Thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving with Baubie in Atlanta.  The Thanksgiving dinner was delicious, and the boys even dined at Mimi's restaurant for lunch.

Isaac loves the play kitchen just as much as Noah did when he was two.  They both played in the kitchen and ran a restaurant that served us many delicious meals.

                                       

The weather was great, so we spent lots of time playing outside

Nothing is more fun than rolling a ball down a driveway again and again and again

The boys love their new matching cozy pajamas from Baubie

Noah had a great time doing all sorts of Thanksgiving activities, such as a counting activity and a graphing activity that centered around the story of Thanksgiving

Noah and Baubie worked on organizing Baubie's state quarter collection, which was a perfect activity for Noah.

Happy Happy

Happy happy birthday to me!

I was inspired by this blog post about a woman who did 38 random acts of kindness for her 38th birthday. It sounds like so much fun and I would love to do something like that! However, I have an adorable 2 year old who would find no joy in all the car rides that would be necessary to pull off the kind of acts of kindness that she did, and I just read the post a few days ago so there was no way I could pull together a project like that in time.

So, to celebrate my 38th birthday (and get the boys thinking about Christmas and giving selflessly), we are going to do 25 Random Acts of Christmas Kindness (RACK). Noah and I have been brainstorming all sorts of things we can do. He is counting down the days until December so that we can "do nice things for people who don't know who we are." I love the idea

To get my birthday party started, we danced to the Cha Cha Slide.

The best birthday present wasn't wrapped. It was a four-year-old who helped do four loads of laundry, folded most of the clothes in each load by himself and put almost all the clothes away without my help. That makes for one happy mama.

Saturday is Project Day

Anytime we ask Noah what he wants to do on a Saturday, it's always the same response: "Projects!" Isaac then chimes in with "pa-dect! pa-dect!"

Our house has no shortage of projects, and the boys will help out with anything - putting weatherstripping on the garage door, fixing an exterior door, raking leaves, measuring things, anything that Daddy can think of doing.

As long as there's tools involved and the need to bang on something, they will be happy.

Grammy and Yaya

We had so much fun with Grammy and Yaya in September and October.  They came to Charlotte in September to take care of the boys while we spent a weekend in Memphis,

Then, we spent a week in Michigan with them in October.  This is the gazebo where we were married 13 years ago.  

I'll post more pictures from our trip to Michigan in the next few days.

Pom Poms

Give a boy a pom pom and he will dance dance dance

and cheer cheer cheer

and never ever stop

And finally he will share one pom pom with his brother so he can take it on a walk

and dance dance dance

and cheer cheer cheer

After Dinner Music

Once in a while, Noah and Isaac break out their guitars and play a few songs after dinner.  

God has something big planned for these two.

Weekend in Memphis

We traveled to Memphis, Tennessee in September to help our friends Chris and Jenna celebrate their wedding.  It was our first time travelling without the boys.  It was a wonderful, relaxing and fun weekend!  Here's a view of downtown Memphis and the Mississippi River in the distance.

We stayed at the historic Peabody Hotel and, yes, we even saw the ducks that play in the fountain in the lobby.  The ducks were cute and they are one of the most brilliant marketing ideas I've heard of in a long time.  People are crazy about the ducks!

A picture of the Mississippi River just for Noah.  When we got home, he said, "Look!  I can see Arkansas on the other side of the river!"

Chris and Jenna's wedding party had their pictures taken on the roof of the Peabody.  Look at Mr. Handsome on the far left!

That's when it dawned on us:  Matt had taken a shower and was wearing his best suit on the exact same day that I had showered and blowed-dry my hair and was wearing a dress...as soon as we realized that, we said, "Quick!  Take our picture!"

It was fun to get dressed up and celebrate a marriage of great friends.  We decided that we should get all dressed up and fancy again sometime.  It will likely be years from now, but we decided we should do it again. 

Pumpkins Galore

Pumpkin season is one of the best times of the year!  We went on a field trip to a pumpkin patch with Noah's preschool class,

the boys had a great time at a fun-packed farm in Michigan with their cousin Jacob,

and then they picked out their carving pumpkins at the farmer's market.

They cleaned out their pumpkins while we watched a Michigan football game.  What could be a better combination of events?

The finished jack-o-lanterns are ready for Halloween!

Trick-or-Treating

Noah and Isaac pose for one quick pictures before we headed off to our neighborhood Halloween party

Trick or treat!  

Isaac the Owl

Isaac is fascinated by the owls that live in the woods near our house.  He loves it when we hear them calling to each other, and he has perfected a great, enthusiastic owl call that is entertaining to everyone who hears it.   Isaac liked the idea of being an owl for Halloween, so I made this simple owl costume.  Isaac liked the owl hat, but he refused to wear it until the last minute.  As soon as we started trick-or-treating, people started oohing and aahing over him, so he kept the hat on for the whole night!

The full owl view

This is the view we had of Isaac for quite a while after we got back home after trick-or-treating.  He sat by himself, hunched over his bucket, memorized by all the candy.

Noah the Mailman

Noah was a mailman for Halloween. He wants to be a mailman when he grows up, so it was a perfect choice. He is very analytical, so we're pretty sure he'll be able to fix the postal system and get it running efficiently again.

He's the cutest stinkin' mailman I've ever seen!

Enjoying his bounty from trick-or-treating!