Serenity Now!!!

A few weeks ago, I took the boys to a place called Jumpin Jacks. It has a bunch of inflatables for the kids to play on. It can get quite crazy in there. At one point, I caught Miles doing this:

I think the craziness must have gotten to him!! He sat down in the middle of the floor and pulled off this meditation pose. He even had this thumb and index fingers connected. I have not idea where he learned that from! Hopefully he found the peace he needed. :)

(Sorry the picture is blurry. It came from my cell phone.)

Mason's 9th Birthday!

Mason turned nine on the 27th of October. I can not believe we have a nine year old! Time flies! He is so excited that he is so close to being 10 years old.

While looking for pictures for this post, I realized we hardly took any! There were no Grandma's present for this birthday, I think that's why. Grandma's are the best. :)

Blowing out all nine candles!

He got a Nintendo DS for his birthday. He loves it!!

Vance's 4th Birthday (Finally!)

Even though Vance's birthday was over three months ago, I figured I'd should still post pictures from it! Vance had a great 4th birthday! Grandma and Grandpa Bryson were here, so all four grandparents were there for the birthday celebration.

Train cake

For some reason, I didn't put the cake close enough to Vance, so it looks like it belongs to Miles!

What a cute boy! I love it when his hair is curly for his birthday!

The cool gift that Dad picked out!!

I was surprised how well he could drive this car. He is his father's son!

Halloween 2010

Here are pictures of Iron Man, a super cool ninja, and Link on Halloween.

I love the fierce expression on Miles' face!

Mason really wanted to be a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle this year(Leonardo specifically) but I couldn't find a costume big enough for him, and I didn't have enough time to be creative and make one, so he decided to be Ironman instead.

Link from the video game The Legend of Zelda

A mighty ninja!

A Monkey Birthday

Vance got this monkey for his birthday, and he just loves him. Monkey(which has become his official name) goes a lot of of places with us! On the 19th of October, Vance informed me that is was Monkeys birthday. And he was insistent that we do something to celebrate. So we did.

Amazing Birthday Gift

I am so freakin' spoiled! I have the best husband ever (and not just because he gets me cool things, that's just a great bonus!). Yesterday he bought me this harp for my birthday/anniversary! He drove all the way to Indiana to get it. It's something I have wanted for a very long time, and I am so excited to learn how to play it! The question is, how am I every going to top this when it comes to gifts for him????

The Most Amazing Toaster of All Time

About a month ago, our toaster started to malfunction. And instead of doing the sensible thing and running to Target to pick up a plain old regular $20 toaster, I put Jordan in charge of the task. I should have known better.

Jordan spent the next few days checking Craigslist for THE toaster. Who wants a plain old toaster anyways? Did you know there are toasters out there that can poach eggs on the side? Anyways, after a few days of searching, he found IT. THE toaster. In Boston. For $65. Originally $200. Well, as luck would have it, Jordan's sister Lindsey is there for school. So she kindly agreed to go get it for us. It wasn't actually in Boston, but about 30 minutes outside of Boston. I guess a lot of people got a laugh out of the fact that she drove that far away... for a toaster... for her brother in Michigan.

On Tuesday, this beauty arrived in the mail. The Kitchen Aid Pro Line Series toaster.

This thing actually is pretty cool, for a toaster. It has some nice features that turn out some pretty dang good pieces of toast. And for that we had to do to get it, hopefully it lasts for a very long time. So if you have a craving for a good piece of toast, drop on by!

This is going to be one long list!

Last night, yet another vehicle joined our growing car collection. I can hear it already. " You two go through more cars than anyone else I know. How many cars have you had this year?" Well, that made me wonder... How many cars have we owed since we've been married? So, I thought I'd make a list. To make it things interesting, I'll add cars that we had while we were dating too. Here goes!

1. 1990 Toyota Camry (My first car. I loved that thing.)

2. 1986 Mazda 323 (Jordan kept willing the thing to die. It did.)

3. 1979 Nissan Z 290 (Jordan bought this right after we started dating, and sold it after just a few weeks. That should have been my first clue about Jordan's motor vehicle obsession!)

4. Suzuki Savage Motorcylce

5. 1989 Astro Van (Given to Jordan by his parents to replace a dead Mazda)

ENTER THE MARRIAGE YEARS

6. 1990 Ford Bronco (Because we didn't want a mini van when we had no children)

7. 2002 Toyota Corrolla (which is the only brand new car we have ever had)

8. 1972 Chevy (which didn't stick around long)

9. 1998 Ford F-150 (Jordan still whines to this day about missing his truck!)

10. 1998 Saturn SL(totaled)

11. 2000 Triumph motorcycle (Purchased without permission!)

12. 2001 Ford Windstar (now making the move to minivans for real)

13. 1973 Porsche 914 (The car that started the Porsche obsession)

14. 1990 Porsche 911 (Also purchased without permission. I think Jordan still cries in his sleep over the loss of this vehicle.)

15. 2004 Ford Freestar

16. 1986 Porsche 944 Turbo

17. 1983 Porsche 911 Targa

Vehicles we have purchased in the last year!

18. A boat (Does that count on this list?)1983 Checkmate

19. 1983 (or 1984?) Volkswagen Rabbit

20. 1990 Volkswagen Jetta

21. 2004 Mini Cooper

22. 2008 Buick Enclave* (Done with mini-vans!)

23. 1984 Porsche 928 S

24. And our newest addition, a 1996 BMW M3*. See pictures below.

Do Jordan's work issued vehicles count on this list too? If so...

25. Work van

26. New odd little squashed looking van he got a few weeks ago. This thing really is funny looking!*

*Vehicles that are currently in our possesion

Jordan got ahold of the hair clippers again

Pictures

The boys were playing outside, and I looked out an upstairs window to check on them, and found this cute scene. It's nice to see them playing so peacefully together. The picture is kind of blurry because I took it through the window.

Miles and Vance requested that I turn them into burritos.

Chicago!

This last weekend I had the opportunity to go to Chicago with some of the ladies from Jordan's family. We had the BEST time!! We left Thursday morning, and got home on Sunday night. The whole trip was fabulous!!

This is the high rise apartment building we stayed in. Our place was on the 54th floor! My Sister-in-law Lindsey got a great price for us to stay for the weekend. She is the one who planned this trip for us. Thank you Lindsey!!!

The view from our apartment

You can see Lake Michigan. The tall black building is the John Hancock building. The fourth tallest in Chicago.

On our way to dinner on Thursday evening, we had to deal with a lot of the Chicago traffic. As we were waiting at a very crowded intersection, we saw this poor mother goose trying to get her goslings across the busy street. I hope they made it!

On Friday... I got to sleep in!!!!! Miracles happen. :) We had the best omelets for breakfast. We put the omelet ingredients in a ziplock bag, then put them in boiling water for 13 minutes. They turned out perfect!!

After breakfast, we headed out to do some shopping. We were only a couple blocks away from the Magnificent Mile, which was some amazing stores! Bloomingdales, Neimam Marcus, Saks Fifth Ave., just to name a few. We went shopping for 10 hours!!

The John Hancock Building on a cloudy day.

The Chicago River

On Saturday, I got to see my cousin Leah, who lives just outside of the city. I hadn't seen her for years, so it was great to see her and her husband James, and to meet her cute children. Leah came and picked me up(thanks again Leah!), and we headed over to the Field Musuem.

An actual T-Rex skull. Her name is Sue. :)

Leah, her hubby James, and their children Isaac, Jeremiah, and Eden

On Sunday morning(Mothers Day), we had enough time to walk over to Navy Pier. Along the pier they had a bunch of boats that took people on tours of the harbor, but they were way expensive. But, there was one boat that was giving all mom's a free tour! Five of the six of us were moms, so we decided to take advantage of it.

Navy Pier

Great view of the city

Some marvelous ladies!! Aunt Debbie, Grandma Soule, my mother-in-law Diana, Lindsey, and Aunt Nicky

Navy Pier from out in the harbor. Sorry about the finger!

There was not a cloud in the sky, so the water was beautiful!!

Our New Car!

Our mini van days are over!! This is our new (to us anyways) 2008 Buick Enclave. We LOVE it!!