Thanksgiving 2011

For the 3rd year in a row, our Thanksgiving season was kicked off with the annual Preschool Thanksgiving Feast (that's a hat with two turkey legs he's wearing).  :)  And two people who I am regularly saying I'm thankful for are these two pretty ladies, Ms. A & Ms. P, Tate's preschool teachers.  Even in less than three months of the school year, Tate has learned so much while also having a lot of fun.  That's what preschool is all about.  And in the midst of both the learning and the fun, I really see that they want the best for him and to help him do his best.  Will they ever know how much that means...probably yes because they're moms too.  :)

We are fortunate to have family living in town, so each year at the feast we usually have an entire table.  My other pictures are acting up, but it was fun having Mommy, Daddy, Mimi, Grandpa, & Poppy this year.  I still can't believe this is his last preschool feast, so a little trip down the memory lane of place mats.

2009

2010

2011

One good Thanksgiving story I need to record for memory's sake.  A thankful wreath came home from preschool with three places to list what you were thankful for.  Tate's list:  myself, my bones, and my favorite treat.  We may have some work to do.  :)

And then the real Turkey Day was here.  Thanksgiving morning started with some sleeping in for me, followed by a bike ride for Wade.  We were both thankful for each of those gifts!  :)  Next was some parade watching, some playing, and then we headed over to Mo Mere & Poppy's house.

Imagine someone's surprise (and great excitement) to be greeted with their very own "monster motorbicycle race track!"  And it's not even Christmas yet.  :)  Between the new track, playing with his older cousins, and getting to run all over the golf course, I barely saw the kid on Thanksgiving Day.

Cousin Trip who grows a foot every time I see him.

Since Tate was preoccupied, this guy got most of my attention.  He loved discovering that he could push this little chair all around.

And that Mo Mere has some fun "toys" to play with.  Pretty sure he brought each of these vegetables to every person there.  :)

It was another successful year grilling the turkey in the Green Egg.  Seriously the juiciest turkey I've ever had.  Ford did the carving honors.

A big success of the day was Tate eating five bites of turkey.  It took some serious prodding, but he finally did it, and we all cheered.   Now Will on the other hand didn't need much prodding for anything food-related.

It was a great day, and we all enjoyed having the Phillips family with us as well.  Helen gave me pointers as I nervously blanched green beans for the first time.  They turned out really good, and now I'm a blanching machine.

Thanksgiving #2 was a couple of days later with my side of the family.  We definitely missed not having my sister and her family there.  And we were also glad as always to have our "adopted" extended family, the Barbarenas, with us again.

We're all getting old enough that "the kids" now have their own kids.  So that seems to be the entertainment most of the time.  Somehow I didn't take many pictures at all and none of any adults.  Just the cute kids.  Everyone has a good time when these families get together.

And if it's a holiday and I have anything to say about it, there will be festive hats worn.

Looking back over the pictures, I'm reminded of the incredible blessings I have for which to be thankful.  Not just the possessions, but the people.  I've been sadly reminded this past year that we aren't promised each day.  It gives me a renewed sense of what thanksgiving truly is about.

Thankful

Love the videos the Igniter Media folks create. This one will provide some perspective.


And this one is just as hilarious each year that I watch it.

I am thankful.

Texas Pittsburgh Pirates T-Ball

Tate just finished up his first ever season of T-Ball.  It was a fun experience for him and proved that yet again, this kid loves sports.  The league was a YMCA league and was very laid back and low key.  For his first experience with T-ball, that was exactly what I was hoping for.  The team was the "Texas" Pittsburgh Pirates, and Coach Carlos was so great and patient with all of the kids.

He loved it.  Loved going to practice, loved playing, loved wearing the batter's helmet, loved throwing the ball, loved throwing himself on the ground to catch a ball...loved it all.  Somewhere in the season, he started a trend of playing 1st base.  The coach let him stay at it, so that's what he played most games.  I was impressed with how focused he was, and how he knew what to do most of the time.  And a little bragging mom moment...he has got quite an arm and could throw the ball really well.  It was cute to see him do the pitcher wind-up anytime he threw the ball.  :)

Watching this age kiddos play T-ball is pretty hilarious and adorable at the same time.  So funny to see half the team run for the ball at the same time.  And one of the funniest Tate moments was when he was playing 1st base.  His team had all boys on it, but some of the other teams had a few girls.  I guess I never mentioned that to him.  The first time a girl on another team got on 1st base, I watched as Tate was staring at her and looking at her hair trying to figure out if this was a boy or a girl.  He never said a word, but you could tell it was perplexing him.  I later enlightened him that, yes, girls can play T-ball too.  :)

We were proud of our Tater Tot that he gave 100% each time he was out there. 

And here it is...Will's 1st Birthday video

Yet another great video from the Dad of the Year...Will's 1st Birthday video (just don't tell him it was a few months late). :)  I love this song, and it's so fitting for our sweet Baby Will, who really is a bright light to all he sees.
 

For The Memory Bank: the good, the bad, and the gross

I've accepted the fact that my children will (probably) not ever have finished baby books.  So this blog is the next best thing.  I wonder if it will seem as "old" to them as my fake-satin '70s yellow baby book did to me? :)

So some stories to document for memory's sake...

• If you're friends with Wade on Facebook, then I'm sure you know all about this one.  The short version:  Wade & Will ventured off to Chipotle just the 2 of them.  While standing in line watching their food be prepared, out of nowhere Will goes into projectile vomiting.  All over the glass partition...and yes...into the food being prepared.  Needless to say, ALL of the food was immediately thrown away and ALL of the people in line immediately left the restaurant.  Wow.  Will was smiling and happy through it all, but Wade may still have post-traumatic stress issues.  :)

• Our small group got together one night with all of the adults and all of the kids (a FULL room of 50+) to assemble "blessing bags" for local homeless full of toiletries, snacks, etc.  Our friend Amber was explaining why we were doing this.  She asked if any of the kids wanted to say a prayer for the people we were helping.  Tate's hand shot up first thing, so he was called on.  Oh boy, I was nervous.  My heart started beating fast, felt my cheeks warm up.  Who knew how it could go? He prays all of the time at home, but he is only 4 and can be unpredictable.  Turned out being a really sweet, sincere prayer for "all of the people with no food."  Toward the end, he digressed a little praying for his shoes.  :)  But it made my momma heart happy to see his eagerness.  I just hope and pray I can continue to encourage and foster that spirit.

• While at a high school football game, we were sitting by the smoker/grill area eating hot dogs.  It was very crowded, but all of a sudden I noticed Tate crawling on the ground through all of the people and then rolling about 10 feet.  I asked him what in the world he was doing.  With a completely serious face he said, "There was so much smoke coming from the grill that I needed to stop, drop, and roll!" 

• It took 4 & 3/4 years, but Tate discovered the word stupid.  I really, really do not like that word.  So after the initial moment of telling him that is a mean word and one that we do not use, there have been a couple of times where there was a punishment for saying it again.  I do have to give him some credit (only on the blog) though, for a time when he tried to get out of it.  He said it wasn't a mean word "but was the Spanish word for pretty."  Nice try.

• And this moment reminded me loud and clear that I am raising boys.  Tate was an astronaut for Halloween, so I asked if Captain Strzinek was excited to report for duty?  He just stopped, smiled sheepishly and giggled.  "Mommy, you said dooody!"  We quickly had a conversation as to what the real meaning of DUTY was.  :)

• Last month, one of our sweet friends lost her husband unexpectedly from heart surgery complications.  He was in surgery for a long time, and I was a nervous wreck all day checking my phone for updates.  I had told Tate early that morning that we needed to pray for Mr. Jason.  Later that afternoon I was sitting on the couch with Tate watching TV when I read the news that Jason had died.  I started crying and told Tate.  His response was, "But heaven is a really fun place, you don't need to cry."

They can make me laugh and cry in the same day.  They keep me on my toes every single second.  And still they have my heart like no others.

Halloween ~ 2011

Halloween was a lot of fun this year.  We started with the annual tradition of eating (i.e. inhaling as fast as possible to hurry and start trick-or-treating!!!!) the pumpkin pizza.

And as far as costumes went, I was pretty proud of my plan.  Tate wanted he and Will to be Batman & Robin.  Since I know that we have YEARS of superheroes and other all-boy themed costumes ahead of us, I tried to steer him another direction and promised the duo for next year.  He obliged and let me look forward to one last year of a cute, sweet baby costume.  Will would get to wear the adorable lion costume that Tate wore when he was almost 2.  It would be a sweet, nostalgic moment.  :)

So here is how that moment went...

My mistake in the fact that I never tried the thing on Will.  I already knew it would fit him fine.  I was more concerned wondering if he'd let me draw a nose & whiskers on him.  Never saw this one coming.  And boy did it come with a vengeance.  He wanted absolutely nothing to do with that costume.  In fact, I'm not sure I've seen him get that upset in a really long time.  This is all occurring Halloween morning.

So we went with Plan B.

Clearly he was much happier with this option.  Goodbye dreams of adorable lion costume.  :(

Now Tate on the other hand was beyond excited about his costume.

A lot of credit for this costume choice goes to his wonderful Discovery (science) teachers at preschool.  Last year they had a month long lesson on outer space.  Tate absolutely LOVED it.  So dressing up as an astronaut was the next best thing to being Batman.  :)

And we loved having our friends Weston & Taylor (otherwise known as Not-Scary Mummies) over for another year of Trick-or-Treating.

They did great together and had lots of fun. Sweet friends.

 And then it was time to head home.  We let Tate stay up a few extra minutes to sit on the porch and hand out candy.  His way of doing that was yelling across the street at anyone who walked by, "Hey! Do you want some candy???" and then dumping at least 10 pieces in their bags.  :)

By the time the night was over, we ended up with way too much candy and some good memories of a fun night!

Fall Fun

Although the month of October didn't really feel very fallish (maybe it will actually be cool in November?), we had such a fun month.  It went fast as they all seem to lately, but I loved kicking off my favorite time of year.

Our favorite pumpkin patch in Argyle was closed this year, so we headed to the one that is a very close 2nd.  As with many moments in life right now, I'm reminding myself that this is just a stage.  So as Wade & I tagged team as to who was watching which kid (chasing Will), I was thankful for any picture I could get.

Will loved the pumpkins and running around.  Tate loved the wagons, maze, and hay bales to climb.  And someone tell me what happened to my toddler/preschooler?  This BOY is looking like too much of a KID to me.  :)

 

 Now this next series of pictures tell the real story.  Notice that in all of them (and there were even more that I didn't post) neither child is looking at the camera and smiling at the same time.  There are some shots when 1 of the 2 is smiling, but none of both.  This too shall pass!  :)

And I have successfully avoided carving pumpkins for another year.  Bad mom, I know.  But I'm pretty sure the Mr. Pumpkin Head Pirate & Cowboy won't quite cut it next year as Tate kept asking why we don't have a "jacklearn."

Another fun fall activity was gathering and sorting leaves.  Tate has been learning all about patterns at preschool and loved coming up with a variety of ABAB, AABAAB, etc., patterns for the leaves.  So much fun seeing him learn!

And Tate had a blast at the annual Preschool Costume Parade.  He decided to keep his "real" costume for just trick-or-treating and wore the dress-up Spiderman costume.  Still lots of fun with all of his friends.  I suggested that all of the preschool teachers deserve to get paid double on says like that!  :)