The Holidays

We had a great Thanksgiving this year.  We were with the Jensens this time, at my dad's house, and it was wonderful to visit, eat ourselves sick, and play games, as always.  The really exciting part for me this year was telling our family the happy news that we're having a new little critter next June!  We let Tess spill the news to Gramma & Grampa Terry and we let Miles spill the news to Papa and family.  Miles doesn't seem to understand or care that there will be a new baby, but Tess is really thrilled and talks about it all the time!  Today we were decorating the tree and she made sure to put a baby-rattle out as part of the Christmas decorations.  I am due on June 16, 2011 and I'm so excited!  I've been pretty sick this time around; sicker than with the other two for sure.  And, what they say is true about your belly "popping out" much sooner with 2nd or 3rd babies...I'm about ready to break out the maternity clothes already, and I'm only 3 months along!

Here are some photos of the kids decorating the tree this morning...

 

 

 I'd like to call special attention to the lower left-hand side of the tree.  Notice, if you will, the beautiful arrangement of decorations that I like to call "the red blob."  That is the handiwork of our sweet 2-year-old helper.  I think there are 15+ ornaments on about 2 single branches.  Now there is a battle going on within me...the proud mom who thinks her baby boy is darling versus the anal perfectionist who looks at the red blob and cringes.  I think the proud mom will win out this year.

More Miles...

OK...I had to write about another funny thing that Miles did yesterday.  I let Tess & him pick a piece of Halloween candy and he chose Laffy Taffy.  Bryan was opening it, and a little chunk fell on the floor, so Miles quickly picked it up and began eating it.  He looked really upset and said, "It's not even chompy!"  I took that to mean that he was frustrated that it was soft--maybe he expected it to be hard, like a sucker?  So, I offered him a sucker instead.  He kept chewing on the Laffy Taffy for a minute and then, stressed, said, "Mom, this candy is GOSS!" (gross).  I told him to just come and spit it in the garbage can.  When he came over, I watched him spit it out....and it was a chunk of Laffy Taffy WRAPPER!  No wonder it was "goss" and "not chompy!"  Ha!

Miles...

This kid cracks me up. 

1- He got a cut on the tip of his finger yesterday, so he has the "double-bandaid," and he is constantly giving us all the bird. 

2- This morning he was saying the first and last names of everyone in our family (and middle names if he knew them.)  When he got to himself, he got confused and blurted out "Mom, I can't REMEMBER!!  What IS my name?"

3- Yesterday we had a funny experience:  In the mornings during breakfast we always read the newspaper...Tess asks for the weather page because she can easily "read" the pictures of clouds, sun, rain, etc.  Miles always gets the sports section because he loves to see the pictures of the people in action with their footballs, basketballs, soccerballs, etc.  Well, I didn't realize the impact this was having on him until we were watching TV yesterday afternoon and a commercial came on with Montel Williams as the spokesperson.  Miles looked carefully at Montel, then turned to me and said, "Hey!  That guy's a basketball player!"  It was so funny, but also pretty sad that the only black people Miles ever sees are on the sports page.  Only here in Utah....

Halloween 2010

We had a wonderful Halloween this year.  We were very worried when the skies opened at about 5:30 and the downpour began.  We figured that we could at least go "Trick or Treat" at the Mall, indoors, but luckily just as we got the kids into their costumes, the rain stopped and we even had a big, beautiful rainbow outside.  Tess was a butterfly this year and Miles was a "magon." (dragon.) 

(PS...I know that butterflies don't wear tutus, but a little girl's Halloween butterfly costume just isn't complete without one! :)

I tried to paint a dragon on Miles' cheek (Tess had a pretty butterfly tattoo on her cheek, so Miles wanted something too.)  Let me tell you--face-painting on a wiggly 2 year old is not fun.  The dragon on his face looked not-so-great, a fact that I couldn't deny when Tess came up and said, "Mom, you're not a very good artist."  Oh well.