It's May & I'm posting Halloween and Christmas.

Well, I have majorly failed on my blogging this year.  I am not sure that it matters to anyone else, but I think since it's the end of the school year & my kids suddenly seem so grown up I am feeling sentimental and didn't want them to have a year undocumented.  Also, I have an itch to do some writing (again, I think I am just feeling sentimental!  Ha!  Looking back through all these pics has me thinking how much would be lost if there weren't a camera on my phone!!)  So I'll just post a lot of pics and hopefully get myself to a place where I can actually post some current stuff...maybe!!??!!  It's kind of a reflection of where we're at with life.  A 2 & 3 year under one roof is actually a lot like living at the circus...there's stunts & shows & choas & snacks & poop.  And very little time to write or sit or breath...haha!

Halloween seems to be where I left off.....

For Halloween this year, we had 2 garden gnomes and an Iron Patriot.  We also had hand, foot & mouth disease.  It was nasty and you can thank me later for not posting the pics of poor Beanie.  We'll just say that as the name would imply, there was a rashy gross thing covering Sawyer and Crosbi's hands, feet and mouths.  Ew!  So glad we made it through that and onto Trick or Treating!  I love this Top Pic because it totally tells where our kids are at this year...Griff totally into being Griff, Beanie wondering what Griff is doing and Crosbi looking to Bean for direction.  

We decorated the porch, went to a neighborhood Halloween party & trick or treated with the neighbors!  

Beanie had an awesome year at school this year.  His teachers were just the sweetest ladies and he met great friends.  Here is a close up of him from the Fall class pic.  He is such an adorable little red frosted cupcake!  This picture of him makes me melt and he is perfectly placed right between his best little school buddy, Griffin (not his brother, his friend as he always says) and the woman he refers to as his girlfriend, Roara (Laura).

And I got to help at the Thanksgiving Day Feast.  Hilarious.  

Mrs. Coates & Mrs. Stabile and all their sweet 3 year olds!

And speaking of Turkey Day, Jason & I ran in the Gobbler Hobbler...

Sweet, sweet Ryan painted stripes in our dining room in time for the party we hosted the Friday after Thanksgiving...

and as usual, our weekly daily trips to Target were nothing short of a chaotic show of terror delight!!

This fall there was a lot of snuggling & sibling love in our house.  We both said that one of our favorite things this year has been watching relationships form between our kids.  They all have a silly way they relate to each other and it kills us to watch them interact sweetly with each other.  Crosbi lovingly calls her brothers Mee mee (Beanie) and Nin (Griffin).  I love it when she yells out for them.  And just so you know I'm not story telling...with increased sibling love comes increased sibling fighting and we've had a lot of that too. Ha!  But the love is more fun to document and talk about.

Having a sister in the house keeps us on our toes in a whole new way.  This little lady loves her some dress up & accessories.  And her best worn accessory is for sure her bed head.  

It's her signature move!

Griff also hit the jackpot at school this year!  We love his teacher Ms. Pulsa and he's met some great friends too! He comes home everyday with the most entertaining and creative art he's made in class and in "creative time".  These Griffin nesting dolls could not bring me more joy...hahaha!  I am so excited he's showing some interest in art, I love it!

And that brings us to Christmas!  Whew!  Christmas came with it's usual suspects...

Itsy Bitsy the elf was back to his shenanigans....

And so was daddy, who "Clark Griswalded" our first real Christmas tree.  

(Only disappointment for me was that no live squirrel was hiding inside)

We decorated for the first time in our house on Norway and it was so fun!

and we celebrated with Bows & Bow Ties and Best friends!

We made peppernuts...

and tired to have a little family moment at home.

Crosbi got her first doll which she loving calls "bobby" and will not part with and the boys got superheros and legos!  Ryan & I got our carpet cleaned as we spilled some red wine while the opening was happening. Never a dull!! 

 

The two of us had a blast shopping & getting ready for Christmas, 

so fun & blessed to be able to give our kids a little magic.

And as usual we got in lots of celebrating in with both families and extended families!

  

Claire, Ollie Lu & Crosbi Lu at Grandma Lu's Christmas!

The boys got this adorable tent from my mom & dad so we bunked their beds and they are loving the new set up!

And the cherry on top of our holidays was seeing our friends, who are like family to us.

My two best girlfriends since Jr. High Stacy & Andrea

And some super couple love!

Plus a New Years celebration at our house that included 9 kiddos & one on the way.  Love ending one year and starting another with these people we love so very much!

Playing Catch Up

Time has slipped away from me all together since the Summer.  School and schedules and life have kept me from taking any pics of the kids that weren't on my phone, much less putting them on the blog.  But since this spot is for them to keep up with their life, I thought I should get things back up to speed, because there's been a lot of things going on and milestones hit that they will want to know about...I hope, haha!

The boys started school!  Griffin is in ALL DAY Kindergarten and Sawyer is going 2 mornings a week to God's Gifts Preschool in Oswego.  They both have adjusted wonderfully  and are doing great! I love the great schools, teachers and friends they have!

GRIFF

Griff has done so great in school!  I couldn't be more proud to see worksheets come home with his handwriting, hear all his songs and listen to him sound out words as he starts to read!  As a former grade school teacher, this makes my heart want to burst!  He gave us "first timers" a scare with a few yellow cards pulled at the beginning of the school year and we remained super calm and collected by assuming he was headed straight for jail and calling his teacher (rookie mistake).  She put us at ease, assuring us that this happens with everyone and has had great behavior since!  He loves his new friends, playing with Charlie at recess, going to Library, playing and reading Star Wars, computer class and all the fun dress up days that come with Elementary school!

 

A drawing Griff brought home from school...he LOVES him some Star Wars!

Griff and I on his back to school date to sushi with Ry & I.

BEANIE

 

Sawyer is attending God's Gifts where Griffin went his first 2 years for Preschool!  I absolutely love his teachers who tuck him safe and sound in to our car after each day.  He looked so small that first day in, waddling with his back pack!  He always tells me he will miss me when were in the drop off line but he always gets right out and has quite the tales about what he did while he was there.  Sawyer also had two major changes in his life moving into this Fall.  He is working on potty training (poke my eyes out, still not going great) and also he switched over to a gluten free diet!  He's done great on it and I think is feeling much better so that's been a huge blessing!

 

Elmo potty and gluten free muffins, OH MY!

New BIG boy hair

Cute little red frosted mini muffin in his class pic!

CROSBI LU LU

This girl is quite a character!  I am in love with watching her explode into being a toddler!  It is way too much fun to dress her and watch her try to talk and play with the boys.  I am trying to enjoy each sweet step as I know I am only going future away from this baby stage, so when she lets me rock her before bed I savor the *moment*.  She is saying a few words, loves to move and grove, walks, runs, hops, skips and jumps...haha!  She doesn't miss a beat.  Oh and she seems to love shoes and chocolate...I think we're going to be good friends Cros!!

 New Addition: Our Hoop

It's been super fun for Ry and I to pass on our love of basketball to the kids and the last two seasons we've been a family of avid bulls fans!  It's been on our bucket list to get them a hoop and now that we are in a place we hope to stay we couldn't wait to get one in the ground!  Thanks to help from the grandparents and the boys b-day $$$ and a little man power from "dad life" AKA: Ted and Jason, we were able to cross it off!  We are hoping to hear the steady thump thump thump of dribbles for years to come from our driveway! 

ABBI

 

This Fall has been wonderful and exhausting all in the same breath...hello real life, right??!!??  I am loving this stage with my family but it also a never ending cycle of work.  We have had a horrible round of the flu, hand-foot & mouth and colds.  Ryan and I have talked about wearing face masks and rubber gloves in the home (kidding...sort of) but hopefully we're just getting this all out of the way.  I am trying to remain up beat.  Bleh.  I have had a few great nights with girlfriends, one to hear one of my favorite authors, Shauna Neiquest, speak and one to drink wine a paint pumpkins.  I am so thankful for friends, these nights keep me sane as we can rehash the good, bad and ugly of being moms!  

This is me saying, "we will never ever ever get back together" to the flu.  It's that simple, right!

RYSKI

 

Ry has had a super busy Fall.  He is seriously such an amazing dad, provider, hard worker and friend.  We are all of blessed to have him heading our family.  This month Ryan applied for and received a promotion to Director at Con Agra!  I couldn't be more proud of Ryan and am confident he will do great in his new role!  He's also been working through an extensive list of to do projects in our new home and he's been super patient with me as I keep adding to it!  Ha ha!  We have painted walls & cabinets, put in canned lights and hung fixtures and pictures.  We have moved endless boxes and it's been a lot of work to get set up in our new place!  I need to post some pics but here is a small project he did in our bedroom because he loves me and he goes along with my crazy whims!  A polka dot wall! He and Griff started basketball tonight too and he is coaching!  Ha ha!  I can't wait to hear the stories!

 

FAMILY FUN

In October we went with my family to Florida for a longish weekend.  It was a great chance to be all together as a family without outside distractions and lots of sunshine!  We even got 2 all grown up nights out because our old babysitter from Naperville just moved to Florida, AWESOME!  We rented a boat one day, did a trip to the zoo, swam and just hung out.  Each big kid couple also planned and made a meal complete with dessert and drink of the night so that was a fun new twist on the vacation and got us all involved!  I wouldn't say we got a ton of R & R (haha!!!) but we had a blast!  

On the boat ride

Cousin LOVE.

And last but not least, no Fall is complete without your annual pumpkin farm trip and ours was so fun this year as all 3 of the kids could participate and enjoy it!

Nothing makes me happy like petting zoos, pumpkins and Fall fun!  Nothing, that is except for Christmas decore...haha!  I am already thinking ahead!  That's a long story short...or maybe for some of you a short story long, but that's what we've been up to!  Here's to staying healthy and enjoy the rest of the Fall!!