Wedding Bells are Ringing!!!

I have a ton to catch up on but most importantly  I have great news!!!!  My sister-in-law Patty got engaged over the weekend!!!!   If you can't tell by all of the exclamation points...I am so excited for her and her FIANCE!!  They are planning an October wedding.  Congratulations Patty and Ross!

The Bride and Groom:-)

Hershey's Miniatures (totally random blog of the week)

I have one question about Hershey's Miniatures (you know those little mini candy bars that come in a bag with about 49 other mini candy bars)...Why?!  Why on earth do they make them?  I'm guessing that the theory is that you could just have one little mini candy bar and not a whole giant one.  Let's be real...that doesn't happen! Do you know anyone that just has one of those little candy bars and then ignores the other 49 little candy bars taunting you from the bag on your desk (or from in your drawer...or from the break room)?  I don't!  We as Americans are not known for our will power to abstain from things.  I think Hershey's should just discontinue them or only sell them individually.  Maybe I will sue them for intentional infliction of a big booty!

Oh wait...I hear a little chocolatey voice calling my name from the break room...

Happy "Half" Birthday Brynnie

Dear Brynn,

Today you are 4 1/2 years old.  You are so grown up that it sometimes takes my breath away.

You are very into soccer and ballet right now.  You just finished up your second soccer season and are getting all geared up to be in your second Nutcracker Ballet.  You adore watching the big girls at Nutcracker rehearsal and are already planning for the day when you will be "one of the big girls".

You absolutely love your Pre-K class and get very upset if you have to miss a day of school.  We are blown away with how smart you are.  You are eager to learn and adore the art projects.  You love telling us all about the things you have learned at school.  Just last week you came home and told us all about nocturnal animals. Your best friends at school are Carley and Caleb. 

Your favorite color is purple and you love anything Disney.  For Halloween you were Rapunzel.  You love to read books, play with your little brother and get pedicures with Mama.  You would still rather do an art project than just about anything.

You are looking forward to taking an airplane ride to Lousiniana with Mama to see Aunt Kim and family and you simply cannot wait until Christmas.  You plan to ask Santa for Bullseye from Toy Story for Christmas this year.

Mama and Daddy are so proud of you Brynnie!  Words cannot express how grateful we are to have you in our lives.  You are mature, talented, beautiful and very tender hearted.  I adore every minute of being your Mama!

xoxo,
Mama

Trying to copy the big girls at dance:-)

 

Birthday Camp-in

Dan's birthday was Saturday and we had big plans for the weekend. We were supposed to go to Voshell's campground for the weekend with family.  We love fall camping trips and were so excited to go.  I had done the shopping and bought every single type of breakfast meat I could think of, smores makings, several types of chips, and ordered a large cake for Dan's birthday (eating junk food is probably the most important part of camping).  But...

 On Thursday afternoon I got a call from Colton's daycare with the information that Colton had a 102 degree fever.  I rushed to pick Colton up and on the way home he started doing some kind of crazy wheezing thing.  At this point, it was 4:00 but I decided to just take a gamble and try to call the doctor because the last time Colton sounded like that he ended up in the ER.  Our pediatrician was not in the office but there was another pediatrician in the office that was willing to see him.  Thank goodness I took the gamble because it turned out that Colton had a major ear infection and a bronchial infection that does not play well with asthma.  The doctor was able to put him on antibiotics and a steroid but warned me that there was a very good possibility that Colton would end up in the ER for a heavy duty breathing treatment sometime over the following three days.  She also told us that had I not brought him in and gotten the steroid there was 100% likelihood that the would have ended up in the ER that night...thank goodness for Mama's intuition!  I was super bummed to have to cancel our camping trip but I knew we didn't have a choice.  Colton's asthma is usually worse at camping because of the campfire and allergens so we knew if we went anyway we were guaranteeing ourselves a visit to the hospital.

By the time I got home from the doctor with Colton, Brynn was laying on the couch looking terrible and had a fever.  Dan took her to the pediatrician on Friday morning and we learned that she had a sinus infection...ugh!

By Saturday morning (Dan's birthday) everyone seemed a little bit better.  They were all at least well enough to be sad that we were missing out on our camping trip.  So we decided to have an indoor camp out in hopes of making some kind of celebration for Dan. So the kids and I decorated the living room to look like a campground.  We then made camping food...burgers, macaroni salad and of course chips.  Since Mom & Glenn had already been exposed to our "den of germs" they were able to join us for our little celebration and some cake.  It wasn't quite the super fun weekend that we had anticipated but we did make the most out of it. 

Dan and the kids sitting around our "campfire".

Camping:-)

Happy Birthday Daniel...we love you!!!

Birthday boy

Blowing out the candles.

It turned out to be a good thing we had to cancel because just about everyone who was supposed to be there ended up getting sick. Kelly, Ava, Aiden, Emma...we hope you feel better!!

Trick or Treat

Our family has a long standing tradition of getting together at my brother and sister-in-law's house to celebrate Halloween.  I'm not sure how long we have been doing this but I know it started before Dan and I even had kids.  We get the kids all dressed up and make them stand around for the traditional pictures and then we follow them around as they trick-or-treat.  We used to be able to get away with just stopping at a few houses and then going back the house and eating yummy food (and candy).  However, as the kids get older we find ourselves spending more and more time doing the actual trick-or-treating.

The annual group shot (with Patrick).  Emma wanted nothing to do with standing next to the scary decorations!

My little Rapunzel

 Elmo

The skeleton laying on the ground is actually my nephew Ronnie.  Scary right?!

 Emma keeping her eye on the scary stuff

The first house.

Unfortunately Dan and I ended up having to make a hasty exit from trick-or-treating.  While we were out, I started to feel dizzy and faint.  I ended up getting really disoriented and couldn't get myself together.  I had had stomach issues all day which I assumed was the result of a weekend of eating really crappy food so I hadn't eaten or drank much because I just didn't feel like it.   Turns out my "stomach issues" were really a stomach bug.  We went to the emergency room and learned that I was very dehydrated which was causing a blood pressure issue that was responsible for the fainting.  So we spent the remainder of our evening in the hospital getting pumped full of fluids rather than eating yummy food with our peeps:-(

Great Job Wolfpack!

I am super behind on blogs so it's another double blog day:-)

The 2011 fall soccer season has officially come to an end.  The team got together this weekend to celebrate with a pizza party.  The kids enjoyed eating pizza, playing games and getting the much anticipated end of the season trophy (Brynn has been asking all season if she was going to get a trophy).

Brynn and her friend Carley showed up in the same shirt.

chowing down!

Congratulations Wolfpack!

 It was a fun season.  Unfortunately it rained pretty much every Wednesday (our practice night) so the season felt short but Brynn really loved it this season.  She had a blast playing with her cousin and some of her close friends.  She loves that Daddy is one of her coaches and had decided that her Uncle Patrick should coach next year too (because her cousin is on the team too).  She said that she can't wait to play again and is going to be "really good" next season.  I may be biased but I already think she was a star:-)

Go Brynnie go!!

Huddle time with Assistant Coach Daddy:-)

 

Fall Harvest Parties

Last week both kids had their fall harvest parties at school.  Brynn's party was first and I was able to sneak out of work for a few hours to attend.  All of the kids dressed up in their costumes and then went trick or treating to the various offices in the building and to a couple of parents.

My little Rapunzel...with her wig falling off:-)

When they were done trick or treating both of the classes marched outside for a photo opp.  The attempt to get 25+ kids to stand together and look at the 15+ parents that were eagerly snapping pictures was nothing short of comical.


This is just Brynn's class.



We then all marched back into the classroom where we listened to a Halloween story, played some games and ate a yummy lunch.  Brynn declared that it was "the best party ever".

Story time

Get that pinata!

Brynn and her BFF Carley after getting turned into mummies.



Lunch



Next up we went to Colti's school for "Trunk-or-Treating".  For some reason, we weren't able to participate last year so we had no clue what to expect for this.  The general idea is that parents pull up their cars, decorate their trunks and hand out candy to all of the kids.  I had no idea how seriously some people would take their decorations!

The above picture is the first car I saw when I got there.  I'm not going to lie, I started to feel a little bad about my hastily bought dollar store decorations.  Fortunately, I was able to team up with a friend and I think the end result was not too shabby.  It's kind of hard to see but we had cobwebs and pumpkin garland hanging from the top too. 

There were a ton of kids there and they all had a blast "trunk-or-treating" and running around the parking lot in their costumes. Thank goodness Grammie and Grampie were able to come help out because it was crazy...and so much fun!

It was freezing out!  This is Colton running around with his little Superman cape hanging out the back of his coat:-)

Colton just wanted to run around so Brynn worked the cars for her and Colti

Cutest little witch ever!  This is Sophia who is one of my best friend's daughter and she also one of my dance students.

We finished off our Fall Harvest day with Pizza at my Dad and Stepmom's. You can bet we all slept great that night:-)