Birthday party - round 4, the end, I promise

OK, I could post lot of pictures with Elizabeth opening presents, but let's face it, I am almost caught up, and as you can tell, Josiah thought that he was getting left out. So here is the final picture from that night.
Elizabeth's new digital camera, I just learned you have to be careful and excercise censorship as you never know what pictures your daughter will take when you are no looking. That is all I am going to say about that.

Josiah thought he needed his time in the spotlight too.

Birthday Party - round 3

The Mc Donald's birthday party

Another tradition we are starting with our kids is to let them chose the restaurant for thier birthday supper. Elizabeth chose Mc Donald's, and she wanted to take Addi. No surprises there :)

Chad let Elizabeth open her present before we ate, while it kept them happy while we waited for the food, it was a struggle for the girls to understand that we needed to eat when the food did arrive.
I don't even have to explain this picture.

Birthday party - round 2

Again, sorry for the late posting, but I figure as long as I get it caught up, that is the point. Here is my parents with Elizabeth, grandma and papa.

Here is Chad's parent's with Elizabeth, nana and grandpa.

Opening presents and actually sharing nicely with Kaden.

Her haul for the day.

It was a great day - thanks everyone for the gifts. Elizabeth is the reigning Candyland champ, anyone want to challenge her?

The cake

So I got this idea to teach myself how to make fabulous birthday cakes for my kids. I have always been a fan of cake decorating and shows like "Ace of Cakes." Every year I have bought Elizabeth's cakes, and usually paid more than I am comfortable with, however I thought, if I could just teach myself how to do this, I could save money and give my kids something special and really tailored to their own tastes and dreams. Here is the cake before I assembled it. I originally planned to do complete made from scratch cakes, but my mom who happened to visit that weekend talked me out of it. So I doctored cake mixes to make a very moist chocolate cake and a white sour cream almond cake. I purchased these lovely square pans from a hole in the wall craft store on East University in Des Moines call Claytons. They are owned by a couple in their 80's who I am pretty sure live in the rear of the store. However they are computerized and will help you with absolutely anything that you need. They had more cake decorating stuff than any chain store I had visited in Des Moines. Since we had to bake one layer at a time, it took all day, and more buttercream than you can shake a stick at. But we persevered, and here we are.

Here is the assembled cake at the party. Candles and everything.
Just a few more touches.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ELIZABETH!!!

Still catching up - a night in costume

So the night started off with two men in the sky. Still hasseling with the antenna, to which I am greatly opposed. To Chad, a better picture is just one adjustment away. Can I tell you how many times he has adjusted this thing?????
Here is the line up of trouble. Alexia, Kora, Josiah, Elizabeth, Kaden and Grant.

Trying to strike a pose.

The cutest frog on the block. At least he learned how to say ribbit that night :)

Pumpkin Patch - late entry

OK - For those of you that were at the pumpkin patch with me, you know these are extremely late, but you also know I started working a ton of extra hours shortly after returning from this trip. Let me introduce you to my family. The first picture is the oldest three grandkids, Sara, Ashley, and Jenna with a small shot of Kate. The next one is is my mom and Brayden. Breanna is also making a small appearance.
This is my youngest sister, Joni with Brayden, her youngest and Josiah. This was taken during the rain storm, luckily we got a spot under the porch roof.


Again, here are the two hoodlums. Elizabeth is still working on that smile issue :)


Here is my sister in law, Jill, Elizabeth, and Jill's two girls Ashley, and Kate. Jenna is making a small appearance on the right.

This is a rare sighting of my charismatic older sister Deanne. She really does have two legs. I wouldn't even post this picture, but I think I have a total of 3 pictures of her, one from last year's pumpkin patch, this one, and one of her in the background of a picture of my kids. And she truly is always on the move. With her are Luke, her youngest, and Jenna again.

Yet another picture of Elizabeth and Josiah. Still trying to get Elizabeth to look and smile.

Here's the whole troop. Notice we got everyone in the picture and no one is visibly restraining anyone. Looks like they actually do like each other. Well done everyone!

For sale

This is a picture of E that is about 18 months old, she had gotten into my lipstick shortly after Josiah was born

I have two moderately priced children For Sale on Ebay. Best offers are accepted, and there are no returns :) Sorry, it has been rough around here today. I think I am suffering from the back lash from my children for being gone so much lately, thankfully I am only working one extra day this week and then will get back to my regular semi-insane schedule. Josiah learned what time outs were today, and Elizabeth tried leaving the house to go the Pharmacy in a pair of under ware that were on backwards, a coat, and mittens. However, I did still manage to get lemon yogurt muffins, chicken soup, and pumpkin pie made. That's the good news, the bad news is that I need a skid loader to make a path through the toy room and the living room.

Happy Birthday Elizabeth, Round 1

Since we aren't sure that we will get back to NW Iowa before Christmas, we decided to celebrate Elizabeth's birthday with her cousin Jenna's birthday. Elizabeth always loves a party, and so she gets at least 2 a year.
Elizabeth with her Papa and Grandma and cousin Jenna

Jenna (7) and Elizabeth (3, soon to be 4 in November)

Somebody had the giggles. Elizabeth has started that awkward phase where it is difficult to smile on command. So I tickled her. I figured the punishment fit the crime.

The Cousins. Good thing I have a high speed digital camera that allows me to take hundreds of pictures and delete the ones that are horrible. Eventually I get one good one. The four in the front row were all born with in one year. What a year that was!

Again with the tickling. Thanks everybody for the great gifts!!

Swinging

Before the weather turns very nasty and winter is upon us, I wanted to take one afternoon to play outside as much as we could. I love fall photos as the light seems just right. We recently got a swing set that the kids have enjoyed, and of course no afternoon is complete without Elizabeth and Josiah tackling each other. It usually starts when Elizabeth either has her own idea of how things should be done, or Josiah is not listening to me and ELizabeth thinks she is the Enforcer. Anyway we had a great time. Please excuse Elizabeth's "moon face" as she was on her steriods when these were taken.

First black eye

Even though these pictures did not turn out the best, Elizabeth got her first black eye a few weeks ago. I first thought she had come home with it from daycare thinking she had probably walked into a swing (she does these things from time to time) but instead, Chad confessed that she got it rolling down the slight slope in front of our house, and stopping by rolling into the utility pole in the ditch. At least she stopped rolling before she hit the road!!

The Little Professor

Josiah recently found these, and they have been a constant favorite. He makes everyone try them on, and then he puts them on and will leave them on for at least 15 minutes. Its probably a good thing since both Chad and I wear glasses, he will probably end up with a real pair some day.

Just another surprise

We have a rule in our house, if Elizabeth is being quiet, she is probably doing something that she shouldn't. She has never proved me wrong. While changing the laundry the other day I found some of her art work. It's made of two strips of toilet paper, and two flushable wipes with a hand towel. She is a mixed medium artist. I wonder if we could sell some prints??

Seattle

As some of you know, we recently got back from Seattle. We kinda flew out last minute to Chad's best friend from high school's wedding. It was great to see a part of the country we had never been to. Everyone there was friendly and finding our way was also interesting, but we definitely have memories to last a life time. Thanks to everyone who helped watch Elizabeth and Josiah so we could go! Enjoy the pictures!!

The first night we were there, on the way to Brent's house for the rehearsal dinner.

Ok, evidently I can't get my pictures to move, so the first section of pictures are just scenic pictures. The one of Chad and I was taken by a lake next to the interstate on our way back from church Sunday morning. The market ones are all from Pike Place Market, I just have to say that if I could've taken some of the flowers back on the plane, I would have. You got a huge bouquet for $15. We did not get to see the fish throwers since it was Labor Day and they were the only stall that was closed. We did get to try the fried doughnuts. Jaarsma's are better. Then there are the wedding photos, and the jam table, aka the wedding favors. The food was fantastic, but the cheesecake (instead of wedding cake) was out of this world. Brent made all the cheesecakes, and we have already attempted to duplicate his recipe, but we failed. We had a great time visiting Brent and his new bride Katie. Thanks for the invite!!