Seize the Day

What a beautiful day!  Friday was one of those days that could have gone all wrong and could have been filled with a lot of crankiness as David and I did not get much sleep Thursday night, or the last few nights for that matter, as Joshua has been a bit out of sorts since Thanksgiving.  I woke up feeling like I had taken cold medicine before I went to bed, which I hadn't, and was wishing for a few more hours of sleep.  It was one of those mornings where I willed myself and told myself it will be a good day, I will not waste this day on being cranky but will instead enjoy time with my boys so a spur of the moment decision after picking Caleb up from school landed us at the park feeding the geese.  I'm so glad I chose to make the day count as Caleb, Joshua and I had a great time hanging out .

I was so proud of how Caleb handled himself at the park because I think a lot of little kids would have thrown their bread and ran away screaming as he was literally swarmed by geese and ducks eagerly awaiting for him to give them some bread.  As soon as we got out of the car they spotted us and started making their way toward us "honking" at the top of their lungs.  I'll admit I got a bit nervous and wouldn't have blamed Caleb at all if he didn't want any part of feeding them as they were everywhere.  I was also a little concerned that their noise might upset Joshua but he was as cool as a cucumber.

It was beautiful outside and was nice to just enjoy watching Caleb play and just soak everything around him in.  He played on the playground, picked up what he calls "treasures" (aka rocks and sticks) and we threw leaves in the stream and followed them as they floated away.

It was so sweet, while sitting on the rocks watching the geese and ducks he turns to me and was so excited as he explained that he could tell how they were swimming and could see them kicking their feet under the water and then he demonstrated for me how they were doing it.

Friday night we also enjoyed some family time which consisted of pizza and decorating our gingerbread house.  Caleb has been wanting to decorate a gingerbread house as soon as he saw them in the store and apparently this has become a family tradition for us.

And what night would be complete without some random pictures.

Hot Chocolate and Movie Time

Let the Christmas movies begin! Tonight before bed we busted out some hot chocolate and a "Charlie Brown Christmas".  We are currently in the process of getting out our Christmas decorations so I don't have my Christmas mugs out yet.  Caleb was excited when I asked him if he wanted to drink some hot chocolate and watch a movie before bed.  He was in charge of putting the hot chocolate mix in the mugs, stirring everything up and putting in the marshmallows.  He was very proud of himself and has become quite the little helper in the kitchen.

Even Joshua got in on the fun of watching the movie for a little while (this totally cracked us up because he was just laying contently watching the movie).

I'm hoping to have all my decorations up this week and I already have the majority of my Christmas shopping done so my goal is to enjoy many more nights like tonight and just have fun making some holiday memories with my boys.

Jack-O-Lantern Fun

Caleb was all excited this year about making a jack-o-lantern and asked for several days when we were going to make one so Sunday was the big day. 

 

Here are a few family pics before the carving began. :-)

The boys were deep in thought drawing out the outline of their jack-o-lantern and getting all the pre-work done.  David showed Caleb a few different jack-o-lantern ideas on the computer and let Caleb pick which one they ended up making.

 

 Caleb was all about getting his hands dirty and scooping all of the guts out of the inside of the pumpkin.

 

 

 While David worked hard on carving the pumpkin Caleb worked on creating his own masterpiece with all of the ooey gooey guts of the pumpkin.

 

 

 And here is the finished product.  I thought they did a great job and I love our jack-o-lantern.

 

 

Random:  This has nothing to do with our jack-o-lantern but I think it's funny.  Last Friday Caleb had his Halloween party at school and Joshua and I got to attend.  It was fun getting to watch them play games, have their snack and enjoy some craft time.  One of the crafts was getting to decorate a pumpkin.  One of the kids in Caleb's class was a little upset at Caleb and said "hey Caleb you are using all of the eyes", without missing a beat Caleb responds "well my momma likes a lot of eyes" (LOL! Where did that come from.)

Gobble, Gobble

We had a great Thanksgiving and enjoyed getting to host the Foster family Thanksgiving at our house this year. We definitely missed my Grandma Foster and while the location this year had changed from my Grandma's house as she is no longer with us the sense of love and family was still there. It was a beautiful day outside and it was nice to get to spend some time outside and have the windows open for a little while. David fixed his first turkey this year and I think Martha Stewart would have been proud. It was a very nice looking and tasting bird. I hope you enjoyed time with your families and were able to spend a few moments reflecting on the things you have to be thankful for. I am thankful for my family, the memories of my Grandma Foster and for friendships both old and new.

Happy Birthday........

Time to catch up on some birthday shout outs and pics. Happy Birthday.....

Jeremiah

Back in September we helped celebrate my nephew's 3rd birthday. We had a great time hanging out with family and enjoyed a day at the park. It's hard to believe he is already 3! Stephanie (my SIL) did a great job making his baseball birthday cake. Super cute! I will definitely keep this in mind for future cake ideas for Caleb.

Caitlin & Sierra
The first of October we went back to my brother's to celebrate my twin nieces 5th birthday. They decided on a princess/pumpkin theme. We had lots of fun carving a pumpkin, helping Steph put their cake together, making paperplate jack-o-lanters, playing pin the nose on the pumpkin and even Caleb got in on the fun of hitting the pinata. The girls were a little under the weather and didn't feel 100% but they seemed to still have a great time.

Sierra

Caitlin

Kate
Last weekend we helped celebrate Kate's 2nd birthday at Gymboree. This was a great birthday party idea and the kids had a lot of fun playing. Caleb enjoyed climbing around and getting to play with the musical instruments.

The birthday girl

Caleb eating cupcake with his friend Jacob