to squeeze it all in. It was so fun though. This is Ben and I's favorite part of Halloween. We love to carve pumpkins and make fun creations.
From this picture Audrey's does look a little freaky! :) I couldn't find a good picture of Alexis' pumpkin. She made a great scary one though.

Fall Leaves

After being thrown into a pile of leaves and disappearing Audrey wasn't happy!

Obviously, she recovered!

So it's that time of year when we rake and rake leaves and jump in the enormous piles! And then later of course we bag them. Just today I filled eight bags full of leaves! Last year we filled around 25 bags!

Pictures from MN Trip

My niece, Abby, in her cow costume. She is so adorable.
The gang before we hit the stores in Maple Grove.

Pulling the wagon while looking for the perfect pumpkins.
Cleaning the pumpkins: a most delicate process.
The whole crew.
Working the rope maze.
This is about all Audrey did in the maze. Walk over some ropes here and there and then stand still.

Alexis' obsession of horses leads her to find one at the zoo.
Audrey posing.

Just before going into the zoo with Grandma.
Lori and I joining in the fun. We switched places for another picture but this one turned out better.
Silly girls.
Everyone at the zoo.