Food and thanks

We had two nights of family celebrations for 

Thanksgiving.

Mmmm, two nights of Thanksgiving food!

First, we hung out with Mom's family.

Mom and I made this turkey veggie platter

Please excuse my less than thrilled face.

Chelsea babysat

even though it was a day off!

After stuffing ourselves with turkey,

sweet potatoes, stuffing, and green bean casserole,

we did what we do best.

Sit around the table and have a good time

Friends

and family

and drinks and dessert.

All the makings of a good night!

The next night,

we headed to Grandma Phyllis's for 

ham, potatoes, veggies, and 

Dad's favorite rolls.

We had an early celebration for 

my birthday too!

No one complained about having to eat a cupcake

to celebrate!

Our wonderful grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins,

brothers, sons, moms and dads...

We have a lot to be thankful for!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Kick off to Christmas

The pictures don't do it justice,

but trust me,

we had a lot of fun tonight at

Christmas in the Sky!

We headed to Longview Lake,

grabbed a couple of hot chocolates,

tuned in the Christmas music,

and enjoyed the show!

(don't mind Beck's rude face and finger gesture...)

The view was even better from the sunroof!

Awesome!

Nothing says Christmas like fireworks,

right?

Turkey Day Eve

Guess what today is???

I've got my Indian feathers and turkey shirt...

B and his cups

Look at these things!

Aren't they great?

I could play with these all day!

Boyism

We talk about our Highs and Lows every night at dinner--the best part of your day and the worst part of your day.  Tonight, Weston had some hilarious ones...

Weston - "My high today is that we are having asparagus for dinner.  I'm an asparagus guy!"
Mom - "What's your low?"
Weston - "My low is that my asparagus is all gone."

Blast from the past

Grandma Phyllis sent us home with some of Dad's old toys.

He-Man is my favorite!

By the power of Grayskull!

(We've been watching a lot of the cartoons)

Friday night fun

We hit the lanes tonight for some bowling fun.

I was on a roll,

throwing several strikes and spares

I think Beckett was sad he wasn't big enough to bowl.

Mike tried to cheer him up.

Weston made it work with a bit of Dad's help

Having a snack with his girl, Mika

I beat everyone!

My score was 106

and everyone else was in the 70-80's.

I think everyone had a good time even if

we weren't the best bowlers.

Beckett...7 months already!

Let's see,

what's new this month?

I'm getting better and better at sitting up by myself.

Whether it is in a shopping cart...

Or in my pack-n-play

Or even just on the floor

(This is my new

squishy nose smile!)

I love to eat.

Fruits, veggies, meats--

I love them all.

Sometimes I eat too much

and it comes back up.

Yum, right?

I babble and laugh all the time.

I LOVE watching my brothers.

And sitting in the middle of them,

playing right along side of them--

my favorite place to be!

I take 3-4 naps a day.

Sometimes they come easy,

sometimes they come hard

I usually sleep pretty well at night

(from 8:30 until 5:30 or 6)

So tired.

And I'm more adorable and lovable by the day!

Big Beckett in the bath

We've been struggling to figure out the best way to take a bath these days--

lying back?

on a pad in the big tub?

I'm big now!

I like to sit up!

I need to reach my toys!

This is much more fun!

Ahhh.

I could sit in here all day.

Trauma Drama

Grumpy Jack threw a fit and flopped on the bed

Grumpy Jack fell off, hit the wall with his head

With a bit of Mom's skill

and a lot of Dad's will

They made it all stop, that gash that had bled.

(That would be blood on his shirt.
And the awesome bandanna is holding the gauze over the cut
since the band-aid wouldn't stick in his hair)

Greatest. Park. EVER!

They tore down old Lea McKeegan ball field

much to Dad's dismay.

He had a lot of baseball memories there.

But what they put up in its place

will create a LOT of new memories!!!

This new park has

the normal stuff--

swings, teeter totter--

but a bunch of awesome new things:

2 huge rock walls

2 big twisty slides

A zip line

Did we mention the rock walls?

a HUGE ropes gym

(I'm about 30 feet in the air right now!) 

A pond

And an enormous track perfect for racing

 On your marks,

get set,

GO!

Beckett can't wait until he's big enough to try it all out!

Something to chew on

I've been chewing on things a lot lately

Really chewing

Guess why?...

I got a tooth!

(Can you see it?  My bottom right one!) 

Boys Day

It's so hard for Mom to go to work

and leave all these lovely faces behind...

So a Boys Day, huh?

What are we going to do today, Dad?

We hit the park!

There was climbing and running

and more running

and kite flying

We let out all 100 feet of string and

let it soar!

Until the wind blew so hard it knocked off a streamer

and we crashed.

It's fun all the same.

Followed by chips and cheese for dinner

and custard for dessert?

Awesome.

No offense, Mom, but

when's the next Boys Day?

Boyisms

A few funny and important things Mom wanted to share...

When Beckett shoots you one of his huge, open-mouth smiles, its usually accompanied by an "aaah!" whisper yell.  Not sure what that is all about, but it always gets a laugh.

Beck also has the smelliest gas.  We blamed it on Monti for a while.

Peek-a-boo makes him laugh.  Every time.


Weston runs like a cartoon character.  Arms bent at this sides, chugging like a train.  Sometimes he even runs backwards first to "get started" going forward.

West notices whenever someone in the family is gone.  It usually goes like this:  "It's funny that it's you and me and Dad and Beckett and you and me" (when Jack has already left for school).  I think it makes him feel special to have time without one or both of this brothers.

We are still struggling with wet pull-ups from everyone.  West will say "it's dry" and when you point out it is wet, he'll admit, "it's a little bit wet."  I cracked up the other day when he insisted it was dry and that was "just a little bit of sweat in there."

Weston is a photobomber.  A serious photobomber.  If we are taking a picture, he'll come running in from across the room, put his arm around whoever is in the shot, and lean in with a grin.


Jack can read!!!  2 months into Kindergarten and he can read Go Dog Go all by himself.  We can't secretly spell words around him anymore--you can see him silently sounding them out and figuring out what we said.  It's amazing.  He comes home with so much new knowledge daily, we are going to have to start studying elementary textbooks soon just to keep up!