December Sun

So, I am way behind in my postings as you can tell. Here are some pics of the boys this summer when Brian's Aunt Dee took us to the Country Club to swim....


Joe lounging poolside
Peter relaxing in the shade
Tom expressing his coolness
Tom's GQ pose
Peter swimming with the noodle
Joe enjoying the VERY HOT summer day.

Naptime

This is what happened one day when I was working and Brian put Peter down for his nap and let Tom and Joe watch a quick show while leaving 2 home depot buckets out.

Tom left/Joe right
Tom "A little help please, Dad."
Joe "Me too, Dad."

Dr. Seuss at Halloween!

"Oh the places we will go. Your mother won't mind at all if you do". -The Cat in the Hat

We had a Blast this Halloween! The boys decided they wanted to be Dr. Seuss characters. We decided that Peter would be The Cat in the Hat, Tom- Thing One, Joe - Thing Two, mom as Cindy Lou Who, and dad the Grinch (yep, he didn't even need a costume;) ). We also transformed their wagon into the Thing-a-ma-jigger. Mucho thanks to Brian's one semester of engineering knowledge and my decorating prowess.

Here are some Pics of the fun Halloween weekend. On Friday, Brian's Aunt invited us to a Halloween party at her Country Club. If I could only describe the looks we received as we walked in the door. All the little kids were busy running around on the dance floor then we walk in and the music might as well been off. The kids stopped dancing and gravitated towards us and then went straight for the Grinch. Brian threatened to steal all the kids candy because that would be the Grinchly thing to do. The kids all screamed no and a couple of them punched Brian straight up in his face. Brian eloquently exclaimed, "Punks!" Way to go, big boy. What a way to start a party.

The food was scrumptralescent, the non-scary hayride was entertaining, and the haunted house was amusing, although Joe would have nothing to do with it. "I'm not going in there. You're crazy!" Maybe next year.

On Sunday, we dressed up and loaded the thing-a-ma-jigger in the trunk of the van and headed to my parents house, then Brian's parents house, and home again to trick-or-treat around our neighborhood. All in all a very weekend.

Peter is asking me everyday now-"Well, what are we going to be for next Halloween?"

Peter as "The Cat in the Hat"
Tom as "Thing One" (he will readily tell you that he is #1 by 20 minutes. It's gonna be a long life Joe.)
Joe as "Thing 2"
Brian with his Aunt Dee
The Cat in the Hat sitting on the Grinch's lap.
Horrible attempt at getting them all to look at the camera....Ahhhhh
Daddy with Peter
Cindy "Whou" as Peter likes to say
The Family on a non-haunted hayride.
Adult Halloween Costume Contest WINNERS!!

The Cat in the Hat riding in his thing-a-ma-jigger
Cindy Lou's sexy legs....oh, and don't for get those fabulous shoes! HA!

Oh no, the Cat fell asleep at the wheel!



Our nephew and godchild Braden as a pirate.
Elena as a witch, Tom, Peter, Joe behind Peter, Braden and Brett


Gotta love Peters cheeks in this pic.
Baby Hailey as a witch in training.
My mom loves Halloween as well and this year she made a witch to sit on her porch to scare the poor little kids trick-or-treating. It definitely scared my kiddos.

Joe Bob

So as I was driving Joe and Peter to the clinic last evening in the Jetta....we were listening to the new "Seal" CD.

I hear Joe in the back seat say, " Hey mom, can you turn the music down? People are going to think we are having a party in here."

Home Sweet Home

Sleeping Beauty

When are they going to let me outta here?
Mom and Auntie Katie giving me a spa treatment:)


Thanks for the Prayers!!

Hailey is home as of last Saturday evening. She received her PICC line with no problems and completed her IV antibiotics. She will have to take amoxicillin for a year to prevent any more urinary tract infections and kidney infections due to some mild reflux of urine that is backing up to her right kidney.

The urologist wants to see her in a month and repeat a kidney ultrasound due to the size of infection they spotted..per my sister it was 2cm x 2cm.

YIKES!! So WE are so HAPPY she is home!!

Here are some pics of her in the hospital and then a picture of the back of my van with 5 BOYS in it. CRAZY!!

Prayer Request

Molly and Hailey at cousin Juliet and Matt's Wedding August 21st, 2010.
Miss Hailey sporting her first swimsuit (August 20th 2010)
Attending her first parade August-2010.

We have a prayer request to ask of you.

Our 2 month old niece, Hailey, was admitted to the hospital last Thursday for an urinary tract infection that ended up spreading to her right kidney and then out into her bloodstream. She is on IV antibiotics and tomorrow they want to place a PICC line in her. In order to have the PICC line placed, she needs to be sedated for the procedure. The plan is she will need to be on IV antibiotics for at least 10 days :(

My sister has been staying at the hospital with her and she is VERY tired and stressed out...who wouldn't be??? Hailey had a rough day today crying and overall fussy.

Please keep Hailey, Molly, AJ, Braden and Brett in your prayers as well as the rest of the family.

XXX

Yeah baby! Big Daddy V is back for this report. I know it's been long, but that's just the way it is. Pun intended. We celebrated some hot XXX action on Sunday, and by we, I mean me. 30 years old baby - XXX! If the Superbowl can do it, so can I.

Nothing special was had since we had our blowout party last year for Katie's 30th/my golden birthday. So had some grum, grum, yum, yum babidy back ribs, cooked reeeeeaaallll slow so the fat melts away and all you are left with his bovine delish-ishness, grilled cornz on the cobs with fresh chili lime butter, homemade po-tato salad, the baked beans, and home made peach cobbler. Somewhere, Paula Dean wept with joy.

The XXX nature of this post brings to light two fairly recent conversations I had with my boys that are worth sharing.

First was during a recent road trip to Chicago while the boys were watching Shrek 2 for the first time. We explained there is a new character in this one called "Puss and Boots". When the Zorro like cat appeared on the show the boys were excited and watched intently in silence until Tom eventually exclaimed, "I like Puss and Hoots". "So do I," I vehemently exclaimed. Bwahahahahahha!

Second: Tonight I was having musical instruments night with the boys and they saw my old French Horn to which the following conversation ensued:

Tom: "Dad, play your French Horn"

Joe: "Yeah, I like the French Horn"

Peter enters the room after being in partial earshot of the conversation.

Peter: "I like French Porn".

A good laugh. Yes?

Summer Flowers

This year our hydrangeas and geraniums went CRAZY! Just take a look and you'll see what I mean.....

Door County

So, approximately being home for a day and half from Sioux Falls, we left for Door County to help celebrate Brian's Aunt Marge's 90th Birthday! Marge has 9 children (2 sets of twins) and they had rented a beach house on Lake Michigan for the week. We had a blast! It rained the first evening we were there but the following 2 days were wonderful. The boys had fun playing at the beach, going for hikes, building forts with their cousins and roasting marshmallows:)


Peter is happily digging with his cement mixer.
Tom drawing his name in the sand.
One of Brian's cousin's husband, Tom, flew his plane up to Door County and talked us into a plane ride. Don't think that I wasn't a little afraid of leaving all my children behind with both Brian and I in a plane. Not mention that once Tom completed the takeoff, he let Brian fly the plane around the the peninsula. Once we got up in the air the view was, of course, breathtaking. Here is Brian's second cousin Wil on his FIRST plane ride!!
Wil and I in the backseat of a cessna single prop airplane getting ready for take off!
One of Peter's latest hobbies.....picking at his toes!!
Auntie Marge is helping Tom put his Veggie Tales puzzle together.
The Family out for a afternoon hike:)
Joe climbing over the rocks along the shore of Lake Michigan.
Cousin Mike, Tom & Joe playing peek a boo.
Cousin Mike, the boys and I out on the trails.
Cousin Tim playing with Peter on the beautiful beach.
This is one of my favorite pics. Piggy-toes in the sand and loving it.
Tom insisted on wearing his gloves even though his entire body was covered in sand!
Joe concentrated very hard on his sand creation.


The boys riding a carousal for the first time!
The first time riding the scrambler.
Where's Joe??? Look close and you will see him raising his hand in the air.

We had SO MUCH FUN and hope to get together with the Houlihan's again!