Thanksgiving here we come!

We are getting ready for Thanksgiving at our house! This is the first time we have been at our house for the holidays, and I am really enjoying figuring out how to make a turkey, set the table, clean the house, make all the other goodies and get ready for our company -- all with two screaming kids! Ha!

Actually, Grant has been a big helper, and Mason is happy as long as he has snacks on his tray on his highchair. That kid eats more than anyone I know.

We went on a treasure hunt this morning where we hunted pinecones and acorns. I had so much fun watching Grant experience life! He picked up every single acorn (whether it was pretty or not) and proudly brought it over to me to add to our stash. Of course I made over every single one, and he was SO proud! When we got back, he helped me disinfect our pinecones. This involved sticking them in the oven for a while, so now my whole house smells like pine. Yum! Then Grant and I make candied apples. The best part was definitely tasting our hard work to see if they were "just right." Well...maybe not just like Grandma always makes, but pretty close, for sure!

So the table is set, all the food that I'm responsible for is made - except the dessert. And now all I have to do is clean the house and make my apple dumplings. Tomorrow morning I'll stuff the turkey and pop it in the oven and Voila! Thanksgiving Dinner! Who knew this could be so easy - or fun!

11.14.08 Appetizer Party

We invited several other families over to our house for an Appetizer Party last night. The Waltons and Cabreras were able to make it and we had a lovely time sharing appetizers (everyone's food was absolutely delicious!) and just catching up. It had been a while. All of my Fall decorations were out, and I thought my table looked pretty. It was fun getting ready for our little party.

The big news in our family this week is that we bought a new chair. It is a brown leather recliner which I was dead set against, but Chris fell in love, and told me since all the frames/decor were black, that I could move them to the guest room and re-decorate the family room in brown tones to make it match. So that's what we've been doing. So, though we're still missing the chair (it should come in around Dec 4), the walls are being decorated with a "Family Tree" theme. We've had fun!

We like the guest room with the new decorations, as well. It is so nice to finally have something on the wall in there, and the Norman Rockwell prints really look good in there. They match the bedspread quite nicely. So all in all, it's been a fun week redecorating! Mom wanted to see how things were changing, so I took some pictures last night before company came over since it was all cleaned and picked up! :-) Sorry the pictures are kind of blurry - the lighting wasn't very good when I took them.

Wreath on the Door

Decorations in the Family Room

My Appetizers set on the Table

Guest Room Decorations - Now we just need some curtains!

11.09.08 Cowboy Mason (and Grant, too)

We have the cutest little outfit that I love putting our kids in for cooler weather. It was one of my favorites with Grant, and now with Mason, too! Today for church it was nice and cool, so I put him in it, wrapped the tie around his neck and proudly took him to the nursery to show off my cute boy. After his nap this afternoon, I pulled out the cowboy hat like I did a couple of years ago with Grant and took a few pictures. Isn't he adorable!!?? I found an old picture that I took of Grant a few weeks younger than Mason is at this point. Don't they look so different! Hardly even like brothers! I was amazed.

11.08.08 Such a Big Brother!

Grant loves to play "big brother" to Mason. I had pulled out Mason's dinner and had it ready with him in his chair ready to eat with the rest of us while I put the finishing touches on our meal. I turned around for a minute and then Chris called me and said, "Look at them!" I looked at the table to find Grant feeding Mason his dinner. It was so cute to watch. Every bite that Mason too, Grant's mouth was open wide, too. It made me laugh. We had to quit after the spoon was shoved so far into the back of Mason's mouth that it made him gag. But at least his intentions were good. :-) Chris grabbed the camera and took a few shots. Aren't they cute!

11.08.08 Grant's Harley

A few weeks ago, we found a PowerWheels Harley on Craigslist for really cheap. It had been quite weathered, but worked very well. Chris thought he could take it apart and repaint the "chrome" parts, etc. So while Chris was painting the chrome, Grant washed his bike! He's so proud of it (even without the shiny parts!) and has so much fun riding it. He's even mastered the steering - almost! So Grant now has a bike, just like Daddy, and he asks to ride it at least 100 times a day!

11.08.08 Bathtime

The boys are really having a ball in the bathtub right now. At first, Grant's splashing scared Mason to death, but now, Mason is right there with him in on the fun! Grant likes to pour water over Mason's head which doesn't go over so well, but beyond that, they're becoming great bathtime pals!

10.31.08 Trick-Or-Treat!

We had a great time trick-or-treating! It was Grant's first year, and boy, did he catch on quickly! Grant was the Tin Man, Mason was the Cowardly Lion, Jaybin was a Pirate and Kinsen was a Mermaid! The kids had a blast running from house to house. They sure were cute, that's for sure! Now what am I going to do with all that candy???

10.28.08 Carving Pumpkins

We were at Jason and Kendra's house on Tuesday evening before Dad's surgery and trying to have a bit of "normalcy" for the kids, so we decided to carve pumpkins! We had a great time with the kids, although Kinsen was the only one who was willing to get her hands dirty...and we thought we had "real" boys... :-) Nevertheless, the pumpkins all looked great.

After carving pumpkins, the kids all had a dance party in the living room, showing off all of their individual dance moves. I finally got to see Jaybin's famous "Sha-sha" dance. He's so cute. Grant is having a ball with his cousins. I wished again that we didn't live so far. Not only is dad in the hospital, but Grant is enjoying his cousins so much. It'd be nice to be close.

We're home

Well, yesterday I spent 17 hours in the car by myself with the boys. Dad was doing so well after his surgery and was busy doing rehab, etc, so there wasn't much for me to do for him - I got to see him only 5 minutes on Friday. So I decided to come home. It was a multi-faceted decision. I couldn't do much there, the boys were not sleeping well, and Grant was begging to come home. Chris called me Friday morning and said he'd had the worst day of medicine ever (he had a baby come prematurely (22 weeks) and they couldn't do anything to help it survive, even though he was performing chest compressions, they just didn't have tools small enough to intubate the poor baby, so it died as he watched it gasp for breath) and he told me he just wanted me there to hold him. So when it was determined that I couldn't even hardly see my dad, I decided it was time to come home. Dad was taken out of ICU on Saturday morning and seems to be doing great. Today he walked around the unit 20 times, shaved, took a bath, ate all his meals sitting up and cut his pain meds in half. He seems to be progressing very quickly and the doctors are even considering sending him home tomorrow. We really had a wonderful miracle in our family this week. So I spent the day driving yesterday. It was only supposed to be a 13 hour trip but was stretched into a long 17 hour drive. The boys were so good. I was so impressed with them all day. I really didn't hear any whining or crying all day...until the last 4 hours of the trip. Mason had decided he was done and didn't want to be in the car any more. So I listened to screaming for 3 hours straight (minus the times when I had stopped and had taken him out of the carseat). I was never so glad for the kid to finally fall asleep. As soon as he fell asleep, I called my mom to let her listen to the silence with me and suddenly, there was a big thump on my windshield. I flinched and realized that whatever it was, was caught in my windshield wiper. Upon further inspection, I determined that it was a bat! A bat had flown into my windshield and gotten stuck in my wiper! It obviously did not survive the impact and it's wing was raised, waving to me in the wind. It was absolutely disgusting and I was never so glad for it to finally be freed from my wiper several minutes later! Yuck! We finally got home around 9:00 last night. Mason was so happy for his own bed, he slept the entire night! Grant did, too! Yippee! And I must say, I slept the best I have in a couple of weeks. So it's nice to be home with the understanding that my dad is on the mend. I was thinking about the upcoming holiday this month and have already determined what I am most thankful for right now...that I still have my dad around. It's amazing how much we take things for granted.