Gingerbread House!

One of the boys most favorite activites durring the Christmas season is Gingerbread houses. They enjoy decorating them as much as they enjoy eating them. We made a last minute trip out to see Grandma and Grandpa Floyd over the weekend and the boys were thrilled to find a gingerbread house kit in the Garage.

Even Grandpa got in on the decorating action. It's hard to not get involved when you are talking about candy, sugar and cookies!

Henry managed to put on almost as many candies as he ate!

Clifton and Grandma were content to supervise.

The boys were proud of the completed house.

Haircuts

One of the joys of motherhood with little boys (and husbands) is the constant need for haircuts. I try to put it off for as long as possible, but it got to the point where we couldn't find George's ears in his wild mane. Hence, Dad deemed tonight haircut night.

George volunteered to go first. (We believe that the promised lollipop upon completion had something to do with it.) We found his ears and he loved the new look almost as much as his dad did!

Henry was up next. He wasn't nearly as excited as George. We had some tears, but made it through.

Henry was pleased with the result, and proud to show all of the hair we had cut!

Clifton happily amused himself and I was grateful that he won't be joining in the haircuts for at least another 3 months!!!

Even Mike got in on the action!

Our little Pirate!

Henry had his followup appointment for his eyes, and the decision was that the glasses were helping, but not enough. So now he has a new challange... the pirate patch. He's actually done really well with it. When people ask him why he has a bandaid on his eye, he firmly replies "It's not a bandaid! I have a patch to make my eye stronger." He's pretty cute about it, but his depth perception is way off, and sometimes he walks like a drunk. We still love him. He'll have to wear it for about 3 weeks and then we'll see how he's doing. Hopefully he'll be done then!

More Halloween Pictures

Henry with his stash!

George with his loot!

Clifton in his Halloween PJs

Halloween

Another Halloween come and gone... Fortunately this year was much more uneventful than last. No broken hips!!! The boys had a great day. Henry had a Halloween parade and party at his little pre-school. I droped him off and ran George to school, but didn't make it in time for his short (less than 3 minutes) parade. Fortunately Mike was able to run over from the hospital during his lunch break and got to be there. Henry had a wonderful time and brought the donuts he helped me make for the party. (He was so proud!)

George had a parade and party as well. I was able to make it on time for his, and he looked so spooky in his skeleton costume. (All of my pictures are on film, so we'll post them once I get them developed.) They had a big party in the classroom and even got to walk through a haunted house at school. He got to take his donuts to school as well!

Clifton was a trooper as always. He hung with mom all day without any complaints.

Mike and I took the kids to a friends for a fun Halloween dinner. We then hurried home for trick or treating. The boys were thrilled to have dad home to take them. I was thrilled to stay home with Clifton and greet the neighborhood kids at the house. The boys came home with quite the stash. They were thrilled.

Now I have to take down all the Halloween decorations.........

Henry's Halloween Parade

Our favorite little Dinosaur!

Getting Old

On Monday I turned 30. I don't remember a birthday where I felt so loved and remembered. Sometimes living a thousand miles from family makes special days harder or lonelier. That was definitely not the case this year. I received darling birthday cards on Saturday which just got things off to a great start.

Sunday was great too. One of the best parts of being in primary is hearing the kids sing. Thanks to the wonderful primary leaders (especially the music people) I was sung to by both Junior and Senior primary. (I even got to use the shakers twice!)

Mike was on call all weekend, and unfortunately got called in about 3:00 am on Monday morning. He kissed me goodbye and I didn't think I'd see him again till after work at about 6:00 for dinner. The boys woke up and came in and snuggled me. They got showered and dressed and were playing happily as I began preparing my CHOCOLATE birthday cake. The doorbell rang and a delivery man with a beautiful bouquet of flowers from my Dad. They still smell absolutely heavenly. We put the flowers in the Kitchen on the table, and went back to playing.

All of a sudden I heard the garage door open. George has been especially fascinated by the garage door lately and loves to open and close it. (Bad activity!) I began hollering to George to come out of the Garage and leave the door alone. I turned around and there was Mike with a balloon bouquet. After apologizing to George, I was able to spend a few minutes talking to Mike as he ate breakfast and made a lunch for the day. The boys gave me tulip bulbs, and a paper towel holder. It was a wonderful surprise.

The boys and I had an enjoyable morning. The weather was beautiful. I love the crisp fall air. Both boys had school in the afternoon, so after dropping them off, my dear friend Janell took me to the most delicious lunch! We went to a seafood restaurant nearby and it was divine. I had a Sea Bass with roasted potatoes and asparagus with a delectable apple cobbler for desert. The company and conversation was as good as the food. Clifton behaved well, and I had a wonderful time.

After School, the boys helped me frost the cake and make dinner. Rich and Janell came to dinner and we had a nice relaxing dinner together completed with the chocolate cake.

On Tuesday my darling visiting teacher brought over lunch. She made Thai lettuce wraps and a pear strudel. It was delicious. Then that evening, a group of friends took me to dinner at a yummy Mexican restaurant. We had a great time. I'm sure the management was thrilled when we finally left 3 hours later!

I had lots of wonderful phone calls and I truly feel loved by my friends and family! Thanks for making it such a wonderful day!

(I love how Birthdays are always filled with wonderful food!!!!!)

Bedtime for Boys

One of the most enjoyable or the most frustrating times of day as a mom is Bedtime. It all depends on the day. The boys can either be wonderfully helpful and sweet, or as stubborn as mules. Fortunately we have many more wonderful days than frustrating days. (It always makes a big difference when Dad is around to help.)

It is so fun to watch my kids grow up and learn to do things for themselves. It's so nice when I can send George and Henry upstairs to their room to get their pajamas on while I change Clifton. They have become pretty good at brushing their own teeth and I can now supervise rather than having to help them as much.

They both love books and stories. We've been reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone to George. It is a little beyond him, but he enjoys it and is excited to be able to watch the movie when we finish.

Henry loves picture books. He will read almost any book he can find. His favorite for the past couple of days is a pop up book called The Itsy Bitsy Spider. He loves to sing the song as we read the book.

Clifton is just my happy baby. He's figured out how to crawl. He does a great army crawl and can maneuver himself anywhere pretty quickly. I really have to watch him now when he's down. He also loves to eat. Today Janie took me to lunch, and I brought him along. He had quite a feast with us. He loved the Sea Bass and the yummy biscuits. He also had his first taste of ice cream (Don't tell Mike!!!!) We have yet to find anything he won't eat. (I hope it continues!)

George's Appointment with Dad

Well, George had his appointment at the Opthalmologists last week. Good news - He has good eyes (at least for our family). He probably won't need glasses for another 5 or so years. We were happy to hear that. One little boy's glasses are hard enough to keep track of.

It was so exciting for George to see his dad in action. He wanted to understand everything that was going on. (He asked if they could take a picture of the back of his eye so he could see what it looks like too.)

The only hard part was getting his dialation drops. As you can see, it was a bit of a struggle for him. (George insisted that only Dad could put the drops in.

All in all, it was a good experience, and Clifton was an angel the whole time.

Pumpkin Patch

On Friday October 5th, the boys and I went to a pumpkin patch out by Lawrence. It was a blast! They got a wagon ride out to the pumpkin patch and found wonderful beautiful pumpkins. We found big ones and little ones. We had a great time with lots of our friends there, and our new pumpkins look great on the front porch!

Go Royals!

We made our first family outing to Kaufman Stadium to see the Royals. It was a great night to go - friday fireworks, dollar hot dogs and great friends! Although it was a little loud for Clifton, the boys had a great time. They lasted the whole game and had a blast. We'll have to make this a more frequent event next year - maybe we'll even get to see a winning game!

Henry's new Glasses!

How quickly things happen around here with these little boys! Mike is doing a pediatric opthamology rotation right now at the children's hospital near our house. We decided it would be a good idea to get an eye appointment for George and Henry while he was there so they could see Dad at work. Well, Henry had his appointment last week, and to our suprise, he had bad eyes! I took him shopping for glasses, and he was so excited! We found some at a wonderful little children's glasses shop, and he got them yesterday in time to go to preschool. We took some pictures of him at school with his new specs! Pretty handsome boy.

Next week it's George's turn. We'll see how that goes!

Clifton loves to eat real people food. He makes a great mess, but is a good little eater. We still haven't found a food he doesn't like. (Knock on wood!)

Henry's First Day of Preschool

Today was Henry's first day of Preschool. He was so excited. He made sure to tell Mom that she shouldn't stay. He had a great time and said he "played with the dinosaurs and sang the letters song."