Photo shoot...

So we had our annual fall photo shoot with Mary! You will probably see these in our Christmas card! :) Here is a glimpse of the photos... She is so good! For those of you who don't know, I work for this photographer. She is my sister Kristin's neighbor and she is more like family than a boss! She is so sweet! Check out her website! www.maryburnsphotography.com

The Hockey Helmet!

The hockey helmet was going to be our bribery to get Matthew to use the potty. Well so much for that! Daddy is a push over and got him a helmet while I was out with my bible study girls. He is definitely the softy! :) But anyway... Matthew is ecstatic! He really thinks he is a real hockey player. We ordered some little Bauer hockey skates for him because the skates he got from Connor literally fell apart. So these skates maybe the new bribery tool for the potty!?! :) The morning after Ben got him the helmet, he woke up and his first words to me were, "Where's my hockey helmet Mom?" So this is him, fresh out of bed in his skates and helmet. So cute! He didn't want me to take his picture though! He just wanted me to play hockey with him! I was not blessed athletic ability but let me tell you, Matthew thinks I have it!! HA!

So this morning he wanted Ben to play with him, he is obviously much better at it! But he made him wear a helmet too!! This was Matthew's old helmet... a hard hat!
On a side note, last night we had the sheer pleasure of hitting up Chuck E. Cheese! It was a first for Matthew! I haven't been since my nephew Connor had his party there when he was about 4! That was 9 years ago. It was much nicer and cleaner than I remembered! We went with Ash and Jordan and the kids. Here they are on one of the rides!

Another fun weekend

Well we had another busy but fun weekend! Friday night was pretty boring... we didn't have anything planned so we ordered Chinese and then Ben went out with Carey. They don't get to see enough of each other, so it was good they could hang out! I was in bed by 9:30! :) Saturday was a crazy day! Ben helped his sister Ashley and Jordan move all day. Meanwhile, Matthew and I helped my mom shuffle kids to soccer. Mike was out of town so my mom and I brought Connor and Cullen to their games, one in Burnsville and one in Bloomington. It was a gorgeous day to be outside! And Matthew idolizes his cousins... he was in his glory by all the attention he got from them! He didn't get a nap so he was pretty tired on the car ride home. Today, we had another busy day! Grace had her very first gymnastics competition! She did SOOO great. She got first place in her age group and she was one of the highest scores overall too! She is 8 and she was competing against kids that were 12! She truly has a ton of natural talent! It was so fun to watch her! Matthew loved it too, but fell asleep on my lap... still tuckered from Saturday... no nap and being outside all day! YIKES! After the competition we hit up our church's fall festival! It was so fun! They had so much for the kids to do! Matthew loved the "train" ride! See the photos below :) Hope you all are well!

Matthew thinks it pretty cool to wear Connor's soccer cleats (did I spell that right?)

Here are some pics at the Fall Festival!

This was the petting zoo at the Fall Festival. Matthew's favorite book is Llama Llama Red Pajama, so I thought we should have a picture by the llama! Matthew was terrified of it because he was spitting! HA!

Golf Tournament

I am so happy to say that the golf tournament was a complete hit! It was such a great, fun day!! It was fun to see all of our hard work pay off! The day itself was completely rainy and disgusting, so that was a bummer. This was our 6th annual tournament and the FIRST time that it rained the whole day. It has rained twice but always cleared up by the time that we head out to golf, just not this year. Everyone had a great attitude about it and only a few people gave up and quit golfing. It still amazes me how much goes into planning this event... it is like a wedding, but even better because we get to do it again next year and see almost all of our friends in one place together! This year was the first year that we are giving the proceeds to a family instead of it going towards research. I truly was so touched at how everyone who was there, came together and wanted to support this family who were complete strangers. We will definitely be doing this going forward... so if you know of a family who needs help, please let me know, next September will be here before we know it! After the tournament we always have to go out to a local bar or 2 and celebrate the success of the event. We hit up the Old Bank Bar, which is where Stacy and Mike for the very first time. They had a great band playing. They even played the song "Stacy's mom has got it going on". It was hilarious! My mom was there and loved it! I was so busy that I hardly had time for photos... I am so bummed, but here are a few.

Me and Ali!

Doing a shot with Mark (the recipient of the proceeds)...

PK, Kristin, Heidi and me

Kristin and I...

My mom, Mindy (Stacy's best friend) and Kristin...

Is it Saturday yet?

This is one of the craziest weeks I have had in sooo long! I am so overwhelmed with life right now! So... yesterday i wake up at 4:00 AM and can't get back to sleep because of all there is to do! So I got up at 5:00 and started doing stuff for the golf tournament... then I went to work for Mary and had a busy day there, including the hand-off of 4 sets of proofs to get done by Thursday!! UGH! I got home and worked until 11:30pm on the proofs... got up this morning and worked at Michael's and then came home at 2pm and did more photography work along with some golf tournament stuff and here is it 10:30!! I am so thankful that my work week is done and I can focus on the FUN of the golf tournament. I just hope that we haven't missed anything in our preparations. I'm sure that we have... but I am certain that whatever it is... it won't ruin the day! Kristin and I are going to spend the day tomorrow working on the last minute details! Thanks to those of you who have helped us gather items for the silent auction, etc!! We'd be lost without you! OK, sorry to rant, but I feel much better now! :) I will post lots of fun pictures from the golf tournament next week!! Pray for SUN on Saturday!!!

Skating in September?

So Matthew is ready for winter! I am NOT, though! He got out his hand-me-down skates from his big cousin Connor! Connor is 13 and Matthew ADORES him! He gave Matthew his first pair of skates... they are SOOO cute! Matthew has been wearing them NON-STOP! It's so funny! He loves to walk around in them! I wonder what it will be like once he hits the ice...probably not so great! Here are a few pics and a video of his first encounter with the skates! Sorry you will have to turn your head, I didn't realize I couldn't rotate the video! Duh! Live and learn!

First Day of Daycare...

Well Matthew had his very first day of daycare in his 2 1/2 years of life! He did SOOO good! I had a much harder time than he did! He didn't even cry when I dropped him off! I was so proud of him. He had a great day and said he wanted to go back so I take that as a GREAT sign! He was so wound up when he got home... so happy after a fun day with Val and the kids! There are 2 little boys that are his age so it is perfect! I feel so much better! :) It was a great ending to a terrible day! I started out the day by locking my keys in the house! Long story... but someone was able to let me in. So I drop off Matthew and forget the contact sheet for Val that has all of our phone numbers, etc for emergencies, so after dropping him off I had to run back home and then back to her house. Needless to say, my work day started much later than I wanted to. Plus I was so worried about little Matthew all day... for no reason! All in all, glad the first day is over and that Matthew loved it!