Happy April Fool's Day

I thought about doing a joke on everyone but that took me back to an April Fool's day long ago.

I was working at a jewelry store and the manager was a major jokester. He was a total hoot to work with and often he would make me laugh so hard I would cry.

I had only been married a few months when April Fool's Day rolled around. The office manager, Kristy and I thought it would be funny to tell the manager that I was pregnant.

I did and he was so excited. With tears in his eyes, he whipped out his wallet and showed me pictures of his kiddos. I felt ( ) this big when I had to tell him it was just a joke. I'm still feeling sheepish thinking back to that day.

A couple of months later, I got the flu and missed one too many birth control pills. Imagine my surprise when I found out I was preggo...with twins.

The joke was really on me.

So, no jokes about being pregnant here.

Because, it would be just my luck, that an act of divine intervention would cause this twice sterilized chickadee to get knocked up.

Thanks, but no thanks.

They really aren't cheaper by the dozen.

Promise.

Happy April Fool's Day!

I'm completely somewhat behind...

This is totally how I feel too...

We had so much going on in the six week period before Christmas that I still am finding it hard to catch my breath.

So...I am just getting around to posting Christmas pictures.

I guess because we were so busy, I just had a really hard time getting into the Christmas spirit.

We didn't put up any lights outside this year again, the tree didn't get decorated until the 23rd and I felt guilty for not being excited.

I guess what doesn't help is that we were getting ready to tear apart the front room, are currently in the middle of a bathroom remodel and are awaiting the delivery of our siding. Whew...

Here are a few random Christmas pictures for your viewing amusement pleasure.

Each year a different kiddo gets the privilege of putting the angel on top of the tree.

If you get more then two turns in your lifetime, you are living at home too long are lucky.

This year, it was Levi's turn.

This was the tree on the night of the 23rd.

24 short hours later...

It looks like a bomb has gone off.

Hope you too have a wonderful Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

From our family to yours...

Hope you have a wonderful holiday season and a safe and happy 2010!

Tip of the Day

Before entering the haunted corn maze, be sure to use the bathroom.

That way when a masked man wielding a chain saw comes after you and that man had some serious wheels, I tell ya you are able to run AND scream at the same time...without wetting your pants.

I'm just saying...

Favorite Quote of Halloween

Halloween night, Corey and I snuck off to the local "Haunted Hotel".

Why I keep going to Haunted Houses, I just don't know.


Corey: "Why do I feel like you are using me as a human shield?"

Me: (thinking to myself) "Duh!"



Ahem...

Happy Halloween!

Friday night we took the kids down to the church for the annual "Trunk or Treat". We figured that if they got enough candy they wouldn't feel ripped off when we didn't take them Saturday night.

Whoever scheduled the local college game should seriously be smacked for scheduling it at 5pm on Halloween night. Not cool people...not cool.

But, because we were sick of the whining and pouting and we wanted more candy for ourselves we were feeling nice, we threw on some costumes on the kids only because it was halftime and took them out until halftime was over for a little bit.

We had a new record high number of trick or treaters that came to our door. Over 180 kids came because we give out full size candy bars to talk to the gracious hostess and admire the decor.

Spook, our 15 year old black cat, put on a good show as usual, greeting all the kids. I am so going to miss my favorite, interactive Halloween prop cat when he is gone.

Halloween...the best day of the whole year!!!



Tim went to school dressed up as an FBI agent

Hannah as Little Red Riding Hood

Matthew aka Luke Skywalker

Levi, our knight in shining armor

Us at the Halloween party Friday night.

Even though all that green face paint sure did make my teeth look white, it's not a look I could pull off everyday. I could almost feel the chemicals leeching into my skin.

And you should have seen how long it took me to get it off. Yikes!

Happy Halloween!!!

Got Halloween?

In case you were wondering...

I love Halloween!

Every year we decorate...big time. Big enough for one of the local TV stations to call and ask to feature our house. We politely declined...for now.

I am holding out I can find me a hearse to go along with the crypt that I want to build.

Seriously.

In the meantime, please enjoy a little slice of my Halloween heaven.

Just ignore the lack of siding on the house.

After all, we do...

Happy Halloween!

Halloween Party 2009

Due to the fact that I am a Halloween whore love Halloween more then anything else in the whole wide world ok, maybe it is a tie with my love of shoes. And I should probably mention that I love my kiddos that much too, lest I look like a bad mother we decided to throw a Halloween bash to share the Halloween love spirit with our friends.

We had a bunch of our favorite people over to traumatize play games, eat yummy food and socialize.

It was so much fun that we will be doing this every year!

4th of July

I'm a wee bit behind getting pix up and behind on everything else too.

Our 4th of July was relaxing! We stayed home, BBQ'd and then let off some fireworks on our basketball court. The only "almost" problem was when Joseph mistook a bottle rocket total legal firework as a sparkler and tried to light it, while holding it in his hand. Thankfully, Corey noticed and yelled loud enough that people three counties over heard stopped him. Yikes!


A whole herd of sparklers
Michael...texting...because that never happens...

Levi with big brother, Joseph

Levi

Joshua

Timothy, being funny, as usual...

Matthew

Elizabeth

Corey with our timid Hannah, who refused to touch the sparklers...

Almost the entire crew. The baby was asleep, blissfully unaware of the chaos outside...

Hope you had a Happy 4th!

Mothers Day 2009

Family and Good Friends
Handsome Grillmaster
Yummy Dessert
Awesome Grandparents
Could it have been any better? Nope.

Every year we get together with Levi's birth family to celebrate his birthday. His birth family is huge so we have quite a nice sized event. But, because we traditionally keep the kids birthday celebrations small and we didn't want them to start whining about things being unfair we decided to just have a get together in the spring without the birthday part. that way we would have an excuse to invite all our friends too

We invited family, Levi's birth family and friends that we spend time with, either as a family or as a couple. There were many more people that we wanted to invite but we had to draw the line somewhere, I had to make sure that everyone would fit into my house if it ended up raining

Mother's Day weather was fantastic. and it's a good thing or I would have cried and that is not pretty The kids aka slave labor had set up tables and chairs outside and we had asked everyone to bring a side dish. Hamburgers, hot dogs, BBQ chicken, tons of different salads, fruit, chips/dip and veggies made up the menu. Everyone ate their fill and we had a ton leftover ha! now I won't have to cook all week...sweet!

Saturday night I stayed up all night and baked 20 pies, one delicious peanut butter cheesecake and six strawberry shortcakes. I love baking pies! There is just something about making a really nice pie, it's kinda like therapy. so, if I bake pies for therapy and I feel the need to bake 20 what does that say about me? ahem There were so many desserts that I demanded begged people to take some home!

One of Levi's uncles did a headcount, although he did say it was a trifle hard counting moving targets, and came up with 59 people! I think that about half of the group were kids (all very well behaved) under the age of 18.

Looking around at all our family and friends I just felt so amazed that all these people admitted to knowing us blessed. I can honestly say that it was the best Mother's Day that I've ever had.

Christmas Day cont...

Here the kids are decorating (eating) the graham cracker houses

Corey with his house. If you compare it to all the others you will see that his house is much, much bigger than the standard floorplan that everyone else had. We think that he added on, without permits and is trying to evade rising property taxes...

Levi with his creation

Hannah with her model home

Matthew was so proud of his house

Liz put a lot of effort into hers

I'm surprised that Josh had any candy left to decorate with...

Slim Tim

Joseph didn't want to participate but we talked him into it

Michael with the before shot. The after picture would have shown a massive icing blizzard with a large snowbank on top of the roof that caved it in...

Carson with his cute cottage.


In Christmas past things have been very different. There were tons of gifts, purchased and received. I know that we have a big family so there is bound to be a lot of presents but it had gotten to the point of being overboard. Each of the kids would get 12-15 presents each from us, not to mention all the gifts from extended family and there was a flurry of packages being sent back and forth from out of state. I would spend weeks planning and purchasing and then an entire day wrapping. By the end I would be exhausted, numb and cursing Christmas. Totally NOT what the season is supposed to be about. I just knew that there had to be a better way.

So, this year we emailed all our extended family and asked for them not to purchase anything for us. We asked for cards/letters/pictures as that is what they would be receiving from us. We also told the kids that they would only be getting a few presents from us and only one from my parents. The truth of the matter is-my kids don't need anything and there is very little that they even want. It was crazy before, buying stuff for others just because that is what we did.

So, instead of presents, we had the kids decorate graham cracker houses. Corey made them the night before, using royal icing so they would stand up against toddler hands. I made each person a tube of homemade frosting and my mom supplied a bowl full of candy for each child. I can't tell you what a difference it made for me this year and the kids didn't miss having all those packages to open.

Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas too!

Christmas Day

My cousin and his wife, really neat and down-to-earth people

Our beloved Nana and Levi

My dad and Hannah Banana

Dad with Matthew and Hannah. If my dad even stops moving for a minute he is covered with kids. They absolutely love him!

Lily Pad with Cheryl

My uncle, his wife and my cousin's son. (Did you follow all that?)

The dinner line-up

Ahhhh...the feast! We stuff ourselves silly with all the amazing and unique foods!