This last week all of my aunts flew into town for a surgery my grandma had. My grandma has 7 daughters, four of which live out of state, so it was a family reunion of sorts to have them all here at one time. One night we all got together at my mom's house to play games together and just plain laugh...

One of our favorite games to play is called L-C-R. It is a dice game and someone always wins a pot of moola! There is inevitably tons of screaming and laughing and, of course, shouting over one another to be heard. In the end, Courtney took it all and was the big winner of the night...

Fore!

I have a challenge for you, fellow bloggers...

Here are the rules:

1) Choose the 4th folder where you store your pictures on your computer

2) Select the 4th picture in the folder

3) Explain the picture

4) Tag 4 people to do the same

Here is mine:

This picture was taken 3 days before Christmas this year at my dear friend Cara's house. We were having a "Happy Birthday, Jesus!" party for all (and I mean all) of the kids. Olivia is shown here with her two best boy buds, Bryce and Noah. We also had the pleasure of spending this time with Zeke, Selah, Ella, and Halle, Aunt Kelley, Uncle B, Uncle Jarrod, and Aunt Cara. We read a book about the first Christmas, ate pizza, opened presents, and then sang happy birthday to Jesus and ate delicious cake made by the afore mentioned, Aunt Cara. We also made a personalized tree ornament with each child's handprint on a ball, but we now only have one because Liv's didn't make it out alive. Of course. All in all, we had lots of fun with our friends.

Nate was sitting at a curb in the car with the kids and Olivia saw some signs out her window...

"Look, Daddy, the signs say NO Skateboards....

NO Bicycles...

And NO Old Ladies!"

Meet my brothers...

My youngest brother, Johnny, is 22 and 9 years younger than me. That means I used to change his diapers, give him baths, and push him in a stroller. He was one of the cutest babies I ever did meet, not exaggerating. So it would then be reasonable to assume that I would have a hard time imagining this baby brother growing up and ever becoming a husband. But, alas, it has happened! Johnny is now engaged to be married to Courtney and I am very happy for them. Courtney is a fun, lively character who makes our family better and most importantly, makes John happy. One of these days I will be posting pictures of their wedding day and I will introduce you all to my new "sister."

But you may ask.... the title of this blog is "Meet my brothers..." Where is the other brother?

Let me show you....

This is my brother Brian. He is only 15 months younger than me and I did not change his diapers. I did play Luke Skywalker and Princess Leah with him in the backyard and I did pass notes between our bedrooms when we were supposed to be taking naps. He is the father to my super cute niece, Avery (see previous blog postings), and his wife is Rachel, my friend. Brian is lots of fun and has a very big heart, but mostly he can take all your money at poker like no one else.

Tonight, when I put Olivia to bed, I said, "Sleep well, Liv. Tomorrow you will wake up a six year old!" She then said, "Mama, this is the last time you are going to see my five-year-old face!" Sniff. Sniff. I know. I love you, Livy girl.

We went to go visit the snow in Temecula last night. It was Brennen's first time touching the stuff and he loved it! Actually, he was hesitant at first because he is above all else cautious and leary of unknown substances, but once he built up the courage, he thought it was great fun. Olivia, of course, was trying to make snow angels out of two inch deep packed down icy snow and she was throwing it in the air to make it snow on her head. Outside of Pennypickle's Children's Museum they had snow pumped in the parking lot and the museum was open for our viewing pleasure. The kids had lots of fun and we got our Christmas card pictures out of it, so it was worth it for all of us!

Have you met my niece, Avery Grace? She is 4 months old and so wonderfully adorable and fun. I love to kiss those chubby cheeks and I really work ever so hard to get these smiles. I love her so much and am so thankful that she lives just down the street from me. Right where she belongs.

5:33pm

Right now, I am sitting on my driveway in the dark. My kids are riding their Razor scooters up and down the sidewalk in front of our house in the dark. We are waiting for Daddy to come home so we can eat dinner and we are STARVING! It is a little nippy, but refreshing since most of the day was spent in the 80's. Just a glimpse into the fabulously exciting life of the Fretz family.

Oh, wait! This is funny...
Yesterday I put Brennen down for a nap and told him to go right to sleep.
I said, "Blankie is really tired, don't keep him awake. Go to sleep!"
He said, "What if Blankie talks to me?"
I said, (Sigh) "If he talks to you, then don't talk back."
I left the room and waited right outside to see if he would start to play or not. I waited for a minute. Then I heard:
"Blankie.... no talking!"
Pause."No talking, Blankie! I SAID no talking!"

Should I be concerned?

Sigh...

Nate and I decided that this particular picture will represent our daughter for this period of time in her life. It is real, not staged, not provoked. We did not doctor this photo in any way, and we did not pay her to be outrageous. This is just her. Pretty often. Yep.

Halloween Time!

This year, we had our family and friends over to celebrate the annual ritual of buying expensive bags of candy to give away to strangers, only to get back 1/8 of what we bought. Okay, that sounds too cynical. It was really fun and the kids had a blast. Olivia had a doozie of a time this year deciding what she wanted to dress up as. She wanted to be a pumpkin originally because Daddy calls her his "pumpkinhead," but we couldn't find a costume big enough. It seems that pumpkin costumes are only for babies. We racked our brains and scoured the stores to find something age appropriate and not too girly for Liv. We finally found a doctor costume at Target and she was sold. She started to call herself Dr. Oz, but it changed to Dr. Fretz eventually.

Brennen had a Buzz Lightyear costume that we purchased last year after Halloween and it still fit him. He really liked that the wings lit up.

We had little Avery and McKenna over for their first Halloween ever and the Nolan boy was a ferocious lion!

We had almost all of Liv and Brennen's friends there, except for Bryce, Ella, and Halle, of course. We played two games, a ring toss around the pumpkins on the lawn, and "make a mummy out of your daddy" with toilet paper. Noah-boy won that one! We then proceeded to trick-or-treat and the kids loved every minute of it. Brennen and Gavin giggled to one another after each house and Olivia flew as fast as she could to the next house. Overall, it was a happy Halloween experience and we have been eating one piece of candy a day ever since. (Well, maybe one of us is eating more than that, but who's counting?)