Thanksgiving

Here are a few pics from our Thanksgiving. This year was a little off for us. Max was sick for the entire week. The only time we left the house was to visit Merk's brother and his family on Thanksgiving day.


Here's Luke at the kid's table. He was sitting on a low chair, so there were times all we could see were his eyes and hair peeking over the table. But we couldn't get him to move because he was attached to his cousin Will the entire day.


Max slept through Thanksgiving. Poor guy. When he woke up, everyone was having dessert. So Max started his dinner with dessert and we fed him real food later. I don't think he minded that arrangement at all.


Here the kids are tackling Uncle Boyd. He was such a good sport. They must have done this for at least half an hour. Merk got in on the action too, but I'm sad to say there are no photos of that.

Atlanta - Part Two

You just can't get a decent pile of leaves in Plano. In Atlanta, they are everywhere.




Buckeyes never get the credit they deserve.

Where's Max?

It looks like Max was busy tonight.


I wonder what he was going for?

Now I've got to go in and clear all that out. What do you think my chances are of getting him back under the covers without waking him up?

UPDATE - He did wake up. It's no wonder. Here's what I found in his bed:

24 small animals (thanks to the Little People Alphabet Jungle he got last year - it looks like he's missing two animals), six Little People, five stuffed animals, two Little People pirate ship things, a camera, three books, two cavemen, two pirates, one dragon, two pieces from a doctor's kit, two balls and my favorite, a bus with a hippo hanging out of the back.

In the morning I showed him the pile and asked why he put all that stuff in his bed. He said he was scared a monster was going to eat him. I guess all the stuff was his form of protection. Poor guy.

Last night we let him keep his door open. This morning we found him with just three little animals. I'd say that's progress.

Four Going on 40

It's been three weeks since Halloween and my kids are still craving candy. The pumpkins have been put away and the candy hidden, but they still ask for it every day.

Last night, Luke came up to me and told me that he hadn't had any candy all day. I told him that he did have candy, he had a lollipop and fruit snacks and that was enough.

He looked at me for a minute, smiled, then said, "Well, you got me there." Then he left.

More and more, I feel like I'm talking to a little Merk.

Now if only I could get little Merk to take out the trash.

T-Ball

Last weekend was our final t-ball game and I'm a little sad. For eight Saturdays in a row we were up early for Luke's game. At first, he mainly loved wearing the uniform. He liked to bat, but he could barely stand to be in the field. He spent quite a few hours playing in the dirt and asking if it was time for snacks.

As he learned to field and throw the ball he started having fun. He even made up a game where they got points for fielding a ball. Towards the end of the season, t-ball started to look a lot like full contact football as Luke and his friends would tackle each other to get the ball. Honestly, it made it a lot more interesting for the parents as well. T-ball is not the most exciting game to watch. There are no strikes or outs, just lots of encouragement.

Merk ended up being one of the coaches so he and Luke were together on the field. I think he secretly loved it. It must be part of reliving his t-ball days. The only drawback for Merk was that we played the Red Sox every game (this is what happens in the fall when there are fewer teams). It was like the movie Groundhog Day except even worse, because the Red Sox are Merk's favorite team and he was forced to root against them every Saturday.

Max is not a big t-ball fan. He would clap really big when Luke came up to bat, but other than that, he was pretty hard to entertain. He was more interested in lollipops and snacks than baseball.

The funniest part of the season was Luke's earnest belief that he was going to be on t.v. As we left for every game, he asked, "Am I going to be on t.v. today?" Of course, we would tell him he wasn't going to be on t.v. but it never stopped him from asking.

Manners?

The boys were playing trains this morning as Merk went in to say goodbye. Granted, they were a bit distracted, but here's how it went:

Merk, "Bye guys. Daddy's going to work."

Max, " Bye Daddy. Thank you for coming."

Ouch.

Halloween

It seems like Halloween lasted forever this year. Between two fall festivals and trick or treating, the kids were getting used to dressing up and getting candy about every three days. Luke loved it because he dresses up all the time. Poor Max was getting tired of being a giraffe.

Luke as Captain America. He couldn't get over having muscles.

Max coloring to pass the time until it got dark enough to trick or treat.

Going through the neighborhood with our friends Ethan and Emily.

I thought this picture was so cute, mainly because you can see all four of them. Luke and Ethan were so excited, they would run to the next house before Max even made it down the sidewalk of the last one. But Max hung in there and eventually made it to every house.

The boys enjoying their haul.

I hate that this picture is blury, but this was Luke's favorite part of Halloween. At our church's fall festival, he had a chance to fight a storm trooper. He thought it was the absolute coolest thing. He did it twice and then we practically had to pull him away because he couldn't take his eyes off the storm trooper. I have to admit, it was pretty cool.