Easter in August

In keeping with my tradition of posting holiday photos way past the actual holiday, here are some Easter photos from this year!  I uploaded a lot of photos from April and May onto the blog at the start of summer, then got so busy with our summer that I never came back to organize and post them! 

Grandma Lynn came to visit us for Easter again this year and we had a wonderful time.  Owen dyed and hunted eggs, I made a yummy roast, and Cody, Owen, and I were able to go to church together for the first time in quite a while.  (We have been alternating Sundays with Owen since Cameron can't go.)

As Owen has told me before, "Every baker needs a good licker, Mommy."  I guess he is mine!

Cameron got a few of his favorite things in his Easter basket.  Goldfish and a Baby Einstein book!

Owen on the move for eggs!

An assist from Daddy--that Easter Bunny is a tricky dude!

The best family photo we were able to get.

Enjoying their Easter basket loot.

Owen and Grandma love to sit outside!

And that wraps up the Muhs 2010 Easter Eggstravaganza.  It was totally worth the 4 month wait, wasn't it?

Thanksgiving and a Little Father/Son Bonding

It just occurred to me that I never posted Thanksgiving pictures!  Although, there aren't too many photos to speak of.  I guess I was too busy either cooking, eating, or sleeping to take any pictures!  Making an entire Thanksgiving meal by yourself can really wear a girl out!  In any case, here are the few that we got...

On Saturday, Cody and his dad made their way up to Minnesota for their Annual Bears/Vikings game.  Cody has been organizing this for the last couple of years and had a crowd of over 30 go this year.  They had a great time, but, unfortunately, the Bears suffered a loss.

This canopy was Cody's early Christmas present.  He was thrilled to get it and I was thrilled I didn't have to find a way to haul it to Murphysboro!

When you go to a game with both Vikings and Bears fans, the one thing you can agree on is that you all hate the Packers.

Father and son sporting their Bears attire

My apologies to Cameron and Grandma for not getting any photos of them!  Here's to next year!

A Visit From Grandma

Grandma Lynn came to see us a couple of weekends ago.  Cody and I had a wedding reception to attend on October 24th so she was nice enough to make the drive out here and watch the boys for us while we went on a date!  Of course, we still managed to pack a lot of fun activities into the weekend!  First up, Daddy, Grandma, and Owen went to Mariposa (a State Park close to our town) for a Hallooween Hike on Friday night.  It was cold and muddy so we thought it was best that Cameron and I skip out on this one.  But Owen had a ball!!!  They had a bonfire, roasted marshmallows, drew on little pumpkins, and went on a hike where they followed animal tracks! 

Notice Owen is sporting Grandma's glove.  Apparently his mitten was full of sticky marshmallow and Grandma was kind enough to give up her glove.

Cody didn't get a lot of pictures at the hike because it was so dark out there!  Next up, we headed to Owen's soccer game on Saturday morning.  Grandma was so excited to get to see Owen play.  He did pretty well but we're still not sure that soccer is really going to be his "thing."

Cameron sat on my lap for most of the game.  He was content to do so as long as the Cheerios were plentiful and Mommy kept singing, "Thomas Roll Call." 

The fun didn't end here!  After the game we headed over to Grinnell to Carroll's Pumpkin Farm.  There were just too many good pictures from that visit so you'll have to wait for another post!  I promise the wait won't be nearly as long as it has been!  And don't worry, Auntie Gaye, Halloween photos are coming too!

Fun Times with Good Friends

Imagine our surprise when, a few months ago, our good friends, Matt and Susie, called and said they wanted to spend their family vacation in Iowa this summer. We don't exactly have people knocking down our door coming to visit us so we were in complete shock when, not only did they want to come visit, they wanted to use precious summer vacation time to do it. We were so excited about having visitors other than our parents and couldn't wait to have Matt, Susie, and their great kids, Dominic (6), Gianna (4), and Philip (2) at our house for an extra-long weekend. Owen was beside himself with excitement!

For those of you who don't know (or who have mom-nesia like me and can't remember anything), Cody grew up with Susie and her brothers and sister. Although the O'Brien household was already packed to the brim with 5 children, the O'Briens treated Cody like he was one of their own. There was even one year that Mama O'Brien insisted Cody be in their family picture! When all the kids met Matt in high school, Susie started dating him and he become one of Cody's best friends. The best part about this is that now our children have another set of grandparents, and a host of aunts, uncles, and cousins, who are all very special to us. They are the kind of friends who are more like family than friends and those are just the best kind of friends to have!

Matt, Susie, and the kids arrived on a Thursday night and stayed until Sunday. We packed the weekend with lots of activites and both the kids and the adults had a great time! Our first stop was the Science Center of Iowa, located in Des Moines, where the kids had an entire afternoon of hands-on, scientific fun!

Owen tries to operate a crane



Philip tried his hand at it, too.

They even had a train table there and you know my children gravitated to it like they were being pulled by some sort of magnetic force toward it. They can spot a train table from a mile away!

Gianna enjoyed a little lego-building time with her daddy, Matt.

The oldest of the bunch, Dominic, showed us just how big he is really getting!

What a face! And this little guy has a personality to match it! He is so cute and funny!

This was, without a doubt, Cameron's favorite activity of the day. It was a spiral thing with golf balls. You put the golf balls in the top and watch them spin around to the bottom. He could have stayed there all day!

Owen and Gianna behind the curtain getting ready to put on a puppet show. These two are only a few days apart and are just so darn cute together!

Gianna hanging out in a tube. She might be the only girl in the bunch, but she can hold her own with those boys!

Dominic does his best to reel in a big one!

Uncle Matt helping Owen and Gianna measure their fish that they "caught."

Cameron plays with Lego blocks bigger than he is!

A great time was had by all! I have so many good photos of our weekend together that I decided to split them up into a few different posts. Stay tuned for more!