The Big 3-0

My Happy Birthday Included Many of My Favorite Things:
chocolate chip pancakes, hugs and "Happy Birthday's" from the best kids in the whole world, a trip to Barnes and Noble complete with Starbucks coffee, many phone calls (including singing!) from family, messages that made me smile from friends and family, a few special packages in the mail, Red Lobster brought home for supper, a dishes-free night. :)

30 on the 30th. I should get a gold star for that right? ;)

Decking The Halls

The kids have loved getting the house decorated this year. We are especially loving the ornaments they picked out at Gigi's house. Makin scored a golf bag complete with mini clubs. Huge favorite. :) I always look so forward to the memories with the ornaments. This year I was amazed at how much they wanted to help. I could barely keep up with them putting the non-breakables on the tree and the tree had way more ornaments on the bottom half! :) Still not quite done, has been a bit of a process this year! They both loving having their own tree in their room as well. :)

Happy Thanksgiving 2012

We had a bit of a different Thanksgiving Day than originally planned. We knew Brad's work schedule was not ideal for the SR Stahls to come visit, but had hoped he would start working from home "any day now" so held off on deciding until that week. We are excited for Grandma and Grandpa to come visit SOON. Appreciate lots of prayers for Brad to be working from home VERY SOON!!!

Lorelei helped with MY personal favorite part of Thanksgiving prep...rolls! :) She loves them like her Mom!!! And she is a pro at buttering. Officially her job now.


Lorelei did not like that I made food the day before Thanksgiving and did not let her eat it. So, naturally first thing Thanksgiving morning she asked for Jello for breakfast. :) Eh why not? It has fruit!

 

One of Brad and the kids' favorite new games. Building block towers and crashing them down different ways with cars.



We decided to forego going to Aunti Di's for Thanksgiving because they usually eat right when the kids are ready for nap (as does the rest of the world! ;) ) We didn't think it was worth it to have them skip nap and fight them the rest of the day. It wouldn't really make for a wonderful Thanksgiving for us, and we wanted to enjoy the time as a family while Brad had the day off.

We decided to head over to Arbor Hills Nature Preserve and take a walk first thing in the morning. We had planned to go the week that Brad got sick, as that was when the fall colors were in full swing, but we still saw some amazing colors this time! :) Maybe full fall foliage next year. :)

We stayed on the sidewalk for the first time, as we knew we had a deadline to make it home for lunch and nap, plus we get all turned around when going off the beaten path. As long as we stayed on the sidewalks, we could follow the map to the tower we had not yet been to.

Obligatory pic where Mom always makes them pose. Figure it will be fun to look back at all the different times we have gone and watch them grow! :)

Highlights of our walk include: Makin's love of "the map" :), dropping leaves down into the stream from one of the bridges, discovering chalk rocks, and finding leaves.

Makin was so tuckered out from all that walking (eh hem, and waking up soooo early all. the. time.) that he took a nap in the car on the way home. We made it back in perfect time and watched the parade while warming up the turkey breast (yes you know I won't really do a whole turkey! yuck!) and making the sides. We always love having the parade on, and thankful we could just record it to watch it after we returned! We were very excited that the Sesame Street float sang one of our favorite songs!!! :)

We enjoyed lunch and a lazy afternoon.

Wanted to share our Thankful Tree this year. Want to keep track of how the kid's leaves change as they get older. This year Makin would just scribble, but did tell me a few things he thought of that he was thankful for. Lorelei's pictures are getting so fun. They are loving this tradition. :)

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Sister Weekend 2012

Friday afternoon I headed to Edmond to have a kid-free sister weekend. It was great to recharge my batteries and get some grown-up-only time.

Saturday morning I slept in and then we watched Gilmore Girls all day before heading out for supper. Was a wonderful lazy day that is one of those things that is impossible with my two wonderful little kiddos. :)

Back from eating out. What an amazing sister I have!

Fun drinks Saturday night!


Brad and the kids had a wonderful time around the house while I was gone. Such good bonding for all three of them when I'm not around to distract and bug them. Dad is way more fun than Mom I can tell you that!!! :) And what an amazing husband I have to take them on for a whole weekend on his own! :)

So blessed to have Heather and Brad who both treated me to some "me time" for a few days.

Paper Kite, Name Practice and Diagnosis

This is a paper kite Lorelei made at school. A week or two ago, she took it to the backyard to play as it was very windy. Little did we know how windy it was...I suddenly heard her screaming and upset that she lost her kite...went out to the yard and looked everywhere. It was no where in site. Because, it was on the ROOF. Yep. Thankfully we were able to reach it with our huge ladder and broom and the kite is safe and sound back in the house. :)

Lorelei still loves school. I had a "wow" moment a while back. Most of you know I have been frustrated with her complete lack of any interest in learning her letters. I mean, I have a teaching degree!!! My four year old should know her letters! :) She just doesn't care! :) And I have tried to accept this... BUT. At school they practice their names (it seems like one of those papers they pass out for them to practice if there is any down time, as they come home randomly with a name practice paper) and it is apparently making a pretty big impact. We were making something to send to the grandparents, and as I was spelling her name for her to write, she wrote it better than she has ever written it before! I was elated! I then came out to her drawing on the floor and discovered she can write her name all on her own. :) Very happy she is taking her letter/name learning more to heart from her teachers. :)

And one more little artist tidbit along with her usual "Doc McStuffinsness." I enjoyed this latest diagnosis. :)

She likes to ask what is wrong with me and told me I had "tummy ache osis." :) And here is a drawing of "tummy ache osis." :) She also pointed out I was frowning since I didn't feel well.

Flash On Three Wheels

We have been riding bikes almost every day and Makin is really taking off. :) My favorite part is when he crashes into the curb and is laughing so hard its a silent laugh. :)

Highlights Of Our Week

Gelato after family Christmas pics. Can't wait to go back and enjoy it again. Yummy!

Makin and I played with Morgan and Kyle Tuesday at their place. His favorite part was the trains. Of course. ;) My favorite was getting Kyle to sleep, but I am pretty proud of my train track concoction. ;)

Met with Kaitlyn, Haley, and Kai (their cousin) at the park. These two can play for hours without even noticing their moms. :)

This girl loves her some water color. :)

Loving the creativity when she finally gets comfortable playing on her own (she still doesn't like it much, but there are glimpses of these moments and I just love them). This was her carnival.


And one more I didn't take a picture of was Thursday evening. We had a spontaneous family movie night when we decided to watch the new Tinkerbell movie and the kids were elated that I let them eat supper at their picnic table while watching. I'm not big on meals in front of the TV, but it was fun as a special event. They could hardly remember to eat because they were so entranced by the movie. :)

M and L Tidbits

Makin
Says, "me's" instead of mine.

He was holding a little baseball in the store at the checkout and a lady asked him if he liked baseball. He said, "No. Maf. (golf)" :)

Asks why why why why why!!!! :) All. The. Time

Occasionally he will do something bad on purpose in an attempt to copy his sister so that he can get sent to his room when she does.

He calls smoothies "ooo whose"

One of his new favorite saying is "Wow. Neat."

Lorelei
When she spells out words she almost always spells them SOP's, Example sentence: "The SOP's and the know-you whats." (and yes she mixes up you-know-whats with know-you-whats, love it!)

One morning at sunrise she said, "I think the sun is stretching out."

Me: You are growing too fast.
Lor: Okay. I'll quit eating so much.

She was getting a big puzzle out to put it together, and this usually results in a giant melt down... So, I said, "You need to wait just a minute so I can help you." She responded with, "No. That's when I was this many (showing three fingers). Now I'm this many. (four fingers)"

"You know boys. They like football."

(Talking to Makin while they were taping up paper for fun.) "You know what the Bible says. Don't take away tape from others."