Sleep

This is one of my favorite parts of being a momma.

Nothing is better than a sweet little sleeping boy squished onto my side of the bed.

Sometimes I try to push them over to Ben, but really I love that they always suction to me.

Lesson Learned--well probably not

My boys love to rough house!

Even when it turns out badly, they still think it's great!

Thanksgiving

We went to Aunt Amy's house for Thanksgiving this year.

It was her first hosting and it was fabulous!

She was so organized, the food was delicious, the table looked awesome, and we all had a good time.

Lucas said the blessing before the meal. Henry interrupted him with his own prayer. I was proud of them both--not for Henry's manners, but for their prayers!

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays--4th of July is my other one!

We don't really have any big traditions for those days, but I think that's why I love them so much. They are low stress and there aren't any expectations. We just do fun stuff and enjoy the day!

Art Projects

We had an Art Day yesterday.

I thought the boys might want to make some Christmas decorations for their bedroom, and Ben and I needed to get the house cleaned, so I set out everything they could possibly need and turned them loose in the art room.

Lucas made a bunch of books. He cut out shapes (reindeer, Santa, Christmas tree, and a couple of others) of construction paper and then stapled them together. He hasn't written any stories in them yet, but he says he's going to.

Henry made Christmas trees. He was hanging them up as he made them. Unfortunately he was using rubber cement to stick it to the wall. He was sad when I took them down!

Josh Oliver passed on Art Day and instead just played with his trains.

The art room is a total mess of construction paper and glue, but the boys had fun and the house is semi clean, so I'd say it was a pretty good day!

Chef Henry

Lately Henry J has been very into making little snack sandwiches.

They are made up of two fritos, peanut butter, a marshmallow, and an apple jack or two. They are his own creation. He has tried to teach Josh Oliver how to make them, but all he really does is eat the peanut butter!

Today when he was making them he decided to try them out on bread.

Just before he was going to give me my own baggie full of deliciousness, I asked him why there was peanut butter and bread smeared on the stool beside him. He said, "Oh, I just had to get the green stuff off because you can't eat that part."

When I looked a little closer at the bread on the counter, it was almost totally green with mold! Yum!

He assured me that all the bread in my baggie had been picked clean of the mold, but I just didn't have the stomach to even take the bag from him.

He cried for so long because his heart was broken. I felt bad, but there was no way I could choke that down. Not even for a cute, freckle faced boy.

(Ben saved the day and brought home some fresh bread! Henry was happy after that and I even ate some of his creation--it wasn't too bad!)

Tomatoes

Henry was outside playing when he noticed that there were still some tomatoes on the vine.

He brought them all inside to me. He was so proud.

I'm especially anxious to eat the big, red, rotten one in the middle!

(He even washed, dried, and put them all in the fridge for me!)

Try It--You'll Like It!

Our boys are picky eaters--especially Lucas.

Let me rephrase that.

Lucas is a picky eater. The other two are picky when Lucas is around!

Luke has a very long list of things that he won't eat--not because he's tried it and he doesn't like it, but because it just "looks disgusting".

It worries me because he has such a limited list of things that he will willingly eat. Most of them are childhood basics--macaroni, grilled cheese, hot dogs (but not corn dogs), pasta with no sauce (he doesn't like to get messy), peanut butter, cereal. There are a few more standard foods, but that is pretty much it on the "guaranteed to eat" list. It's not a horrible list, but it's not very well rounded.

I have tried so many things to try to get him to venture out. I've tried putting his food on sticks--apparently all kids like food on sticks, just not mine! I've slathered things in cheese, but he says he doesn't like "that type" of cheese. He doesn't like cool whip, marshmallows, or anything equally sweet and delicious so that option was out from the beginning. I have mixed pureed veggies in with his food. That has gone alright, but he always seem to notice that something isn't quite right which makes me leery of it. I've also tried to give him no other options, and frankly he would just rather not eat!

There is hope, though!

The boys have joined a super fun cooking club which sends them recipes for fun to make foods. We haven't made anything yet, but the boys are really excited about it. I'm cautious, though, because I can't tell you how many times Lucas has helped me cook an entire dinner--eating the ingredients along the way--only to turn his nose up to the finished project. I'm hoping the idea of eating spooky eyes or meatloaf footballs will help. It's worth a shot!

Also, when I can get Lucas to try something with a relatively open mind, he does generally realize that he likes it. Whenever that happens I always try say something like, "It is really fun to try new foods!" and not make too big of a deal out of it.

I'm really hoping that at some point he will broaden his list of foods he will eat. Really, I think that if Picky Ben would start eating a bigger variety, maybe Lucas and the other two will follow his lead.

Slowly my boys will hopefully come around!

Dirt and Worms

This is what Luke and Henry, along with Grandpa J, did when the boys and I were at my parents house on Sunday.

They dug a big hole in the middle of the yard, looked for some worms, and then filled it back in. Just because!

Their daddy would NEVER sacrifice his yard to look for critters, but it's as good a reason as any for Grandpa J. He's a fun grandpa like that!

He also let them sort through the compost pit and find all sorts of worms and rollie pollies. They thought that was awesome!

Josh Oliver opted to stay inside with Gigi. He knows that if you stay inside you get all sorts of treats, and he is definitely a kid who lives for treats!

Cautious

I came across this picture the other day.

It makes me laugh every time I see it because it reminds me of the first time I ever saw that Henry had a cautious side!

He's always been the sort of kid who throws caution to the wind. He will jump and climb without any regard to how badly he may get hurt. Really, he just has no fear!

On that day, while we were waiting on the 4th of July parade to start, the boys started talking to a very knowledgeable boy named Nathan. They were walking around the pond while Nathan was pointing out fish nests, and snail eggs, and a bunch of other things that required getting super close to the water.

It was all pretty neat, so I leaned way in over the water to get a better look, too. When I crouched way down Henry touched my shoulder and quietly said, "Momma, do you think you could stay back a little. You're making me nervous."

It was a very "Freaky Friday" moment! I have said that many, many times to Henry, but I have never heard it come from his mouth! Never!

After that I stayed back from the water. I also watched Henry. He kept a safe distance away from the water the whole time. When the other boys climbed down the rocks, I heard him ask them to stay back. They ignored him, but he stayed up on top. It was all very odd--especially for Henry!

Since then, I've seen that cautious side of him quite a bit. He's still pretty fearless, but he at least thinks things through a lot more. I guess that's just part of getting older!

He has really grown up a lot in the last six months. It amazes me when I think about how much he has changed. He just keeps getting better!

Halloween 2009

Josh Oliver as Elvis

Henry the Fireman

Lucas our soldier

Eli the chicken (often referred to as "The Cute One" by Henry)