Thanksgiving Festivities

Ethan had a Thanksgiving Feast at his preschool on Monday that I got to go and attend at lunch time. The kids did a great job singing their "turkey" songs and prayers of thanksgiving. They made costumes out of pillowcases and were the Native Americans and Pilgrims from the first Thanksgiving.

Here is a picture of Ethan and his friend, Claire at the feast.

Here is a picture of Ethan and me at the feast.

Here are some pictures of Ethan and Caleb with their Indian hats on that they each made at school.

Big Brother, Little Brother

One day earlier this week or last (my time has run together over the last two weeks), Ethan, Caleb, and I ran a series of 12 races outside, coming up with a different course for our race each time. When we came inside, Ethan wanted to map out and recall all of the race paths we had run, so we made a map. Then Ethan and Caleb had so much fun using these maps like treasure maps to go around the house. You never know with kids what the most fun things will be! (Notice they are both wearing their glasses even! We are still working on getting them to wear them more and more of the time.)

Date Night Picture

Well, we look a little tired and worn out before we even left for our date night Friday night, but we took the traditional picture anyway before leaving! We had a nice date night . . . went to dinner at City Range Grill, did a little shopping and looking around for Christmas stocking stuffers for the boys at Target, then chilled at Barnes and Noble with coffee and browsing. A nice low key date night that we really enjoyed!

A Busy Couple Weeks

I haven't posted in a while, as things have been very busy! My Grandpa Watson (mom's dad) fell at the beginning of last week and hit his head on the bathroom counter. After a couple seizures, and a trip to the hospital, the doctors discovered a bleed in his brain. So, to make a long story shorter, my mom had to leave unexpectedly to go up to Ohio and help take care of him and decide on his care. My grandpa, who is 90 years old and will be 91 this December, had surgery this past Tuesday to drain the blood from his brain and relieve some pressure. The surgery was a success, and he is on his way to recovery! Praise the Lord! He will probably have to go into nursing home care, at least for a few weeks, after getting out of the hospital. Please continue to pray for his recovery.

So, needless to say, with my full time childcare provider being out of town almost two weeks, Scott and I felt like we were "roughing it", even though I know many people have it a lot worse off than us! It was just very overwhelming to try to work 30 hours from home for my regular job, while still being a full time mom and taking care of the boys at the same time. Luckily, the boys are in preschool 9 hours a week, so during the other 21, I just tried to log in from home and work when I could! Thank goodness I had the ability to do that, or I would've been very behind on my work. I am so thankful to my boss for the flexibility he gives me in times like these, as well as for Scott's mom and our friend, Melanie, who stepped in to watch the boys for me a couple days so I could make an appearance at the office and keep up!

Tonight Scott and I are going on a much needed date night! I'm looking forward to a return to a normal schedule!

Backyard Fall Fun

Here are a few favorite fall pictures I got of the boys today while playing in the backyard.

CampFire Evening

We had a fun time going to our friends' campfire in their backyard on Saturday evening. This was Ethan and Caleb's first campfire that they can probably remember. We roasted hot dogs and marshmallows for smores. We even sang some campfire songs. It was a great way to go camping and come home to our warm beds to sleep! I like this kind of camping!

A Few Funny Memories

There were a few funny things that happened around our house over the weekend that may not seem funny to anyone else, but I want to remember them for my own sake.

1) Caleb sang out loud for the first time! This is the first time that we can really say we've heard him singing and that he knew what he was doing. Most of the time when Scott, Ethan, and I sing in the car, Caleb yells "No!!!" over and over again wanting us to stop. I thought he was not going to enjoy music the way our whole family does, and was sometimes concerned, but hoped it was just a phase. Well, since being in 2 year old preschool, he attends music class once a week, and is always very proud to show me his music stamp he gets and seems to really like his music teacher. If only I could be a fly on the wall and see how he acts in class! But back to the story about him singing. . . on Friday evening, my mom was watching a friend of ours' baby, Jacob, who is about 5 1/2 months old. Jacob started crying and Caleb was very concerned. We told Caleb he should sing to Jacob and make him feel better. Caleb then proceeded to open his mouth extremely wide and just as serious as can be sang a tune - it had no words, but was clearly a song with different notes going up and down. It was so cute and funny at the same time! I wish I would've had it on video!

2) Ethan reminded me of myself when I was young. He wanted to play school with me. My sisters especially, can relate to this characteristic in me. I was always making them play school, and of course I was always the teacher! My sisters didn't enjoy this game as much as me when we were young. At first, Ethan was the teacher and he went through what we needed to do for school. I believe he was imitating his own teacher from preschool and going through all of the sayings she says and the activities they do at school - since it was just Ethan, Caleb, and I playing we also had to have Ethan's imaginary friends in our class with us - Bob the Tomato, Junior Asparagus, Larry Cucumber (characters from Veggie Tales who are somehow also Ethan's imaginary friends when he plays with them). Bob was our Line Leader, Larry was our weather person, etc. etc. Then at one point I was the teacher, and Ethan was sure to tell me if I did anything different than his teacher and how it was supposed to be done. Ethan is definitely a lot like me! It's funny when you see your own characteristics showing up in your kids!

Not A Baby Anymore

We got rid of Caleb's pacifier finally! It was out of necessity because the last one we had around the house got a crack in it, so we showed Caleb that we had to throw it away! Bedtime has been a little more difficult, but he is doing fairly well considering he also just changed to a toddler bed from the crib. My baby isn't a baby anymore! :-(

Clone Troopers on Halloween Night?

We had a fun time playing Clone Troopers at home on Halloween night. Scott found these printable Clone Trooper masks online that you could print out and cut out to wear. This was all in response to Ethan saying he had REALLY wanted to be a Clone Trooper instead of Handy Manny for Halloween. But since his Mommy and Daddy had gone the "no cost" costume route this year, this would have to do for fun! I guess if we would've gone trick or treating, we would've been quite a funny site! But instead we just spent a fun evening at home. Who ever thought I'd be playing Star Wars Clone Troopers with my three favorite guys? I must love them a lot! :-) Caleb didn't like wearing his over his face, so he wore his as a hat on top of his head.

Wearing Their New Glasses!

The boys' glasses came in at the end of last week! So far, Ethan has been doing a wonderful job wearing his at school and at home. He doesn't have to wear them when he's playing all the time, but we've been trying to encourage him to wear them a good amount of time while at home too. Caleb is a little bit harder to get to wear his, but it is actually going smoother than I thought it would. I just have to find things that he is interested in at the right times and tell him if he wants to continue doing those things, then he needs to put his glasses on. Then he normally gives in and wears them for about 30 minutes before he realizes he wants to take them off again. So far the things he is interested in that worked for a good bargaining tool are an Elmo video and coloring on paper at the kitchen table. We'll see what other things I come up with as the days go on to hopefully increase his wearing time to more than 30 minutes. But so far, it feels like a great accomplishment for him to wear them for 30 minutes without screaming or crying! Yay!!! I hope it continues to get easier for him.