Thanksgiving Preparations

We had 3 days off from school to celebrate Thanksgiving, so Mommy and Abram got a little crafty. 

 

Abram made the turkey at school.  We tried to make Katie one but it just didn't ever happen.

  

 With some pillowcases and some paint, we all worked together to make some chair covers.  Daddy even got into the act by adding his thumbprint for the wattle. 

  

 Abram decided he would help stir the icing for the pumpkin spice cake that was on Mommy's list to make.

  

 He was nice enough to share a beater with Katie after it was all finished.  They enjoyed the Macy's Parade with an early morning shot of sugar.

 

This is not the pumpkin spice cake that Abram helped with, but Daddy decided to take a picture of Mommy's first attempt at cheesecake.

Pictures of the three different Thanksgivings we shared will follow over the next several days.

Happy Birthday Papa Ted

All of Daddy's family got together to celebrate another year in Papa Ted's life.

 

 Mommy made him a race car cake.

  

 Abram was the official tester.

After he decided it was ok.  He was happy to let David feed him a nice black wheel (I think his teeth are still black!)

 

 Katie slaved over the hot stove to make sure everyone had enough to eat.

  

 Then she had to show Uncle Marc the right way to ride a hot pink corvette.

 

And to finish off the evening of fun, Abram and cousin Maylin had to have papertowel capes.  It was so much fun to watch them tear through the house with the capes trailing.  I think we owe Aunt Mandi a roll of paper towels for all the capes that were made and thrown away that night.

Happy Birthday Papa Ted!

Sleepy Time

Katie is learning to go to sleep by herself.  Part of the routine includes putting up the gate at her door, as you can guess Katie is not a fan of this part.  On several occassions, she has gotten out of her bed, made it to the door where she is stopped by the gate.  When she gets to the gate she will either scream really loud or lay down in the floor with her blankets.  This is the picture I found one night when I went to check on her.  In case you can't tell she is in between the gate and the door on top of all 3 of her blankets.  She was so asleep she didn't flinch when I picked her up to put her back in her bed.  If I am not mistaken, she was also snoring.

Truck Rally

Abram's preschool had a truck rally fundraiser.  We knew that was a must see for Abram our truck man.  They did a great job and had lots of different vehicles for the kids to look at, touch, climb on, and stare at. 

Abram checked out the tractor trailer and took his turn driving it.

 

Then we had to check out the fire engine.

 

And push a few buttons.

 

Abram also had to try his hand at driving a backhoe.

All was well until the ambulance and police car started blowing their horns and turning on the siren.  Abram decided that was too much and it was time to go.

Just for Fun

I'm not really sure why I took this picture, but as I look at it now it's just funny.  I don't remember exactly but I am sure that Abram climbed up first to eat his snack and then as with everything else, Katie decided to join him.  The look on Abram's face says it all, "Oh no, not again...I just wish she would quit following me around."

 

 Then this picture is just a classic Katie..."cheese!"

 

Now They Put Them On

Just as we predicted, as soon as Halloween was over the kids put on their robot costumes. 

 

  

 OK, so maybe they didn't quite figure out how to wear them all they way.  But they have had fun with them

 

Katie did put hers on also, but she was quicker than the camera to put it on and take it off.

Puzzles

Abram decided that puzzles were fun.  So Mommy brought borrowed a few from school that nobody was using.  He has actually gotten pretty good at it.

Can you feel the concentration going on?

Look at that deep concentration!

And of course if Abram is doing it, Katie must also. So to avoid a knock-down-drag-out fight, we found Katie her own puzzle.

 

She did pretty good until she lost interest and then had a blast putting the pieces in and out of the basket.

Cupcakes

A couple of days ago the weather was super cold so the kids couldn't play outside very long and Mommy was about to pull her hair out because the kids were so wild and nothing was working.  So a sudden inspiration hit...make cupcakes. 

Both of the kids climbed up on the counter to help stir.  Daddy was there for extra support and supervision.

 

Both of the kids grabbed a cupcake holder and started filling in the pan.

Abram helped supervise as Mommy finished stirring the sprinkles he just added to the batter.

Katie supervised as Mommy poured the batter in.

After much anticipation and waiting as they baked and cooled, Abram very carefully added one sprinkle at a time to each cupcake.

And finally the all important tasting.

We think they ate more icing and spread more crumbs than they actually ate.  But the process was fun and by the time we finished it was bath and bedtime.  Another cold evening survived!

Letting Abram do the honors

So today was the day. We had talked about me voting and even gotten him to run around yelling, "Obama!"I had thought about bring Abram with me to vote but wasn't sure about dragging him out of the house too early. That problem was partially solved by him waking up at 6:00, but I still wasn't sure how he'd do. But then the clincher came when he saw me putting on my shoes and asking, "Go with you Daddy?"
"Do you want to go with me to vote buddy?"
"YEAH!!!"
"Ok."
So we quickly got him dressed and out the door we went.

I was glad to see no line to speak of at our polling place. This was mostly due to the fact 40% of registered voters in Henderson County took advantage of early voting. We were able to walk right in, sign in, and head to our booth. I had to show Abram where the box was on the screen and let him do the honors.


I took over the voting from there due to the large number of candidates on the ballot this time around. While my polling place did not have a sticker for me, Abram was able to snag one that he proudly wore all day.


When I got back home to drop him off so he could head to school, I overheard him talking to my Mom (who doubles as our babysitter):
"Abram, where did you go?"
"I went with Daddy."
"Where did you go with Daddy?"
"I went with Daddy to vote Obama!"

As I'm typing this Obama is up 207-135 with California, North Carolina, Florida, Oregon, Washington yet to be called. I feel proud to have voted for our next president.

Some More Elefun

It took the kids a little while to realize they actually had to move their nets and look for the butterflies to be able to catch them.

But they were so excited when one landed in their net.

 

And then Papaw and GramT got in on the fun!!

The beautiful fall leaves near Papaw and GramT's house made us feel remember why we love this time of year.

Halloween Photo Shoot

Katie got a new Halloween outfit (thanks Aunt Dot) and it took several shots to get the full effect.  Enjoy the many faces (and poses) of Katie.

"What did you say?"

 

"Yeah, whatever"

 

Profile shot, notice the cute belly.

"I am too cute for my own good."

Halloween 2008

Halloween this year proved to be a challenge.  Daddy and Mommy had a great plan for the kids to be robots.  They made some really neat robot costumes, including switches and shiny hats.  The kids put them on once and wouldn't have anything else to do with the costumes.  Halloween Plan A is now waiting to be used for dress up time.  After much debating and searching Halloween Plan B was formed.  Using Abram's fire boots and Katie's purple skirt as inspiration we created the Fire Chief and a Flower Fairy Princess.  For a while we wondered if Halloween Plan B would work either. 

Finally on Halloween night after much struggle and a change of pants (Abram would not put on his firefighter pants), we headed out about 5:15 with pieces of a Fire Chief and a Flower Fairy Princess and all the accessories in a bag hoping sometime before the night was over all the pieces would be used at some point.  At our first stop Grandma Morgan's (where we were excited to see out of town visitors Aunt Cynthia and Richard), Abram had on his firetruck t-shirt, a pair of red sweatpants, and his fire boots.  Katie had on her pink sweatsuit and purple skirt.  As soon as we walked in the door, she yanked off the skirt (a trend that continued all night...she would put it on and shed it once she got through the door). 

After hanging out there for a little while, we moved on again to Papa Ted's, then to Grandma Duncan's.  Grandma Duncan was the first stop that got to see the whole outfit.  Abram finally decided to put on his jacket because it was dark outside and Katie was too occupied with the candy from Papa to notice the wings that were stuck on her back, sneakily. 

After Grandma's it was off to Grammy's church for the Fall Festival.  We really didn't get many pictures there because it was so crowded.  The highlight though was getting to see a helicopter take off and seeing the fire truck up close. Then it was back to see Uncle Marc for some new cars and somehow two very sleepy toddlers stayed awake all the way back across town to our final stop with Aunt Dot and Grandma Reid. 

About 10:30, we arrived back home...carried in two toddlers, changed their clothes, laid them in bed, and didn't hear a peep until about 8:00 this morning (that is sleeping in).  After breakfast and a little cleaning everyone laid back down for a 4 hour nap. 

It was a long night but lots of fun.  Abram actually kind of got the idea of what was going on and woke up this morning talking about "hulloween" and Katie just had a blast seeing all her favorite people and dancing around.  Thanks to all our family and friends for another unforgettable holiday and for all of you we didn't get to see Happy Halloween.
Enjoy the pictures (there are lots!)

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