Date night!

Brett took me on a surprise date last night!!! ...And by surprise I mean that I didn't know where he was taking me. I was really excited and insisted we pretended we were on our first date ever...and had random conversations that any normal people would NOT have on their first date!! It was funny!
We went to Iowa's oldest restaurant..."Breitbach's Country Dining". I remember reading in the paper last year, that this restaurant caught fire 2 years in a row and both times was in October. I am betting the owner was relieved when October was over this year, and we were glad we went there in November.

My grandparents used to have one of these in their home. We used it to cook food in the winter and to warm up the kitchen. I feel really ancient as I write that I used to cook food on a stove similar to this one....

I am betting Nicole would have loved this!

ME, all nervous on a first date...

Brett telling me what to order ( a DON'T on 1st dates, or any dates for that matter).

Fun filled Fall days...

Fall Festival

Kylie's preschool class had a fall/Halloween party last week. It was a lot of fun for the little munchkins! The festivities started with a game of trick-or treat...

...and continued with games like: "pin the heart on the skeleton" and bean toss.

Halloween 2009

For Halloween, Kylie was Belle, Brayden was a pirate, Colton was a bee (this is my baby Halloween custome, all my kids wore it!), I was a cat, and after the big win on Saturday, Brett was the #1 Iowa fan, wearing a big Iowa sweatshirt ;).

Trick AND treat!

Now, it"s time to get tricked playing a round of: "who's who".

Picture 1: Colton(10&1/2mo.) Picture 2: Kylie (10 mo.) Picture 3:Colton

And this is why I call them "my twins"!!! What a treat!!!

Go Hawks!!!!

The "heart-attack hawks", another big win!!!! It wasn't pretty but a win is a win(long liveth the 4th quarter)!!! We are Iowa Hawkeyes fans and our team is having an amazing season 9-0 so far!!!

Dressed for the occasion!
Kylie is smiling pretty for the camera, while the boys are talking football.
- I hope the Hawks win today!!
-Ohh yeah!!! I'm sure they will!! We'll be 9 and 0 after we beat Indiana!"
Baby hawks with daddy Hawk!

Kylie was doodling during the game. She drew a football field, pretty good, i say!

"Puff"

Colton Puff, Coco-Puff, Puff-Puff....are just a few of the nicknames that we use for our baby Colton Bryan!!! (I know someday he will be embarrassed that I talked in public about these cute nicknames I'm giving him, until then....)

This little baby that I held in my arms as a new born almost 1 year ago is now a busy body and full of personality (i just want to scream sometimes: "Somebody, PlEaSe stop the time!!!!)....

Here are some of his latest accomplishments!

* Colton has been saying "Dadda" for some time now, but last week he started saying"Mamama". ( it melted my heart!)

*When playing with a truck or car he makes "car noises" that he learned from his older brother!

*THE FASTEST crawler I have ever met! He is on the verge of crawling on all his 4 but not yet, just really good at army crawling.

*He can pull himself up to a standing position, on just about anything: toy truck, couch, mommy's legs, chair, crib, etc.

* The bottom 2 teeth have been here for quite some time, and now the top 2 teeth are staring to show up!

* Colton has the cutest smile and his laugh fills my heart with joy.

* A couple of weeks ago, he started crawling up the stairs -- scary!

* It is very difficult to change his diaper since he turns over, kicks and sits up right in the middle of the diaper change. To change his clothes, is yet another challenge.

* Colton is very determined. If he sees something he wants, he goes after it no matter what, where or who....A lady from church, after watching him in nursery, said : "He is like a little bulldozer!" Yup, that sounds like my son!
* Cotlon is very expressive; he has the cutest facial expressions!

*Bounces to music.

*Colton enjoys playing with his brother and sister, wrestle with his daddy, and is almost always aware of where mommy is (if not, he wanders around the house looking for mommy)!!!

I ADORE this little man!!

This'n'that

*Kylie and Brayden's friends -- Mya and Lauren, came over for the day on Friday. We made pancakes for breakfast, went to the library, had lunch, played "house" downstairs,watched "Beauty and the Beast", played outside, and had hot chocolate before the girls went home. It was a fun day for all the kids and I was grateful Brett was home most of the day to help me take care of 5 little ones!!!


*Our friend, Mary Ellen, turned 30 this weekend and we went out for her big birthday bash!!! We celebrated with a dancing party at Timmerman's followed by appetizers (late at night) at Champs!! We had a B-L-A-S-T!!!!!!!!!!!
Here is the birthday girl thanking everyone for coming!
Brett and friends during one of the many slide dances of the night.
Girls just wanna have fun!

Brett and I with Sam and Ale.

Yes, I was a dancing fool!!! I should have lost 10lbs on that dancing floor!! It didn't happen, but it should have ;)

Newsfeed

Preschool-
Kylie has been loving preschool! She has made new friends and is loving all the different "jobs" that she is assigned to daily. She is learning so much!
Swimming lessons ended last week and we were both ready for a break from all the runnning around. However, I miss the social time with the other moms (while we watched the little swimmers) and Kylie misses splashing around. Now, we are looking forward to spring swimming lessons.



ART-
Kylie has been doing some cool art projects in Preschool. The bottom two they made at the library. Brayden's creative muse is the bottom picture on the right.

Sleeping buddies-

Brayden has been sneaking into Kylie's room to read books before bed time. Often, he falls asleep in Kylie's room and wakes up in the middle of the night and wanders off to his own bed.

Goggles-

Brayden loves to wear these goggles. He wears them just about everywhere... so cute! :)

Sleepovers, tea parties and the Hawkeyes fight song!

On Friday night, Kylie had a sleepover at her friends' house (Mya and Lauren). She had a wonderful time, painting toenails, watching a movie, playing with her friends, and sleeping in sleeping bags in the basement (what a blast!)

All ready to go!

Brayden was eCsTaTiC when Kylie came back the next day. It warmed my heart!

Colton is getting so big! He is all smiles and chats! He says "daddaddaddaada" alot and is as fast as a bullet crawling around, all over the place! He has been eating table foods for a few days now, which makes life a little easier for moi!

***A few weeks ago, Kylie wanted to have a tea party. She asked if she could invite Brayden to her tea party and of course I agreed! ;). We made silly hats and had snacks with our tea.

We used the tea cups and teapot that great grandma Dodie passed down to Kylie! Thank you gmaThe guest of honor (aka brother Brayden) was....well, like Kylie put it: Brayden is a little rough mommy." I would say, it was more like an elephant in a china shop :). So we decided it would be best if the guest of honor will be using.....

.... a sippy cup instead!

Brayden listening and signing along to the Iowa Fight Song! NO tea parties for me,please. LEtS GO HAWKS!