Holidays 2013

We are actually snowed in right now with school cancelled and arctic temperatures with a wind-chill of 50 below!  Good time to catch up with all of our pictures from the holidays.  Here's our happening from November and December 2013.

Aidan's Army Candlelight Bowl for Lurie Children's

Always fun to play in the leaves

These 2 were great helpers 

Dallin

Drew

Kelsey & Brooke

Drew did a little Floor Hockey this fall

We had a couple of furry friends stay over the long Thanksgiving weekend

 They were sure loved, but I wasn't ready to keep them.

First snow!

A series of fun, candid, shots that turned into our Christmas card this year

Dallin turned 4!!

He requested a monkey cake and wasn't disappointed when it was delivered!

Funny story actually about when it was delivered - the cake arrived at our house about 2 hours before the party (we were able to get the cake through Icing Smiles, the same organization that did the other kids cakes this year and this one was actually the same baker as did Drew's).  The boys were at a class they take on Monday afternoons when the cake came to the house.  When I opened the box, I noticed there was a big 5 on the cake and it said "Happy 5th Birthday Drew".  Uh oh, they must have gotten confused with having done Drew's cake back in May.  They took it back to fix it and in the meantime, I went to pick up Drew & Dallin.  When they got in the car, I told Dallin what had happened, expecting a meltdown, but instead he excitedly yelled, "Yes, I'm 5!"  To which in turn, Drew turned to him and said "Yes, twins!"

The cake made it to the party just in time and was perfect!

The week after Dallin's birthday and just a week before Christmas, this happened.

We were all in the car on our way to go see Santa, I was driving and we were just down the street in our neighborhood when a guy ran a stop sign and then turned full speed and hit us head-on.  Airbags deployed and everything and it was pretty scary.  Everyone was ok, strapped in nice and tight, but the van was totaled.  

So we ended up having to get a new van sooner than we had planned, but we have wheels again.

2 days before Christmas, Drew lost his first tooth!

Gingerbread houses

Christmas Eve Nativity Scripture reading

Brooke was the Angel in the Nativity scene and since we didn't have a halo, she got to wear the real Mrs. Illinois crown and was quite excited about it!

Santa

Christmas morning 

Christmas evening with the cousins

We made the trip up to Michigan to do Christmas with Randy's family the weekend after.  Luckily we had great weather for driving.  We went a day early and spent the night with my good friend from high school and her family who live up there also.

Ames Christmas in Michigan

We had to get all new carseats also, since they were all involved in the accident.  The new seats must not be as reclined as the old ones, b/c we had a bunch of head bobbing when they fell asleep on the drive.  I had to improvise to keep their heads back.  Luckily I saved a bunch of Drew's ace wraps and they came in handy here!

This picture makes me laugh  - Drew or Tupac?

Happy New Year!  We look forward to a happy, healthy 2014.  Drew has a cardiology appointment tomorrow and MRI next week.

Fall

I started this post back in October and never got around to finishing it, so here's a little catch up and a lot of pictures, but will get me caught up through the end of October.  

This was a scare back in September that landed us in the ER after a couple of strange episodes of bruising and then some back to back nose bleeds that wouldn't stop.  Everything ended up being just fine though thank goodness!

Oreos & mild always make things better.

We took a trip to down to Texas to visit my sister Denise and her family. 

We stayed at a little resort hotel that had a lazy river and a beach that the kids loved.

Brooke & Brayden

Dallin

Kelsey

Blake & Drew

Brooke & Drew thought this cactus was cool.  

Brooke & Brayden caught toads in the yard.

Cousins

Brooke & Drew both played soccer in the fall.

They also tried out Tae Kwon Do and had fun breaking boards.

Early morning MRI day back in October.  

Everything looked good.

Drew & Dr. Stew

A warm, fall day at the pumpkin patch.

This picture of Drew on a pig cracks me up.

Kids and their pumpkins

Brooke turned 8!

And got baptized

Randy's cousin Jason came to visit.

Halloween 

Brooke (8) Rockstar, Drew (5 1/2) Stormtrooper, Dallin (3) Wrestler, Kelsey (2) Pink Poodle

We have become really good friends with a family we met at the hospital when Drew was in treatment. Their son Connor was also in treatment for a brain tumor and was the kid that followed Drew at radiation everyday, so we got to see a lot of each other.  This last fall Connor's older brother Zach's football team invited the boys to be honorary captains for a game.

 They got jerseys with their names on them

 and got to walk the team out and call the coin toss.

 The group of boys that had just won the prior game came out and presented Drew with their game ball and one of the boys even handed over his medal to him!

Brooke, Connor, Drew, Dallin & Sean

 Zach with the kids

We got a last minute call one day from the hospital asking if we were free to go to a Blackhawks game b/c they had extra tickets for the game that night!  We cleared out schedule and headed down.  

We were pretty excited when we picked up the tickets and found out we were in the Pritzker family suite -

 with food - 

 and the dessert cart!

It was a great game and we won 5-4!