Six Flags with the Rileys

We could take friends for free to Six Flags with our season passes so we met the Riley on the Wed. before Thanksgiving and had a great evening. It was chilly, but we stayed bundled up and drank our weight in hot chocolate. All the kids were great and the 4 adults operated like a well oiled machine. We have been friends with Emmy and James for more than 10 years and it is fun to have a family we get along with so well and the kids always have a blast. I hope we can go on a trip with them someday.

Eli and Ranger were pretending to be scared on the Ferris Wheel.

Mom and Dad's Bed

For Cadence and Jack Ranger, crawling into our bed, day or night, results in almost immediate sleep. It is a wonderful phenomenon that I have heavily leveraged since they were newborns. They have both logged their fair share of time in our bed, especially Cadie. And I generously used this technique when I was pregnant with Colton. Most Saturday and Sunday afternoons I could be found in bed with Cadie sleeping on my left and Jack Ranger on my right (this is always their "side"). Being pregnant with #3 leaves a Mama pretty tired, but the fact that some mysterious sleep drug enters Cadie and Jack Ranger's systems upon getting into our bed was a huge blessing. Sadly, Colton seems to be immune to the powers of Mom and Dad's bed.

Sunday afternoon both Cadie and Jack Ranger crawled into our bed at about 2:45, went to sleep within minutes and at 5pm I had to go into my room to wake them up or else I think they may have slept all evening. Colton helped me to rouse my sleeping lovelies. Neither Cadie or Jack Ranger appreciated the "baby attack" but I found it pretty funny to see Colton attempting to wake them up with kisses and pillows in their faces.

Cadie says she falls asleep so fast in our bed because it is warm, snuggly and smells like Mom. I understand because I felt the same way about my parents bed. I only wish they made something larger than a king because our bed does seem to fill up pretty quickly.

What have we been up to?

Life has been normal and busy. We have been loving the fall weather. We are far from settled in the new house, but things are getting a bit more organized every day. I have been working hard at making sure the kids get enough rest and lots of sunshine and that we connect, pray and laugh together every day. Some days those goals are easier to accomplish than others. Thankfully, these sweet little people love me even on my bad days and I can't begin to imagine my life without them.

When Cadie gets tired, she likes to hitch a ride with Colton in the stroller. This picture is from Saturday on our way back to the house after playing for about 2 hours at the park.

Grant and I went to a wedding themed fundraiser for Cadie's school. Can you guess what we are? Ring-bear(er) and flower girl.

I unsuccessfully attempted to cut Jack Ranger's hair myself.

Good thing he is still adorable from the front!

Cadie can READ!!! She and Dad do her homework every night. 

After homework, they like to cuddle. Can you believe how long she is!?

Colton is teething and he has a cough and he just feels crummy.

And since he feels crummy, he mostly just wants Mom all the time. Including from 3:30-5:00am this morning.

The boys wrestle like lion cubs all day long. Grant added some extra padding under the rugs to help cushion the falls.

And I have been so stressed that I have chewed my cuticles to shreds. Gross, I know. Thanksgiving, please get here soon! I really need a break.

Getting Ready for Parker

Amanda and I had a great time getting Parker's baby registry started at Babies R Us. The first time I went to register when I was pregnant with Cadie, I got so overwhelmed that I walked right out of the store. I called my friend Laura Dickinson and she came and helped me with my next attempt and I was so thankful for her help! Amanda is a bit more cool-headed than I am and I know she would have done fine, but I still had a great time hanging out with her and looking at all the cute baby stuff. Congrats Mama Amanda!

My Three Minions

Cadie originally told me she wanted to be a jasmine princess for Halloween so I got her a beautiful pink jasmine outfit complete with a hat and veil from Istanbul, Turkey - the home of the original jasmine! However, a few days before Halloween Cadie told me she wanted to be a duck instead. When I told her we didn't have a duck outfit, she said, "No problem! I can just color a pillow case yellow for my body, color a toilet paper roll orange for my beak, and then all I need is yellow or orange tights." Hmmm - so I guess now we are going in the direction of a homeless-looking duck versus an beautiful pink jasmine princess.

I was in Chicago for work this week and so didn't have much time for hunting down orange/yellow tights. On Friday afternoon I went to a few places with no luck. I knew I needed to get creative so I wandered around the boys and the girls sections scanning for anything yellow or orange - enter the minion pajamas. I thought the minion pajamas would be perfect because Cadie could wear her pillow case on top and it would just look like yellow legs. I decided to get some for JR too because he loves minions.

Cadie did, in fact, color a pillow case yellow and cut a hole for her head and arms, and she did create a duck beak out of a toilet paper roll. Despite her prior commitment to being a duck (she even drew a picture of herself at school this week in her duck costume), at the last minute, she decided she just wanted to be a minion. Then JR decided he wanted to be a minion too instead of spiderman. Once I had two minions, I wanted three so I found a shirt for Colton that we had bought at Disney. They ran around all night saying "Banana" and "Beedooo Beeedooo."

We had such a fun evening with the Riley clan. We met at HPPC for the Fall Festival and then did a bit of Trick-or-Treating. Someone, Cadie didn't have any shoes though so after a few houses up and down University, we headed back to our house. Colton went to bed and Cadie decided to stay and pass out candy at our house. The Dads and the rest of the kids did more trick-or-treating around our neighborhood. Cadie was adorable lining up the candy on our front steps and waiting for kids to come by. It was awesome because it gave Emmy and I the rare chance to talk for a bit. With 7 kids between the two of us that doesn't happen often.

The evening ended with a dance party in the living room that moved onto the front porch and then turned into a game of keep-away with a beach ball.

It was an awesome Halloween with our friends and my little minions!

After all the fun, Cadie was totally wiped out.