Sire Sighters (Fire Fighers)

Since last spring Eli has told me that he wanted to be a YELLOW sire sighter when he grew up (well, along with Humpty Dumpty, ring master, football player etc. he is at that age) In preschool we have been learning about community helpers this month. So, we went to the local fire department to take a tour. Eli was so excited about it. Here he is in the car before going in.

We are listening to the fire fighters.
They showed us how to put on all the protective things before going to a fire. Eli loved it. During this part Eli kept looking at the truck saying, " I don't want to get in." I think it was a little overwhelming. I told him he didn't have to over and over agian, but he just kept right on saying it. And here he is getting out of the truck. Peer pressure. If you see your friend do it, then you can do it too. I think he was still a little nervous.
He thought the hose was cool.
He even got a chance to sit in the drviers seat. He loved that! He wouldn't turn and look for a smile!
By the end, he warmed right up to that huge, yellow truck!
Now they went on a tour of the building.

One of the fireman told them to jump on the beds, so that is exactly what they did. HAHA!
They were so nice to have us there with our crazy kids. This is three preschool groups that are in our ward. We decided it would be better for us all to come together one time. We had a blast.

Surprise!

On December first we got an early Christmas present. . . Andy got his appendix out. This is the fourth surgery Andy has had in our 6 years of marriage. He went to bed the night before feeling pains in his side. It wasn't bad, but it bothered him. So at school the next day one of his classmates told him to go to the student clinic because where he was feeling is exactly where an appendicitis hurts. Well, turns out he was escorted to the ER from the student clinic. He sent me a text at about 11:00 and told me he was in the ER. He told me not to come because he was in a closet with no TV and I would be bored. keep in mind that Andy is in the middle of finals and he has the boards scheduled for December 23rd. Great timing I know! Anyways, he is back to full strength now.

This is the only picture I dared to take of Andy during his recovery! I was just pretending to take a picture of Miles.

The best part about this whole crazy surgery business is that we got to have Andy's mom come and help me. She helped me with everything! Thanks Linda! Eli loves to spend time with Grandma. Its great to have someone that would drop everything in their life and fly across the country to help you. Again, I don't know how I would have gotten through it without her. Here are some pictures I took during that time.

Eli and Grandma made a count down to Christmas chain. He loves it!

Here it is almost done!
Here is the rest of the photo shoot I took of Miles. I love it when his hair is wet, right out of the bath.
Solemn.
Classic! I took it when he was about to sneeze. I laugh out loud every time I look at this picture.
Silly boy!
He loves his mommy and maybe the camera too.
Eli loves to peel oranges now. Well, these are just the baby ones. But he just loves it.
Here he is enjoying his work!

Thanksgiving Celebrations

We had a great time at the Mother's Group Thanksgiving Party. This is what we did. . .

Listen to the First Thanksgiving Story.

The best part of it was when Candace dropped the magnets and Eli and Dana raced after who could get to it first. Dana won. Eli was not happy about that and after he started crying, all kids were done. Well, at least it was a good idea to tell the Thanksgiving story. Right?
Then we made apple turkeys. They turned out really cute. Here is Eli working hard on his.
Seeing if he got it right. I love this face. He always pulls it when he is concentrating.
All done. Aren't they cute?
Then we colored Thanksgiving pictures.

For our Thanksgiving day my sister, Kelli came into town. She is in DC right now doing an internship. It was nice to have her cooking right by me like we would be doing in my moms kitchen. We also were so happy to share Thanksgiving with the Spendloves. Even though we only love 30 minutes from them, we don't see them as much as we would like. So we had a great day eating lots of food. Andy and Jake got to watch football and play Xbox. Marci, Kelli, and I went and found a newspaper for all the Black Friday specials. Eli loved to play with Whit. And the babies both took good naps. It was a great day!

The only thing I regret to say it that I didn't take any pictures of our fun day. We could of got some cute ones too. I did take a picture of the pies we had. These are the three we had. Kelli's Pecan pie. Marci's pumpkin pie. And my apple pie. We had a ton of pie!
Here is Kelli with her first pie. Look at those cool leaves on the edge. She is amazing! We love you kelbel!
And of course now I have to say some things I am Thankful for. Not in any particular order.

1. Cute, beautiful kids that keep me going and going.

2. A hard working, fun husband-he even got up and went shopping Friday morning while I slept in! I know he is a great guy!

3. yummy food

4. Great friends to help me not miss family so much.

5. My beautiful talented, hard working sister Kelli ( I have 4 more that I am thankful for, but she is the one that I see right now) She is so motivated and fun to have around!

6. The Gospel! My Savior! He is always there to help me!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Primary Program

Last Sunday, Eli participated in his very first primary program! He did a great job. He knew his parts but when he got up there to say them, I think he was a little overwhelmed, so he got help. He sat so still the whole time and he was even the youngest up there! I loved watching him sign the last song by looking at his teacher behind him. She told him to turn around and follow the chorister. So he did.

I took a picture of him right before we left for church. Doesn't he look so big? I can't believe he is almost 4!!!!

This one shows his little personality.
Since we couldn't bring our cameras into the church for the program, this is the next best thing. We were in the Primary room last week for our Thanksgiving party (more posted on that later) Eli stood up there and said his parts without being told too. So, I made him do it again for the camera. Mostly this is for the Grandparents that would have loved to be there to hear him.

Miles is 15 months!

Our little Miles Jay is fifteen months! He is learning so much every week. Here are his stats!

Weight: 18 lbs. 10 oz. still not on the percentile scale. But this is a whole pound more than 3 months ago.

Height: 30 inches 20th percentile

Head circumference: 46cm 20th percentile

Just for fun here are 15 things we love about Miles:

1. The way he crawls when he doesn't want his bare legs to hit the floor (I call it the downward dog crawl)

2. His HUGE smile with his two little bottom teeth and his two top David Letterman teeth. (it really does melt your heart)

3. How he says: mama, dada, nana (banana), more (and he signs it too), all done (he just signs this, but it is so cute how he waves his little hands), nini (night night), bibi (and he waves his little hands).

4. How he points to things with all his fingers sticking out but the pointer finger separated from all the rest.

5. How he says "0000000" like an owl when he is pointing to try to tell us what he is pointing at.

6. How he shakes with excitement when he sees a bowl of fruit because he wants to eat it so bad.

7. His long curly hair. He's only been called a girl twice.

8. How he loves to go on rides his stroller.

9. His chicken legs and little bum or I should say the lack of a bum.

10. How he pushes anything around like it is a car. All boy!

11. How he loves to play with his brother Eli.

12. How he squeals like a girl when he is excited!

13. How he has this deep growl that he will use only on special occasions.

14. How he loves to cuddle.

15. How he dances to music. He has done this since he was about 10 months.

I could go on, but what mom couldn't? I am so happy he is a part of our lives. He brings so much joy and happiness into our lives. We love you Miles!

Happenings

We have been busy having fun around here lately. Miles LOVES to play on the bean bag. He lays down like he is going to sleep.

See how happy he is.
Eli loves preschool. Here is Sammy and Eli playing during free time. Yes, my toy room is a mess. Mission accomplished!
Last week we went to Inflation Nation for playgroup. They love it there. This is Eli's good friend Dana.
Mils even got in on the action. He was squeaking like a girl he was so excited.
Eli on the way up.
Eli about to come down.
Miles squealing again.
And again!
Eli posing on the train.
Miles loves to help me load the dishwasher. One day he can do it all. I look forward to those days!

Halloween Part 2

So, I finally remembered to work on this blog while Miles is sleeping. and I got the rest of my pictures to load. I don't have any of the boys in their costumes on that night (Andy's dad took those and I don't have a copy yet). But here are some fun little tidbits from the rest of the fun weekend we had with the Nobles.

Andy mom bought Eli this chalk. Isn't it cool? It's HUGE! It is the envy of the neighborhood.

When we got home from the pumpkin patch Andy and Eli (Grandpa) carved our pumpkins, while Grandma and I made dinner. We had beef stew with rolls shaped like pumpkins (it was my first try, so it wasn't perfect) Because I was making dinner, I didn't have time to take any pictures of the jack-o-lanterns or the carving (GRRRRR) and they would have been really cute! Oh well at least here are the jack-o-lanterns after about a week. Andy's had a cool brain top that glowed when it was lit.
Then we took the kids trick-or-treating. I was a little disappointed by the number of houses not there or not giving out candy. If you don't celebrate Halloween then don't have your light on and don't answer the door. Just put a note on the door. It will save us all a lot of time. I don't mean to grumble or complain. We gave out two HUGE bags of candy and Eli only got like ten pieces. Not that he needs more, it's just the principle of it all. People always want something for nothing. It feels good to get that off my chest!

Here are some pictures that didn't load the first time from the pumpkin farm. Eli playing in the corn seed. I love his smile.
so cute!
He got a dog made for him. He doesn't know quite what to think of it though.
So as you can tell we loved Halloween this year.