A very Merry Christmas!

Super Heroes

Aunt Katy outdid herself this year.   Super Hero capes for everyone!  Batman Brody and his sidekick Robin Riley, The Flash Cohen and Super Eli.  Miss Harper received a WonderWoman cape and Master Crewe is Captain America Crewe.  She somehow weaved magical powers into them because Brody had to give me a kiss this morning just in case he flew so high he didn’t come back down for awhile.  Thanks for the awesome gift, Aunt Katy!

Happy Birthday, Baby Jesus!

From our family to yours, Merry Christmas!

Grandma’s Birthday Party

After we wrapped up Brody’s birthday party, we quickly transformed our home for Grandma Yakey’s birthday party.  We definitely had a house full of people and hopefully they all found a seat and got their belly’s full.   Thankfully, Grandma had plenty of help blowing out her candles…they were kind of tricky to blow out.  If only the Illini would have won, we could have called the evening a complete success.  Hope you had fun, Grandma!

Brody’s Birthday Party

Yesterday we celebrated Brody’s birthday with a small gathering at home.  He had really wanted to go to Chuckie Cheese, but we offered a pizza party at home instead and he approved.  He only asked for a Lego cake and Lego cookies and Lego cupcakes.  Thankfully, Aunt Jody made 2/3 of his requests and I filled in the last 1/3.  

His cake really must have been his only wish because his parents were just a nice added bonus.  Thanks to all who came and celebrated with us, and an extra special thanks to Aunt Jody for the awesome cake and cupcakes!  It definitely made turning FOUR even better!

Ninety-one

Today Grandma Yakey is 91! She is claiming to be 89 though because you are to start counting backwards after your 90th birthday. She was feeling quite foxy this morning and told me she thought she and grandpa should just run away somewhere. Last I knew they were still perched on top of their hill waiting on their next visitors though. Hope you had a happy day, Grandma!

FOUR!

Somehow our first born turned four today?!  He was so excited to go to bed last night.  He told us when he woke up he would be FOUR just like Cohen!  So if celebrating his birthday wasn’t enough, he also had a Christmas party at school, he took treats to Miss Julie’s house and then this evening he kind of participated in his school’s Christmas program.

 

Brody didn’t request gifts for his birthday.  Instead he wanted lego cupcakes for Julie’s and star cookies for school.  Wish granted!  We even got Grampy, who had never iced a cupcake until last night, to participate in the decoration process.  Aunt Jody will fulfill his last request on Saturday with a lego cake!

Blowing out candles at breakfast is the best!  He was so excited about his day that he couldn’t sit still to eat breakfast.  He had to be going on fumes by the time he sat down for his lunch.  A doorway full of streamers and a floor full of balloons was by far better this morning!

All spiffed up for his Christmas program.  I think he managed to pick his nose, flick his lip and sing a few words, but refused to say his line.  My sources say he said it during practice, but tonight he stood there and shook his head no when it was his turn. 

And because I never have pictures of myself with either of the boys, I include this last shot too!

Happy Fourth Birthday, Brody-ody!  

All Our Love, Mama, Daddy and Ri.

Terrified and thrilled!

Skinny pants

Riley fills out his skinny cut pants like his mama does!

Reindeer Ranch

  

Saturday, we visited the Reindeer Ranch in Rantoul.  We kind of had a parent failure and didn’t obtain tickets to feed the reindeer like we intended.  Oops.   We promised a return trip next year before they tear up the corn maze.  Seemed to appease all parties.  I actually think the only disappointment was the fact that Rudolph didn’t live at the Reindeer Ranch.  We looked high and low for him, but alas he wasn’t there.  

Thanksgiving

The only picture I took on Thanksgiving...lots of little dudes coloring it up at Aunt Helen's! We definitely have so much up be thankful for.

The countdown to Brody, Grandma Yakey, Harper and Baby Jesus' birthday is on.

Giving Thanks

Brody’s Prayer:

Thank you God for this day.

Thank you for the things we like and the things we don’t like

Thank you for our house and bricks.

Thank you for our mama and daddy.

Thank you for grammy and grampy.

Thank you for aunts and uncles.

Thank you for our food and milk.

Amen.

The Greats

Ssshhh…don’t tell Grandma and Grandpa Yakey, but we attempted to get all nine great-kiddos in one picture.  We really needed Kelly McCormick to come save the day, but we tried to make do.

Will’s face is priceless…appears to be giving Natalie and Ri the biggest scolding.  Probably making sure they didn’t try to snatch his smarties?

the boys.  (this marked the end of photos – look at ri’s face – pouty lip and all)

from left to right: Brothers Crewe (7 months) and Eli (2 1/2), Brody (almost 4) holding Brooke (1 month old), Cohen (4) holding his sister Harper Rose (11 months old), Natalie (2 on January 1 and big sister to Brooke), Riley (2 1/3), and then William (16 months).  In March, Cohen and Harper will add their little brother to the mix!

November

 

Happy Birthday, Grampy!

Arch or Arc?

Bedtime Conversation:

Me: "I drove by the arch today."
Brody: "Did you see Noah??"
Me: "Nope. I didn't have Allison with me."
Brody: "Well, did you see all his animals??"

It took a second but I finally caught on.

Someone does not want to nap...

Happy Halloween

Grandma and Grandpa hosted a Halloween Party Saturday evening.  Quite the festive event, complete with a wiener roast!

Cohen the monarch butterfly. Harper The Flower

 

Natalie the cute little Cowgirl

Sweet baby Brooke was a little angel.  A week old and already had a costume…quite impressive if you ask me. 

 

Will the adorable little puppy

The Jones’ family got in the spirit of the holiday.  Eli wanted to be the big bad wolf so naturally the rest of them were the three little pigs.  Little Crewe was a pretty sweet little pig!

Woody and his trusty pal Bullseye

(Woody had a meltdown after this picture and almost missed the party.  He talked about being Woody for Halloween for weeks, but when it came time to get dressed, he wasn’t so sure.)

Not to be left, Cowgirl Jesse and Buzz Lightyear joined the fun too!

Hope you had a Happy Halloween!

Curtis Orchard 2012

 

Sunday, we took advantage of the beautiful fall weather and visited Curtis Orchard and Pumpkin Patch.  I do believe everyone within driving distance of Champaign had the same idea as we did.  I do believe everyone still had fun though. 

1st pony ride for Brody…he really enjoyed it and later told us he should have told his horse to hurry up and catch up with the girl in front of him!  Riley flat out refused a ride.  Eli at least walked up to the pony before deciding against it.

 

Riley was quite content just playing on all the play sets scattered around.

They each picked out a pumpkin straight from the patch, we bought some yummy apples and to top off the visit they each got a small container of apple cider.  We are definitely ready for Halloween and Thanksgiving with all the pumpkins we have gathered from our adventures!

Riley

For the last couple weeks, Ri has been sleeping in Brody's room in the second twin bed. He also has started to have more interest in going potty, but only at home. This weekend we decided to take down the crib so it is ready to head north for Cohen and Harper's baby brother or sister. Ri also decided that he is now a big boy and that he wanted to wear underwear! At points in time, I never thought we would ever have one boy out of diapers let alone working on training the second. He was so proud of himself that he had to call Grampy and Grammy and tell them he was wearing underwear! Julie says the farmer's almanac states this week should be a good week to train him, so here we go...

Pumpkin Painting 2012

 

.  Painting pumpkins…so much easier to do than cleaning out pumpkin innards! 

combine driving

Last Saturday, the boys helped me start the fall clean up of flower beds.  They both loaded pile after pile of chopped off flowers into their gator and wagon, drove it to the dump, unloaded and came back for more.  Towards the end, they were getting bored with yard work so they turned their pile of yard debris into the their combine.  Riley is driving this particular round.  They eventually ended up fighting over who was going to be Uncle Patty, Uncle Bill, Grampy or Daddy.  It was fun to observe while it lasted!

Chef's in Training