Thad: “Can I read a book before nap?”
Me: “Nope, it’s naptime.”
Thad: “Can I read a book WHILE I nap?”
Me: “How are you going to read with your eyes closed?”
Thad: “Because I can.”
Take home message: Don’t bother to try and have a logical conversation with a man who wears his brother’s socks on his hands. Not to mention the rest of that outfit.
I sat down to do a posting on Christmas stuff, but then couldn’t bear to not put up some stuff for Thanksgiving. We spent the long weekend at mom and dad’s house. Our plan was for Justin to get off work early on Wednesday, me and the boys pick him off at work, and head up. For future reference, there are approximately 34 billion cars on the freeway, at that time, on that day. 15 minutes north of Eugene we were already in stop and go traffic, with literally about a hundred miles between us and Portland. Then there was Portland to deal with. After a few pleasant minutes of discussion (not), debating suffering through hours of traffic or turning around, we decided to give up and try again first thing in the morning. An hour later, we were back home, where we spent the night and then got up at the crack of dawn (unfortunately, the norm for us anyway) and were on the freeway by 6:30. Not a car in sight.
So we arrived a day later than planned, but it was all up hill from there. My whole family was there, with the exception of Aja, who was on a mission trip in the Dominican Republic during her Thanksgiving break. Seth still made it, braving a solo plan ride with Ezra. Weekends with my family are always fun, but can also be exhausting and overwhelming. Lots of people, lots of toys, kids off their normal schedules, it’s just a lot.
Don’t mind my sweet pajama pants. I brought some stuff along for some more structured activities for the adults. My parents have a ping pong table in the unfinished section of the basement, and I had the brilliant idea to have a ping pong tournament complete with a bracket and a (homemade) trophy. Thanksgiving day was the only day that every one of the adult children were there, so throughout the day different people were paired up for games, ending in the final matchup of Mom and Seth. Yes, I said MOM. (It also has to be mentioned that Mom made it to the finals after squashing Justin in a semi-final. He almost made a comeback, but still. Squash).
A also brought a Family Feud style game that Amber had found. That one required quite a bit less energy, but was a fun way to stay engaged while sitting around. Better than watching football, or, since we were at my parents, Fox News, House Hunters, or Nascar. Mom and I have already started plotting the next Thanksgiving there, which will be in 2 years. It was fun having some activities planned (there’s room on the trophy to mark another winner ya’ll). Next time, we are thinking we will have some kid stuff planned also, since we will have 3 two year olds, a 4 and a 5 year old. GAH! Plus who knows how many new babies by then (not from me). We were thinking some ornament making crafts….
I suppose it goes without saying that Thanksgiving dinner was delicious. I love my mom’s cooking, and you really can’t go wrong with the Thanksgiving menu. In spite of SOME of our skepticism, even Sam’s first-try-deep-fried-at-the-neighbor’s turkey was delish, as was his classic cornbread sausage stuffing (YUM). Tessa got a good shot of the dinner table, but my all time fav is the photo of Thatcher.
First time “kids table”…semi-success. Turns out it’s harder to get your kid to eat a reasonable dinner when he is a table away. Ate that bread real good though.
And for a closer shot….
…And Justin and Sam keep eating after everyone else leaves the table.
I was trying to remember how the boys slept while we were there (2 months later at this point), and I guess it must have been okay, since I can’t even remember. When we visit, we usually sleep in my Grandma’s old room. It has a walk in closet that we put the pack and play in for Thatcher. We call it “Thatcher’s Room” instead of saying, “I’m putting my baby in a closet”. Ha. It works. We keep the door open.
Since we got together with my family for Thanksgiving, and not Christmas, we also did a little gift exchange. And by little, I of course mean that there were a massive amount of gifts, including my mom’s infamous “gift table”.
So, there you have it, Thanksgiving 2012. Quite the event. Can’t wait till next time.
Have you noticed my inability to consistently add things to my blog? 5 updates in a week, then nothing for 2 months. Typical NIkki. I am an interesting combination of anal retentive and lazy. I have very organized grand schemes, but lack the follow through. I am what I am. Or something like that. Anyway, this really isn’t an update, just something that I want documented. Our church has just finished a series on the book The Purpose Driven Live. (LIFE CHANGING! Read it!) The last chapter talks about writing your “life purpose statement”. That is exactly the kind of idea I cling to…something that I can have written down and refer to and remember and use as a basis for my life. So for anyone interested, here is my Life Purpose Statement. Hold me to it!
To keep God at the center of my life by loving Him, trusting Him, obeying Him and praising Him. Communicating with God daily through prayer, Bible reading and meditation. Remembering that every day is an important day, and every second is a growth opportunity to strengthen my character, to demonstrate love, or to depend on God. To stay plugged into a small group and strive to grow mutual, authentic and merciful relationships. To "be devoted to each other like a loving family" (Romans 12:20) and "speak the truth in love" (Ephesians 4:15). Constantly strive to become more like Christ through choosing to do the right thing and trusting the Holy Spirit to give me the power, love, faith and wisdom that I need. Pruning away myself and cultivating a "good character, spiritual understanding, alert discipline, passionate patience, reverent wonder, warm friendliness, and generous love" (2 Peter 1:5-7). Always remembering that life is supposed to be difficult. To continually decrease self seeking thoughts and put my focus on others. Utilizing my spiritual gifts, heart, abilities, personality and experiences to reach out to others. To see every relationship as an opportunity to share my life message: my testimony, life lessons, Godly passions and the Good News. To raise my children to know Christ, to help them to understand His purposes for their lives, and to send them out on their mission in the world. "As for me and my family, we will serve the Lord." (Joshua 24:15)
See you in 2 months. :)
Toys, that is.
Just thought I would post a couple of fun ideas that we have done lately. These are all things that I made with stuff on hand, none of them took much time or effort. So, if Thad plays with them for 3 minutes and then moves on, I don’t feel like I have wasted much time. And actually, he has played quite a bit with all of them.
1. PVC Car Ramp
This one took zero effort on my part. Justin ripped a pipe in half for something else he was working on. I asked for the remaining half, and he sanded the edges a bit to make sure they weren’t sharp. This one took a little while for him to warm up to. I had his cars set up with it when he woke up from a nap, but he had more fun rolling balls down it, even though most of his balls are too big and fell off before reaching the bottom. The most fun came when he put the ramp up on the couch on top of pillows. Because everything is more fun when you are standing on the furniture.
2. Cardboard Car
I cut the flaps off of a diaper box and covered it with inside out wrapping paper. I drew on some details, glued on painted paper-plate wheels and added a steering wheel. The steering wheel I attached to one remaining flap with a nut and bolt, so that the wheel can be turned. Downside to this one is that I have had a cardboard car sitting in the family room for the last month. Because we didn’t have enough kid stuff filling our house already.
3. Bubble Artwork
A lot of projects I like to do by myself when he is napping, so he has something new and fun to see when he gets up, but this was really fun to do together. Like most toddlers, Thad loves bubbles. And by that, I mean he likes to demand you blow bubbles for him so he can stand 3 inches from your face and pop the bubbles as soon as possible. For this project, I taped a big sheet of drawing paper onto an art board. I poured bubbles into 5 different little bowls and added liquid food coloring to each. It took a lot of food coloring to make the bubbles even as bright as this, the paste food coloring probably would have been better, but I always feel like paste food coloring makes a big mess. Dripping the liquid stuff into the bowls was easy to do as we worked, adding more drops when needed. Most definitely something that should be done outside. Thad picked each color as we went, I blew bubbles onto the paper, and he popped any that stuck. He thought it was awesome.
4. Cardboard Play Scene
Another re-used cardboard box. This time, I cut off one long flap, and then taped the rest open. I traced around each side of the box onto green felt, cut it out, then glued it to the inside to like the box. Then I let Thad decide what we should put inside the box. He wanted trees, a cave, water and a sun. Clearly, the appropriate environment for a polar bear, a white tiger, a lion, Bambi, and a large yellow snake. A yellow snake which he likes to wrap over his face and call it sunglasses.
He’s my special boy.
Looks like summer inside.
Looks like fall outside. That’s actual water on the ground. We had to cut our morning walk short because I felt like it was probably a bad idea to soak the baby. While I do love the fall, we will miss the summer and the ability to go outside any time.
Wow. I am quickly realizing how behind I am on keeping things caught up. I didn’t think we had been doing much this summer, but as I am going through the pictures, the keepers keep piling up. I am working on doing a photo book, and the prospect of going through our thousands of pictures since Thad was born is more than a little overwhelming. So, as to not cause an emotional breakdown, I will do a short and sweet synopsis of our summer. Here we are:
Summer, 2012
We went fishing.
We went shooting.
Grandma C. had a birthday. (Note the cake: one of my best. I call it “Strawberry Shortcake Cake”. Consisting of yellow cake, fresh strawberry filling and topping, and the super delish frosting from my Oatmeal Whoopie Pie recipe, it was a good show, I have to say. Made at a moment’s notice too. Justin: “Uh, so I know it’s short notice, but I forgot it’s Mom’s birthday…do you think you could make her a cake?” She is due to arrive in an hour. Way to go, me…pulled off with style and grace…HA!).
Thatcher met Great Grandpa Frank
We went to parks. And playgrounds.
Thatcher Reid got bigger.
And started eating solid food.
We took the kids to the beach.
We played with friends while the Dads brewed beer.
We played outside. A lot.
We went to the lake.
Thad drove a boat.
We got ready for football season.
Other things to note: Amber moved back in after an extended stay in Longview to get her CNA certification. She quickly found a great job at a memory loss home, bought a car, and is working hard saving up money to move in with a girlfriend, probably around the end of the year. I started back to work. Just two days a week. Amber was able to arrange her schedule so that she takes care of the boys on her days off. Justin also switched his work schedule to 4 10’s, and starting this month will have Fridays off. We are looking forward to having long weekends together. I am enjoying the new office that I am working at, and am excited about the changes happening there, including remodeling a building in downtown Springfield and moving the practice there in the next few months. Mr. Thatcher is not sleeping through the night, but getting closer….ish. We have had some rough nights lately for an unknown reason, but seem to be heading toward a once-per-night feeding. While not the same as sleeping all night, I am grateful for any night that I am only up once. Lets just say it a LOT better than some of our nights. But, like I said, I THINK we are headed in the right direction.
We had the boys dedicated at church on Sunday, here they are in their Sunday finest:
They look like Children of God, don’t they? Ha. It was something that Justin and I have been wanting to do for a long time. We are also hosting a small group for the first time as part of a 40 days of Purpose series that our church is doing at the end of the month. A little nervous for that, but excited to get to know people at our church better.
I am looking forward to fall, and the holidays coming up. I have LOTS of ideas for holiday projects, and will soon post some fun things that I did last year.
