Tyler's Thanksgiving Mini-Program

Tyler's preschool (aka, our church) had a Thanksgiving Feast the Friday before Thanksgiving.  Tyler's class had a part in a little mini program...I am LOOOVING this new phase of life that Tyler's going to school has brought us to.  Seeing him participate in programs, singing, being a part of a class...I LOVE it and more importantly, HE loves it!  He has really blossomed since September...I am so proud!!!

 Tyler had gone to preschool that day and then walked in to a room full of people.  He didn't realize that we were going to be there too.  His face lit up when he saw Tim and I.  So sweet!  

Tyler WOULD NOT get off his little carpet.  He had apparently had trouble earlier that week at staying put when he was supposed to be on his carpet so it was funny that his feet literally almost seemed glued to it. :) I also find it funny that he can't seem to sing and do motions at the same time so he just stuck to doing the motions. :)

Megan's Mini Debut

It is impossible for me to video Tyler without also getting a video of Megan so here is Megan's singing debut of, well, I have no idea. :)

Joy to the world

Tyler is going to be in our church's Christmas program (Kids program) for the first time this year.  I am soo excited!!! :)  He has been singing his songs at home ALL the time.  Joy to the World is one of them.  He hears it playing on pandora and says, "Hey, thats one of my songs from church!!"  I love that.  Anyway, he sings Joy to the world flawlessly except that he sings, "Joy to the world, the Lord is come.  Let earth receive her pee!"  He doesn't do it to be funny, he genuinely thinks thats what they are saying.  He sings it that way every time, without fail.  That is until I finally corrected him. It was harder than you might think to correct him, even though we don't allow potty words. He is so sweet when he sings the song so telling him he was wrong was a bit disheartening but he quickly caught on to the way it really goes. :)  Here is a little clip for you to enjoy. 

Morgan's Laugh

Tyler and Tim are really the only ones that can get deep belly laughs out of Morgan.  I was picking up after getting home one evening and kept hearing Morgan laughing.  I went in to see this. :)

No more boring walls!

Its been almost 5 years since we have been in our house and we STILL have white walls on all but the kids rooms and the kids bathroom.  It was PAST time to get some paint on these other walls!  So, we finally figured out what we wanted to do and we are now beginning the very slow process of getting the interior of our house looking nice and lived in instead of these cold white walls.  We still aren't done yet and getting paint on the walls is much harder now than it would have been 5 years ago with these kiddos of ours.

Hallway before

 I consider this part hallway too

 bead board going up

 bead board and chair rail done

 PAINT ON THE WALLS!

 

 and goofy kids :)

 

 

 Painted bead board...this is pretty much the completed look but we still need to put a BUNCH of pictures on the wall and Tim needs to paint at least one more coat on the bead board. 

 

I really like it and I am REALLY excited to see the completed project once I figure out what I am going to do as far as pictures on the wall...could be another 5 years... :)

Morgan's 1st Taste of solid food

I have tried to make it till my babies are 6 months to start solid food and 3 times I have failed.  Well, not failed.  Tyler, Megan, and now Morgan have very clearly shown that they needed more substance than just milk right at or within a few weeks after turning 5 months.  Poor Morgan was to the point of starvation apparently because her first few days of having solids had her eating an ENTIRE jar of baby food and 6 tbsp of rice cereal throughout the day.  She has since calmed down and is eating only a half a jar of baby food now. :)  She was not really a fan of solids at all the first week or so. It was actually not fun at all to feed her.  She didn't understand a spoon at all.  Anyway, her first taste was of green beans.  

Daddy, where is my bottle?  You've got this all wrong!!

I can NOT believe what you just put in my mouth!! ;)

She slept like a baby that night :)

Have I mentioned how much I HATE baby food??  More specifically the mess of baby food?  YUCK!

Dinner of Thanksgiving

Earlier this month, our Sunday School class had a Dinner of Thanksgiving together.  It was such a great evening/night together.  We had a feast, played some games, and just overall enjoyed the fellowship we had together.  I am blessed to be a part of this Sunday School class. Thanks to our teacher Dave and his wife Amy for setting all of this up!

I didn't take many pictures.  Tim had to work and so my hands were a little full.  But I'll share the ones I did take! :)  Here is Joel, cutting the HUGE turkey.

Morgan waiting for her food...quite impatiently I might add. :)

Here is a sampling of the food for ya.

Beautiful centerpiece!

Brittiany with the turkey

I forget what she was talking about :)

Family style meal...my favorite kind of meal, no matter if its family or not 

Had to get a picture of the men doing the dishes

Dave, age (older than me by a few years and I'm 28... ;) ) about to try his first ever piece of pumpkin pie

I think he was nervous

first taste!

wait for it..

Hey Mikey, he likes it!

Being that we are away from both sides of our family, we rely on our friends and neighbors a lot. We don't have family to call when we need a babysitter. We don't have family to call when we are in need of help with home projects. We don't have family to come when our hearts ache to share our home with those we love.  I guess that's what we have learned our friends are for.  Though we have few, I am thankful for these dear friends, some old, some new, to share our lives with.  The ones who have persevered with us, specifically me, through some dark days.  The ones who share our moments of happiness, pain, joy, and sorrow...some of them don't know it or maybe don't believe it, but they mean the world to us. 

Some left over October pics

Here are some left over October pictures that I wanted to post.  Random at best. :)

Tim curled Megan's hair one morning while I was gone and took pictures for me.  Wish I could have been there to see it in person, but the picture showed that she was ADORABLE! Our little curling iron broke shortly after this attempt so unfortunately, we haven't been able to do it again since.

Some cuddle/play time with Morgan before bed, after Tyler and Megan are put to bed

Only Daddy and Tyler are able to really get Morgan to laugh.  Tyler gets her to giggle by being goofy and Tim gets her to laugh by tickling with his goatee.  Either way, makes for a fun time!

Our crazy haired baby Morgan

Rare picture with Mommy :)  <3 p="p">

Now to get to those November pictures...

Trunk or Treat and Pumpkin Carving

Watch out!  Some adorable-ness ahead!! :)  As well as a lot of pictures. Tyler started going to Cubbies this year at a church just 7 minutes away from our house.  The program is AMAZING!  His Cubbie class has over 20 kids in it, all his age of course.  Its a GREAT opportunity for him to be around other kids his age and also be a part of the program that both Tim and I grew up doing. He is exposed to Bible memory and challenged to not just learn it for the week, but also retain it for life.  He cried and didn't want to stay the first week and now he runs so fast to get in I can't keep up. :) They do fun themes every week.  On October 31st, they had a trunk or treat event.  Our church usually does it too but this year, they didn't have one so it was perfect that we had this church to go to instead. It was raining so they had it in their sanctuary instead.  I didn't get many pictures because I was handing out candy and taking care of Morgan, but here's a few I got.

Neither Tim or I like the idea of trick or treating.  I know I can't shelter my kids forever, but the thought of them being exposed to ghosts and goblins and scary stuff is not my idea of a great activity! So, in its absence, we started a new tradition. We dressed the kids up in their costumes and took them to Chick-fil-a instead.

Our little pilot

ADORABLE miss Megan, our bumble bee

Our little bunny, Morgan (with ears flopped over :) )

The kids got free cookies and candy from Chick-fil-a AND had a blast playing.  I LOVE this new tradition!

Miss Nancy came with us to Chick-fil-a and then also came up to our house with us while we carved pumpkins

The kids were so disgusted :)

Drawing on our faces

I made this banner for some photo sessions and hung it up in our kitchen.  It was hanging there as we were on our tile floor carving pumpkins and I just couldn't help but be "thankful" for our special moments as a family.

Tyler even got a chance to use the big knife which means, we had a happy boy on our hands :)

Megan was equally as happy

I love this shot...they were fascinated by our lit up pumpkins

Halloween will always be my least favorite "holiday" but I do think carving pumpkins and dressing up and going to Chick-Fil-A will always be some favorite fall activities for us.