Surprise!

 A day after Jim's mom left after being here for 4 weeks, Ryan and Robert flew into Chicago for a week visit. I was supposed to go with Jim and the kids to Chicago to have a fun overnight and pick up Ryan and Robert but I opted for William and I to stay home and just relax.


The kids were very excited to have them here and play the wii and restaurant among many other imaginary games. I was busy cooking in the kitchen for what felt like most of their visit. I think it was the highlight of Ryan's trip to have a home cooked meal every day.

 On Thanksgiving morning, we were all in the living room watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on our new tv when out of the corner of my eye, I notice someone in my backyard. I do a double take and realize it was my parents faces that were pressed against our back sliding door! They came and surprised all of us except for Jim, the secret keeper, for a quick Thanksgiving trip. We were all very excited and I was also thrilled to have some more help in the kitchen and around the house.

 Elizabeth LOVES to go shopping at Costco and always tells my Dad that she wants to go "shopping" with him. Well, on Saturday we went "shopping" and scored some awesome stuff. First we bought 2 turkeys to put in our deep freeze since they were only $.49 lb. We can't wait to eat them throughout this year. We also bought our 8ft real Christmas tree for only $30! Yup, only $30! It was such a bargain and it isn't even a Charlie Brown tree! Of course my parents bought some more gifts for all of us before our shopping came to an end and we headed home.

At home the kids were so excited to decorate the house and the Christmas tree and I think that my parents were thrilled to be there to help. It was nice to have them here and share a part of our Christmas decorating since it will be the first Christmas that we have not gone home to visit family. Their visit was short and quick but I am glad that they were able to come and visit and suck up the kids sweet sugar.

BTW- If anyone knows of a site that I can put a free slideshow together for pictures on my blog, please let me know. My other slideshow site is no longer available and I don't like posting this many pictures.

Bizarre Foods

 For Isaac's 5th birthday, he decided on "Bizarre Foods" theme after the show Bizarre Foods on the Travel Channel. I decided about 4 weeks prior to his birthday that I should have everything planned out and ready to be executed just in case I wouldn't be there. It was a good thing that I was prepared since I was in the hospital during his party and didn't return home with William until 9pm that night. Between my MIL, Jeanne, Jim's co-worker, Carrie, and our friends, The Rabes, everything went off with out a hitch and all 12 kids had a great time.

The kids were presented with a tasting plate that contained foods such as seaweed, Mexican candy, guavas, kiwis, smoked octopus, feta cheese and rice crackers. Carrie acted as a food anthropologist and taught the kids about different foods from different cultures. The kids thought this was awesome and enjoyed trying all the food. For lunch they had hot dogs cut like squids on green ramen noodles with a coagulated blood drink make out of red kool-aid, red adn black food coloring and mashed up red jello.

They had fun with the eyeball pinata and pin the food on the plate. Pin the food on the plate was such a hit, that the kids didn't want to stop playing it.

I surprised Jim and got him a birthday cake to share for his birthday with the adults that attended. For Isaac, we opted out of cake and gave the kids dirt cups with earthworms and rice krispy treat sushi; both of which were a huge success. Topping the day off, the kids went home with goody bags full of gummy organs, tattoos and pencils.

Isaac got a lot of great gifts from everyone including a Costco size box of seaweed. Jim and I laugh that only our kids would be excited to get seaweed for their birthday.

 Here are some fun pictures that we took of the kids after coming home with William.

Elizabeth got a hold of a fresh tube a Desitin and knew she was in trouble when I took this picture.

William Jon Wuehler

 On November 9th at 11 am I went to St Mary's Hospital to be induced since I was a week past my due date. On November 10th at 6:35am William Jon Wuehler made his entrance into the world weighing 8lbs 11oz and measuring 20 inches long. He is the biggest baby I have delivered in both length and in weight and he looks identical to Isaac when Isaac was born.

The kids came and visited a couple hours after he was born and Isaac couldn't get enough of William which doesn't surprise me. He loved holding him and kissing him and I loved hearing Isaac tell William that he was going to watch Star Wars with him and teach him how to play the wii and with his cars. Elizabeth on the other hand is a bit unsure of him. This doesn't surprise me either.  She held him for a minute and gave him a kiss but was done after that. She enjoyed watching him more from a distance and preferred cuddle time with Mom or Dad.

 I am exhausted but that is to be expected. All of the nurses and the doctors here have been AWESOME and I was able to finally have a birth where I got to choose 100% of everything that happened and have everything 100% on my terms. It was wonderful! Now William and I are enjoying our time together before we return to the circus we call home on Saturday.

Happy Halloween!

 I love this picture of Elizabeth! You would think that she is used to being in hair and make up for films because she sits so perfectly still when doing her make up and putting her hair in rollers. She LOVES getting her hair and make up done. This picture was right before we put on her Ariel costume.



 The kids were so excited for Halloween. We listened to scary music while I made mummy hot dogs, french fry fingers and a bloody drink. After dinner, the kids couldn't wait to get outside and go trick or treating. Around here, in Dane County, there are designated times that each town post as to when kids can go trick or treating. Here in Cross Plains, our time was 530-730pm. We lit our pumpkins and off we went. At first Elizabeth was a bit timid when people answered the door but once she realized they had candy, she was their best friend. We went up and down our street and then to our friends house across town. The last stop we made was a fully decorated house that we have been taking the kids by to look at for the past couple of weeks. They had a great time walking around looking at zombies, spiders, coffins and pumpkins. I was surprised that the life size animatronic figures didn't scare them. It was the perfect end to our trick or treating.

When we got home, we inspected the candy and let the kids have 2 pieces each before they went to bed. I think they had a great holiday!