Thanksgiving into Christmas!

Last weekend we put up the Christmas tree! I posed the kids for several pictures for my Christmas card, and Claire loved the excuse to be all dressed up! Cane is always very difficult when it is time to take pictures, I have to get creative! I should have posted the pictures of Cole and Claire standing nice in front of the tree, with Cane's back side facing me. He thought he was pretty funny when I would say "smile Cane" and instead of smiling, he would turn around and face the tree instead to ruin my picture! Haha, not funny, I deleted those right away. I did manage to get a couple good ones!







This year we will not be able to make it to Grandma McCumber's for Christmas, so they brought Christmas for the kids to Thankgiving! The kids were very excited to get to open their gifts. They know exactly what the kids will like, and they did good again this year. Claire took her dress-up dolls for sharing today, Cole carried around his motorcycle the whole weekend, and Cane pushed his truck around for hours!


We then headed to Grandma McQuinn's for Thanksgiving. A few weeks ago I was very sad after talking to my brother. He was preparing me for the fact that he didn't think he was going to be making it home for Thanksgiving due to work. With there upcoming home location still being up in the air, no specific end date, and no idea when we would see Matt and Sarah again, I was very sad. However, we were very excited to find out that not only was he going to get some much needed time off, he was going to be able to come home for 5 days! We had a great time just hanging around the house, playing games, and having a few drinks.

Happy Halloween!

We had a full Halloween weekend this year. We made the trip to Ankeny since we hadn't been home in almost 2 months (for us, that is a really long time). We had plan to make it a short trip, but Saturday morning we got a very exciting phone call! I had tried very hard not to make Marcie feel like she had to come home just because I was coming home (although, I am sure she still felt that way), but lucky for us Chad had to work (sorry Chad, your loss is my gain in this situation) so she packed up Saturday morning and joined us for the weekend! I am not sure who was more excited: me, my mom, or Claire! We spent the day decorating cupcakes, playing games, snuggling with a baby, trick-o-treating, and laughing hysterically at the kids while they told their jokes!


The frosting on Cane's mouth and the fact that he is licking his lips is a dead giveaway the he couldn't wait to put the legs on his spider before tasting his cupcake!






The best part of trick-o-treating was watching the kids tell their jokes! Cole thought his joke was hilarious every time!

Here are a few adorable pictures of Graham!

I could look at Graham all day long! I am loving having a newphew. I thought this might make me want to have another, even though Nick and I are fairly certain that we are done. But, I think it just confirmed our decision. I love getting to snuggle with a baby, but I think that stage of my life is over. I enjoy having a little independence and not worrying about the every two hour feeding schedule or "do not disturb" nap times! I will just get my fix through Marcie, for now, and Matt and Sarah in the future! Matt will be mad at me for even mentioning them having children, although with as much as he is working, he would probably rather be spending that time with a baby!

On Sunday we went to Nick's grandma's for dinner to show off our costumes to all of Nick's family! We then headed to Cedar Falls to go trick-o-treating again! We have somewhat of a tradition of trick-o-treating at my good friend Kari's neighborhood every year. They live on a nice, quiet street, with lots of young children and families. We always go to a few houses around her house and then go play at her house for awhile. This year Kari put together little Halloween goody bags full of little gifts. The kids LOVED it, and immediately began playing with all their new little toys. These little rockets were a hit! And of course Claire's bag was filled with princess things, which she shared at school the next day.




Whew, here was the loot! The kids were very excited to see all the candy they had collected! But unfortunately they have a PE teacher as a mother who knows they don't need to eat all this, so we ended up picking out about half the candy to donate to a good cause. At school, I joined efforts with a local dentist office and offered students the opportunity to earn extra movement time if they brought in some of their excess Halloween Candy. The candy is then being given to "Iowa's Bravest," a non profit organization who support the troops, they will send the candy to the troops in Holiday care packages. This is the first year I have done this, so I didn't know what to expect, but kids have brought in over 50 lbs of candy already! It is amazing!

PreHalloween Fun!

The past weekend we did all kinds of fun Halloween activities! We baked cookies, pumpkin bars for the kids Halloween Party at school, but the most memorable for them was carving the pumpkins!







Me: Cane, who do you want to be for Halloween?
Cane: LIKE CHAD, COMBINE DRIVER!
Me: You mean a farmer, right?
Cane: NO, LIKE CHAD, COMBINE DRIVER! (the all caps symbolize him yelling from pure excitement)




Please notice what is sitting next to Cane, when he said "like Chad" we figured we needed him to have sheep, just like Chad!

Family Pictures Take 2

After our family pictures about 2 weeks ago, I had a hard time looking at the pictures with positive thoughts. Cane was such a monster on that day, that is all I think of when I look at them. So I asked Jerry to bring his camera over to Nick's grandma's house this past Sunday afternoon to take a few casual shots outside in their own environment. We never got any pictures of the three kids together last time, so that is what I was going for. We typically go to Nick's grandmas for dinner on Sunday evenings, so I dressed the kids and fixed Claire's hair, but never really told them we were going to take pictures. The neighbor had a beautiful tree with red, yellow, and orange leaves so we decided to play in the leaves and take a few pictures. Cane of course had to bring his truck, but I didn't care! Not sure if you noticed it or not, but it is secretly hidden behind Cole in the two family pictures, of course, all Cane thinks is he got to have his truck in the pictures. We got some great pictures in about 10 minutes! It took us almost two hours last time. The kids were so happy and so much better just hanging around Great Grandma's house!

Angels Among Us

I truly believe there were Angels looking out for us on Wednesday, October 20th. The kids and I were driving to school. We were about 2 miles outside of town on the HWY when my car started violently shaking. I put two hands securely on the wheel thinking my tire was going flat and was going to blow. From there on, everything seems like a dream. I remember a loud noise and a jolt as my wheel came flying off. I watched the wheel hit the front of an oncoming semi and bounce off behind my car like a bouncy ball into the field. I don't remember how hard we hit or how I was able to control the car enough as we slid all over off to the side of the road. All I know, it by the Grace of God, we were safe. It all happened so fast, when we came to a stop, I looked back to see the kids with very confused faces. I explained to them that we had lost a tire and I was going to get out and look at it. For the next hour and a half we waited for the police to come and take our statements. Nick came right away with big hugs and kisses for everyone. To the outside world, we shouldn't have been so lucky. For me, I was in shock. I still don't remember how hard the car pulled from side to side or how close we came to hitting the oncoming semi. He informed Nick we were 6 inches from collision. When the tow truck came, Nick used a lugnut wrench and found out that 4 out of the 6 lugnuts on the other front passenger side wheel were not torqued down either. Since then it has been one mess after another. We had our tires balanced and rotated about a month before the accident, so there is an investigation into whose insurance will be covering this. However this ends up, my babies and I are safe, and I am grateful. To the company who worked on my tires, please make sure this never happens again.

What I saw when I got out of my car!

What happened to the Semi the tire hit.

Where the tire landed way out in the field!

"Combine Driver, like Chad"

Chad is Cane's idol. From the second Cane found out we were going to Marcie's all he talked about was riding the tractors with Chad. We got there late Friday night, so we basically just held the baby and then went to bed. During the night, Cane slept horrible. He woke up at least 5 times and asked to go downstairs and ride the tractor with Chad. He was sooooo excited he couldn't sleep (which is why Chad called me during one of the tractor rides to tell me Cane was taking a little nap on his lap while riding the tractor). The next day Cane spent most of his time in the tractors and combines with Chad, Grandpa, and Tom (chad's dad). It was adorable. Cane already had a special infatuation with Chad, but this day just solidified it! Now when you ask Cane what he wants to be for Halloween he replies "Tractor driver, LIKE CHAD." If you tell him he is going to be a "tractor driver" as he calls it, he always finishes with "LIKE CHAD."

Cane now needs his own John Deere hat, he loved wearing Grandpa's!

Graham Michael Haines

Graham Michael Haines was born on October 11, 2010. He weighed approximately 9 1/2 lbs (which I realize sounds huge, but if you would have seen him in the hospital that day, you would have still thought he was a tiny baby) and was 22 inches long. While he was a whole lb heavier than Cane, I think Cane had way more fat on him when he was born, Graham is the longest baby I have ever seen!



Marcie was a week overdue on Saturday, October 9th, and she had been led to believe that they would be inducing her that day. However, the doctors decided it would be better for her and the baby if they waited a few more days since she was showing no signs of going into labor yet. I had already arranged for the kids to go to Nick's parents, and after talking with her on the phone on Saturday I knew she needed her sister to keep her company. Chad was busy attempting to get as much farming done as possible before the baby came, and Marcie was emotionally spent. So I drove down to spend the weekend with her. And wouldn't you know it, 8 hours after I left, her body decided it was time to go into labor. She had the baby less than 16 hours after I left! Now, I was anxious to have my own babies, but I never expected to be so anxious while she was in labor! It is no short drive, about 2 1/2 hours to Burlington, so I decided since I had just got back I needed to be home Monday night for my family, but I turned around and headed back on Tuesday to spend the day with Marcie, Chad, and Graham in the hospital. I was glad I waited till the day after he was born, it selfishly meant I got to hold him way more since the initial group (grandparents and other family) were not around!


I, of course, then made my 3rd trip of the week down to see Marcie, although, this time I brought the kids to meet their first cousin!



Cole and Cane were the first to hold Graham, and they liked him, but they had other things on their minds.
Cane actually kept wanting to snuggle with Graham, Cane would lay his head up against Graham's when he held him.

For Claire, it was love. Not initially, he made her a little nervous at first, but once she held him once, she didn't want to stop. And she wanted to hold him in every position possible, this was her favorite! I don't blame her, this is my favorite as well!

The McQuinn Grandchildren