So I went upstairs to put the laundry in the dryer...

and when I came downstairs, I found the kids in the study.  Seth was playing an animal rescue game on the computer and he was letting Luke help.  

Sweet boys!

Thanksgiving Hats

We made Thanksgiving hats last Sunday.  It was two weeks after Thanksgiving, and our tree was already up.  It is not unusual for me to be late.  Just ask my friend Carrie.  I still have her baby gift upstairs.  Her little boy is 10 months old now.  I've probably seen her 25 times since he was born.  I keep telling her I have her gift upstairs, but I can never remember to give it to her.

Anyway, on to the hats!

This is what they looked like when we made them.  

The boys thought they were great, but soon gravity took over and the turkeys began to get floppy.  Here's a picture of Luke demonstrating the droopy turkeys.  

I tried to get a picture of both boys together, but I had a hard time getting them to pose.  In this picture they were behind the recliner goofing off.

I finally got them in front of the tree, but several of my pictures turned out like this:

And then I FINALLY got a decent picture.  

Can you tell Luke was tired of the flash going off?

Deck the Halls!

Well, really, we only decked the living room and kitchen.  This post is actually a little late.  We always decorate on Black Friday, which was 2 weeks ago.  I've gotten a little behind in my blogging.

Jesse always does the lights.  

This year he had help from Luke.

I fluffed out the branches.  Ignore my hair.  I had static.

Seth was on a secret mission.  We still don't know what it was. 

Jesse put together our Walt Disney World Train.

See how much Luke likes it?

See how much Jesse likes it?

Luke was quite fascinated by the real smoke that comes out of the engine.  Jesse was, too.

Seth had fun watching it, too.

After a while, they became mesmerized.

Then Seth started telling knock knock jokes.

When they got tired of watching the train, we put the ornaments on the tree.  We give the kids an ornament every year for Christmas, so when they move out, they will have ornaments for their own trees.

Here's Seth and Jesse decorating the tree:

Here's Seth decorating by himself:

Luke and Seth:

And Luke by himself:

It was an ALL day event.  It was dark outside by the time I took the last picture of Luke!

Parade Fun!

I took the boys to one of our local parades yesterday.  It was FREEZING!  Do they look cold to you?

They really enjoyed the parade and Seth told me he wanted to have his own parade when we got home.  He wanted me to get all the neighbors to line the street so he could walk in the street and wave to everyone.

They both loved the bands and the vintage cars.  The little old men driving the vintage cars looked like they were having a great time, too.  They grinned like little boys every time they blew their horns.  We even saw a trolley car, but it looks more like a bus in this picture.

Everyone riding by was waving and yelling, "Merry Christmas!"  This made Luke really excited and he would wave wildly and whisper, "Merry Christmas" right back at them.

And then of course, there was the highlight of the parade:

My fellow Jazzercisers.  

They looked awesome.  They were dancing to "Four Minutes." They were moving really fast when they passed us, so I didn't get any good pictures.  I wasn't able to be in the parade with them, but I'll be joining them for the next parade on Saturday.  Jesse has threatened to take video and lots of pictures.  I'm hoping his pictures will turn out like mine did!

Burr.

Well, I had big plans to post several blogs tonight, but it took about 45 minutes to get my pictures uploaded, so that I could do all of those blogs that I've been meaning to post.  Now my hands are freezing, and if I put on gloves, I won't be able to type.  I think I'm going to go wrap some Christmas presents and save my blogging for tomorrow.  Night Night.

Recent Nightmares

Two nights ago, Seth woke up and came into our room and got into bed with us.  He said he had a bad dream and wanted to sleep with us.  Shortly after, he started whimpering, so I woke him up.  He told me he was dreaming that he was trying to put on a play about Baby Jesus, but Mario and Luigi kept fighting and they wouldn't stop.  I think we need to limit his Wii time.  When Seth was three, he had a dream that Jesse was making him smell carrots.  He was SO mad at Jesse he didn't want to talk to him.  It took me a while to convince him that Jesse had *never* forced him to smell carrots.  

Last night, Luke woke up crying.  I went into his room and he was sitting on his knees in his bed crying, "shoes!  Shoes on!"  I said, Luke, "You're dreaming.  Its time for night night.  We'll put shoes on in the morning."  He and I sat in the recliner in his room for a while until he settled down.  He was determined to wear his shoes!  I finally put him back in his bed and went back to my bed.  Within 5 minutes, he was crying about his shoes again.  Jesse went into his room and they slept together in the recliner for quite a while.  I'm really glad his bad dreams are mild and not about monsters, or about anyone making him smell food.  

ATTENTION!

My blog will be getting a facelift soon.  I need something a little easier on the eyes.  As soon as Jesse fixes a little bit of code for me, I'll be able to change it over.  Have I mentioned Jesse is the greatest?

Here's a joke from Luke to entertain you while you wait for my next entry:

Luke:  Knock Knock, Mommy.

Me:  Who's There?

Luke:  moon.  who. Knock Knock.

Me:  Who's There?

Luke: house. who.  Knock knock.

Me:  Who's There?

Luke: paci. who.  Knock knock.

Me:  Who's There?

Luke:  blankie. who.  Knock Knock.

Me:  Wow, Luke!  What's that over there?  (*pointing at anything that might be remotely interesting to a two year old*)