Let it Snow! Let it snow! Let it Snow!

Two records were broken yesterday. This is the earliest snowfall in our area and the only time it has snowed two years in a row. It happened while I was at school and I have some great pictures of my students with snow in their hair and rosy little cheeks, but of course I can't post them.We had an inch or two of accumulation at my school. And the snow kept falling off and on all day. I know you northerners think snow...big deal. Well, 'round here in coastal Texas snow is a big deal!
We had a few things to do at Walmart so we bundled up and headed out into the cold. When we woke up this morning it was 23 degrees!

Good Food and Family...The Perfect Combination

Ken's grilled turkey was wonderful! I never knew you could grill such a large bird. It had a traditional thanksgiving seasonings rub mixed with a smokey, charcoal flavor. Yum!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

(more pics to follow)

So Sweet!!

"Hailey, I'll read the book to you."Kenny has such a kind heart and he loves the babies so much. He takes great care of his baby brother and he enjoys playing with his cousins. Such a sweet and wonderful little guy!

Cook, Cook, Cook

My sister, mom, sister-in-laws, Ken, and myself have been cooking and baking.

The menu...

grilled turkey
gravy
ham potatoes
green bean casserole
crescent rolls
orange rolls
cauliflower casserole
cornbread casserole
homemade cranberry sauce
spinach toss salad with poppy seed dressing
stuffing

For dessert...

pumpkin chocolate chip cookies
chocolate pecan pies
apple pies
homemade vanilla ice cream

YUM!!!

Mama...Guess What I Found!

Kenny- 4 years old

Nathan- 4 1/2 years old
As you can see Nathan was thrilled to have his picture taken.

Preparations

In preparation for hosting my first Thanksgiving at my house, my husband spent several hours working on our oven and stove. By cleaning I mean he got out the steam cleaner and used a razor blade to get the grease out of EVERY line and crack on the whole thing. It is now gleaming like brand-new! My parents will get here Monday night and everyone else will arrive on Wednesday (except for my Phoenix family-we'll miss them). I'm working on shopping lists and menus to feed everyone while they are here. So we are keeping busy, busy, busy around here.

New Diet...Again

So...we are heading to Utah where they have real winters, not Texas-style winters. I got out my winter clothes and realized- they don't fit! I refuse to buy a bigger size so that leaves me two choices- get skinny or go naked.

It was an agozing decision, but I decided to get skinny. Therefore we started a new diet- 16 days before Thanksgiving. Perfect timing. I doing pretty well. I've lost 7 pounds so far.

Then tonight. I am HUNGRY tonight! I don't know why tonight but there you go. And I will just have to stay hungry until morning because I have eaten all I allowed for today. I was about to give up, but I needed to find some pictures for Ashlyn and I came across pictures of me when I was younger and thinner. I sure looked better in those pictures than I do now. Since I can't get any younger, I'll have to settle for skinny. Long and short of it...no food for me. I'll have to go to bed hungry and hope it pays off in a few weeks.

Primary Program Day

Nathan had his first primary program a few weeks ago. Normally he loves to sing but this Sunday he got nervous being up on the stage and would not stand up or sing. He did say his line in to the microphone clear as a bell. His line was "clean" and Kenny's was as excerpt from the Proclamation to the family which he memorized and delivered beautifully. It was a good program. And Kenny only mildly embarassed us with his behavior in front of everyone, which is a definite improvement. Hopefully next year will be totally smooth sailing.

Halloween Pics

I didn't take these. My sister-in-law Cassie did. But seeing as I did not have a camera at home (I had left it at school) over Halloween weekend, I borrowed the pictures off her blog. Thanks Cassie, I hope you don't mind. We had a little party at my house. The kids painted pumpkins, the big boys all went to the air show, and the estrogen and babies stayed behind to decorate a cupcake pumpkin patch (if anyone has a picture, please send it to me). The night finished off with trick-or-treating. Fun day!!

James is almost 10 months old now and he is so active! He loves to pull himself up wherever he is to practice standing. One of his favorite spots is our living room window. He loves to stand at it and bang on the glass while he looks outside (He also likes it because frequently he can find Regi lounging there and is able to torture her until pain of fur-pulling outweighs the pleasure of sun-bathing.) He also likes to pull himself up to our laser printer. At least fifty times a day he pulls himself up to it, and while precariously teetering on just his feet, he will lunge forward for the paper cover. Once he has it in his hands, he will proudly wave his prize around (knocking himself in the face a few times while doing so), until he loses his balance and plops to the ground on his padded little bum!

He is a master at getting into everything he shouldn't. He weighs 19 lbs. and is 26 inches. I've always had skinny kids with average heights. James is a short baby with average weight. Go figure! His favorite foods are cinnamon raisin granola, yogurt parfaits, apples, carrots, hot dogs, and anything else he can get his hands on! He loves "Itsy Bitsy Spider" and Tell Me The Story of Jesus." He is so cute and sweet and the big boys absolutely adore him!

Happy 50s Day!

Kenny: "Are people really going to be wearing this kind of stuff?"

Daddy: "Yes, Kenny, it's fifties day."

Kenny: "Can't I just wear my normal clothes?"

Mommy: "No, Kenny. You look really cute, and it's one of the very few days out the year in which you don't have to wear your school uniform."

Kenny: "Ugh... I look like a freak!"

Daddy: (Trying not to laugh) "You look handsome, Kenny, and I promise that you won't be the only one at school that looks like this. At the very LEAST, Mommy will look funny too."

Kenny: (Correcting) "You mean she'll look like a freak..."

Red Ribbon Week Parade

There are a few perks to having your kid at school with you! I was able to get this picture of Kenny during the parade through the school. And yes, he lost another tooth last week.

Vent...

Let me just say this girls clothes thing is getting out of hand! I have always been fairly okay with the fact that there are more girls clothing choices than boy. There are many more styles and color choices for girls than boys. But the current way the stores are stocked is ridiculous!!

This is absolutely not an exaggeration. We went to Wal-mart to get some blue jeans for Nathan. There were 3...only 3 racks of boys clothes in the entire section. There were about 20 girl racks. And there were 2 racks of jeans for girls...not A SINGLE rack for boys jeans ANYWHERE.

Target...same story.

And at least half of the shirts you do find have some rude-ish comment or a picture of a dump truck throwing up dirt or some other stupid picture.

Really people. Little boys deserve to have clothes too.

(I realize only people with sons can truly appreciate the frustration of trying to dress them in more than cargo pants and t-shirts with weird sayings and pictures on it. If you have girls, count your blessings next time you go clothes shopping.)

Nathan's Personal Zoo

Nathan is, and always has been, a HUGE animal lover. This love extends to his stuffed animals. He names each one and treats them with so much care. At night he has a zoo-full of animals by his side.


There is Tahoe the giraffe, Baby Snake, "Titty Tat" the fox, Rocket, "Glue" from Blue's Clue's, Arf the dog (to those who knew me in collage, Arf was formally known as Chicken), Caterpillar, his Baby James, blankie, and the list goes on...

Sometimes we find his things in interesting arrangements, such as below. He was supposed to be asleep, but at some point during the night this appeared on his floor.

Here is Arff, ready for the day!

Of course the outfit wouldn't be complete without a pair of training underpants!
Here is "Titty Tat" going for a walk with his toy blood pressure cuff leash.
Nathan, we love your sweet spirit!

Trunk or Treat 2009

The Three Amigos

The Soldier

The Cowboy
Thomas the Train

We have more pictures of Nathan than Kenny. That would be because Nathan stays with you and has some measure of calmness while Kenny was over the top excited and all over the place!
The boys had a great time in the moonwalk castle.
I sat with the baby and passed out candy while Daddy took the boys trunk or treating. There were so many people and the kids got a lot of candy. It was so fun to see all the cute costumes!

Three Brothers

In Loving Memory...

In Loving Memory...

Piper

May 2006 - October 18, 2009

Kenny: "I loved to run and play in the backyard with her. My favorite was tug-of-war."

Nathan: "I love to pet her and hug her."

Daddy: "I loved the way she would jump in my lap, thinking she was still a puppy."

Mommy: "I loved the way she would happily let the kids torment her to all ends."

We love you and will miss you!

News as of Late

Life is so busy! The flu bug is awful here. We had one class that was missing 11 out of 18 students one day last week. I had 4 gone on Friday and I sent one more home with a fever after lunch. We have all been passing around a little bug and it seems we cannot get ev eryone healthy at once.

So here is a little run down.

ME- My student teacher officially takes over tomorrow. It is more work than I thought to mentor a student. And it is hard for a slightly obsessive-compulsive person to give up control. But Cynthia is great and is growing so much. She'll be a great teacher.

KEN- He is playing Mr. Mom with Nathan and James while doing some air photography and IT work from home. He left last Thursday o go to Utha to help Jonny drive a moving truck back for their move. He just got back today and boy is he tired!

KENNY- He is becoming quite the social butterfly at school. He is also quite the missionary. His teacher pulled me aside and told a story. It was storming outside one day and the lights flickered off for about 3-5 seconds. He has an interior classroom without windows so it is dark when the electricity goes out. She said as soon as the power went out she heard someone hit the floor and then a tiny high pitched voice siad, "Dear Heavenly Father, please protect us from whatever storm is outside..." When the lights came back on there was Kenny, on his knees, head bowed, and arms crossed, finishing his prayer. Now there is another part to the story. One of the most challenging students in the school is in Kenny's class. As soon as Kenny started praying, this little boy knelt down beside him and repeated everything Kenny said word for word. However, rather than bowing his head and closing his eyes, the other boy glanced around wide-eyed at the sky as he repeated the words. Kenny then spent lunch time telling him about the resurrection. This little boy now adores Kenny and seeks him out all the time.

NATHAN- Nathan has developed a great love for his stuffed animal collection. His favorite phrase is, "I know. I a big boy." We are working on improving his fine motor skills and develop his speech and vocabulary before kindergarten in the fall. He has starting trying to write his name and he gets about half the letters right.

JAMES- Little go-geter. He will be walking within 6 weeks I can guarantee it. He had entered the separation anxiety phase, which is not very fun, but I know it's a normal part of his development. He has a sweet smile and loves to cuddle.

8 months old...

James has officially moved from being a little baby to a big baby. And it has happened overnight.

He can crawl on his knees and is getting fast.

He has four teeth.

He ate minestrone soup for dinner. He loved the beans.

He can pull himself to a stand on the couch.

He got a little panicked tonight when he couldn't see me and he cried out, "mamamamama" until I came into view.

He's Mobile!

Our Little Caterpillar

Wow Nathan

I got the following text message from my husband who was home with James (who has bronchitis) and Nathan.

"I told Nathan this morning to stay upstairs and watch t.v. while James and I took a short nap. He said okay. I put on Baby Mozart for him and litghtly dozed off. Next thing I know, Nathan is tapping on my shoulder saying, "Daddy look!" after which he shoves Popcorn in my face! Our little biologist got into the cage all by himself, fetched the snake woithout hurting it, and delicately carried it upstairs to me."

The Best Way To Unwind After A HArd Day

Introducing...

Popcorn
the baby corn snake
The newest member of our family.

Nathan really likes him. He says, "Ah, look at the cute snake." He is Ken's snake, which he is going to let me borrow for my class. And yes, he is a carnivore and we have some dead baby mice in our freezer.