Our Thanksgiving

We had a fun weekend with our cousins. We spent Thanksgiving Day at our Auntie Dawn and Uncle Mark's house. We arrived just in time for dinner, but of course I didn't like anything they were serving. Lucky for me, mommy brought some PB& J sandwiches for us. I didn't eat a single bite though, how can you eat when so many people are around to talk to and play with?

While we were there, mommy and daddy let us play in our big cousin's room (okay maybe they didn't realize we went in there) and we fed the guinea pig magnets from Isaiah's chore chart! We were having a great time until Isaiah busted us.

Since the weather was so nice out that day, Jack and I headed outside with daddy and "the boys" for our annual Thanksgiving Day football game. This was the first year that we got to participate and let me just say, I don't know what they did before without us.

Meanwhile, Addie was inside with the girls prepping for their Black Friday shopping trip. Poor Addison, she assumed she was shopping with them. Little did she know they were going out without her after she went to bed that night!

Here's a photo of us from Thanksgiving. I know you are wondering why Jack is so sad, aren't you? I was wondering the same thing myself... Enjoy!

Why We've been MIA

I know you guys must be wondering where the heck we are, huh? No worries...we've just be really busy lately...daddy wonders why the yard work is never done!

Happy (Belated) Halloween!

Sorry we didn't get our post ready for Halloween, we were just too busy running around in our costumes getting free candy!! We had so much fun this year going door to door and loading our bags with goodies. At first I was really confused on why mommy thought I should be dressed as zoo keeper, Jack as a giraffe, and Addison as a monkey. Then, once we got outside and started getting treats, I got the hang of it! Addie had a little trouble getting the concept of just "getting the candy and going". She was all about wanting to go into each house and hang out. She's way too social, wouldn't you say?

By the end of the night, I knew exactly what to do. I'd go up to each house (holding my hat securely on my head) with my bag in the other hand. Jack would say "Trick or Treat" and I'd take my candy and place it in my bag and say "Thank you-you're welcome!".

I have to say, I really like Halloween. I'm not sure why we can't do this every night?

Here's a few pictures...enjoy!

Happy Birthday to...US!!

Today was our 3rd birthday so we celebrated with our family and friends with a Sesame Street party! I have to say, we were all really excited when we woke up to mommy, daddy, memere and pepere singing "Happy Birthday" to us.

In the morning, we each got to choose what we wanted for breakfast. Of course I choose my usual waffles while the boys both decided on yogurt. After breakfast we got to watch a movie (Cars, yuck...but better then nothing) and open a few presents from mommy and daddy.

After lunch we were told to go nap before our party. I of coursed listened and went to sleep but found out (afterwards, of course!) that Jack and Jordan didn't nap and got to play in the basement with memere and pepere until the party.

The party was so much fun! We got to wear our really fun Sesame Street shirts that mommy's friend, Sara made us (check out her blog- Peanut & Pumpkin). As the guests were arriving, we got to swing on our new swing set that g'ma and g'pa got us.

After our friends and family arrived we got to get the party started. We played a few games, opened presents, and then the best part...we got to eat our cupcakes!! Okay, okay-- we also got to hear everyone sing us "Happy Birthday", too.

Here we are listening to everyone sing. We all thought it was really fun (even though we look mortified)

We hope you enjoyed our day, we sure enjoyed sharing it with you!

3 Year Old Pictures

We just had our 3 year old photo shoot with mommy and let me tell you, it wasn't that much fun. Mommy is always taking our pictures, so when she told us we were going to do our "3 Year old photos" I had to wonder why. I mean, couldn't she dig through her thousands of other pictures she already has of us and use those?

She told us that you'd all know if she used older pictures, so we decided we'd do the shoot just for all of you (and the cookies she bribed us with). Here's a few of our favorites. Don't forget to check in with us this weekend as we turn 3!

10 Holiday Planning Tips

First of all, I wanted to let you know mommy is already planning for the holidays. She's been reading us books about Santa (ask me what he says, I know) and she's asking us what we want for Christmas (umm...duh anything Bob the Builder, Thomas the Train or Cars). So I kind of expected her to ask me when could she do a guest post on our blog again. Of course, me being the eldest child (hey- I'm 1 minute older then Jordan!) she knows who to ask. So here's mommy with a few tips for your holiday planning...

Thanks, Jack!

Here's a few ways you can help save money, time and your sanity.

1. Start planning now. Don't wait until the week before Thanksgiving and start wondering how much you need to have for gifts, meals, and/or events. Money can stress anyone out, so don't let it get you down before you even start. Plan ahead now by knowing how much you can afford to spend and/or saving even a small amount each week towards your shopping or meals.

2. Make a shopping list now. Write down each person's name that you shop for and put a dollar amount you'd like to spend by their name. This will help you stick to your budget better by seeing it as you shop. Write down a few ideas for each person on your list. It can be vague like "puzzles" or "a sweater" for each person but then you at least have an idea of what you are searching for before you get out or online shopping.

3. If you are hosting, plan your meals/events around your kids (or other kid's) schedules. This is huge at our house. There is nothing worse then getting a house full of family and friends and then trying to open gifts or eat meal after or during your child's nap or bedtime. We've made this mistake and then it leads to us rushing through everything because my kids are whining or crying or falling asleep on us.

4. Have lists of items your kids want ready for relatives--try to give each family member new ideas (if possible). This will save you the headache of 2 of everything because people got the same lists and bought the same things!

5. Check out sales and search for coupons online AFTER your list is together with ideas. If you go out shopping without at least a few ideas of what to get each person, you're going to end up spending more then you planned on. I find myself buying an extra gift for someone because I wasn't sure what would work OR I'll miss someone on my list completely...which leads to more stress on me!

6. Get your local paper on Thanksgiving so you can see all of the ads for Black Friday and get a game plan together. My sisters, mom and I always go early that morning and already know what items we're trying to get. Sometimes we'll even divide up so that we can get the deals we want without missing out.

7. If you are hosting a meal or party-plan now for the event and pick up things through October and November so you aren't strapped for time and money getting it last minute. Save the perishable items for the week of and save yourself the headache of going from store to store in search of canned pumpkin.

8. Start planning for or finding the picture you want for your holiday cards. I already have a few photos I think we could use, but I will go out for one more small "holiday photo session" to try to get a picture of all three of my kids together for our cards. Check for early bird discounts for holiday cards now-- you can usually save up to 25% off by ordering them early. Go check out Storkie Christmas Cards, I can't wait to pick something out this year! Just think...getting them ordered now saves you time in November while you're trying to get everyone's gifts figured out and planning your holiday meals.

9. Don't stress if you can't get the perfect photo for your holiday cards. Funny outtakes can make the best holiday cards. I know I struggle with this one, but each year someone sends me a really funny photo card and I tell myself "see, this is such a cute card...I need to stop stressing over a perfect photo."

10. The biggest help for me is wrapping my gifts as I buy them. I try to use the wrapping service (sometimes it can be free) or I try to wrap it that night after the kids go to bed. This not only saves you that "uh oh" moment the night before you need everything wrapped but it also gives you gifts to look at and admire under the tree!

I have a bonus tip-- have fun, enjoy your family and friends and remember what Christmas is really about. Don't forget to put Christ into Christmas.



I wrote this blog post while participating in the Storkie holiday blogging program. I received compensation for my participation. All opinions are 100% mine.

We Love Apples!

I was pretty excited when I heard we were gonna get to go to an apple orchard this weekend. I love talking about "ap-pas" and really love to eat them. I vaguely remember going last year, mommy says she had fun watching me gather all of the apples I could but refused a bag to carry them. I see nothing funny about it, in fact- that's exactly the way I did it again this year. I really love to see how many items I can carry at one time.

The orchard we decided to go to was one we hit up last year, too. I was excited to play on the toys they had as well but mommy told us not to get too excited since the orchard had changed ownership. Lucky for us, it was for the better!

The new owners added some really cool features for kids. We got to see llamas, ostrich and sheep at the petting zoo, climb hay bails to the top of a huge pyramid, and play in the tee pees that had a tunnel connecting them.

I absolutely love to climb, so it was obvious that I would love the hay bail pyramids! Check out how high up I am and that's Jack at the bottom trying to climb up to me.

My brothers were a little leary about going into the tee pees but I assured them that mommy & daddy wouldn't steer us wrong. Then they reminded me that while at the doctors, never trust them though because they are always trying to get us poked and proded.

We ended up loving the tunnel and tee pees and the boys (especially Jordan) kept bolting back to them whenever they'd get the chance.

After playing and playing and playing, we finally agreed to go a pick some apples. Jordan has always been anti-apples but loves to refer to himself as "Apple" when he talks on the phone. He usually says "Hello, this is Apple". I'm assuming its his spy name, ya know for his top secret missions. Anyways- he surprised us all by grabbing his own apple off the tree and taking a big bite. Of course he also had to lick it each time just to make sure it still tasted the same before he would take another bite .

Jack has always loved apples and I think its really gone to his head, because since we've been home he's asked for an apple at least 5 times. He really just loves to sit around eating them.

Here's a few more shots from the day...we went with our entire extended family on mommy's side so we finally got a group photo of all of us, thank you to Vicki!