Thanksgiving 2009

I apologize for being way behind on my blogging. I guess three kids under the age of 4 is catching up with me! I will have new posts coming up each day for the next week so stayed tuned!

Here are some photos of our Thanksgiving. We had about 20 people over last Thursday. I was so nervous about not having enough food and we had PLENTY!

Check out Ben's "Thanksgiving Day" shirt. It is hard to see in the picture but let's just say that it isn't the most attractive thing in the world. I think it is going to become a tradition though to wear it for fun. It kept us laughing.

Ben carving the turkey. Yum!

Ben's cousins and their friends from Grace College...

My nephew Jeff, niece Cassidy and my mom

Jace loved sitting at the "big boys" table! Forget the highchair!

. Chowing down! Amazingly enough we fit everyone in our dining room!Celebrating Zach's 24th birthday!Our boys stealing my brother, Kip's dessert. My mom's reaction to Brooks tooting! Hah! As you can see he was really concentrating. :) After everyone left we all crashed. We were exhausted. Here are my FOUR favorite boys in the whole world. Charlie trying to stay awake enough to eat a late night snack. Apparently he was still hungry!Brooks and I working on the clean-up.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Just a few pictures to share of us getting ready for the holiday.

Doesn't everyone enjoy their Thanksgiving dinner in their underwear?

Just kidding!

Their pilgrim hats make them look more like the pope!

You my best friend.

As we have mentioned before Sawyer is an extremely physical/ rough and tumble kid. He loves contact and is ready to pound anyone that looks at him funny. Despite all this he is also extremely affectionate and funny. He is loyal to the core and loves his family.

Here is a little story that had me cracking up this past week.
The other day he came up to me out of nowhere and said, "I love you, Mama." I said, "Oh Sawyer, you melt my heart. I love you too." He then said, "You my best friend." This just totally made my day! When Ben came home I bragged and bragged about how I had a new best friend. I couldn't help but smile inside. I knew Sawyer loved me but to hear him say it without prompting was so special.

The next night we were at my parents' house and I had told them the story about Sawyer. The t.v. was on and it was Super Nanny. The children on the show were being extremely naughty and my two kids were glued just watching it. Just as I was suggesting that we turn the channel Sawyer says, "What is that little boy's name?" My mom said,"His name is Zachary and he is being very naughty." Sawyer replies with a big grin, "I love Zachary. He my best friend!"

Boy don't I feel special!

Baby K'Tan

This post is full of shout-outs!!!!

A fellow blogger- Katie inspired me to share my "babywearing". Also I just figured everyone loves photos taken in a mirror. :)

I first heard of the Baby K'Tan wrap from Courtney. She convinced my sister in law Amy to get one and she lent it to me to try it out on Brooks.

Going from 2 kiddos to 3 has been a much easier transition but I couldn't do my day to day activities without this baby carrier. I wear it around the house while cleaning, in the yard with the boys and to the grocery store. I'm lovin' it! I think I am going to have to buy one myself. If any of you have a newborn through small toddler stage child or know of someone that does this is a great wrap. It is really comfortable and easy to use. It has a bunch of methods for carrying children in different positions. Brooks does great in it. I prefer it over my ring sling. It truly is "hands free".

Thanksgiving Day Placemats

For some reason I have become obsessed with having a new handmade Thanksgiving Day decoration each year. Here is what I found in a magazine this year. I thought it would be fun to make the placemats shown below with the boys.
I bought all the supplies for our craft when I was in labor with Brooks. Is that a dedicated crafter or what!?!?!? :)

So this is my idea of "fun". A lot of glue, yarn, paint and two boys!

Here is one of our finished products. They didn't turn out quite as nice as the ones in the magazine but I bet I will treasure these for years to come more than if I had made them by myself.

We are going to make these at MOPS this week as our craft. We are going to use cut-up grocery bags instead of fabric for the back. They really were fun to make. Hope you are all getting in the thankful state of mind. I know I have 3 little boys that I am thankful for!

Brooks is 4 weeks old!

I can't believe our baby boy is 4 weeks old today! It seems like forever ago that we were traveling to the Birth Center to have him.

He is such a joy to us. Here are a few pics of him from the past week.

Some people (well most actually) will probably find this really weird but I love it when newborns get the "nursing blister" on their upper lip. Here is Brooks'!

Brooks is "Super Baby" and started rolling over a week or so ago. I assumed it was a fluke thing at first but he has done it at least 10 times now. Just about every time I put him on his stomach he just rolls right over. Charlie started rolling over at 5 weeks old so I guess this shouldn't surprise me.

I caught the boys "decorating" Brooks by putting stickers all over his head. I couldn't help but laugh!

Happy Fall!

We were lame parents this year and skipped dressing up for Halloween. Guess we had a few other things going on. :)

Here is our extent of dressing up for the Fall season.

Charlie as a cowboy for Pre-school.

Visiting Dad at school for Parent/Teacher conferences.

Charlie wearing Joel's costume. Pretty funny!

Brooks went as a burrito. :) Or maybe a mummy.

Don't worry we already have costumes planned for Charlie's birthday party in February. Let me tell you it is going to be fun!

Thank goodness for Auntie Mal-Mal and Uncle Joely

My brother and sister in-law Joel and Mal have been a huge help lately with our transition of going from 2 kids to 3.

Malorie came over after Brooks was born for two days and took the boys to Storytime at the library, McDonald's for lunch and then made us dinner! The next day she went with Charlie's pre-school class to the Pumpkin Patch.

Here are a few of the kiddos from his class.

This is Charlie's girlfriend at school- McKenna. He likes to pick out his clothes based on what he thinks McKenna will like! Oh my... he is going to be that little boy who chases the girls all around the playground trying to kiss them!

This past weekend we went to Indy to watch Ben's school perform in their Band competition. We spent the afternoon with Mal and Joel.
Here are the boys wrestling with Joel.

Uh oh... Sawyer has him in the "stinky butt" move.

Uncle Joel wins!

Thanks guys for all your help lately!