Squirrels Beware

This boy saved and saved his precious pennies and just before Christmas he was able to buy this little ditty and since it was on sale, he could afford some BB's to go with it.  Several water bottles and a cereal box have already met their demise.

A conversation with Grandma

Grandma:  Did Santa call you today?

Tiger:  Yes.

Grandma:  What did he say?

Tiger:  I love you.  I'm dead.

Meet Herman

KK has elf fever.  BAD!!  Luckily, the other night when she left out some crackers and water this little guy decided to come to our house and be our elf.  I like him because he isn't mischievous or messy and he makes the kids happy.  Plus, he's not creepy looking.  KK is in elf heaven.

Perspective on trees

When we were picking out our Christmas tree the other night, we finally settled on a lovely little Frazier Fir.  Tiger took one look at it and said, "Look, it has curly hair."

Yes or No?

Do I send out Christmas cards this year?  I am so on the fence.

From the Holy Land

Isn't it breathtaking.  It is made of Olive wood.  I have been in serious need of a nativity scene and so this year I finally broke down and bought the Little People version for the kids to play with (by the way, Tiger has been trying to take the angel with him everywhere.  He feels that angels like to go to Home Depot as well).  I thought that was pretty cool until my parents gave this to me.  Gorgeous!  They bought one for each of us kids when they were in Israel last year and they kept it a secret this whole time.  Little stinkers.  Thank you, thank you, thank you Mom and Dad. I love it!! (Please ignore the fact that I have a shepherd sitting next to Joseph instead of Mary).

It was a birthday miracle

Yesterday was my dear mother's birthday and we celebrated by eating turkey.  For my mom's birthday, she really wanted a set of the really big scriptures and since it is very hard to find a decent looking scripture bag for those over sized scriptures, my sister and I decided to make my mom her very own bag.  I have to admit that I was very nervous about the success of this project because whenever I undertake a new fabric project I always have questions and my mom is always there to tell me what to do, but in this case I couldn't run to her for help.  Also, picking out fabric is not really a strength of mine due to the fact that I have no vision.  Unless the fabrics are grouped specifically together in a set, I become very overwhelmed because I am not good at putting different combos together.  Again, this is an area where my mother usually comes in handy and since I couldn't ask her, I was very glad that my dear sister was helping with this project.  She is very good at putting colors and patterns together and she has great vision.  So, with the two of us working together we were successful and the end result turned out rather smashing.  Plus, I had a lot of fun working with my sister.  It is nice to know that I now have two people I can go to with my fabric crafting needs.

Mr. Nutcracker decided that this looked like a good place to hang for a while.  Also, won't my mom look fabulous carrying this chic thing on her arm on Sundays?

One Highlight of Fall

LEAVES!!!!

We have a huge tree in our backyard that drops a million leaves every fall and the kids just can't resist the fun that comes from a good pile of leaves.  On a sad note, my brother is moving to Utah and he has the nerve to take his children with him.  That means no more cousins to play with.  Very, very sad.  But, since they were painting their house last weekend, I was able to watch these delicious little munchkins for a night and since the weather was gorgeous, we just had to play in the leaves. 

 They were all very good about humoring me while I took pictures.

 Miles loved raking the leaves back into the pile.

 Morgan liked the idea of playing in the leaves much more than the actual playing.  She pretty much sat in this same spot the whole time trying to get the leaves out of her shoes.  She must not have realized that the rest of the kids took their shoes off as soon as they hit the leaves.

 Tiger's favorite activity was throwing the leaves.  Particularly at Will's face.  We had to have a little talk about that one.

 Will was all over the leaves.  He would stand back by the house and then take a running leap into the leaves.  He did this over and over again.  Leaves were later found in places where leaves do not belong.

After tiring of leaf jumping, Will discovered the fun of throwing leaves as well.  I can only hope that some of those landed in Tiger's face as a little payback.

Love

Today was gorgeous and so Doug took the kids to our walking park. Here's a picture that he took with his camera. I love them. By the way, don't you just love KK's new hair cut. It is fabulous!

Tiger has a new friend

Tiger has a thing for Nutcrackers.  Since I know this little fact about him I picked one up the other day.  He is now in heaven and has been carrying his new friend around with him everywhere.  Here they are in the car getting ready to go to school.  He also takes his Nutcracker to bed with him and plays with his Nutcracker throughout the day.  Tiger loves to move the little handle in the back to make the Nutcracker talk and it is through this method that I have had many a conversation with the Nutcracker over the last few days.  Let the Christmas season begin!

She's a clever girl

As we were driving to church today:

KK: I spy something that starts with the letter "L". It's outside and we are passing it right now. There is some right over there.
Sparky: Uh. . .lights?
KK: Actually, it starts with the letter "T", but when you get a bunch of them together then it starts with the letter "L".
Me: Leaves!
Sparky: Yeah, leaves.
KK: No, but leaves are part of it when they are still on the things that start with the letter "T".
(At this point we were all stumped)
Sparky: I don't know.
KK: Landscaping!!

Some assistance if you please

As I have mentioned before, I don't decorate.  But for the sake of my girl I am trying.  With the holidays upon us, I have vowed to make my home downright festive.  So my question for all of you is, where do you find your inspiration?  What are your favorite web sites to look at for decorating ideas? 

Cold

While looking at some trees that had lost their leaves:

Tiger: Those trees are cold. They need a jacket.

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Tiger: The park is for dead people.
Me: Um, no it's not. It's for kids who want to play.
Tiger: Yes, the park is where dead people can go to the park.
Me: Do you mean a cemetary? With the head stones?
Tiger: Yes. A park for dead people.

Walking with the cousins

About a week ago, we decided to introduce the rest of the fam to our favorite walking park.  The weather was gorgeous and the park was packed, but good times were had by all.  There was lots of running, exploring, and pumpkin cheescake.  We even got to see Air Force One fly overhead.  I hope that we can all go back again in the spring.

 Cousins

 Contemplative Tiger

 Boys in water

 The Grandparents

 Sibling love

 Cousins and friends

The joys of my heart

Out of retirement

Two years ago, Sparky claimed he was done with soccer.  This year he decided to come out of retirement and give the game another try.  Although his team was horrible and lost every game (OK, technically one of those games was tied, but the other team was also short a man on the field), the boy seriously improved over the course of the season and turned out to be one of the better players on the team.  Here are a few of the highlights from this past season. 

 Pouting Tiger

Freezing temperatures + an under dressed boy = a Sparkycicle

Point Taken

I am not a decorator.  Not at all.  I barely have anything on my walls and the only holiday that I even somewhat decorate for is Christmas.  It's just not one of my strengths and not something that really crosses my mind.  My daughter on the other hand thinks about it frequently.  She is often trying to make our table look pretty and she really wishes that we always had a center piece, table cloth/place mats, and a full place setting.  She wishes that we had holiday decorations and she desperately wishes that I would get around to painting and decorating her room.  Well, with my girl in mind I attempted to put together a fall table centerpiece and I asked the Woo to gather some leaves to go with it.  After we were finished she looked at me and said, "Thanks mom.  It just makes me feel more at home when our house looks pretty."  Ouch.  Apparently the little touches do make a difference and apparently I need to learn how to decorate and I will do it for my Woo.

Just relax

Last night while putting on his shoes and opening the door to the garage:

Tiger: Mom, I'm not going outside. You just make dinner and relax. I'm not going outside. I'm just doing my jobs and homework.

Morning Mumblings and stuff

Me:  Good morning my love.
Tiger:  I'm not a monkey.
Me:  You're not?
Tiger:  No.  I'm just a regular guy.
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Me:  Good morning my love.
Tiger:  (Stretching)  I had such a happy dream!
Me:  You did?  Did you have happy dreams all night?
Tiger:  No.  I had bad dreams.  They were bad.
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Me:  What do you want to watch?  Do you want Yo Gabba Gabba?  It's a Halloween one.
Tiger:  No.  Yo Gabba Gabba is sooooo weird.  It's just weird.

Tis the season to pick apples, Part II

At the beginning of the month my cousin Marc and his cute family came up to go apple picking with us.  I was so excited and so were the kids.  I also had grand plans for getting lots of adorable apple picking pictures of all of the cousin friends, but after one picture, the battery on my camera died.  Figures.  Thankfully my sister brought her camera and so thanks to Chad, we were able to have documentation of the amazing fun that we had.

Mr. McBubbers sampling some of the goods.  Hmmm, do we want Suncrisp or Melrose?

Miles found this beauty and was excited to show off the results of his picking expertise.

This picture just makes me laugh.  My dad is a goofball.

A dad and his boy.

The photographers of the day.  Looking adorable as always.

Cute girly cousin friends.

Everyone knows that the very best apples are at the top of the trees and since we didn't bring a ladder, grandpa decided to improvise.  A trip to the chiropractor may be in his future.

There were many attempts at tree climbing

There was even some success at tree climbing.  It's hard to climb short, bushy trees with little limbs you know.

Again, another picture that just makes me laugh.

Cute, cute boy.

A little uncle/nephew fun, but what I really love is the fact that Tiger is in the background gearing up to nail Doug in the back with an apple.

A smattering of cousin friends.

Sisters.

The group

The one picture I was able to take with my camera.  Two cute boy cousin friends.  Any time spent with Tanner makes Sparky a happy boy.  We are so glad that the cousins were able to come up from Cincinnati and that the rest of the family could join us.  The only downside (aside from the dead camera battery, thereby prohibiting me from getting lots of fun pictures with our visiting cousins) was that the day went by way too fast and we didn't get nearly enough time together.  Next time guys we are going to have to plan a little better so that not a minute of the day is wasted.  Also, we'll try to make it happen sooner rather than later.

Creepy

Tiger:  I want to watch TV.
Me:  OK, what do you want to watch?  (Scrolling through DVR)  Do you want Franny's Feet?
Tiger:  No, that's creepy.
Me:  Do you want Between the Lions?
Tiger:  No, that's creepy.
Me:  Do you want Phineas and Ferb?
Tiger:  No, that's too creepy.
Me:  Do you want Jimmy Neutron?
Tiger:  No, that's creepy.
Me:  Do you want Chuggington?
Tiger:  No, that's creepy.
Me:  Do you want Jungle Junction?
Tiger:  Yes, that's not too creepy.

Morning Mumblings

Tiger:  I slept good last night.  I woke up.  A bad dream had me last night.  The bad dream followed me like this (as he moves his fingers like they are walking).  Then I saw the bad dream and I said, "Hey you, go away you bad dream."  And then I was happy.

Tiger's morning ramblings

Tiger: Is it morning time?

Me: Yes

Tiger: Is the sun up?

Me: The sun is trying to come up.

Tiger: Does the mommy sun go into the baby sun's room and say, "Good morning, good morning" and then the baby sun stretches and wakes up and then the sun comes out?

Things I didn't know

KK:  Mom, what are we having for dinner?

Me:  Pork of some sort and brussel sprouts.

KK:  And mashed potatoes??

Me:  Sure, I can make some mashed potatoes.

KK:  Good, because you can't have pork without mashed potatoes!

Tis the season to pick apples, Part I

In a somewhat spur of the moment fashion, we decided to go apple picking with some friends a few weeks ago.  It was just such a beautiful day we couldn't resist, plus I was excited to check out a new orchard.  Here are the kids striking a very goofy pose in order to demonstrate their excitement of picking apples.

Goofy kid.

Trying to get that loose tooth out!

Humor mom if you love picking apples.

Pausing in the middle of eating apples for a Family in the Orchard shot.

 After we were done picking apples, we headed to the Velvet ice cream factory that was practically around the corner to sample their product and to feed the ducks.

 I scream, you scream, we all want ice cream.

 The factory had this cool mill.

 Ahhh, love.

What a day!  I am really glad that we decided to be fun and to head out on this adventure.  We will have to do this again next year.  Now, stay tuned for our second apple picking adventure.  We really love apples.