Polar Express

This year, we took the kids to the Railroad Museum for "The Polar Express!" It was great - they read the story with pictures on a large projection screen, there was a "hot chocolate" dance to go along with yummy cocoa, a train ride (of course) followed by meeting Santa. We got to sit on the 2nd floor of the train!

Gobble, Gobble!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We've been enjoying the season & have so many blessings to be thankful for!

The kids are at great ages to enjoy projects together... so we've been busy being artsy! We made gingerbread houses - everything from scratch but don't think I didn't search every store looking for a peanut safe "kit!" They didn't have anything safe for Ian so I found a delicious recipe that not only makes 2 houses, but it makes a dozen chewy, delicious gingerbread men cookies too! I honestly thought this was going to be a disaster but the kids LOVED it... I had never made royal icing but it worked like a charm & dried quickly enough for little artists.
Audrey's house (above)

Ian's house (above)

We also recently did our annual "salt dough" ornaments. This project is one of my favorite - it goes quickly (we microwave ours) and the kids go from mixing dough & doing cutouts to painting/coloring within a short amount of time.

We even visited santa at the mall already. We're looking forward to more fun in December: Polar Express train ride, Festival of Lights at the Botanical Gardens, breakfast with Santa, family visiting, making cookies & candy and making a birthday cake for Jesus on Christmas morning.

Our Little BOY at 20 weeks!

We had never seen 3-D images like this for the other two kids.

It was so neat to have Ian & Audrey there to see the ultrasound... but we're hoping the baby looks less like a scowly old man in real life ;) Just kidding, he looked healthy & amazing! Ian has his photo framed - he's so proud.

Happy Halloween!

We kicked off our Halloween day by making slime! It was so fun (even for daddy & mommy)

Then, mommy got to join in the celebrations at Ian's preschool -

Everyone was dancing & Ian's said "Mommy you have to jump too!" (not so easy with my belly these days!)
We began trick-or-treating with the excitement of a firetruck showing up across the street!

Here's most of the neighborhood gang

Ian heard one of his friends was getting "Angry Birds" pumpkins so he requested one as well. Mommy did her best... Ian drew the face & ears on the left for us to carve (so cute!) & Audrey drew the "eye" on the one on the right... we filled in the rest :)

A successful night of trick-or-treating fun... lots of candy was collected by BOTH our kids this year. Audrey was really into the whole thing! We separated a giant pile that was not peanut safe & were able to donate it at our dental office. They gave the kids a dollar per pound & they send the candy to soldiers overseas. Ian used several dollars he had accummulated this month as well as some change from our change jar to buy an "Angry Birds" board game for he & Audrey. It was the perfect solution to the candy overload (and don't worry, we have plenty of peanut safe candy lingering in the house for the kids to indulge in!)

Halloween sneak peek

Audrey is 3 months away from turning 3 yrs & she's very particular about what she'll wear. We've struck out with costumes in the past so I was thrilled to see her LOVE her "pony" (unicorn) costume this year. This is her trying it on for the first time, running around the room & checking herself out in the fireplace reflection.

So... she better still like this in 2 weeks when we go trick-or-treating :)

Autumn is HERE

It was so wonderful that our anniversary weekend, Brian's weekend off and beautiful fall weather all coincided! We took the kids to The Farm - a place we usually frequent all summer - for the first time this year.

Ian is definitely in his element around animals. Audrey is... well... not

Audrey did enjoy picking out a pumpkin though!

The kids picked out pumpkins for mommy, daddy, Ian, Audrey AND the new baby.

The baby, by the way, is about 15 weeks in the oven and mommy has been enjoying feeling the baby move for over a week already!

Audrey is SUPER good at the "cheese" pose

We went to our community "Fall Fest" on Sat. and had a blast!

Here's Ian playing a game but I had to post this because he had his balloon dog tucked in his coat. Awe

We had a great weekend to soak in the fall colors & each other :)

Baby 3 first photos

I went in for routine screening & got to peek at our little one for the first time. Here he/she is at 12 wks & 3 days. The images weren't the easiest to see at this point - but the little one was moving arms & legs before falling asleep in a very compact position. The baby crossed its legs & put its arms up by its cheeks. What you see below is the top of the baby's head - its face is down under the arms.

Above: These are legs & apparently a foot. The placenta is that big thing on the right.
This is a "wave" - you can see the torso & one arm bent up by the head. You can see the head and alien looking eyes - that's our little one's face. We're so happy things are going well! We go back for images at 16 wks and again at 20 wks. Stay tuned for news on "boy" or "girl!"

First Day of School!

It was painfully sunny in the front so we had a hard time posing for pics

Trust me, he really was excited :)

This photo says it all.

Ian is holding the door just a few feet from his new classroom while Audrey & I slowly walk down the stairs. "Hurry Mom! Hurry!"

He was SO excited to get there & grumpy after school because it was over too quickly.

Lastly, a sweet pic of our Lego boy.

Family Photo Session

Here are our beauties...

We really love all the photos taken by a talented friend last week.

It was hard to narrow down a few to post here.

Melissa Kay Photography

Interesting thing about this family photo - baby Zaruba #3 is hiding in there!

We aren't due until late March but the best part of being pregnant now... sharing the experience with my sister, step-sister AND sister-in-law who are all due early 2012!

5 Years!

Somebody turned FIVE this month! Wow, where has the time gone? It seems like only yesterday we were holding our little boy for the first time. Ian, your contageous smile continues to light up our days. We are so proud of you!

We did a Cars 2 Party fit for a car lover.

a few more pics are on the cake blog under Cars 2 birthday