Thanksgiving 2010

We spent 9 days away for our Thankgiving break. First we stopped to visit my grandma in Illinois. She fed us lots of treats and we helped her learn how to skype. The kids loved her.

Then we drove on to St. Louis. We were busy but it seemed so relaxing. I think it is because Blake played with his cousins in the basement for hours at a time without coming up or needing anything. This has never happened. I even felt like I missed him because I am so used to spending every minute with him. But it was great. He was so happy there and he was such a good boy.

The weather was great about half of the week. Eric got to go golfing with his dad. Eric and I went running one day. It snowed Thanksgiving Day.

Helping stick in the Christmas lights.

Marita and I took the kids to a children's museum called The Magic House. Blake wanted to go fishing the whole time. He would catch a plastic fish but wouldn't touch it. He would make us take it off the pole.

My Aunt Sally is a great knitter and told me about this famous yarn shop in St. Louis. She said she would be jealous if I got to go to this store and to be sure to take lots of pictures. This place was loaded with yarn.

Playing Thanksgiving Bingo

We didn't celebrate Thanksgiving until Friday because Eric's brother and family arrived Thursday night. We went bowling on Thanksgiving and it was actually pretty crowded. Blake loved it and happily bowled each turn for two games. He always wanted to keep bowling until all of the pins were knocked down. They had this device that he could push the ball down the ramp to bowl. I hadn't seen one before. After Eric helped him the first game, he said "I want the other boy (Uncle Nathan) to help me." Eric got his highest score of 201. He had 3 chances for a turkey (on turkey day no less) but barely missed it each time. Bummer.

Cute cousins waiting for Thanksgiving dinner.

Marita wanted to have a little Christmas program on Saturday night. Newel dressed up as Santa and gave each grandkid a bag of treats. When Santa walked in the room Blake said "Grandpa?" I was surprised he could tell because I thought Newel pulled it off nicely. Even though he knew it was grandpa, he was not a fan. He wouldn't sit on his lap. He grabbed his candy bag and ran. Janie didn't like him either. Last night when we got back to Michigan, Blake said "Next time I go to grandpa's, I'm going to aks (ask) him to not to be Santa."

The kids played Christmas songs on the trumpet and piano. You can't tell but Janie was bouncing like crazy to the music.

Then the kids decorated ornaments and foam stockings.

I knit this little diddy while I was there. It only took me three days!

First Snow

It snowed a lot last Friday and it was so fun! I don't know if Blake remembers it from last year. He liked eating the snow and making footprints. I had my first official day of work on Saturday and when I came home we had a snowman on our grass. Eric made this little fella with the kids. I am so proud of him for taking pictures all by himself, and for dressing Janie in Blake's old snow outfit.

Halloween

Halloween was fun this year. Every time I asked, Blake told me he wanted to be a bee. He loved trunk or treating with our ward and wasn't shy about it. He also loved looking at all the costumes and had fun passing out candy.

Janie - 9 Months

This is what she does when I say "Say Ahh."

Clapping her hands

This just might be my favorite age. Janie is starting to understand more. She might be a mommy's girl and will cry if Eric takes her from me. She crawls everywhere. Pulls herself up and is starting to cruise. She clicks her tongue a lot. She got her first tooth last week along with a fever, ear infection, and pink eye. Poor girl.

Weight: 19 lb 12 oz. (75-90th %)

Height: 28.75 inches (95th%)

Head: 17.75 inches (90th%)

Blake

Blake took the temperature of everything in our closet. He told me they were all healthy.

* Whenever I tell Blake to stop doing something he shouldn't, he always says "I'm just _____ and then procedes to tell me what he is doing as if it is then justified.

* Whenever I ask him what he wants to do he says "Play a game or something."

* For the past month or so we have been working on saying the "s" sound. He would always omit the sound with blends like the word "smoke." Anyways, I praise him when he says it right and he is always so proud. Today we were waiting at the doctors and Janie started clapping her hands (a recent development). I was so excited and kept squealing "yay!" for her. Blake I guess was feeling ignored or needed some praise himself so he looked and me and yelled "smell!" I made an equally big squeal for his s word.

* Sometimes when I tuck Blake in he will ask me "Who loves me?" And I will name everyone I can think of. He beams. Whenever I stop he asks "Who else loves me?" I always have to end by telling him that everyone loves him.

* Sometimes when I ask Blake to do something (like sing a song) he says "No. I'm too big."

* The other day we went for a walk and Blake asked if we should go straight or normal (pointing to a turn).

Pumpkins

October has been so much fun prepping Blake for Halloween. We have read so many Halloween books from the library, made pumpkin and bat shaped sugar cookies, and made paper decorations for the wall. Blake loves it all. We went to a pumpkin patch and picked out a little pumpkin for each of us to decorate.

Here is our original pumpkin family. Our names were written on the back. We put it on our porch and every time we pulled into the driveway Blake would yell "My pumpkin family!" Then he would ask if he could go play with them. He would give them rides on his scooter or drive them around in a toy truck. And then one day our pumpkin family was gone. Someone took them and I couldn't believe it. Didn't they feel bad when they saw our names on them? Blake was sad. He said "I want someone to bring them back right now." So we went to get some more and our new pumpkin family is inside. He loved doing it all over again.

We went to a story time/activity at our children's museum today. Here is another pumpkin that Blake decorated. His hands had so much glue on them that they were covered with feathers and paper. We were the last ones to leave. It was awesome.

Machine

Marita came to visit last week to help watch the kids while I went to an orientation for work, to help paint Blake's room, and of course, to have fun. From this visit I have a new name for this lady. Machine. Marita is a go-er and a do-er and she does not stop. She is so helpful when she comes and is constantly folding clothes, doing dishes, sweeping, etc. She sees something that needs to be done (there was plenty) and she does it. She has painted a lot in her day, so she wanted to help paint Blake's room. She didn't just help--she painted his whole room all by herself. I did tape the baseboards but that is about it. I offered to help but she said it would be easier if she just did it. So I played with my kids while she painted. It looks great! I'm not good at decorating but plan on working on a room at a time. I still need to find some pictures to put on the walls. We enjoyed eating ice cream each night, bowling, eating at a 50's diner, going to a museum, and watching the movie Becoming Jane. Still kind of sad about that movie. What a fun and busy week!

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