Scenes from the Basement

Honestly, I don't know what we'd do without our basement.  Life with 2 boys somewhat requires it.  Anyway, a weekend tradition has been to pop some popcorn (complete with M & M's) and watch a movie.  This is one of the rare times that the boys sit still for longer than 5 minutes and they also sit close together and get a long really well...oh if only they were like this all the time!  Ha ha!

They also love to play in the tents they have!

Thanksgiving & An early Birthday Celebration

We had a wonderful (busy) Thanksgiving.  Lots of travel, that's for sure but it was great seeing both of our families.  We started up in Gowrie on Wednesday afternoon.  We had a great Thanksgiving on Thursday, we also decided to celebrate Brady's birthday at each family's this year as he is having a friend party on his actual birthday.  Here are some scenes from Gowrie...

Making ornaments with Nana

After a delicious lunch, it was Birthday time...we sang to the Birthday Boy

 

 He got a cool new bike...I told Andy he could re-use that red bow and put it on a new Lexus for me...ha ha ha! 

 

Andy insisted on taking a picture of the inside of the cake...it was a chocolate cake with a layer of choc chip cookie dough...amazing!!!  And yes, the recipe is egg-free

He is anxious to ride this baby outside!

After the Birthday celebration we headed home, unpacked--repacked and I did some Black Friday shopping.  Then that morning we headed back to Kimballton.  Friday night we had the Petersen Thanksgiving and it was another great meal and lots of family time.  Then Saturday we had mom and dad's Thanksgiving.  More great food and Brady's second birthday celebration!

 

 

For this 'birthday cake' I did a trifle with chocolate cake, chocolate mousse, whipped cream, caramel and snickers...it was to.die.for!!!  He loved all the attention that's for sure!

Cool new game--he plays it EVERY DAY!

He got a new scooter!!!  He had to try it out already too!

All in all, a great Thanksgiving and I did a terrible job taking very many pictures...FAIL!  I will try to do better!!!



Semi-Wordless Wednesday

This guy loves having his picture taken and I'm happy to comply!

Passing Time

One of the ways we pass the time when it's cold outside is to have dance parties...and apparently Mason prefers to wear 1 shoe...that kid!

Let it Snow!

These two needed to burn off some energy and they couldn't wait to get outside in the snow...They had a blast--but didn't last too long.  It was too cold they said! :-)

Happy Halloween!

Cowabunga Dudes!

Happy Halloween from our two Turtles!!!

 

Last night was Beggar's Night in Polk City and it was so much fun!  The boys got a TON of candy and we didn't even hit up most of the neighborhood.  What I love about Beggar's Night in PC is that everyone hands out their candy from their driveway so lots of people do fire pits, get chairs out, it's such a social event!  One house even gives out beer to the adults! 

Of course I don't want the boys having all that candy so last night the Candy Fairy came once again and swapped out that sugar for some toys!  Funny enough, I had somewhat forgotten about it but Brady asked if the Candy Fairy was coming because he was ready to pick out the 5 pieces he gets to keep!  Love it!

Pumpkin painting time

The boys had fun painting their pumpkins!

Ignore the dirt on the back of the pumpkins...this mama took the lazy approach and I knew they'd get tired of painting them about half way through...and low and behold that's just what happened!!

Semi-wordless Wednesday

Soaking up the sunshine on Sunday--al fresco style!

He would go on 'family walks' all day, every day if we let him!  But I don't mind one bit!

Fall was the season for...

Weddings!  We had 3 of them within a few weeks!  The weekend before my brother's wedding we had my cousin Mallory's wedding.  It was a great time and the boys had SO much fun dancing the night away!!

The bride and her dad (my uncle Doug)

Me and my littlest peanut!  He had so much fun!

My big guy--who rarely left the dancing floor...

and apparently Andy and I didn't take any pics of the two of us and these pics are less than stellar--phone pics!

Our Weekend

We really took advantage of the awesome weather this past weekend.  Because who knows how much longer we'll have of these temps!  On Saturday we headed down to the fire station for their annual Halloween festivities.  Lots of fun for the boys!  They get to play games which earns them tickets to 'buy' prizes.  They ended up with a ton of stuff.  They also got to decorate sugar cookies, make bracelets, play in the bounce houses and have pizza for lunch!  The fire fighters do such a great job with these festivals and we love living in a small(ish) town! :-) 
I only took 1 picture as Mr. 2 year old was connected to me the whole time!

 

 

 

Then on Sunday, Andy and Brady got to go fishing with Steve and Kris and Brady caught some fish and had a great time!

We soaked in the sun as much as we could...multiple trips to the park and family walks!

Semi-Wordless Wednesday

These two are great baking assistants!

 

 

Ahh...the real reason they like to help!

Orchard Fun!

Last weekend we headed up to Gowrie and then made our way to the Orchard in Ft. Dodge. The weather was perfect and the boys had a great time!  Here are some so, so phone pics!  I really need to go back to using my camera! :-)