Our Piano....

Yesterday Chad drove down to Chicago to get a piano from my mom's wonderful friends, Patti and Bob Glod. We can't thank them enough for giving us this BEAUTIFUL piano. It is in perfect condition and we are going to keep it that way. :)

This piano is an absolutely treasure to us. Something I have always wanted to have in my home. We look forward to all the playing that will happen as the years go on with the kids. Jack is excited to get to practice his piano lessons on it instead of the great keyboard we have been borrowing from the Vosters family. I am even going to pick up Piano and learn to play.

I know that I will have to stock up on more Excedrin Migraine for the times that Ally will be playing the piano. But, it is all worth the smiles it has brought to the kids faces.

Thank you sooo much Patti and Bob! And thanks to Mike/Brendan McDermott for helping Chad move the piano into the Uhaul and Aaron for coming over and helping Chad get the piano in the house!!!

Leaves and Pumpkins

Fall is my favorite time of year. Maybe because it is when I got married or maybe because I just love seeing the trees change colors. And I love when you get to start wearing those warm sweaters on cold nights. Unfortunately the neighborhood we live in does not have any mature trees, so we don't get a ton of leaves falling. Thus, no big leave piles like when we were kids that we could run and jump in. We put in last fall a beautiful tree that gets bright red leaves in the fall. I think it is gorgeous! So, I went and raked them up on Sunday so the kids could have a little fall fun. Meg is getting over being sick and she really needed some fresh air, so even she got to have some fun!

It was such a beautiful day outside that the kids got to carve pumpkins outside. Thanks to the Voster's for the pumpkins. The kids had a ball carving them and actually got to decide how they looked (except Ally). They turned out pretty good! Downside is that we may have some pumpkins growing in our lawn next year. HAHA!

Happy 60th Birthday Grandma Jean!

Sunday marked Grandma Jean's 60th birthday. We hope that her birthday and this upcoming year will bring her good health and fun times!! Here is a picture of her at her party with her 11 grandchildren.

Gosh I love Jib Jab!

So, at Christmas time you can usually do a video thru Jibjab.com of your family as elves. I got quite a kick out of it last year. This year they now have a Halloween one. And of course I couldn't resist it. So, click here and enjoy!

Painting Pumpkinpalooza

Every year we get the kids little pumpkins and let them go crazy with painting them. Today was the painting fiesta at our house. I am not a big fan of the paint supplies being pulled out when Ally is involved. It is like a free for all with her. You never know what's going to get painted. Usually it is not the object that is supposed to be painted. :) So, as you can see she did not have much interest in painting her pumpkin, but enjoyed painting paper, her hands and the chair she was sitting in. This is also why I make them take their shirts off and for Ally everything but the diaper. It is funny because Ally really does not like the finger paints, so every couple minutes she was wanting her hands cleaned. Good times!

Jack and Meg on the other hand could paint for hours if I let them. They got every inch of their pumpkin painted. And then moved on to painting paper. They really love it!

They had a great time with their latest little project. We still need to get their gems that they found at the Quarry Quest glued onto a picture frame. But, we will have to save that for another day. :)