CABIN TIME

Every year we head up to Island Park with Ben and Laurie and his family. They are so gracious to invite us and let us come up relax, play, and enjoy each others company!! Quinn and the boys of course rode snowmobiles all day while the girls did crafts.

How beautiful is that? It snowed pretty much the whole time up there. There is nothing better then being in a cabin all warm and cozy and watching snow fall.

Peyton and Caleb trying to climb the mountain of snow

Caleb playing

Peyton playing

Rhino rides

Hailey, Kam, Peyton and Caleb getting ready to go play

Those stairs entertained them forever

Sledding

Their sledding consisted of sitting on their butts and doing nothing. Ben drove the snowmobile while Quinn was on the back, grabbed the rope, drove them back up to the hill. Then the Dad's pushed them down. I could handle that kind of sledding.

The family

Caleb was an icicle when we got back from sledding

We hot tubbed

Peyton thought she was so brave to jump out of the hot tub and get in the snow. Caleb and Hailey went all the way down to the dock and back but I didn't get pictures of that.

Having sleepovers with our Besties

Caleb, Hailey, Kam and Hailey

Ben made Caleb and Hailey sleep on opposite ends:)

Then we come home to some sad news :(

We lost both fishes

Smurf went to fish heaven...

Caleb was ABSOLUTELY devastated. He cried forever and didn't know how he was going to sleep tonight because Smurf was his best friend.

And so did Rainbow

Peyton on the other hand could have cared less and said "she really didn't like Rainbow's color anyways." Really shouldn't the rolls be reversed here?

We flushed them down to fish heaven. Of course Caleb's came back up twice which freaked him out even more. Poor little buddy!!

Caleb came home from School with a story called My Most Unbearable Day. I am coping word for word what he wrote and it breaks my heart.

"My most unbearable day was when my fish died. When I was at the cabin I forgot about my fish when I got home from the cabin on Presidents Day. I remembered my pet fish. I ran as fast as I could to my room. I looked at him he was barely moving. I took fish food and poured it all at once. He only got one bite of food then he died. We had a funeral for him. Then we flushed him down the toilet. I cried all night long. When I woke I started to cry AGAIN!! Then I came to School I forgot about him. When I got home I cried again. THE END!!"

LOVE!!

I love to decorate for V-day and plan the dinner but I am not big on present giving on that particular day. Quinn and I decided not to give each other anything. I happy obliged but Quinn did not listen, little punk!! I heart attacked the kids and the hubs and made a fun breakfast for the kids before they headed out to School. Then that night we had a special dinner as a family, put the kids to bed and enjoyed us some "us" time while eating Cheesecake Factory cheesecake. I am so blessed to have them in my life, plus so many more people whom we all love!! What a fun day to let everyone know that they are loved!!

Daddy gets P something every year. This year he surprised her with a big old Teddy bear that she named Teddy (so original) and a movie. He put it in her room after she was asleep and when she woke up I hear her say "what the crap there is a big bear in my room" She is too funny!!

Caleb enjoying his heart pancakes and pink milk

Same with Peyton

Our candlelight dinner that night. I made everyone their favorite meal.

Caleb picked:Pizza Peyton picked: Chicken Chili

PARTAY!!

I decided to throw a little Valentine's Party together for P and some of her friends. Forgot to take pictures of the guest but got some pictures of the decor:)

The spread

I found these cool paper straws online and threw them in some mason jars.

Yummy Marshmallow popcorn in some push pops. I bought these like a year ago and have only used them once so I knew they would be perfect to put popcorn in.

SUNDAY BRUNCH

We headed to Little America for brunch with the family a couple of weeks ago!! My Uncle Mike and Aunt Elaine and cousin Crystal and her husband Rory were able to join us.

Me and the kiddos

Quinn was at home puking his guts out, poor guy:(

The whole family

HELPING OUT!!

UPDATE:

Proud Mom moment here, my sweet little boy came off the bus today all giddy and then he pulled out a big old envelope with all these cards. Without me knowing he asked his teacher if they could make some more cards for Oliver. There is so many of them and I can not wait to go mail them tomorrow. I can't tell you what a sweet boy Caleb is and I am so proud of him. It was hilarious to read all these cards and see how cute all these kids were. I really hope this will make him smile when he opens these up:)

All the cards, there are a ton of them they are all stacked on top of each other.

Caleb's card.

I love the drawing of him and Oliver being buddies!!

I have this weird thing I love to blog stalk people and especially sad ones. My friend Laurie makes fun of me on a daily basis but for some reason it helps me put into reality how lucky I really am and makes me count my blessings daily. So as I was reading one tonight the mother of a 10 year old boy who has DIPG or a Pediatric Brainstem Cancer asked for everyone to "Share the love" and send her son who has only weeks or days left a Valentine's Day card to show him how loved he is. First off NO one should ever have to watch their child suffer like this cute kid Oliver has. So I had this feeling that my kids really needed to make him a card. So I grabbed the kids and showed them a little about the blog and explained to them he will be going to heaven soon and that he would love to read some cards before he does. So we got to work and made him some special cards and it was such a GREAT experience for my kids. They kept asking questions about him and wanted to know more. Even as we were going to bed tonight saying prayers they prayed for Ollie. So I challenge whoever reads this to pull out some paper and crayons and make Ollie a card. Do it sooner then later due to his health and I promise you, you will feel like you made a difference. If you are interested in reading his blog it is oliverpalmer.blogspot.com and his address is:

The Lovable Oliver Palmer

417 Oaklawn Ave.

Waterloo, IA 50701

Caleb and Peyton's Card

Quinn was gone when we did this and when he got home we showed him and he was like "that's great but it's not the Ohio Hawkeyes it's Iowa" Whoops maybe he will get a good laugh out of it. :) Oliver really liked the Hawkeyes thats why Caleb drew it.

DATE NIGHTS!!

We have had two fun date nights in the last 2 weeks with some GREAT people!!

First off was the freaking hilarious Brian Regan.

We went with Ben and Laurie, and Laurie's sister Lindsey and Ben's brother Dallas and yes Lindsey and Dallas are married. Those girls just couldn't stay away from those George boys!!

ZAC BROWN

Then a couple of days later the Burt's hooked us up with Zac Brown tickets. We hit up Melting Pot for dinner and 3 1/2 hours later we were on our way to the concert. Only to pay $10.00 to park and then see the guy walk away after we payed and went home. Really dude you couldn't let us go with out paying? Then we got to run a mile in the 50 MPH (not really sure the MPH) :) wind/snow combo. I wanted to try and salvage my hair so I put my purse over my head and started to run only to find out then when I got into the building my purse was not zipped up and lost everything out of it. So of course being the smart lady I make my EVER so happy husband go back out in that BLIZZARD to find everything. Luckily we were able to find everything except my phone. A while later Quinn's phone rings and it's me calling him:) some VERY nice person found it and turned it into a security guard. Thank heavens there is still honest people in this world!!

Thanks Burt's for taking us and all I can say it's good to know the Burt's:)

Don't mind the hair. The crown of the head looks great that stayed dry but unfortunately the 90% of the rest of the hair didn't pan out as well!!

DISNEYLAND

This will be the longest post in all of history but this is pretty much my kids scrapbook so I want to document it all!! We gave the kids a trip to Disneyland for Christmas. They were so excited and especially to fly. Well Peyton not at first but we hyped it up and in the end that girl was in heaven and loved it!! We flew in on Tuesday night so that night we got settled all in and hit the sack. Wed we were up bright and early to get in on all the fun. Caleb was a stud and couldn't wait to do every single ride, Peyton on the other hand was being a pill and was scared to do anything. So Wednesday was spent with Caleb and Quinn doing all the fun rides and me and Peyton going around and seeing ALL the characters. Caleb has never been into the whole character thing even when he was young, she on the other hand loved them all!! Wednesday night my Mom flew in so we were excited to have Grandma there. By Thursday Peyton became smart and decided that the rides were all fun as long as we didn't take her on any that were dark!!

It was a fun, long, exciting trip but Quinn and I said we need a vacation after our vacation.

Welcome to Disneyland

My mom, me and the kiddos in front of the castle

CHARACTERS

TinkerBell

Belle

Mulan

Cinderella

Snow White

Woody and Jessie

The one and only picture of Caleb with a character

Goofy

Minnie

Mickey

Pluto

Captain Hook

Jake and the Neverland Pirate

THURSDAY

We had a early morning entry today so we were up and going at 7:00 got to the park at 9:00 and didn't get back to the hotel until 10:00 that night. Needless to say we were all really tired. Grandma flew in on Wed night so she joined us today as well and helped out a ton with Peyton so that I could go on the rides with Quinn and Caleb. Peyton also got to do a really special thing it's called Bippity Boppity Boutique. Princess Peyton got to go have her own salon day. She got her hair done, like a true princess, makeup, and nails, all topped off with a little princess magic dust(also known as sparkles and lots of them). It was such a fun thing and a must for anyone with a little girl. Her face was priceless and I loved how special they made her feel!!

BIPPITY BOPPITY BOUTIQUE

To the way they even decorated it, it was so cute

Getting ready to start

Makeup time..

finished off with some lips...

some magic dust...

The moment we all have been waiting for..

It was cute she said "bippity boppity" and then the birds magically opened the drapes to reveal her makeover.

BEAUTIFUL

Peyton and her fairy Godmother

RIDING RIDES

Somehow Dad through in the card "I will puke if I go on that ride." So I got stuck going on Teacups with them. Luckily Caleb's not that strong so he couldn't get it going to fast

It's a Small World

Peyton was a wuss and didn't want to get wet so Grams stayed back with her.

Caleb and Peyton waiting to ride the bumper cars

Grandma and Caleb going on California Screamin. This was Caleb's favorite ride and he went 4 times

WORLD OF COLOR

It was so cool and worth staying late to see it.

Waiting for it to start

Pictures don't even do it justice

Caleb with his new Club Penguin, waiting for the show to start

What are Daddy's for?

A boost when you just don't have the best seat in the house

I put the kids to bed, went the bathroom came out and they were out, bun and all in Peyton's hair, we had some tired kids!!

FRIDAY

Friday was a lot more crowded then the other two days and since we pretty much rode every ride in the two parks we just repeated all our favorite rides. Then our awesome friends/neighbors the Tuellers got there so we hooked up with them for a couple of hours and let the kids ride some rides together. Then we headed back to the hotel around 5:00. My Mom volunteered to watch the kids so we could go on a date. So we headed to dinner and were talking about all the fun things we could go do, stay out all night. Then reality hits in and were both EXHAUSTED so we grab some cheesecake from Cheesecake Factory head back to the hotel and our both OUT at 8:00. How sad are we?

Bestest Buddies

Mylie, Peyton and Annie

Best Buddies

Zach and Caleb

Annie, Peyton, Caleb and Zach about to get soaked!!

All the gang on Buzz light year

Do you think they were happy to see each other??

Beardall's and Tueller's

The gang minus Luke, he was with his cousins.

Us with Grams

ARIEL'S RIDE

Peyton's all time FAVORITE ride. Which we rode 8+times. Her face was priceless and she was soaking in every second of that ride.

I just love her face here:)

Caleb and Dad not so happy to be there after the 5th time of riding it.

Then we found a friend who enjoyed it as much as Peyton. Quinn was the lucky one who got to ride it with the girls!!

BEACH TIME

SATURDAY

We headed to the beach on Saturday it was a little chilly that day but that didn't stop the kids and the hubby. They jumped right into that freezing COLD water and didn't stop. They played for hours collecting a thousand seashells(that we had to bring home), making sand castles (from the limited supplies we had on hand, which was a cup from the hotel). I just love watching my kids play when its something so simple as the beach.

Look how happy they are?

The fam at the beach

My two men in my life!!

Is that not the cutest thing?

I love how Peyton is looking up to her Daddy