My Life

Do you ever feel like a commercial could possibly sum up your life?  Not me, until I saw this little gem from Honda.  I am pretty sure the managers at the dealership were taking notes when we last had our oil changed on our Odyssey, because they made a nice little video about ME and OUR FAMILY, right down to the fine details of twin babies, chaos, and projectiles.  Enjoy!

Holiday

Early in August, we flew to Washington for a Casey Family reunion.  Flying across the country with our crew seemed a little intimidating, but I can't imagine it going any better (in spite having to leave the house at 4a.m.) thanks to activity books, movies on phones, snacks, pre-mobile babies (BARELY!), and my ability to lactate!  It was so great to see and spend time with all of my side of the family...we laughed together, we cried together, we talked and talked and talked and had some good ole Casey family competition and made incredible memories together- because that is what we do!  I had expected to come back home to NJ exhausted after two weeks of vacation, but both Josh and I felt quite the opposite on our return.  The three older boys played with cousins all day, every day....mostly out doors in the fresh mountain air of the Northwest and they literally fell into bed every night filthy and exhausted, AND we had all of the extra arms we needed for Ben & Sam- especially helpful with the babies were our two oldest nieces.  I can't even begin to say how fun and special it was to have us all together, and see all 21 grandkids running around.

John Michael, the oldest of the grandchildren playing sports and wrestling with the little ones

Ben and Sam meet grass for the first time.

While in WA, we celebrated my Dad and Linda's marriage with a wonderful mass and outdoor party at their house.  They certainly know how to host a great party.  Their celebration gave us the opportunity to see so many friends and extended family that we haven't seen in years!  After a full day of sun, sweets and running around, many a child was throwing up at the end of the night- it was pretty comical.

Another special day was set aside to remember my mom who passed away 10 years ago, August.  We celebrated a mass for her, then we visited her burial site, and then had ice cream at a fantastic ice cream parlor for lunch in her honor (she was a junk food junkie!), and finally, we went to a park for water fun and play.  I think we all appreciated being together to celebrate, remember, honor, and pray for our dear Mom.

 Our family time was mostly spent just being together, but we did do a few fun activities as well.   One afternoon, all of the men and older boys went shooting guns.  These weren't just guns, they were BIG guns.  I would elaborate, except then I would have to kill you...just kidding, but because I don't know much more than what a bb gun is:) Upon their return, they were excited and a huge cloud of testosterone filled the house as we ladies rolled our eyes and threw back our glasses which were filled with a strong drink of sorts.
We also went to Silverwood, an amusement park, for the day.  There were probably around 60 of us in our group, and we all had a blast.  I had William and the babies with me, and we dominated (along with some other mom's and younger ones from our group) the kiddy rides!  Will was such a champ, and was willing to try all of the rides.  He found a few that he did not like at all, but finished them out, and kept all of his lunch in his stomach.  I have to say, some of those kiddy rides are not so kiddy.   More excitement from our day at Silverwood when I get to Sean's Bday.

My sister took this video of my two thrill seekers, Josh and Henry, riding this crazy dropping ride for the second time.  I am glad Josh has a companion for this kind of stuff, because even though I am bound by my marital vow of "in good times (Josh) and bad (Jen)", I am sure that there is some sort of exemption when you disagree on whether or not the situation might be good or bad most especially when the situation is named, "PANIC".  As a matter of fact, I would consider this particular situation insane.

My brother and his family very generously shared their lake home (and lake!) with us.  TONS.OF.FUN!

My only regret of the whole trip was not taking more pictures, but honestly, we were just having too much fun to be standing behind a camera.  I guess the majority of our memories will just have to remembered by us, and shared orally, which just gives us more to talk about next time we are all together.

Fall

A few weekends ago we took some Fall photos of the boys, and thank goodness we didn't delay, because Sandy blew most of the leaves off of the trees and over into Pennsylvania.  We had intended on just getting pictures of the twins, but ended up photographing evereryone.  Overall, I am impressed at what a great time we had doing this.  I also learned that some of our children are easier to make look like their natural selves than others, and age is not a factor.  We ended up taking over 1,000 photos, which made it difficult to sift through all of them to find the random good one of each child, so I didn't, I just picked a few (too many) to share.  Also, I had trouble with collages, and lacked the time to problem solve, so you get to view each.and.every.one all big and stuff!  Enjoy!

Had I known we were going to get some pictures of all of the boys together, I would have coordinated their clothes some what.  It is obvious that I love stripes, but this is pretty ridiculous!

I took the following pictures of Sean, and just so you appreciate the looks on his face, we were talking sports.  He was deciding which sport was his favorite, so cute!

Poor Ben had the least fun out of everyone, he would have rather been napping, and he actually did at one point, so we did our best to not torture him too much which resulted in very few individual shots.

Halloween

Not much to say about Halloween this year....it was definitely a smaller celebration than past years, which was a-okay with us!  All of the Halloween parties were canceled because of Sandy's visit, and we weren't even sure trick-or-treating would happen, but it did, and in spite of the simplicity of it, fun happened.  Trick-or-treating actually gave us all an excuse to come out of our caves and talk and share Sandy stories, and be grateful that we were spared more serious damages.

I can't even begin tell you what kind of crazy has been going on in our house after a couple of days being shut in our home followed by mass quantities of  Halloween candy...unreal!

Same costumes, different year, different kids...

We had actually planned a really great family themed costume, but it ended up being impossible for this year.  Stay tuned, we will make it happen next year!  So, my costume was simply a basketball in my shirt, I decided to be pregnant!  And, since I was pushing twin babies in my beast-of-a-stroller, I got some good reactions!

"I'm Free!"

No, I haven't flown the coop just yet, this is about William, but we aren't giving him away just yet either...he turned three at the end of July, and he proudly declares his age ("free") whenever given the opportunity.  We had so much fun celebrating his life, and his special day.  The best part was having our dear friends, Nick and Megan, who happen to also be William's godparents, here with us for his birthday.  It had been waaaay too long since we have been able to see them, but it made our time with them extra special.  As if he would forget, big brothers reminded Will throughout his special day that he was permitted to do whatever he wanted, and it was comical to overhear such conversations:
 "do you want Sean and I to play the Wii, Will?"
"Will, should Henry and I get a treat?"
"William, do you want us three to go get ice cream?"
etc, etc, etc....

 All William requested for his birthday was a "red cake".  We were temporarily stumped trying to capture our William within the boundaries of "red cake".  Then, alas!  we found our inspiration as we reflected back over the span of Will's life.  Thankfully Megan has some cake skills that she brought with her, and was a huge help designing and decorating the masterpiece....a big, red crab!

He L.O.V.E.D. his cake

Our favorite things about William:

Sean- "When he wrestles with me"

Henry- "That he is my brother.  I just love him, that's all"

Mom- I love how William still loves to cuddle, and is many times content to just be near me.  He randomly and unprovoked will frequently say, "Mom, I love you too".  Will has a great little sense of humor and understanding, even when he is being contrary.  Lastly, Will loves chocolate almost as much as I do, so he and I have special moments where we sneak off to the pantry to eat chocolate chips, and afterwards, we both feel much better! 

Dad- I love William's curiosity, and how he will crawl up on my lap or lay on the couch and cuddle with me.