For the last couple of years, our Thanksgiving tradition has been to make a thankful tree.
Here are last year's Thankful Trees.
This year's thankful tree is so so so cute! I got this idea from one of my new favorite mom blogs that I recently discovered Keep Home Simple. (I love mom blogs. I'll even admit it, I would go so far as to say I am cyberstalking some of these mom blogs. I've learned so many things from people I don't even know, yet I love them, their blogs, and their willingness to share all their creative ideas with the world wide web.)
Our Thankful Tree this year
Here are the lists of the things the boys are thankful for this year:
ColeChaseCaden
Mom toys this tree
amphibians and reptiles grandparents newspaper
everything trees and branches hearts
Dad, his baby brother, and Chase noodle necklaces a butterfly
Grampa and Gramma candy yellow, blue, and red
Gammy and Poppy magic wands a zerbert
Chad is thankful for our family, and I, of course, am thankful for all my boys. On the night of Thanksgiving, we will spend some special time in prayer thanking God for all of these things he has blessed us with. (I should've included "mom blogs" on my leaf too.)
Hi, friends. HERE are my P365 pictures for October. It's hard to believe that there are only a handful of weeks left in this project. I'm going to miss it next year, but I'm excited to try something new. We'll see what that is, I haven't decided yet! Until then, thanks for looking at our daily lives. I heart my readers!
It all started when a sassy Irish girl left a funny comment about Edward Cullen on Facebook. Even though I didn't know her, I had to respond because it was honestly one of the funniest things I had ever read. Due to the possible delicate sensitivities of some of my readers (that's you, Mom), I won't quote it here, but lets just say it was immediately obvious that she and I share similar senses of humor. (And a love for Edward.) Aoife sent me a friends request, and an international friendship was born!
We started chatting back and forth about a variety of things, not just Twilight (although I think it's clear from the inspiration of this friendship that Twilight really does bring the world together). Then we decided we needed to get Shanna to join in the transglobal friendship. Shanna and I love this funny Irish lass (she's not a bloke - that's only for the male persuasion - I learned that after I called her a bloke) so much that we thought it would be bloodybrilliant (how do you like me now, Ireland?) to send her some of our favorite things. She LOVES the United States (she has traveled far more than Shanna and I, and has visited way cooler places in the US than I've been to), so we assembled an American care package and sent it abroad. I wish I would've taken a picture before it was packaged up, but sadly I did not. It was quite a feat of organization to fit everything into this box, so this is the only picture I have of the contents.
Well, our little friend fired back with a care package of her own and here it is! The scarves were hand-knitted by her mom! It was so much fun to receive such an amazing gift all the way from Ireland. I can not even describe how many things were in this care package...the picture really does not do it justice.
Shanna and I had Chad take a picture of us enjoying our Irish goodies so we could show it to Aoife. (Pronounced Ee-fa, which is the Irish version of Eve. See what you can learn from international friends?)
There's even talk now that Aoife and her sister will come HERE to go to the premiere of Breaking Dawn WITH US. Seriously! Can you believe it? Just another reason that the entire world should be thanking Stephenie Meyer.
And a true and heartfelt thank you to you, Aoife and to your mom, for lavishing us with such kindness! Be on the look out for a Christmas care package coming to you from your besties from the westies!
We celebrated Caden's 3rd birthday at My Gym today, and it turns out, Caden likes to PAR-TAY! This is his first birthday party we've had for him outside of our house, and I have to say, it's one of the best ones we've had since the inception of our birthday party career about six years ago. We've had parties at most of the local party hot spots, so I know what's good...and this one was GOOD!
My favorite part of the party was actually captured on video! Let me set the scene for you. Caden got to ride around on a sled that Daddy pulled while the kids followed behind him shouting birthday greetings. This was so cute and Caden loved it so much that I could've cried! I love how Caden is rocking the sled for a little extra umph, and also I love how he says happy birthday to himself.
Here are some of my absolute favorite pictures from the party.
The kids got to run around and go crazy with all these fun gym-type accessories.
No party is complete without a ball pit! This is where Chase spent most of his time.
Everyone sang Happy Birthday to Caden while he was swinging, himself included! How cute is it that he loves to wish himself a happy birthday. Be still my heart, I just love him.
Gramma made these delicious (seriously delicious) chocolate cupcakes with strawberries, because that was Caden's request. Specifically, when asked what kind of cake he wanted for his birthday, his recurring reply was "a strawberry one from the refrigerator". Thank you, Gramms, for the best cupcakes ever made! Aren't they pretty?
The kids played lots of games in between all the free play, but the grand finale of the party was this zip line! Chase and Caden weren't too keen on it, but Cole was!
Thank you to our friends and family for making Caden's birthday so special! We love and appreciate you!
It was so delightful and really heart-touching watching Caden have so much fun doing something that was all about him. Being the third little guy in the family, he is usually a spectator of all the fun that his big brothers are having. I know this birthday party was so wonderful and special for him. (And me too!) Happy 3rd birthday to my sweet Baby Caden.
Happy birthday to the best bonus baby ever! We love you so much, Baby Caden, and we're so glad you're ours. You make our family complete and perfect, and we LOVE LOVE LOVE you! Love, Mommy, Daddy, Cole, and Chase
Happy Halloween from a ninja, a pirate, and a toddler-sized skeleton!
As is our tradition, we picked out a handful of our favorite candy to keep, and took the rest to our dentist in exchange for cash. The dentist pays $2.00 per pound of candy, gives an extra dollar to the kiddies that return their candy in costume, and then makes a matching donation to Children's Hospital. Isn't that great!
Goodbye, candy. Parting is such sweet sorrow.
Hello, pay day!
I actually gave the boys the option of keeping their candy this year, but they wanted to turn it in. (I was so proud! You know how I love dental hygiene.) I'm not sure that the boys will always be in favor of this arrangement, but until they protest, I am one happy girl!
Chase helped me make stew in the crock pot last week, and I love this picture so much that I wanted to share it.
Here's what I love about it:
1. I love his facial expression. He is just delighted for three reasons:
A. He likes to help me.
B. He likes to pour things into big containers.
C. He gets to stand on the chair.
2. I love that he looks like he's making a toast with the Worcestershire sauce. Cheers!
3. I love that he's holding the directions like he knows how to read them.
4. I love the big handprint on the dish washer. (Normally this isn't something that I love, but it's a fact of life in our house and I love that it's captured perfectly in this picture.)
