November Photos

November was also neglected on the blog, so photo collage it is!

---------------

 Grant made toys out of recyclables ~ Basketball with Daddy when he FINALLY came home from flight school ~ Book It Certificate

Christmas Decorations are out ~ Meet Season Muscles ~ 1st Meet of the Season

Grant and Daddy ~ Leaf cuties

Wyatt read 100 books for the school year ~ Decorations are up! ~ My little elf

Icee Cutie ~ Chiefs Family ~ Grant LOVES his roller skates

Grant making the decision to be baptized!!!!! ~ Wonder with 3rd Grade ~ Happy Thanksgiving!

Turkey Pancakes!

What a way to bring on Thanksgiving than with Turkey Pancakes!?! 

Happy Thanksgiving

How thankful we are this year to be together as a family!! Levi and I have been celebrating Thanksgiving together for the past 11 years and last year was our first one where he wasn't there! While there have been many ups and downs these past few months, we always always always have something to be thankful for!!! 

 This year, we spent the day at home just lounging and hanging around the house! It was a cold, rainy, kind of icy day, so definitely a great day for staying in our jammies, and we were all THANKFUL for that opportunity! But we did change out of them to head over to Mimi and PawPaw's for dinner! I haven't had my mom's thanksgiving meal in a LONG time, and it was so good, for which I am so THANKFUL!!! We ate and ate and ate, just as Thanksgiving is intended to be!! Then Levi and I headed out to do a bit of shopping while the boys got to have a sleepover, which made them super happy and THANKFUL! It was so great spending that alone time with Levi! Something that is so rare for us and definitely something I am so THANKFUL to be able to do again!

My mom got the boys these Snoopy jammies they have been asking for, so they put them on and I just had to take pictures of them just looking so adorable!! I am THANKFUL for them and they are THANKFUL for those jammies!

 And doesn't my mom's house just look amazing! This is only one tiny section of their living room but coming over to see these sights and smells and just so cozy and comforting! THANKFUL for the memories this season brings!

It was a very Happy Thanksgiving indeed!

Wyatt's Thanksgiving Feast

Wyatt had his last Thanksgiving feast at school as a preschooler! Hard to believe we've been able to see him perform at Thanksgiving at preschool for three years now! His school does some adorable songs and poems for their program. Last year he was an Native American, so he was excited to be a Pilgrim this year! After the songs are finished, we all make our way to the big room for a yummy Thanksgiving feast! Since Wyatt's class did all the grocery shopping for the feast, they also got to prepare some of the food. They made cranberry sauce and corn muffins, neither of which he actually ate during the feast, but he sure pointed out that he made them! Such a special little celebration!

Mimi came!!!

He was showing me his feather we made on the all-school turkey!

 He feasted on popcorn, carrots, and cupcakes. So traditional, right?!

And then after our feast, we headed to have a real lunch with Daddy on his lunch break since he couldn't join us!

Mimi and I had to take a selfie before we left because we don't normally dress this nice and we color coordinated!

Thanksgiving School Games

My littlest boy and his love of school work! It truly never gets old!! We have such a great time playing and learning together!! Here's a sampling of some of our favorite activities from November. We squeezed in about 2 weeks of these games, as the Christmas itch grew stronger and stronger and those took over mid-November! But we had some thanksgiving fun while it lasted!

Thanksgiving Crafting

Thanksgiving didn't last long in this house. We went from Halloween, then moved onto some Thanksgiving crafts, school games, and books for about two weeks and we moved directly into Christmas! While I love Christmas activities so much more than Thanksgiving, I can't say I blame them!! But we did enjoy some fun activities in those two weeks! Of course, I didn't catch everything we did, but it was a worthwhile two weeks!!

I made Wyatt lots of school games! He loved them all and we played them daily! Grant made an appearance a time or two!  Like for this- they liked to make their own Fall Candy Shops with the little gems we had! I am still finding them in tiny nooks and crannies in the living room!

 Wyatt is my crafter and would do projects all day if I had the stamina! He chose some dot pages one day- he likes the colorful ones and tries to match his dot marker to what color the dot should be. He loves experimenting with color mixing. Its a very serious activity for him :)

 And really, what holiday is complete without handprint art!! I did manage to get them both, but I guess I only got Wyatt's turkey on camera! They turned out so cute!! I've saved every handprint art they've ever done! Love looking at their tiny fingers and toes each year! Good memories!

Wyatt's Thanksgiving Feast

Wyatt's preschool put on a darling Thanksgiving performance and feast!! He had been looking forward to it all month long! "Is today my feast?" he'd ask me every day before school! So when the day arrived and bounced into preschool happy as can be!! My mom joined us for the fun festivities! 

The fun starting in the church where they put on their performance! We got a front row seat and Wyatt waved and waved when he spotted us! They sang some adorable songs- I mean how could preschool singers be any cuter?!?

Then we took a little spin through Wyatt's classroom and showed Mimi all his artwork! And we finally made our way into the big room for our Thanksgiving Feast buffet! Wyatt munched on carrots, muffins, and popcorn, and deserts of course! Mimi and I had a taste of turkey and some deserts! 

And just like that, it was over!! But Wyatt was so happy to have us both there! We headed over to Grant's school to pick him up a little early- the look on his face when he saw Mimi at his classroom door was priceless!! Thankful for Thanksgiving memories!!!

Preschool Thanksgiving Feast

The boys had their annual Thanksgiving Feast at preschool! Grant has been talking up a big game that he was going to eat turkey this year! I wasn't going to hold my breath on that, and its a good thing to, because when the time came, he chickened out...or should I say turkeyd out! HA! But regardless, they enjoyed their feast! There was a lot of leg work for me, as I had two children to follow around, but I caught most of their fun and games!! 

They started off with the feast of turkey, mashed potatoes, popcorn, carrots, and pumpkin pie. Wyatt ate popcorn, carrots, and pumpkin pie. Grant just ate popcorn and pie, just like last year! They got to sit right across from each other, so that was nice for me to be able to talk to them both at the same time!

 Then they separated and went to do three different activities: A Thanksgiving Journey around the church, Quiz Time and Musical Chairs, Bowling and Pin the Feathers on the Turkey.

 Each boys' group playing musical chairs!

 Each group listening to Mr. Mark tell them a story about Thanksgiving! He asked Wyatt's group, "Who here loves God?" They collected these items as they went through a few of the offices around the church!

Bowling and Pin the Feathers on the turkey!

And I just love this picture of Luke and Wyatt with their finger on their lip! Just like they are supposed to in the hallway- "Hand on your hip and your finger on your lip!"

It was a wonderful feast! Can't wait til Jesus' Birthday Party this month!

Thanksgiving Visitors

This was our first year since before we were engaged that we celebrated Thanksgiving with any of our family members. We've always lived too far away! But this year, my parents decided to spend Thanksgiving at our house! It was a wonderful few days filled with LOTS of eating, LOTS of playing, LOTS of giggling, and LOTS of shopping (well, for some of us!). We had a wonderful visit and are so thankful for them, and for their willingness to drive out and see us so often!! We love having Mimi and PawPaw come visit!!! Sadly, I took only one picture this whole weekend!! But its the one that counts!

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and remembers how much they are blessed!! It's hard to forget what blessings I have when I see these smiling faces!!!
Now, I think these boys might be a little excited for all the Christmas festivities to begin...

Thankful for Little Turkeys

My boys literally jumped right from Halloween to Christmas. I can't say I blame them. I always get the Christmas itch the day after Halloween too. But that doesn't mean we haven't been enjoying the things the Thanksgiving season has to offer! We've been talking about being thankful for the things we have...as we do yet another clean out of the playroom! We've been singing lots of Thanksgiving songs, thanks to the boys' preschool! We've also been doing some Thanksgiving "homework" and projects! My parents are coming for Thanksgiving this year- the first time we've had any family members celebrate with us since we were engaged! So the next week will be filled with cooking and baking and LOTS of pumpkin pie!!!

One thing I decided to do this year was interview the boys about Thanksgiving. I was really curious as to what their answers would be! So here in their first ever Thanksgiving Interview!

• What are you thankful for?
• Grant: My family and my clubhouse.
• Wyatt: A Christmas tree and my Bub shares toys with me (that's Wyatt's new nickname for Grant)
• What is your favorite part of Thanksgiving?
• Grant: The dessert!!!!
• Wyatt: OOOHHH!!! The pumpkin pie!
• If you could give $1 to anyone in the world, who would you give it to and why?
• Grant: To somebody that doesn't have any money because that would be so nice.
• Wyatt: To you Mom, because I love you so much!
• What is your favorite/least favorite Thanksgiving food?
• Grant: Turkey because I'm going to try it this year. And no thanks to mashed potatoes.
• Wyatt: Pumpkin pie for sure! Stuffing...yuck!
• Why are you thankful for your brother?
• Grant: Because I love him and he loves me.
• Wyatt: Because...he...well, shares toys with me.
• Why are you thankful for your dad?
• Grant: Because he puts up the Christmas lights early
• Wyatt: Because he is my best friend
• Why are you thankful for your mom?
• Grant: Because I love her
• Wyatt: Because I love her so much 
• What do you want to say to God?
• Grant: Thank you for all the wonderful holidays and thanks for Baby Jesus.
• Wyatt: Thank you for Baby Jesus.

Pretty darn cute! Clearly they are excited for pumpkin pie!! We've also done a few crafts! I'm never surprised at the difference in work between Grant and Wyatt. Wyatt is very much by the books and likes to follow directions and make things just how they are supposed to be (Wyatt is like me!). But Grant makes it however he wants to, colors outside the lines, if you will (literally and figuratively!). So art projects in this house turn out very unique!

 These q-tip dots are Wyatt's new obsession. He literally asks me to print them out at least three times a day! So I printed out these two pages and Grant decided he wanted to do one of them. As you can see, Grant took a different approach (his is the top paper)! Wyatt diligently dotted each circle!

 This was another project that shows their creatives differences. I asked Wyatt where he thought each piece should go and I glued them down (mostly because the pieces were small and he was worried he would get glue "all over the place!"). Grant took an abstract approach I'm guessing. I asked him about how he decided to make his turkey and he said, "I just wanted it to be super silly!"

 There was really only one way to do this one, so there wasn't much deviation! Grant's took about 24 hours to dry...I need to reiterate like they do at school- "Just a dot, not alot. Just a dab will do!"

In the end, we have some festive crafts and fun memories, from my crazy and unique little turkeys!

(Grant chose white for one of his feather color choices, against my obvious suggestion that it won't show up on the paper. Once again, my creative little guy!)

Grant's Thanksgiving Feast

On Tuesday, Grant had his Thanksgiving Feast at school. Is anyone really surprised that Grant ate only popcorn and pumpkin pie?? Seriously, the look on his face as they walked into the Big Room as he smelled all the food, immediately showed his disgust! But he was happy to be sitting by his buddy, Creed!  Daddy and Wyatt came too, which was very special since Levi never gets to come to Grant's school. But since he took off this whole week, it got to be a family affair! After their feast, the kids went to play Bingo, then came back to the Big Room for a rousing game of Musical Chairs. Grant had a BLAST playing that game! He and his buddy, Colton, followed each other super close and made sure to get a chair everytime (well, there happened to be one chair for every kid!), but Grant got the idea of the game really well! I love that he loves his school!!

After school, we grabbed a quick lunch and then had a little family time at Leonardo's! I love days that we can do everything as a family of four! That's definitely something to be thankful for!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Another holiday where I have an excuse to make handprint/footprint art!!

We are spending today as a little family of four, just enjoying each others company! Something we haven't had much of these last few months! So we're going to eat turkey, pumpkin pie, watch the Parade, and then head to Oklahoma City to spend the night at a hotel and do a little shopping! Our version of a staycation!!

We are sending lots of love to all our family and friends who are celebrating elsewhere!!!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!!!

Punkin Pie

No words are needed to express how these boys feel about pumpkin pie!

Thanksgiving Gallery

I have been waiting for the day to do "school" activities with Grant!! I finally got him to start working with me  a few months back. On a daily basis, shortly after moving to Texas, he would ask me if he could go to school. I'd say, "When we move to Oklahoma, you can go to school. But we can do school games at home." He'd always reply, "No, I want a real teacher." (If he only knew how much I spent am spending on my education to become a real teacher!) Anyway, after adding school games to his chore chart (which is ok at this point because he thinks chores are cool!), we now do school work 3 times a week. I usually do 4 stations for him: a literacy station, math station, fine motor station, and logical thinking station. I have found some great preschool blogs that have given me lots of resources I could never make on my own. Hence, our ever growing Thanksgiving Project Wall!! We also had a Halloween Project Wall, but this one is far superior, as Grant has been a working man these past few weeks!! Most often, he asks to do more school work, even after our 4 stations are completed! I love it!! 

I've already got his Christmas work printed off, and project list made! Can't wait for our next gallery!

 We've also been doing a Thankful Tree. I thought up this idea mid-October, and since have seen numerous varieties on Pinterest. But I was happy that I had thought of it without any help! Anyway, I made the tree out of a brown paper grocery sack, and the leaves came from two groups of branches from the Dollar Tree. Easy peasy. Grant hasn't quite grasped things he should be thankful for, other than all his toys. But its a start!  I hope to make this a tradition for years to come!!