Where are these boys going?

So where do you think these boys are going????

a) a punk rock concert
b) the grocery store
c) church

If you guessed "c" church...you're right! Tuesday was crazy hair night at AWANA. Having boys is definitely a disadvantage for crazy hair options if you ask me! Jerry used half a bottle of hairspray to get them looking like this. When we got to church one of the gals said, "That's not crazy, that's cute!" When they woke up this morning their hair still had a little "craziness" left! Speaking of AWANA, if you took the challenge to learn the books of the New Testament...times up! Wesley knows them all. In order. Beginning to end. I still don't though so don't feel too bad about it.

As an added bonus for today here is a riddle Jerry told me to put on the blog:
Can a man in California marry his widow's sister?
First person to put the answer in the 'comments' wins!

Happy Birthday Hayden Part 2

During the Thanksgiving festivities yesterday we took a minute out to sing "Happy Birthday" to Hayden...again! He did much better this time. And he blew out the candle!

Here is a picture of his real birthday cake. (The one on Tuesday was actually pumpkin bars.) I thought since he loves cars I'd make him a race car cake. I made the race track with Oreo crumbs. The little cars are actually chocolates from Seroogy's. I tried to make the frosting around the outside look like grass. Then I put Cheerios (that I dyed black...don't ask it was a disaster!) tires around the inside edge of the race track. I wish I would have thought to make or find little checkered flags...

Hayden liked it but got mad when I showed it to him but wouldn't let him have the little cars off the cake. After we sang and I let him have the little cars he was pushing them around on the floor. I think he was pretty surprised when someone opened it for him and it was chocolate inside. He popped the whole thing in his mouth! Yum!

Happy Birthday Hayden!

[I started typing this on Tuesday but didn't have time to finish it and load the pictures until today.]

Hayden is two today! Wesley has been counting down for him for a couple weeks now. He has been practicing blowing out candles too. He was pretty excited to see the kitchen decorated when he got up from nap. He kept saying: "Whoa! Balloons!" We are just having a little family party (I think there are enough of us to call it a party!) and his real party will be added to the Thanksgiving festivities on Thursday.

Jerry asked him what he wanted for dinner and he said "pizza". I don't think he really understood but we decided to have that today anyway! So Jerry brought home a few pizzas and after we ate we got out the cake (actually pumpkin bars). Hayden didn't really like the candle on his cake. He started to cry as soon as I lit it. But then instead of blowing it out he touched it. It was so quick (and I was holding the cake) that I couldn't stop him. It didn't hurt him really but then he really didn't like it when I re-lit it so we could sing. He cried through the whole "Happy Birthday" song.

Gift opening went much better! Although his brothers were a little too helpful and we had to keep moving them back. He enjoyed his gifts (as did his brothers!). Wesley and the twins kept asking how long until they have a birthday!

Cake time...not a big hit!

Stopping to read his new Cars book!

Cha-ching!

You can take the cash register...but the coins are MINE!


And in case you don't remember what he looked like two years ago today...

Sunday, Sunday...

Today was a well deserved NICE, RELAXING day. I cannot think of one thing that went wrong! We started out the day with a nice, clean house and all the laundry done since we had a showing Saturday morning. We went to church (with everyone riding legally in the new van). We came home and had a nice lunch. We watched the Packers win on TV. Had a nice visit with the Perry family from Madison, who came up to visit with their sweet twin girls Josen and Finn. [We met through Milkshare and I have been donating breastmilk to them. The girls very first feeding when they were born 5 weeks ago was milk from me! They came to pick up what will probably be my last donation since JD is now breastfeeding so well.] The boys were well behaved during the visit (except when Eli misdirected a sneeze onto one of the babies!).


While we were visiting the boys got out the trains and tracks. When Hayden woke up from nap he started playing trains too. He played with those trains from 3pm until he got in his pajamas at 7:45pm (with a short break for dinner). He is such a good boy! Long after the older boys were done he continued to play and play and play. I can't believe he is going to be two on Tuesday! I'll have to write another post all about him one of these days...maybe for his birthday. He says the funniest (and sweetest) things!

In the end, I guess it was a good day not only because of what happened but because of what didn't happen! This week if anyone asks me what I am thankful for...I am going to say...days like today!

She's a...

beauty? big one? behemoth?

Here is the new van! Who wants to go for a ride? Oh, I see lots of hands raised...don't worry there is plenty of room for everyone! After a year or so of thinking about it and shopping around we finally got a 15 passenger van. It is a 2001 Chevy Express 3500. I think we got a pretty good deal on it. It was the cheapest one with decent miles we have seen in our year of looking. We had to drive down to Manitowoc to get it Saturday afternoon after Jerry had driven down in the morning to negotiate the deal.

When Jerry pulled into the driveway Eli looked out the window and said, "Whoa, that is big!" Believe it or not the boys were fighting over who gets to sit in the way back (Roz knew better). A few bumpy roads in the future and I think they'll change their minds! We drove down to Abby's to show her after dinner. We'll have John take a look at it sometime in the next week or two to make sure everything looks good. The exterior is in good shape except for one dent in the bumper. But John kindly informed me he's sure I'll be getting more of those backing the van up. Hope he's wrong there! The interior is a little more "used" but not too bad. It has been a rental for the last few years at the dealership where we bought it. So it has a good maintenance record. And we were shocked to find out it just might fit in the garage! [It will be tight and we'll have to take the inside pull handle off the garage door.] We will be able to drive our whole family, Abby, John, Carter, and Grandma up to my mom's for Thanksgiving on Thursday and still have room for 3 more!

I'll be getting plenty of exercise since I now have to park in Timbuktu and I'll never be lost in a parking lot looking for where I parked the car ever again! I'm not normally one for bumper stickers but I want to put a little "No, we're not!" sticker on the back. (So AZ family and friends if you see one get it for me.) Although around here it will mean "no" we're not Catholic. But it can also mean "no" we're not: Mormon, crazy, a daycare, a school group, a prison work crew, or just about anything else people may think we are driving around in that monster!

Two for the price of one

OR
Justus and his radial head subluxation--Part II with Eli bonus!

Well, we were back at the doctor's office this afternoon with Justus. He was very protective of his arm all evening and then all morning. If I manipulated it he didn't cry but would whimper. So we took him back in. This time to see our doctor (who was off yesterday). She did her little trick and we all heard it pop. Now he really is good as new. I had her show me how to do it so if it happens again I can just do it myself. We are glad it worked the second time otherwise they mentioned having to take him to the ortho doctor so they could numb it or put him out to get it back in place. I'm thankful we didn't have to deal with that!

As if we didn't have enough going on while I was on the phone making the appointment, Eli fell down the basement stairs. Roz got to him first since she was down there cleaning. By the time she carried him to the top of the stairs he had a HUGE blood filled goose egg on the right side of his forehead. I got out an ice pack and got it on there right away. He cried a bit but not as much as I would have! He was acting normal and didn't have any other symptoms of a concussion. I called Jerry to tell him he had to come home for the 3:30pm doctor appointment (only one car...remember!) and then called the doctor back to add Eli to the patient list for the appointment. His head looked quite a bit better by the time Jerry got home and he checked out fine.

We stopped to get a pizza on the way home. You didn't expect me to come home and cook did you? I didn't have time anyway...I had to have Buck to the vet for a 6pm appointment. Nothing is wrong with him, it was just his yearly exam. By the time I got home both twins were feeling great. We gave them some Tylenol for good measure and put them bed.

I do NOT get paid enough for this...can I have a day off??