Entertainment Hits In Our House

On Friday night Dan and I finally got to see Polar Express. Right away I knew Caleb would love it. All he talks about these days is Christmas and Santa (he also knows that Santa comes because it is Jesus' birthday), and of course all he plays with is trains. Which means this movie has the perfect combination. Dan let him watch it on Saturday morning and it is now the only thing he requests to watch. I'm sure he has seen it about 6 times now. He talks about how he wants to ride on and drink hot choclate on the Polar Express. It is too funny.

Elton on the other hand is enjoying the Baby Einstein movies. Tonight when I was making dinner he started saying what I thought was "ba" and so I repeated it back to him. He was in his saucer watching his movie and as I would say it back to him he would say it again. After a minute it clicked and I realized that I think he was really saying "blah" trying to make the sound of the dragon. It was like a game we were playing repeating it back and forth pretending we were the dragon. I am just amazed at how interactive he is because Caleb was not at all like that.

We had our first snow today. Caleb was so excited when he saw the snowflakes this morning that he wanted to go "throw snowballs". Unfortunately I had to explain to him that there wasn't enough to make snowballs to throw. I got him a new pair of gloves with numbers on the fingers yesterday and it seems like he is quite eager to try them out. Hopefully for his sake we will have enough snow soon that he can learn how to make a snowball so that he can throw it!

A Full Family Weekend!

First of all, let me say that we did not do the "Black Friday" early morning shopping thing!!
The boys and I started out by going for coffee and cocoa, and then stopping at Costco to order our Christmas cards. Then, later in the day we hung out with Dan and went to the mall just to walk around and look. Caleb wanted a "Happy Meal" from McD's, so daddy had to get something to.

Saturday morning, Dan and Caleb got out the Christmas tree and decorations while I was at Weight Watchers. Saturday afternoon, Elton hung out at grandpa and grandma's while we took Caleb to the movie theatre to see "Chicken Little". He was excited about having "movie candy", which I actually smuggled in from my earlier stop at the Dollar store. We enjoyed the movie and it was just about the right length as Caleb was just starting to get antsy as it ended. Saturday night we decorated the tree and hung out.

Sunday morning we did our usual coffee stop and then church. This afternoon I worked on some little projects around the house while Dan changed our dining room light and bathroom light. When he got to the bathroom light we discovered we were going to have to fix some paint to make things look right of which we didn't have any paint from the previous owners. It was then that Dan said we may as well try a new color and repaint the bathroom. He ran out to Lowe's and by the time dinner came the bathroom was repainted with a new light and bathroom fixtures.

All in all I would say we had a full day with the three men in the house in the bathtub together before bedtime. I believe that now it is my turn!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone and hope you had a great day! The boys and I hung out in our jammies until about 10 this morning. I made a pot of coffee to get going and got us all ready for the day. At 1 we woke Dan up so that he could make it to the family gathering before he had to go to work.

We went to Dan's parents' house and had a great meal with family. Caleb got to sing "We Are Thankful" before grandpa did the formal blessing. Caleb had been talking about Thansgiving and turkey all week. He managed to eat 3 helpings of turkey, drank lots of punch, had tons of whip cream with the pie he didn't touch (he had to have more whip cream added 4 times) and left grandma's house eating marshmallows and choclate covered raisins. The kids had tons of fun playing and none had naps. Caleb fell asleep on the way across town tonight. I managed to get him in the house, get his jammies on and put him to bed without waking him. This has never happened before and since it was only 7pm I am concerned he will wake up very early in the morning. I guess we will see.

As you can see, Elton had fun and is thinking he needs to learn stairs now. Anissa, Carla and I managed to slip out of the house and leave the kids with grandpa and Chris while we went for a 2 mile walk on the canyon, which was very refreshing and much needed after all of the food we had consumed!

Family Pictures

These pictures were taken last Sunday at my inlaws' house after Jack's dedication. Grandpa and grandma have been blessed with 5 grandchildren in 3 years giving them a total of 8 so far.

I think next year things will be pretty crazy with 5 toddlers running around, but it sure makes for some excitement!

Nine Months Old!

Elton was 9 months old yesterday!! Time just seems to go by so fast. We have converted his tub to the sitting stage and he does really well with it. Today he started saying dadada. Unfortunately Dan was at work when he started saying it and so hasn't heard him yet. He now says mamama, babababa, and dadada. Caleb was such a quiet, calm baby that he never said or was in any big hurry to do anything.

Caleb is now having fun trying to encourage Elton to do things that he knows he shouldn't and then likes to tell him "no no Elton" and laugh at him. Elton however, does not seem to have any comprehension yet of what the word no means and thus sees nothing wrong with keeping on doing whatever it is he was doing.

Accomplishments Of Our Week

Elton is crawling so much now and getting alot faster. The one day this week he couldn't even keep his pants on as you can see. He is also very interested in how Max and Caleb manage to get in and out the dog door. Today he discovered our stairs leading up to the bedrooms and was trying to pull himself up them. I don't know why he has to be in such a hurry to figure things out!! He even has Caleb trying to teach him the alphabet as you can see from the last picture. I guess he is just determined to try to catch up to his big brother.

Caleb has learned "We Are Thankful" and sings this as a blessing at our meals now before we eat and is very proud of himself. One time I forgot to wait and he got quite upset with me.

My big accomplishment this weekend was getting all my china cabinet unpacked. I had not unpacked and put anything in it yet as I knew we would be moving it to have flooring done. Only one crystal glass got broken on the move, but unfortunately it was one of my great aunt's.

Dan stained our stair rails that we had put in as fillers so the kids couldn't go through them. It seems like one thing at a time we are getting things done!

Little Minds At Work

I guess I am fortunate that the worst word to come out of my 3 year olds mouth to date is "stupid", but I still don't like it and am trying to teach him that it is a naughty word and that there are repercussions for using it. So what does that mean? He now says "stu" and doesn't finish it to see what my reaction will be. The last time he did this I said "what did you say". Guess what the response was? He said " I said I eat stu for lunch". I couldn't believe it! How do their little minds come up with this at such a young age?

Elton is now trying to get through the dog door. Why shouldn't he? He sees Max going through it and occasionally Caleb so I guess it's only fair he should get to try it too. Two arms have made it through and one of these times I'm sure there will be a tumble down the stair that awaits him on the other side.

Sunday Afternoon

This is how I just found the boys. After spending the afternoon doing odd jobs around the house I guess a little down time was needed. Maybe I should go take a nice hot bath now!

Elton Inspecting The New Floor

Here is Elton trying out the new floor. It really hasn't slowed him down and he is getting around quite well. He will even stop crawling to push himself into a sitting position. He likes to follow Max around

I Not Need A Nap!

Caleb never seems to think he needs a nap anymore. He tells us "I not need a nap, I a big boy now, I not tired". He always falls asleep at some point in the afternoon wherever he may land, but not where or when we want him too.

Flooring Done!

They finished putting our flooring down late Tuesday and just had to come back yesterday for a few minutes to put the sealant on the seams. The floor looks great! It is a huge improvement on the old dirty carpet that was there. When they took the carpet up, the carpet pad underneath just fell apart in chunks. Dan got all the floor boards back on. We were thinking he was going to need help to get the china cabinet, fridge and a few other large items moved. However, I had to go to a meeting at the hospital yesterday and when I got home he had gotten everything moved with the help of Caleb! Caleb thought he was helping, but we owe the credit to the moving sliders we had. I couldn't believe Dan was able to move everything himself! That, or I guess I could also say that I have one strong man!

Family Trips To Come

We are now the proud owners of a 1976 Avion motorhome that we acquired from my parents. I went on camping trips in this motorhome when I was a teenager. With a little TLC we will clean it up and next spring we will be able to head out with the boys camping. It is funny how my parents were trying to sell it and we had been considering options for us to start camping and the two just came together. We now need to think of a name for our family travel unit. Any suggestions? I would like something fun and adventurous.

Update On Our Lives

Nana and Papa Jack's visit is nearing an end. They plan to leave tomorrow morning to head home to Canada. They need to get their flu shots and Papa Jack has some hunting to do to try and "provide meat for the family". Nana joined Weight Watchers about 5 months ago and to date has lost almost 45lbs. She is doing great and looking great.

Claude Brown's is coming this morning to the house to begin removing some of our old carpet and installing linoleum in our hallways, laundry room, kitchen and dining areas on the main floor. This will make our high traffic areas so much more functional and easier to keep clean. However it is probably going to make Elton's crawling circle a little more slippery as he has begun mastering his crawling circle around the main floor.

Max has mastered his doggy door and has begun to enjoy the freedom of going in and out as he pleases.

Dan is comtemplating the project of taking down wallpaper on the main floor so we can start to attempt painting. For our sakes, I hope the wallpaper is easy to remove and the project doesn't become too overwhelming.

Three Year Check Up

Caleb went in today for his 3 year check up. He weighed 28lbs and is 36". He was not thrilled about getting shots, but Dr. Trotter did give him some McDonald cookies. He was declared healthy and set for another year. This afternoon he got to go to Home Depot with daddy and soon forgot about the shots.

Elton went with us so I weighed him to find out how close we were to needing to switch car seats. He is weighing in at 18lbs 14oz. We will have to switch when he hits 20lbs. Both boys got their flu shots and so are hopefully set for the winter.