Giving Thanks & 18 Months

This Thanksgiving holiday was great!  We had Douglas' family over at our house for "dinner" and then went to my parents for dessert in the evening.  There was a lot of great food and fun.  Then on Saturday we had Thanksgiving with Douglas' dad, aunt and uncle and their family.  More good food and fun.  It was so nice to see everyone over the holiday weekend, and I'm extra grateful that Douglas got to have the whole week off!  We even got the bonus of him not having to go to school the Tuesday before because of weather.

Pumpkin hide and seek

Xander turned 18 months over the holiday weekend.  He is doing well.  He's 30 1/2 inches tall and 21 lbs 14 oz.  He says many things, and even learned a new word and the Doctor's visit- Frog.  He's definitely more shy than Japheth was, but it's just so cute you love it.  He wanted to "knock knock" on the door at the Dr.'s office, but wouldn't do it without me holding his hand.

The boys get along pretty well, though Japheth thinks that sharing means he gets whatever toy whenever he wants. Sometimes he has a hard time with why Xander gets to play with a toy when he wants it, because Xander should be sharing! It helps, sometimes, when I say it's Xander's turn. But their both so good and cute, I really couldn't ask for more. Except to remember better how little they are and understand, sometimes it's easy to forget and get frustrated. I'm so lucky to have such a cute and wonderful family! I am truly grateful for all three of my boys!

Oh yeah, Xander managed this!

Halloween

Halloween was really fun.  Pumpkin patch, food, parties, trick-or-treating, all the things that make the holiday great!  We all dressed up as Star Wars characters this year, for those who might not know- I'm Princess Leia, Douglas is Han Solo, Xander is an Ewok, and Japheth is (as he puts it) Obi Kanobi One.

Fall Fun

We went up to Oktoberfest with my family in September.  Food, fun, dancing and more; needless to say we had a great time.  We were able to to jump on the bungee trampolines, I was a little worried that Japheth would get scared after getting hooked up, but he had a blast!  You wouldn't think it'd take so much energy, but it was a pretty good workout for such a short time.  They invited the kids up on stage for the chicken dance.  Japheth thought it was really fun, even though he didn't know the dance.  He spent the first 30 seconds just staring at the drummer playing his set.  Between cousins, grandparents, and all that fun both boys were thoroughly tired out! 

We also went up to the Handley cabin a couple times. The boys couldn't get enough of dirt, rocks and watching things they threw in float down the river. I thought they might dam up the river with all they put in there. Xander loved exploring, hearing all the fun sounds, and the the seemingly never ending supply of food. Japheth loved that last one too of course, and playing Chinese checkers (which he cheats at) and doing the puzzles. It's always relaxing and fun, and we loved seeing Aunt Kate, Uncle Ken and Grandpa Handley.

On shorter topics, Japheth is absolutely loving pre-school.  Xander is definitely a little man instead of a baby, though he's gained the nick-name of "baby."  It's very sad when you realize one day that your baby isn't really a baby anymore, but he makes up for it by being the cutest thing ever!  Both boys keep learning things so fast it's amazing.  I am very blessed to be surrounded by 3 very cute, smart and good boys!  We are all excited for the holiday season to start.  We are ready for the first, and my favorite, Halloween, but can't wait for it all.  January will be a lonely month when all the holidays are through.  But I'm sure it will also be the start of another fun and exciting year!

Updates

Recent trip to the park

So a lot has happened since my last post, so lets get right to it! First off Douglas got A's in both of his summer classes. He just started the fall semester and is taking 3 classes. He is working really hard to get all his homework done on time and understand it, while working and still being a part of our family. He's doing a really good job of it to. Thanks babe!

Next off is the computers. We ended up getting the malware virus on both computers, but after much work and running at least 5 programs, it looks like we were able to get the virus off without wiping the hard drives. We still have some wierd pop-ups and re-directs on the internet that we didn't have before, so we are still looking into getting Windows 7 sometime soon-ish.

I love that he looks like nothing is holding him on in the middle picture

And finally what you've all been waiting for. . . the boys. Xander is doing really well. He's 15 months now and is as cute as ever. He is 29 inches tall and weighs 20 lbs 14 oz. He loves to talk and read and play. He walks like he's been doing it forever, though he took a spill in the mountains the other day. He couldn't keep his balance while walking the small, steep slope between path and dirt. He loves to do whatever Japheth is doing, and always wants to be a part of everything. He can say ball, book (same sound, but he knows the difference), mama, dada, up, he doesn't say dog, but he makes the same sound everytime he sees one; it sounds like woofing. He signs please, more, and milk. Japheth just gets smarter everyday. He's about 3 1/2 years-old. He looks so tall lately, and I just keep wondering what happened to my little man? (Though I know he's still little). He will start pre-school right after Labor Day. I know - "say what?!" The wierdness has just started setting in for me. I'm sad because I thought being close to some schools I'd get to walk him to pre-school. But they want too much for it, and Grama Tanner's neighbor is starting up her pre-school again for a steal of a deal. So I'm going to have to come to terms with driving him instead. It'll be wierd to have him gone for so long so often. I guess it'll be good time for me to try some things out that I've been wanting to do for a while.

Becoming a swing expert