Zerg is Back!

Zerg finally came back about 4 nights ago and the boys were thrilled to see him. The first night, he was diving into the bubble gum machine and the boys thought that was hilarious!

Here are some of the other things he's been up to lately:

Taking a marshmellow bubble bath. Complete with a frog bath toy, and a snowman towel for him to clean off with. The next morning, he left quite the mess -- he got out of the bath, used the towel, and left marshmellows all over the sink. That was ok though -- Ryan ate them up as fast as he could.

The next morning, he was playing peek-a-boo with one of our ghosts.

And the next morning, he left me a note that said "Ok Mrs. Blair, it's time to take these down and put up some Christmas decorations." He's right. It was time. And I appreciated that he took them down for me. What a helpful little elf!

A Lost Tooth

JD lost his 2nd tooth on the last day of school before Thanksgiving Break, November 16. And when I say lost, I literally mean lost. His tooth was extremely loose the day before, to the point that it was causing JD some discomfort. He had wiggled it so much that his gums were sore. So on Friday, after lunch, he was watching a movie in his classroom. He reached up to wiggle his tooth.....and it was GONE!!! He thinks it must've fallen out while he was eating his corn dog at lunch. He didn't know it fell out, so he's pretty sure he swallowed it.

His teacher is terrific. When she found out about his tooth, she gave him a little bitty tooth box (wish I had a picture of the box, but we can't find it now) and they put a small pebble in it. The pebble was meant to be a replacement for his tooth. And she said she would let the Tooth Fairy know that he lost his tooth so she wouldn't forget to visit him that night. When we got home, JD put the tooth and this letter under his pillow:

The Tooth Fairy got the message --- she came that night and left a 2-Dollar-Bill under JD's pillow. He was so excited the next morning that he ran right into my room and woke me up to tell me what he'd gotten, then quickly tucked it away in his wallet.

Lots to be THANKFUL for

I'm a little behind for this, but Thanksgiving was last week and it was a pretty nice day. We had lunch/dinner scheduled at Beau & Stacie's at 2pm and nothing going on before that other than cooking and baking. I made sweet potato casserole for the first time (delicious!!) and turkey cupcakes. I got the idea for these at our Thanksgiving potluck at work the week before, except they had been made with chocolate cake and icing. I wanted to do more of a Thanksgiving cupcake so I made the cupcakes using a pumpkin bread recipe, and homemade pumpkin buttercream icing. They were so yummy, if I do say so myself!!!

 

A week or so before Thanksgiving, JD had his Thanksgiving luncheon at school so several of us went up there and ate with him -- Nanie, Bada, Jason, Kelli, Nana, Papa and me. JD was excited to see all of us, but not excited about the food. So I brought him a lunch while the rest of us at the school's Thanksgiving meal, which was surprisingly good. Here's a picture of all of us --- except Jane refuses to look at the camera. For some reason, I can't get her to look at me when I take pictures. Hmmm....

 

Little C's (Case) first Thanksgiving meal. He is such a happy little guy and has the sweetest, most precious smile. And those two bottom teeth make him look like the perfect Gerber baby.

 

Thanksgiving this year was really nice and enjoyable. On Friday morning, we had my dad, Linda, Kelli, Jason and the boys over to our house for breakfast. We decided on breakfast this year because it gets too difficult to drag the kids around to multiple places on Thanksgiving Day, eating big meals at each house. That can really turn a nice holiday into a stressful, exhausting event. So instead, we did it over two days, and it worked out great. 

 

Splitting it up allowed us to enjoy the holiday, and gave us a chance to reflect on all the things for which we are thankful, and perhaps tend to take for granted throughout the year. First of all, I'm thankful to God for His love, His blessings, and the comfort in knowing that He is always there. I'm so thankful for Bud, JD, Ryan, my parents, sister, and the rest of my family. I have a solid family circle that loves me unconditionally and accepts me, even with all my flaws. I'm also thankful for my in-laws and all they've done over the last few years -- sacrificing their freedoms to take care of my kiddos so I can work. And my sister-in-law and brother-in-law who have lived down the street from us for about a year now. They've helped out with the kids several times, have come through with various grocery items when I've run short at home (ie, sugar, eggs, etc), and are always here for us if we need anything. I have some really great friends, and a wonderful church filled with people who care about me and my family. I'm thankful for my job, even though I complain about it sometimes. I'm thankful for my home which keeps us cool in the blistering summers and warm in the winter, and provides a place for our kids to feel safe, loved and the freedom to be themselves. I'm thankful for me and my family's health -- we are so blessed to have that and I pray to God everyday that he continues to bless us with good health. There's so much to be THANKFUL for and we should strive to remind ourselves of all those things every single day, not just on Thanksgiving.

Ryan-isms

One of my very favorite things about being a mom is getting to experience the evolution of language in my kiddos. I absolutely love the way they start pronouncing a new word they've just learned.

Lately, Ryan's new thing is to let us know when we have been rude and interrupted him. He says "you just unruded me." The funny thing is (besides the word choice) is that he's the one rudely interrupting us. 

Another cute word is one he just learned last week. At school, they had an "all about me" week where they learned about themselves. They talked about hair color, eye color. . . .and frickles. You know, those little brown spots on your skin. That's so cute. I can't correct him. So now, we have frickles and I've never loved them so much as I do now. 

Oh and the other day he was re-enacting a scene from the movie Night at the Museum involving the dinosaur skeleton. He couldn't think of what it was called so he called it the bone dinosaur. Such a literal description. 
   
I love Ryan's own unique way of saying things so much that I secretly hope he never finds out he's saying it wrong so he'll continue to make me smile every time he says it. However, I know that can't happen. He can't work in a professional setting telling someone that they unruded him.

No Matter What, God is With You

I'm so proud of JD. . . .I have to brag a little bit. We're allowed to do that when it comes to our kids, right?

 

In Awana, the boys are learning their bible verses. JD's next scripture to learn was Psalm 23. Bit by bit, he was supposed to learn verses 1-6. When I read it to him the first time, his instant reaction was "No I'm not going to do that one. It's way too long."  After trying to convince him that he could do it, and him being adamant that he couldn't, I said "Ok fine. I'm going to learn it though -- and I'm gonna learn it first!"  That's all I needed to say and he was motivated.

 

Well, it took about 5 days of practicing in the mornings on the way to school and we both learned it. Tonight, at Awana, he said the entire thing to his class leader. . . and he did it flawlessly. Then his creative assignment during Bible time, while the other kids were saying their verses, was to draw a picture of what Psalm 23 means to him. This is what he came up with:

 

He said that it's a picture of a boy in a haunted house with spiders and scary people all around. Notice the little boy is not scared. Why isn't he scared? Because "no matter what, God is always with you." And that's God lying in heaven above everyone (the long brown stick figure in the sky).

I'm so proud of JD. I got compliments on him tonight from one of the moms that helps out in Awana. She said that he's such a sweet kid, so smart, and very impressive.  Music to my ears. I couldn't be more proud.

Halloween 2012

What a fun Halloween! The boys were adorable in their superhero costumes (yes, superheroes once again), and Ashton looked really awesome in his Joker get-up.

JD - Blue Power Ranger

Brooks - The Incredible Hulk
Timmy - Red Power Ranger
Case - a Shark (handmade by Nanie --- super cute!!!)

Ryan - Captain America

Ashton - The Joker from Dark Knight

 

The superheroes, taking over the neighborhood.

Papa with his 4 grandsons. He should've dressed up too. Maybe he can be

Superman or something next year.

 

Kelli and I were Willy Wonka Oompa-Loompas at work, so we wore our costumes out trick or treating with the boys. We did a skit with the other people in our department for our office's costume contest. Over the years, it's evolved from a costume contest to an actual performance. We did an 8-minute skit/dance/performance and WE WERE AWESOME!!  You can watch the video here.

 

We had so much fun this Halloween. It was a very busy, fun-filled day. Too bad it was on a Wednesday though and had to call it a night early then head to work and school the next morning. If I was president, I would totally make Halloween the last Friday of October.