Happy Thanksgiving weekend!  We were blessed to have some gals come over from our local Community College to spend time with our family.  I cooked everything...which if you know me...all I really do is crockpot cooking!  I made mashed potatoes and stuffing in the crockpot.  These turned out really yummy.  I also made turkey, gravy, green bean casserole, apple pie, pumpkin pie, then rolls and cranberry sauce (from the can!).  Cranberry sauce and rolls were about the only thing the kids ate.  Oh well....can't please them all.

The girls really seemed to enjoy it.  They came over early evening and stayed until the kids bedtimes.  Both kids loved having them here.  Tim and I enjoyed it too.  Soheila is from Iran and the other two, Saya and Reika are from Japan.  We had some good (and funny) conversations.  Madelyn always shows off and puts on quite a show when we have guests over.  And you never know what's going to come out of her mouth...so she keeps us on our toes.

This morning, we put up Christmas decorations inside the house then headed to Family Christian to do some shopping.  That's normally the only store we hit up on Black Friday.  There was nobody there...except one of my old students, Danielle!  It was so great seeing she and her mom.  Miss that girl and her chattiness.  We found some gifts and of course, new music for us!  The kids are always crazy in stores when they're not tied in a cart.  Madelyn ended up knocking a shelf over right before we left.  Crazy kid.

Madelyn, Heather and I were planning to head downtown this evening to see the Christmas tree lighting, but it started snowing and getting really cold.  Good thing we didn't go since there was a protest!  We ended up staying inside, eating leftovers and watching "Frozen".  We are decorating the church tomorrow morning then hopefully going to see Santa tomorrow night.  We'll see what the day brings.  Sunday we might go downtown in the evening if it's not too cold or go to Tee's house and watch a Christmas movie while the boys watch the soccer playoffs.

Fun and busy weekend!  Hope you had a Happy and Blessed Thanksgiving!

Theodore: 2 1/2 Years Old

Theodore Joseph,

Our baby boy, you are 2 1/2 today!  What happened to the time...you're still suppose to be little.

You weigh 26 lbs and are 34.5 in. tall

Wearing size 5 diapers for day and night time.  Haven't "officially" started potty training yet, but tonight you insisted on going before bath time.  Then went right after bath time as well.  We'll officially train after the new year kiddo.

You wear size 24 month pants, 2T tops, 2T PJ's and 7 shoe

Your favorite foods are cheese, bread, puffs, veggie sticks, cheese rollups and fruit.  You're a picky eater, but have learned that if you don't eat what mama serves, you go hungry.

You go down around 7pm at night and up at 8am.  You sleep with your doggie "ruff ruff", blue blankie and white blankie.  If they're not all in your bed, sleep doesn't happen.  You also nap each afternoon from around 1pm-3pm.

Your asthma has been much much better!  Yay!!  You haven't been to the ER since this summer.  We're so happy about this.  Glad you're feeling better and your breathing's staying under control.  You take a control medicine everyday through your inhaler.  This seems to be helping a lot!

You're starting to talk a lot and repeat everything!  We can't understand everything quite yet, but you still chat away.  Madelyn tries to interpret for us.  We like to ask you to say certain words because they're funny.  One is "chips and dip" another is "cocoa puffs".  So funny.

Some of your favorite shows are Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood, Doc McStuffins and Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.  You'll actually sit through most of a show which is a nice break for us sometimes.

You enjoy playing soccer and anything involving balls.  You'll kick the soccer ball around the house saying "kick, kick, kick" over and over.  Then you'll try shooting a basket with the basketball and say "miss!!" when you miss it.  You'll do this over and over again.

You're starting to sing songs and recognize them when they come on the radio.  Some of your favorites are "Jesus Loves Me, "Jesus Loves the Little Children, "Mighty to Save", "How Great is Our God", "Row Row Row Your Boat"

Some of your favorite activities are Legos, tag, hide and seek, riding your friends "cars" outside, playing with your "tracks" and cuddling with anyone who will sit still with you.

You LOVE your sister so much.  You also like to tease her.  It drives her crazy and you know it.  Oh sibling rivalry begins early!

You also love "reading" books.  You'll makeup words and say some that you remember are in there.  You love when we read to you as well.

You have such a sweet personality and good heart.  You have the biggest smile and funniest giggle.  We love to hear you laugh little boy.

Love you kiddo!

-Mommy and Daddy

Good deal, good deal

If you haven't already joined Ebates, today's a good day to do it.  Groupon has pay $5 for a $10 gift card at Starbucks today.  If you go through Ebates first, you get 6% back.  It's not a ton, but it's something.  If you do a lot of online Christmas shopping, it's a good thing to go through as well.  I've already received 2 checks in the mail from them.  Free money, good deal!

Here's the link if you haven't signed up yet...

Ebates

"How to" steps (for you, mom :)...

Click on the link
Sign in or create an account (make sure it's through my link so I can get the referral :)
In the search bar, type "Groupon" and enter
Or you can click on "Stores" at the top left and click "G".  Scroll down and find Groupon.
Click "shop now"
It takes you directly to Groupon's site
Login or create an account if you've never used it
Type in "starbucks" at the top and it'll take you to the deal

That's it.  Easy stuff!  I'm a coupon clipper and enjoy saving money where I can.  Just thought I'd share.

Dance Class

Madelyn has been loving her dance class.  It's only she and her friend, Ada, in there.  She has a recital coming up next month and I'm excited to see how she does!  Tim had this past Tuesday off and was able to come see her and take a few pictures.

MJ & TJ

Thought I'd do a quick update and post a couple pictures of the kids over the past couple weeks.  They are playing together a little better these days.  I tell you what though, my little 3 1/2 year old is keeping me on my toes.  I've recently heard it's called the "trying two's" and "terrible three's". She's my strong willed child and wants things her way.  Can't imagine where she gets that from :)  I typically just give her space when she has her "tantrums" and let her work through them.  Talking to her when it happens does not help because she's not listening anyway.  We had one in the car coming home from Awana and Choir last night.  She wanted something and we had already told her no and weren't about to change our minds.  Once you do that, they know you'll cave!  Anyway, ended up with some screaming in the car.  She eventually calmed down and collected herself.  We take home Isabel on Wednesday nights...poor girl...I'm sure her ears were ringing when she got home.  Madelyn apologized to her before getting out of the car.  However, when she's had enough sleep and is content, she is the sweetest girl I know.  She's soaking up everything.  Learning songs, writing letters and "sight reading", spelling her name and has such an imagination.  Love my goosie girl.

Bubba boy is pretty easy going most of the time.  He's EVERYWHERE which is physically exhausting, but hey, now I don't have to exercise as much :)  When I tell him "no" to something, he normally just shrugs his shoulders and finds something else to do.  Some days he has little tantrums, but it's normally when he either needs to go down for nap or bedtime.  He's talking up a storm and repeats everything.  Love him to pieces.

playing hide and seek

where's Theo??

eating dinner after trick-or-treating

watching a movie with daddy

playgroup last Sunday night...baby Kaitlyn was a hit

Trick or Treat

Happy Halloween...or "dress-up day" as Madelyn still calls it!  We had a fun day on Friday.  Madelyn dressed up in all orange Friday morning for preschool then we came home for naps, got up and went to the mall to trick or treat.  Madelyn chose to be "Doc McStuffins" from the Disney Channel show and Theo was her sidekick "Stuffy".  We met our friends Aaron, Hailey and Lucas at the mall.  Madelyn and Theo loved being with them and really got into trick or treating this year!  After getting as much candy as their bags could hold, we hit up Blazing Onion and sat down for some dinner.  We then went to see Tee and trick or treat from her.  The kiddos love their Tee time.  After that, we came home, hit up a couple houses on our street then went to bed.  The kids loved it...and we're not opposed to them dressing up and getting candy...sounds like a good deal to us!

The Doc is in :)