A Face Only a Mother Could Love

It's about time to update some pics. :) Sorry for the delay, it just hasn't been a priority.  The past couple months have been chock full of "stuff!"  Aiden's first birthday, little Caleb's first school Christmas program, Christmas, and lots of other "stuff!" So, here are some pictures for you to enjoy.  I didn't pull in a lot of Christmas photos because you really don't need to see all the spoiling my children received.  Just trust me when I say the pictures are cute! :)

So, December 1st marked Aiden's 1st birthday!!  Hard to believe he's already over a year (almost 14 months now, YIKES!).  This time has just flown by!  A week or so after his actual birthday, we celebrated with a little cake just for him.  Grammy came through again with the little personal size teddy bear cake.

Preparing for the cake....Mmmmmmmmm...beaters!

Now each of the kids has had their go at the teddy bear.  Not sure which one was the cleanest, I just know they were ALL messy. Ha!

I think he likes it. :)

And once again, I am *that* mom...matching sweaters...c'mon, aren't they cute??

Little Caleb had his pre-K Christmas program in December and he was so excited to sing his songs.  They sang "Happy Birthday Jesus," "C'mon Ring Those Bells," and then performed "5 Little Snowmen."  I personally thought the "5 Little Snowmen" was a little disturbing because they all lost their heads!  4 year olds singing about snowmen losing their heads??  Eh, made me laugh too.  Here he is on stage.

My mom outdid herself again this year and made some adorable costumes for the kids so they could perform a little skit for us at Christmas.

Caleb was a shepherd.....

Abby was the angel...

and Aiden was the sheep.

First Abby came running in and told Caleb "Do not fear I bring you good news! A baby is born in a manger, let's go!" Then they sang "The First Noel" for us.  I was waiting for Abby to come running in "Shazam!" just like the angel from "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever."  Maybe next year.

My parents and Chris and Em came to visit for a few days over Christmas, and as they were packing up, Uncle Chris came downstairs and pulled little Caleb into the bathroom to give him some spiky hair.  Lilguy thought that was SOOOO much fun and he kept touching his hair the rest of the day.  This picture shows how much lilguy and Uncle Chris look alike.... :)

The hippo is also on the 3rd kid and Aiden loves to use it.  If he takes off somewhere, it's generally because he wants to find the hippo.  His favorite thing is to either sit in it and have lilguy push him around the house, or he has lilguy sit in it and HE pushes.  It's very cute to watch and listen to as well since there are generally loads of giggles coming from the vicinity of the hippo. :)

And last (for now) a pic of Aiden and Daddy...my mom made these fleece hats for each of the kids and a matching one for Daddy.  I thought I had a picture with all three kids and Caleb wearing the hats, but apparently I don't. :(  Just imagine that it's cute.

Five Question Friday!!

So a friend of mine does this, and I thought it might be fun, so here goes! Thanks to My Little Life for the questions!

1. What is better, growing old with out money or dying young and wealthy?
Hmm...I'd like to say it's an easy one, but it really depends! I'd love to grow old with my family all intact (including parents/grandparents/in-laws and out-laws so get ready for some Noah-ish years of living!) but that's just as selfish as saying I want to die young wealthy, right? Kinda not really, ok fine. I'd rather grow old without money then. :)

2. Who takes out the garbage at your house?
My husband. If there was a 32nd chapter in Proverbs, it would say "a good husband shall take out the family garbage" or something like that....

3. Have you ever had the same dream many times?
No, although pregnancy brought some funky dreams, never really had the same dream more than once.

4. Can you play a musical instrument?
Can is such an *odd* word...I *can* play the piano and trumpet; however, I haven't touched a trumpet in almost 15 years and the piano, well, that never went too much further than Fur Elise.

5. If you owned your own store, what would you sell?
Ooh, ooh, ooh...I would sell fabric. NO, I would sell purses. No wait, I would sell fabric. Actually a craft store would be GREAT (and I just bet I could get my mom to help once in awhile...)

Hmmmm...Interesting.

Had this in my saved posts and decided to go ahead and post it...almost a month later. :) Funny, I think He's still trying to help me remember this. :)

So, just this morning I was out catching up on a couple blogs and two of them, one right after another, wrote about God's love for us...that He loves us more than we know and that he thinks about us at least 70 trillion times a second (someone else did the math...not me. :) ). Hmmmmm, do you think He was trying to help me remember that??

Thankful that God works in amazing ways! Life is really great right now, but I ALWAYS need to remember that His love for me is beyond anything I can ever imagine!

My Life is Full

My life is full...SOOOOO very full but it's been GREAT! God is so good and life has been fantastic even in the midst of icky illnesses and hectic schedules.

We've been celebrating, painting, fixing, traveling, schooling, working, Halloweening, and LIVING! Life is good. Prepare yourself now for some adorable kiddos...these pics span the last two months. :)

First, in September we were greatly blessed to have my parents on hand to assist with some house repairs and painting. The kids thought it was great to have them here and even got to help with some of the repairs. Here's lil Caleb helping Pappy put a board back into the porch.And here's Abby overseeing Pappy replace a piece of trim. Future CEO perhaps?? :)While they were here we also celebrated Abby's 3rd birthday a little early. She of course, did not mind in the least. Here she is with her birthday cupcake (that's as big as her head!).
And of course Aiden who is now into just about everything he can find.
Of course when Pappy is around, there's lots of goofing off and tickling involved. I think the kids are just fine with that. :)Here's the kids sporting their new cuddly jammies. I love winter jammy time!!!

Later in the month, Caleb and lil Caleb were able to go up to a Michigan football game. They had SO much fun, and little Caleb is now quite the fan when it comes to watching games. He'll yell "go go go go ...touchdown!!" (even when it isn't the right team. oops!)The biggest event in the past couple months was the kids' first ever visit to the most magical place on earth. That's right, we braved Disneyworld with the three kids. My parents and Chris and Em were there as well, so we had PLENTY of hands and eyes to keep track of the kids.We didn't tell the kids where we were going...all they knew was that on Friday night, we had the van packed and we were headed to the airport. Then when we got on the plane, I called my dad quick and he told lil Caleb that we were going to Florida to see them! After we arrived (late) that night, the kids were FINALLY told we were going to Disneyworld. I don't think it really hit them yet...they were just excited that when you turned on the TV there were 4 or 5 different channels ALL with Disney stuff on them. :)They saw so many characters (some even during breakfasts) and they had a blast!! Oh, and if anyone looks a little warm in these pictures?? It's because while everyone up north was having COLD, COLD temps (even some with snow), it was RECORD heat in Florida. Yeah. HOT.AND.HUMID.Leo from Little Einsteins kept pointing at all the red hair on the boys then back at himself. Then he pointed at big Caleb and said he needed to spike or curl up the front of his hair like he (Leo) had his. :) Made me laugh.And I do believe lil Caleb might have his first crush. Miss June here, from Little Einsteins, came by our table, and lil Caleb ran around the table and just about plowed her over trying to get a hug. Yeah, nice job bud.Dancing with some of the characters. Lil Caleb was SOOOO excited that he got to do the Hot Dog Dance even!Watching the show outside of Cinderella's Castle.Aiden tried to grab the controller from Pappy, but he wouldn't let him. :) Kidding of course...but Aiden did have fun riding some of the rides!Abby's first driving lesson. Good thing there's a metal guide under the car.....Lil Caleb even got his first driving lesson...again, good thing there was a metal guide....We all had such a great time at Disneyworld!! Unfortunately, this was also the week of icky illnesses, but Abby is the only one that missed out on a partial day at Hollywood Studios and the rest of the sickness was after we left the parks. We also stayed in Orlando for a few days and spent time with my parents, and it was great to have some time away and spend it with family!A couple weeks ago, my MOPS group took a tour of one of the local firehouses similar to last year. Once again the kids were able to climb up in the firetrucks and play to their hearts content (just don't press any buttons, they said). Aiden thought the hat was pretty cool, but a little heavy. :)We actually remembered the camera this year, so we were able to get pics of ALL the kids with the helmet on. Even my baby girl. And finally, it was time for Halloween! The kids were VERY excited this year and kept asking if it was Saturday yet because they knew that Saturday meant Halloween!! Aiden went as Tigger this year...we kinda think he looks like Tigger...he's always bouncing in his seat and he has the red hair (of course). He looked pretty durn cute.Lil Caleb wanted to be a skeleton this year, which I wasn't exactly fond of, but then I found this cute costume and decided to go with it. He loved it, but he didn't like the mask that went with it. I was fine with that...And Abby...my girl Abby. She was all set to be Tinkerbell this year (using a dress-up costume she had gotten for Christmas last year) until this week. She received her birthday gifts from Miss Marissa (and Kerry and Rich) and it was a dress-up Flappergirl dress with a box of shoes. She was in LOVE!! She's been wearing the shoes around the house all week, and that must have helped because she used the shoes both Friday night for Harvest Bash at church AND for trick-or-treating around the neighborhood and did just fine! (sadly, she walks better in heels than most grown women...)This was at Harvest Bash at our church. One of the games was a mini-putt thingy, and she wanted to try it...I tried to help her a little, but the thing that made me laugh most about this picture was the sucker hanging out her mouth. Yes, I know it looks like a cigarette...what can I say, she was playing the part?? :) I promise...it was just a sucker. :)Of course, the kids had to dance once they had their costumes on. They call her dress-up shoes her "dancing" shoes, so whenever they're on, the two must dance. :) Very cute!!And finally, out trick-or-treating. Aiden only lasted for about 10 houses before he went home with Daddy. It was quite chilly on Halloween night, and we didn't want him to get sick. As I said before, my life is FULL, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

State Fair and Family Fun

The month of August FLEW by...I cannot believe it is already September! So much happened in the past month but I don't have pics for all of it. We started the month with a visit from Uncle Chris and Auntie Em. We actually hadn't seen them since Christmas (ack!) so it was SO nice to have them down and spend time with them. The kids had a blast and I think even Chris and Em survived. :) There was one day of NASTY thunderstorms literally all day, so they got to experience full meltdown mode during what was supposed to be naptime. It was a bit brutal, but everyone made it through....We also had a great visit to the Children's Museum (after the thunderstorms of course). Chris took some great pics at the museum, but I didn't get any with Chris and Em in them! So, nothing to share on here.......

Here's a random pic of the three muskateers watching the little dvd player. Even Aiden gets into it now. :)

The weekend after Chris and Em visited we decided to take the kids to the Indiana State Fair. We're only about 20-25 minutes from the fairgrounds and we thought we'd see what all was there...WOW there is A LOT to see! The first building we went into was the cow barn...um, wow, that was a lot of cows. :) Caleb and I both agreed that our kids would not be doing 4H once we walked in the building and saw all the cots set up next to the cows (along with microwaves, mini-fridges, etc). Yeah, here's hoping they choose a less smelly hobby. They had some baby cows that you could pet and little Caleb actually did! He's usually Mr Scaredycat but he went right in!

I like this picture...it looks like he's the "cow whisperer" or something. Ha ha!

The kids didn't do as well in the chicken or goat barns, so we didn't stay there long. There were two separate buildings for horses and we tried the draft horses, but they were transitioning new ones in that day and they hadn't arrived yet. :( Oh well. There was another area that had pony rides, so the kids both took a pony ride. Fortunately, neither one is asking for a pony yet (yet...).

There was A LOT more that I'm not mentioning, but we finished out the day with some rides. The kids' favorite was the race cars and they even got to ride in the Matt Kenseth #17 Dewalt car (with the USG on the front - yay!!). This ride just reminds me of riding the scrambler at the fair or at Great America with my Grammy...she loved to sit on the inside and then squish us while the ride was going. I think Abby takes after her Gigi! :)

Technically, we finished the day with an elephant ear on our way back out to the car. :) We ate it too fast to get a picture though.

The next in line was a short visit from my parents. My dad had a few extra days since he went in for his quarterly checkup and there were NO TUMORS!!! Praise the Lord!! So, since he didn't have to have them removed, he didn't have down time, and if you know my dad at all, you know he won't sit still for long. :) They were coming off their big trip out west, so they had t-shirts and presents for the kids. My favorite was this little pajama set for Aiden...he looks like he's ready to go rob a bank! Totally cracks me up!!!

Also while they were here, the kids wanted to make cookies with Grammy. It's a very special time for them...the Betty Crocker gene did not get passed to me--or it is still developing. :) But of course, it wouldn't be cookie making time without the kids eating the dough.To add to the month of family time, a week later we had Grandma and Papa Worgess come to visit!! They hadn't been down to see our new house yet and we were so excited for them to come! We were also thrilled that Diane's health allowed her to travel to see us!Caleb was able to get his dad to play Wii Bowling with him (much to the excitement of little Caleb) and I think Rick may have gone home with sore shoulders. :)

The best part was when little Caleb beat big Caleb in Wii Bowling but I didn't get a chance to move the picture onto the computer from my phone. It was funny to see though, let me tell ya!

Of course we weren't smart enough to get a picture with everyone, there is at least a picture of OUR family finally! The last family picture we have was from March of 2008 (yeah, before I was even aware I was pregnant with Aiden.....) so this is nice to have. :)

And finally, my little baby is growing up. Little Caleb started Pre-K this year. I still cannot believe he's 4 already!! He only goes to school three times a week for less than three hours a day, but he is soooooo enjoying himself! He was so excited to go that first day, and yes, I did cry! I keep asking if he's making new friends and he says yes, but he doesn't know their names. Great friend he is.... I'm so proud of him though and am excited to see everything he starts learning!