Random photos and updates

Our friends Katie and Bill gave us these cool kits to make marshmallow houses out of cocoa krispies. Josh and the kids made these when I was at work on Halloween

Jacob (buzz light year), Olivia's friend Anslee (bat girl), Jacob's friend Calyn (duck) and Olivia (Sleeping beauty) Trick or treating. They were out for almost two whole hours!

Olivia and Jacob before trick or treating

Olivia's class party for halloween playing the pin the nose on the pumpkin

Josh's cubs "snuggie" that his crafty wife made

Kids carving pumpkins

Tammy, Olivia and Grandma Glo at Abby's wedding

Last Cubs game of the season

Josh and Olivia at the last cubs game of the season

Me and Jacob at the Cubs game

Jacob doing puzzles in his underwear, just too funny not to put on

My best birthday present ever! My hawkeye snuggie

My birthday party at chuck -e-cheese

Madsen's at my party at chuck-e-cheese

Ella and Jacob sing the ABC's

Just a matter of time

We got a trampoline this summer. I guess we knew it was just a matter of time before an injury. I got off of work last night and came home to Olivia crying. She usually cries when she is mad but rarely when she gets hurt and she was refusing to move her left arm. I took her to the ER and as you can maybe see in the very middle of the picture below She has a broken collar bone.

She was such a trooper last night. They gave her pain medicine in the ER that made her more talkative than usual....hard to believe!! But it was pretty sore this morning. She has to wear a sling for a few days but was in no way missing school today. I offered her to stay home, she didn't want to! I asked if I could take her picture this morning and she said "fine, but Im NOT smiling!"

Our first big injury

We had our first big injury today. Jacob went for a walk with grandma and was twirling around and fell hitting his mouth and nose on the sidewalk. He split the inside of his top and bottom lips open and they really swelled up huge. He also has an abrasion under his nose. He cried for a minute then was off to play again.

The offending sidewalk. It never ceases to amaze me how much lips bleed.

Olivia and Grandma picked these flowers and put them in Jacob's room so he would feel better.

Leader, really???

For my friends to laugh at. I took Olivia to the girl scout meeting to get some more information on it and what is involved. We walked out having joined up and signing me up as the troop leader......how do I get in to this stuff????

American Girl Place

These are the pictures of Olivia and Mary Jane and I's trip to American Girl place in Chicago. The store is overwhelming with every kind of accessory and outfit you could ever want but our first objective was the doll. Olivia decided on the "look alike" doll as opposed to one that was already named or a historical character. Her doll was #27. Layered long blonde hair...no bangs of course, and blue eyes. The picture below is of all of the "look alike" dolls you can choose from.

Olivia was able to pick out one outfit and she picked a cheerleader outfit. Then we took her doll to the "salon" and had her ears pierced and got some earrings for her. We had some time to kill before our 12:30 lunch time date at the American Girl Cafe so we had this picture taken.

The American Girl Cafe is within the American Girl Place. It is a very fancy cafe that you must have reservations for. The menu has a few choices for each course of the lunch. It was just re-done and is beautiful. This is the picture of our table.



They have seats at the table for the dolls as well. And the dolls get plates and cups too!

Grandma and Sis at lunch

This is our dessert plate, how adoreable!

Olivia and her doll Molly (previously known as Butterfly) in their matching pajamas
It was a great day. We had a lot of fun and Im sure will make another trip there soon!

Move it Dig it Do it!!

This past weekend we went to the Move it, dig it, do it. This is a big program put on by the Iowa Children's museum where they bring in a lot of heavy machinery and the kids get to climb on it, "drive" it etc.

This is Olivia learning how to milk a cow, she did this more than once, she thought it was fun.

Jacob driving Olivia to work on the Coralville bus

We got there just in time to see Air Care land. Every time we see this when we are out, Jacob says "that bring you more work mama". So it was fun to see it up close. When they landed it was WINDY!

Jacob watied in line the longest to drive the big brand new John Deere combine.

Driving the North Liberty Fire truck

After the line died down a little we went back and got in to the helicopter.

The funniest part of the day was one of the games. (they have various games for the kids to play). This game was the "scoop poop" game to try to teach kids to clean up after their animals. The had a 5 gallon bucket full of fake poop and scoopers, they would throw the poop out and then the kids would scoop it up. WE COULD NOT GET OUR KIDS TO LEAVE!! I swear they did it for 20 minutes straight!

This is a baby clydesdale horse that was born a month ago. It was sound asleep and would not even wake up when the kids were petting him. He was so cute!!

It was a great day.