More Holiday TV Special Fun

OK, I had a whole plan to post cute little screen shots of all these Christmas specials we have been watching but for whatever reason blogger won't let me load them. Anyway, we have been having so much fun getting into the Christmas spirit I can barely even sit still. Today we put up our tree and I think that Eric will be decorating the outside this next week. Hopefully there will be pictures coming!

The Turkey Dance

Two little boys flapping thier wings!

Our family has a strange and unusual holiday tradition. Every Thanksgiving we the "Turkey Dance". The only rules for the dance are that you have fun and make a valid attempt at looking like a turkey. Important aspects of the dance include wing flapping, head bobbing, strut walking and the all important gobble gobbling noise. The first year that Eric and I were married we started the tradition and now that we have kids involved it sure does make me feel like less of an idiot for doing it. I have to admit though that Crystal did not involve herself in the Turkey Dance. I think it was just a smidge too goofy for her!

Andrew made a turkey hat at his thursday class so it was a perfect fit for the dance craziness. I was unable to actually take a picture during the dance itself. Too much craziness was going on, not to mention the fact that I was dancing away myself. So I had to resign myself to a picture of the boys in turkey dance attire with the wings ready and flapping. You will notice that Zane does have his lovey with him (the blue elephant that is his constant companion at home) and lovey was very busy doing the dance as well!

Thanksgiving was fun plus Eric had the night off, a rare treat for us. We ate too much and then still managed to find room for pie. All in all a raving success! Crystal was quite impressed with Thanksgiving. She really seemed to like the turkey and this cranberry salad that my mom makes. Maybe we will have to do that again sometime. Christmas is going to be ham so hopefully she will like that one just as much. Hope all your Thanksgivings were just as much fun!

Smoke Detector Frustrations

As a general rule I appreciate all that smoke detectors do for us. They go off in case of a fire and generally help keep us safe. However! I do not appreciate that fact that the smoke detectors in my house are hard wired into the wall with a battery back up. Let me explain.

For the last 2 weeks the smoke detector in the boys bedroom has been beeping (as though the battery were dying). We kept hearing it in the morning, like 5:00 am, but couldn't figure out what it was. Well, we finally figured it out! Unfortunately, it wasn't the one in our room that decided to go first and it has been waking my kids up at the crack of dawn (or as Andrew says it the "crocidile"). What I find so aggrevating is that it was only beeping in the morning. If it had been doing it all day they I would have noticed and dealt with the problem weeks ago!


Of course the morning that this happened also had to be on the morning after the kids stayed up to watch a Charlie Brown Thanksgiving and were totally exhausted. Let's just say, tired and cranky abounded and I am not just talking about the kids. Eric and I were at each other all day too!


Maybe since it is Thanksgiving today (have a great one all my blog friends!) I will just have to purposely be thankful for smoke detectors! That will be my mission of the day!

Belly Update

Just thought that I would update you all on my big ol' belly! I can't believe how big that it has gotten and I still have two months left to go! I always seem to forget the astronomical size that I get when I am pregnant. Then the kid comes out and usually we see that there was a reason my belly was as big as it is.
The boys really like my tummy. Andrew calls it my "big old belly" or my "chubby tummy". Honesty from a 4 year old is very refreshing isn't it. This is my kids reaction over my stomach! Shocking huh?

"Oh No mommy! Your tummy is toooooooo big! Now there is no room left on your lap!"

#1 Big Brother

This morning as I was getting ready I called down to the boys to go and brush thier teeth. Generally I brush them at night and let them brush in the morning by themselves. This morning however I was standing in my bathroom and I heard Andrew say, "Say Ahh Zane!" Fearing the worst, I had to go and investigate! I tiptoed into the hall so I could peek without them seeing and what do I see but a big boy Andrew busily brushing Zane's teeth for him. Now, you need to understand that Zane does not let people brush his teeth easily. We have a nightly argument that mommy has to brush first and then he can. So, to see him calmly standing there with his mouth open and Andrew brushing away was quite a shock. I don't think Andrew usually does it when I tell them to brush their teeth but who knows, maybe that is how it has always been and I am just not used to it! In fact, maybe I should just get Andrew to brush Zane's teeth from now on. Hmmm........

Room Service

Just wanted to let you all know that Crystal is currently starring in a very funny play called Room Service at her high school! She plays the part of Doctor Glass and is quite funny. Eric and I went last Saturday night and taped it so that she could send it home to her parents and they could see it. I totally forgot to take my camera or you would get to see what her costume looked like. I was very proud of her for auditioning and it has been a great opportunity for her to get involved with a school activity and make some more friends. In case any of you want to see it, Room Service will be showing again this week, Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights at 7 pm.

Yesterday, we (Crystal, Andrew, Zane and myself) went to the outlet mall in Marysville for the first time. I think that Crystal thought that she had died and gone to heaven because they were having some good sales and she was a shopping fool! She didn't make it through the whole mall but I promised her that we would be back again. I think that I shouldn't take her too often though, she might run out of money for the month!

Mr. Independant

Yesterday Andrew decided that he wanted to make himself toast for breakfast with no help from me. I thought it was a fluke and let him do it. Today he wanted to do the exact same thing! Maybe my little guy is trying to tell me that he is ready to grow up or maybe he just thinks it takes me too long to get breakfast ready in the morning. Either way, it is kinda nice knowing that he is getting a little independant.

Ready to drop the toast!

Plates for two!

Peanut Butter Patrol with Zane looking on!

Andrew dropped a second piece of toast for Zane but I put peanut butter on that one. It was very fun to watch them and now Zane thinks that he should be able to make his own. I told him he had to wait until he was a big 4 year old like brother. I can only handle one independant guy at a time!

Daylight Savings Time

I never used to mind Daylight Savings time until I had kids. Surprisingly it is not the spring change that bothers me so much but the fall one. Let me tell you why! I am very driven by the time on the clock for when I wake up. If the clock says 4 then I think yeah! a few more hours of sleep. In contrast when the clock says 8 I think ok, I guess I should get up. My children do not seem to have this same deal going. They sleep for the amount they sleep and then they wake up. Unfortunately, when the clock "falls back" that means the clock reads one hour earlier for me when they wake up. They do not take advantage of the fact that they can sleep for a whole extra hour like I want to! In the spring the opposite occurs and they seem to sleep until later because of the clock springing ahead. That is the change I vastly prefer (as long as we don't have to be up and somewhere) because then the happy clock tricks my mind into thinking that we are sleeping in. The transition only seems to last a few days but they are murder on me until we all level out again. I know that there are tricks to avoiding this whole thing but they seem like a lot more work than the solution is worth!

Frog and Monkey

Well, Halloween has gone and the overwhelming load of candy has come. My two little guys had a ton of fun dressing up for trick or treatingand the church harvest carnival and they made out like bandits. Our neighborhood is overrun with kids on halloween due to the fact that we live in a well lit neighborhood with lots of houses very close together. Perfect for this activity (also perfect for solicitation, you wouldn't believe how many "No Solicitation" signs I saw!) so many people bring their kids from less desirable neighborhoods to ours. I didn't hand out any candy, we trick or treated and then went to the harvest carnival at our church, where the kids also got an absurd amount of candy. If I had to guess I would say the average house in our neighborhood got around 200 kids. I am not exagerating! Eric had to work but one of these years he will be home to do the honors of running these little ones around the neighborhood. I can't wait for the help because by the end of the night I was holding two little boys bags, cupcakes (from the carnival) and part of thier costumes because they were tired and hot. It was fun but exhausting! I am glad that it only comes around once a year!