Andrew's VIP

Andrew was super excited for this week to come & has been anxious to go to school all day long! He's the VIP for the week & gets to be the line leader & special helper all week long!

We made his poster this morning (& note the drawing of the black ninja) & he's been counting down the minutes until we could head to school. I love this boy & how much he loves school & am glad he is doing so well there.

Big Helper

I love how much Andrew adores Lucy. And he is so quick to help her be happy whenever! Today I caught him reading her a story & she was loving it so much!

She really loves her big brother & he loves her. What a great combination.

Soapy Hand? I Should Make a Handprint!

And I wonder why I need to clean the bathroom mirror every single day!

But I don't. I should, but I don't.
It didn't take long to figure out who did it but it was fun watching the culprit squirm for just a second.
And then to just start laughing! Good times.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a really great Thanksgiving. It was the first time since we've been married that we had it only with our family. We weren't intending on that but everything just ended up that way & it was really quite nice. Our day started out quite early with our early birds asking for 10 pieces of construction paper. A bit later (around 5:30am) we heard, "Gobble! Gobble! Happy Thanksgiving!" Lexie & Joseph made themselves into cute turkeys.

They're lucky Rick's not a hunter. But they quickly convinced Rick that he needed to make them pancakes for breakfast. After breakfast the boys headed off for the Turkey Bowl & we girls started cooking. Poor Alexis cut her hand with the knife so no more cutting for her.  But I had lots of help holding my little monkeys and then lots of help picnicing in the mashed potatoes. They were so good & I seriously could not keep Eliza out of them.

I'm just glad she found some more foods that she really loves.Once the major dishes were cooking & the turkey was ready to go in, the children made some appetizers.

 

And soon we were ready for our big meal. We had enough food to feed an army.

And eat we did. And also gave great thanks for all that we have.

And quickly everyone (except for Joseph) became quite full. We literally did not want any pie 5 hours later (but we all had just a small sliver because what is Thanksgiving without eating a little bit of pie?). We also taught Joseph how to play Settlers of Catan and we just had a wonderful day enjoying our family & thinking of all of our many blessings.

Special Friend's Day

Today at school is Special Friend's Day. Rick went this morning. Lexie was giving a presentation on Native Americans & wanted me to braid her hair (& then take pics with her & Lucy).

Rick tried to get a picture of Lexie dressed up as a Native American, however, this is all he caught. Oh well. Rest assured she looked cute & did a great job.

Then he got to hang out with Joseph for a bit & play at recess with him.

I went this afternoon with Andrew. We made some crafts & colored & ate pumpkin pie. He also gave me this paper saying what he was thankful for. Last week while I was volunteering in his class I saw the circle map on the board with "I'm thankful for" & then the kids made suggestions as to what they were thankful for. There were things like my family, friends, dog, the farm, & then I saw "the black ninja." I laughed & thought, "My child would say something like that." Sure enough, I go to look at Andrew's paper & yes, he was thankful for the black ninja. I have no idea where said ninja lives, came about, but he's very thankful for it this year & we have the documentation to prove it.

I'm glad we could go hang out with the kiddos some today. They are a blast.

Turkey Family

For Family Home Evening tonight, Eliza taught us a fun lesson on gratitude & we made a fun family of turkeys. It's not the easiest to paint an infants hand, but a toddler is super fun. Eliza could not stop laughing. We sure love our Family Home Evenings! And all of our Silly Turkeys!

Who's Who v5.0

It's time for "Who's Who?" I know you are all so excited about this one! This time, we've decided to try and make things a bit harder for everyone. So, here we go. Guess who is in each picture. The names may be used more than once. A prize will be awarded to the winner-the first one to get them all correct. (Rick says it will be something really good, like you get to come spend a weekend with just the kids. Awesome! Okay, that will not be the prize.) Alright, so Who's Who?
1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

Bonus Points for guessing the following:
A.

B.

 Thanks for playing!

Got the Giggles

This little girl is starting to giggle! It's so much fun!

I wish I could have caught some of the really good ones this time, but maybe next time.

And she is also into the kick your legs like there is no tomorrow stage. She seems to always be on the run!

Three Months Old

As our last post said, Lucy got to spend her 3 month old birthday at her first college football game. She was a trooper & really did very well considering her age. I'm glad she hung in there so well & for so long. Once we got home we took some pictures of her being cute & silly.

Lucy is in the great stage of smiling. It's fun how she will look at you & smile & then turn her head & body, she does that a ton lately. It makes the kids laugh at how much she gets her whole body involved in the smile.

And I just had to throw in these cute silly pictures of her.

I love this quirky face of hers.

She's such a cutie!

We cannot believe she is 3 months already! But she's a doll. Still a super sleeper & we are so grateful to have her in our home. She's a keeper!

Class Field Trip to the CU Football Game

This morning started out bright (well dark) & early. Joseph's teacher gets his class & their families tickets for a CU football game each year. We knew the boys were going to go but we kept going back & forth on the girls. I called Lexie into our room & she said, "Yes, I want to go to the football game." So, we sent a text to Mr. K to make sure he still had enough tickets for all of us girls to come & we hurried to get ready to go to Boulder.
Andrew was taking the "layering" to the extreme.

I'm glad we told him to take the extra pair of pants off as the afternoon warmed up quite nicely. Before the game, Logan's family arranged for some tailgating for the class. It was awesome. We had a fun breakfast, colored "GO CU" pictures for the kids to hold up, played lots of soccer & football in the field, & Andrew & Eliza's favorite-tossed lots of bean bags. It was great & the kids were all sad to pack up & head to the game.

But, the game was plenty fun, too. Here's Joseph & his awesome teacher, Mr. K.

And here's Joseph with Logan & Brandon.

After the game (yes, CU lost by a lot) the kids stopped for a picture on the buffalo.

And Andrew needed his own picture, too.

Joseph's favorite part of the game was seeing Ralphie the buffalo run around the field twice.
Lexie's favorite part was being able to play with her friends during the game.
Eliza's favorite part was eating a cookie & making a mess with the drinks.
Andrew's favorite part of the game was playing with Preston & seeing the parachutes & skydivers.
Rick's favorite part was playing catch with the kids before the game. Lexie has a great spiral. (She must get that from her mom.)
Lucy's favorite part was being adored by tons of 2nd graders. She couldn't get enough of it.
Cheryl's favorite part was watching everyone have such a great time & enjoying it all.
We're so glad we got to go to the game. It will be easier in some ways when kids are a bit older & not falling asleep on you but really, it was a great age to take them & it was a blast getting to be with so many of the great families in Joseph's class. He really has great friends & kids in his class & an awesome teacher, too. We love fun Saturday's like this!

Eliza's First Quotable

This morning Andrew, Eliza & I were having a race. We raced cleaning. I had to clean the kitchen before Andrew & Eliza cleaned up the toys & books all around the main floor. At one point, Andrew asked, "Where is the table to the Thanksgiving toy?" I told him I saw it over by Eliza. Eliza piped up, "It's by bookshelf." Andrew goes over to look for it but it wasn't there. He said, "You're lyin' Eliza. It's not here." To which Eliza replied in her best stern voice, "I not a lion, I Eliza! I not a lion, Andrew!"
It sure gave me quite the chuckle.
We still haven't found that toy. I know it's here somewhere because I saw it that morning. Maybe a lion took it.

Leaf Fun

Today we had NO SCHOOL! So we had a really fun day. We spent the morning straightening the house from the week's activities & had a friend over for a bit. Then after lunch we went to the park with some other friends. It was a ton of fun & the weather wasn't so bad- a bit windy, but not too bad.
After we were done playing at the park, the kid's didn't want the playdate to be over, so we had the older boys come over to play for a few more hours. They all had lots of fun! We even got to go outside & rake the leaves & ride bikes/scooters.
Look at that frog of ours.

 

Joseph decided to make his own pile on the other side of the driveway.

Then he learned how fun it was to throw the leaves while the wind is blowing...

Because they attack your sister really well.

 

And here's Andrew with Brady raking the leaves for a new pile.

It was a really great day off from school.