My mom's visit--a little late

I forgot to post pictures after my mom's visit a few week-ends ago.

The boys were so happy to see their far-away Grandma! (They call her "Grandma-who-lives-in-Washington." It cracks me up.)

The last time my mom was in town was when Bridget was born--a lot has changed since then in our family, but also in hers. She was married last spring, and her new husband Jim was able to come along and meet the family.

It was a short weekend, but we had a lot of fun seeing Grandma and getting to know Jim. Jim is in the navy and he was able to attend the Veteran's Day celebration at the kindergarten. Henry was pretty excited to bring an honored guest and his class made a card thanking Jim for his service. Very sweet.

Grandma and Jim treated the boys to brand new cowboy boots after one of the boys (I can't remember which one) let Grandma know that their old boots just weren't working out anymore. I think he may have actually even asked her to replace them--precocious child! At the first place we looked for boots, the boys talked Grandma into buying them 'coon-skin caps. They're so adorable and this week it's been cold, so the boys are wearing them instead of regular winter hats.

No trip to Texas would be the same without a visit to Sonic for a special drink and their incredible playland!

My mom got some great bonding time with Jonah:

and Bridget. Henry was in school but still got to spend some fun time with Grandma.

The last morning they were here we enjoyed donuts and chocolate milk at the donut shop before taking Henry to school--that was a big treat!

Thanks for the fun visit, Mom and Jim! We all had a great time and look forward to the next one!

Thanksgiving

Sometimes things don't go quite like I've planned.

Like last weekend, when I decided to surprise Sam while he was out of town and put up the Christmas decorations.

First I couldn't find the tree. It was over in the neighbor's barn (and I should have remembered that, but I didn't!) so I looked EVERYWHERE before I finally realized where it must be. The boys got it all decorated (they did a wonderful job, by the way) and after I got them to bed I climbed up on the step stool to place the angel on top. And that is when this happened:

I took the picture after I swept up all the broken glass ornaments that SHATTERED when they hit the tile. Luckily enough, the only things that broke were plain colored balls--nothing special.

Or like yesterday morning, when I went to get Bridget up and found her COVERED in vomit.

The poor little girl was miserable, but she sure tried to have a good day. She took many naps yesterday and her fever finally went down in the evening. It was almost comical how she would go from hysterical laughter to a weeping, sobbing mess in a matter of seconds. Rufus (her beloved little dog) had to have TWO baths in the washing machine--which was a traumatic time for my little love. (One bath due to being vomitted on and one due to being left near the toilet and then being peed on by a little boy who missed the potty.... *ahem-Jonah*) Then there was last week when I tried desperately to keep Jonah awake in the car so that we could go and pick up his brother from kindergarten before naptime. I let him ride in the middle seat without his booster seat. I even bought him a giant pretzel for his lunch so that he would have motivation to stay awake. You can see it sitting there in the seat in front of him.

And there was no planning involved in this photo. Just Henry dressed as "Brave Hunter" which was his Indian name during the feast with the pilgrims at kindergarten last week. The stick? Oh, that's his gun, of course. :)

Despite the little sick girl, we had a great Thanksgiving! Sam's dad was here (his mom is in Russia with Kelly, helping to bring our new little nephew home) and some friends, so we had a day full of good food, fun games and conversations--and football, of course! In the evening Sam's brother David stopped by for a while with Ashley and Cole. It was great--Henry was beside himself with excitement at seeing Cole and Bridget couldn't get enough of Ashley. Jonah was just full of joy all day. He ate very little at the big meal, but he had plenty of room for cookies and snacks the rest of the day. ;)

A very fun Thanksgiving. Now we just have to wait for Kelly and Mary Beth to come home with sweet little Matthew!

PS: I did venture out to Walmart early this morning for a few Black Friday bargains. I got in and out and back home in 35 minutes. It was fun! Did anybody else head our for deals today?

If you were at my house after dinner tonight...

you would have seen this very helpful child washing dishes:

our teenager (I mean five year old) talking to Grandma:

and Bridget helping to clear the table:

This is what happens when I step away from the table and haven't buckled my one year old into her booster seat!

Wordless Wednesday

Have you seen this child?

This morning while I was fixing breakfast, Henry disappeared.

Completely. Gone.

I had heard him go outside, but that isn't unusual. Henry usually likes to spend a few minutes with his kitty in the mornings. He just didn't come back inside.

I put the food on the table and got Jonah settled and then went to look for Henry. Sam had just gotten up and joined in on the search. We went outside and hollered for Henry, thinking he was just playing around somewhere.

Nothing.

At this point we split up and began looking in different places. Inside, outside, any place we could think of that Henry might have gone.

Nothing.

I ran the entire property, wondering if Henry had maybe gone out to play and gotten hurt or trampled by the horses or something.

Nothing.

It had been ten minutes since we started looking and he had headed outside at least five minutes before that. Sam and I came back together saying, "This just doesn't even make sense!" and feeling a little panicky.

Sam quickly got on the phone with one neighbor while I got on the phone with another. While the guy on the other end of my call was telling me he would go out and check his property, I looked up toward the street and saw Henry walking down the street with Elmer, our dog.

Whew.

Turns out Henry decided to take himself for a little walk this morning.

After much hugging and tears, I said to him, "Henry, you MAY NOT go out on walks by yourself without telling anyone where you are going!" and he said, "But Mommy, I wasn't by myself. Elmer and George Bush and Spark were with me!"

Right. He wasn't by himself after all. :)

Overheard at my house today....

"Mommy, I just love you so much. I wish you wouldn't die so you could live with me forever."

Umm, yeah. Me too.

"But it's okay because I'll see you again in heaven."

Awww.

"And then I'll play with you ALL THE TIME."

I'm definitely feeling the love.

"Except I'll probably want to play with Mrs. Forsyth too. I really love her too."

Ahem.

It's okay, people. He's five. I'm still feeling the love. :)

New tooth...times three!

Bridget woke up this morning with an angry-looking bright red diaper rash. No sign of it last night, it just reared it's ugly head this morning on a not-so-happy recipient. It took me until this afternoon to remember that Bridget doesn't often get a diaper rash without the accompaniment of a new tooth, so I just now checked her mouth (much to her disapproval).

Not one, not two, but three brand-spanking-new molars have sprouted up in Bridget's tiny little mouth! And it seems the fourth will not be far behind.

Way to grow, Bridget! Let's get 'em all out of the way at once, and spend less time teething! :)

Camping!

We went camping this past weekend. The kids have been begging Daddy to take them camping for weeks now, and he finally had a weekend without work travel plans. We invited Grammy and Grandpop to come along and enjoy nature with us. We weren't sure they would be up for it since they recently sold their camper and would have to sleep in a tent, but they were game!

It was a nice, relaxing weekend and felt like it lasted a week! :) We spent time by the fire:

went on a nature hike:

played some football:

and just enjoyed being outside:

While on our nature hike we did see an incredible wild animal. It's the elusive East Texas Elk. I caught it on video for your viewing pleasure:

I love my husband! :) He's a nut and he always keeps me laughing!

It helps that he comes from a nutty family too. Who else would let me take such silly pictures and keep smiling? :)

Hope you had a great weekend too!

My mom is here for a short visit--she came in from Washington last night. The boys were SO excited to see her when they woke up this morning. I'm sure I'll have some fun pictures to post in a few days.

Have a wonderful week!

Zoo School

Jonah has a class at the zoo once a week. It's just for preschoolers and their parents. The kids learn all about a specific animal, do a craft related to that animal, read a story about that animal and play a game or sing songs....about that animal. Sometimes they'll bring one out to pet (when it's a little one like a ferret or hedgehog) and if it's a larger animal we'll walk out to see it. It is so fun and Jonah looks forward to it all week, asking me every day "Can we go to zoo school today?"

Last week the weather wasn't great* here, but Jonah, Bridget and I headed out to zoo school anyway.

I mean, really. When you're this cool...there's no way you can stay home, right? :)

We were the only ones that showed up. Do you think that stopped Miss Jamie? Heavens no!

That's a giraffe head that Jonah's wearing, in case you couldn't tell.

Bridget enjoyed the class too, but when we stopped at Walmart afterward she pretended to be asleep so she wouldn't have to go in.

Okay, maybe she was really asleep. Passed out, in fact. Zoo school takes a lot out of a girl!


*And by "the weather wasn't great" I mean by Texas standards. We thought it was beautiful and just brisk enough to require jackets and even putting our hands in our pockets to keep them toasty warm. But it was cool enough to keep everyone else away from the zoo. We had the whole place to ourselves! :)

Wordless Wednesday

(She's already 15 months old!)

Be honest now...

"Do I have something on my nose?"