Thanksgiving Week!

We had a fun-filled extended week of Thanksgiving travels & adventure!

Nov 19 - Had a couple friends visiting in the morning - notice Leighton in his Incredible Bob outfit. This was the first day he insisted on wearing it ...today is the first day SINCE then that he hasn't had it on... He wore it throughout our Thanksgiving travels, usually underneath his other clothes...in case he needed it.

Traveled to the grandparents that afternoon. The boys got to feed our bull calf that was born on my birthday :) His momma died from something freakish :( The boys named him "Rudy" & enjoyed feeding him & leading him around the yard throughout the week.

We traveled to Fremont, NE to celebrate Thanksgiving with Aaron's great-aunt Mabel who turned 96 last week! She's a character - it's always fun to see her & listen to her stories.

Cousin Kirt taking Zoe for a horse ride.


Aaron & I returned home on Monday with Zoe in tow. We hung Christmas lights, installed a storm door, put up some Christmas decorations & tidied up the house. It's amazing how much easier that is to do with just Zoe around!

On Tuesday, we went to KC to visit some friends that were in town & to tackle some Christmas shopping. The shopping came to a halt when we received a phone call with news of extra KSU-Duke tickets for that evening! We enjoyed watching the game, although the Cats looked sluggish...and fell short of the win.

On Wednesday, we picked up the boys & returned home...and discovered that Elfie had also returned to our home! (see him hanging from the light)

Thursday - Thanksgiving with my family. Zoe LOVES to hold Berklee & be around her. She's going to be such a big 'helper' when this baby arrives...

Great-grandpa Jack reading a book to Zoe.

Friday - we returned to the farm to celebrate Thanksgiving with Aaron's family. The boys had fun jumping hay bales, going on a scavenger hunt & playing with their cousins. We enjoyed visiting with family & seeing friends from high school & college!
Saturday - we celebrated nephew Kirt's 3rd birthday.

Saturday evening sunset...the windmills are a new addition this fall...they are QUITE close to the house & definitely change the scenery! We made the trip home after dinner!

Sunday we enjoyed just being at home! We enjoyed our travels, but it's nice to be back to 'normal' :)

Not old :)

I thought this story was appropriate after celebrating my birthday yesterday :)

Last week, I told the boys that a 'lady' was going to be stopping by to drop off some stuff at our house. We were having dinner when she arrived & after she left, the following conversation took place:

Brecken: THAT wasn't a lady.
Me: Well, then what was she?
Brecken: A GIRL!
Me: Ok...well what's mommy?
Brecken: A girl! Ladies are OLD!

So, I was quite happy to still be in the 'girl' category, at least, according to my 5 year old :)

100 Days...

It's hard to believe that we are down to 100 days left before BabyW4 arrives! This pregnancy has flown by VERY quickly, which is good in some ways...and a little alarming in some ways :) These past couple months, my mind has been consumed with moving. The next couple months will, I'm sure, be consumed with the holidays. That leaves about 7-8 weeks for my mind to be consumed with preparing for this sweet baby! It still hasn't really hit me that we are going to have 4 children :) I tend to forget I'm pregnant, until I catch a glimpse of my belly in the mirror...or find a few minutes to sit & relax & feel those kicks! I guess that's good - it means I've been feeling good!

Bed stealers

A couple nights ago, I was up with Zoe in the middle of the night. She apparently woke the boys up, because they pitter pattered out into the living room & said they wanted me to come lay with them. I told them, they would have to get their dad, because I was getting Zoe back to sleep. They ran off to my room...and never came out. The little stinks, snuck into our bed & this is how I found them...



It was chilly in the house & I didn't have the heart to wake them & make them go back to their beds, so they slept with daddy & I slept in their room.

A little Leighton story...

Today we were trying to get out the door for some errands. The boys wanted a quick snack, so I grabbed 2 fruit roll-ups, unwrapped them & told Leighton, "Do you promise to go take this to Brecken?" (who was already in the van) He assured me he would. As I was gathering up my purse & Zoe, Brecken stormed in and said, "I need TWO fruit roll ups because Leighton just ate mine!"

I grabbed another fruit roll up for Brecken & we headed to the van. Conversation follows:

Mommy: Did you eat both fruit roll ups?
Leighton: No, I gave it to him.
Mommy: Brecken said you ate his.
Leighton: Well, he GAVE it to me!
Mommy: Brecken?
Brecken: HE took a bite out of it!
Mommy: Leighton?
Leighton: Well, I did, but THEN, I gave it to him!
Brecken: I didn't want to eat it - YOU took a bite out of it.

After having Leighton apologize, I proceeded to explain that he did the wrong thing & that he made a mistake (thinking, just maybe, he forgot and took a bite...)

He quickly said, "Mommy, I didn't make a mistake."
I said, "You meant to take a bite?"
He said, "Yes."

Points for honesty the 2nd time around??? This kid...

In a blogging funk

I'm in a blogging funk...we haven't been up to anything...I'm so tired of the moving stuff that I don't want to blog about it...we've had the flu...and I'm too tired to think of anything inspiring to say.

So I apologize for my 'exciting' post today, but here's my newly discovered handy tip - which I'm sure MANY of you are doing anyway.

We've always had one large dirty clothes basket that we all pitch our dirty clothes in...and I typically wait until it's overflowing to attack it...and then sort & end up with 12 loads of laundry in a day. Well, with the move, I decided to try something new. Each bedroom now has it's own dirty clothes basket & I choose one basket (sometimes 2 if I'm ambitious) each day to attack. It makes laundry so much easier - why on earth did it take me this long to figure it out? Now when I fold clothes, I have less piles...less socks to sort & only one room to put clothes away in for that day.

Genius, I know. How do you do your laundry? What are your secrets? :)

Plumber...

Sissy sue was playing in our kitchen & daddy had to snap some pictures of her little 'plumber butt'.

Halloween

The boys had fun carving pumpkins - scooping out the slimy insides & cutting on them with their little saws. Mommy & daddy did most of the work, but they enjoyed doing their little part!




Dressed up for trick-or-treating!


After trick-or-treating...and eating a big ole red sucker. The boys said, it looks like Zoe has lipstick on!