Rainy Days

One Sunday, we had a very cold and rainy day.  Jake and Mommy had to run out to get his glasses adjusted so we picked up a few supplies for a craft.  They did such a great job gluing all the cotton balls and accessories and are becoming so much more independent on craft projects.

Jake is ready to brave the rain!

Our snowmen.

 There are no words for the following pictures of our silly Ford. . .

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Ford and Jake LOVE birthday celebrations.  We had a very special one on December 2nd . . . Daddy's!  They were so excited to decorate for our family party. 

Streamers, balloons, etc . .

Homemade picture for Daddy!

We hear the garage, waiting for Daddy to come in!

Practicing "Surprise"! - notice the streamer doorway :)



Showing Daddy the Art Book we made him.



Happy Birthday to our Hero and Best Friend!

Thanksgiving 2011

We had a great Thanksgiving week.  We put up all the Christmas decorations and had a lot of family time.  We had Thanksgiving dinner at Grandma and Grandpa's house with Aunt Kimberly, Uncle Glenn, Blake and Benjamin.  After dinner, the 4 boys helped Grandma decorate the small tree for the playroom.  Benjamin, Ford and Jake wanted to do more, so they continued to decorate the tree in the family room too.  Grandma can't complain that she doesn't get any help :) 

Watching the trains before dinner.

Silly Turkeys!

Attempt at family picture . . .thanks Jake for the memories :)

About as good as it gets with these 2 monkeys!

Cousins ready for dinner!

Helping Grandma decorate the playroom tree.

Again, posing for pictures is not really our thing.

On Friday, we went up to the farm to have a yummy pizza dinner with Uncle Billy, Aunt Jill, Grace, Brooke, Gigi and Granddaddy.  It wasn't just any pizza though, it was stuffed deep dish pizza shipped from the famous Giordano's in Chicago!  Also, as another treat, Granddaddy brought out the tractor, so we got to take turns "driving".

Also, a picture of our Christmas tree.  Ford and Jake hung most of the ornaments on the lower half.  They actually did pretty good and were pretty patient!

Early Holiday Visitor

Our holiday visitor has arrived!  Eddie the Elf showed up at our house over the weekend.  It seems a little early, but I guess Santa really wants to keep close watch on Ford and Jake :)  They were so excited to see him.  We frequently catch them talking to him and telling him stuff they want for Christmas.  We've also read his book numerous times already.  No Christmas decorations are up yet, but we might be decking the halls this weekend!

Wishful Thinking

A little graphic creation by Daddy . . .

Too bad, our Halloween costumes didn't bring the Rangers that extra luck to win the World Series.  We are still proud of our team and had a great time cheering them on!

Halloween 2011

Ford and Jake both decided to be baseball players for Halloween at the beginning of September.  I thought this was the year they would have picked a superhero or something scary.  They never changed their minds, so we found some costumes and personalized them to become "The Next Generation of Texas Rangers"!

We started off Halloween festivities with a Costume Parade at Stonebriar Mall.

Of course, we had to ride the Carousel.

The weekend before Halloween, we carved a pumpkin.



Jack O' Latern at night!

 Ford and Jake had hat day at school on Halloween .  After trying on almost every hat they have, they both chose an army hat to wear.

And of course we went Trick or Treating!  The boys were much more independent this year on Trick or Treating.  After the first house, they were professionals.  We also visited one scary house, we drive by it every day on our way home from school.  Ford named it the "spooky house".  He was excited to go, but when we started walking up, he got scared.  They had music, lights, a bunch of decorations and the people were decked out in scary costumes. 

Then we came back home to dig into our candy stash and handed out candy to trick or treaters.  The boys probably liked that part just as much.  They were very generous with the candy :)

October Misc.

Some random pictures from October.


Jake found the groves in the air mattress were perfect hubs for trains.



Pumpkin head Ford!



Light Saber Fight




Decorating Cookies



Last soccer class.

 

Pumpkin Patch

We recently visited The Big Orange Pumpkin Patch in Celina.  It is a little bit of a drive, but very worth it.  We had a great time going on a hay ride, feeding the animals, a barrel train ride, and picking out pumpkins from the patch. 



Family Hay Ride!





Best Daddy Award for making his son's day by squeezing into the barrel.



Jake waiting for the ride to start, Mommy rode with him.



Searching for the perfect pumpkin.  Ford was happy with his first pick.  Jake went through at least 8 or 9 different ones, until he found the right one.

Later, we decorated our pumpkins.

Goofy face Ford with his bat pumpkin.

Jake with his witch pumpkin.

Fall and Soccer

We love Fall!  There are so many fun events this time of year, not to mention nicer weather.  The boys are getting very excited for Halloween!   They helped me put out all the fall and Halloween decorations and immediately grabbed their pumpkins and started filling them with cars and toys.

The boys are getting more detailed about drawing pictures, not just coloring or scribbling.  We did some self portraits outside with the chalk.
  




















Ford and Jake recently started a soccer class.  Sports for 3 year olds is pretty much hit or miss.  There are 8 kids in the class, but only 4 or 5 (including Ford and Jake) are typically participating, while the others are just running around (without their ball) or sitting on the side or on their Mom's lap.  Even though our boys like soccer and are participating in class, we are still so glad we went the class route instead of a team at this age.  They all practice with their own balls for most of the class, they even do some different drills, then at the end they play a game with one ball.  Playing the actual game is a little bit of chaos for a bunch of 3 year olds.  In life, we are constantly telling them to share and take turns, then suddenly all that goes out the window and they are supposed to steal the ball from each other.  What a confusing world!  It's all pretty cute though.