A season of thanks

Well, I am thankful for little J, even though I am not so thankful that this is how we found him Thursday morning. I'm pretty sure A didn't figure out how to get undressed this young... And I am thankful for family, and for spending time with them!

And sharing a totally delicious meal...mmm!

And for Unko J, whom the boys adore.

And Grandma C! J was quite the little flirt.

And for J-cakes, A fell in love with him and would not leave his side.

I am so grateful for friends, family, and the Gospel in my life, and especially for my Savior. With that in mind, I am looking forward to celebrating the Christmas season. I am really going to try to keep things simple and focused on Him this year!

We cheated and got our tree yesterday at Lowe's this year- yay, cheap! No sooner had we got it in the door, A started "decorating" it with his play tool set.

This afternoon, we decorated it for real.

Bring on the Christmas music!

Turkey day is coming up- yum, yum, yum

Okay, so maybe play-doh turkeys don't taste so great (J might beg to differ), but I'm looking forward to some yummy food this week!

Some cute things A said and did this week:

1. "I ouched my nose!" after he fell off a chair and bumped his face.

2. During a time out this week, he asked me when the time out was going to be over, and after I told him three minutes, I heard him counting "one, two, three, four, five, six..."

3. I told him I was sorry for getting mad at him (for potty training mishaps, what else?) and he told me "No! Mommy's not mad!" and I said, no, I was mad, and I'm sorry, and he gave me a big hug and said "Mommy's not mad- now Mommy's happy!" And I was.

Field trips

I am trying to do one little outing a week to go along with the letter A learned in preschool that week, but I just started a couple of weeks ago, and I didn't want to fall behind, so I asked A if he wanted to see airplanes or a bus, and he said airplanes.
So, I took the boys to the local (very small) airport. It was sort of a spur of the moment trip. I was just going to let the boys look at the planes from outside the fence, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to go in the terminal and see what we could see. The two workers there that day were very friendly, gave the boys little balsa airplane kits and rubber airplane pencil toppers and invited us to sit on the patio next to the terminal because there was a small plane about to take off. We watched it, and both boys loved it.
We sat there for a bit longer, and I was pointing at two planes that were sitting nearby on the tarmac, and one of the airport workers came out and told us we were welcome to go take a closer look at them, as long as we didn't touch them, just to be careful because there was a small jet scheduled to land any minute and we would need to go back to the patio once it was coming in for its landing.
So, we walked out and after walking around both the planes a couple of times and naming all their parts, the man came back out and told us the jet was coming. We got up on the patio and the jet came in- it was loud and scared A a little (J just bounced in my lap and pointed), but when he calmed a bit, A was thrilled. It was a fun trip for me, and the boys absolutely loved it.
For letter B, I guess we'll ride the new local bus. It's free through the end of the year, so we just might hop on for a loop one day.
For letter C, we go see the construction sites (a bank and a courthouse) just about every day, so I counted that.
For letter D, this last week we went to the geology museum (M's old stomping ground) on campus and looked at the Dinosaur skeleton and fossils. M came along too, and then we had lunch at the Duck pond.
Here are a few pics of my silly boys.

Here is A's elephant hat from preschool this week- how cute is that?

I'm stumped for a letter E field trip- maybe we'll just go take a closer look at one of the excavators at the construction site. I'm sure A will adore that.

The giraffe and the construction worker

We had a fun- filled Halloween this year. Friday, I let the kids "help" me make sugar cookies. The only casualty was the canister of flour, which I unintelligently left right next to J on the counter... It took a while, but I finally got it cleaned up, amazingly without losing my temper. I figured I could either get mad or laugh, and it was more fun to laugh. A kept eating the flour that spilled on the floor as I was trying to contain the damage to the rest of the house (in other words, keep them both in the kitchen so they wouldn't track flour until I got the problem at least a little bit under control). He coughed and gagged, but kept going, AMA (against motherly advice).

They both had a ton of fun!

The cookies suffered the most in the process- as time went on, and I let the kids "help" more with each batch, you can tell the difference. Here is the first batch:

And the last batch:

M helped frost and decorate them when he got home from work. That look on his face says "don't even think about touching my cookie!"

Decorating...

And the best part- eating!

Here are my two serious boys:

A told me "no take my picture" in a very authoritative tone when I snapped this one. He cracks me up. I love his authoritative voice.

And then Saturday, it was pumpkin carving time!

The boys with the finished product!

After the pumpkin mess was cleaned up, it was into their costumes.

And then off to the trunk or treat at Church- where they scored lots of candy and played a few games.

And then back to our house to get ready for trick or treating on our block! Our good neighbors spoiled them rotten. We don't get a lot of trick or treaters on our street (I think we got around a dozen this year), so the neighbors give our kids candy by the fistful.

Some cute things they've done and said this week are:

J loved his giraffe outfit- before I even started to put it on him, he was trying to stick his arms and legs in it and pull it over his head. He was so excited!

I bumped the kids ahead in their routine over the course of a few days this week, so daylight savings time ending wouldn't be such a shock. As a result, our after dinner walk happens during sunset now. A noticed his shadow and asked what it was (strange he has never noticed it before). When we told him it was his shadow, and told him to wave his arms around so he could see his shadow move too, he was thrilled! Words don't do it justice- he was like a bird doing a strange mating dance.

This morning when I brushed A's hair and told him he was so handsome, he tousled his hair and said "No! I'm taking the handsome off!"

A has been doing well with potty training this week. He tells me when he needs to go about half the time now, and the other half, when I ask him if he needs to go because it's been a while, he says yes about half the time, but the other half, he has an accident less than five minutes later. So, still working on it, but his accidents have dramatically decreased this week. Yay!

Raptors

We chanced it on an iffy 70 percent chance of rain forecast and took a drive to go hiking to a raptor observatory on Saturday. We figured, even if it rained and we didn't go hiking, at least we could call it a fall foliage drive. The weather surprised us and it was so gorgeous, I wished I hadn't put the kids in turtlenecks. They were probably roasting alive.
A probably carried rocks for about half the hike- he's Daddy's little boy- a future geologist. Every once in a while, he would put the rock he was carrying down and trade it for another one. Some of them, I had to insist he didn't carry because they were so heavy.
J got to go along for the ride. M tried to put him down when we got to the very last stretch of the hike- almost back to the car, but J burst into tears and stayed rooted to the spot. I took pity on him (and Daddy) and carried him the rest of the way.
The view from the top- the picture doesn't do it justice. The observatory had a deck all the way around, so you could see in every direction- it was so pretty!

Little mountain climber!
We did see quite a few raptors while we were up there. It is supposed to be a good spot to watch them migrating, although none of the ones we saw seemed to be in much of a hurry to head south. They were enjoying a lazy warm fall day, I guess.

The observatory- if camping is allowed here, I'm definitely putting this place on our list of places to go next summer- what a beautiful place to watch the sunset and sunrise it would be! There was a little outhouse nearby, and it cracked me up- I read it was listed as the outhouse with the best view ever.

The boys did well on the hike- A only asked to be picked up once, but decided to walk instead (with some persuasion from me- I told him he couldn't "swish" the leaves with his feet if I was carrying him.)

J is becoming more interested in talking. He still doesn't say much, but he points at everything he sees and wants you to identify it- he'll keep pointing and grunting until you do, then he moves on to something else to point to.

A is still not terribly interested in potty training. We're just leaving him in underwear, having pulled up all the rugs in the house, until he figures out that going to the bathroom is easier than having to help clean himself (and the floor, and his clothes...). It is frustrating, but I'm trying to stay calm and positive. He'll catch on eventually. Thank goodness we have hardwood floors in the meantime!

Happy fall

This week was my first week teaching in a preschool co-op with four other kids from Church. Boy! They sure do keep you on your toes. I think A was the one who kept me the busiest- he was just so thrilled to have all those little friends in our house! They are a sweet bunch of kids, and I'm looking forward to the next several weeks when it's not my turn to teach:) J and I won't know what to do with ourselves. A went to his first drop- off birthday party on Saturday morning and had a great time. He didn't want to leave!

After naptime, we went to the pumpkin festival. It was COLD! The kids enjoyed themselves. A loved naming all the animals. This year, his favorites were two miniature donkeys. They were really cute and friendly. A walked right up and patted them on their noses, then he told me "I petted them SOFT!" Good boy. J was unexpectedly thrilled. As soon as he saw the animals, he squealed with delight (it was more like an outright scream, actually). He adored everything he saw.

We let them play on the hay...

And the tractors...

We usually go down to the patch to pick out the perfect pumpkin, but it was so cold and windy, we cheated and picked one out from their selection at the top of the hill. We tried to get some pics of the boys with the pumpkins, but J had absolutely had enough of the cold. He cried as soon as we set him down. Oh well, we'll get a picture of them with our pumpkin later, anyway.

Dollywood revisited

We took another trip down to Dollywood this weekend. The kids had a lot of fun, but they were sure worn out at the end! I think A's favorite ride was the kid's roller coaster. I think J's favorite was a kid's ride with rotating bees that go up and down. We invited M's mom along with us, and the kids loved spending time with her.

Riding the tram: Tractor display at the entrance of the park (and only after we took the picture to document our crime did we realize there were signs on every tractor saying "Please don't climb on the tractors"- oops)

These are the self- propelled cars that the kids can steer (although they're on a track, so even if you don't steer at all, you don't crash into anything, you just lurch going around the corners). Both of the kids actually did a fair job of "driving"!

This is a "junior" drop tower, which J wasn't very sure about when we rode it the first time, and he had a decided opinion the second time around. Let's just say the park workers were nice enough to stop the ride after the first drop so he could get off...

Those are some crazy looking owlets!

The park is very kid friendly- this is one of the playgrounds in it.

Watching a display about sorghum- making. They had a draft horse working the sorghum mill.

The carousel- I had to have my arm around J the whole time- he was a little freaked out by it.

A, however, loved it. He had his eye on riding the dragon while we were waiting in line, and an older boy was nice enough to let A ride it, even though he had gotten there first- I didn't even ask- he just offered. I thought that was sweet- kudos to his parents!

One of those spinning teacup rides- I wasn't going to mess with the wheel in the middle that you spin to make the cup spin faster, but J had other ideas:)

J passed out in the stroller. He actually slept through me getting him out of the stroller, waiting in line for the ferris wheel, riding the ferris wheel, getting back off, and getting back into the stroller. Now that's one tired boy!

Duckie ride- J's favorite part was "driving"

Two tuckered out boys! They slept in until almost 8:30 this morning!

All in all, it was a fun trip. M and I got to ride the coasters for a while the first day, thanks to Grandma for watching the boys! The second day, M and his mom went outlet shopping in Pigeon Forge. I took the boys to the park. It was rainy, but only for about an hour while we were there, so we sought out shelter by watching one of the shows. I would like to have seen more shows, but the boys were done after about 35 minutes of the one show we did watch. Oh well. It was a fun amusement park, but I think we'll hold off on amusement parks again until the kids are older.