Give Thanks!

We are mid-way through a wonderful family weekend. I am especially thankful this year for my wonderful husband and of course my beautiful kids. Yesterday we celebrated Thanksgiving at my aunt & uncle's house with my parents, sister, cousins, Christy, and family friend Sonja, who is visiting from Germany. My personal favorite menu items were Christy's savory sweet potatoes and Aunt Mary's pumpkin trifle with caramel sauce. Mmmmm....
Next we headed to Todd & Laurel Farley's home for another bountiful feast. Laurel did a beautiful job hosting her first Thanksgiving! It was also Dirk's birthday so that meant all the more reason to celebrate.
Today we got our Christmas tree. We thought about going out and chopping one down but decided that Will would enjoy going to Lowes just as much, especially since it was raining this morning.
Sunday is the first of the advent season and we are excited to begin explaining to Will why we go through all this preparation for Christmas time. In this sad and sinful world, what an event to celebrate that we can have life and peace in Jesus!

That can't be sanitary...

Will thoroughly enjoyed eating all of the fake food at the kid's museum today:



Also, here are a few other pictures. Will is finally sometimes letting me take his picture. He learned that "CHEESE" means smile and will sometimes look at the camera when I say it. Usually, though, I have to sneak a picture in before he runs over to "See?" the camera. Jane doesn't mind me clicking away, yet. By the way, the picture of Jane directly below looks SO much like my sister
What do you think, Gretch?

Tot Time

We had a couple of fun play times with other tots this week and here are some pictures:

Ethan & Will

Gotta love Van

Our new friend, Lola loved baby Jane


Evey sponge painting

the fun place to play--Will's crib!

She Rolls!

Janie rolled over for the first time today. I was surprised because she hasn't even really tried to do it until now. I didn't actually see the big roll because I was upstairs grabbing some clothes for her post-diaper blowout. I came down to find Jane on her stomach with Will holding his hand on her back (I had left her on her back when I went upstairs):


I figured maybe he was harassing her and had flipped her over (which he doesn't normally do, but hey, big brothers can be unpredictable). So I flipped her on her back and low and behold, she rolled over again.
Alright, Jane!

Father Son Outing & Janie

Will joined Johnny (and Bryson) for his first-ever Husky basketball game last night. The report I got was that Will ate a ton of popcorn, sat mesmerized for most of the first half, and had a great time! I'm sure this will be the first of many father/son sporting events: Janie had a doctor's appt today and is growing well. Hard to believe that she's already grown 7 inches and doubled her birth weight! I know that it won't be long before I'm the shortest one in our family. Here are a few more pictures:


Here's a 4-second video of Will trying unsuccessfully to break a stick--his face just makes me laugh--at the end of the video he is saying "More" which is one of his favorite words.

One minute of moving...

Thanks to Dana for a heads up on this contest...
Using our minutes...
To win a cool prize (through McD's), I'm entering what our family does to "move it" for one minute:
Will is learning about animals, so when we see one on tv or in a book we practice doing an "animal impression" by acting out and sounding like the animal. Pretty funny to witness and gets us moving.

Avoiding the election blues

So, I'm trying not to be too depressed about all the election results (I can't believe that I-1000 passed!!) and it doesn't help that our neighbors are setting off fireworks in celebration of what they thought was a good night for election outcomes. So, instead of being sad, I'll post a couple of cute new pictures of the kids. And tomorrow, I will put my feelings aside, support our leadership, and hope for the best.