We Throw a Good Party!

This year for Halloween, we decided to throw a big Halloween bash! We had 50-something people here all wearing some great costumes. It was a blast with a family room dance party included. Clean up was a doozy! Shout out to Rachel for taking pics! So many great costumes, had to post them all.

Our un-rehearsed workout routine...

Best costume went to Bethany Boer on the far right...Yes, she is pregs, and she was an awesome white trash dude with a "beer belly".

Gold Digger Carrie and I

Richard Simmons and me in my thong leotard!

Woot woot!

Family Room Dance Party

Unfortunately what I did most of the night...

End of the Season

We finished up the end of the fall Crew soccer season back in October. Here are some pics to remember Grant's soccer career. Not sure how long it will last. He doesn't exactly love soccer. He says he wants to play the games but hates going to practices. He has another season in the Spring, so we'll see how that goes. If is doesn't go well, we may be taking a break. Here's to hoping he comes back around. Hard for two college soccer player parents to take (well, one and a half college soccer players...I only played a year.)

Halloween Time

We had a fun Halloween this year. Halloween at the zoo, at the fire station, and in the neighborhood. Molly went from being a frog to a Care Bear; She had a hard time making up her mind. Charley lived in her monkey costume for three weeks, and Grant is definitely a great Super Mario. But first...the pumpkins. We are making progress with the kids actually helping scoop and carve.

ick...

actually scooped this year!

but hated every minute of it

Charley helping daddy

Family pic

I got mine Mom

Firehouse. Waited in line for a half hour for them to hand us a bag of candy.

Care Bear Molly, Mario Grant, Monkey Charley

Ding dong...

Five houses...done

Kisses for Baby Mark

Mark wanted to trick or treat too!

Checkin out her loot

Nona and the babes

Lovin his loot

Sleepy boy

Bubble Bath

Every once in a while, Matt thinks its a great idea to throw all three kiddos into our bath with lots of bubbles...it usually isn't. But it's a great photo op! Someday they'll kill me for this.

Toothless Joe

That's what I've been calling Grant for the last couple of weeks since he lost his second top front tooth. Good thing too, because one had fallen out and the other was wiggling for weeks, and it had migrated to the center of his mouth. He looked quite goofy...and we have a school picture to prove it. :) His tooth fell out at school, so Nona put it in a bag but forgot to give it back to Grant, so we got it back the next day. I put it on the counter so Grant could put it under his pillow that night. Well, every once in a while, Matt goes into a cleaning frenzy, and mistakenly threw out the bag, that he thought was empty. You can imagine how sad Grant was. Well we made Matt "pay" Grant for his mistake, and believe me, Grant got way more than the tooth fairy would have given him!

Mom Hog at 18 Months

Charley is 18 months already! Can you believe it? Me neither. We just had her 18m check-up and here are her stats:

Height: 32 5/8 inches (70%) - seriously...tall girls...who would have thought it could happen?

Weight: 24 pounds 10 ounces (55%)

She, as stated before, is a bit of a walking disaster....mostly because she has no fear. She will climb on anything and jump off of anything. It's a little scary at times. She is kind of a tornado leaving a path of destruction behind her. She is still so super smiley though. She is mischievous but so happy. She is still napping in the afternoons, but gives me a run for my money getting her into her crib. She is cuddling less and less, which I hate, but hopefully it's just a phase. She wants to do everything that Grant and Molly do, which is hard, because she cries and screams when she can't. She is a bit frustrated right now because she has so much she wants to say, and she probably says about 30 words. Some include juice, shoes, snack, all gone, Molly, Nona, Papa, Mama, Dada, bye-bye, please, ball, baby, bubble, bath, doggy, duck, no. We have been able to spend some time just the two of us since Molly is in preschool two mornings a week. Unfortunately, this has made her a bit of a mom hog when her siblings come back around. She has always been my most attached one, but now she won't share me with anyone. If Molly is sitting on my lap, she will scream and cry and try to push her off. If I'm holding Grant's hand, she squeezes her way in. If I'm hugging Matt, she wants in too. What can I say, she loves me a whole bunch, and I get can't enough of her either. I keep squeezing her as I watch her grow out of her cute baby-ness. Here are some pics of the big girl at a play-date at Koetsiers.

To the Gardens with Friends

It has been such beautiful fall weather, that we had to head to Meijer Gardens with our very good friends, the DeKorne ladies. Molly and Ava are a few months apart, and Kaiya and Charley are about five months apart. They have to be friends. They have no choice. Good thing they really do like each other. (Not pictured...sweet baby Reese and big first grader Grant.) So fun to be able to hang out with great friends on a beautiful day.

Molly and Ava

Kaiya, Charley, Molly, Ava

And they're off!

Miracle Girl Kaiya!

Hanging with the scarecrows

Mols and Me

Ava

Friends

Cheeeese!

Big Pumpkins

Waving to the trolley passing by

My little tomboy

Making wishes