Happy Veteran's Day

Evie's school celebrated Veteran's Day with a ceremony. We invited Grandpa to take part! You can see him on stage in this video of Evie and her schoolmates singing so beautifully.

Thanks to all of our Veterans!

Happy Halloween! 2010!

Happy Halloween friends and family!
This was Evan's first year going out to trick or treat and he had a blast! He chased Evie up and down the streets and said everything he was supposed to during the process. So sweet! And Evie was excited to show her little brother the ropes, such a great big sis!

Pumpkin Patch Fun

Joe and I took the kids to Arthur, Illinois yesterday to The Great Pumpkin Patch. http://the200acres.com/thepatch/
They had a good time in all of the mazes and Evie is now known as "The Chicken Whisperer". It seems anytime we are at a farm and there are chickens, she stops to talk to them quietly and they all head over to her and talk to her. It was hilarious! Evan got in on it, too.. they seem to really like my kids.

I took some cute pics of the kids playing with the picture cut out boards. Had some pumpkin ice cream and Evie even caught a picture of Joe and I as the Pumpkin King and Queen!

A beautiful fall day!!!

Evan's first day of school!

I officially have a pre-schooler!
Evan started school two weeks ago and so far, he loves it! He walks up the steps by himself and tells me that he loves my before he walks away. *tear*

I can see a huge difference already in the amount of words that he uses daily. He wants to talk more, although at his open house he was the quiet boy who just wanted to play on the floor.. you could tell that he is still behind the other children in a few areas.. but that's why we've strted him at age 3.. he'll catch up!

More info as he progresses!

Singin' along!

The kids and I are having fun with a little karaoke game on our XBox 360...

Thought you might enjoy some videos of singing!!!

A weekend at the Sangamon River Festival

Last weekend was a great time! Every year, just as school is kicking off, in Mahomet downtown, the roads are blocked off for the Sangamon River Music Festival. Bands all weekend, beer tent, parade, good food, and this year carnival rides! We missed all of the fairs this year but that didn't matter.. all of the fair rides came to us! The kids had so much fun riding all weekend!
We stayed late the last night with the kids to watch a band.. they ate funnel cakes, elephant ears and danced to the music under the stars.
This was also Evan's first time riding rides.. he was so good!!
Here are the pics!

Evie's in the very back of this ride.. "It's faster in the back, Mom!"

A Beautiful Summer Day at the Park

The kids and I have spent countless days at the pool this summer because we have been under constant heat advisory warnings... Today, it was perfect! Temps in the 80s with a nice breeze so I figured, let's just have a park day.. We went to Lake of the Woods which we hadn't done at all this summer! We started out playing at the park, walking up the tower (which was being painted so we could only go to the middle), and then we drove over to the gardens which the kids enjoyed. The waterfall sounded serene and the bench swing was inviting! They put on a dancing concert for me in the gazebo... Then onto the Early American History Museum that's just right off of the gardens. The kids had fun playing in the many cool exibits including a realistic wig-wam, a horse drawn carriage and a dry erase table that you can draw all over.
It was just the kind of day that I needed.. stress has been plaguing our house lately. Thanks to my sweethearts for making it enjoyable!

From Yellow Belt to Orange Belt!

YAY EVIE! Another belt testing "under her belt!"
Evie is climbing up the belt ladder again.. not as swiftly this time, but she is doing it the right way! Above is her essay that she had to write.
We were very excited and proud to have her Uncle David, Aunt Lauren, cousins Di, Zadee, Joel and Rick with us to witness her testing.
She did a fantastic job! Thanks to David and Joel for these pictures!!

Embrace Damnation!

Joe's band, Embrace Damnation played the Central Illinois Metalfest this afternoon.. (in fact, he's still there!) I'm just excited to blog about it!
They've been working really hard to prepare for this gig so I took video of each song individually. I confess, the quality of the vocals didn't work so well in my camera.. I don't know what I could have done differently.. Joe says the vocals sound the best off to the side of the stage and further back.. but then I couldn't have gotten the awesome footage that I got.. so you take the good with the bad, I guess.
I also managed to snap some cool pics!!
Take a look!

And the videos...

Curtis Orchard

It is a HOT steamy day but we went out to Curtis Orchard anyway!
They have made alot of renovations!! The new gigantic chair and the new houses that they built for Munchkinland to name a couple! Not to mention the HUGE new play area that will be open soon in the place where the maze used to be.
Here are some pictures of my kiddos having a nice time!



Can't wait till fall when we can get our pumpkins and apples there! And we forgot to get our donuts today!! The best there is!

Happy Birthday to Evan AGE 3

Our baby boy is now three years old!!
Evan had a lovely birthday weekend filled with friends and family!
We started out the weekend with a friends party at the indoor playground.. his guests were Mommy, Grandma Hoctor, Grandpa Hoctor, sissy Evie and her friend, Grace, Hope and her boys, Melissa and her boys and Mandi with her boys. Evan just LOVES Wow Wow Wubbzy this year so that was the theme. I found some cool edible images online that we used for Evan's cupcakes and for his cake.









Then Saturday (Evan's birthday), we went over to The Hoctor's for a family day!
The entire family was here to celebrate with us! (All but Angelique who is in Florida) The kids had a great time and Evie got to spend time with her cousin, Joel... something that she is always looking forward to.



And here some pics of the family!


The last two pics are of everyone, one was taken by Timm, the other by Theresa, (the reason one of each is absent from the pics)



Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa for hosting at the house and to Stephen, Katie, Brianne, Timm, Theresa, David, Lauren, Diana, Rick, Zadee, Joe, Evie and Joel for making Evan's day special!!