Benture

I mentioned a few weeks ago that we've been going on lots of adventures lately ("bentures")... one of which is to the Sands.  The Sands is a public dock and little beach located a few blocks from George and Olivia's school.  On days like the one pictured below, we pick up G and O and head down for a little sand-in-the-toes time :)  Obviously these were taken from the week of Halloween (gotta love the festive shirts!)... although it did warm back up a little lately, so we've been hitting the Sands often trying to soak it up before it gets cold again!

The entire family loves Bentures!

 S is for Samuel! 

Olivia and George love letters!  Actually, they love guessing what the word is... in their world, S usually stands for Samuel, one of their three S-name friends, or School :)

 Olivia used the wide-open space to show us her new ballerina dance :)

Have no clue where she learned about a ballerina dance!

 Daddy: I love this kid!

 Samuel: I love this daddy!

 Love you too :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

We spent a wonderful thanksgiving feasting with Omi, Uncle Jay, Linda, Madison, and Josh - the kids loved it!  I'm pretty sure everyone was well entertained, to say the least :)  At dinner, when we asked who would like to say grace, Olivia volunteered... she smiled, looked at everyone holding hands, and literally, she said "Grace"... ha ha!

Each night before bed, George and Olivia say their prayer, after which we thank God for all our blessings of the day.  The last two weeks, the list has almost always started with one purple polka dot (Olivia) and dump trucks (George).  Then we generally get into names of family and friends we see often, names of their friends at school, Peach-lo and Reflux (stuffed dogs), the van, the beach, and almost every part of their day... I know we're ready for bed when they start looking around and thanking God for "a fan, a drawer, a door, etc..."  :) 

The part I love is that they are thankful for every, single, part of their day.  Everything!  Whether it's something we do, or someone we see, every day... or something new and special... they are thankful for it. 

Thinking back to the early days, when the thankfulness that overwhelmed me was for every day that my children were alive... I'm reminded not to take things for granted.  Between knowing that feeling so deeply, and watching all three of my children every day, I am incredibly thankful quite often :)  

I've never done this before, but I want to share another blog.  While I'm not really sure how to measure thankfulness, a lot of this blog hit home.  It's from a mother of a special needs child, and I have to say, when I read this is makes me smile at all the things my Samuel has accomplished, things he was not guaranteed.  It also makes me hold my breath just a little thinking about the future... but I can rest easy, luckily there's someone else in charge, and I am thankful for His grace and His plan (even though I may not always understand it) every day.

Olivia and George spent some time preparing their own feast last week...

 Caught in the act of cooking in the living room :)

 George doesn't mind, he continues the lesson...

 Here Olivia, you try...

 ... just like this!

 Thirty minutes later this is where I caught them... cooking in their "car,"

but this time they each have their own spatulas :)

Weekend with Do

When he was on this side of the country for a conference, Do (my dad) made a pit stop on his way home to visit us the first weekend in November.  It was such a treat to have him here!  I can't lie, made me miss my mom... but we really loved having him here.  Plus, they will both be here for Christmas in just six weeks!  (Wow, Christmas is in six weeks?) 

We try to skype with Mo and Do a couple times a month, which is nice because Do wasn't a complete stranger to them when he arrived.  In fact, all three gravitated towards him very quickly, I loved it!  Samuel even tapped him on the back at one point and said, "Do" :)

Good Morning!

The kids thought it was great that when they woke up, Do was right there :)

 A train!  Since Do's visit, George has continued making these trains all over the house :)

 Do was amazed at how much Samuel has changed since their last visit, and Samuel loved showing off his new tricks :)

 Even Olivia warmed up quickly to Do, which is generally quite a task!

Beach Trip

It was a little chilly, but no one seemed to mind... once we pulled into the park, it was all smiles!

Plus, we checked out the lighthouse, which the kids have never done.

 Samuel and Do taking a stroll.

 The second George's feet hit the sand, he was scooping!

 The balance beam practice is paying off :)

  I love the sand so much... I might just get really excited and lick it!

 Ack!  Bad idea!  Bad idea!

 Beach buddies

 Woo!

 Hoo!

 Group photos rock!

BB and Do: Cheese!

Olivia: Hmmm, what's that over there?

George: That light house is really tall!

Samuel: Hi Do!  Hey, Do, over here!

Sunday Morning News

Just like Do!

Technology

The kids have always loved cousin Madison, but during her last visit week, Samuel made a discovery... Madison's phone!  The photos aren't great, the flash wiped the color right out, but they were too funny not to share.  These are completely in the order they were taken!

Madison is minding her own business, probably either texting, looking at facebook, or sharing youtube videos with DB... then Samuel toddles along...



 Whatcha got there?!

(DB and Samuel's nurse show him songs on theirs, so I guarantee that's what he was hoping to find :) )

 Samuel:  "Hmmm... mind if I see this?"  Madison is so patient...

 Madison: "Sure Samuel, let me show you something..."

 Samuel mustered up one, good, cheesy, fake smile for me.  Stinker. 

He might as well have given me the I'm Busy Mom sigh...

 Samuel: "Ooooo... ahhhhh"

How about my turn again?!  :)

On Sale?

Our family of five has had a wonderful last few weekends!  We are getting out and about, and the kids are loving it just as much as DB and me. 

We've done stuff like the beach, the Veteran's Day parade, Omi's house, even just doing errands.  Of course, not much gets done when the five of us go together to do errands :)  But we have fun checking out all the sites.  Today we went to Lowe's, and in addition to a new light fixture, checked out every. single. Christmas. decoration.  Actually, it was wonderful seeing my babies faces light up at each new, sparkly, thing.  Olivia asked me, "mommy, who is that man up there?"  It was a giant motion sensored Santa Claus :) 

But the best comment today came on our way to the car ... we were walking out of Lowe's and DB had all the goods in his cart and I had all the kids in mine.  This woman paused as she drove by me with the biggest smile on her face and asked, "Wow, are they on sale?!"  My reply, "Yep, three for the price of one!" :)

Other great comments from the last week:

• "Turn it back on!"  by Olivia after Omi blew out her birthday candle.  The candle was re-lit multiple times.
• "River", "Monkey", "Elmo", "Help"... all new words this week for Samuel!  He has signed "help" before and loves to make monkey noises, but never actually said the words! 
• "I have an urge!"  by George... after bath running around naked, I didn't want him to have an accident on the carpet, but was busy getting Samuel and Olivia dressed, so told him to let me know if he had an urge (to potty).
• "Did someone poop?"  said by DB and I... pretty sure we've said that every day for the last few years :) 

Great photos from the last week :)

Uncle Jay gets tackled!

Uncle Jay gets double-teamed :) 

Such a little man :) 

Even though he's been doing it with ease for some time now, it still amazes me to turn around and see Samuel sitting in a chair or on the couch.  My comfort is in his ability to also get off the couch, he's such a big kid now!

Veteran's Day Parade

I was so proud of all three kids, they did a great job at their first parade!

Olivia and George were so good at waving their flags and telling the veterans "Good Morning"... and Samuel, well, Samuel was really good at being patient, and then very good at showing off his walking skills going up and down the block we watched the parade from :)

More than halfway through I realized we had been so focused on all the neat things in the parade that I had no photos... but getting George to smile was a piece of cake, he loved the motorcycles! 

Between the marching bands, the actual marching of rotc and other military groups, the cool cars, the pirettes (especially Miss-Kenzie), and all of the other things that go vroom, George and Olivia were almost awestruck! 

There was another fun part about the parade that I completely forgot about...

let me zoom in...

... check out how much candy those little hands can hold!

I count at least six things plus her flag, and she was not letting any of it go!

I'm pretty sure the firetrucks trumped everything though... candy included :)

Omi and DB took turns walking with Samuel - he loved it!

But he was not very happy about the parade ending...

... not even George could cheer him up!

Happy Birthday Omi!

I mentioned last month that the kids attended their first kid-birthday party,

and since then they love talking about their birthdays and even prepare birthday cakes, birthday muffins, and birthday waters quite often in their kitchen :)  The fact that it was Omi's birthday was almost too much!  They loved singing to her and talking about it all day.