Thanksgiving

I feel like in the past (when I was in school mostly) holidays would spring up on me so fast and all of a sudden they were over. Now that I'm a stay at home mom with two little guys we celebrate each holiday thoroughly- all month long. It just gives us something fun to do. Thanksgiving was no exception, we did thanksgiving crafts (several darling turkeys resulted), read Thanksgiving books, attended the storytime Thanksgiving day at the library, Chase had a Thanksgiving feast at preschool to which he was assigned to bring jello (aka- the food I never make and was super nervous about supplying), and had weekly Family Home Evening lessons on gratitude. It was awesome.

We started off our Thanksgiving celebrating by hitting up the free day at the zoo! We love those! We always get there right when it opens and see most of it before the crowds come. Heidi flew in to town and she and my mom came with us. Hudson loved it and exclaimed "You've gotta see this guys!" at every animal. Chase was more interested in the construction currently going on there (they are building a new play structure). 

 On Thanksgiving day we did our own thing at home. It was fun to make Thanksgiving dinner for the first year in our new home! Chaser was my little helper and helped me cook almost the entire dinner! It was a really relaxed day of cooking and family.

 Here are the boys by our thankful tree! We started this at the first of the month and every morning during breakfast each of us would come up with a few more leaves to add to the tree. Chase especially loved this and reminded me any time I forgot. He came up with great stuff to be thankful for too (like friends, grandparents, donuts, being invited to birthday parties, my brother, the mountains, beautiful sunrises, primary) and needed very little prodding from me to come up with stuff. That tree was packed full of things we are thankful for and it was great to remember how blessed we truly are!

 Here we are with our dinner. We made turkey and cranberry sauce, roasted green beans, Ruth's Chris sweet potato casserole, biscuits and corn pudding. Of course we had pumpkin pie for dessert. Everything turned out delicious! (I was relieved)

 On Friday we celebrated Thanksgiving with the Smith Family. Since Will and Kate were at Kate's parents house for actual Thanksgiving, we just moved the big family celebration back a day. We loved having two days in a row of Thanksgiving! I got up early to shop with my mom and sisters and then we all gathered at my parents house that evening for a delicious Thanksgiving meal. My grandparents joined us, as well as Nate's cute girlfriend Halie (Nate just moved to Chicago and couldn't make it back for the holiday- luckily we have cousins there so he was with family too!) My mom had a beautiful table set with fine china and crystal goblets, everything was fancy and gourmet! As always, we spent most of the night trying to keep our wild ones under control (and failed, as usual).

November

November was so fun, and it went by so fast! I started off the month with a fun girls night out with my friends from study abroad! Katie, Sara and I became fast friends on the plane ride to London back in 2007 and had a wonderful experience there together. We haven't seen a lot of each other over the past 8 years, but it was so fun to get together at Cheesecake Factory in Salt Lake and chat and laugh the night away! It was fun to reflect back on where life has taken us and all the amazing memories we shared (and that we all equally still shudder at the thought of the hostel we stayed in Dublin!)

 I watch Nora at some point most weeks and we all love it. She's a treat to have around and the boys adore them (and she adores Chase, and to a less extent Hudson). My mom stopped by one afternoon and was reading to the boys and ALL THREE kids insisted on sitting on her lap, even easy-going Nora wasn't content until she'd staked out some real estate on Nana's lap.

The boys are obviously super enamored with fire trucks, and we were lucky enough to get our own personal tour of the fire station courtesy of a "Jack's dad" (Jack is Chase's little friend from Primary and his dad is a firefighter). We went to the fire station open house last month, which the boys thought was great. But having the whole place to themselves, with free reign to play in and on any of the fire trucks and ambulance was pretty much the best thing ever! Hudson "drove" the ambulance for a good 20 minutes, and was a little appalled that no one would give him the keys and insisted he just pretend.  It was a pretty awesome day!

Chase got invited to a birthday party at the Aquarium! It was on a Saturday, and our ticket into the Aquarium for the birthday party covered Chase and one parent (me) for the whole day there! So we went 2 hours before the party started and enjoyed the whole aquarium, which Chase was super excited about. Then he loved the actual birthday party (which included cake and playing on this super awesome play structure with all his little buddies!). I take my kids to do fun activities all the time, but rarely with just one of them. It was so fun to have a whole day with just Chaser! By the time we drove all the way to the Aquarium, stayed for four hours, drove home and stopped at the grocery store, we were gone most of the day!

Since we didn't want Hudson to feel left out, Ben planned a special day with him. They went to the train museum in Ogden, which Hudson loved (although he still reminds me that he would also like to go to the "Karium") Hudson loves trains and Ben had a great time with him. I'm pretty sure their date also ended at the grocery store, just to pick up a pack of cookies for a special treat for Huds. It was such a fun Saturday for all of us!

Out of the Mouth of Hudson

After a fight with Chase and Chase had apologized, Hudson headed upstairs still upset. I asked him what he was doing and he said, "I'm just going to my room to be sad."

While doing a scavenger hunt hiking in the mountains, he kept insisting that he was just looking for tadpoles. Then he told us "Tadpoles hatch out of their eggs into the water, and then they take swimming lessons." He continued to talk about tadpoles the entire hour we were hiking.

During a tantrum I was trying to calmly talk him through his intense emotions:
Me: Hudson, can you tell me what is bothering you?
Hudson: YOU ARE BOTHERING ME!
and now if anyone asks what is bothering him, he says "My mommy is bothering me."
(You know, trying to get him to eat vegetables, take a much needed nap, buckle into his carseat, all that really annoying stuff)

When he's trying to lift something (or someone) he says "Heave-ho! Heave-ho!" (I'm fairly sure he's quoting Jake and the Neverland Pirates)

While eating ice cream at my parents house after dinner one night. "Thanks for the ice cream Nana! My mom just doesn't let me have it when I asked for it for breakfast."
-disclaimer: he didn't ask. But he would have been told no.

Coming out of his room after I'd put him to bed:
I just have some ideas mom!

Hudson has taken to climbing in our bed in the early morning hours. Overheard one morning:
Hudson: Dad- scoot over Dad! I don't have room!
Ben: Hudson, it's MY bed.
Hudson:.....Oh yeah, I forgot.

Hudson: Chase will you read this book to me?
Chase: No, I want to watch this game with dad
Hudson: (whiney voice) Daddy! Chase won't read this book to me. I want him to be an example to me!

After I declined his offer to share Halloween candy with me, he quietly set a starburst next to me and said, "I'll just put this here in case you change your mind."

Out of the Mouth of Chase

At the park one day: Do you know why these wood chips are here? Well I do. Back in the age of the dinosaurs, this area was completely covered in trees. Then they chopped all the trees down and made these woodchips so they decided to put a park here.

Telling a story at dinner one night "In the age of the past..." (I wish I could remember what the story was about, but the beginning just killed me.)

 Mom, do you know how much I love you? Two hugs and a kiss!
and then a few hours later
Mom, do you know how much I love you? As big and as wide as...what's that place we go to again? Oh yeah, Home Depot. As big and as wide as the Home Depot! (I'm sure that was the biggest place he could think of.)

Looking at a picture of the pioneers "Was that just thirty one one hundred and sixty years ago? Oh yeah, that happened before the gold rush." (I did not know he knew about the gold rush.)

While Ben was gone, the boys woke up crazy early and crawled in bed with me every single morning. One morning Chase came in around 5:30 am, and then around 6:00 Hudson came in. In the dark Hudson asked, "Can I get in your bed mom?" and before I could even answer Chase replied "Of course Hudson, you are always welcome here!" (So nice of Chase to welcome Hudson to my room!)
And then Hudson burst into tears because he wanted to be the first one in my bed apparently.  Don't worry, Hudson got up at 4:00 am the next morning to reserve his spot.

 Me: You are going to Nana's tonight so Dad and I can go on a date.
Chase: Where are you going on your date mom?
Me: To the temple.
Chase: Oh, that's sweet!

I'm trying to train Chase that he can only ask for one thing for Christmas (I may be a scrooge). Mostly, I'm trying to instill in him gratitude for what he has and to not be greedy and expect a lot of presents at Christmas/birthdays. So he's been carefully deciding what he wants to ask for, and for the last few weeks it's been a scooter. Then we had this conversation:
Chase: Mom, I want a new firetruck for Christmas that squirts water (his has some broken parts on it)
Me: Okay buddy, do you want that instead of a scooter? (I realize in all likelihood he'll get both- or at least one for his birthday, but I don't want to him expect/require that)
Chase: Well, can't I have both?
Me: No remember, just ask for one thing.
Chase: Well...Can you buy me the scooter and dad could buy me the fire truck.
Me: (Start some speech about being grateful and not greedy and just deciding on one thing to ask for for Christmas)
Chase: (under his breath) Fine. I'll just talk to Nana then.

Ben overheard Chase singing under his breath: Reese Pieces Peanutbutter cup! I was gonna eat it but Dad ate it up! (Recapping an actual incident)