Ready for Christmas

We have spent the weekend getting ready for Christmas! Friday was William's Christmas program at school. It was so cute, so out of tune, and so funny. William is to the left of the manger in the red shirt. He is standing next to Ella (in the red dress), and she sang so loud, I do not know how William didn't burst his eardrums. It was hilarious.

Saturday morning, we took the boys to a breakfast with Santa at Arkansas Children's Hospital. I snapped a picture of them in Santa's sleigh before we walked in....they look excited, huh? During pictures with Santa, we were so busy trying to get the boys happy and smiling that we didn't get one with our own camera.

Of all the things, William was dying to go see Scout....the dog that lives at the hospital and visits all the children.

Santa arrived on a firetruck, the firemen served breakfast, and the kids got to get on the firetruck. Close your mouth, William, there's drool coming out...

Then, we delivered a bicycle to the toy collection at the fire station and he got to get in another firetruck! Two firetrucks in one day....what a life!

Getting some good brother time at home...

We got our tree put up today, too, but no pics of it yet. It's actually not very pretty this year...not a Charlie Brown tree, but definitely not our best. Busy weekend, and we still have lots more to do to get ready for Christmas day!

November

Hope everyone had a happy turkey day! Ours was as good as could be expected. We buried my precious grandmother the Friday before Thanksgiving (7 weeks after Dad). It was unexpected, but she was 85 and had a full and wonderful life. We missed having her and Dad at Thanksgiving, but we shall go on. We most certainly missed AE's fabulous dressing...one of us girls is going to have to master that skill before the next holiday.

William turned four years old last Monday, the time has flown by so fast! I can remember so vividly the day he was born, it truly seems like just the other day. He had a birthday party at the Jump Zone. No one sat still long enough to snap any good pictures while they were jumping, so I'm leaving those out!

I was so glad to have some help with Charlie, but I have to admit he was pretty darn good until the very end!

William was so tired by the end of the night, can you tell????

Little Charlie...busy sweeping the floors with his eyelashes. Seriously, why do the boys always get them?

Birthday party #2 at home with the family.

The only thing he asked for were these things he calls "terrible monsters." They are from a TV show he has NEVER watched. I do not know where he got onto them or why he calls them terrible monsters. Anyway, he was pumped to get some.

It has been a crazy and sad fall, but we are determined to end this year on a positive note....

We love fall!

WARNING: Lots of pictures below! BTW...if anyone knows how to make my pictures NOT fuzzy on my blog, PLEASE let me know. It drives me insane because they aren't blurry in iPhoto.

Anyway....here's a little snippit of our fall. Charlie and William playing in the leaves...

Carving a pumpkin on Halloween (yes, we procrastinated a little). Daddy and William scooped it out, and William helped Mommy carve it.

In the midst of getting everything ready for trick-or-treating, here is where I found Charlie. Don't know how he got up on the middle of the train table, and big brother was not around to help him. He sure was happy though...

Charlie is obviously the second child. I waited until Halloween morning to get his costume. Yep. Went to Target, got the ONLY 9 month costume they had left...a puppy dog, and it was so cute. Not bad, I thought, for waiting until the last possible minute. Didn't realize until it was time to put it on that it did not fit. At all. I cut the toes out of the bottom so his feet could come out, but it was still a stretch. Is the scene from Tommy Boy "fat guy in a little coat" ringing a bell to anyone here??? William was the Transformer Bumblebee.

Janie, Bumblebee, and Ardie.

Pocahontas (Mary Ellis)

Butterfly Baby "Kakkin" as we so lovingly call Katherine. :)

Jack, the Maverick. (Doesn't he make the perfect Maverick)????

All the Boyce cousins

Eatin' candy in our glow in the dark mummy pajamas.

There are no words

To say I miss Dad is inaccurate, but there are no words. Tattoo (my Dad) passed away on September 29th. Below are a few of my favorite pictures...the first one was taken at Snow Mass and the second one was on Mom and Dad's honeymoon. I could write a book on the kind of man he was. He had a wonderful life and he left it surrounded by all of us girls. It was very emotional to say the least, but it was how he wanted to go. We love you, Tattoo.

Little William doesn't quite comprehend what has happened. He thinks Heaven is a place you go...like to the lake or to the park or to someone's house. At first, he kept asking if we could go to Heaven after his nap or after school or whatever. I would explain that once you go to Heaven, you don't get to come back and that I hoped he didn't go for a long long time. One day while he was coloring, he randomly told me he was kind of sad because Tattoo was already in Heaven. Maybe he finally gets it more than I realize.

First Day of School

William started back to school on Monday, he is going three mornings a week this year. His school is part of our church. It is so precious, and the teachers are loving and so wonderful. I thought he would be sooooo excited because he loved school last year. Not so much. Despite how William looks in the following pictures, once we got to school, he cried. And cried. And cried. We finally just had to walk away and leave him all alone. So traumatizing for an almost four year old. When I picked him up, I asked if he had fun. Of course he did. When I asked if he wanted to go back...."No because I want to stay here forever and ever and ever!"

So, time for school on Wednesday, and William wants NO part of it. I can't even get him out the door he is so upset. He even lets Charlie and me go get in the car, he shuts the door behind us, tell us to have fun, and goes to his room "because he hasn't slept enough." This coming from a child who fights his naps these days cause he says he isn't tired. I drag him downstairs, in the car, and up the street to school. I think he's going to pull it together, there haven't been any tears in a few minutes. It's his turn in the carpool line and here comes the breakdown. He's screaming so loud that Charlie starts screaming. It's so loud in my car that I can't even hear the director trying to coax William out, I can't even hear myself think. I had to park in the lot, carry him out of the car, and leave him with the director while he's screaming and fighting to come back home with me. Drama. I could feel all eyes in the drop off line on me and my hysterical child. I think it's partially because he feels like he's being left out since Charlie is home with me, but I'm sure things will get easier over the next few school days. So I hope...

Flowers for Mom

Before we headed out of town last weekend, I had some sunflowers in a vase that were past their prime. I was in a hurry, so I threw them out in the grass in the backyard and thought I'd put them in the compost pile later. I forgot about them, but a little someone discovered them for me. "Mom, I planted you some flowers!" What a special surprise and sweet little boy...

Charlie loved watching from his exersaucer on the patio. If any of you can look me in the eye and tell me this child looks like me, you're a liar!

Got those two bottom "toofies" in last week...working on some more!