'Deer' Santa

"Deer Santa How are theangs at the North Pole? Are theangs bad or are theangs good? I hav bin trying to be good but Sam has bin maekeang me be bad!

For Christmas I would like hot Weels Criss Cross Crash

Love Tyler Thalgott"

So, so, so many things I love about this little letter. His handwriting, his eraser marks {as he is always trying to make it perfect, after all}, his spelling, especially his spelling of 'things' and 'making', his blame on his younger brother, how dark his letters are because he presses so hard when he writes because he's concentrating so hard, the fact that he had to use a clipboard, the occasional usage of a random uppercase letter, and the list goes on!

We were going a little stir crazy after church and before dinner today and the boy needed something to do. I thought he could try writing his letter to Santa and I must say I was surprised at how well he put it together. He has been reading pretty well since he started school in September, but I haven't ever had him try to write words on his own as he sounds them out. He asked for a little help, but not much. It was the perfect Sunday afternoon activity, although we're cutting it a little close to Christmas. I hope it has time to make it to the North Pole before Friday. :)

I sure hope Santa takes things into consideration and takes it easy on the boy whose little brother is making him be bad. Because I can tell you, he really really is always trying to be good. I ♥ this kid! :)

Today

Today I am thankful for so many things. I am thankful for my beautiful family, friends, health, the comforts of life, food on the table, reliable vehicles, the gospel, and the list goes on and on. truly, I have been so blessed! I am so grateful that my parents and brother could come be with us for Thanksgiving this year, and especially thankful that they beat the storm and got out just in the nick of time and got here without any trouble.
We spent our time waiting for them by letting my two little turkeys make these little turkeys...and boy was it fun! My two insisted that all the turkeys needed eyebrows, so that's what they got. If turkeys don't really actually have eyebrows, don't tell my boys--they'll be crushed. :)
So today I am thankful and tomorrow I will continue updating the blog! :) Happy Thanksgiving from our pilgrim and Indian!!

I needed this today

There was just something about this video and this song that I needed to hear today. It is one of my favorite primary songs, I sing it to my boys all the time. This is Sam's favorite and he sings it constantly. The words are perfect and a great reminder to me of all that I am blessed with, and its in the simplest things that we can find the most joy. I love this version of this song and I love this video--the photographs are perfect and you can't help but feel uplifted after listening. So I'm just sharing and keeping it here so I can come back to it over and over. :) Watch & listen, you won't be disappointed.

The First 'First Day'

This Fall was big for our family as it meant that it was the very first first day of school we would all experience...and from here on out, we'll be doing this every fall for many years to come! And as I already blogged about, it is so hard to believe that I am old enough to have a child old enough to go to school. But ready or not, I didn't have a whole lot of choice in the matter!

So, we went for a quick 15-minute meet-the-teacher orientation at the beginning of the week, the next day was followed with a 1 hour class session while I attended a parent meeting, and the third day was his first real full day of Kindergarten. The day we went for one hour, I of course took my camera with me. :)

Could he have been more excited to go to school?!

He looked so big!

Sam was feeling really left out, I suppose, so of course he asked me to take his picture while we were waiting for Tyler.

The first 'real' day was so hard to get used to, of course. The morning was rushed of course, but it was so quiet after we settled in. Sam would mistakenly call out for Tyler, and then would realize he wasn't there. :) Those two became quite good buddies this summer! Sam was missing him, that's for sure. So after I picked him up, I wanted some one on one time with Tyler, so we decided to make cookies--M&M chocolate chip, to be exact--while Sam took a nap.
And while making cookies with my boy, I heard all about the big first day. And I could only hope that it would be a great year for him and that he would enjoy learning and love each day at school (along with all the thoughts of hoping he would be nice to others and that they would be nice to him, and that he'd be a good example, and that he would be polite to his teachers, etc, etc, etc...do we ever quit thinking those thoughts as mothers?!).

And most importantly, we enjoyed cookies,

cookies,

and more cookies.

And don't think Tyler was the only one who got in on the action--Sam had one within a minute of waking up from his nap, as evidenced by his bedhead.

Hmmm, I think I need a cookie.

And now here we are almost 2 months later, and we have settled in quite nicely. Tyler really does love school and is doing very well. He has picked up on reading pretty quickly and is passing off his reader every day. He loves his friends, which comes as no surprise, and doesn't enjoy the daily homework, which also comes as no surprise! I do have to say I have enjoyed my one on one time with Sam. I am appreciating him and his age of 3 a lot more now that I've gotten a little more time to spend with him. Yes, he still gives me a run for my money very often, of course. But I do think he's awfully cute!

Farewell to Summer

It was Labor Day Weekend (yes, these pictures are only two months old now. Go me!) and we figured we'd better get one last swimming trip in before school started and things started getting a little crazier. And it's a good thing we did since it actually did end up being the last time we went swimming this year! After school started, it just didn't happen. But we went enough in the summer to last a lifetime, I think! Although, I don't think you could ever go too much. I do love being able to spend the majority of our time at the pool during the summer. It is the only thing that helps me cope with the inferno that I live in from May through September!

Our biggest accomplishment of the summer was that Tyler learned how to swim, finally, for real, all by himself! There were times I honestly thought this day would never come! Is he swimming laps and winning races? No way! But he is doing better than I ever imagined. Just the fact that he's loosened up enough to do it is huge! It certainly made my life easier to have him swimming independently and have Sam in floaties doing his thing...I dare say I even just 'laid out' a few times that we were there. It's been a while since I could say that!

Sam is still totally content and happy and good as gold getting around with his floaties on. He will be an interesting one to teach how to swim since he can NOT stand having someone hold him in the water. So, floaties it is until then!

And once again, we said good bye to summer, surprised at how fast it flew by! Summer here can drag a bit with the heat, but with a trip to Idaho and several trips to the pool, we were happy campers. And I continue to become a pretty big fan of summer, even in the South! So, until next year...farewell summer! (now aren't you glad the summer posts are DONE?! Hoping I can keep up this whole updating gig!)

Boating & Good Bye

As one final hoorah before we hit the road back to Louisiana, the boys and I were able to head out with my parents for a day of boating. And as a bonus, Marilee and her family joined us. It was a GREAT day! The weather was great and it was the perfect way to spend our day.

Gus loved playing in the rocky sand on the beach...how can you not just love this face?!

Sam tried his hand at tubing and was ok with it as long as you were going about .2 mph. He probably enjoyed playing in the water at the beach and throwing rocks the most. Although he did say his favorite thing was watching Grandpa ski. Go Grandpa!

Allie was staying with my parents for the week while Charlie & Whitney were in Lake Powell so she got to play with us too. And she showed us a very efficient way of eating a hot dog!

Cheese!

I didn't get one single picture of any of the action while I was in the boat. It was a little hectic making sure the kids didn't jump in! But Tyler and Gracie were so great to reenact the tubing for me! Check out those facial expressions!

Tubing was definitely a BIG hit with these kids!

It truly was a fabulous day!

And then as the final final final hoorah, before we said the final good bye and hit the road, all the boys had to go for one last 4 wheeler ride with Grandma Thalgott. You know, you always have to fit in 'one more thing'! Because 3 weeks isn't long enough! We hit the road and had a great drive home. We were feeling so lucky with how well the driving went this time around. The 30 hour trip really didn't seem too bad! We had a great summer and can't wait to do it again. And there you have it, folks...our trip to Idaho is officially "blogged". Phew.