Saturday, November 27, 2010

The Weather Broke

The weather finally broke on Thursday after unseasonably cold weather. The kids and I were going stir crazy, and it is funny how after -30 weather -10 feels balmy. I took the kids tobogganing and all of them LOVED it. Skyler has asked every day since to go. After I got Ethan to go down the first time he was on the sled every time after. Miss Ryley hates being held by her brothers, but if I was holding her on the way down she was happy as could be.


Then Skyler and Jordan made a snowman in our backyard, and they didn't even need a hat and mitts. If it weren't for the the headaches I would be Chinooks biggest fan.

Funny Kid

For some reason Ethan always finds this old sweat band, and loves wearing it around the house.

Then, once I had the camera out to catch a picture of that, Ryley followed me around the house saying cheese. I love these kids!

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Happy Birthday Dad

My Dad celebrated his birthday last week, and I wanted to post a little about him. My dad is one of my best friends, he is a confidant and friend. I talk to my Mom daily, and my Dad almost as often. I know that I can always talk to him and he can help walk me through tough decisions. Jordan and I value his opinion, and have, on multiple occasions put off making decisions until we could talk to him first.

My dad was released from the hospital following a bone marrow transplant the day before I was married. At the time we were not certain that he would see me get married, and then came Skyler, my first child - a miracle that he could be there to meet my baby, and now he has been around for three children to join my family, and has a special relationship with all of them. My boys love to 'work' with grandpa, which I am sure is more for the treats then the time spent making a mess for my Dad to clean up.

Every year when his birthday comes I truly count my blessings that my dad is here with us, and a happy active part of our lives.

There are some great men in the world, and I think my dad is one of the best!

Randoms

I was looking through my camera today and there are just some random, pictures that I wanted to document for my family - they make ma smile.

Miss Ryley has dresses, and I mean she has a LOT of dresses! It is so fun dressing up little girls; this is something that I enjoy, my mom enjoys, my mother in law enjoys, and so does my brothers girlfriend. Isn't this dress cute!! Jame's girlfriend, Marly who we all adore has a fun time picking out cute clothes that she 'just has to get' Ryley.We are lacking in mature trees around our house, so there is not a lot a fall leaves to play in, so we raked an elderly neighbors leaves - this was the best day, and my kids LOVED it! It just feels so good doing something for someone else, although in this case, it was not a sacrifice at all - you should have seen how much fun my boys were having.
And this picture just makes me laugh, my mom was helping bundle up the kids last night and I looked over, and Ethan resembled and arctic nun, not sure that there are nuns in the arctic, but if there are, and they wear blue and orange instead of black and white then I think Ethan has the look nailed.Tonight when we were just finishing up dinner Jordan suggests that they build a fort, so off he goes with all of the kids while I clean up dinner, and they created a masterful fort to watch a movie and eat popcorn in. I Love so much that Jordan looks for fun things to do with the kids, and I know that the kids have a blast spending time with him.

Family is great, life would be pretty boring without it.

Monday, November 1, 2010

Family Photos 2010

My Sister in Law did it again. I love having a photographer in the family. We just went down to the ridge in Cranston, and the sun was setting. We took pictures until there was no light left. I love the color and how they capture my family this year, at this stage of life.









Funeral of Edgar Allan Poe

This year the theme for our Halloween Party was Edgar Allan Poe. He was a cryptic author, with a few well know pieces. We thought the theme could be more sophisticated and still sufficiently creepy. We decided to do a murder mystery for the activity, and searched the internet for a murder mystery written on Poe, but were unsuccesful, although in this search we learned a lot about the death of Poe, which coincidentally is quite suspicious. Jordan decided that he could write a murder mystery based on Poe. A little more research and he had a fantastic evening planned where all of the characters were actual people from the life of Edgar Allan Poe. This was planned with Bree again, so she concentrated on decor, while I did all of the food. The evening started out with 'wine' and cheese, we then served Prime Rib, mashed potatoes, carrotts, yorkshires, cauliflower and cheese sauce. Most of the murder mystery was played out throughout dinner, but we finished up with some black Pina Colada's squares and lots of different chocolates. Our decor had a definite bird theme to go along with Poe's "The Raven" Some of the guests put a lot of work into their costumes
some lucked out at Value Village, but regardless it was a fantastic night and we had a lot of fun.