Happiness Is . . .

Happiness is ...

looking in the back seat of my car and seeing two car seats.
getting hugs from Ryan every morning when he wakes up (and I mean every morning)!
seeing two little boys' personalities and senses of humor develop.
hearing about John's day at preschool.
watching you get SO excited about adding the ingredients to cup cakes (and licking the beaters afterwards).
building a snowman together as a family.
folding lots of little shirts and socks because of who wears them.
hearing lines repeated from favorite Disney and Pixar movies.
family game and movie nights.
seeing cars and dinosaur toys lined up on the floor.
being told when the phone is ringing.
taking turns bringing the stool outside every day to get the mail out of the mailbox.
hearing words being practiced over and over until they are said correctly.
hearing songs being sung as you are playing.
hearing the word "okay" the first time you are asked to do something.
watching you clean the playroom with out being told.
watching you clean the playroom when you are told.
reading the Bible each night at bedtime.
discussing what exciting adventures each day holds.
watching your imagination take flight.
watching you academic, language, and social skills grow.
hearing you laugh - everyday.
seeing you smile - everyday.
being loved so unconditionally and forgiven so easily by two little boys.
being called Mommy-a!!

First Thanksgiving

I spent the week before Thanksgiving talking about why we celebrate the holiday and doing some Thanksgiving projects. The boys colored and cut out small Mayflowers that rocked back and forth. And John kind of remembered it's name - the "Flowership" (not too bad, I think!). We also colored and cut out pictures of a Pilgrim boy and girl and Native American boy and girl and taped them to cups so they would stand up on our table as centerpieces.

The actual day of Thanksgiving we went to my aunt and uncle's house. Here the cousins are all smiles:

A family portrait:

The day after Thanksgiving (as we had our furnace replaced) we had our own Turkey Fest: turkey and stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, and rolls and apple butter. I'm really the one who loves turkey in our house so that meant a lot of hot turkey sandwiches for me the following week!!

Fall Fun

The boys loved helping to rake leaves:

Ryan took a bit of an original approach:

And of course they loved jumping and sitting in the piles of leave!

Field trip to an Apple Orchard (these are actually from September but I didn't get them up on the blog that month!)