Guess What We Did?!?

You got it! We set up our Christmas decorations this past weekend. I was handing Halloween boxes to McKay in the attic on Saturday and then he started handing down Christmas boxes. He claims it's because he doesn't want to make an extra trip up there, but we all know he just LOVES Christmas!

After hanging the porch lights we realized only 28 of the 72 lights actaully work. I guess it's time for some new ones. So sad.

Sydney thought it was so cool to help "fluff" the tree. She went around with a very serious face pulling and pushing the branches here and there. This is her first year helping us set up the tree. We usually do it while the kids are taking or nap, but this she got to help. Lucky!

Here's a video of Sydney in action, working on the tree.

We told Jackson that he isn't allowed to touch the tree, only look at it with his eyes. We've walked into the front room several times to find him standing with his hands to his sides, leaning as far as he can forward just staring at the tree. I think he likes to see his reflection in the glass balls. He, along with McKay, think it's pretty cool that Spider Man hangs on our tree every year. (you can see part of him on the very right side of this picture.)

Once all the Christmas decorations were set up we went out into the front yard to play in the new yellow leaves on the ground.

The kids thought it was fun to cover Dad in leaves.

Here's a video of us outside.

What you learn at preschool

Today while we were eating our dessert, Sydney started telling us about her day at preschool. "While we were sitting in a circle today, our teacher made us say Rock Obama!" When Keresa and I reacted with surprise, Syd asked me, "Daddy, is he a nice man? Or a not nice man?" I told her we wouldn't know for a while, and we would just have to see.

"Rock Obama" in a Sydney voice sounds a little different.

Flash Back

I was looking through some old family videos this morning and decided to start doing a monthly (or maybe weekly) Flash Back Post. Because I also use this blog as my journal, this will give these old videos a chance to make an appearance. I hope you enjoy!

This video was taken in December of 2006. Jackson was 2 1/2 months old and Sydney was a month shy of her second birthday. (Remember to pause the music so you can hear the video)

Always Pretending

While I was making dinner the other night the kids decided to use the garbage can lid as their pretend toilet. They would take turns sitting on it and then cheering for each other when they would "go pee pee". (Kinda gross I know) Sadly, it all ended when Jackson went a little too far with the game... he was confused when his legs were all wet. When he came to me all I could do was laugh. In his little voice he did a nervous laugh and said "Eew mommy...not funny." Sydney in her grown up, scolding voice said, "Ugh! This is not a real toilet Jackson! This is a pretend toilet! Ugh!"

Halloween

What a day! We started off with Sydney's preschool party. It was loud, crazy, and lots of fun.

Sydney was so excited to have Mom and Jackson at school with her.

I'm not sure what this face means...

This is Sydney's friend Karsyn. Everyday when I drop Sydney off at school Karsyn meets her at the door with a little mature hug and they say things like "I like your shoes" while batting their eyes and acting all teenager'ish. They crack me up.

SUPER MAN! (Or if you say it like Jackson does it sounds more like pooper man...which happens to fit him well.)

Later on we went to the carnival at the law school.

When we got home I put all the loot in a pile on the floor. Believe it or not, we didn't trick-or-treat to ONE house this year. When I was a kid it would take hours of diligent mapped out trick-or-treating to get anywhere close to this much stuff. A HUGE thanks to everyone who thought of our kids on Halloween. Thanks Grandma Gifford for the Halloween cards, both mailed and emailed. Thank you Phyllis (the grocery store grandma) for the gift bags you gave Sydney and Jackson. Thank you Lyndsey, Amber, and Brittany for the awesome gifts you put together for the kids. It's exciting that our kids are at the age where they can remember holidays from the year before...no doubt this will be a Halloween they remember. GOOD NIGHT...

... and Happy Halloween!

Sydney's New Best Friend

Today in Preschool Sydney got to paint a pumpkin. Since she got home she's been taking it everywhere with her. She sat it on the chair next to her during lunch, she sat it on the ground beside her while she colored, she has not let the thing out of her sight. She's been talking to it too...asking it what color she should use next, what movie it wants to watch. It's rather funny.

Here she is "giving it a ride".

Like I said...she hasn't let it out of her sight...not even for a second. Not a day goes by that I don't laugh out loud about something the kids do. They crack me up.

Halloween Festivities

On Saturday we went to our branch Trunk-or-Treat activity. We had 17 kids there! 12 were members and 5 were nonmembers. Our primary has almost tripled since last year. I never thought I would think that 12 primary kids is a lot, but here it's a branch record.

Emilie and Jackson at the activity.




Our next party was at the library. I take the kids to a class there once a week and this week we had a costume party. Fun stuff.




Sydney was way into the book the librarian was reading the kids.

These boys are in Sydney's preschool class. They are triplets and although they don't look much alike, Sydney calls them all Alex. We'll be walking past them and she'll say "Hi Alex, hi Alex, hi Alex." as we pass each boy. I've told her several times that they are not all Alex...I guess she can't remember which one is Alex so she figures she'll just try the name on all of them. She's funny. The boy's Dad is one of McKay's professors at the law school. Oh, and the other two boys are Max and Ben.

Halloween is on Friday so I'll have more pictures to post then.

Our Handsome Fireman

First of all, some bad news, and some good. Bad news first; my camera stopped working so I had to dig up our ancient digital camera from 4 years ago that takes horrible pictures and is anything but user friendly. And right before Halloween too! Good news, McKay found us a new camera on ebay for cheap, and it's even better than the one that just broke. Hooray! It won't be here by Halloween, so we'll just have to deal with blurry flushed out pictures for the next week or so. Sorry.

Jackson came out of his room the other day in this lovely get-up. And to think we actually spent money on a costume this year! He's growing up so fast!

Play Group

We've started a play group this semester here in Grundy. We get together once a week with all our little kiddos. Four of us moms have husbands in law school, another mom's husband is a teacher at the law school, and the last mom's husband is a pharmacy student in a neighboring town. Six moms and eight kids ages 2 months-3 years...it's pretty fun. And, to add to the craziness two of the moms are pregnant! Here is a picture of part of our group.

Left to right : Marin, Jackson, Vanner, Madison, Emilie, and Sydney.

Night out on the town

Today was a pretty fun day. During our lasagna dinner Sydney managed to get some garlic toast crumbs in her sleeves. We usually have her get down and go wash in the bathroom. When Keresa told her to get down and wash she said, "Ok, but I need help." Keresa told her no, just go wash by yourself. Sydney gave her a very tender face, and on the verge of tears said, "But there's bread in my sleeves." It was very sad, but too funny to hold back and we both had to cover our faces so she wouldn't see us laughing. I finally had to get up and take some dishes into the kitchen so I could let the laugh out.

It was raining so hard we decided to go out for a drive and watch the rain. While we were out Jackson decided to practice some words. So he was going back and forth with 'awesome' and 'dude.'
"Awesome. Dude. Awesome. Dude. Dude. Awesome. Aw-- Aws--Aw-- App..? Applebees? Applebees. APPLEbees. "

Our rainy drive took us to Dairy Queen. We have never eaten in, just gone to the drive through. We thought we would shake things up a bit and try it out inside.

Inside Dairy Queen we enjoyed very loud Garth Brooks and Tim McGraw songs. The people all around spoke loudly and laughed a lot. It sounded like we were inside some wild west saloon or something. Then a group of coal miners in their late 40s all sat down. They were pretty calm. But then we heard a knock at the door (who knocks at Dairy Queen?). A guy threw the door open and shouted (imagine the voice of Tow Mater on Cars) "Well Heeee-LOOOOw all!! Hay-owz eh-vrrr-bah-dee doo-inn tuh-naya-tt!?" And he looked all around. Now the coal miners all seemed to raise their Blizzards in a toast to Clyde, and everyone saw just how loud and full of energy this group could be once their ring leader joined them. We overheard lots of, "tlr vrrmn eeelrhall mrrln grrdil leekn Obama." I think they were talking that they liked him, but I could really only make out that one word.

Just another fun evening in Grundy!