Deer hunting week....

Here's a peek at what we did last week, during deer hunting. We didn't do anything too "unusual". Our crew was 2 moms, and 7 kids (6 yrs & younger). (Aunt Heather and cousins: Jacob, Emily & Meri kept us company while both our Daddies went hunting.) Heather & me enjoyed adult conversation (and too much junk food), and the kids, well, they played naturally!! During the week we did some fun things: like cookies, finger painting. We spent the week between our house and Aunt Heather's.

Thursday was Thanksgiving... we had 28 people for supper here. What made it interesting was 11 of those were kids. The oldest was 6 yrs and the youngest was 14 mos! There was plenty of food and entertainment! Friday night we went to the Old Fashion Parade in town . The kids were looking forward to the reindeer and candy, but we didn't get either. They saw a few horses and the girls loved the"princesses" (aka the county fair queens..) It was pretty chilly, but the kids had fun! We had alot of fun last week... but now we're looking forward to eating all the tasty venison, and seeing the trophy bucks on the wall!

Benji is definitely our little cowboy. He tied his rope to the toy box, then lined up 2 chairs.. So then he had his wagon and his horse were ready to go! Yeehaw.. away he went!

John & Katie got caught riding on Daddy's guitar case!!

More playing... with Jacob's new truck!

The mighty hunters!!

Little Mommy Katie reading to her baby, while her other baby was sleeping. SHH!
Aww!! John & Meri...
Our little Mommies!
Katie loved Emily's vacuum! Aunt Heather didn't mind the extra help either. With 7 kids.. the house ended up pretty messy!
Our "buck" cookies! Yummy!

Turkey Prints

Make a Smilebox slideshow

We're thankful for...

• Our Faith
• Our Family
• Our Friends
• And soo much more!

Our kids enjoyed making these turkeys using their hand print. We have more pictures to post of all the fun we've been having during deer hunting, but they'll have to wait. Now we need to get ready for Turkey day at our house! Its a tad early, but we wish y'all a Happy Thanksgiving!

Playtime..

John LOVES to play in the cupboards. The pots and pans are his favorite, because they make more noise! At least once a day, he'll completely empty them out. Occasionally he'll put them back, so when I open the door, they all come out ;)

Another favorite: picnics!! They take towels or blankets and spread them all over the floor, then they take the food off of the shelves!! (We tend to find canned foods all over the house after their picnics)

A loong, hard day of playing!

Kids...

Somedays I would LOVE to know how kids come up with things! They enjoy playing with play-doh, so one day they were happily playing along, being quiet, (which isn't too unusual with play dough, since it keeps them very occupied), but still a quiet child = CHECK IMMEDIATELY. This is what I found... "Mommy, Katie and me made milk shakes!" They heaped all their play-doh into their jars and stuck their spoons and (plastic) knives for their straws. Poor Katie tried so hard to get a sip ;-) Ahh.. their busy minds!

Opening Morning!

Opening Morning= two 8 pt bucks

Proud Benji with one of Daddy's buck!

Benji was FULL of questions for Daddy, wanting to know everything!
One of the 8 pt bucks Daddy got!

P.S. Thank you G'ma for sharing some of your pictures with us! Good luck hunting & stay warm!

Benji's Bday: Part III

These are the pictures from Benji's birthday party with the Schwenneker's!

Present Time!!

Ready!

Get Set,

GO!!!!

These are all of Benji's cousins (including his siblings)

*bottom: John, Jacob, Larissa, Benji, Katie (hiding behind Benji), Carolyn, Emily
*top: Wyatt, Meri

That makes 9 for grandkids. For people close to the family may notice, WYATT, our newest nephew, actually 3 days younger than John! We are so glad to finally meet and hold him!
P.S. Notice how Tubby is still sitting in his highchair, because he's STILL eating ;-)

Ahh.. it was a busy, fun - filled weekend. Benji's bday was on the 9th, so I'm naturally behind on posting these. But now that we have a computer at home, I'll be better at updating ;-) (hopefully) And on this note, I'll sign off, because we are now up to date, and I now need to get back to work like get the house in line for our "deer hunter widow & kid week" and more importantly, Thanksgiving (for about 30)!!

Benji's Bday: Part II

For Benji's other bday party I made a fish cake. He usually changes his mind about a million times before he decides on his cake.. his picks this year included: spider cake (after mom discourage Spiderman), frog, bow and arrow. Once he decided on a fish, he couldn't decide what kind of fish. For a boy turning 5 years old, it had to be the right fish I was told ;-) So after many discussions he saw the sprinkles in the cupboard.. and viola!
Happy 5th Birthday Benji! We can't believe how big you are getting! We love you so much!

Just in case you forgot.. he's 5!

Here's a quick shot we took before Sunday mtg. G'pa & G'ma got some pictures of the 4 kids on their camera.

Happy 5th Birthday Benji: Part I

On Benji's birthday weekend, G'pa Ray and G'ma Joyce came (Aunt Jessica brought Great-G'ma Marx for Saturday) Then on Sunday night, we had another bday party for the Schwenneker side.. I'll post those later.

They bought a cake, with a buck and a hunter, which was a hit for all the kids. Benji got lots of new presents and clothes. And not to be left out.. Carolyn, Katie and John all got a few things too!

A fun part of the weekend was reading books with Great G'ma Marx. Our kids love to read books, so they keep Great G'ma busy! It was sure fun to have her at our house... Thanks for coming Great G'ma Marx.. we love you!

A day in our house..

One day while we were making Rice Krispie bars the kids took the extra marshmallows and decided they were pigs. What this picture doesn't do, is make the snorting noise of 3 marshmallow pigs! Let me tell you.. it's nothing like you've ever heard before!

This picture will be priceless to us forever, as it shows the bond between big brothers and little brothers. John fell down and hit his head (wasn't hurt). Benji immediately grabbed John and carried him to their rocking chair and rocked John. Surprisingly, John laid like that for quite some time. It was adorable to listen to Benji talk to John! Benji has always looked out for him since a baby, and we hope he always will!

John loves to play in the shoe bin. He takes 2 shoes, matching or not and puts them on his hands. Sometimes he'll crawl on the floor with them, or just bang them together. On this occasion, he couldn't quite reach the shoes on the very bottom, and in he went!! He couldn't get out, because he wouldn't let go of his shoes!

One night, Carolyn climbed up onto the chair and started read her book. Then Benji asked her if he could brush her hair. Carolyn, "Oh Benji, that would be soo nice, but will you brush slowly, because if you do it won't hurt me!" So Carolyn read her book to Benji while he "slowly" brushed her hair. He must have done alright because she never said, "OUCH!" * She isn't yelling in the picture, just reading*



Katie is a miniature mom. She will carry a baby around all day, while wearing her dress up shoes. But she also remembers to feed her baby a bottle or sometimes she has to nurse, then she'll burp it, and finally sing and rock it to sleep. Here she wanted everyone to be quiet, so she could go Nigh-Nigh with her baby!

Purple Pals

Katie & Meri are only 5 months apart, and are now good playmates. It wasn't too long ago, Katie only wanted to play with Emily (4 yrs), and naturally, Emily being a 4 year old, didn't want to play with a "baby". Poor Meri was always excited about Katie, but Katie would ignore her. Now, they've figured it out and they are adorable to watch play dolls. Just throw in their cousin, Larissa, who is 4 mos older than Katie... and you have quite the team!!

Girls in Red

Carolyn & Katie love to play "princess", which basically is wearing dresses and putting their hair up in a "bun" or with a fancy hair bow! So I took advantage of them and snapped some pictures. Carolyn is a poser and Katie is a ham!

Our 4 lil munchkins

Here is our latest attempt to get all 4 kids picture. This "session" I tried solo, but quickly learned its MUCH easier to have Benjamin there to keep the kids ready, while I snap the camera. But we did a some cute ones, and the kids had fun running in the tall grass. John thought it was hilarious to sit in his chair, smile, stand up, clap and RUN!