Tricks or Treats

We carved pumpkins as a family on Saturday night and the girls did surprisingly good this year. Normally they're all excited in the beginning but then it get's "too hard" and Brian and I end up finishing them. Natalie didn't know what to think of the pumpkin "guts". She just kept making this "uck" sound and shaking her head no. It was pretty funny! All of the carvings turned out pretty well.

Trick or treating was fun this year. The weather wasn't too bad, no one had strep throat, no one was crabby or tired. We went to our neighbors, Mike and Irenes house first. Natalie had NO idea what she was supposed to do but figured it out pretty quickly after learning she gets candy if she opens her bag. :) Then friends, Gracie, Jared, Ella, Luke and Levi stopped for treats at our house and a quick picture. We ended up going to our friends the Gracks, neighborhood and the kids went door to door and got WAY too much candy. We stayed and had pizza and veggies before diving into our children's buckets of sweets. It was a fun night even though it is not my favorite holiday. :)

So this is what you do on a lazy Saturday

Caitlin as the Halloween Queen

KATIE

RACHEL

ELLA

ABBY

EMILY

THE BEAUTY QUEENS

While Caitlin went to a halloween birthday party (as a halloween queen), Emily and Rachel had their friends Ella, Abby and Katie over to play and this is what they did on our lazy Saturday at home! Pretty cute! They played ALL afternoon!

Quirks

We all have our own little quirks right? Well, Natalie has shown us what she likes to do with her time-her own little quirk. So cute and funny. So nice and neat. Rachel used to do something similar with markers and then play with them as if they were people. Usually she was the purple one! I just love this age. :)

MEA Break-Wet and Wild!

Our 2nd annual trip to Wisconsin Dells with the Gracks and Gilbertson Families was wet and wild! There really isn't a dull moment ever when our families get together. There's always drama of some sort. We were the ones to have the drama. We left on Thursday morning with a set of brand new tires on the van. Stopped in LaCrosse for lunch and on the way back onto the freeway I tried to avoid hitting a piece of wood on the road but instead hit it. Ugh...about 5 miles down the road our tire pressure light goes on. Great. We luckily made it to Sparta only to find that two tires were punctured. Guess the wood had a nail in it and the front tire spit the wood back to the rear tire. God was definitely watching over us. We were able to get both "new" tires fixed and back on the road in less than 20 minutes and $30. I guess it was good to get the drama out of the way at the beginning of the trip, right?! We had a fabulous time at Glacier Canyon-3 waterparks and awesome rooms with an awesome king size bed. We had WAY too much food, WAY too much beer and WAY too much fun! The kids were great and loved going on all the tube slides. I had a better time this time too since I wasn't nursing a 6 month old and didn't look too ridiculous in a swimming suit. Natalie enjoyed the water and snacks. Emily was excited to have grown enough to go on the Hurricane! Rachel and Levi chased each other in the pool and Caitlin and Kylie were always off somewhere. It was nice that each of the kids had a playmate. Got lots of visiting in and not much sleep. Looking forward to next year already! Time sure flies when you're having fun! Thanks Grack and Gilbertsons for a good time!

Gleisner Benefit

Saturday, October 16th we held a benefit in honor of our family friends, the Gleinsers. Adam is battling cancer. He is only 48 years old. He has a wife JoAnna and daughter Grace who is in Emily's class and Jared who is the same age as Rachel. They have amazing faith and love and trust in the Lord, which I admire so much. The day was cool but sunny-really just perfect. We started out the day with a 9-hole best ball tourney, then had a family fun apple festival with hayrides, kids games, obstacle course, bon fire, apple pies, caramel apples, apples for sale, pumpkins, face painting, etc... It was so much fun! The kids had a blast! After the festival we had a spaghetti dinner that served around 400 people. The Gleisners are loved by ALOT of people! Everything just came together perfectly and everyone pitched in and made it a great day. We were all so happy Adam was able to join us for a while and visit. Our hearts go out to them and we pray for their family everyday. Thanks to God for all our blessings.

Fall Frenzy

We have had a beautiful fall up until the past two days. Here are some pictures of the girls playing in the leaves and being silly.

Rachel celebrates with Grandparents

Rachel was lucky enough to have two birthday parties this year. We weren't able to get everyone together the weekend of her birthday so we spread it out and held it the weekend after. As always we had a great time and great food. Rachel needed some help blowing out her candles and Natalie was able to help out. It was pretty funny. Rachel would try and she'd end up blowing upward rather than outward. While Rachel was trying and giggling, Natalie bent down and blew one out for her. We all got a laugh out of that!