Christmastime

I love Christmas time. I love all the music. I agree with Shelly that all the songs are praise and worship, so beautiful. And this season helps people who often forget about being grateful for our Saviour to remember and rejoice in his birth and life. People are working so hard to figure out how to give to others, their families and those in need. We need to figure out how to push all these great things into the rest of the year. A friend gave us a fake tree and I was so excited. We had a small one - we have always lived in small places - and I love having a bigger one, it helps our house feel so much more Christmasy. The boys loved playing in the box it was stored in and worked hard putting the branches into the tree. We had a family home evening about the meaning of the elements of Christmas decorations - tree, star, nativity sets, etc and then we got out the Little People Nativity and played with that and decorated the Christmas Tree. I wish I could leave it up all year. :)

The boys and I went to a Book Club Christmas party and Santa came to visit. Jacob sat next to Santa - not on his lap, Andrew told me he would be brave and sat right on his lap, but Michael cried while we tried for a picture. :) Hopefully, those pictures will be coming soon - I forgot my camera, so a friend took some for me. It was so fun and all the food made me inspired me to make some Christmas treats. I attempted fudge and it never hardened! I was so sad. But, the kids and I still ate it- with a spoon. I think I need a different pan with a thicker bottom, because my caramels last year never got quite hard enough last year. But when I made them at Lynne's house with her pan they turned out great. SO, I will blame my failures on my pot!

My Grandma bought Andrew a stocking at a dollar store when he was three weeks old. She wanted to make sure he had something for his first Christmas. I wasn't worried, because he wasn't even aware it was Christmas, let alone that he needed a stocking. Well, he still has that same stocking. In my defense, I did back stitch his name on it for him one year. In a similar style, Jacob also received a stocking last minute before his first Christmas. Last year, Michael just borrowed one that was extra. When I pulled out the Christmas decorations this year, I found their stockings. I just couldn't bring myself to hang them up and Michael didn't even have one. So, I finally buckled down, hit the fabric store, did the applique, sewed them up and the boys officially have stockings. Hooray! This is the first year we will be having Christmas in our little house, so maybe that is why it had to be done. I think they turned out cute. I have a thing for initials. :)

Thanksgivinged

Caught red handed, while helping me

He liked the chocolate silk pie

Trying to walk down the stairs standing up

encouraging him to come ( I had to include these two pictures - I like the eyeline. You can tell he is looking at me, so proud of himself. Then I am looking on, so proud of him)

I love the Jacob popping out in the corner

We had our first Thanksgiving all by ourselves. Jeremy and the boys didn't have much time off, so we stayed here. We missed being with our extended families, but the relaxed, no timeline part of it was nice. I decided since it was just us, I would scale down the meal a bit. I made a turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, green bean casserole, asparagus and a chocolate silk pie ( I bought an apple pie and pumpkin pie). I meant to do rolls, but forgot about them until too late. Oh, well. Next time. I had to throw out the first egg whites for the pie and try again and then I finally managed soft peaks, but it was fun to try a new recipe. It was a nice day, so the boys played outside and explored the orange tree. Andrew went back for more mashed potatoes and Jacob ate mostly green bean casserole. I planned on posting a picture of the food and a few decorations the boys made for the table and I even took the pictures, but they looked so sad compared to the traditionally huge Thanksgiving feast, that I will let you imagine instead. :)

Going to the Zoo, Zoo, Zoo

Michael was not as excited about how close the giraffes were as I was

his first school bus ride

They made Michael a name tag and let me borrow a shirt, too

crazy long, black tongue

Jacob's preschool took a field trip to the Zoo. But before, they taught them the song, Mama's taking me to the zoo tomorrow. We sang it for a week straight. It's catchy and Jacob is really cute singing it. If I was more blog savvy, I would post a video of him singing it. Oh, well. Take it from me. I will just include plenty of pictures to prove his cuteness. Michael and I came along on the trip. We all had a great time, it is a small zoo, perfect for an hour and a half trip.

Ironically, we also went back to the zoo the next day and Andrew came as well. The foundation that provides Michael's therapy has a zoo pass and one of the therapist thought it would be fun for Michael and we worked it out so all the boys could come. The last time we had been to the Zoo was for Jacob's birthday when he turned three. And then two days in a row, a year and a half later. :)

Jacob fed the giraffes, which happen to be my favorite animal and was not weirded out by the foot long black tongue, which he said was not black, but blue by the way. Sometimes, there is no arguing with him. I was proud of him (not for the being absolutely sure that there was no way he could be wrong part). He was nervous at first and his friend Aaron would not even try to feed them, so he feed them twice. Just FYI - did you know that giraffes have no vocal cords? Aren't you glad you read my blog now?

Mama's taking me to the Zoo tomorrow, zoo tomoorow, zoo tomorrow. Mama's taking me to the zoo tomorrow, zoo tomorrow, zoo tomorrow. We can stay all day.

Going to the zoo, zoo, zoo. How about you, you, you? You could come, too, too, too. Going to the Zoo.

Look at all the monkeys swinging in the trees, swinging in the trees, swinging in the trees. Look at the monkeys swinging in the trees, swinging in the trees, swinging in the trees. We can stay all day.

It keeps going, but you get the general idea. See how it could possibly get stuck in your head?

Andrew's birthday!

Michael observing the consistcy of our experiment

Our scientist in action

Jacob was a pro

A Happy Birthday hug

My little, teeny, tiny baby is now a big seven year old. He is on a soccer team, he takes spelling tests and does the monkey bars on the playground. He is still my sweet boy who gets excited every week when I volunteer in his classroom and holds my hand as he walks me to the gate when they go to recess. Next year he will be baptized. I can't believe how fast the time goes. But when I hear him read from the scriptures, I know that he is getting closer to making those choices.

We had a small party this year. He really wanted friends, but I wanted calm. So we compromised. He invited two friends and we went bowling. He was the winner of the kids and scored 100. We had a fun, relaxed day, especially since the government recognized how important his birthday is and let him have the day off school and Jeremy the day off work. His birthday is on Veteran's Day. :) We took cupcakes to soccer practice that night and to school the next day. On a side note, I found this cute idea of putting drops of black food coloring on white frosting and then using a toothpick to drag out a bit of the food coloring to make it look like a soccer ball. Well, the drops of food coloring were certainly not uniform and even when I did it exactly right, it only looked like a soccer ball if I told you. Oh, well. And remember how it was black food coloring? Stains come out, right?

Andrew loved his birthday and his presents. Kathie - he really loves the experiments. We made slime and bouncy balls. He wants to do one all the time. Thank you, thank you. He also got his first little piece lego set. Lynne came down on saturday and watched his soccer game and we celebrated his birthday again with her. He really loves his Grandma. We watched Ice Age : Dawn of the Dinosaurs twice that day, I think it was a hit. He had a wonderful birthday and thank you to everyone who sent something, called him and sang to him or even thought of him. I am so grateful he has all of you, he is a lucky little man.

Halloween

ewww, the inside of the pumpkin!

Jacob looks like he is going to take a bite

I can't resist this, a boy and his pumpkin

Working hard

Jacob the fire truck

staring at the bats we decorated our trunk with

The mask didn't stay on long, he loved trick or treating

The boys and I made bats and pumpkins for the trunk

love this

the mask, the inspiration for the costume

Andrew was most concerned about the tail

We had a great Halloween this year. We went and picked out pumpkins at a little pumpkin patch and carved them up and put them outside our front door. Andrew loved pulling the little wagon and hauling the pumpkins for us. Jacob did not love pulling the guts of the pumpkin out. :) But with a little convincing he worked hard on it. They designed their faces and I cut them out.

Jacob was a fire truck this year. We found this costume new at Savers and he had to have it. I think he looks so cute. Jacob had a dress up day at his preschool and they said he did not take his costume off all day long. Not even to eat. :) He really likes his preschool. And his fire truck. He added the fireman coat so he could be a fireman driving a fire truck at the ward party. He was a little nervous during the trunk or treating and wanted me holding his hand the whole time. He was having fun, just wanted a little extra support - I did have a fire chief hat on.

Andrew was a T-Rex this year thanks to Asia for the mask and some creative pattern making, someday I will learn to use a pattern. But he liked it and I am glad it turned out alright. He wore it to a friends on friday, they played in their costumes and then he wore it to the ward halloween party, the trunk or treat. It didn't survive. Next time I will have to reinforce the crotch somehow. He was playing tag and was acting like a real t-rex. He is a little dramatic. :)

Michael was our little frog and stayed at the car with Jeremy and handed out candy and finished up his dinner while I took the two older boys around. I think he had a couple pieces of candy that somehow made in into his mouth, instead of to the trick or treaters. He really liked the bats hanging and played with them. Jacob was done pretty quick and wanted to delve into the candy. Andrew ran around and played and hit a few extra cars for more candy.

It was a fun night.

It was also our first night in a house for Halloween. And our neighborhood is one of the few in central tucson that has sidewalks and is off major streets, so we had plenty of people who drove to our neighborhood to go trick or treating. The boys thought it was so fun to answer the door and hand out candy. Thankfully, we had some left from the church party. It was a fun day.

Soccer

Andrew is now playing soccer. His team is called the Red Lightening. They practice twice a week and then have a game on saturdays. He is having a great time. He really likes it. Halloween was their first game. They have 12 kids on the team. And in an effort to give them more game time, they have two games going at the same time. Which is a little confusing, but they all handled it well. I think it was the hardest for the coach. Andrew liked hanging back and defending the goal. They don't have a goalie, but he was almost acting like one. It was fun to see him spring to attention when the ball came near his goal. He saved several goals. He saved one goal with a big kick and everyone cheered and he was almost startled, but was so proud. He kept saying, wasn't that a good shot? When the game was over, he asked if we were proud of him. And said, Daddy, I didn't give up. I was proud of my little boy who is growing up and trying to find his way in school and friends. I feel lucky to be his mama.

Michael

Michael has started eating with utensils by himself. He has been feeding himself for a while, but mostly using his hands. I still had to help with many things, things that weren't easy to pick up or required a spoon, etc. He has been stealing our forks for a while, but mostly just playing with them. Trying to poke his dinner, but not really getting anything. And then last weekend at Lynne's, he had his fork and my fork - one in each hand - and started actually getting some bites in his mouth. He was actively trying to feed himself with the forks. Then, to show how serious he was about his new, emerging skill he worked hard on some chocolate chip ice cream and really put a dent in that bowl with his spoon.
Before this weekend,I would periodically work on this with him - help him scoop something and move his hand to his mouth. But, I wasn't worried about it. I was not really trying to get him to do this. In therapy, there are exercises and things we would work so hard on and then as he accomplished them, we were so excited. This feels different to me. A different excitement, one that makes me cry. Michael decided by himself that this is what he wanted and he worked on it and tonight at dinner - ate stir-fry by himself. This gives me hope.

On a different note, the physical therapist and I think his right leg is shorter than his left. He always has his weight on the right with the left bent. We measured as best we could, he doesn't like other people - mostly doctors - touching him. But, it seems there might be a 1/4 inch difference. Sometimes, the bowing of the tibia occurs in those with neurofibromatosis, so we are going to see an orthopedist, get an x-ray and check it all out. Just what I was hoping for - one more specialist to add to the list of doctors that he needs to see periodically. Did I mention he hates going to the dr? :)

Emily's Birthday

We went up to Phoenix to spend some time with family and celebrate Emily's birthday. We had a really fun time. Jeremy took some professional quality pictures and we played games. We hope you had a fun time, Em. I had to include the photos. They make me smile. You relax your face completely and shake your head quickly while someone takes a picture!