Happy Halloween!!

Mario & Luigi
The Super Mario Brothers
These costumes were a HIT!!
Almost every house we went to, the boys were told how great they looked. We even had a teenage girl take a picture of them, she loved it so much! Guess I did well this year!

Blogger Q's?

Hopefully, someone who reads this, and blogs as well can help me. I'm technologically challenged...

1. I'm looking at my blog, without being logged in, and see these "tool" symbols on the right side of my blog. They are by my profile, friends and family etc... Why is this?
2. I know I haven't been updating my blog much lately, but I have friends that have an "updated last" option on their blogs, by my link. It shows that it has been 2 weeks since I've updated my blog. This is incorrect!! Don't think I've ever gone that long. I think this keeps them from checking out my blog, and I'm not sure why it's not updating. I know it is keeping other blogs current, but why not mine?

I guess if you can help, let me know!

~Jacque~

Happy 5th Birthday Jackson!

(One day late!) =(

Worst Aunt E.V.E.R!!!

Happy belated birthday to my nephew Jack! I certainly thought of Jack yesterday, but I've had such a busy (and emotional) week, I just forgot to blog! Hope your day was fabulous!!

(Joanna's 2nd youngest)

Weekend With Erin II

****Sorry about the HUGE pictures, that probably take all of your screen. Didn't realize I had "large" selected, then I didn't have the patience to redo it all****

As my hectic October wound up, Riley and Reece stayed with Erin again. Having Riley for the weekend was so much fun, this time she wanted Reece too. Brave girl! Here is Trenton helping Riley get ready for his game.
But first, it was team picture day.

So, Reece stayed busy at the playground.

Usually, Riley is defense, but this day he was the center.

Poor Trenton. I'm sure these boys wore him out!!!

This is what Reece does best. He's ALWAYS upside down, or on his head.

Riley, Reece and Charlie.

More yummy cupcakes!!

This was probably Trenton's favorite part. We took over our Mario Kart, and he and Riley played a lot!! Reece had fun becoming best friends with Charlie!
Thanks again Erin!! My boys love you, and LOVE spending time with you!!

You really helped my chaotic October go much smoother than anticipated. I'm glad it's over!!

Decorative Shovel

This is my latest, prized possession!

I know it's a little premature, but my sister ordered these awesome Christmas decorations for the shop at Prairie Pines this year. I can't wait for Halloween to be over, so I can get it out on my porch!! =D

Any 'Hawk fans out there, this item will go fast, so let me know if your porch needs one too!!

Painting Pumpkins

Since the boy's "Pumpkin Patch" outing was squashed by a couple of sick boys, I grabbed some pie pumpkins from Wichita, before I came back home on Sunday. Got some paint, and TA-DA!!!

While Reece was just putting color all over, Riley wanted to make "scary, Halloween" pictures.

We got Boo.

Riley was purposely trying to get in the background here.

I asked if this red and blue picture was a Jayhawk. Nope, it's a witch flying on a broom. My bad!

Silly face.

Reece was excited that his pumpkin had pink paint on it, and he created the pink, without using pink. Good times!

Sick and Sicker!

Not too much to blog about these days. I went to Wichita this weekend, and left the boys here with Jake. They had a boys weekend. Too bad the weekend was filled with 2 sick, little boys. Last Tuesday, Riley came home with a very mild fever. It went away immediately, but due to the 24 hour rule, I kept him home on Wednesday. It was a half day, and no school on Thursday or Friday, for conferences. He was not sick at all on Wednesday. In fact, he was bouncing off the walls, which isn't Riley's style at all. Maybe he has a weird, allergic reaction to Tylenol, and it makes him hyper?!? Well, come Wednesday night, he had a mild fever again, and again, it went away immediately. Thursday was the same thing...hyper Riley. We bummed around, went to Riley's conference, and after dinner, Riley had a football game. Riley did great, even got a flag, but afterwards he had more than a mild fever. It went away, again. Friday, he was normal, again. Jake was even contemplating taking the boys to "Late Night in the Allen Fieldhouse." I was his voice of reason. Riley's fever only wanted to come out at night, and it would be terrible to have him in a loud, crowded, and rowdy environment if a fever was going to make an appearance again. It didn't. Instead, Jake was woken up on Saturday by Reece. Reece told Jake that Riley was crying. Riley had an even higher fever and his head hurt. It's not normal for Riley to cry when he is sick, but he must have been that miserable. Jake took him to the doctor and he had a slightly red throat and ear. Doctor said to wait for the fever to last 10 days before giving him an antibiotic. He had a mild fever the rest of the day, and it seemed to wrap up Sunday morning.

Enter, Reece.

Sunday morning, Reece started off with a high fever. He was close to lethargic most of the day, unless the fever broke temporarily, he got a burst of energy. Today, he woke up to a little vomit. Yay! Fever has since subsided, he has a little cough, and he has been playing. He probably picked something up from the Doctor's office. We'll see. Doctor doesn't want him to come in, unless his fever doesn't go away at all, which it has... for now.

Poor Jake, had 3 days off. He had a vision of fun with the boys. Lawrence, pumpkin patch, football games, park...blah, blah, blah, and the poor guy spent his time off with sick and sicker. Maybe next time, Baby... I was really looking forward to having some pictures from their fun weekend to blog about.

Riley's Weekend

While Reece and I were in Wichita for 4 days, Riley was well taken care of. Jake had to work most of the time, so Riley got to spend time with his friend, Scott, for a day, then he was off to stay with my good friend, Erin Cook.

Erin got to play "mommy" for the weekend, and did a great job! She even joked about adopting Riley, which means Riley did a great job too!
On Friday night, they got to make cupcakes. This bumped Erin up to "Aunt" status in my book! Looks yummy!! (Charlie was Riley's gaurd dog.)

Nice job, Riley!

Saturday was Riley's 1st, 2009, flag football game. Erin bundled him up good, because it was FREEZING!!! Riley said he was, "as cold as an ice cube!" That didn't slow him down, because he got his first flag!! He had gotten some in practice, but this was the first flag in a game for him. Riley had been doing really well at defense at practice. He was running fast enough to catch up to the kid with the ball, but he would just run with him. Never tried hard to get a flag. I had to start bribing him with $1.00 for every flag he gets. So far he has gotten 2 flags at practice and now 1 in a game! Go Riley!!!

Thanks, Erin, for being so great to Riley!

(These pictures were emailed to me, and I couldn't get them any bigger.)

Jenny Lu

I had a long, exhausting weekend! But, I did what I needed to do, and I made a lot of money selling jewelry. I was able to breathe much easier, by the time it was all over. It was definitely a success!!

The conference I was fortunate to sell jewelry at, my first day in Wichita, was the Interhab Conference. They are a state wide group that helps raise awareness for disabilities. It took up several days for many of the participants, who were stuck inside a hotel, on the cold rainy days Wichita had. Most people were excited to see a booth of fun jewelry to have fun with! I met many great people too!

My favorite was, Jenny Lu. She was the happiest, friendliest, sweetest little girl ever!! I say "little" lightly. She is actually 21, but she looked 12. Jenny has Williams Syndrome. I don't know much about this syndrome, but I know it is a chromosomal disease, like Downs Syndrome. One of the characteristics, other than the size and facial features, is an overly friendly personality (excessively social.) She has more personality in her pinkie, than I have in my entire body!! I just fell in love with her, and I hope I get to do this again next year and see her.

The reason Jenny Lu was there, was because she had a booth close to mine. Jenny Lu was watching "Oprah" one day, and saw some young girls who had a lemonade stand to raise money for cancer. This inspired her. She decided she was going to raise money for Williams Syndrome. She decided to draw pictures and turn them into postcards, calendars, t-shirts, wall art, and more. She is doing very well. Her goal is to be on Oprah someday. I had asked if they ever tried contacting Oprah, but they hadn't yet. Guess that needs to be added to my list, because America needs to meet this awesome girl! I just loved her!!!

My purchase was a couple of sets of postcards, because you always need postcards handy...

It took me reading the pamphlet to put this one together. They consider themselves social butterflies, and she proved it!

http://jennyludesigns.com

Lunch With Daddy

Since Father's Day falls in the Summer time, the boy's preschool always has a "Lunch With Daddy!" Here is Jake trying to get a smile out of Reece, but instead. he just got a wiggly Reece. You can't see it very well, but Reece made Jake a tie. It says, "My Dad is great because he gives me Tootsie Rolls to eat." What?! Can't remember the last time Jake gave him Tootsie Rolls. That was random. One reason I like to call him "Random Reece."
Not sure what this cool car was made for, but it looks like the kids worked hard on it!

This is the wheel that Reece made.

Reece and Brevin chowing down on hot dogs. Yum!

When Jake did this with Riley, he didn't remember a single bit of it. Isn't that sad! Turns out, I had forgotten too. You see, Jake was just days out of the hospital from his first brain surgery. I actually had to drive him there, and I sat in the parking lot, while they had their fun. I think he has a good reason for not remembering. Too bad I don't, unless you count lack of sleep a good one...

Hiatus

Dear Friends,

Forgive me for the lack of blogging. If it weren't for all of my nieces and nephews turning another year older, you probably wouldn't see me on here at all. This week is chaotic!!! I am at work all day today, then I'm off to have a jewelry party, that my wonderful Sister is hosting, and from there, I drive to Wichita. I'll get there late, then I have a VERY early conference I will be selling jewelry at. Then this weekend I will be selling jewelry at "Pumpkin Days" for my sister!!! I hope I don't run out of jewelry...on second thought, if I run out, that means I made some money! =D Anyhow, no promises I will have anything worth blogging about when I return, but wish me luck in the next 5 days! I'll try to do better!

Sincerely.
Jacque

Happy 8th Birthday Hannah!!

Happy Birthday to my lovely, and patient niece, Hannah!

She is so patient for being the big sister of 3 brothers. She is a wonderful big sister too!

(Joanna's oldest)

A Happy, and Handy Jake

So long before I started selling jewelry, Jake couldn't stand all the stuff that sat on our bathroom counter. Then I started selling jewelry, and I didn't have a place to keep my jewelry, while not in use. It's not my fault our bathroom has very limited storage space. The solution was, I told Jake what I had invisioned, and he created this!!! (It's really not crooked, I just take crooked pictures) It's PERFECT!!! And it looks wonderful. Now I have a happy Jake, that I'm starting to learn is much more handy than I realized. Thanks Jake! Job well done!!!