Thanksgiving!

What a great Thanksgiving we had! My wonderful husband did it all! We started our morning watching the Macy's Thanksgiving day parade. The kids favorite part was the great big Spider man float. Mine of course was the YO GABBA GABBA float! DJ lance..... you rock! Then we played and waited for the Thanksgiving feast to begin.



And boy was it good! Caden devoured 3 plates full of turkey, stuffing, potatoes and cranberry. They it was off to bed for a nice long nap (Everyone took part in that.) Then we watched football and played some more. After that the kids and I made sugar cookie turkey hands, which again was a recipe from Nickjr.com. They don't like pie and I wasn't going to make a pie for me to eat all by myself since Chris has his banana cream pie. So cookies it was. Only problem was the hands blew up 2 times the size! I should have done only 2 cookies per sheet but did five. I had to cut them apart. They looked like huge boxing gloves! But it still was fun decorating them. The next day Chris took the leftover turkey and made some great turkey soup! Thanksgiving was wonderful! One of the best yet!

Tae Kwon Do

In case you didn't know Christian has now started Tae Kwon Do lessons and has fallen in love! :) He has class 1 hour, 3 times a week. He has just completed testing for what they call his high white belt. It is a white belt with a yellow stripe all the way through it. He has learned a lot of patience and respect for others. It has been wonderful, so I thought I would share some of his pictures and video. Unfortunately the space that he is in is not very good for the sound so you can't really hear much and as far as the video...... well some is ok. Basically only the parts Chris could film. But once he had to help Christian.....lets just say it is very hard to film while holding a baby and making sure a 2 year old doesn't run away. So my apologizes.If you would like to see more videos and pictures you can check them out below. Just click the VIEW ALL button

Also a side note, My mother has requested I make wish lists for the boys so I have made one for each of them at Amazon.com. And search wish list by names or click a link in the sidebar. (to the right.) But please know that "no gift" is a good gift as well. My kids are blessed beyond measure and am thankful for all our family has done, but we are getting limited on our space. :) So please use these list as a guide. Anything that is reusable or crafty or is something like an outing is great as well. Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving...pictures of the turkey day are on there way!

Pumpkin! Mmmmmmm!

Just thought I would share my yummy pumpkin soup! I found this wonderful recipe from nickjr.com. Caden did try it and liked it....a little. I think he enjoyed playing with it much better. Christian....politely said,"no thanks!" But Chris and I enjoyed it tremendously! And making it was actually quite easy. All you needed was a nice looking Butternut Squash cubed up.



Saute some onion and garlic. Add the cubed squash along with 32 oz of chicken broth, some thyme, and 1 cup pumpkin puree and let it simmer til the squash is tender.



Then by small batches, mix it in a blender and WALLAH! Pumpkin soup!



The beautiful pumpkin on the top is vanilla yogurt piped through a Ziploc bag. Cute huh? Now my goal is to cook 3 new soups before the end of the year. Any ideas? Maybe I should start a cooking blog.....don't get ahead of yourself.....one thing at a time. :)

Trunk or Treat

Oh what fun! We had a blast getting everything ready. First we carved our pumpkins, something that is not on Christians "favorite things to do" list. "They smell and are too slimy!" Then we got in our costumes. Nico was the Pumpkin, Caden a Dinosaur and Christian......Spiderman. (I really was hoping for Quailman. Oh well, maybe next year) I wore a DJ Lance Hat and T-shirt and set up my trunk as a halloween Yo Gabba Gabba. The little kids loved it! And the boys can hardly wait for next year. They woke up the next day asking if they could trick or treat again!

Outside fun.

Again I have slacked. Yikes! As all you probably know G'ma V. came to visit us along with G'pa V. Unfortunately our computer has had a bit of a problem so I don't have any of the wonderful pictures of the Dixie Classic Fair to share at this time. But Christian did a great job with his legos. He didn't win but was very happy to just have his legos back. One of his characters was apparently very sad to be away that long. :) The boys had tons of fun picking out pumpkins at Kersey Valley Corn Maize and riding on the cow tractor pull.

Later that week they both found a Praying Mantis sitting in the sun on our BBQ grill. It was very cool!

HAIR CUT!

No... Caden did not get his hair cut, but Christian sure did! and of course while we were cutting it we had to have a little fun. So we decided to give Christian a momentary Mullet!


It was sweet! But then the party in back had to go. He now has a nice small Mohawk. Really it just looks like a buzz cut. I did actually get a picture of all 3 together amazingly, but I think it might have been a telling of future photo sessions!


Yikes! Well at least they know they can ride off into the sunset with daddy!

Rain Rain Go Away!

This week has been nothing but rain. I think today was the first sunny day since last Tuesday. But my boys did make the most of it. They played hard in the mud using it to write all over themselves and side down the slide at super fast speed with the help of the rain water.

Nico, still growing, had his first wonderful sleep of 6 straight hours! YEAH! Other then sleeping, eating, and pooping.....not much going on in his department.

We have also been having a difficult time with ants coming in to the boys playroom and biting us plus crickets sneaking their way in at night or getting stuck under the door frames making all sorts of racket at night. So Chris to hold of the weekend to do some much needed bug spraying. Not a lot because I'm really not a fan but those pesky ants kept biting and once they bit my little Caden on the butt.... well something needed to be done. In the morning after all spraying was done and over with, Chris went out side to take the trash out and found a few bugs dead on the patio........including a lovely BLACK WIDOW SPIDER! I was of course freaked out and very glad he decided to spray. Yikes!

On a more funny note, Christian has discovered the awesome old show I used to watch called DOUG and in it is a "super hero" character named Quail Man. He now says he wants to be Quail Man for Halloween. OH BOY! We have sometime to fix that.

Labor Day

Life has been pretty simple lately. We have not been doing to much. Christian is now starting school at home. We are doing some kindergarten work but not too much since he is still 4 1/2. But he loves to do it and tells everyone how he does school at home. We filled out his paper work to enter the DIXIE CLASSIC FAIR next month which has kept him busy trying to come up with some amazing LEGO creations. The fair is OCT 1ST-11TH, so be on the look out for more updates on that.


Baby Nico is of course growing bigger everyday. He had his one month appointment last week and weighed 9lbs. 10oz. and was 21 inches long! He is just trying to catch up to Caden. His umbilical cord also fell of so he was treated to his first bath.



Caden is growing as well. I feel like he is going to pass Christian soon. He still loves trains and getting dirty. He had a wonderful time at the NC ZOO this Labor Day. He didn't even want to see animals. All he wanted to do was play in the sandbox area and build forts with sticks in this great exhibit that they have.


After some fun at the ZOO we headed to WET 'n WILD WATER PARK. Now that was the most fun I and the kids have had in a long time! What a way to end the summer. I just wish we had our camera for that adventure. We were just so busy we forgot. Maybe next year.

BABY #3 IS HERE!

Well it looks like the new addition just could not wait to met his brothers. NICO MAKAIO came on Aug 8th weighing 6lbs. 2oz. And what a cutie! His brothers are really enjoying having a new brother and being able to help mommy any way they can. We haven't been doing much with this new baby here but hopefully in September I will have much more fun adventures to post about. But for now....... just enjoy some wonderful pictures. All though Christian has been playing legos non stop so I posted some more of his latest creations on the side as well as Caden in his new favorite outfit (Thanks aunt Judy.) Thanks to everyone who takes the time to read this blog. I really love sharing our family fun with all of you. Please feel free to leave comments or even suggestions. Love you all!

July 4th!

For July 4th we had a wonderful weekend just hanging out at our house. We did plenty of play in the backyard with water and lots of cooking out on the grill. We all went to the Jamestown Parade where Christian and Caden had a blast watching all the old cars. And we were even lucky enough to see a train go by right behind us. It did scare Caden a little but after it past he just wanted to see it again. That night we set up our 4 person tent in the backyard. We made smores then watched the fireworks in NY on tv and then headed to the tent for a little camp out. All the boys slept like babies except mom of course. Light sleeper I guess but all the neighborhood fireworks kept me awake. I almost gave up but decided to watch them from my porch until it quieted down a little. What Fun!