thanksgiving and other merry making

Our Thanksgiving holiday always involves time with my dad and siblings. For the past four or five years, they have traveled to be with us at our place and we share a huge feast, play games, visit some sort of local spot of interest like the City Museum, Magic House, Powder Valley, or a local park depending on the weather. This year, we mainly focused on spending time together at the house or at the hotel where Dad, Cimi and the kids stayed. Simon and Ella stuck very close to my little sister Keely who is nearly 11. She entertains them and makes life extremely fun for the few days they are here. Every year, I feel like our time together gets more enjoyable and it's always sad when they all go back home.

This year we embarked on a new undertaking that I secretly hope will become a tradition. I had an itch to hang Christmas lights (which I have only done once and I believe it was during some serious nesting impulses). My older brother Josh seemed very receptive to the idea of helping me. One encouraging word was all I needed to move forward! He worked very hard to hang the lights and climbed all over the porch like a lemur (descriptive comparison drawn by Bryan.) Once Dad and my stepmom, Cimi arrived with the kids, they helped out by running to Big Lots for an extra extension cord. They were so excited to contribute to the merriment, they returned with a couple of lawn ornaments. I have never owned a lawn ornament before. The decorating began to take on a life of it's own, but I have to say, I am drawn into the cheer of it all! I'm very excited to drive up to our house and see the lights glimmering in the dark from down the street.

Let the holiday merriment ensue!

reading, studying, bathing and celebrating

As usual, I have fallen behind in keeping track of all the little milestones and sweet sayings around here. But I don't feel too bad as I've been busy "living life" with these guys. Sometimes getting on my computer feels like more of a drain than productive and helpful. But there are a few notables so I thought I'd pause a moment to scratch them down.

I think I can make the statement that Simon is really reading now. He has been sounding out words here and there and chiming in when I read with him when he recognizes a word or when I push for him to figure it out. He has always liked letters, loves writing words and drawing pictures, but he does get frustrated if he feels like he's not succeeding. So I thought it might be helpful to get him some super early readers that seem less daunting than some of the "I Can Read Books" we have in our library. I purchased the "Bob Books" from one of his school's book orders and he officially began reading them on his own yesterday. He was so thrilled that he stayed up with the light on to read after I'd tucked him in. I am so proud of him and very excited for where this takes him!!

Ella's homeschooling is going well. We have our moments of difficulty, which I notice happen more if we aren't prompt in getting on the ball early in the morning. The more she gets in play mode, the more difficult it is to focus and the day takes longer. But we feel very productive and really get things done efficiently if we start right after breakfast. She is excelling and I have seen so much growth in her confidence as a person and her self expression. Some of that may just be in maturing as she ages, but I have to believe that meeting her needs as she has expressed them has contributed to some of her growth. She loves all the reading and we've finished quite a few books already. She is writing in cursive now and is really quite proficient at it. She likes science and our world history is fascinating. We're learning about Ancient Egypt now and had a field trip to the art museum to see the mummies and Egyptian art. I dare say, I am seriously loving homeschool and the enjoyment, closeness and quality time it fosters!

Josie's vocabulary is expanding and she's successfully repeating words back to us quite a bit now. She's "sugar and spice" as we've always said...the sweetest, most affectionate child I've ever known, but very expressive when she's irritated. She screams to show she's mad and sometimes she screams to show she's thrilled! She's growing so much and is starting to grow out of some of the things that can be so difficult with little ones, like requiring being held for an hour before finally falling asleep at night. We're getting past some of those more "intensive" things with her and she is capable of doing lots of things, but she's still our baby!

Last night during bath time, I was finishing up with Josie when Simon decided to jump in the tub as well. Josie was all washed and rinsed and playing in the water and Simon and I commenced in talking about his fifth birthday plans. I was engrossed in our conversation and hadn't noticed that Josie had gotten quiet and was looking down at something next to her in the water. At the angle I was sitting at, I couldn't see what she was looking at and continued talking until I finally got curious about what she was studying. I sat up and looked next to her to see a small turd floating in the water. She seemed confused at what it was and had been studying it trying to decide if it was friend or foe. As soon as I jumped up with alarm and said, "Oh my GOSH!" she decided it must be foe! She began crying in desperation and panic. I pulled her out and wrapped her up (Simon had already made his exit) and she shivered with nervousness and fear. After the inconvenient impromptu scrubbing of the bathtub while my two youngest waited to be re-bathed, I really couldn't get annoyed or frustrated. It was all too hilariously entertaining. Simon was a champ. I couldn't believe he didn't freak out about sitting in Josie's poo water. But he laughed right along with me. Once I ran the clean bath and Simon got back in, Josie was still afraid. She shook her head emphatically saying, "nuh-uh" multiple times. But I stuck to my guns and she got her second bath. She came around eventually with no more tears shed.

Oh my. Such an event.

Tomorrow is our eleventh anniversary. Tucking Ella in tonight, I told her how excited I was to go out to dinner to celebrate at a fun restaurant (we're doing a family date for this one...Bryan and I had a big Mexican vacation all last week to celebrate year 10-11). Ella said, "Oh no! I'm such a ding dong! I forgot to make you a present!" to which I replied, "YOU are my present, and Josie and Simon too." She added, "And Dad. He's absolutely your BEST present."

She is so right. I couldn't be more satisfied with a life if I had written it myself.