Much to be thankful for

We celebrated a little differently this year. Instead of a big Thanksgiving dinner with all our extended family, the turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, fixings, pies, etc. - Aaron and I took our three boys out to eat at a restaurant. It was his idea. I supported him but was disappointed to be missing the big family dinner. Then I realized what a brilliant plan it was! No chance of us hosting, so no frantic scrubbing, scouring, dusting, and cleaning. No rolls or pies to make. No schedule to follow. We just get to enjoy the day with our own little family. This works for us because we are only skipping the family event with the people we see every week, all year round.

So we spent Thanksgiving day watching the Macy's parade and lots of football. Later, after naps, we took our boys to Cracker Barrel. Laugh if you must, but it's the perfect place for kids, and it's home-style cooking. We waited longer than we had planned before we were seated. Good thing there's the great porch with rocking chairs and some old-fashioned game entertainment, not to mention the country shop for mom to browse through. We had a sympathetic server who brought me as many biscuits as I wanted and didn't mention the smashed carrots and other detritus under our table. We tipped well and came home to a peaceful & un-trashed house. (Thanks to Aaron for sweeping our daily under-table detritus.)


We had such a great day we are planning to make this a new tradition. We alternate years of celebration with the Blasneks and the Carpenters - and now, every three years we will skip all the hub-bub and spend our Thanksgiving day with our own little family, and leave the cooking to someone else. As the boys get older, we can try out much nicer places. And I can bake pies or rolls anytime I want. Maybe next year.





This year I am thankful for:
my husband and our eternal marriage
our sons
the time the five of us spend together (especially this week)
our health
our beautiful home
plenty of material blessings
our extended family
the word of the Lord through scriptures and prophets
the atonement of the Savior Jesus Christ

Thank Goodness for Little (and big) Boys

Aaron and I were both in the kitchen/living room while Alden & Emmett were eating applesauce at the counter. Neither of us were paying much attention to them though and when I finally turned to look at them when the screaming/fighting got past my tolerance level - I saw this scene (below). Food fight with the applesauce. I was really upset but thought to get my camera first. I'm worried that this is reinforcing the bad behavior, but how can I not document moments like this. The photo is bad, and you really can't see the smear of applesauce all over the counter, floor, stools, pants, shirts, faces, and hair.

The next shot is the reason we have locks on the boys' closet. They were just in there playing and I guess I forgot to lock it. I know the tell-tale sounds of too much fun in there and ran in to find another mess. Emmett has been known to pull every item of clothing off the hanger, dump both laundry baskets, fling shoes about the room, and knock all the sheets & toys from the top shelves in less that 5 minutes. Quite a feat.




The two shots above were taken at my annual friends party. My high school friends and spouses get together once a year during the holidays and this was the first year that kids were invited. Thanks to the Laytons for hosting - it was a fabulous fling and my boys had lots of fun. Emmett's wishing for a cool Harley rocking motorcycle like his friend Kyler has, and both boys wish Santa would bring them a trampoline. I think Santa knows that our neighbors and grandparents have tramps, so there's no need for us.

Last Sunday I dressed Alden and Emmett in matching outfits of blue shirts and grey pants. 'Cause I'm the Mom and I can do stuff like that while they're young. Then we got a fun surprise when Aaron came in with matching duds too. The boys were so proud to look grown-up like their Dad.

When I got Mega Bloks for the boys last year at Christmas, they didn't seem to like them much. But they have been using them a lot the last several months and Alden loves to create tall buildings. And Emmett loves to kick them down. And I love to break up the ensuing fights. This picture Alden is showing off his whopping gun. It fell over 10 seconds later and he had a fit.

Let's not forget sweet Ro Ro and his ever increasing mobility. Helping Mom with the dishwasher is one of his favorite things! Let me take a moment to mention that he has two more teeth on the top now. Let's say Nov. 24th and 25th for his baby book. Yes, I'm post-dating this blog entry - so sue me.

I'm always a sucker for the photo op of Aaron with all three boys on his chair.

One More Birthday Party

My friends, Marcy, Jody, and Lacey, have been wanting to get together for lunch ever since my birthday last month. Barro's is the perfect place to go with a bunch of little kids. My friends all love the pizza, but usually get take-out and didn't even know about the kids' room in the back. They have plenty of toys, a play kitchen, small tables & chairs for the kiddos, and separate tvs for the adults and kids. Add delicious pizza by the slice or a whole steaming pie and you get a mommy's paradise. Thanks for coming girls! And for getting the pizza.

Post-Halloween Goofin' Around

Jaycee fits right into our family. She will be growing up with three psuedo-brothers. At Jaycee's house the boys got some fun Halloween stuff. The picture above on the left shows Alden with his green Dracula fangs, and Emmett munching on a rubber spider.





We picked up some extra plastic Halloween buckets at Walmart for 70% off. Emmett loves Spiderman and Alden loves Star Wars. But the exciting thing was when we discovered the buckets split in half and the boys could wear them on their heads like masks. Too bad they can't see anything! During naps Alden was helping me make some cookies (hence the apron) and played with his light sabers while we waited for the finished goodies. I'm sure you didn't realize Darth Vader wears an apron sometimes.

Childhood Romances

One last post about Halloween. Here's a shot of Alden's entire preschool class, including their favorite gypsy teacher, Miss Peggy. I will add the story (in the off chance someone hasn't heard it ten times) of Aaron and I. We like to tell people that we met in preschool. Which is true. Even though we didn't become friends until high school, we found out later that we went to the same preschool. And we have this picture of us sitting next to each other at Sister Benson's preschool, in our Halloween costumes. I was the witch and Aaron was the ghost in the front row. And for some reason, both our younger sisters are in the picture too. They were both clowns and were sitting by each other, on the right. So you see that little witch next to Alden above? Haylee better watch out.

All Hallow's Eve

We started off our Halloween with a visit from Nana & Papa, who even helped get the boys dressed. They were wearing their dog paraphernilia & fun hats. Then we dropped by Auntie Candice's house to see our favorite Flinstone family. Aren't their costumes great? After that we headed over to Ma'am & Grandpa's house to eat ate their neighborhood hot dog & chili dinner.

We came back home to put Roland to bed, then Aaron stayed and handed out glow sticks to our Trick or Treaters, while I took the boys down Evergreen street. They had a great time! We ran into tons of people & kids from the ward, Alden saw Miss Peggy & his soccer coach, Coach Thomas (Alden has been saying he wants to be a soccer coach when he grows up). Emmett saw his friends from nursery, and a few scary houses that he wouldn't go to. Both sides of one street was more than enough for little Buzz & Woody - Alden was saying he was ready to go home. We had a very successful Halloween & are already looking forward to next year.