All we did was gobble, gobble over the Thanksgiving weekend. We went to Dallas for the holiday. Greg and Noah went on several bike rides. We shopped some. We ate ALOT. Our Thanksgiving feast was fabulous. Dori took some family photos for us and we tried to get a picture of the kiddos, but the camera wasn't cooperating and there was a BBQ pit in the background. However, we accomplished the impossible- all four sitting together laughing their heads off. I shouldn't say 'we'- it was really Papa and Sarge. It was Papa holding up Sarge's front legs and making him do a dance routine that got the kids laughing. He
even had Sarge dancing on Dori's head at some point. Dori did capture some good pics of the boys and the four of us, but I didn't want to post any and spoil our Christmas card. We also visited Geoff and Dene one evening. The kids played and we enjoyed some yummy fajitas and pumpkin cheesecake (gobble, gobble). We have always thought it funny how alike Mckenna and Noah are, in personality and in mannerisms and speech. But we are just discovering that Avery and Wyatt are also very similiar babies. It's like I have the male versions of Dene's girls.
Saturday we went to the Homestead's craft fair in Waco. The kids spent over an hour in the petting zoo and ate an unbelievable amount of kettle corn. Noah found a new best friend in his second cousin Lauren and Wyatt learned to make goat noices. It was a fun gathering of lots and lots of family. We were all amazed at how much each other's kids had grown. Good times.
Yes, Yes, it has been a long time. I honestly cannot remember what all has happened since my last post. So I will just try to catch up on how quickly my boys are growing up! As fast as Noah is
growing, he will be a teenager by the end of the week. I really believe he is very smart, but what is more amazing are his social skills. He is known amongst our friends and church (and, at times, total strangers) for his animated storytelling. He loves to tell people about all the exciting things in his life, from how many cup holders are in aunt Dori's minivan to reinacting scenes from movies. His stories entertain those listening and they totally brighten our day because he has a way of highlighting the great things in our lives, reminding Greg and I just how blessed we are. If he could write, I'd let him do the blog. Maybe I should figure out how to do a video blog and just let him narrate our lives. He'd probably tell you about our "whole family" bike rides. He would definitely tell
you about Mimi, Papa, Grandma Jean and Grandpa Bob making a short visit last week and taking us to the Texican Cafe. That was the highlight of our week. Yesterday we did some Christmas shopping and worked on the slide for the playground. Both boys can hardly wait to have it finished. Today in Sunday school Noah made a little turkey and he had to put something he was thankful for on each feather. He put his playground on one of them. That he was thankful for a playground he isn't even able to play on yet, really tugged on Greg's heartstrings and motivated him to get to work on it this afternoon. Unfortunately, he still does not have the slide up because we had to go back up to church for other activities and events this evening. Here is Wyatt making his camera-flash-anticipation face. Wyatt is on the cusp of toddlerdom. He understands everything we say and has a definite opinion on all of it. He has learned to nod his head and, much to my dismay, to shake it as well. He is trying to repeat more and more words lately. He even has a few phrase like 'dog poop' and 'shop vac'. His most used words are trash, eat, dog, slide, sit, dad, please and fish. He loves to help around the house, which explains his vocabulary. He also has learned the word 'that', which he uses whenever he wants to know the word for something. His favorite game right now is to take all the small trash cans in the house, bring them into the kitchen next to the big one and transfer every thing fromt the small ones into the big one- one piece at a time. At our church thanksgiving dinnner
tonight he begged to get down from his highchair and then proceeded to walk around picking up pieces of food and debris that people had dropped on the floor and putting them on the highchair tray. I hope he keeps up this tidy obessesion into adulthood. He difinitely got it from Greg. And last, but not least, is a picture of our furriest family members. Our kid before we actually had kids. I used to have oodle of Riley and Yeti pictures but now my bytes are all the boys. So here is Yeti looking all sweet and clean after his bath... that he had to have because he rolled in something that was too vile to even write about. I didn't take a picture the next day when he rolled in it again and had to have another bath. Is it a surprise I don't give them as much camera time these days?
This picture is just one from about 20 I took of Noah after his haircut on Wednesday. I have a couple very cute, very grown up pictures of him, but this one just seems to capture his recent over abundance of boyish silliness. As Fillmore's driver, he just had to have long hair for Halloween, but he was glad to get rid of it ASAP.I know I told ya'll to visit my Flickr site, but I bet you didn't see much when you got there. My fault- I had the security settings wrong. So try again.This weekend Greg began construction of a massive fort/playground for the boys in the backyard. We had to place it in such a way so that it is not visible from our street or the one behind us because Greg's design doesn't exactly follow our
neighborhood's deed restrictions. I don't know why they don't think a 14ft play structure is a good idea. Like all Greg's building projects, it is incredibly overbuilt and will be standing, along with our deck, if our area is ever hit by a bomb. I will try to keep the blog updated with photos of its progress. Both boys are enjoying 'helping' dad with the construction. With the 
exception of a couple potty and drink breaks, the three of them spent the entire day, from the time they woke till they went to bed, in the backyard. We fired up the grill yesterday morning and threw on some pork ribs that we let cook for about 10 hours. They were soooo good. And, we didn't melt any piece of the deck or house! I think Greg is getting the hang of it!
Oh yeah, I keep meaning to tell everyone that I do read the comments you leave on the blog. In fact, I love them because I like to see who is keeping up with us. You can comment anonymously without signing up for anything and then just sign within the text. There is not a way for me to respond other than directly in the posts. Thanks to all those who have left comments.
So here is what Noah and I have been working on for the past two weeks. Fillmore! For all of you who are not emersed in the world of animated film, Fillmore is the VW bus in the movie Cars. He is also who Noah chose to be for Halloween. I'm glad he picked him instead of Sally, the Porche. I don't know of any Porche-shaped boxes! I hunted down a water heater box and shaped it into Fillmore and Noah and I spent a lot of time painting him. He is to scale and the paint job is pretty close to the original. I even made a bunch of hippy bumper stickers out of mailing labels on the computer. Noah has been out-of-his-mind excited about Halloween. He loved wearing Fillmore. We went for an early trick-or-treating round down our street and then went to a fair put on by a chruch near our house. We entered him in a
costume contest and he won 'Craziest Costume.' He got a ribbon and was intereviewd on their little stage. He spoke up clear and boldly when they asked him questions over the mic. It was soooo cute. He is very proud of his ribbon. After the fair we did a second round of trick-or-treating. By that time most everyone had turned off their porch lights, but the few people still answering their doors emptied their candy bowls into Noah's bag. He had so much fun pretending to drive Fillmore around the neighborhood. Wyatt was Mickey Mouse. It is the same costume Noah wore for his first two Halloweens. We are getting good use out of it. I think Wyatt is the cuter Mickey, though. He also loved wearing his costume and stayed in full character all night. Mama and Papa G joined us for the evening of fun.
All we did was gobble, gobble over the Thanksgiving weekend. We went to Dallas for the holiday. Greg and Noah went on several bike rides. We shopped some. We ate ALOT. Our Thanksgiving feast was fabulous. Dori took some family photos for us and we tried to get a picture of the kiddos, but the camera wasn't cooperating and there was a BBQ pit in the background. However, we accomplished the impossible- all four sitting together laughing their heads off. I shouldn't say 'we'- it was really Papa and Sarge. It was Papa holding up Sarge's front legs and making him do a dance routine that got the kids laughing. He
even had Sarge dancing on Dori's head at some point. Dori did capture some good pics of the boys and the four of us, but I didn't want to post any and spoil our Christmas card. We also visited Geoff and Dene one evening. The kids played and we enjoyed some yummy fajitas and pumpkin cheesecake (gobble, gobble). We have always thought it funny how alike Mckenna and Noah are, in personality and in mannerisms and speech. But we are just discovering that Avery and Wyatt are also very similiar babies. It's like I have the male versions of Dene's girls.
