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Thursday, December 4, 2008

Catch up-- just in time for the Holidays

It always seems to happen-- I get behind on my posts and then have to post a ton at a time. So before I get really behind with all the holidays here goes, I will start from newest to oldest:

Decorating the Christmas Tree:
We decorated our Christmas Tree the first Monday of December. The boys had lots of fun and were so excited. We realized that we have only put it up 4 times in the last 8 years. It really needed to get out of it's box. We anticipate lots of little hands touching the tree so we let each one of the boys pick out a box of non-breakable bulbs for the tree. Each box contained 24 bulbs. I had no intention of putting them all on there but the boys wouldn't stop, so on they all went. It actually doesn't look too bad. It is a tree that was definitely decorated by three small boys. :) 



"Mystery Trouble":
We always talk about Timothy getting into mischief and he always is. One day Andrew came and told me that Timothy was getting into "Mystery trouble." I guess he couldn't remember the word mischief. So now we have a new phrase at our house. Even Timothy calls it "mystery trouble."
The other day he got into really bad "mystery trouble." He was being very quiet, which is never good. So we sent Andrew to check on him. When Andrew came back he wasn't sure what he was doing but told us that he was hiding. We knew that couldn't be good either, so we ran to check on him. Meanwhile, Timothy knew he had been caught so he crawled out of his hiding place behind the computer desk and ran upstairs. So we walked around to find this handprint trail:

He had gotten the jar of Soy Butter (the peanut free version of Peanut Butter that we use) and had eaten and painted things with it. The jar was almost full when he got it-- I had made 2 or 3 sandwiches, and it was almost gone when we found him. It took Derek about an hour to clean the desk, the sewing cabinet, the wall, and the carpet. I got to clean Timothy which was quite the job too. Afterwards all I could do was marvel at how much easier it is to clean up messes with two people rather than one and of course was very grateful it wasn't red food coloring! :)

His face (It was thick enough that Andrew was scraping it off with his fingers and eating it. He informed us that Timothy tasted good):
Who me?!

The desk where he was painting (the picture doesn't really do it justice. Derek had to scrape it off with paper towels before he could even wash it):
The sewing cabinet:

Thanksgiving Dinner:
We enjoyed a nice, quiet Thanksgiving Dinner at home. The boys had fun helping to make all the food. Andrew especially loved covering, or "painting" as he called it, the turkey with butter (okay it was Andrew safe margarine but I always just call it butter). After our "feast," as Brian called it, we enjoyed watching a movie together and just chilling. Then while Derek and I looked at all the adds the boys all crashed on the couch because they were so tired.

The Thanksgiving Table:

Brian decided he LOVES turkey.

The results of eating turkey.

Thanksgiving Tree:
One of the few family traditions that we actually have is to make a Thanksgiving Tree. We usually do it for Family Home Evening at the beginning of November. This year was our fifth tree. 
We start with a picture of a tree with no leaves. Then we are each given some leaves. We take turns saying things that we are thankful for and writing them on the leaves. Then we glue the leaves on the tree. Soon enough our bare tree is filled with leaves showing our blessings. The catch-- each blessing can only be on there once, so if someone has already said it you have to pick something else. We keep our tree up for as long as possible so we can look it and remember all the things that we have to be thankful for.
We asked Timothy what he was thankful for and he thought for a minute. Then all on his own he yelled out, "JESUS!!" Maybe he's not a total rebel. :) It was cute. Then every time it was his turn and we would ask him what he was thankful for he always answered with the same response, "JESUS!!"





Jodi's Birthday!
Yes I had a birthday in November and I got a huge present-- a brand new, silver, 8 passenger 2009 Toyota Sienna Mini-Van. It only had 14 miles on it when we drove it the first time. I love it and am excited to have it but it kind of came as a necessity. We discovered, luckily now and not later, that 5 carseats wouldn't fit in our Dodge Grand Caravan. I wasn't worried, it had 5 seats and we had 5 carseats but it wasn't wide enough for three to go across the backseat. I even went online and found the narrowest booster seats made and ordered them. After they came Derek and I spent about 45 minutes out in the van trying all different ways to get all the carseats to fit with no luck. So in order to bring the twins home from the hospital we had to have a new van. 
I'm sure the salesman has funny stories to tell now. We researched online and found what we wanted for the right price. We called the place to make sure they had it before we drove 30 minutes to see it and they did. So off we went. When we got there they pulled it up for us to see. We pulled out all 5 of our carseats and began putting them in to see if and how they would fit. After several minutes-- they are never quick to put in, we found out they fit-- barely. So we loaded in all the kids and then we took a quick a test drive and came back and said okay we'll take it. I'm sure it's not your everyday sale.
Our new van:

Brian lost his first tooth!
Brian was so excited-- he finally lost his first tooth (back in October-- I know I'm slow, but better late than never). We tried several ways to get it out and finally did it the old fashion way with pliers. They popped it right out. Andrew wants a loose tooth really bad too. He even prays that he will get a loose one soon. But after watching Brian he has informed us that we are not using pliers on his teeth and he doesn't want them to bleed. I guess we'll see how it goes. It's a good thing he's still got a few years to go.
About a month after the first tooth Brian lost his second tooth. It had been loose but we didn't think it was ready to come out yet. We were sitting watching a movie one night and about half way through the movie Brian all of sudden said, "Where's my tooth?!" and sure enough it was gone. We didn't know when or where but it was gone. Earlier that evening the boys had been playing quite roughly in their room. So when we took them to put them to bed I looked around on the floor and happened to find his little tooth on the floor. Yea!! Apparently they had played so rough and wild as to knock out his tooth and he didn't even notice. Crazy boys!

Demonstrating how we pulled it out.

Putting it under his pillow

Showing off his tooth and the pliers we pulled it out with.

His toothless grin!

6 comments:

kieran said...

Oh Jodi, I can't believe the messes you clean! Is soy butter as thick as Peanut butter? Yuck, I still remember trying to clean up vaseline when Heber found it, what a mess. I love your new van, after Graham was born we bought a Toyota Sienna, I feel very blessed to have it. I love it so much! Oh and very brave with the pliers, Heber would never go for that; he just wiggles his teeth until you can turn them around. He cries everytime he has to face losing another tooth. I guess he really loves them. You look great!

Suzie-Q said...

Looks like a great wrap of of what has been going on with you and your family.
Nice van ! do the windows roll down that are in the sliding door?
I agree with the messes, it is always nicer to have helping hands clean up the mess rather then dirty hands making it worse.
YOur tree looks great. Next year you should send us some leaves to write on and then send back to you to put on your tree.
Congrats to Brian on loosing his tooth, did you tell him not to put his tongue in the hole so that he could have a gold tooth? That is always what Jerrie told be-- I obviously stick my tongue in the holes though cuase I never got my gold tooth oh-well.
You do look good, BIG but really good. Do I need to send you some more cheerio's?
Love you!!!

Becky said...

Brian, Congratulations on loosing your teeth!
It looks like you had a good Thanksgiving.
Jodi, I have decided that T and Alaina are too much alike for their own good. ALaina loves to get in the peanut butter. I find it in her bedroom all the time and it is kept in a locked cupboard. She usually gets a spoon and chows down but there have been times that it was just her hands. I've even found the opened jar in her bed when she gets up in the mornings (meaning she got it in the night). Does soy butter leave grease marks like peanut butter?

I love your van! and your tree looks great too!

Jessica S. said...

I like you long catch up posts! It's fun to read so much! I'm happy for you with the mini van. Jealous a little, too! Still plugging away in my cosmetically challenged, oil leaking mini van.
I LOVE the pictures of timothy in the bath tub. That grin is priceless!! Did Shady go nuts over the soy butter all over?
The best trees are the ones that the kids do, even tho they look less than "pefect". As long as they have the happy memories, they don't care how it looks!

Kyle and Tiffany said...

You guys have been busy! Congrats on the new van. That's a fun birthday presant for sure! I love your tradition of the Thanksgiving tree. That's a really good idea. I didn't even know that there were such things as non-breakable Christmas balls. I'm sure we'll be investing in some soon with our curious little man around. Merry Christmas to you guys!

Marie said...

I loved reading your "super-post"! I want to know what the story behind the wooden spoon is, though!