Sending Happy Birthday Wishes to My Mom and My Sister Jenny this weekend!

My videos on this camera always turn out a little dark but as you can hear Walter and Rose E are singing "Happy Birthday" and when Walter decided he was done he ran out of the room and Rose E who was sitting in her booster seat said "down down bye bye."

Hope everybody had a good Turkey Day!

Rose E went up in the world as for she decided it was time to graduate out of the highchair and join the other kids for our yummy Thanksgiving meal! After the meal was done all of the kids got into playing Lego's, I took this picture of Rose E joining the crew. Walter has been really into his Duplo blocks lately so I wasn't surprised that he sat there for a long time and worked on his "airplanes".

This picture was taken on Friday, the kids where all dressed-up because they got their picture professionally taken with their cousins (they actually got them all to smile at once). Then afterwards we went to Mc Donalds and when we pulled up Rose E said excitedly "fries."
Friday night we walked to see Santa whom arrived in the firetruck (in the picture Ariel and Walter are waiting to see Santa). Rose E was definitely more into the firetruck than Santa as for she screamed when we walked away from the fire truck to sit on his lap and then screamed when she sat on the big guy's lap. Walter though bravely went up onto his lap and said "I want Geo Trax for Christmas." However, Rose E now does recognize Santa. Tonight I read her Twas the Night Before Christmas and she said "Santa" when she saw a picture of him and when I said what does he say she said "ho ho ho." I asked Walter where Santa lives and he said "somewhere where he makes lists."

Here are some Thanksgiving greetings from the kids:

Walter included the song "Jesus Loves Me"

And Rose E's turned out a little dark but you can still hear her attempt at saying "gobble, gobble" (while she is holding a toy turkey) and her song which is "ABC" (she now says the entire song).

Hope your Thanksgiving is filled with lots of sunshine, love and laughter (p.s this sun was created by Walter and makes me smile when I see it)!

This is what the kids have been up too the past couple of days. I took out this train whistle and now they have been going on lots of train rides around our house. We all have to get in a line hold hands and say "woo woo ding ding" according to Rose E. The picture was taken by Walter. This girl just cracks me up as for everything has to be a certain way. Our kitchen stools have spindles that periodically pop out of place, anyway, yesterday one fell to the ground and she came running to me and said "come on mess, mess" and then she pointed to it and said "uh oh." She is understanding and saying so much! Tonight as I was taking her upstairs to bed she gave hugs and kisses to Jeff and then as we where going upstairs she said "good night" so I called out to Jeff "Rose E says Good night" and then she said "Mama say Daddy Good Night." Sometimes it is cute too to see as they discover new things. The other day we bought filters for our humidifier which we hadn't set-up yet and when she saw the humidifiers in the store she signed is that a fish tank? Yesterday too we where reading a book and she pointed to a xylophone and when I said what it was she signed phone and said hello??? I can't imagine how confusing certain things must be to them.

Oh and other big news here is that we traded in our van for a Suburban. Walter is funny about parting with big items and did not want to say good bye to the van so when Jeff told him the plan he said "I don't want a Suburban that is junk to me." He was in opposition too when we traded the four wheeler in for the Ranger but once he got to ride on it he was happy. Anyway, he is finally getting used the idea of having a different vehicle and is now making Suburban maps.

News and views from this week!

This weekend Walter went to his first friend Birthday party and loved it. His good friend Cyrus whom is a month older is turning four, It's so hard to believe, wow time flies! Anyway, Happy Birthday Cyrus!
We also got together last night with Jeff's family and said good bye to his Grandma for the winter (she is going to be mostly down state Michigan with Jeff's aunt and her family). We hope she has a good winter and will miss her here! She is in the picture with Jeff's Aunt Mary, Jeff's cousin Johny, Walter, Brady, Cale, Rose E and Kirsten.

These kids imaginations have just been soaring this week and it is just amazing to me what makes those wheels roll! Here Walter and Rose E where making "mountains, hills and tunnels" out of the rug and as you can see Walter was in deep thought trying to plan the whole thing out. Rose E still loves digging through my spices and now says "spice," anyway, I had to laugh because they have now turned into a team as for Walter had a spice bottle in each hand the other day and used them as "headlights" as he flew around as an "airplane." Rose E watches his every move and imitates him, it's so cute.

Oh and there's no throwing away any boxes in this household, not in front of Walter at least. Here he was a "fire truck" and Rose E was right along with him saying "whee woo whee woo."

Speaking of imitating, Rose E has now caught on to the puppet thing and is now going around with the puppets and saying "hi" yesterday she came-up to me with the puppet and said her usual "hi" and I said "oh hi zebra what have you been doing today?" She replied "playing" and today she was making it jump while saying "hop hop." This week she has added so many words to her vocabulary list, it's so much fun and exciting to hear them, sometimes I am just floored at what she picks-up. Walter too. He has been into playing "pet doctor" and has put band aids on all of his pet stuffed animals (as well as listened to their heartbeats, given them x rays, shots, etc.) anyway the other day when I was giving Rose E a bath he noticed a spot where she scratched herself a couple of days before hand and he said "mama we should put a band aid on Rose E's scratch then she'll be as good as new." Oh which reminds me Rose E had her 18 month doctor's appointment this week too, which went well but she was just besides herself whenever the nurse or the doctor came near her she just screamed. Then she got a shot and when got to the van and she said sadly "shot." Little smarty pants. It's amazing what she picks up on and remembers, she has this toy phone that sings to her when she talks on it so the other day when she talked to my sister on the phone she said "hello" and then "sing?" (hello where is the music here?). Another cute thing she did was when she got up from her nap I said "where's my kiss?"(asking her to kiss me) and she pointed to my lips.

Walter made this hat at Cyrus's Birthday party and he isn't the only one digging it! She is wearing it like a visor, upside down, side ways and as a necklace. What a goof. Oh and she is now looking in the mirror and saying "me!" As well as drawing pictures of "babies." They both are getting too big too fast!

Happy Birthday Colton!

Wishing my nephew Colton a very Happy Birthday. Hope you dig in and enjoy that cake and have lots of fun with your new toys this weekend.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas (so why isn't it coming yet?)

It is getting to be a winter wonderland here again. Last time I mentioned it in my blog I meant to go back and note that it did start to stick and we had a good amount on the ground but by the time we returned from our trip it had all melted and now it's back. It started on Sunday morning and began to come down like fake looking small pebbles of white, on our way out the door to church Walter said "mama what is happening to our universe?" Then today we ran some errands and it was cold and windy, the wind gushing the snow around and I looked at Walter and he was blowing air out of his mouth and I said "what are you doing?" He said "I'm blowing the wind away." They are both excited about the weather change, Rose E excitedly says "snow" and then "brr" whenever we go outside and Walter is asking "why isn't it Christmas yet?" Oh and speaking of Christmas, every time Rose E sees Christmas ornaments in a store she excitedly exclaims "ball" I can just imagine what is going through her head when she sees a whole tree of balls!

Money doesn't grow on trees (oops I mean chips don't grow on trees).

Today Jeff brought out his trumpet and played some music for the kids so Walter used his horn and said he was playing the "trump"while "reading the music." He also made me smile at lunch time we have been talking a lot about where fruits and vegetables grow so when we had chips with our meal and his got wet on his plate from his carrots he said "when they pulled these chips off of the chip tree they where still wet when they put them into this bag." What a goof! Rose E has been singing "la la la la la Elmo's world and now when she sees a book or something else with Elmo in it is called "Elmo's world" and Elmo is called "Elmo's" and I am now called "Mama's."