Feeling very thankful...

The holidays seem to be sneaking up on me. It's so hard to believe that Thanksgiving is already here. I've done about half of my Christmas shopping already, so I feel like I'm doing pretty well as far as getting prepared. I'm planning to start Christmas decorations this week, which is surreal. And planning is the key word there...it all sounds good until it involves actually getting the boxes out of the attic!

Since this is Thanksgiving week, I've been hearing lots of discussion on the radio and at church about having an "attitude of gratitude" as they say. This has, of course, gotten me thinking about how very much our family has to be thankful for and how blessed I feel. I'm so thankful for my family - my sweet husband and children, our parents, brothers and sisters, grandparents...and for all of our friends. Basically that we have people in our lives who care what pictures we post on this blog and read all my sappy comments! : )

Even though Troy is having to work this week when he wasn't expecting to, I'm so thankful that my husband has a good job. Even though I get tired of picking up the house, I'm thankful that we have a home to get messy, and all the toys my kids have to scatter. (I'm especially thankful for my electric sweeper which makes the cleaning process much more effecient and fun.) I'm thankful that I can teach my children about Jesus, go to Bible studies, and participate in prayer groups without worry of persecution. The list goes on and on, but I just had to take a moment and express my gratitude.

One of my goals for this week is to understand what my children are feeling thankful for. Why do I have a feeling it will involve cupcakes and Kung Fu Panda?

Hey Andrew, come look out the window!

We got a little distracted on our way up to take naps today. I love these pictures so much. Davis and Andrew have been on a kick in the past couple of days where they stand together and look out the window, listing everything they see. They talk about the flowers and the trees, the sky, the birds, the flags on neighbors houses...and Davis summed it up the other day by saying, "It's just everything that I love."

Today, Davis called Andrew over to join him in looking out at the view.

And they were willing to indulge mom in a quick picture. Anything to put off naptime for another few minutes!

ARRRRRRR!!!!

ARRRRrrrr!!! Is that what a pirate says? I think so, but don't think I spelled it well. Pirate Davis made a grand appearance today, and his only diaglog was "Arrrrrr!"

Is that not hilarious?! He's got a sword, a hook, an eye patch, a ring on a gold chain and everything. Too funny...

This pirate play kit was one of Davis's birthday presents this past weekend. As you can see, Andrew is enjoying it right along with him. We didn't get to open all the presents at the party Saturday, because the place where we had the party needed the room before we could finish. So we spread out presents for a couple more days and just kept on celebrating! He and Andrew have been having a blast! Thank you to all our family and friends who gave him such fantastic birthday gifts!

Is it Seven-Zero-Zero?

Along with all of my other friends, our family is struggling a bit with the time change - even now 2 weeks into it. Davis and Andrew were on a great schedule of waking up at 7:00 am (Andrew sometimes as late as 8:00 am), but "falling back" threw that off so they are of course waking up an hour earlier.

It really is amazing that Davis's internal clock is spot on to get up at 6:00 every morning. OK, I have to admit that over the last couple of weeks it has shifted slightly so that some days it's 6:15 or 6:40, but early all the same.

So, I took Davis to Wal-Mart last Friday and let him pick out a clock. He's fascinated with the clock on my nightstand and will just sit and watch it change from one minute to the next. We figured this would be a great way for him to understand exactly when he's allowed to come out of his room.

We have told Davis not to come down until his clock says "seven-zero-zero". He is struggling, however, with waiting until it actually gets to 7:00. Somehow, that just seems like a long time to wait! So we still have a little visitor come tripping down the stairs each morning, but we are asking him to go back up and rest in his room until 7:00. Our response to his arrival downstairs every morning has been "Is it seven-zero-zero?" This morning he didn't come down until 6:50, so that's definite progress. Maybe eventually it will catch on...we'll see! Whose idea was this time change, anyway?

I wuv mama...

...oh, what wonderful words to hear! Tonight just as I was about to head for bed, Andrew woke up crying in his bed. Troy ran up to check on him, then moments later called down to say that Andrew was asking for me. He has a tendency these days to ask for whoever is not around, especially when he feels he has been wronged in some way. Hence, much of my day is spent listening to Andrew cry "I want my daddy!" whenever he is getting in trouble. I respectfully suggest to him that Daddy would agree with whatever punishment is being administered at the time, but it seems to make him feel better just to cry about it.

Anyway, I was up in his room rocking my baby boy who was cuddled in his long flannel Spider Man jammies and wrapped in his blanket. So sweet...what could be better? I whispered, "I love you, Andrew" and got the most wonderful response. In the slightest whisper, I heard "I wuv mama." Music to my ears. Nothing sweeter. Unless it was maybe "thank you, mama, for all the meals you cook, groceries you buy, toys you clean up, laundry you wash, fold, and put away, thank you, thank you, thank you!" But I'm really not expecting that until maybe age 35, if I'm lucky. ; )

For now, I am beyond thrilled to hear a whispered "I wuv mama" at any opportunity!

Space Party!

We had Davis's birthday party today at Jumpin' Joey's. He wanted a space party, so we had rocket ship invitations and everything else "space" themed that we could add at a "moonwalk" place. Actually, after thinking about it, having his party at a moonwalk place was the most appropriate for a space party!
Susan Klenke did an amazing job of creating a space cake for us! Davis loved it!! And it was delicious. There wasn't much left after the party was over, but I managed to sneak a little piece once we got home.

I didn't manage to get many action shots of the jumping, but did get Davis at the bottom of the big slide.

Andrew is still taking in the moonwalks, and really only likes one of them (the big slide). But he digs the games area. He's already learned to very sweetly come up and ask for "mo' money, mo' money, pease"! They learn so young.

Indian or Chef?

Davis made a fabulous Indian hat (complete with four feathers) at school this week and loves wearing it. I enlisted my little Indian to help me make the rocket-shaped sugar cookies for his birthday party. He pushes a chair over from the kitchen table to get high enough to reach the island and help us cook. Not too stable, but it gets the job done.

He's getting really good with the rolling pin!

Look at that technique! Getting just enough flour on the rolling surface is key...he will be a master chef one day, and we can all say "we knew him when he baked in an Indian hat!"

Sunday Traditions

Double Dave's!!!! This is what we usually do on Sundays after church, so I decided we should capture the memories. This is one of the boys' (all 3!) favorite places to go on Sunday for lunch. We have trouble getting Davis and Andrew to finish their pizza before bolting to the games area to play. Dad and Davis always have a game of air hockey...

...and Davis usually wins!

But Dad holds his own, as you can see.

Andrew usually keeps himself pretty focused on a video game where he can drive cars, but he branched out a little today.

And Mom usually catches a spare minute to sneak an extra piece of chocolate-chip pizza. Ahhh, life is good! : )

Mama, can I show you something?

You have to wonder what will come next when your 3-(almost 4)-year-old begins a conversation with "Mama, can I show you something?"

I was extremely curious at lunch today when we sat down and Davis raised the question.

"Of course, sweetie, what is it?"

He led me to the time-out chair at the edge of the kitchen, very excited. Our time-out chair has a lid in the seat and a cute little storage place underneath that only occasionally gets used. But Davis let me know that he stored a little of his cereal from breakfast in there this morning.

Ummmm, why did you do this?

Because, as he enthusiastically showed me, he had carefully taken a letter "D" from his bowl of Alpha-bit cereal (another childhood flashback for me), wiped the milk off, and kept it in the time-out chair for later.

I have to say, I thought it was adorable. I'm guessing the "D" was for Davis?

What was going through his mind at this point? Was he preparing for some later time when he might have a crisis during a time-out and need a snack? Was he just thinking that was the hiding spot most convenient to the kitchen? What were his plans for this little "D"?

All I could do was laugh, which of course thrilled Davis. He kept showing me his treasure, over and over, but I think eventually decided it looked to good to save so he ate it.

I'm thinking I need to periodically check the chair from now on just to see what might be lurking underneath.

You never know what might pop up in strange places. Yesterday, the boys were in the yard closely examining one of the jack-o-lanterns we carved last week and commenting on how stinky it was. We have been trying to explain to Davis that after a while, the pumpkins start to rot and we'll need to throw them out. This concept had really upset him until yesterday when he saw how nasty they can get after a few days.

Because they seemed so taken by the smell, I decided to take a closer look myself. Unfortunately, on close examination I found that someone (Andrew?!?) had hidden some "puppy poo" in the jack-0-lantern at some point. Which means that some little hands had to find it in the yard, pick it up, carefully put it in the pumpkin, and close the lid. And at what point I do not know. I shudder to think about the timing of this and where those little hands went afterward. Mommy must be more diligent with the pooper scooper.

I think I'm going to start checking my shoes, too. We have a new book from the library that talks about hiding a lizard in mommy's shoe...I hope they don't get any ideas!