A Halloween Night at Church (see post below as well)

What a perfect Halloween night! The kids (and me too!) had such a fun time at church. Ryan, I am sure, was thrilled as well- haha! Another church and City on a Hill went in with our church this year to throw an even bigger party than the past years. There were hot dogs, barbeque sandwiches, cotton candy, chips, drinks, popcorn, carnival games, 4 inflatables, a rock wall, a haunted house, clown, balloons, face painting, kids' fun rooms, a fire truck you could tour, a police car, and I am sure I am forgetting other things- it was jam packed with things to do. We went about 6:00 and ate dinner right away. Then the kids jumped in the moonwalk, played games and got TONS more candy (like we needed any). Church members were walking around just filling your bags with handfuls of candy as well as each time you played a game, they gave you candy. It was so much fun!


Maya and Sadie in their matching cheerleader outfits.
Cobe and Sadie playing a game where you walked in a circle on numbered carpet squares and stopped when the music did. Whoever was on the carpet # that they drew out of a bucket won. Sadie was adorable playing this game. She took it so seriously. Cobe literally stayed at this game for an hour- he would not leave and kept playing over and over. I asked him at least 4 times to quit playing and he refused. I could not figure out why he was so enthralled with it.
Here is Brooks playing the same game. He quit after a few rounds and ran off to another activity. He was a madman tonight and all over the place. I could not keep up with him. He just went from one thing to another right by himself, and I kept having to go hunt for him. Sometimes I would find him in another part of the church already involved in something else. So unlike him!
This was in one of the kids' fun rooms at City on a Hill. They just had a big room full of these bouncy, jumpy ball thingamabobs.

A balloon room at City on a Hill. The younger kids really seemed to enjoy this room. Micah Henry would not leave it ( you can see a tiny bit of his black and red pirate costume behind Aliyah).

Yet another Halloween post

Brooks with his big "M" painted on his face.
Sadie and her little flower.
Cobe's mean, serious football player face.
Brooks asked for a balloon sword from the clown and he ended up with this crazy hat somehow.

And Cobe got an even crazier one!

Halloween Post #2 (See post below as well)

Getting ready to get started. Sadie was all about getting some candy in her bucket. She wanted to walk and she wanted to carry her own bucket. She wasn't letting her candy out of sight. :-)
Dig in!
Some people in cubicles go to great extremes with their decorations. The poor man's hand fell off that Brooks is holding.
This guy was a mad scientist and had a booth set up with lots of decorations.
A picture that doesn't go with my Halloween post, but I just had to post it. Miss Sadie Claire in undies! She told Amanda while trick or treating that she had to poop (which she has been telling me lately). Amanda told me, so I told Sadie just to go in her diaper. She never mentioned it again, nor did she poop. When we got home, she told me again that she had to poop. She got on the potty and pooped; not much, but she went. We made a huge deal about it because I was so proud of her waiting to go until she got to the potty (she has pooped before on the potty, but never has had to wait to go). Lisa had given her 4 pair of undies today just in the nick of time. She wore them until bedtime and didn't have an accident (it was only about an hour and a half). I think I may let her start wearing them while we are home and see how it goes. Wish me luck! ( or her luck I guess!)

Halloween 2007

The kids had such a good time trick-or-treating at their grandma's work (Herman Miller) today. It is the perfect set-up. You go around from cubicle to cubicle and RACK UP on the candy! Each of their buckets was full by the end- with the good kind of candy too! Some people gave away full-size candy bars while others gave cheetos, pretzels, fruit snacks or goldfish. There was some good stuff other than candy which I appreciate. I am fortunate that none of my kids are big candy freaks (Sadie could be if we let her I think). This candy will last us until after Christmas when I'll finally just throw it away. We definitely don't need anymore which is great b/c then tomorrow night, they can enjoy playing games at church and not worry about getting candy. (I am sure they'll still get some, but they have inflatables, race cars, and other carnival type games to play.)

Here are my 2 football players and my little cheerleader. Too bad she doesn't match, but she still is a big fan of her brothers!
The boys were great about posing today, but there is always one in the bunch- Sadie wasn't a fan. I liked how Brooks had on a helmet though-- really made it tough for him to stick his finger up his nose! Haha
Oh Ryan... he got stuck carrying around the kids' buckets, bags, kids at times, as well as Josh's giraffe costume. I guess he decided he'd free up his hands and wear it. He wanted a bucket to carry around so he could start getting candy since he was wearing a costume.
Seven of the nine grandkids (Justin, Jake, Brooks and Cobe in back/ Selah, Sadie and Braelyn in front)

The whole gang.

Busy, busy week ahead

Off and running... tonight is BSF, Tuesday- trick or treating at MJ's work, soccer practice, Wednesday- Halloween/church for a party, Thursday- meeting for Lasik surgery at my eye Dr.'s., Friday- absolutely nothing!!!! Looking forward to the weekend already which is sad since it is only Monday morning. I dread weeks that I have something every single night. On the bright side, it does make for a quick week!


Had to take a picture of my dolly sleeping to show you how obsessed she is with her new crocs. I bought them for her Friday night, and she has only had them off for church Sunday morning. She has napped in them and slept in them as you can see. She loves the fur on them!!! I wavered back and forth if I should even buy them- glad I did!
Ryan must have taken this picture. I didn't notice it until I was loading the one of Sadie sleeping. He must have taken it while I was shopping Friday night (hence no crocs on Sadie!). He must have thought they were cute all lined up watching cartoons.

Hope everyone has a great week- the posts might be few and far between this week, but I will stop in sometime after Tuesday or Wednesday to post costume pictures (nothing too exciting- the boys are football players and Sadie will be a cheerleader). Adios!

3 whole days and no post?????

Wow- didn't realize that I hadn't posted since Thursday. Haven't been super busy, just not a lot to say I guess. Thursday Sadie and I had dance in the morning. Nobody was there- usually there are 7-8 girls now in the class, and there were 3 of us there Thursday. It was fun though- they have started to learn their dance for the recital, so I feel like there has been more dance instruction and less play. Sadie isn't going to be in the recital though, but it is still fun to learn. Thursday night Cobe had soccer practice, so Ryan took the boys to that and Sadie and I had some free time at home. Friday, I walked in the a.m. (Lisa and I have been trying to walk every morning except Thursdays before the snow hits), went to work and then went to Cobe's school for his Penny Carnival/Halloween party. He won a pumpkin bucket filled with toys/treats for bringing in the most box tops (we only sent in 30, so it must not have been too hard to win!). Then Chase came home with us to play. Friday night, Lisa and I went to Grandville. I got a pair of light cords at Ann Taylor, some earrings and a beautiful butterfly necklace (a gift from Lisa for Christmas- we exchanged early!!!!). I bought her a robe that she wanted and gave it to her that night as well! We both wanted to start wearing our Christmas presents early. :-) I got my mom 2 presents for Christmas too, so it was a pretty successful trip. We then went to Meijer's to get some groceries. Saturday we went swimming at Mimi's, out to lunch at the Grand King Chinese Buffet, and then back to our house to play after picking up Chase, Landon and Bailey. Aliyah and Maya came over as well so the kids all had a blast- playing football, wrestling and watching a movie. Saturday night we made homemade pizza and just hung out. This morning- went to Sunday School and it was my turn in nursery so the boys helped out in there. Now we are getting ready to conquer Cobe's BSF lesson!

Sadie's Bike

Sadie zoomed around the cul-de-sac over and over again yesterday on her new bike. She is so proud of it and would ride it 24-7 if we let her. She flies down the driveway since it is on a slope and doesn't know how to brake yet, so I have to be right beside her. She all of a sudden seems 6 to me instead of 2!

A few more pictures from last night

Sadie and her favorite "toy"- Gracyn. Gracyn wasn't too happy about it, but Sadie was in hog heaven.
All the girl cousins on Ryan's side of the family- Sadie, Selah, Gracyn and Braelyn. The other 5 are boys!
Grandma Hains, Sadie and Grandpa Hains- the most active 86/87 year olds that I know of!
Jim, Sadie and Mary Jo- of course Sadie was smiling and posing until my camera actually decided to take the picture. Hate the delay!!!!
Here is the one and only Miss Hollywood! Ain't she adorable???? --my little niece Selah Reese. She is only 21 months old and sang the whole Happy Birthday song to Sadie- so cute!

I took pictures of Sadie zooming around the cul-de-sac on her bike this morning. The girl has it down pat already! I'll post those tomorrow! We just got home from church and now I am off to put the boys to bed... good night.

Party Girl

I think we are finally done with birthday festivities for 2 year old Sadie! She started off by asserting she was 2 and wouldn't wear the outfit I had picked out for her party. She wanted to wear the grubby old sweats she had had on all day. Oh well- guess it is time to start picking the battles!

She LOVED all of her presents- she got a bike, helmet, shopping cart and Little Pet Shop. Earlier in the week, Jen had stopped by with pots and pans and a tea set for her, since they couldn't come to the party.



The birthday girl will have lots of luck this year- she blew out both her candles!
Her new cool bike helmet.
Sadie LOVES her new bike. She rode it around and around the loop in our house.
Her Little Pet Shop from Kyle and Amanda was a huge hit! It has a dog and a hamster that came with it, and they each have accessories that they can play with.
Her favorite part of the night was either playing with/holding Baby Gracyn, or going back and forth between Aunt Amanda and Uncle Kyle. She just climbed between their laps back and forth while they were trying to eat pizza.

I have more pics to post which I'll do later, but blogger is being picky about me loading pics right now.

Dolly with her Dolly

Sadie has loved playing with her new American Girl Bitty Baby. She "reads" to her, feeds her a bottle, and does not want her to have a "wet" diaper on. Problem with that is that she only came with one diaper, so she doesn't want her to put it back on. Sadie was real creative with the baby's name and named her One. Yep- you read right, One. :-)

We haven't even given her our presents. My mom gave her the doll and the starter set as well as two adorable matching duffle bags- denim with kelly green polka dot ribbons on them. Jeff and Chele gave her an adorable princess stuffed doll, and Spot/girls gave her a purse with lots of accessories in it. She has been having birthday prizes for about a week now. Ryan's family is coming over Tuesday night so she'll get even more then. It must be fun turning 2!

The week with my parents flew by! We were busy the whole time it seemed. Saturday morning we all went to Cobe's soccer game- he played extremely well. He sat out the first quarter, played defense the 2nd quarter and the score was still 0-0. Third quarter he went in as forward and scored 3 goals!!! He was amazing to watch- quick as lightning. I love watching his little legs go. He is always so self-conscience about being so small, but I think out on the soccer field, his being so little really pays off. Their team stayed undefeated the whole season which was the second season in a row that he was on an undefeated team. He got a taste of different medicine today though- he was asked to go out for a travel baseball team. Well, today was the first day of playing. Ryan took him and said he was completely overwhelmed. They played with the 10 year old team as well, so he felt quite intimidated. I felt sure he would throw the towel in, but he surprised me tonight and asked when his next practice was. I think he may feel better when it is the true 8 & Under team playing others the same age, but I feel like he has a different road ahead of him in that sport.

Anyway, after Cobe's game on Saturday, mom, me, Brooks and Cobe went to Dunham's to get Cobe indoor soccer shoes b/c that starts back up Tuesday night (and of course his ones from last year don't fit!!), and Brooks got a bat out of the deal. Mom and I got shoes at Younker's and then headed to Sam's Club to print pictures and get steaks for dinner. We came home and Ryan grilled filet mignon's and we had a great dinner. Cobe and I went to Sunday School this a.m. while the others stayed home. Sadie and I took mom and dad to the airport and then went on a walk. She stayed at Lisa's while I ran to work to do a few things and to Walgreen's. Now everyone is in the bed sleeping peacefully resting for another busy week! BSF tomorrow night, soccer and Sadie's little party Tuesday night, church Wed. night, soccer again Thurs. night. At least indoor soccer games are played during the week and our weekends are free of games once again. I am off to shower and hit the sack as well. Tootaloo!

Four Winds Casino/Chicago Post #1

What a great trip we had to the Four Winds Casino in New Buffalo, MI and Chicago!!! We got to the casino around 5:00 Thursday night. We checked in to our beautiful hotel rooms- the best I have ever stayed in. They had granite counter tops, tile floors and showers, gorgeous accents, plush sheets and towels, flatscreen tvs, many more complimentary items than usual (bottles of water, Starbucks coffees, USA Today paper delivered to your door in the a.m.). I could have stayed in the room the whole time! Then we headed down to walk around, check out the stores, casino, etc. We had dinner and then we all headed to the arcade room to let the kids play some games. They had a blast! There were tons of games and they won a lot of tickets they redeemed for prizes. My mom went back to the her room and put them to bed so Ryan and I could go to the casino. What a joke that was! I played the slots and Wheel of Fortune for about 10 minutes and realized that the arcade games were way more fun. Ryan lost a quick 30 bucks and I lost a quick $10, so we left and went back to the arcade without the kids. We stayed there for a few hours- spent $30 bucks and came out of there with enough toys for the kids that they thought it was Christmas morning! They had video games like Deal or No Deal that I played over and over. We were winning tickets like crazy. We had over 1500 to redeem by the end of the night. We felt much better "gambling" in the arcade b/c we knew we'd end up with something at least by the end of the night! Haha

We got up this morning pretty early to meet my great uncle for breakfast. We had a great breakfast and enjoyed our conversation with him- very interesting job he has! We then headed off to the train station- caught the 10:29 to Shy-town and had about an hour and 40 minute train ride. We went to Bennigen's for lunch right when we got there- it was 1:00 their time, but 2:00 our time so everyone was starving. We walked all the way down Michigan Avenue stopping at different stores on the way to the American Girl Doll Store. It was a long hike, but we stopped to shop some. My mom got Sadie her first American Girl Doll- the Bitty Baby and Starter Set (a chest with 3 outfits, bottles, rattles, etc.) in it. Sadie was sawing logs and missed that entire experience! What luck! We hit a few stores on the walk back as well, caught the 5:10 train home, and I slept once we got to the car on the drive home from the train station. I was whipped. The weather turned out to be outstanding for a day like today- around 60 degrees and it never rained the whole time we were in Chicago (the forecast had called for rain all day!) We really did have a great 2 day mini-vacation! Check out the pictures below (3 total posts).



Ryan and his dolly on her birthday at the casino.
Sis and Brooks playing arcade games. Brooks became hooked on the driving/motorcycle racing games.
Cobe trying his fortune on the wheel of luck.
Sadie liked to watch all the games, watch all the lights, and hear all of the loud noises. I thought she would be hard to manage in a place like that, but she was enthralled with the whole experience.
A shot of a very small portion of the casino from the table where we ate dinner. The place was HUGE- I got lost and never figured out the setup (shock!).

#2

Sadie at Bennigen's for her birthday lunch. They came and sang to her and she wasn't quite sure that she liked it!
She dug right into her ice cream treat after they sang to her.
Her favorite new prize- a messy lip gloss cell phone. As you can see in the picture, she puts it on her whole face, not just her lips!
Uncle John Robert with Sadie. My great uncle John is the head of security at the Four Winds Casino where we stayed Thursday night. He has 120 security guards working for him. He got our rooms for us- the nicest hotel room I had ever been in. It was luxurious!!!! We had breakfast with him Friday morning before catching the train, and Sadie took a quick liking to him. His job is pretty interesting and Ryan wished he could have spent the day there with him. We will definitely be going back to that casino in the near future!
At the casino on Thursday night. We ate dinner at a restaurant on the casino floor. (Ryan, Sadie and Mom)

#3

Poor Sadie- she had been going strong all day shopping/walking around Chicago, and of course she cashed out in her stroller RIGHT before we got to the American Girl Doll Place. She missed the whole reason we went to Chicago for her birthday. She woke up right after we left the store. That place was a MADHOUSE of little girls!!!!!!
Brooks and Cobe with R2D2 at the Lego Store.
At the Lego Store with a T-Rex and a finger up the nose for his usual pose.
This statue thingy was outside of a building on Michigan Avenue.
Riding on the train- it was quite a long ride. Didn't help that we FORGOT that Indiana time was an hour behind ours, so we got to the train station an hour and 20 minutes ahead of time instead of 20 minutes!!!!!!! That was a boring wait for the train. I was amazed though at how well the kids did on such a long trip- they were real troopers and had a great time.