Last of the fall, beginning of winter art work

Coffee filter turkey

Thankful Turkey Feather

Gingerbread Man

What I'm thankful for (pulls at Mommy's heartstrings)

Jack-o-lantern

(sideways) Bird feeder and Lou

Music Therapy

I've found that when the boys are fighting and being otherwise unbearable, if I start singing Christmas carols (usually at the top of my lungs) it not only gets the boys to stop fighting but also allows me to cool down a bit. Which is good because a lot of times I use this strategy when driving.

Today, however, it occurred as I was picking up throw pillows from the couch and the coasters that are strewn around the living room at least nine times on a daily basis. Ben woke up from his nap on the wrong side of the bed and didn't like the choices in snacks. He was screaming, Lou was upset about something else, and Charlie thought it all was pretty funny and started to re-toss the pillows.

I began singing the "Christmas is Coming" song (not sure if that's the title), stopping after one verse because I wasn't sure where to go after that.

Lou looks at me and says, "What does that all mean??"

I didn't have an answer for him. I was never one for asking questions. I just sang about fat geese, hay pennies and figgy pudding without pondering what it all means. Feel free to send answers my way to enlighten my child.

O Christmas Tree!

Kevin took Lou and Ben to our favorite Christmas tree place, Ed's Feed and Seed. My sweetheart of a husband becomes this wheeling and dealing kind of guy and we walk out of there with a great deal on a beautiful tree...or maybe the guys selling the trees don't care too much because they're all overpriced. Who knows.

This year Charlie and I were running errands for St. Nick and not long after we got back the boys arrived not only with a beautiful and incredible smelling tree, but also with a long-standing tradition of ours: blizzards after we get the tree. Yum!

Odd picture to post, as it looks like Louie has got Charlie in a choke-hold and Benny is karate kicking. Not sure what's going on.

I've got five years worth of pictures that look exactly like this. I'm really good at writing dates on the back after I get pictures developed.

A horse of a different color

It's been hard for me to get into the boys' school to help out, but today my mom was able to watch Charlie so I could be in Benny's class. From the beginning of the year I passed on to you what his teachers have been telling me: "Benny is so much like Louie!" (Translation: he's super quiet and shy.) I had to see it with mine own eyes.

It's true. I didn't even recognize our lovable little Tasmanian devil. He did exactly what the teachers told him: criss-cross apple sauce legs with hands in his lap; worked on his "secret" Christmas present for Mom & Dad; reading books quietly while others finished up their project; lined up when he had to; and passed out napkins when he had to help with snack time.

The only thing is that he barely said a word throughout. And when they did cute number exercises and the "Reindeer Hokey" he just stood there staring at his class. He wasn't alone, and on the playground Miss Sue said that it's pretty common for kids their age--especially boys--to just take it all in, rather than participate. Take for instance, the incredibly cute kid in his class, Sam. So sweet, but just watched. Didn't raise his hand to answer a question, or more commonly, call an answer out. (By the way, Samuel is one of the names at the top of my list. I'm still waiting for suggestions!!)

By the end of the day Benny had opened up and started saying more to his teachers and to me. Yes, he barely even recognized that I was there at the beginning! He was to introduce me and wouldn't crack open his mouth one iota. Obviously, he was getting more comfortable with me being there by the end. But honestly, if I don't have to worry about him being a wiseguy at school and just have to deal with his shenanigans at home, I'm OK with that. I figure that at home he is the green horse and at school he is the purple horse. Or something like that...

A great job for Lou & Ben

I borrowed a pregnancy exercise DVD from the library and have the good fortune of having to extremely motivated "trainers" in the house. Louie and Benny were so pumped to begin the exercise routine that I really had no choice.

Ben lasted five minutes into the workout, where he promptly climbed up onto the couch, cuddled with his blankie, and fell asleep. Lou did about 15-20 minutes, then decided that "this is exercise for girls with babies in their bellies."

It really isn't too bad of a video. Over the past five years I've seen a number of them and they can be pretty terrible. I'm talking about the workout part. I think that it is mandatory for the host to be a bit on the obnoxious side. Or else they wouldn't be where they are. Take this particular lady: she announces mid-workout that she worked out every day of her pregnancy--including the day she delivered. Is that supposed to be motivating? I found it psychotic and made her out to be some sort of android that I could never relate to.

Well, if nothing else, I've got two little guys living with me who (even if they don't finish with me) ask on a constant basis, "When are we going to exercise again?" With the way this is going, I'll be ready for Joanie's wedding in no time!

Charles the Comedian

This video isn't the best. The lighting is pretty horrible, but hopefully you can see Charlie in it. He has these two things he loves to put on to make us all laugh--elephant ears and glasses with a fake nose. I'll be making lunch in the kitchen, he'll yell for me or tug on my pant leg, and when I look he's grinning with one or both of these on. He's such a goofball.

So much to be thankful for!

We had a very busy but very fun Thanksgiving weekend. It all started off with the annual "Juicing of the Turkey" at Grandma & Grandpa's on "Thanksgiving Eve." If you haven't figured it out already, my family will make any situation into a party. For years now we've had a deep-fried turkey along with our traditional oven-baked turkey. One year we even had a Tur-duc-hen, but that's a different story.

Thanksgiving morning starts with bowling with (my) uncles and cousins. This was the 13th annual Turkey Bowl, which surprised me quite a bit because I remember years and years when we played flag football in the park behind our house...until the uncles decided that bowling was a better idea.

Louie gets a high-five after a good toss down the lane.

As usual, Charlie was right in the mix of everything. He was our stand-by hand blower in case the one in the ball return broke.

Charlie and Uncle Billy

Some video of Ben's awesomeness at bumper-bowl

Afterward, we went back to Grandma & Grandpa Roebels'. The boys were given these cute turkey hats by Aunt Robin and posed here for their photo session. You can see Ben's mustache from the orange drink he had at the bowling alley.

I'm pretty bummed that I didn't have the wherewithal to take pictures of the actual dinner. Mom did a great job of decorating and of cooking--everything was beautiful and delicious! On second though, that could explain why I didn't have a free hand for picture taking :)

Friday we a nice day of cleaning up around the house, putting up the Christmas lights outside, and then we got out with other decorations after the boys had their naps. We still haven't gotten our tree yet, though. I am a bit nervous about that, since the stuff we do have up is getting a lot of "attention." I'm guessing that we'll have a 1/2 decorated tree, with it being a bit top-heavy.

Saturday we drove up to have Thanksgiving with Grandma & Grandpa H. Uncle Jay wanted to try out his deep-fryer, so in addition to some honey-baked ham we had a deep-fried turkey. It was a mid-day meal followed up by lots of game and toy-playing time. The boys love playing at Grandma and Grandpa's house!

Uncle Jeff and Daddy manning the fryer.

Grandpa showing off the turkey.

This picture is terrible, I'm sorry. It looked a lot better on the camera. I wanted to show off the beautiful table and family!