Halloween

We had a wonderful halloween this year! We had dinner at the house with our family and friends and then we all went out trick or treating.  Harrison was a caterpillar and a butterfly.  Madeline was Ariel and Benjamin was Linus.  Madeline was super excited about Halloween this year and it was fun to watch her excitment.  Benjamin had no idea what was going on, but he did get candy from a couple houses, only when he was done eating the previous candy.  Harrison enjoyed checking out the Haunted Houses and graveyards.  When I didn't go with him one time, he told me since I was dressed like a witch I would really like it and I should check it out.  So he took me back to look at it.  He also brought me up to see some pumpkins that had been carved like animals.  He is very thoughtful like that.  We went around the block and then came home and the kids enjoyed passing out candy to the other kids.      

A trip to the Pumpkin Farm

I decided to take the kids and their friends to the pumpkin farm one afternoon.  It is always so much fun and the kids love it.  We were there for hours. 

Below are the yearly pictures I make the kids take.  I think Benjamin is going to follow in his brothers footsteps and not pose for the pictures.  Its so hard to get a picture of Harrison lately.

This picture of Madeline below is one I caught of the two of them watching some rooster talk.  But it was just adorable how she was holding onto her brother, they are always doing this and I just love how good they are to eachother.

 The kids all enjoy an ice cream.

Benjamin loved the hay ride.  HE couldn't get enough of it, unfortunately on the way back from picking pumpkins he could barely keep his eyes open and this is him trying to stay awake for the hay ride.

The End

We finally have a walker!!!!

Benjamin took his first step on August 5th, but he decided he was going to hold off showing them off for awhile.  Finally the middle of September he started walking and hasn't looked back.  When he gets tired he gets pretty sloppy, but he is adorable to watch him walk and drag his blanket behind him.

First day of Kindergarten

After much and much discussion, Tim and I finally decided to send Harrison to Kindergarten this year.  We had been planning on waiting a year, but we put him in a summer program and he did awesome and he absolutely loved it and kept asking when he started school.  So my baby boy is growing up.  I don't think he realized what a big day this was.  I made him breakfast of his choice, which was lucky charms, donuts, an egg, cinammon toast, and chocolate frosting. He has never asked for an egg before, I think it was so he could have something from the "always group" instead of the just "sometimes" group of food.  The whole family walked him to his class.  I cried, the teacher finally kicked us out and we left.  He did fine!  He loved it!!!  He is just growing so fast and is so smart and just a social butterfly.

Harrison getting ready for school

Madeline and Harrison

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Harrison and Baylee

4th of July 2010!

Daddy and Benjamin

Harrison riding in the parade

A family shot!

We once again enjoyed another year of our local city parade.  The kids decorated their bikes the night before and were very excited to ride in the parade.  However once the parade started, Madeline got nervous, started crying and so she sat with Grandma while we finished the parade. I was a little nervous as Harrison was riding his bike and since he no longer needs training wheels was worried that he might be a little out of control, but he did great.  I did not think Benjamin would sit in the wagon the whole time, but he too loved the parade.  We enjoyed a great day with the whole family.  After the parade we rushed out to try out our new boat, we had just bought the day before.  We enjoyed a day on the lake then came home and had a bar-b-que at my brothers house followed by some great fireworks.  Madeline did not enjoy them much this year, she got tired of the noises they made.

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Madeline

Harrison learns to ride a two wheel bike!!!

A very proud moment for me! My 4 year old set his mind that he was going to ride his bike without training wheels.  We had gone out on a bike ride as a family on Sunday night.  When we got home I asked Harrison if he wanted to try without his training wheels and he said yes.  We tried, but it was late and I tried to keep him on the sidewalk, which was difficult. The next morning we had to take Daddy to the airport as soon as we got home from dropping Daddy off, Harrison was ready to learn how to ride his bike.  I was thinking this was something we might be close to learning by the end of the week to show Dad when he got home, but Harrison was determined and within an hour he had it down.  He could ride his bike without me helping him!!!  Now it was a bad time for the cars and trash cans on the street, but Harrison didn't care he kept going.  The most surprising thing, he didn't want to tell his Dad he wanted to keep it a secret all week.  And he did!  He made sure that we did not tell him.  He called a lot of people to tell them he could ride his bike, but he wanted to surprise his Dad when he got home. A very proud mom I am!!

A week in Chicago

We spent a week in Chicago, followed by a week in Ohio visiting with our family during the last part of March. Our week in Chicago consisted of the kids and I, along with my parents and my sister. We kept extremely busy while we were there, visiting several museums, zoo's, the Willis tower and best of all visiting with all our family. We had such a great time, Harrison constantly remarks on how our family will miss us and we were sad to leave. He is so smart for a little 4 year old.

We went the the Museum of Science and Industry, cleary Aunt Sandy's and Uncle Ralph's favorite, they were all about the hands on and "helping the kids out"  Madeline learned how to milk a cow and then raced Uncle Ralph to see who was faster.  I'm not sure who won. I tried to get all three of my kids to take a picture together, while looking at the camera, I have since determined this is completely impossible.


 

I love the Brookfield Zoo, they have such a selection of animals it is always fun to go when we are in the area.  We were lucky enough to get free passes with the help of Grandma Sally and Sheri.  The kids had a blast hanging out with their cousin Grace.

  Harrison loved to read the maps at all the places we went, making sure we did not miss anything.  I wanted to go to the Willis Tower and step out on the glass bottom, it was different, Madeline walked right out, Harrison took a second look before he walked slowly out.  We went to the Lincoln Park zoo in downtown Chicago, I was surprised it was completely free all the time and a pretty nice zoo.

 We also went to the Aquarium and Field Museum where we got to see the dinosaurs and Harrison and Madeline enjoyed exploring what life is like to live underground like bugs.  We spent another day at a Childrens Museum with our cousins making bubbles and playing together.  Each evening was capped with a family gathering with way great food and dessert.  The kids really enjoyed seeing everything, but most of all they truly enjoyed the time they got to spend with our family.  All the kids got spoiled by our family, Benjamin loved being cuddled and spending time his Great Grandma.  Madeline had special morning runs to the store for Corn Pops by her Uncle Ralph, and Harrison loved having his Aunt, Uncle and cousin watch movies with him each night

Standing and seeing the Doctor

Our sweet Benjamin is already 8 1/2 months old.  He doesn't like to crawl, but he is pretty proud that he has figured out to pull himself up.  He is slowly figuring out that he can crawl in extreme circumstances.  Mostly he does an army type of crawl.  I had to take him to the doctor yesterday, he has pink eye in both eyes and a double ear infection.  The doctor says he was a very happy sick baby.  This was the first time any of the kids have had an ear infection.  I was hoping that none of them would ever get one, but a las Benjamin wanted to be first.  My Madeline is teaching me patience, when we get in the car I like them to jump in and put their buckles on, but Madeline insists she must give her baby brother a kiss every time before she sits in her seat.  It is rather adorable when we are not running late.  Both Harrison and Madeline are always looking out for the the little guy, bringing him toys if he cries or encourgaging him to stand up.  Harrison was really upset at the doctor's yesterday when the thought the thermometer was a needle and he thought Benjamin was going to get a shot.  And of course when Mommy and Daddy were putting in his eye medicine with Benjamin screaming about it, Harrison kept looking out for him, telling us he didn't want us to hurt him.  Harrison is always sneaking Benjamin his food in little tiny bites, worried that he might be missing out on the good food.

The Kids!

Here are a couple pictures I have been wanting to share.  I have a new photo editing program and I just love it! 

Tortilla Girl!!

Beware she could be anywhere!

Snow day with friends

Before we got all the rain these past two weeks.  We went up to the snow with some friends, I wasn't sure we were going to find some, but in end we did! It was a nice sunny day.  The snow was hard, so it wasn't good for snowman making but we still found many uses for it.  I enjoyed sledding with Madeline, while Tim worked on building a snow fort to protect him from the random snowballs flying his way (which I know nothing about)  Our good friends the Mireles' joined us in our fun.  Harrison loves to use his kids snow shovel to build and Madeline started making snow angels without any prompting.  I used to love to make snow angels and had not even thought about it this trip until Madeline started to make them.  Benjamin enjoyed a day by himself with Grandma and Grandpa all to himself.

Tim and Tammy

Before we had kids we used to have our picture taken together everywhere. I would stop and ask strangers everywhere to take a picture of the two of us. Since our children have come along we rarely got a shot of just the two of us, which is fine because I love taking pictures of the kids.  But I thought I would share a picture of us enjoying a day at the snow.