Eli's 5th Birthday

My baby turned 5 on November 4th. This year he got to enjoy 3 birthday parties. First was the one in Sioux Falls which all these pictures are from. We got to stay at a hotel with a small water park in it which was the perfect size for the boys cause the pool didn't get over 3 foot deep. He enjoyed a Hulk cake and even got a new bigger bike from Grandpa & Mimi Spoo. Next he had a small birthday party at our house on his actual birthday "Election Day". Nick and I felt so bad the day before we were talking about going and voting and Eli started to cry cause he thought that we were going to have to vote all day and wouldn't be able to spend his birthday with him at all. That evening we had Grandpa & Mimi Spoo and Grandpa & Grandma Hanson come out for lasagna and jello cake. He enjoyed having a small little party. That weekend his favorite present arrived. His aunt Liz flew back from Las Vegas to celebrate his birthday along with our niece Aubrey's birthday which is the 10th. Liz has always been home during Isaac's birthday in the summer and this year was the first year that Eli asked Liz why she never comes home for his birthday so it just happened that it worked out for her. Eli was so excited to get that as a present.. even Isaac said it was the best present ever even though it wasn't his birthday. Those boys have a special bond with their Aunt Lizzie they love her dearly as they do the rest of their aunt & uncles.

He was also excited that he got to celebrate his birthday with Aubrey. The boys absolutely love their cousins. They have a special bond with them too. They take such good care of Aubrey and when Imrie gets older they will enjoy her even more! It was so nice to get a chance to spend a whole weekend with the whole family! We are all looking forward to Christmas when we will all be together again!

Family Pictures

The morning after Halloween we headed out to Sioux Falls to celebrate Eli's birthday with my parents and brother and sister-in-law. We first started off eating at Chuckie Cheese per Eli's request. Then we meet my brother and sister-in-law at Falls Park so my brother could take family pictures for us. We had a great time and the boys really liked being able to climb on the rocks and the tower. They turned out great and it was so nice that my brother was able to do them. It is great to have a great photographer in the family! Thanks Joe! Here are a few samples of our pics.

Halloween

It has been a real long time since I have blogged so I thought today was a perfect day to start. Halloween was a very busy day being it on Friday. Isaac was the red power ranger and Eli was Bumblebee from Transformers. Both boys had Halloween parties and then it was time for trick or treating. We started at my parents house and then went around their neighborhood like we do every year. When we started going around we got done with 3 houses and Isaac decided that he had enough and didn't want to go any farther. So Eli & I kept going and he ended up with a lot of candy. We told Isaac it was sad that his younger brother out did him this year. After we were all done around there the boys helped my mom hand out candy at her house and then we were off to see Nick's grandma at the nursing home. She was very delighted to see us and of course spoiled the boys with LOTS of candy since not too many kids come to the nursing home to trick or treat. We then headed out to Nick's parents and again they were spoiled and we had supper with them. The boys were exhausted and in fact fell asleep on the way home.