Thanksgiving chaos

Ever wonder what it might be like join us for Thanksgiving dinner? Well, this is a short video of what occurred soon after the kids were done eating. Do you think maybe I might have put too many marshmallows on the sweet potatoes or too much whipped cream on the pumpkin pie? I am wondering if the level of sugar increased the noise level.

I find it so interesting to see what kinds of things they come up with. This particular day they were pretending to be kitties. We had just come back from North Carolina where they spent alot of time playing with the stray kittens.

Fall fun

We made a couple visits to our house in North Carolina this fall. I am not looking forward to cleaning up all those leaves when we move back! The kids had fun playing outside though.



Well, except for some of Carlee's attitude, but that ended when the kittens showed up. She absolutely adored those kitties!

Sam is 4!

It has somehow become a birthday tradition that it is someone's birthday when in the morning they come down the stairs and find balloons. It is very exciting to come down and see those balloons and know that it is finally your birthday!



I truly hope that our kids will always be this excited to get birthday cards!


For Sam's birthday adventure we actually had another destination planned and it was to be a surprise so they didn't know where we were going when we left that morning. However, plans were changed because Sam was completely convinced that we were going to the zoo. It was such a beautiful day, so we changed our destination and went to the zoo! Of course, we all have to check out the map and plan our course!


They seem to have grown since last year and they no longer all fit in the rental stroller!

Sam really likes Batman, so he was thrilled to go in a real bat cave!


We stopped off in the petting zoo and brushed the goats. They took their jobs very seriously!

Here Ben is asking the goat if he would like to be brushed! How nice of him to ask!

Sam enjoyed watching the Polar Bears.

But I think he had more fun climbing on the polar bear statue,


and playing in the bear trap. They were pretending it was their house and they were laying down to have a nap.


Some kids really did need to have a nap!

They were not afraid of the alligator,

or the lion.


They thought they were all lions!

Sam enjoyed his chat with "Zaboomafoo"


And seeing the big animals. We saw elephants, giraffes, zebras, and rhinos!

But probably the highlight of the day was watching the leopard (aka BabyJaguar!). We could actually hear him growling!


After the zoo, we came home for cake. Sam wanted blue & red, so he got half and half! Pretty fancy! Blowing out candles is serious business around here!
I think he was happy with the day!
And I was teary when he was grateful for his presents!

Annual photos

Every year they are all the same age for about 5 weeks. Ben & Carlee's birthday is in October and they turned 3, Sam's birthday is not until November when he turns 4. It is actually a lot of fun telling people we have 3 three year olds! Of course they immediately think triplets!


Anyway, it has become our tradition and my reminder to get all our annual photos done when they are all the same age. First stop is to Sears to get their individual photos and a group photo of the three of them. This has become a serious pain in the butt, even with my mom along to help me! We went on a Friday morning and managed to get good individual shots fairly easily.




But then the nightmare began. Getting them to all sit still, smile and all look at the camera at the same time is nearly impossible! It was nearly lunchtime so we left and had some lunch. Then they all fell asleep for a short nap. We went home and picked up Daddy to help us, but that didn't work either!!! We had to go back a third time, a couple days later. Here are a couple examples of what it was like!

and after many, many attempts finally got something suitable! Not great, but at least they are all looking the same way and smiling!


Then we like to have a family photo done once a year. We have been doing it about the same time of year, but we have someone take it with my camera so that I can use it to make Christmas cards. We actually took this photo at our house in North Carolina when we went there for a visit!

Getting everyone to all look at the camera and smile at the same time wasn't working, so I picked the one where nobody was looking at the camera! Again, not great, but hey, there is a reason our family is called "Our Blessed Chaos"!
Whew, done for another year!

Haircut time!

When we left North Carolina we also left behind our favorite hairdresser. I procrastinated too long and ended up with some boys with pretty long hair. Even Carlee needed a haircut. In these photos she has that runway model shag look, complete with attitude!