Growing Up!

Its fun to watch Liam find new things to accomplish. Recently he has been doing the "stand" in the middle of the floor without holding onto anything. Im hoping this means he will be walking soon:).

Excuse my silly voice in the background:)

Going For A Ride

So yesterday I was putting away some folded laundry and had just emptied the basket. I came out to the hall and this is what I saw:). Liam really did love it, I just think that my voice scared him a bit.

Potluck Group Weekend

This past weekend our potluck group at church went to LaPorte, IN for a weekend together. We stayed at the Best Western which is where I went as a little girl with my parents...so it was neat to go back and show my kids this place that I remember so well. The only thing I do NOT remember as a little kid was the smoke!! It really is a great hotel for kids with pool, hot tub, arcade room, shuffle board, and putt putt however it is filled with smoke as its a hotel that allows smoking. I don't understand that really with all the kids that are there, but when the hotel goes smoke free....I'll return:). I think there was around 32 of us total. A great weekend had by all. Here are some pictures from the weekend.
Ethan, Brie, Camille, Kelsey(?), Elijah and Caden

Eating dinner the first night. We had KFC...yummy. Tanner, Elijah, Ethan and Caden.

Brie, Kelsey, Landon, Camille, and Taylor eating dinner.

Once the kids were done swimming, playing, running around and sound asleep in their beds, us adults got to play games. Here I am teaching Steph, Phil and Darin how to play Ticket to Ride. I think they liked it:).

The first day of swimming they borrowed others goggles and so the second day nick went to walmart and bought them their own....they were so excited. Here they are getting ready to hit the pool once again. Ive never seen my kids swim so much. Thanks to Phil and Amber for having an extra pair of arm floats for Caden to borrow. By the end of the hotel stay Caden wasn't wearing any arm floats and was showing me how to swim. As long as he can touch he is a brave swimmer and does all sorts of front and back flips in the water.

Caden played a little shuffle board while waiting for dad to take him swimming. Its so funny he has his goggles on.

Racoon Eyes.....and chapped cheeks from so much chlorine. Oh but they had a blast!!

Liam had went to the doc on Friday before we left and he had an ear infection and so was put on antibiotics. However he was still a pretty fussy boy!! It doesn't look like it from this picture though:). He also had diarrhea and a temp of 100.5 for one day. I gave lots of tylenol and he slept pretty much the weekend away. I think he is getting himself another tooth...it looks pretty swollen on the gums.

Here we were having church sunday morning. The next two pictures(plus this one) shows who all was there. I think I am missing Stacy in a picture, but other than that we are all here. It was a great time and I look forward to the next.

Saturday Morning Activity

The boys and their daddy had a good time saturday morning attempting to make homemade donuts. The boys sure enjoyed this activity and asked to do it again already.
I made a maple glaze for some of the donuts and then we also did cinnamon and sugar. The donuts weren't the greatest quality so I think the next time we do them we will change up the recipe.

Here they are deep frying in our cool daddy. The last donut we did was a twist...need to make the twist tighter as it didn't stay together once it was thrown into the oil.

My 30th Birthday Surprise!!

So Wednesday afternoon I was outside shoveling our driveway. No reason, but to clean it off. Little did I know I was cleaning the driveway for guests. Nick drove up at 4pm...I asked him why he was home early. No reason, just cause he wanted to. He went outside with the boys and I was watching out the window at them when I noticed he waved at someone on the road and answered his cell phone at the same time. I quickly ran to the front of the house not seeing anyone in my drive but did see someone drive by. To me it looked like my friends philip and lana from atlanta but that was there old vehicle so I didn't think much of it. Decided that I just better brush my teeth since I hadn't all day:). Nick soon came in the house and told me he had a special delivery for me and that I should go to the basement and turn on the tv. So the boys and I went to the basement. Soon I was called upstairs.....and much to my amazment on the couch was sitting Philip, Lana, Naomi, Chloe, Rudy, Rocky and Avery. I was so shocked and so surprised and SO HAPPY!! My friends came to surprise me. Didn't know it was for my birthday, but just a surprise. How AWESOME!!

Here I am coming up the stairs ....video at the end of this post of my reaction:)

So then we went out to eat at Whistle Stop. On our way home that night nick asked me "do you trust me?" I responded "yes, why". He then pulled out a shirt to tie around my head. I was then starting to guess what was going on. ....what was at my house, who was at my house, what was going on...lots of guesses. I even rattled off a few names. Nick brought me into the house and it was very quiet. I was lead to the kitchen and then I removed my blindfold.

WOW!!!! I was shocked, in tears, so happy, so SHOCKED!!! I just sobed with excitment. Check out the other video at the end of this post for my "true" reaction. (note: this is from my sister Joy's facebook, so I am NOT 100% sure everyone can see it if you aren't friends with her on facebook).



Here are some pictures from my birthday party!! Now I know the real reason Philip and Lana came and I know that ALL my family members lied to me about how they were leaving on Wednesday to head home to florida(tricia and mark) and to Michigan (joy and jason). Those stinkers!!

Here is the video of my reaction to Philip and Lana and kids sitting in my living room!!

Click Here! for the reaction to my surprise party that night....remember its off of Joy's facebook so you might not get to see it if you aren't friends with her. Sorry.

Where to Begin???????

This is pretty much backwards but oh well....here is the busy December we have had.
Our neighbors have this awesome hill for sledding, so when Tricia and Mark and the girls were up from Florida, Nick and Mark took the kids sledding. They had a great time and were SO COLD when they came in from the outdoors.

Kyra and Elijah sledding down the hill.

Here we are having our Jerry/ Janice Gutwein Christmas!! 8 grandkids and counting. Next year we will have to add another little one. AJ and Raquel are expecting..due this summer.

Our yummy christmas dinner!

The Harold /Maxine Gutwein Christmas. We were so thankful we had EVERYONE there this year. Including Tess and Dan who just got back from their honeymoon. (they are in the back right of the picture).

The Gerry/Marcia Waibel Christmas!

And the very yummy h'ourderves(sp?) that we had for our meal.

We didn't plan to match this night, but we did so we took a picture:)

Our very own christmas...here are the boys eating the chocolate fondue (our traditional desert)

Here are the boys opening their presents. Liam already has his gifts open at this point and is wearing his black shirt (a purdue fan since birth:))

Laim opening his present. He only had one this year since he doesn't know the difference. However I did stick the shirt inside his toy that he opened so technically he got two gifts:) After seeing this picture I almost wonder if Liam is so excited to open gifts (hence the wave) and next year I'll have to get him more than one gift to open!!

Our own christmas dinner. Filets, Broccoli, Zuchenni, Artichoke Dip, Twice Baked Potatoes and Bread. YUMMY!!

The Leon Waibel Christmas!

The Roy/Shirley Wyss Christmas! They are all wearing their shirts with their names on them that they got from great gpa and great gma.

Snow What Fun!!

Oh how the boys are having fun in this snow. This is the most snow they can remember.....so imagine their excitment when someday we get more than 3 inches:).
Getting ready to shovel the sidewalk. (yes that is a pink scarf around his neck). He wasn't to thrilled about that, but I told him it didn't make him a girl if he wore pink:)
making snow angels

making mini snow men.

Caden got out the sand toys and started "cooking". He has his measuring cups and spoons, a wooden spoon and his white bowl. I asked him if he was making snow cream.

While the boys were outside playing, Liam was having a swinging good time inside.