Much to be Thankful for ...

I'm thankful our kids get to spend time with their grandparents on both sides of the family ...

I'm thankful our kids are blessed to know their great-grandmothers ...

I'm thankful we are blessed enough to have too much to eat at the holidays and family to share it with ...

I'm thankful we have wonderful friends to celebrate the holidays with (and to help us along after we've had a cocktail [or 2 or 3] too many = D) ...

I'm thankful that we have family that doesn't hold it against us that we sometimes celebrate a little too heartily with said friends = ) ...

I'm thankful that we have friends and family we think fondly of at the holidays even if we don't get to see them in person ...

I'm thankful to be safe and sound in the comfort of my home with our sweet babies sound asleep and a crackling fire to relax by ...

I'm thankful.

Monkey Bizness

We started off the weekend heading to Riley and Gage's friend, Taryn's birthday party in Olathe. It was held at a super fun place called Monkey Bizness. Oh my goodness, it was sheer craziness! Taryn's mom and dad, Carrie and Alex, rented a party room that was filled with massive blow-up bouncy rooms, climbing apparatus's and 2-3 story slides. We have never been to such an extravaganza before! I'm not sure who had more fun, the kids or the parents (especially Corey!) Daddy had to go along and climb up several of the items and slide down the big slides to make sure the boys knew how to do it. Yeah, right = ) Anyhow, the boys had a total blast and we can't wait to take them back there again. It is actually quite an affordable place that might be just the ticket to burn off some excessive toddler energy this winter when we're all having cabin fever! I'll have to remember to bring the camera next time!

We were blessed with another gorgeous day on Sunday, so we took full advantage of the warmth and spent a great deal of time outside. Gage played with his favorite mower like he hadn't seen it in months and Riley rode his trusty tractor like there was no tomorrow! They also helped dad move some wood for the fireplace and completely delighted in the wheel barrow rides between hauls! They also found a couple of great leaf piles to jump and play in. All in all, a perfect fall day = )

We also put up Christmas decorations this weekend as I'm not sure when we would actually have time to do it any other weekend before Christmas. I don't have any pictures yet, but let me tell you, the boys were thrilled! I did most of it during their nap, so it was a big fun surprise when they woke up. Gage literally would not stop running around and saying "lights" "balls" "santa" over and over again ... too cute! Unfortunately, one santa already had a mishap and lost a hand, but it's nothing a little super glue can't fix. We're still working on the "no touch" thing, with all of the excitement, our little redhead couldn't control himself = )

Well, that's all for now. I probably won't post again until after the holiday weekend, so I hope you all have a safe and Happy Thanksgiving.

Bless you sweet babies ...

May God bless you sweet little Molly Rose and Jay Francis. Although I cannot fathom how this tragic situation has come to take place again, I do hope that you can grow and play with your brothers Max and Ian in Heaven. Please help God look over your mommy and daddy and ease their pain. Amen.

Tanks, Choppers & Babies + Ketchup makes everything better ...

Corey has a wooden model airplane that the boys constantly want to play with, but are only actually allowed to on occasion, under very strict supervision. They, of course, have several airplanes and helicopters of their own to play with, but they like daddy's because it is so life-like (as well as mostly off limits.) Anyhow, this week, they have been begging pretty much non-stop to see dad's plane, so Corey and I decided to get each of them a new plane so as to distract their attention. After looking at numerous options, the boys decided on a war combo pack that included a tank, a helicopter, a humvee and various military men. Oh my goodness, Riley fell IN LOVE with the " 'copter" as he calls it and has yet to leave it out of his sight! Here's a few pics of him with it. He even took it to bed with him at nap time and at bed time! In the bottom picture, Gage is pointing to an actual helicopter flying in the sky while Riley looks on -- his own trusty 'copter still in hand. The boys definitely take after their daddy in their love of flight! The tank brought about some confusion for Gage and several giggles from me. Each time Corey or I would try to show the boys what the tank could do, Gage would look around all confused and say "my tank" while wandering around the house. It took me a few minutes, but I finally figured out what was going on. He was looking for Tank. At the boys' daycare, Gloria has a black lab that she has aptly named Tank. Gage has dubbed him "my Tank." Thus his initial confusion. Poor kid thought we were hiding a dog somewhere from him! I think he finally understood we were talking about the toy, but the confused look never quite went away when we uttered the word tank = )

We also had a nice visit with Shawn, Kari, and their sweet baby Patrick. What a cutie! He has changed so much since we saw him last. He has the plumpest little cheeks and softest hair. I love babies! It is almost surreal thinking that our big guys were that little only a short time ago. It is so different hanging out with Shawn and Kari now that we have kids. There are so many things that I wanted to catch up on and chat about, but many conversations were stopped short as either Corey or I were off chasing one of our rascals. It is such a huge contrast the difference between a 3 month old vs 1 1/2 & 2 1/2 year olds! Patrick was such a good boy during our visit, just chilling and taking in the new sights and sounds. I wish I could say the same for ours! Actually, they were pretty well-behaved for the most part, just very into checking out EVERYTHING in sight. Poor Patrick was given a display of Riley's other current passion -- dinosaurs. Unfortunately, Riley's dinosaur roar was a little more than he could take. The poor little guy got scared out of his wits! I felt so bad!!! Luckily, his mommy was able to calm him down pretty quickly. Oh, and Shawn and Kari's tall staircase was a huge hit, the boys' loved climbing up and down and up and down -- and of course, Gage eventually had to try to jump down part of it. Three whole stairs at once even! Riley was so thrilled with it, he even took a picture of it!

Now, on to the ketchup. We're very lucky that our kids will eat almost anything you put in front of them and eat it heartily. In the off chance there is something they are not too sure about, if you give them some ketchup to dip it in, they'll usually go ahead and slug it down. Many things they like just fine by themselves, they'll still request a ketchup dipper, just because they really like ketchup - especially Gage. For dinner the other evening, the kids were having chicken, potatoes, and green beans. All 3 items were dipped in ketchup by both boys. Then, since they were being so good, I gave them some M&M's while I was cleaning up. Lo and behold, I look over and they are both giggling and dipping their M&M's in ketchup! What? I can understand most of the other stuff, but desecrating chocolate like that ... that's just wrong in my opinion. But, no matter how many times I tried to tell them that what they were doing was gross, they would just giggle harder and keep on dipping. Boys!

Thank You

Thank you, thank you, thank you to all of you who have presented me with so much positivity after my last post. The blog comments, emails, and phone calls have sincerely meant a lot to me and really helped lift my spirits. I truly appreciate all of your support. Aaaaand, I'm very happy to post that I have lost 2 whole pounds since my grumpy little rant! Yay! = ) Progress is a great motivator!!!

Also, thank you for your prayers for my cousin, Laura and my friend, Clay. I believe the power of prayer is helping. Each of them are still in their respective hospitals and they both still have long roads ahead of them, so please, keep the prayers coming. They need all of our strength!

Thanks again and I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!!!

Plateaus Suck.

Okay, fair warning -- if you are looking for a positive anecdote or cute pics of the kids, it is in your best interest to click elsewhere as I am feeling very frustrated. As you may or may not know, I started a health overhaul the first part of October and I have been experiencing very positive, goal-reinforcing success. As of a week and a half ago I had lost 14.5 pounds and a whole pants/dress size and was feeling really good about myself. Then I hurt my back ... again. I haven't been able to work out for a week and a half and I can totally tell it is very negatively affecting how I feel both physically and mentally. Plus, I have only lost 1/2 pound during this time period while still adhering to my fairly strict diet. Ugggh! I am hurting and frustrated and it is all I can do to not go dive into my kids reward M&M's or my hubby's pizza and ice cream for a good ol' comfort food binge. I won't, because I know how incredibly guilty I would feel afterward, but it still sounds good. Well, that's it. That's my rant. I do actually feel a little better putting it down in writing. Thanks for listening = )

Wow - What a Week!

Well, the week started out pretty crummy as it was Riley's turn to have the pukeys. Yuck! Luckily, since he is a year older than Gage, it is a little easier to deal with as he at least gives us warning and can usually make his ickiness into the puke pan. But, it is still awful, nonetheless. Thankfully, it only lasted about a day -- or more correctly, a night and a morning -- and then he was past the upheavals and feeling better for the most part. As I think I mentioned before with Gage, when the kiddos have the flu, I line the living room floor with towels for cover and this is pretty much where I camp out with the sicko until he is past the vomiting. Well, with Riley being sick during the night, I had to put my best ninja-like skills to the test. With every slight stirring, I would fly to my baby's side, puke pan in hand, and help him hover over it so as to provide him comfort, while also avoiding as much clean-up as possible. Unfortunately, these old bones aren't what they used to be, so during one of these numerous missions I managed to tweak my back pretty badly. The next day I went to pick up Gage and I heard a loud pop. Yep, there went my herniated disc again. Ugh! So, I spent the remainder of the week on muscle relaxers and painkillers just to make it bearable to sit at my desk all day at work. Fortunately, I have a husband who is very understanding and a great hands-on dad, so in the evenings Corey picked up most of the slack so I could rest my back. I was finally able to walk upright by Saturday.

This I was most grateful for as we had made plans to hang out with our dear friend, Steph, whom we don't see nearly enough. We had a really great time hanging out and catching up. After chilling at her house, we all headed down to the Replay around 10:00 (which is usually our bedtime if everything goes well) to meet up with Steph's boyfriend and watch his band, the Marmots, play. However, they were the late show and by midnight we could not hang with the rock stars anymore. Wow, how things have changed since we became parents! Actually, believe it or not, I could've probably hung on another hour, but my dear hubby may have been hampered by imbibing a Jager Bomb or two (or three -- or four) too many. So, homeward bound we went without even getting to hear the band. Bummer. We'll definitely be better prepared next time!

Here's a little video of Riley demonstrating some more of his artistic tendencies. One evening this week Corey had to work late, so with my back being in such bad shape I wasn't up for much cooking, obviously, so I stopped off and grabbed some fries for the boys to have with their grilled cheeses for supper. Riley decided that his french fries made a perfect "paintbrush" to dip in his ketchup "paint" and used his sandwich as the canvas. He cracks me up. I don't know why, but the imaginative things he and his brother come up with always seem to surprise and astound me. There's also a little snippet of Gage doing his patented "dip, dip, dip" chant with his fries. I know you'll enjoy this one Grandma and Pop Pop = )

Prayer Requests ...

Ok, my heart has been very heavy this week as we have friends and family that are both experiencing extremely delicate and stressful medical conditions.

First, is my beautiful cousin, Laura. She is a sweetheart and currently in her 20th week of pregnancy with twins. One of the twin's sacs has begun to leak quite a bit of amniotic fluid. She is now on strict bed rest at the Hays Medical Center so they can monitor her and the babies conditions. For those of you who don't know Laura, she also went through this precarious situation a couple of years ago and lost both babies. So, as you can imagine this is a nightmare for her and her family. So please, pray hard for her and her babies.

Second, is my good friend Savannah's little brother, Clay. He has been in the ICU in Great Bend all week due to complications with his MD. His condition has worsened and he is now being transported to Wichita via Life Watch. Please pray for Clay and his family that he is able to recover.

Thank you for your prayers. They are so needed and appreciated.

Good Times and a Lesson Learned ...

Halloween was a blast! We got all dressed up and took the boys trick or treating to a whole whopping 1 house = ) With the boys still being so little, we decided that would be enough excitement for them as far as candy gathering goes. Riley and Gage, of course, enjoyed getting fawned over by their favorite neighbors, the Scotts. While there, Gage was introduced to his 2nd favorite candy after suckers -- Reece's Pieces. Oh my goodness, that's his fave thing to say now ... Reecey, Reecey, Reecey ... too cute!

After our big trick or treating adventure, we headed to a family friendly Halloween party thrown by Corey's boss Lloyd and his wife Jeannie. They had everything decorated really funky and spooky complete with gravestones and skeletons. The kids weren't too sure about the whole thing at first, with all of these people dressed up all crazy. However, after they enjoyed a hearty snack and the DJ started spinning some fun tunes, they were all about it! Their favorite part was, of course, getting out on the dance floor and shaking their groove things = ) Here's a few pics of all of us in our costumes: Corey's a Ghostbuster, I'm Kat Von D from Miami/LA Ink, Riley is a Ninja, and Gage is a Pirate ...

After the party fun, we headed home to watch Monster House. Gage couldn't take it and immediately went to bed - it was after all, almost 9:00 by that time - a full hour after his bedtime. Riley was a trooper and wanted to stay up to watch the whole thing. I finally put him to bet a little after 10:00. As much as he enjoyed staying up on Friday, the rest of us paid for it on Saturday. I usually run a pretty tight ship when it comes to nap times and bed times, because I know how any deviation can result in some very cranky toddlers. Well, this time around was no exception. Riley was a bear most of Saturday. I'm sure everyone in the neighborhood was wondering what kind of torture I was putting him through, because every little thing that didn't go his way became a major screaming fit drama. Geez, we won't make that mistake again!

Sunday we started out with a lot of relaxing, which we all needed. Then, Corey was off to gather up some more wood out at Gloria's farm. We should definitely be set for awhile! The boys also enjoyed some good times in the back yard. They both have a fascination with jumping off of stuff instead of using it for it's intended use: couches - super launching pads, beds - the best springboards around, slides - just another place to practice leaps and bounds. Here's a video of the last one ... as you can imagine, this causes me to have multiple heart attacks a day! Just look at the smiles on their faces ... boys!!!