Happy Thanksgiving!



Happy Thanksgiving everyone!  We are so thankful for you in our lives.  And for our health and yours.  And for the little things.  Like pinecone turkeys.

We are thankful for the boys' preschool and their kind teachers. They even had a little Thanksgiving event Monday night featuring a play and then dinner with all of the families. W was the "counter" and J was a "Native American" (as written in the program). They both did great.  Getting dressed to go to the play...

Our "Native American" J:

Our "counter" rocking the numbers:

And rocking his turkey hat:

W doing his own thing (on the left)

And back at home a few random pictures of the boys "posing"

Our back yard covered in snow!

The "big green" piece all lit up:

A serious game of Memory: 



I asked the boys what they were thankful for...J said "For trains and trucks and everyone." W said "For Jesus.  Dogs.  And sleds."  Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving!



snoW, snOW, sNOW, SNOW!

We enjoyed a little snow day on Sunday...with Geoff doing lots of shoveling and he built a make-shift mini-sledding hill for the boys. We have LOTS more snow right now...but let's look back to Sunday shall we? S-N-O-W.

S stands for SLEDDING:

N stands for NECK stretch....

umm..OK...how about NEEDING to let loose in the snow:

O stands for OVERJOYED:

W stands for WIPEOUT:

little people BIG words

One of J and W's current trends right now is the use of "conditions" which is just them reflecting our "conditions" right back at us. You know what I mean: "If you don't do x then we won't do y." kind-of-thing. Some examples...

The day before Geoff's birthday, Geoff went downstairs to do a final tuck-in for the boys and to turn off the light. J told Geoff “If you wont’ let me leave the light on to read, then I will cancel your birthday party.”

or they have said to us “If you won’t let me have my snack, then I won’t clean up my mess.”

or "If I can't go outside, then I will throw something."

And sometimes they just say something funny that I have to write down.

I believe this next statement had to do with J cleaning up popcorn...I gave him an entire bowl of popcorn and I guess he didn't like it. So he proceeded to spread it all around the playroom and in his train drawers, etc. And W added his two cents to the situation:
W said “If I were you and J was J, and he wanted help cleaning up (the popcorn), I wouldn’t do it."
And once when J was hiding from Geoff and Geoff said "I am going to come find you!" and we heard J squeal “Nooo you caaAAnN’t- that’s cause I am super hidey!!”

Then I found myself laughing out loud during our "parent/teacher" conference a couple of weeks ago. I was surprised how many details the boys' preschool teacher keeps track of...she was telling me about some concept questions she asked the boys. She was asking them about what happens if something is broken...and W replied "you fix it." And J's reply was "glass". I think because I always say "that is glass and it can break."

Another funny thing was when she asked them about the concept of time, and what a clock is used for...and J replied "we have to go."

And with that, we do have to go...closing with a sleeping picture of W...so rare to see it these days but so sweet.

Week of Fun

I know I sound like a broken record...but did I tell you that I love fall? A big reason for loving fall is all of the celebrations. Not just Halloween and Thanksgiving...but birthdays and our anniversary as well. I went to a yoga certification in Hood River (awesome) this past weekend and then got to do some shopping on my way home. And then Geoff surprised me when I arrived home with a homemade cake complete with homemade rice milk frosting:

Check out our little artists:

Finished product...a masterpiece!

....homemade pasta dinner, a clean house, a little surprise celebration with friends, and THE furniture piece I have been pining after. In fact, I will spare you all the details about this piece of furniture but I was NOT happy with my DH all week because of it. I thought he blew me off on the considering this piece and then by the time he went to see it, he told me it had already sold! Well, this piece has been on hold multiple times since it arrived at the store (just a couple of weeks ago) and I knew of at least three people vying over it so it didn't shock me that it sold. But I was SO disappointed. Geoff even had the ladies at the store in on it...

Here is a picture. It doesn't look very big here but it is 8 1/2 feet tall! And 6 feet wide. It is from a bar in Nebraska. They had removed the piece from the bar to renovate the bar and then the bar burned down!

I love it. I haven't completed "decorating" it yet...and it might not stay in that spot...but I can't wait to put some white lights in it for Christmas...hmmm...so many ideas. The boys like to "hide" when Geoff is coming home from work and they decided to hide from me this time...here I am finding J:

Birthday hugs from the boys...

Geoff met a couple from church who give "blocks boxes" to kiddos. Apparently he has made 1200 of these boxes. He even brought the box to our house for the boys. Here they are enjoying their box.

Thank you to everyone for making my birthday so special...and thanks to my DH for all the sneakiness and surprises!

Music and Friends

The boys have been attending a music class once a week. They dance (or in J and W's case-watch) play instruments and play games set to music. The more the boys go the more they are participating. The first class was all girls, J and W, and one other boy. The girls did exactly what they were told and the three boys either ignored all instruction or even did the opposite.

Doing a bean bag toss:

Playing with sticks...

Playing musical chairs:

After the class, they all got to try a harp recorder (I think that is what it was)...you can see how much J enjoyed the sound:

After their music class last week we went out to a nearby resort/housing area where are out-of-town friends were staying. The kids enjoyed the park. And the walk there. But none of them were big fans of the walk back to the condo..

Halloween '10

Another Halloween come and gone...

I decided at the last minute to dress up like a train engineer as well...Geoff thought he should be Sir Topham Hatt (but it was too complicated for a spur of the moment costume) so he decided on being a train robber.
Gordon the big blue engine:

Henry the big green engine:

They were called "Thomas" over and over last night...but that is what we figured would happen!

Here they come:

There they go!

We had a great weekend...with so many parties that we had to pick and choose-now that's a good problem to have! The boys went to a birthday and a Halloween party on Saturday...and let's just say that W fell asleep for the night at 7:15! That never happens (unless we are at Walt Disney World or something). Then we went to a party Sunday followed by some Trick or Treating. Our friends Matt and Lisa and their kiddos (I will just call them the Mummy and the Fireman) were in town from Las Vegas so it was fun celebrating with them! Matt and Lisa were our sponsors when we arrived to Japan in 2000-so good to see them. Here they are with their kiddos looking FABULOUS in costume!

Happy Halloween!