I wish I had more to report on. Let's see....this past week Tom was away for a few days in Chicago on some work thing. It was rough to say the least. Tuesday I headed up to visit my friend Stacy. It was a nice distraction but the children were not exactly on their best behavior and it stressed me out a lot.

This week we are headed up to Traverse City to celebrate Thanksgiving and spend some good quality family time together. I promise to have a mountain of pictures. Including many outdoor snowy adventure pictures. We are so excited to enjoy the plentiful snow in TC.


With the Christmas season quickly approaching, well actually it is upon us, Noelle has taken a great interest in the real Christmas story. She seems to grasp the concept that we celebrate the birth of Jesus on Christmas, along with her own! Although she does understand the birth of Jesus it does not deter her from wanting EVERY toy that is advertised on TV, in the paper, in magazines, and of course, in stores.

These days Max is very very troublesome and keeps me on my toes all day long. Because he can walk so well, he is able to get to things quickly, for example the fridge. If he hears it open, he bolts toward it. While Tom was away he was able to grab a bottle of chocolate syrup out of it. While I was cleaning up he was silent and I rushed to finish some chores. A few minutes late I found out he was so quiet because he unscrewed the top of the syrup and poured it all over the carpet, then proceeded to put his feet and hands in it. When I rounded the corner he was spreading it all over the floor and Zeus was trying to lick up as much of it as he could. Those type of stunts are typical with him.

Stories:

I let out a frustrated huff and Noelle quickly responds with, "Mom, don't you huff like that!"

Max has become very quick and very mischievous lately. He gets into Noelle's things and one time Noelle came up to me with her arms crossed and said, "Max is NOT my brother, he is YOUR son and you take care of him!".

While Tom was replacing the vacuum belt Max runs up to him with a piece of the hose and swiftly hits him over the head and runs away with a huge grin planted on his little face.

When Max does something silly Noelle says, "What are we going to do with this kid?".

Right before being disciplined Noelle runs up to either Tom or I and wraps her arms around us, plants a big kiss on our lips and says, "but I love you really really much and I'm really really sorry." It just melts our hearts.

That's all folks...Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Baby R3

Today I went in for an hour long routine anatomy ultrasound. I have been feeling his/her little kicks for awhile now and it was incredible to feel the kicks while watching them happen on the screen.

Unfortunately, Baby R3 is very stubborn and again would not let him/her self be known to us. He/she kept his/her gender hidden from our view. There wasn't even a glimpse of between the legs. I guess I will have to wait until December 3rd at my next OB appointment to hopefully find out.

The technician gave us horrible pictures. I wish we could make them out, but the baby looks like an upside down, inside out alien! We were hoping for some nice head shots that we saw on the screen, but were given two very disappointing photos. I guess pleasing the parents with fantastic photos of their in utero baby is not high on their priority list!

Can't Think of A Title...

I wish I had more to write but not much has happened around here. We enjoyed the unseasonably warm weather this week by heading outside as much as possible. Noelle told me that she "really really needs a swing set". That is the plan come spring.


On Wednesday, I went in for another doctor's appointment. I expected to find out the sex but baby R3 refused to cooperate. The baby is growing well and looks great, he/she just would not let their sex be known. I go in again this Thursday for the more comprehensive hour long anatomy ultrasound, hopefully it will yield a positive result as far as gender is concerned. If not then I go back on December 3rd and will again be given another ultrasound. We will find out the sex of this baby !

Max is starting to talk. He can say ball, hi dada, and dog. Noelle gets very excited when he does say something and tries to encourage/teach him all day long.

That's about it...here are a few pictures because I'm out of words:

Happy Halloween!

We have had such a great weekend it's nice to be back home, but we all seem to want to be back in Traverse City.

The five hour drive up went very well. Noelle was very excited about Halloween and seeing Granma, Granpa, and Uncle Alex (now affectionately called "Unkie"). We arrived in early afternoon and let the children run around and play in the beautiful weather.


After dinner it was time to get all dressed up and head out for some candy! We decided that Max was going to be a tiger and wear Noelle's costume from last year, we searched many stores and could find nothing that seem to suit him better. He made a very cute tiger, and Noelle was an adorable, studious doctor!
Noelle loved going up to house and saying in her sweet little voice, "trick-or-treat". Max was quick to pick up on the concept and reached his little hand into the bowls to grab the brightest candy to gnaw on. We would only have a few minutes before Max's thick slobber soaked through the candy and he was eating it. We went to a handful of houses around the block and then my two little munchkins were tired out.

Tom and I dropped off the children, gave out many hugs and kisses and headed out for our adventure! We booked a hotel room for the night, alone, no children, all by ourselves...completely amazing! The Cherry Tree Hotel was wonderful, our room perfection. We had a little suite, complete with a huge jacuzzi tub, nice flat screen, and a more than comfortable big bed. Needless to say we had a great time!

The children did very well with Grandma and Grandpa. Yes, I had to call a few times, Tom begged me not to but for my peace of mind I just had to hear it. Saturday morning Grandpa and Noelle went to Toys R Us together. What an adventure they had! Right around noon we arrived back at Castle Goodhue to find Noelle playing with her new toys which included, a back pack full of sparkly makeup, a princess baby carriage, a little Dora the Explorer puppy with stethoscope, a pink dolphin, and an elephant for Max! Noelle pointed out exactly what she wanted and Grandpa got it for her; that's what Grandparents are for, spoiling.

After an afternoon rest period for Noelle and Max's nap we headed out into the woods for a walk. It was beautiful crisp weather and got some great pictures.

After our walk, "Unkie" cut down one of his old hockey sticks and proceeded to teach Noelle how to play a little street hockey. She had such a great time! Max was given his own little stick and decided to use it as a club on the nearest vehicle, such a brute!


It was a fabulous, wonderful, (insert many more descriptive adjectives here, I'm tired!) weekend. It was hard leaving. I can't wait until Thanksgiving.

Another Week Gone By

This week I took the children to visit my good friend Stacy at her home in Cass City. We left Tuesday morning and had an easy 2 1/2 hour drive there.
The children all got along well. Max, being the now champion walker made himself at home and traversed the house on two feet!

We had to hit up the indoor pool. Something that as soon as Noelle saw it she wanted in! She loved the water, but is not as comfortable as her friend Jacob (5 months younger) who can basically swim on his own in the pool. Max hated it and cried the whole time, maybe if we had an indoor pool and he was in it everyday he would love it (hint, hint, husband...).

Whole idea was to spend two night there. Well, that changed after the first night. For some reason Noelle and Max kept each other and me up basically the entire night. I felt like I had two newborns and did not get much sleep. I made the executive decision that we all needed a good nights rest and to leave Wednesday evening inside of on Thursday.

Stacy bought some pumpkins and paint for the children and Wednesday morning we left them have at it. It was a big hit and Noelle loved painting her pumpkin. Both of my children were beyond irritable for most of the day, Wednesday. By the time I had packed up and was ready to leave, I think it was a relief to Stacy and her children! Here are some goodbye pics...

Upon leaving the driveway, within mere minutes Max was out. Noelle shortly followed and I had about an hour and a half of much needed peace and quiet. Of course when all was going well we hit a cramp. About an hour from home the highway was shut down and we had to find another route. Not fun. Max was very cranky, wanting to get out very badly.

After getting back on track Noelle mentions she has to go to the bathroom very badly. I asked if she could hold it and she said she could. The frequent mentions of her bladder issue increased. We were only about 30 minutes from home, and the middle of nowhere. I sped up a bit and used as many diversion tactics as I could think of, i.e. songs that were very loud and very out of tune. I made a quick call to Tom to meet us outside when we pulled up (it was 7:40pm by the time we did reach home) and he quickly grabbed Noelle. She made it, but had a lot to expel by the time she did reach the bathroom. I was expecting an accident, but I guess her bladder is now capable of holding it for longer periods of time, not something we encourage all the time.

Let's see what else...on Friday I turned 25! Tom and the children got a few very nice presents and then they baked me a delicious chocolate cherry cola cake. Saturday, today, I was able to sleep in and Tom took care of the monsters most of the day and let me relax. For dinner he cooked me some wonderful salmon that we all enjoyed very much, even Noelle!

That's it for now.

Apple Picking

Max continues to gain more confidence and walks more and more each day. Crawling will soon (within days I do believe) be a thing of the past, sadly.
Noelle is very proud of Max and cheers him on most of the time. She has started to push him down because he gets to her faster than before. After she pushes him down she hugs and kisses him, but the initial act is still disciplined. (Below is a picture of Noelle with some dark brown eye shadow spread all over her face. She was so proud of her cosmetic feat we left in for the entire day!)
Saturday, we met up with the Mitzels for some apple picking fun. Noelle was very excited to spend some time with her buds. The crisp, cool weather was utterly perfect compared to the sweltering high 80 degrees we were met with last year at this time.
The wagon ride was a big hit with the kiddos. It went through a decorated forest with a bunch of characters that the children liked to point out. All three little girls had an apple in their hands as quickly as the men could pick them! On the ride back my usual on the go little boy fall asleep against me. It was a rare occasion that I was cherishing!
Fresh donuts and cider were then picked up and we ate them back at our house. When nap time for most of the children approached and meltdowns were not far off, the Mitzel Family headed off. It was a really great fall day, one that seems to be the perfect synonym for fall.

I took a quick video of Max walking today. He can walk about 25 steps on his own and he walks about 75% of the time! It still shocks me to see him walking up to me from a different room. He walks like Frankenstein, arms out to help stabilize his very wobbly body. Anything in his path well result in an immediate fall due to his lack of direction. But then again he is only nine months and he will only get better with time. We are all very proud of him!