Monday, November 29, 2010

How to quickly find a tree

Just pick the coldest, windiest day of the season so far to go and cut down a Christmas tree and it's amazing how quickly the tree can be picked out and cut down! We have gone the day after Thanksgiving for a few years now to go pick out our Christmas tree. This year, our friends, the Seiler's, were in town for Thanksgiving and joined us for the event.

We've learned to measure before you leave the tree lot...

Mike decided that everyone needs to have cut a tree down at least once...thanks Mr. Tom for getting that job done!And I just LOVE this picture of my handsome husband...

Clayton and Sammie followed directions perfectly and "helped" by standing far away...

Did I mention is was COLD?! I gladly volunteered to take the "babies" back to the car to relieve their misery...

So after a quick trip to the tree lot, we enjoyed a yummy meal at McD's and enjoyed the rest of the day INSIDE.

Feasting with Friends and Family

Thanksgiving this year was so much fun with a full house.
Brooke and Clayton had fun helping get ready for the big day by making pumpkin pies.

It was a lot of good food prepared by many willing hands, but I think my favorite memory will be the "parade" that the kids put on for us. Brooke and Sammie...our creative engines...saw the Macy's Day Parade on TV and decided that we too needed to have a parade....they worked most of the day!


Miss Karen & Grandma Seiler supervising craft time
Making HATS...

Preparing strollers with balloons and streamers...
It was beautiful chaos!

Brooke, Clayton & Lincoln Stanley
Tommy, Sammie & Allie Seiler
Sarah & Micah Forness


Tommy, Sammie & Brooke

Did I mention good food?!



Family

Uncle Chris & Aunt Alicia
Grandpa Mark & Grandma Denyse
And friends...
Mr. Tom & Grandpa Seiler

Dan & Summer Forness
What an amazing God we have to give us SO much to be thankful for!

Sunday, November 7, 2010

Is it TOMORROW yet?!

We had Clayton's birthday party at Pump It Up (bouncy house heaven) just a few days short of his 4th birthday. All day on Friday he kept asking "Is it tomorrow YET?!" I can't tell you how many times we explained to him that it was after he went to sleep for the night...after nap time really added to the confusion of when it would be tomorrow! He had a great day being the star of the Toy Story themed show with 30 of his friends bouncing for a couple of hours and ending the event with a lot of sugar! Thank you to everyone who came - we all had a lot of time playing with you and with some really cool toys afterwards.


This is Clayton's buddy Ethan - he currently has rock star status in our home!

Brynn, Warren and Casey racing out of the obstacle course

Reed, Autumn and Clayton

Uncle Chris stopped over later with some more birthday treats!

Happy Birthday Clayton - We love you!!

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Happy Halloween

Sunday night we met up with some neighbors to head out trick or treating - what I mean is, that Mike took the older two kids with the neighbors in the COLD, while I headed back to a warm, toasty house with Lincoln. We don't have many trick or treaters (31 this year to be exact!) so we handed out King Size Candy Bars - I loved the reactions I got!
Brooke was a Fairy...all costumes lose a bit of their pizazz when you add enough layers to keep you warm. Oh well, it was either that or put a jacket over the top.


Clayton was a police officer. He wanted to be a firefighter, but the costumes we found required buying the boots, hat, jacket, etc. all separately. And for one night...we'll go the cheaper route. So if you were to ask him what he was for Halloween, he replied, "A police officer, because a fire fighter is TOO MUCH money!"

And Lincoln was a dinosaur - because that's what was in the hand-me-down bucket and he couldn't have cared less!

And Lincoln found plenty to keep himself entertained with while the big kids were collecting candy.

The Birthday Girl - Beaming & Busy!

Brooke didn't have school the morning of her birthday. She came into my room and right away asked to see the scrapbook of the day she was born. She read aloud the story of her early arrival, saw pictures of her numerous tubes and attachments in the NICU, and of her homecoming 3.5 weeks after being born! It seems like a lifetime ago...


Then as is tradition in our home, we had a birthday breakfast. Brooke chose frosted chocolate chip cookies that looked like a pumpkin - enough sugar to last a week!
Then it was off to the bowling alley with Grandma Nancy. Brooke has been asking for at least the past year if we could go bowling...something about 3 kids lugging around balls that could break their hands and feet wasn't all that appealing. Brooke enjoyed about the first 7 frames. Clayton set off the foul buzzer in the 2nd frame and it startled him so badly that he quickly found other ways to entertain himself...And would you believe that with even such great form....(just kidding - I wouldn't know good form if I saw it!)
I still didn't manage to break 100! Oh...and did I mention that we were bumper bowling?!
(No sports comments from the Poelzer's please.)
And one game later - we're on our way!
Our friends, the Seiler's, arrived in town to join in the festivities - nothing like fine dining at McDonald's with good friends.
And off again to get Brooke's ears pierced. She has been asking for about 2 years and the agreement was that she had to get her flu shot without crying. (I figured it took about the same amount of self-control to withhold uncontrollable sobbing and screaming - as had happened in past years at the doctor's office.) This year there were no tears during her shot - and a promise is a promise. She very proudly picked out her earrings, sat still while they prepped her and didn't even flinch when they pierced her. She hopped on down like nothing had happened. Yeah Brooke!
Daddy was out of town on business until later that evening - so all other festivities were held the following day. She was beaming all day long!
Still beaming...
Mid-morning we headed out to the garage for a silly string fight (check off the snowman list.)
Happy Birthday to YOU!
Lincoln LOVED her balloon!
After naps, Grandma Denyse and Grandpa Mark stopped over for more gift opening. Here's our best shot at trying to get all three kids to look in the general direction of the camera.

I love Lincoln's expression here - he's ready for that CAKE!