Let the holidays begin!!!

We have started the holidays here at our house and we have started a new Thanksgiving tradition besides and yummy food. I have wanted to do this for two years now and the kids are finally old enough to understand. It's our thankful tree, it doesn't have much on it after our first day in November but by turkey day it will be packed with all the things we are thankful for. Next year I think I might laminate the tree, boy did it take forever to cut out all those branches, but it was all worth it to teach those boys how to be thankful.

 Our next little project in the month of November had to do with kittens. Jeff had left for the week to go hunting in CO and I had talked my mom into skipping school on Friday to spend the weekend with us. One of our weekly duties is feeding the chickens down at the barn. As I was just finishing up, the boys found two tiny kittens in the pig pens next door. They were just meowing like crazy and so little. Of course those sweet compassionate hearts just wanted to love and hold them. Whereas their mother, who despises cats of all shapes and sizes was not about to let them touch those things! After a look from my mom and multiple from the boys I gave in and we had a new project on our hands. Luckily this was not the first cat to be taken in and we got the old kitty stand out in the back of the barn. We took them home, made them a bed with soft blankets and started to feed them. They had all this pus in their eyes so, much to my disgust, we wiped it all out with hydrogen peroxide. They then decided to start drinking milk and eating tuna. Golden! Now they can feed themselves and we are set for the week till its warms up and they can get the mice at the barn. My heart did soften a bit and the boys would hold them anytime they meowed and put them to sleep. 

 On Sunday however, my mom mentioned cleaning out their bed. I didn't hear them making any noise and she said they were still sleeping. A couple hours later I went out to check on them and lifted up the stand to look at them and I had to make the sad announcement that they were dead! They didn't believe me, so they picked up the dead kittens, heads flopping all over. So here I am my prego self in my pjs with a coat on trying to dig a grave in frozen ground. I only made it maybe 10 inches down and that was it. So into the shallow grave they went as the boys watched from the deck upstairs with tears in their eyes. Luckily they had chosen to stay in the house because as I shoveled more dirt on the poor things the bigger orange one let out one last feeble meow as I put the dirt on. My heart had changed for those two little kittens over the past two days and tears started coming. It was a life lesson learned for the boys and we talked about life after death and the resurrection. It was a lesson learned for me about compassion for all that our Father in Heaven as created. 

 We had so much fun with my mom. We built a snowman and went to the swimming pool for our Saturday entertainment.  I never could have done that weekend without her! 

 First snowman of the year!

Halloween 2011 Fun

It was Halloween again and we were ready for those Halloween traditions. When it comes to Halloween I love seeing my kids get excited to "become" someone or something else. I love to watch their faces as they pick out their costumes and try them on. We have started making Halloween traditions and now I look forward to this every year. We traditionally carve pumpkins one or two days before Halloween, everyone comes over and we have seeds and knives everywhere. I love to watch the kids faces as they dig out the squishiness inside the pumpkin because that's my favorite part! While we are carving pumpkins we are watching Charlie Brown and the Great Pumpkin. Jeff always records it for the boys. This year along with some treats I wanted to try making carmel apples, the kind you buy in stores. It was fun and my teeth were killing me after eating them.  

Jaxon carved and drew and gutted his own pumpkin all by himself this year. We even gave him the knife and he cut it all. No help whatsoever. Time is flying by and they are getting so big!

On Halloween day we take pictures on the steps out front of each of the kids and sometimes cousins will be there for the fun too. Then all three of our families meet at the corner and away we go to trick or treat. My goal with Hunter "the Monkey" was to get him to trick or treat to one house, eat that candy then get out for another house after that first candy was gone. It worked perfectly and we didn't have much leftover. 

Jaxon was Captain America and ran ahead of us all with his buddy Kyler. He racked in the most candy obviously.

Jake was our Knight in Shining Armor and boy was he cute. His costume even said Sir Jake on the cape.  He loves the candy but didn't like walking quite that far. I am glad we have an obsession with Knights, maybe he will be some cute girls Prince Charming someday. After Trick or Treating we met at Jayme's for Chili and Cornbread, my favorite! Then off the Grandma's to give her a scare. 

Art Project

The other day Jaxon received a flyer from school telling them about Reflections. I was excited, since I had won Reflections in elementary once and wanted him to have the same experience with Art. The them however was "Diversity Means..." I asked him what diversity meant and I got the blank stare and a random guess. I kept pushing the issue and we even got an idea until I found out each student has to explain why their project goes with "Diversity Means..." He had no idea and I was bummed but we decided to make it a family art project. The boys and I went downstairs with our canvas, crayons and hairdryer. At first we were going to do each canvas one color, blue, yellow and red. Until we realized how mundane peeling labels off crayons is. So we combined our efforts and each boys picked a color, peeled their crayons, and got to help hot glue the crayons onto the canvas. The best part was using the hairdryer to heat up and melt the crayons and watch the action. I was so proud of them and it was so much fun for me, as their mother, to see them get excited about art. I am in no way artistic naturally, but I am a good copier and I loved it when I was little. My mom's uncle was an artist and I remember copying his drawings for hours on end. Mostly they were of old houses and the countryside but that's when I started to love to draw. Unfortunately that talent wasn't used and it disappeared. We are hanging it up in the boys bedroom and we now just need a couple more projects like that to have it all decorated. Man I love my boys!