Awesome =)

Birthday Bash!

What a fun day to celebrate the boys. They turned 3 today, and of course wanted a BUZZZZZZ party, and a WOODY one. Easy peasy. Seriously how much toy story stuff is in the stores right now. ha! SO, enjoy some great pictures of our evening. Schoony's and Whites came over for a lil celebration and the boys got lots of neat new things for older kids! bring on the games!!!!! =) There were a few attempts in here at getting a decent picture....uuuhhhh NICE TRY. HA! oh well, hopefully the evening was captured well enough to remember for down the road. And you'll see the picture of syd with the bday hat on too and the elastic stretched waaaaay out, which was moments before she snapped her face and screamed for a while. awww....lil lady. Beckett gets points too for partying til he fell asleep. either that or we were really boring. =)



Garrett- you are so much fun to watch as you learn new things and interact with others. Way to go on your alphabet and learning and singing christmas carols! You're enjoying your independence now and wanting to do things by yourself! Thanks for picking up your toys, playing with Ethan, and taking care of you little sister. what a fun year this has been with you! We love you SO MUCH little son! -Daddy and Mommy

Ethan- You are full of energy and imagination! You are so silly and love to dance and play with your toys. Lightning McQueen is giving Buzz a run for his money, but Buzz is still your favorite. you make us laugh with your cute little sayings and comments out of the blue. Thanks for lovin sydney and sharing your toys with G. You are a great big brother, a true leader! Love you always, Daddy and Mommy

take a listen. =)

Preschool!!

SOOOO, birthday month for the boys, they turn three on the 13th so they graduate from the nursery to the preschool class at church!!! WOOP! AAAANNNND, just so happens that December is the month that Emily and I are teaching (correction: Emily teaches, I do what Emily tell me to do) haha. SO, I get to be in there this month and watch em do all the things with the big kids. =) SO CUTE!!! So i took pictures. I was still 'working' I promise. =)


So Emily's brilliant plan to have the kids sing a few Christmas songs in a few weeks in big church....we're on our way down the hallway with our 'buddy' to go practice singing our Christmas carols. hehe


They did great. And we made a little star ornament that they colored and got to bring home to put on the tree. They had a blast, other than Olivia getting them confused since they were dressed the same. oops (note to self on the first day of real preschool - no matching outfits!) they've been ready to move up I think for a while now...gettin sick of the nursery toys and wanting to do things with the big kids.

Speaking of their matching outfits, Sunday all three of em wore their Christmas outfits from Cale and Megan. We didn't get to see them for Thanksmas, but they mailed some cute lil numbers for the kids to wear around. SO AWESOME! The boys' shirts have little guitars on them - totally appropriate from Cale - and Megs passed on her style to the SYD with a sweet girly sweater and pants with a flower belt! She looked so stinkin cute in it too cause her legs are so chubby. they looked like skinny pants!...you know that are like spandexy and tight to the ankles. HAHAHAA





Thanks Cale and Meg! LOVE the outfits!! Got some great compliments at church too. =)

heheheheee

QUACK

Check out these saWEET pants!

Ash MADE THEM in her sewing class for Sydney, with the extras from the pants she made for herself out of the same material...so they would have matching jams. How sweet is that?!!! So cute..and so fuzzy wuzzy! So here's Sydney, fresh out of the bath, sportin her new jams, if only Ashley had her's on too. =) We'll have to get a matchy picture before she out grows them!

Happy Birthday Sydney in 5 days!!! she's practically in kindergarten. yikes

St. Joe Aquatics!!!

This is just too funny not to post. Oh my, the kids had some fun trying on Alyssa's swim cap tonight. Hilarious. They even tried it on Sydney and her chub on her head and eyebrows got squished down so her eyes couldn't even open. HHAAAA. but didn't stay on long enough to get a picture - dang it, so you'll just have to imagine. Anyhoo, Alyssa had a practice swim meet yesterday that we came to for a few hours in the morning, so here's what it looks like on the professional. =) Sorry the pictures are so dark, we were pretty far away....



She was awesome!! This is her first year swimming and she did great! the boys were cheering her on with ashley and hunter...so who knows if that's in our future here at the Thomas household, cause we all know that the three of them LOOOOOOVE the water. Anyhoo, check out these next few pictures and try not to laugh out loud. Cause ryan and I did. soooo funny






And Garrett's last picture wins the award for the most hideous. BAHAHAAAHAAAAaaaaa

Alyssa looks SOOO much better in this. =) Go SJA!!

70 and sunny!

St. Joe didn't have school today, so Ash and Alyssa came to watch the kids so I could go to bible study kid-free! They had fun, I had some much needed women time, it was a great morning. Alyssa stayed with us for the afternoon and played with the kids outside cause the weather was AWESOME!!

This would be the perfect time to make a joke about this being a BAD place for G to take a dump. haha

We had our community group movie night tonight - Toy Story 3 in the "MAN CAVE" at Whites! It, of course, was SOO GOOD....the boys actually did WAY better in the theater then this time, weird. Anyhoo, we got the boys that movie for Christmas, so I'm sure we'll be watching a lot of it in a few weeks!! Figured that was kind of a no-brainer gift for them, just fueling the obsession. =)

In other news, I haven't posted pictures yet of when the boys actually MET Beckett! I know, he's already a month old and I'm totally behind. But I was looking thru my pictures and it just came to me. So here you go...




They lasted long enough for the picture and then they were done. Especially cause Beckett wasn't really up for all the passing around. haha. The boys though haven't quite figured out how to say his name. They call him 'Bucket.' dangit. so close, but totally wrong! I try to get them to say it the right way, and I'm pretty sure in their mind they are saying it right. so funny. 'my baby bucket, mommy.' hahaaaa. Just love his lil mini face and squeaks. =)


AND I will leave you with this one last story in honor of Veterans day and our awesome BIL (brother in law) THE PANTS Barricklow.

So we (the kids and I) were walking thru target last week, headed down one of the little walkways. Off to the side between the men's and shoes depts are the men's undies and socks and undershirts...you know, like when they're all in packages hanging in a giant display on the wall. Well, every package has the model guy telling you that you'd look like him if you wore this pair of briefs...or whatever. So we're walking along and I hear 'Lookit, momma, Uncle Josh!' Pointing to the undies guy that's bald. BHAHAHAAAAAAhAAA oh my. Of course there are people around and the boys are pointing to and telling each other about all the many uncle josh's on the display and I just keep walking faster. haaaa. Which is funny- cause they've said that before in a different store and I must have said something dumb like 'ya he doesn't have hair either...' Pretty much everything you say after that is going to be dumb though. So there I am having this conversation with them IN PUBLIC about that almost naked guy looks like their uncle. What the heck kind of family is that?!?! hahaaaa. They love their Uncle Josh!! see you in two weeks BIL

trick or treat!

OK, my friend called me out this morning at church and said I needed to update the blog. haha. Thanks Melanie! =)

Halloween in a nutshell. WELL, started off with church in the morning, got to be there to watch lil Beckett get dedicated. Josh and Emily's family was all in town so it was good to see them again. I'm a big fan of the pot luck Sundays, so many good things to eat! The boys handed out little sheets of ghost and pumpkin stickers that Grandma Rita sent them, everyone loved them! That was cute... Pretty much CAN'T WAIT til we can all just sit at the table and eat a meal without someone screaming or trying to run away. SIGH.

Skip ahead to the party at Schoonvelds. People's costumes were so hilarious! Ryan and Heather were old people, canes and all, Josh and Emily were salt and pepper shakers, Steve-o was a very realistic cop, even had the car! (he stopped by in the middle of his shift-haha), Eric and Amy were Jack and Jill, we had a rubix cube, a karate kid, hippie, Cleopatra, ballerina, princess, batman, bunny, an elf and a few more, can't remember....(maybe that's why I should have written this right away) =) Last year Josh White had the kids play a game from his own childhood, which I think we've all adapted as a new tradition -- Powdered Donut game!!! here's a picture of the starting lineup!

You hang powered donuts from a string at the appropriate heights of the players. They then have to EAT the donut without using their hands, as it's dangling from the string and bouncing all over their faces leaving white powder everywhere. The first one done wins!!! Oh my gosh it's so funny. Everyone should play this game at a party it's THAT GOOD.





The kids love it, and they just keep playing until the donuts are gone. =) Obviously the boys didn't quite understand the rules. haaa

Anyhoo, we opted out of trick or treating on Forres because we didn't want a bunch of candy around the house anyway, the boys aren't going to eat it (I would- which is NOT good) and Sydney was a CRAB-OOOOOO. So we headed to Joe and Susie's house for the trick or treating. he insisted on us walking over to his neighbor's house to show off the costumes, so we did that for a few minutes and decided Sydney HAD to take a nap. So we put her down and Joe took G out again, Ethan stayed and helped Susie hand candy out to the kids that came to the door. that was pretty cute. he was saying thank-you everytime he gave away a candy. haaa. Joe snapped these photos of us before all the action started...




About half way thru the afternoon it dawned on me...why in the world would I make a costume for Ryan to wear that he CAN'T hold Sydney in?! Terrible! On top of being super tired and crabby, she wanted to go upstairs, over here over there, get into a million things, get in everyone's way...man! That was dumb. Here's what I saw when i came to this conclusion:

seriously terrible. But looking back, it was fun, the kids loved it. I'm already trying to come up with ideas for next year's family costumes....but I'm sure that will just depend on what they kids are into then, you know. I'm open for ideas!!! =)

A Sneak Preview....

4 little teeth, goin on 6!

Ry brought THIS home from work for his sweet little daughter.


HAHAHAAHAHAAAAAaaaaa. her first tooth brush. He is so funny. =) *SIGH*

Love this!!!!

This is our community group thru church that we've enjoyed for the last year and a half! Thanks Ryan Schoonveld for putting this together. Awesome!

WOWZA

Can I just say that I'm REALLY excited that I figured out how to put that picture up there with writing on it, using 2 different websites, multiple attempts at sizing, but I did it!!! haaa. I'm not too techy if you didn't know that. BUT AT LAST - Sydney is officially part of the blog!! HA....it only took 10.5 months....

In other news, visited lil Beckett this morning, well and Josh and Emily. He is stinkin CUTE! What a little mini! Can't even believe that Sydney was that size when she was born....(for about a week.) I told her what I loved the most is that he wasn't trying to get away from me! seriously though, the boys went thru this stage too of not being able to sit still (wonder who they get that from) and Sydney is a MO-VEERRR. She doesn't even want to be rocked to sleep, she starts reaching for her crib when you walk into her room. OOKKKAY good night to you too!! So anyways, I just loved to hold him and not stop looking at his cute lil head. Pretty sure he doesn't look like either one of them yet....but it's only been a day. =)


And let me just brag about my friend here for a minute. Look how good she looks!!! She stayed up ALL night to have a baby 26 hours ago. Smokin. seriously, she looks great..and she was her cheerful, pleasant self. Talkin to the doctors about going home this afternoon too. That's awesome. Way to go guys!



After I left the hospital, picked up the kiddos from Auntie Heather's, we headed out to our fav place to get pumpkins and some mums for the porch. I was trying to hold off buying them, but I couldn't stand it anymore. LOVE FALL STUFF!!! Here we are picking out our pumpkins, Sydney watched from her car seat a few feet away. The boys loved it! they went straight for the lil guys. And the nice man gave them each a baby punkin for free!! He's the best!



So we took all that home and did THIS with it!!


not sure why this one keeps going sideways. hmmm

YES! The boys were great helpers with that. And of course we had to have a photo shoot after that. I was laughing out loud - they are so funny, enjoy!

And tonight, Ry and I will go cheer on the Lancers at the Lakeshore VS St. Joe fb game!! Thankful for such a great day with beautiful weather! Fall is the BEST!

Introoducccciiinngggggg........

Beckett Warren White!!!!

born at 8:00 AM this morning
8 lbs 1 oz
20 inches

He was having a little trouble with some fast breathing so got some extra lovin from the nurses in the nursery for a while today. Check out the pics on facebook, here are a few Emily sent me earlier! She looks like she didn't even have a kid. Amazing! Can't wait to go see him tomorrow!!




more pictures on her facebook, check em out!!