What a historic moment that was!  Just before 10:00pm our time, CNN was flooding us with projected states, when all of the sudden, they flashed that Barack Obama was the projected new president of the United States!  Both kids were still up because of the party!  So both kiddos got to witness this historic event unfold.

Ben went with us to Springfield, IL to watch Obama announce his candidacy.  He went with us to a Rally in St. Louis (along with Sam).  He “watched” the political coverage and debates with us.  I hope he will somehow be able to remember that he was a part of this monumental feet in our nation’s history!

Makes me proud to be an Obama supporter and prouder to be an American!

Last night, we hosted a Presidential Watch Party.  We had a red/blue food theme, decorations…it was a blast!  Nana, Papa, Grandma, Aunt Sarah, Uncle Todd, Avery, Aunt Kristy and Great-Grandma were all here.  It was a lot of fun!

You need to vote!

Just a little friendly reminder!

Sorry…(that’s all I’m going to say too!)…okay, I’ll add that my camera has been MIA for almost a month now.  I had to break out the old one out of his hiding place!

We went pumpkin picking at Eckerts today…it was 70 degrees out today!  Here are some pics:

This one’s my favorite, even though they aren’t looking at the camera!

And I’m taking the Wilton Cake Decorating classes at Michael’s (to hone my mad cake skillz!). I just finished Course I tonight. Here was my final cake…and yes, I got a certificate and everything! ;P

Sam got his first “real” haircut today!  I’ve trimmed his hair a few times, but just to keep it out of his eyes mainly!  I don’t think I’ve ever seen the back of his neck!  Here are before and after pics!  He looks so old!

So says the cute three-year-old living in our house! Ben asked me yesterday (out of the blue, I might add) if God drove a car. I told him that if God wanted to drive a car, He probably could. Then I asked him what kind of car he thought God would drive. He thought a minute and in his best “very-determined” voice and nodding his head in the cute cocked to the side fashion, he said, “I think God drives a Macadia”. For those of you who don’t know, we got a GMC Acadia in June and Ben calls it a “Macadia”. So, for all you out there who were wondering what kind of a car God drives, He drives a Macadia (aka Acadia)…won’t GM be so proud!

Moving on…

Ben drew a car on his Doodle Pad...all by himself!

Sam took a few steps earlier this week. Today, he was in the living room and got himself into a standing position (straight up from the floor) and took a step and then fell on his bum. When I clapped, he stood up and fell back on his bum a few times, looking to me each time to check to see what my reaction would be. I didn’t react the same way, but asked him if he could “walk”. He tried again and took three steps! He did it a few more times and then went off to read a book! YAY Sam! Sorry, no picks of it yet! I’ll try to get some when he does it next time!

Cutie! He's always smiling!

Okay, I know…two post in one week…I must be crazy or something!

I made a REALLY good dinner last night. I bought a sirloin tip roast at the store about a month ago when it was on sale and it had sat in my freezer since then…not knowing what to do with it. So I did a Google search on sirloin tip roast and came up with this fabulously easy recipe (and it even tasted good too!). So what to serve with it? Ben LOVES polenta. I made a pumpkin polenta a few months ago with some frozen pumpkin that I had prepared from a Halloween pumpkin, but it just didn’t have enough pumpkin flavor and I had added WAY too much garlic powder. Armed with that knowledge, I decided to try again! What a success this one was! It balanced perfectly with the heat from the cayenne pepper in the meat recipe. Ben loved it and so did Sam! I also served it with steamed broccoli (which Ben FINALLY ate without a fight!). So, here’s pictures and the recipe:

Pumpkin Polenta
Serves 6

1 cup water
1 cup polenta (yellow cornmeal)
3 cups milk
1 can pumpkin
1 tsp salt
3 Tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/8 tsp (or pinch) cayenne pepper
1 stick butter, softened

In a bowl, combine water and polenta, set aside. In a large heavy-bottomed stock pot, combine milk, pumpkin, salt, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, garlic, and cayenne. Whisk together. Bring mixture to a boil, stirring and watching pot constantly. When pumpkin mixture comes to a boil, whisk in polenta/water mixture and stir constantly until thick. Reduce heat to low, cover pot and cook 5 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in butter. Serve immediately.

I’ll start with the pictures!

Ben and his “Mascoutahbaker”

Hot Rod!

Little (Big) Red Caboose.

Ben’s first carnival ride!

Ben & “the girls” in the Bounce House.

Jacob the dentist…Open wide!

Parade anticipation…First glimpse!

Ben saw his first “live” Humvee!

Ben has a model tractor that looks just like this!

Cool Sam with Papa!

Silly Sam!

My future’s so bright, I’ve gotta wear shades!

Nana & Papa with ALL the Grandkids!

Nana & Papa with ALL the Grandkids

Well, once again we packed up the kiddos in the car and went for a drive out to the Mascoutah Homecoming. This was the first year that Ben actually “got” what was going on. He watched the parade, rode a few rides, jumped in the Bounce House (I got a cute video, but can’t seem to be able to upload it here…), saw a BUNCH of tractors and some cool cars.

Sam wore sunglasses for the first time and I was ASTONISHED at how long he actually wore them. I think the parade was almost 2 hours long and they were on the whole time!

The two pictures above of Nana & Papa and the Grandkids was HILARIOUS to try to capture! I think I took 25 pictures and I know Cheryl was snapping away too. The people behind us were laughing…I mean, how hard is it to get EIGHT kids of ages 9 to 6 months to all look at the camera at the same time! It was quite comical!

So, I finally got my Kodak software working again, so I’m back to make an update…with pictures this time!

I took this picture a while ago of Ben…jumping, of course! I LOVE the expression on his face as his feet left the ground…and he was actually looking at the camera too!

Ben’s 3rd Birthday cake…decorated by Aunt Kristy…THANKS!!!

Here’s Ben after he ate a giant piece of his birthday cake!

And here is Sam’s 1st Birthday cake…no, it’s not a pile of doggie poo…it’s a dog food bowl. The party was a doggie theme, complete with the cake, some gingerbread doggie-bone cookies and doggie bag decorations.

Here’s Sam, snacking on his cupcake…Ben also tried to help him eat it!

And here are their official birthday pictures…taken on their birth-days at their birth-times…a tradition we started with Ben’s 1st birthday!

And…in case you’ve made it this far…Sarah, Todd and Avery are moving back!!! YAY!!!  The big move happens in a few weeks and I CAN’T WAIT to watch Ben & Sam grow up with their cousin Avery!

I hope you enjoy your day!  I love you!

Okay, don’t hurt me, please! I KNOW it’s been forever since you all have had an update and I’M SORRY! I’m struggling with my Kodak software on the computer to download the 8 bazillion pictures off the camera (I need to do an update, I think, or just uninstall and reinstall…but I want to back up my other photos first…TIME, where are you????)…some of which include Ben’s 3rd birtday party…he had LOTS of fun, by the way!

Anyway, we had his 3-year checkup today. Doc Mc. says he’s doing fantastically (duh). Here are his stats: weight is 34 pounds (75th percentile) and his height is 39 inches (90th percentile)…whoa baby, he’s gotten TALL!!!

Doc took his blood pressure and I was busy tending to Sam when he said it out loud, but he said it’s well within the normal range. He also did the reflex test on his knees, which kind of freaked Ben out a little, but then Doc Mc. played around with him for a minute, doing it over and over on his knee and he was laughing.

Overall, it was a great appointment…no shots until his kindergarten checkup…yay! Doc says he looks great…but I could have told him that!

I’ll attempt to do a “reader’s digest” version of all the goings-on since I’ve last updated! Ben had his 3rd birthday party on the 21st. The very next day, we spent 12 hours in a car with Grandpa on our way to NY to visit my aunt and uncle and cousin (who was graduating from high school…thanks for letting us crash your pad!). Then the next day was another 12-hour day to finally get there around 10 at night. ROUGH! But the kids did SUPER well in the car (which is new, by the way…a GMC Acadia…or a Macadia as Ben likes to call it…it had a built in DVD player in it…so that kept them pretty occupied on the journey!) We spent a week there in NY. Went to a beautiful (and HOT) graduation ceremony, visited the local grocery store and Target, visited Woodstock, NY, Mommy got to go golfing with Aunt Mary and her “girly-friends” (very fun!), and then turned around on Sunday to drive home. We had a 15-hour day on Sunday and only 4 1/2-hour day on Monday…return trips are ALWAYS quicker!

That very next evening, I had an OH SH*T moment when I realized that Sam’s birthday was only 11 days away & I hadn’t even reserved a park, thought about a theme or bought invitations. Silly me, I couldn’t find what I wanted to match the theme, so I decided to MAKE them…torture, I know! They were finally completed on Friday and mailed (or hand-delivered) on Sunday! YIKES! So, here I am, trying to buy food and decorations for a birthday party on Sunday, AND clean, AND go to doc appointments, AND catch up on sleep that I missed from staying up WAY past my bedtime whilst in NY…Oh yeah, and we went to Kristy’s in-laws property on Friday to watch Dan set off a MASSIVE amount of fireworks! Ben told Daddy (who couldn’t come with us) that he “didn’t like the boom-booms, but liked all the colors”… We were SUPER close and they kind of seemed like they were going off just above our heads…and they were being set off in a valley, so it echoed a lot too…was the best I’ve seen in a VERY long time!!! We’ll definitely be doing it next year too!

Milestones you have missed (I’m just going to bullet-point these!):
SAM:

• went from crawling to speed-crawling
• is pulling up on EVERYTHING (even if it moves)
• is creeping from here-to-there
• is letting go of things and briefly standing on his own
• drinks from a sippee
• has found out he can scream to get what he wants
• points at things
• gives kisses and hugs when asked to
• points to his nose, ears and hair
• claps (he’s very proud of this one!)
• babbles mamamama and other things
• blows spit bubbles…yummm
• now has 4 teeth (two on top & bottom front)…cute grin
• has just blossomed with his personality…it’s really cute too

Ben:

• LOVES being outside
• likes to give his brother hugs and kisses (unprompted ones too)
• stands on one foot
• jumps with 2 feet off the ground (I have a GREAT pic of this…trapped on the camera)
• is getting much better at playing with his toys
• can ride a tricycle
• “swam” in a pool (gripping VERY tightly to Grandpa, though)
• sleeps very well in a “big boy bed”
• is peeing and pooping regularly in the potty
• wears “big boy under00s” all the time, except in bed (I don’t want the spam from the other word)
• plays really well on his own for a while

I’ll try to update these too, as I remember them! Sam’s 1st birthday is Sunday…we’re celebrating with another party…should be a blast! Well, off to bed now!